Epigraph: “We are getting better at making the alphabet dance.” --Richard Lederer
Welcome home, Unknown X-91. Our fallen soldiers from World War II are still coming home, 72 years later:
The remains of John E. Anderson arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Thursday evening, May 26, 2016.
People waving flags, some saluting, some with hand on heart, greeted the hearse carrying his casket all along U.S. Highway 12. The three-vehicle cortege arrived at Willmar shortly after 8:30 p.m.
The Willmar native was a motor machinist mate first class who was killed in action on Normandy Beach June 6, 1944, according to the U.S. Navy.
Anderson, who was 24 at the time of his death, was believed to be lost at sea. For 72 years, his remains were interred in the American Cemetery in France, in a grave marked “Unknown X-91.’’ His remains were recently identified and returned to Willmar.
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Concerning marriage. A host of hidden problems emerge when we try to get close to another person. We seem normal only to those who don’t know us well.
In a wiser world, date partners would ask each other early on, “And how are you crazy?”
One of the results of living alone is the sincere misimpression that one is easy to live with.
You must be at peace with the prospect of years of solitude in order to be appropriately picky.
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In the three minutes after the M*A*S*H TV series finale ended, around 77% of the people of New York City flushed their toilets.
Several biblical passages present a less common understanding of angels. There mal’akh means a small-scale manifestation of God, and the distinction between the mal’akh and God is murky; this mal’akh is something very similar to an avatara in Hinduism, and one wonders whether “avatar” or “manifestation” might not be a better translation of the Hebrew term when used this way. This mal’akh is not a being separate from God whom God sent on a mission but is a part of God that can act on its own. This conception of mal’akh appears in Gen 18-19, Exod 3, Exod 23:20-23, and Judg 6.
Beware the demon Urushiol.
A full round of golf was 18 holes long before any golf courses had 18 holes. One would, for example, play a 12-hole course by playing all twelve and half of them back again. You can look it up. If you do, you may run across the name Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair. I kid you not.
Many people call Carolina Dogs “American Dingos.” Its victims know quick death.
I had somehow never heard of “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic” till someone mentioned it as the quintessential “Velcro song” or Ohrwurm (“earworm”). Here are its lyrics, minus some repetitions:
If you go down to the woods today
You'd better go in disguise!
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain,
Because today's the day the
Teddy Bears have their picnic.
Picnic time for Teddy Bears
The little Teddy Bears are having
A lovely time today.
Watch them, catch them unawares,
And see them picnic on their holiday.
See them gaily gad about.
They love to play and shout,
They never have any care;
At six o'clock their Mommies and Daddies
Will take them home to bed,
Because they're tired little Teddy Bears
Every Teddy Bear who's been good
Is sure of a treat today.
There's lots of marvelous things to eat
And wonderful games to play.
Beneath the trees where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
'Cause that's the way the
Teddy Bears have their picnic.
If you go down to the woods today,
You'd better not go alone!
It's lovely down in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home! (Music 1907, lyrics 1932)
To me, this song is proof that LSD was invented long before most people think it was.
Connecticut’s Supreme Court recently stayed with its abolition of the death penalty in Connecticut over passionate dissent. It reminds one of the fact that Texas in 2011 abolished its custom of granting those sentenced to death a last meal of their own choosing, after Lawrence Russell Brewer, convicted of a racially motivated homicide, ordered two chicken-fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions; a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños; a bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas; a meat-lover’s pizza; one pint of Blue Bell Ice Cream; a slab of peanut-butter fudge with crushed peanuts; and three root beers for his last meal, claimed he wasn't hungry, and ate exactly none of it, spoiling a nice perk for death row inmates to look forward to on an otherwise bad day.
"Everyone will be salted with fire." --Mark 9:49
That is all.
"Everyone will be salted with fire." --Mark 9:49
That is all.
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