QUARANTINE BLOG # 645

January 5, 2022

A reader whose identity I am protecting sent the following piece – “Women’s Problems.”

Woman has Man in it. Mrs. has Mr. in it. Female has Male in it. She has He in it. Madam has Adam in it. 

Okay, Okay, it all makes sense now. I never looked at it this way before. Ever notice how all of women’s problems start with MEN? 

MENtal illness. MENstrual cramps. MENtal breakdown. MENopause.  GUYnecologist.

AND when we have REAL trouble, it’s a HISterectomy. 

👉  Click on this link to view an incredible collection of uniquely painted aircraft.  Among my favorites are: a plane that looks like a Duracell battery, my favorite clown fish – Nemo, Buzz Lightyear, R2D2, C3PO, BB8, and a great paint job on the Concorde with an ad for Pepsi.

👉  Speaking of Concorde, I regret that I never flew on that supersonic jet (which flew twice the speed of sound).  Air France and British Airways were the only companies to purchase and fly Concorde.  Depending on the cabin configuration, there was seating for 98 to 128 passengers.  Once flights began using JFK International Airport, if you wanted to go to Paris, the round-trip ticket price was the equivalent to $12,900 today, more than 30 times the cost of the least expensive scheduled flight for this route.  But if you wanted to get to Europe in a hurry, Concorde was the way to fly.  Subsonic flights took 7 hours, supersonic 3.5 hours.

Concorde’s first scheduled flights were London to Bahrain and Paris to Rio de Janeiro, January 21, 1976.  Many reasons are given for the grounding of the fleets (Air France made its last flight June 27, 2003, and British Airways on October 23, 2003), among them declining airline passengers after 9/11, the expense of the ticket, and the fact that the narrow fuselage did not allow for “luxury” features of subsonic air travel such as moving space, reclining seats and overall comfort.  

Maybe the biggest reason for the grounding of Concorde was the fact that the airlines could make more profit carrying first-class passengers subsonically.

In order to maintain aerodynamic efficiency during flight, to not obstructing the pilot’s view during taxi, take-off, and landing operations, the nose of the aircraft would “droop” to facilitate those maneuvers.

👉  I do not put the cartoons in the QB Index, and I can’t remember if I’ve shared these Bible Toons with you.  If I have, raise your hand.  If not, enjoy them.

👉  One-year-old Jalayne Sutherland caught royal attention after donning a double-breasted overcoat with a matching hat, a white wig and pearls around her neck.  She was photographed by her mother Katelyn Sutherland, standing alongside her family corgis, and sent the photograph to Queen Elizabeth on a whim.  Katelyn said her daughter’s costume met with lots of praise as she took her trick-or-treating on Halloween this year, “My favorite reactions were when people bowed to her or did the royal wave and said, ‘Your Majesty!’”

The family was surprised when the Queen’s lady in waiting, wrote, saying, “The Queen wishes me to write and thank you for your letter, and for the photograph you thoughtfully enclosed. Her Majesty thought it kind of you to write to her, and The Queen was pleased to see the photograph of your daughter, Jalayne, in her splendid outfit.”

👉  Some smiles from Shoe:

👉  Today is the 12th Day of Christmas, the day your true love gave you 12 drummers drumming.  If you’ve ever wondered what this Christmas extravaganza might cost, for 38 years, PNC has calculated the prices of the 12 gifts from the classic holiday song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”  The PNC Christmas Price Index this year includes adjustments for the pandemic’s impact on the cost of purchasing the presents in the renowned carol.  Overall, buying all of the gifts in the song, as it was sung, would cost you $179,454.19 this year, a 5.4% increase over 2019, and your true love would be stuck with 178 birds (PNC based the increase on 2019 because of strong fluctuations during 2020’s pandemic).

The price of Two Turtle Doves was up 50%, the highest rate of change.  The Seven Swans-a-Swimming are the most expensive gift, costing $13,125, but it’s the same as they cost in 2019.  Because there has been no change to the Federal Minimum Wage there has been no change to the price for Eight Maids-a-Milking – they still cost $58.

Click on this link and enjoy PNC’s presentation of each gift with an explanation of the prices.  It is classy.

🛐  Today’s close is from The Songs of Jesus, by Timothy Keller.

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me (Psalm 13:1-6).

David is in agony and can’t feel the presence of God. He cries out that God has ignored his pain and his sorrow. It is almost a howl, and the fact that it is included in the Bible tells us that God wants to hear our genuine feelings, even if they are anger at him. David never stops praying, however, and that is the key. As long as we howl toward God and remember his salvation by grace (verse 5), we will end at a place of peace. If Christians do that by hearing Jesus praying verses 1-4 on the cross, losing the Father’s face as he paid for our sins, we will be able to pray verses 5-6 indeed.

Prayer: “Tempest-tossed, soul, be still; my promised grace receive, ‘Tis Jesus speaks – I must, I will, I can, I do believe.” Lord, this reminds me that believing the promise of your presence in my suffering takes time, and grows slowly, through stages in prayer. So I will pray until my heart rejoices in you. Amen.

-30-