QUARANTINE BLOG # 661

January 31, 2022

Before we begin “January in Review,” the QB Index for 2022 has been posted.

In 45 B.C., New Year’s Day was celebrated on January 1 for the first time in history as the Julian calendar took effect.  Julius Caesar decided that the traditional Roman calendar was in need of reform.  The Roman calendar attempted to follow the lunar cycle but frequently fell out of phase with the seasons and had to be corrected.  The Julian calendar failed to calculate the correct value for the solar year as 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days.  Thus, an 11-minute-a-year error added seven days by the year 1000, and 10 days by the mid-15th century.  In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was implemented, omitting 10 days for that year, and bringing the calendar up to date.

On January 2, 1965, quarterback Joe Namath, a star at the University of Alabama, spurned the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals to sign with the American Football League’s New York Jets.  The contract, reportedly for  $427,000, was the most lucrative signed by a rookie in any sport.  Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell griped that “contracts like the one Namath got can be the ruination of the game.”  Cleveland’s quarterback this year, Baker Mayfield, was paid $8,170,745 for 2021.

On January 3, 1973, a 12-member group headed by George Steinbrenner purchased the New York Yankees for $10 million from Columbia Broadcasting System, which owned the team since 1964.  Over the course of Steinbrenner’s ownership, the Yankees won seven World Series and 11 American League pennants.  Frequently abrasive, Steinbrenner hired and fired Billy Martin as manager five times.  The team is one of the most valuable in sports.  In 2021, the franchise had an estimated value of 5.25 billion U.S. dollars.

On January 5, 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.  The Golden Gate Bridge officially opened on May 27, 1937, the longest bridge span in the world at the time.  The first public crossing had taken place the day before, when 200,000 people walked, ran and even roller skated over the new bridge.

Wheel of Fortune, one of the longest-running syndicated game show in American television, premiered on NBC on January 6, 1975.  Created by television legend Merv Griffin and hosted since the early 1980s by Pat Sajak and Vanna White, Wheel is one of the most popular television shows in the world, now in its 39th year.  This picture is a screen capture from February 17, 2012.

Englishman Philip Astley staged the first modern circus in London on January 9, 1768.  Trick riders, acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other familiar components of the circus have existed throughout recorded history, but it was not until the late 18th century that the modern spectacle of the circus was born.  Astley, a former cavalry sergeant major, found that if he galloped in a tight circle, centrifugal force allowed him to perform seemingly impossible feats on a horse’s back.  He drew up a ring and on January 9, 1768, invited the public to see him wave his sword in the air while he rode with one foot on the saddle and one on the horse’s head.  Astley’s trick riding received such a favorable response that he soon hired other equestrians, a clown, and musicians and in 1770 built a roof over his ring and called the structure Astley’s Amphitheatre.

On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declared the Grand Canyon’s 800,000 acres of beauty in northwestern Arizona a national monument.  Congress did not officially outlaw private development in the Grand Canyon until 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Grand Canyon National Park Act. Today, more than 5 million people visit the canyon each year. 

On January 12, 1969, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, the New York Jets of the American Football League defeated the NFL’s Baltimore Colts, 16-7, in Super Bowl III, a result considered one of the biggest upsets in sports history.  Days earlier, Jets quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed a victory by New York, an 18-point underdog.  The win was the first in the Super Bowl for the AFL, which merged with the NFL for the 1970 season.

On January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League smashed the American Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs in the first-ever AFL-NFL World Championship, later known as Super Bowl I.  Founded in 1960 as a rival to the NFL, the AFL was still finding its way in 1967, and the Packers had been heavily favored to win the game. The Chiefs managed to keep it close for the first half, and by halftime Green Bay was ahead just 14-10.  The final score was 35-10.

The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” was ratified by the requisite number of states on January 16, 1919, and the nation became officially dry.  In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing prohibition.

On January 17, 1950, 11 men stole more than $2 million – $29 million today – from the Brink’s Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts (first reports put the take at $1.5 million).  It was the perfect crime – almost – as the culprits weren’t caught until January 1956, just days before the statute of limitations for the theft expired.  The gang promised to stay out of trouble and not touch the money for six years in order for the statute of limitations to run out.  One of the gang finally squealed and eight of the Brink’s robbers were caught, convicted and given life sentences.  Two more died before they could go to trial.  Only a small part of the money was ever recovered; the rest is fabled to be hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. 

