Low 70 degrees and sunny. Nice day.
Dites- moi
Pourquoi
La vie est belle.
Dites-moi
Pourquoi
La vie est gai.
Dites-moi,
Chere Madmoiselle,
Est-ce que
Parce que
Vous m'aimez?
South Pacific by Rogers and Hammerstein
01. Not Flushable after all
Carroll County Times: The editor says that certain Wet Wipes are not really flushable. This is a problem. Lots of blockage is occurring around the civilized world.. not the 3rd world, because they use their left hands instead. Sadly, Charmin's Fresh Mates and WalMart's Equate flushables are actually not flushable. However, Cottonelle Fresh Care and Scott Naturals are flushable and they dissolve neatly.
02. A Tale of Two Cities
New York Times: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen died in 1979 and church people in Peoria, Illinois are trying to get him canonized.. only one miracle to go. However there is a snag.. his body is in New York City and should be in Peoria since his canonization memorial will be there, and that is where he grew up but the New York Bishop wants the body to remain in New York, where he lived his adult life. A piece of each Saint normally resides in either a special church or a cathedral. Both cities would qualify in this regard.
There is a way that they can go on this.. they could divide his body like Saint Catherine, whose body is in Rome and whose head is in Sienna, Italy. It's not known if this will be the solution, but we should know soon.
Incidentally, for those of you who never heard of Archbishop Sheen, he had a TV program entitled "Life is Worth Living", that aired from 1951 to 1957. I am old enough to have seen this program and I enjoyed it immensely. The Archbishop was a great speaker and story teller.. and I'll bet he is on YouTube.
03. Inhumanity
New York Times: 94% of Americans said that they saw the ISIS beheading videos.. and they are mad!
04. Religious Issue
Diane Rheem Show and New York Times: The Children Act by Ian McEwan is a novel that tells the story of a family of Jehovah's Witnesses, who do not want a 17-year old to get a blood transfusion that will probably save his life. Even the 17-year old does not want it . A London judge must decide on whether to force him to have the transfusion or not. (I believe that a similar case was before the US supreme court at one time.. I will have to look that up).. anyway, McEwan paints very believable intelligent characters for us to think about.
The New York Times reviewed the book and they faulted the author for not going into the beliefs of the Jehovah's Witnesses more deeply. I completely disagree with the reviewer.. that was not necessary at all to tell this story. It could have been about any number of different religious sects that are in the world today.
If I were the judge, you all know how I would rule.. this kid has been brain-washed by his parents to be a member of their sect... (but that is the way most people get their religious ideas, from their parents, no matter how stupid.. look at the Westboro Baptist Church family of idiots.)... Save the kid's life.. and maybe he will someday thank us for letting him live in what may be a wonderful life for him.. that is, if he runs away from home and starts a new rational way of living.
05. Spoonerisms
One of the fun things I do for myself, is read comments about the New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle each week. First, I do the puzzle, and then I go out to Rex Parker's website.. Rex bills himself as the Crossword King (or words to that effect).. each Sunday, he quickly solves the Times puzzle and then talks wittily about it on his blog/site. This results in hundreds of comments from fellow crossword puzzlers.. and some of their comments are wonderful to read. Such as, comments about "Cryptic Spoonerisms" this week:
Remember the Reverend Spooner's toast to Queen Victoria: "Here's to our queer old dean."
Actor John's Step? = Wayne Gait
Oral Stories about Actress Meg? = Ryan Lore
Sporting Actor Harrison? = Ford Sighting
A Blushing Crow.
Sly Drool
Peter Abbot
I don't know the creators of these gems enough to give them credit, (except for somebody named Loren Muse Smith) but "they know who they are".. and they certainly are Mensa material. (My brother, Joe, is a word expert and probably has lots more of this kind of stuff.)
06. Speaking of Mensa
Mensa members have had to prove that they have IQ's that place them in the so-called "Genius" level. This is the 98th percentile in terms of the population.
However, those of us who are members of Intertel have had to prove that we tested in the 99th percentile on a couple of IQ tests. No.. Intertel is not a group of undercover agents skulking around in Europe, it is a group composed of those folks who know how to "ace" IQ tests. However, there is a stated "purpose" to the group:
a. To encourage meaningful intellectual fellowship.
b. To foster an exchange of ideas on any and all subjects.
c. To assist in research relating to high intelligence.
See... we actually do have a purpose. And we ain't afraid to exploit our smarts!
07. Amazing Story
Daily Bread: Philip Yancey writes: "John Newton had the misfortune to be 'pressed' into service by the Royal Navy. However, because of cursing and blasphemy, he was kicked out for insubordination. (smart trick) He then served on a trans-Atlantic slave ship, working his way up to Captain. One day, he had a dramatic religious conversion and became an evangelical preacher and a leader in the abolitionist movement, even appearing before Parliament to give eyewitness testimony to the horrible things he had seen in the slave trade. But his main claim to fame was that he wrote the lyrics to the most famous of all hymns: Amazing Grace."
That's enough for now.. good night.
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