QUARANTINE BLOG # 662

February 2, 2022

Because Monday’s blog, QB 661, was the “This Month in History” feature, the sermon from the Crawfordville Pulpit has been delayed until today.  Here is “Self-Sufficient?” from Jonah 1:1-2, 3:10-4:3, 10-11, Ephesians 6:10-20; John 11:45-48, 53.

👎  This just in: at 07:25 this morning at Gobbler’s Knob, PA, Punksutawney Phil made his 136th annual prediction – as seen in the accompanying photo, there will be six more weeks of winter.  QB, as of this posting, was unable to locate General Beauregard Lee or Gary the Groundhog in Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada.  However, from Nova Scotia, Shubenacadie Sam agrees with Phil.

👉  Several issues ago QB looked at an incredible house in the Caribbean.  Today, one that is closer to home – an estate with two main houses.  Located in Miami’s Coconut Grove, and perched above a coral reef, the estate went on the market for $150 million.  That price gets you houses with 25,000-square-feet, more than 4 acres and 400 feet of frontage on the Biscayne Bay.  Villa Serena (to the left) was once owned by three-time presidential candidate and onetime U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.  Peggy Hopkins Joyce, a Ziegfeld Follies girl, owned the land where the other house, Indian Spring was built.  If you like living beside of celebrities, Madonna lives next door, but she is seldom home.  Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht whose estate this is has said she will donate the proceeds of the sale to charitable causes.

👉  A pair of Blackouts for your Wednesday morning:

👉  A Rabbi said to a precocious six-year-old boy, “So your mother says your prayers for you each night?  That’s very commendable.  What does she say?”  The little boy replied, “Thank God he’s in bed!” 

👉  Two from “Ooh You’re Gold”:

👉  Sandy Sanderson, who lives in Hamilton, New Zealand, has been creating vehicles from aluminum cans for more than 15 years.  

Using his skill and following a motorbike accident that shattered his left wrist, Sandy had to step away from designing and building electric stringed instruments and instead turned his attentions to creating automotive masterpieces out of aluminum, a material that’s easier to shape and one that does not require the use of heavy power tools.

The Waikato Buggy took 30 cans to build.

The CanCars are available for purchase or, for the adventurous, plans – from his website– are available to build your own version of Sandy’s CanCars.  Thanks to Brian for this story. 

That's Sandy, not Brian 😄

👉  Of Leonardo da Vinci’s works, the Mona Lisa is the only portrait whose authenticity has never been seriously questioned.  He had begun working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the model of the Mona Lisa, by October 1503.  The Louvre states that it was “doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506,” but some art historians put it post-1513.  In 1516, Leonardo was invited by King Francis I to work for his majesty, and it is believed that he took the Mona Lisa with him and continued to work on it after he moved to France.  It was acquired by King Francis and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at the Louvre, Paris since 1797.

On August 21, 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre.  French poet Guillaume Apollinaire came under suspicion and was arrested and imprisoned.  Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was brought in for questioning.  Both were later exonerated.  The real culprit was Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, who had helped construct the painting’s glass case.  He carried out the theft by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with the painting hidden under his coat after the museum had closed.  Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed that Leonardo’s painting should have been returned to an Italian museum.  

The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known painting insurance valuation in history at US $100 million in 1962 (equivalent to $870 million in 2021).  The painting, unframed, measures 30 x 21 inches.

Leonardo’s portrait is also the inspiration for the classic song “Mona Lisa” by American lyricist Ray Evans and songwriter Jay Harold Livingston.  It was recorded in 1950 by jazz pianist and vocalist Nat King Cole.

👉  Something to think about:

👉  Something else to think about:

👉  Book Toons:

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

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5).

Trial and error is a poor strategy for learning how to live. The way of faith is illuminated with precedents and examples (“your ways, O Lord”) that can save us both the embarrassment of being foolish and the pain of making mistakes.

Prayer: O God, even as Abraham “set out, not knowing where he was going” and arrived at the land of promise by your guidance, so I would make my way believing in your promises and guided by your commandments, looking to Jesus, the “pioneer and perfecter” of my faith (Hebrews 11:8, 12:2). Amen.

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