Kamala Harris made history when she was sworn in as the 49th U.S. vice president on January 20, 2021, becoming the first woman to occupy the office.  No known connection, but January 20, 1971, saw the release of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?”

Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union, died of a brain hemorrhage on January 21, 1924, at the age of 54.  His body was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum outside the Moscow Kremlin walls.  Since 1924, a group of scientists has been tasked with maintaining the body. Every few days scientists visit the mausoleum to check on the body, where it is preserved under carefully calculated temperature and lighting, and every 18 months Lenin’s corpse is taken to a lab beneath the dimly-lit viewing room to be washed and re-embalmed.

On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company rolled out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs – now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.  William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871.  Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go.  In 1948, a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” was introduced.  By 1977, over 100 million units were sold.

On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scouts movement began in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys.  The serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed in April, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain.  By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth countries across the globe.  The American version of the Boy Scouts was incorporated on February 8, 1910.

On January 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy became the first U.S. president to hold a live televised news conference.  From a podium in the State Department auditorium, Kennedy read a prepared statement, then opened the floor for questions from reporters, answering queries on a variety of topics including relations with Cuba, voting rights and food aid to impoverished Americans.  

On January 26, 1979, “The Dukes of Hazzard,” a television comedy about two good-old-boy cousins in the rural South and their souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger known as the General Lee, debuted on CBS.  The show was about cousins Bo, Luke, and Daisy  Duke and their ongoing efforts to elude their nemeses, the crooked county commissioner “Boss” Jefferson Davis Hogg and the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.  “The Dukes of Hazzard” was known for the General Lee, which had an orange paint job, and a Confederate flag across its roof.  The General Lee also had a horn that played the first 12 notes of “Dixie.”  

A launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 27, 1967, killed astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee.  An investigation indicated that a faulty electrical wire inside the Apollo 1 command module was the probable cause of the fire.  The astronauts, the first Americans to die in a spacecraft, had been participating in a simulation of the Apollo 1 launch scheduled for the next month.  

At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe was on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space.  McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger.  Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa’s family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle broke up in a forking plume of smoke and fire.  Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television.  There were no survivors.

On January 29, 1936, the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elected its first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson.  The Baseball Writers’ Association of America chose the five greatest superstars of the game as the first class to be inducted: Ty Cobb was the most productive hitter in history; Babe Ruth was both an ace pitcher and the greatest home-run hitter to play the game; Honus Wagner was a versatile star shortstop and batting champion; Christy Matthewson had more wins than any pitcher in National League history; and Walter Johnson was considered one of the most powerful pitchers to ever have taken the mound.

With the stirring notes of the William Tell Overture and a shout of “Hi-yo Silver! Away!” The Lone Ranger debuted on Detroit’s WXYZ radio station, on January 30, 1933.   The Lone Ranger never smoked, swore, or drank alcohol; he used grammatically correct speech free of slang; and, most important, he never shot to kill.  The televised version of The Lone Ranger, staring Clayton Moore as the masked man, became ABC’s first big hit in the early 1950s.

In 1988 McDonald’s received permission from the Communist party to start the business in the Soviet Union.  Two years later the first restaurant opened its doors in Moscow on Pushkinskaya square.  At dawn on January 31, 1990 more than 5,000 people came to be the first at its opening.  That day Moscow McDonald’s set a world record: it served more than 30 thousand visitors.  People stood in line for over 6 hours, willing to get a taste of this unusual food (when I ate there in 1994, there was still a wait – 20 minutes – to get in the building).  It was the first fast food place in the whole country.  McDonald’s on Pushkinskaya Square has 700 seats inside and 200 outside.

🛐  Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

God is like a good shepherd who looks after us in both good times and bad. He is also like a generous host who invites us to live in his house, enjoying its elegance and security.

Prayer: O God, I accept you as my Shepherd: help me to trust your provisions and follow your leading. I believe you are my Host: help me to relax in your protection and recognize the signs of your presence, in Jesus Christ. Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 660

January 30, 2022

The Yellow Pages 

I first published this piece in The Augusta Chronicle on March 25, 2000.

Driving back from Atlanta a few weeks ago with my son, Matthew, I happened to notice some new construction. An incredible building was going up off to our right. I nudged Matt and said, “Look over there. Someone is building a beautiful church.” Matt stretched the comfortable stretch of a six-foot something who would still rather be dozing, said, “They are building a building. It remains to be seen if they are building a church,” and promptly napped off.

