QUARANTINE BLOG # 657

January 24, 2022

About three weeks ago I completed the building of the Titanic, obviously not the White Star Line Olympic-class ocean liner built and launched by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.  This one is an incredible model designed by Lego.  The original was 882 feet 9 inches long with a maximum breadth of 92 feet 6 inches.  Her total height, measured from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge, was 104 feet.  Mine – in the accompanying photograph – is 54" long, 7" wide, and 18" high.

I don’t know what I was looking for – as I’ve often told you, that is the way I frequently find stuff, just stumble around and there it is – but I found a clever video of someone building the Lego Titanic.  The layout of the animated area bears a resemblance to the real shipyard where construction on the Titanic started on March 31, 1909.  In this video, it takes 58 seconds to build the great vessel (you don't have to join Twitter to see the video – just click the "X").  Mine took 31.5 hours, the original took 3 years.  Oh, be sure to enlarge the video to get the full effect.

👉  Since it’s Monday, it’s time for a Monday Pun:

👉  And if you missed QB 655, here is another salute to Monday:

👉  While we are saluting Monday, let’s spin a couple of Monday tunes.  QB 400 featured “Rainy Days and Mondays,” and QB 546 had “Monday, Monday.”  So here a couple we haven’t played.

First up, a haunting song by Frank Sinatra, “Monday Morning Quarterback.”  Composed by Pamela Phillips-Oland, MMQ was recorded in 1981 and was featured in Sinatra’s last Reprise album “She Shot Me Down.”

“Monday Morning” is a song by Canadian R&B singer Melanie Fiona from her debut album, “The Bridge.”  It charted in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, and Poland at number one and in Austria at number five. 

“Manic Monday” by the Bangles describes a woman who is waking up to go to work on Monday, wishing it was still Sunday so she could continue relaxing.  Written by Prince, under the pseudonym Christopher, it peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April, 1986.

👉  Panic set in across Wall Street in October 1929.  Banks across the nation failed – and life savings evaporated with them – ushering in an era that gripped the nation for the next four years.  But at least seven families, worth a total of $31.9 billion, owe their fortunes to young businesses that stared during the Great Depression.  An estimated 15 million Americans were unemployed at its height, yet these families stayed out of the shanty towns by pouring their energy into businesses that started small.  Three of them worked in the food industry.

George Jenkins started Publix Super Markets in 1930, and it paid off. With $29 billion in sales, it now counts more than 1,000 stores across the southeast, bolstering his family’s $5.2 billion fortune.

Husband and wife team O.D. and Ruth McKee sold five cent cakes out of the family car.  Then, in 1934, they bought a bakery in Chattanooga, Tennessee, starting the company that would eventually become known for its Little Debbie cakes. Descendants now run the company and are worth an estimated $1.4 billion based on our estimates.

Iowa-native J.R. Simplot bought an Idaho potato farm in 1929 and worked the land by himself.  He became known as the father of the frozen french fry for the freezing process he invented.  Before his death in 2008, the company boasted supplying a third of the nation’s french fries, most notably to McDonald’s.  The Simplots, worth $8 billion, still run the company.

👉  Southern Living wrote, “Someone once said that when you visit the South, you need a translator.”  I remember the weekend in 1975 that Bonnie and I went to Cleveland, Tennessee for me to interview for the position of editorial assistant to the editor in chief of Church of God Publications.  In restaurants, at the motel, at the Cleveland Mall, I constantly had to ask people to repeat things.  It wasn’t that I couldn’t hear them.  I had no idea what they were saying – it was like being in Russia 18 years later.  But Southern Living isn’t describing my problem.  They are describing things we say that folks from up North may need a dictionary to understand.  For instance ...

Fixin’ To:  I’m fixin’ to tell you that this phrase is as Southern as sweet tea.  When you’re fixin’ to do something, it’s going to happen, but you also may decide to take your sweet time.

It Doesn’t Amount to a Hill of Beans: A hill of beans is its own measuring stick.  Whether you’re talking about volume or value, a hill of beans isn’t worth much.  That means whatever you’re talking about is worth less than very little.

Over Yonder: Over yonder is a distant direction – any direction.  The phrase may be accompanied by a gesture indicating north, south, east, or west.  Over yonder down the road.  Over yonder past the cotton field.  Over yonder toward the water tower.  This phrase can be intensified by the addition of the word “way,” as in “way over yonder.”

I’m fixin’ to tell you some more, but you’ll have to wait until the cows come home.

👉   Jennifer sent me a Book Tune just in time for today’s edition.

🛐  Today’s close is by Lisa Watson.

“But the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12).

With all the hi-tech gadgets and multitasking we do today, rarely are we “unplugged.” When you’re constantly in motion, how can you hear Jesus? How can you tune in to your blessings when you’re always full throttle? 1 Kings 19:11-12 relays to us that in order to hear a small voice, we must be still ourselves.

Recently, I was in the midst of a writing deadline; I was bogged down with work, constantly trying to keep up with my kid’s school assignments, car pool schedules and the handful of friends and family that I speak with on a regular basis. I was so overwhelmed I felt like curling up in a ball on my bed and crying. I sat down and tried to get a grip. Suddenly, in my mind, I heard the words, “Be still.”

It wasn’t loud, but a quiet, commanding voice I heard. Suddenly, everything I was obsessing over faded away. I became calm and still. I knew then that Jesus had spoken to me. His voice was not tumultuous like an earthquake, turbulent like wind, or overwhelming like fire. It was a still, small voice. I realized then that to hear the Lord’s words, I had to stop long enough to listen.

Faith step: Find a quiet place and “unplug” yourself for a few minutes and be still.

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