Words 1.16

 Words Twice a Week         1.16

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

Some days from the Church calendar -

Jan 17 - Saint Anthony   “When persecution was replaced by a domestication of Christianity within the secular culture, many Christians went out into the desert, considered the home of the demons, to do spiritual battle in the name of Christ.”  (Jones)  Anthony gave al he had to the poor and moved outside his hometown in Egypt to live as a hermit.  He was one of the foremost of the Desert Fathers.

Jan 18 – the Confession of St Peter  an event described in Mt, Mk, and Lk, in which essentially Jesus the disciples who they think he is, and Peter proclaims “You are the Christ”.  The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity starts today and ends on Jan 24 with the Conversion of St Paul.  Sometimes churches would have ecumenical noontime services and hunger lunches during the week.

Jan 20 – Fabian  He was an unknown layperson who was made Pope in 236 after a dove landed on his head during the papal election.  He was proclaimed bishop and pope.  When the persecutions began again, he was one of the first to be martyred.

Jan 21 – Agnes  She was one of the seven virgin martyrs.

Jan 22 – Vincent  He was a deacon and martyred in 304. According to legend, after being martyred, ravens protected St. Vincent's body from being devoured by vultures, until his followers could recover the body. His body was taken to what is now known as Cape St. Vincent in Portugal, the south-westernmost point of Portugal and Mainland Europe.  A shrine was erected over his grave, which continued to be guarded by flocks of ravens. 

Jan 23  Phillips Brooks He was a preacher, but we know him best for his hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. And Thomas A. Dorsey He wrote 3,000 songs, a third of them gospel, including Peace in the Valley, and Precious Lord, Take My Hand. Author Anthony Heilbut summarized Dorsey's influence by saying he "combined the good news of gospel with the bad news of blues"!  He was born in 1899 and died on this day in 1993.

And some days from the earth/world calendar

Jan 17

+ the Hanshin earthquake hit Kobe, Japan, in 1995.  6,434 people died.

+ it’s the birthday of Benjamin Franklin in 1706.  His comment about “a republic, if you can keep it” rings out today.  And Michelle Obama in 1964.  

+ The UN Security council held its first meeting in 1946.

+ “Operation Desert Storm” launched in 1991.  About 100,000 civilians were killed.

+ in 1604, the Hampton Court Conference commissioned a translation of the Bible into English – the King James Version.  It had a big influence on the development of the language. Do you have a favorite translation?  A favorite KJV passage?

Jan 18

+ Borge Ousland became the first person to cross Antarctica (1864 miles) alone and unaided in 1997.  Wasn’t there someone else that was doing it about the same time and died at the end?  And ok, it’s in the 20’s – you can still get out and take a walk!

+ once again, it’s the birthday of A.A.Milne in 1882.  We could, I suppose, read The House at Pooh Corner.  We’ll see once we get Saint Maybe done.

+ it is the birthday (in 1779) of Peter Roget.  If you are at a loss for words – the latest edition of his thesaurus has 443,000 of them.  You should be able to find one in there somewhere.  (He started out in 1805 with 15,000).

Jan 19

+ George Claude patented the “neon discharge tube” and the nighttime has never been the same!

+ it’s the birthday of (take a deep breath!) Dolly Parton, Janis Joplin, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert E Lee, and (steam engine) James Watt.

+ Scrabble was first marketed in North America in 1952.  

Jan 20

+ Barack Obama was sworn in as U.S. President, the first Black president.  (Three days after his wife’s birthday.  It must have been a busy time.  Hope they had time for cake!)

+ the first official game of basketball was played in 1892.  It ended with a score of 0-1.

Jan 21

+ George Orwell died in 1950.

Jan 22

+ The Roe vs Wade case was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973.

+ the CIA was established in 1947.

+ in Spearfish SD, in 1943, the temperature went from -4F to 45F in 2 minutes.  Can’t even think what that must have felt like.

+ In 1970 the Boeing 747 took off on its first scheduled flight – from new York to London.

+ David Edward Hughes died in 1900. He was one of the inventors of the microphone.

Jan 23

+ Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) was born in 1888.

+ 1986 - First inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Chuck Berry James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and ______________! Ans next week!  No women.  Aretha Franklin was inducted the next year, 1987.

+ Take a deep breath – the Trieste dove to 35,797 feet, the bottom of the Challenger Deep, Earth’s deepest known point, in 1960.

+ Walter Frederick Morrison sold the rights to his flying disk to the Wham-O toy company in 1957.  Anybody want to toss one around?

+ Edvard (The Scream) Munch died in 1944, Salvador (The kind of weird) Dali died in 1989.

+ and starting the week off with earthquakes, we’ll end with another – in 1556 the deadliest earthquake on record killed about 830,000 people in China.

  

Ok, let’s write a thesaurus poem -

Write a short sentence down the left side, and then put two or three words that mean the same thing on each line.  Extra credit for metre and rhyme schemes -

Example:

  Let, permit, allow, 

  snow, ____, ____ 

  fall, drop, ____, ____

  gently, ____, ____

  white, ____, ____

We’ll see what we get.

That’s what I got for now…..

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