Sometime earlier, I had let my fingers do the walking. I was looking for the phone number to a pastor’s study. I found the number, but in the process I also discovered some interesting things about our local churches, and perhaps about churches in general.

What started me on this adventure was an advertisement for a “prayer and healing miracle service.” I believe in all four: prayer, healing, miracles and service. It is easy to over-emphasize the dramatic parts of Christianity, like healing and miracles. Too little attention is given to prayer. Much public prayer is simply, “Ourfatherwhoartinheavenhallowedbethyname,” and who knows what we really said, or to whom? Serving generally consists in satisfying only our own needs.

It struck me as unusual that there was designated a specific day and time for the “prayer and healing miracle service.” Do we allow God to perform miracles in our lives at his convenience, I wondered, or do we demand him to conform to our schedules reducing God to a puppet whose strings we pull?

I am sure the ad writer merely wanted to communicate that a special time was designated for parishioners to gather and pray for God’s intervention in their lives. But it just struck me funny, and I continued reading. In fact, I read the entire church section of the yellow pages.

One local congregation schedules an “hour with God” one day a week at 11:00 a.m. We need to schedule that hour more often.

One church reports that there is no morning worship on the third Sunday morning of each month. How many churches could honestly report that and more than once a month?

There is a “church that cares,” a church “where everyone is welcome,” a church where “all faiths are welcome,” and a church whose “door is open to everyone.” Caring and welcoming should be a forte of every church. Sadly, they are not – and whether or not such intention is posted on their signs.

Another mini-message was “a church where everyone is important.” It is probably true for that congregation – they advertise it. But too many folks get lost in the shuffle. I never could figure out, however, those attenders who came in after the worship had already started, spoke to no one, left before the final “amen” had sounded, and then complained that it was an unfriendly church where no one ever spoke to them!

An increasing number of local churches are pastored by a “Doctor.” One is listed as a Ph.D., one is a Th.D., and one is a D.Min. Many of the other credentials are probably honorary degrees. There is nothing wrong with an honorary degree, as long as the recipient has the humility not to use it. What is it about a certificate from a non-accredited Bible college, which only awards bachelor’s degrees, that makes a non-earned “Doctor” preferable to the time- honored “Reverend,” or better still, “Pastor?” I wonder about shepherds with imitation sheepskins.

Many churches advertise their orthodoxy. Consider: “preaching Christ crucified and teaching a full inspired Bible,” “the Bible is the final authority,” and my personal rhyming favorite “the church that preaches what the Bible teaches.” Philosophers ask, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?” If a man stands in the pulpit and does not point men and women to the Christ of Calvary did he preach?

Continuing my study of the yellow pages, I found some interesting facts about church names.

The monikers include numbers (“First” and”Second”), virtues (“Faithful,” “Hopeful,” “Pure,” and “Holy”),and locations (“Calvary,” “Galilee,” “Gethsemane,” and “Jerusalem”).

Over all “First” was first, “Second” was fourth, and “Saint” was second. “New” outnumbered “Old” four to one. Also listed were “Open,” “Good,” “Thankful,” “United,” “Living,” and “In Focus.” No churches were “Closed,” “Bad,” “Unthankful,” “Split,”“Dead,” or “Out of Focus.” At least no one admitted to it.

You can learn a great deal about churches when you let your fingers do the walking. The interpretation of those advertisements is all mine. But I wouldn’t have noticed it, if they hadn’t written it. Sometimes we say more than we realize.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 659

January 28, 2022

As the Armada passed along the eastern coast of what is now Argentina, they were heading into latitudes notorious for sudden, frequent, and violent squalls. The fate of the expedition depended on finding a strait that would lead them from the Atlantic to the Spice Islands.

Searching for a strait that some of the men did not believe existed, and led by jealous captains, three ships mounted the Easter Rebellion on April 2, 1520. Through extraordinary luck, Magellan defeated the mutineers. Several of the leaders were executed.

Just days after the last ring leader was executed, Magellan discovered that Juan de Cartagena, his nemesis, was conspiring with a priest, Pedro Sanchez de la Reina, to mount yet another mutiny.

Magellan’s first instinct was to have both men executed; this was Cartagena’s third mutiny, but he could not bring himself to condemn a priest. Instead, Magellan devised a much worse fate. He decided to leave them behind to fend for themselves in the wilderness of Port Saint Julian after the fleet’s departure.

Magellan turned his attention to the fleet. The ships were in a state of disrepair, their holds fetid, their hulls leaky. The ships were emptied and given a thorough cleaning. Forty mutineers, bound in chains, performed the most grueling labor.

Reloading, they discovered that the chandlers in the Canary Islands had robbed them, and endangered their lives. The ships’ holds actually contained a third of what the bills of lading showed. They would run out of food before they reached their goal.

Winter relentlessly advanced on Port Saint Julian. With the days contracted to less than four hours of light, Magellan ordered his men to hunt and fish. They also found mussels, as well as foxes, sparrows, and rabbits. They preserved their catch with salt derived from flats surrounding the bay.

Magellan gave the command to weigh anchor on August 24, 1520. After five months  in Port Saint Julian, the Armada de Molucca put to sea. 

Before they would find the strait to the Pacific, two ships would be lost. The first was Santiago – in a freak storm – but all hands were saved. The second would come some months later – another mutiny.

As the Armada sailed into the Atlantic, Cartagena, and Father Reina watched from their island prison. They were marooned. Their supplies consisted mainly of bread and wine, enough to last them the summer. The two condemned men kneeled at the waters edge, pleading for mercy as the ships grew finally vanished over the horizon. They were never heard from again.

On October 21, 1520, Magellan finally noticed a cape extending into the ocean, strewn with whales skeletons – suggesting a migration route leading from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He had finally found his strait.

Precisely how he divined its existence has been debated ever since. According to Pigafetta, Magellan, while still in Portugal, had seen a map depicting or suggesting a strait cutting through South America.

Magellan now faced 300 miles of nautical nightmare. The sides were lined with enormous glaciers, some 500 feet high, running through 30 miles of mountains before sheering off at the water’s edge. 

To everyone’s surprise, a light, almost iridescent blue that in the crevasses and seams darkened to a deep azure.

At night a dazzling array of constellations competed for attention. Orion and the Big Dipper mingled with the unfamiliar constellations of the Southern Hemisphere, especially the Southern Cross, whose presence reinforced Magellan’s conviction that the Almighty was looking over the entire venture.

Encouraged, the captains and pilots were strongly in favor of pushing on – all but one. Estevao Gomes, pilot of the San Antonio, strongly dissented. Now that they had found the strait, he argued, they should sail back to Spain to assemble a better-equipped fleet. Gomes’s opposition set the stage for another mutiny.

A week after discovering the strait, they reached a point where it extended in two directions. To choose a course, Magellan dispatched two ships to reconnoiter – Victoria and San Antonio.

Victoria returned within three days and reported that they had seen the cape and the open sea. San Antonio failed to reappear, having fled for Spain. The long-frustrated mutiny had finally succeeded. San Antonio carried many of the fleet’s provisions in her hold, so the loss instantly put the remaining sailors’ lives in jeopardy.

The strait still lacked a name. Pigafetta took to referring to it as the Patagonian Strait, while the astrologer  preferred the name Strait of All Saints. Still others referred to it as Victoria Strait, after the first ship to enter its waters. By 1527, the waterway was known as  the Strait of Magellan.

On Wednesday, November 28, 1520, they sailed into the Pacific, 38 days since they left the Atlantic.

Magellan’s skill in negotiating the strait is the single greatest feat in the history of maritime exploration. Greater even than Columbus’s discovery of the New World, because thinking he had arrived in China, he remained befuddled to the end about where he was, what he had accomplished, and as a result he misled others. Magellan realized exactly what he had done; he had begun to correct Columbus’s great navigational error.

But no one aboard the fleet’s three remaining ships suspected they were about to traverse the largest body of water in the world to reach their ultimate goal.

Next week: “A Race Against Death.”

🛐Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“Guard me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 17:8).

With God, no one is just another number. The population explosion doesn’t overwhelm us. Each of us is a prized object of affection to be cared for and cherished. His recognition of us makes it possible for us finally to recognize him.

Prayer: I’ll never understand, gracious God, how I can be singled out from the millions of humankind for your love. But I don’t need to understand it: I accept it! In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 658

January 26, 2022

Last time I was fixin’ to tell you some more Southern expressions, but you had to Wait ‘til the Cows Came Home.  Settle in, because whatever we’re talking about is going to take all day.  Cows aren’t known for their speed, and they are usually out and about, wandering until feeding time.  Farmers know that if you do something ‘til the cows come home, it’s going to take all day.

I Reckon: I reckon “I reckon” can replace any number of phrases, such as: I guess, I suppose, I think, and I imagine.  It is a quintessential Southern phrase, said by friends and family on porches and in rocking chairs all across the South.

Full as a Tick: If you’ve just had a big Southern lunch, complete with cornbread, collard greens, and pecan pie, you’re definitely full as a tick.  It’s a vivid phrase, and it’s an accurate one too.  And if you are even fuller (more full?) you are as full as a tick and ready to drop off.

👉  Before we leave this jocularity for today, a few more cow-toons by Gary Larson:

👉  Police in Ireland are investigating reports that the body of a dead man was brought to a post office in an attempt to collect his pension.  The Irish Times said a man who appeared to be in his 60s was dragged into a post office, propped up by two younger men.  When questioned by staff, the two fled, leaving behind the older man, who was found to be dead.  One of the young men had inquired about collecting someone’s pension and was told that the recipient had to be present.  With the help of a companion, he returned with the dead man’s body.  Police are still looking for the dead man walkers.

👉  I heard about a pensioner who took a job as a waiter.  It didn’t pay much, but it put food on the table.

👉  Conscripts in Norway have been ordered to return their underwear, bras and socks after the end of their military service so that the next group of recruits can use them.  The Norwegian military said that it is struggling with dwindling supplies, in part due to the pandemic.  The Norwegian Defense Logistics Organization’s press spokesman said that with “proper checks and cleaning, the reuse of garments is considered an adequate and sound practice.”  Until recently, the roughly 8,000 young men and women who every year do their military service returned their outer clothing but were allowed to leave the barracks with the underwear and socks they were issued.

👉  QB 649 featured the “International Husband of the Year Award” and two runners up.  It has come to our attention that there were two honorable mentions:

At least he lightened the load.

This one is from Serbia where the entrant was practicing polygamy and caging his co-practitioners for life.

👉  A trio of Signs For The Times:

👉  On a serious note, world health officials are offering hope that the ebbing of the omicron wave could give way to a new, more manageable phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as they warn of difficult weeks ahead and the possibility of another, more dangerous variant arising.  In the U.S., cases have crested and are dropping rapidly, following a pattern seen in Britain and South Africa, with researchers projecting a period of low spread in many countries by the end of March.  Though U.S. deaths are still rising, new hospital admissions have started to fall, and a drop in deaths is expected to follow.  The encouraging trends after two years of coronavirus misery have brought a noticeably hopeful tone from health experts.  Rosy predictions have crumbled before, but this time they are backed by what could be called omicron’s silver lining: The highly contagious variant will leave behind extremely high levels of immunity.

The World Health Organization issued a statement Monday anticipating an end to the “emergency phase” of the pandemic this year and saying that the omicron variant “offers plausible hope for stabilization and normalization.”  Both Dr. Anthony Fauci and the WHO’s Europe regional director, Dr. Hans Kluge, cautioned that new variants are likely to emerge, but with vaccination, new drug therapies and – during surges – testing and masks, the world could reach a less disruptive level of disease.

Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium said, “There’s still a lot of pain before omicron has run its course,” but added: “It’s very plausible that omicron will be a turning point in terms of our relationship with this virus.”

Lord, hear our prayer!

🛐  Today’s close is from Dr. Ed Young.

The older I get, the more I love my family.  My wife, my sons and daughters in law and my six grandchildren are more precious to me than anything else in this life.  But if I were starting my family over again, I’d strive to do better.  I would listen more.  Love my wife more.  Spend more quality time with my children.  Praise them more often for doing right.  If I had it to do over again I’d let them know how grateful to God I am for each of them, every day.  Because family matters.

Puritan reformer and preacher Jonathan Edwards married Sarah Pierpoint, and they had 11 children.  Every day Jonathan and Sarah Edwards would sit down with each one of those children alone, and say “Let’s talk a little about you.”  Also, every day, this husband and wife rode on horseback together for an hour or more.  And 150 years after Edwards’ death, his family was still growing strong.  By 1900, the Edwards clan included 13 college presidents, 66 professors, a law school dean, 100 attorneys, 32 judges, 56 physicians, a medical school president, over 80 public office holders, over 100 missionaries, and a whole platoon of clergymen.  Edwards’ legacy was not his writings or the sermons he preached.  It was the family he loved and led.

What about you?  Is your family your number one priority?  Do they know it?  Tell them today, and let your actions prove that it is true.

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