Words 2.27

 Words Twice a Week       2.27

The prayer last week was from Episcopal sources.  Here is a link to a letter from one of the United Methodist Bishops in the Nordic, Baltic and Eurasia “Central Conference”.  It includes these words -

 

Our central conference consists of Nordic, Baltic and Eurasian countries, including Russia and Ukraine. The Christian Church is not nationalistic and our relations with our brothers and sisters in other countries are not limited by nationality or culture. We have deep relations with Methodists in Ukraine and in Russia, and although we are influenced by our culture and the political realities, we must never allow this to hinder or break our unity in Christ. 

 

We stand with the United Methodists in Ukraine in prayer for protection, reconciliation and peace. We pray for pastors, leaders and congregations in the United Methodist Church in Ukraine; may God grant that their witness of reconciliation and peace will bring strength and hope to the Ukrainian people. 

 

We pray for Bishop Eduard Khegay, bishop of both Russia and Ukraine, (there are UM churches in both Moscow and Ukraine! -cw) may God give him the wisdom and grace that he needs in his ministry and leadership under these challenging circumstances.

In the Nordic and Baltic episcopal area, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all have borders with Russia, and in addition, Latvia and Lithuania have borders with Belarus. In the Baltic states, in particular, the invasion of Ukraine causes great concern….

I call on all our congregations to pray and fast for reconciliation and peace in the world. May God, in His grace, open our eyes to the things that make for peace, may He protect us all from the escalation and spreading of war, and may we follow Him on His path of truth and peace. 

Ok - 

Some days from the Church Calendar -

Feb 28  Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (August 10, 1858 – February 27, 1964) was an American author, educator, sociologist, speaker, Black liberation activist, and one of the most prominent African-American scholars in United States history.  Born into slavery in 1858, Cooper went on to receive a world-class education and claim power and prestige in academic and social circles. In 1924, she received her PhD in history from the Sorbonne, University of Paris.  Cooper became the fourth African-American woman to earn a doctoral degree. She was also a prominent member of Washington, D.C.'s African-American community and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.  Cooper made contributions to social science fields, particularly in sociology. Her first book, A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South, is widely acknowledged as one of the first articulations of Black feminism, giving Cooper the often-used title of "the Mother of Black Feminism"

Mar 1  Saint David  -  the patron saint of Wales.  He was a Welsh bishop during the 6th century.  His best-known miracle is said to have taken place when he was preaching in the middle of a large crowd at the Synod of Brefi: the village of Llanddewi Brefi stands on the spot where the ground on which he stood is reputed to have risen up to form a small hill. A white dove, which became his emblem, was seen settling on his shoulder.  He is often depicted standing with a dove on his shoulder.

Also Mar 1 – Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras  The day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.  As the last day after Epiphany, I suppose you might want to light a candle or set off fireworks or walk past the lighthouse.  And Let the light from your lighthouse shine on me!  As the day before Lent, you might look at using up the fat and sugar in your kitchen.  (Traditionally folks make pancakes with them.  Biggby’s was handing out free sample donut holes yesterday.  That’s not a bad idea either!)  We still have gift cards from Contrast Coffee, so we are going to get coffee and crepes.  I suppose still take out, even though the mask requirements are lessening.  I saw an interesting piece about a group in New Orleans that was trying to get groups to shift from throwing plastic beads to usable or sustainable “throws”.  

Mar 2   Chad of Mercia  he was a prominent 7th-century Anglo-Saxon churchman, who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians.   In 669, a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus, sent by Pope Vitalian arrived in England. He immediately set off on a tour of the country, tackling abuses of which he had been forewarned. He instructed Chad to step down and Wilfrid to take over.  According to Bede, Theodore was so impressed by Chad's show of humility that he confirmed his ordination as bishop, while insisting he step down from his position. Chad retired gracefully and returned to his post as abbot of Lastingham, leaving Wilfrid as bishop of the Northumbrians at York.  He later was made Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People.

Also on Mar 2 – Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  When I was growing up, Catholic kids would go to early mass and go around all day with ashes on their foreheads.  Methodists didn’t do ashes, and even when we started to, we went to an evening service, got ashes, and then went home and washed them off before going to bed.  Many people do some kind of Lenten devotions, or read a study book, or give up something.  

Mar 3  John and Charles Wesley.  See below for a little bit on John.  Click the link to learn more about Charles and some of the more than 6,500 hymns he wrote the words for, including Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, and O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing, which with one exception has always been the first hymn in Methodist/United Methodist hymnals (excluding the supplemental songbooks and hymnals).  Extra credit question – what was the one exception?

Also on Mar 3 – Katharine Drexell   -  She was an American heiress, philanthropist, religious sister, and educator. She was the second person born in what is now the United States to be canonized as a saint and the first one born a U.S. citizen.  Huh?  Who was the “non-citizen” first?  Seems like we covered that not too long ago.

Mar 5 – Gerasimus of the Jordan  Gerasimus was born into a wealthy family in the province of Lycia, the southern part of Asia Minor, but he left his family wealth and worldly affairs to become a monk. He departed for the region Thebaid in the Egyptian desert, later again returning to his native Lycia. About the middle of 5th century Saint Gerasimus went to Palestine and settled in the wilderness near the Jordan River. There he established a monastery and became known for his righteous life of asceticism and prayer. He is reputed to have attended to the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451.  Legend says that his sanctity was such that after he removed a thorn from the paw of a lion, they became life-long companions and the lion died of grief on his grave.

Mar 6  -  William Mayo and Charles Menninger and their sons.  They established medical practices and clinics.

And some days from the world/earth calendar -

Feb 28

+ The first Gulf War  (Desert Shield and then Desert Storm) ends in 1991.  It had lasted a little over half a year and caused over 100,000 civilian casualties.

Mar 1

+ JFK initiated the Peace Corps in 1961

+ Yellowstone was established – the first National Park – in 1872.  We, and many others, were out walking at The Island on Saturday.  Parks are wonderful things.

Mar 2

+ John Wesley died in 1791.  Methodists, United Methodists, Wesleyans trace themselves back to his life and work.  On his deathbed, his last words were “The best of all is, God is with us.”  Because of his charitable nature he died poor, leaving as the result of his life's work 135,000 members and 541 itinerant preachers under the name "Methodist". It has been said that "when John Wesley was carried to his grave, he left behind him a good library of books, a well-worn clergyman's gown" and the Methodist Church.

Mar 3

+ Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata was published in 1802.

+ The Star Spangled Banner (written during the War of 1812) was officially adopted as the National Anthem in 1931.

Mar 4

+ in 1789 the United States Constitution was put into effect.  Thoughts?

Mar 5

+ Patsy Cline died in 1963.  Her first single was “A Church, A Courtroom, Then Goodbye”.  She went to on sing Walking After Midnight, I Fall To Pieces, She’s Got You, and Crazy.  She was killed in a plane crash, along with Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and manager Randy Hughes.

Mar 6

+ Aspirin was trademarked by Beyer in 1899.  It lost the rights to the trademark between 1918 and 1921 because it failed to prevent other companies from using it.  Oh well...“Take two and call me…”  

+ Fred Craddock died in 2015.  He was a Biblical scholar and preaching professor.  You may not have heard of him, but he is one of my heroes.  He is responsible for the idea that a sermon should not be the preacher telling people “the way it is” but rather the preacher leading the people on a journey of discovery through the text.  He was also a wonderful story-teller.  He encouraged preachers, and everyone, really, to write down one or two things that happened each day, and then wait until a particular story “asked to be included in a particular sermon.

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 2.24

 Words Twice a Week        2.24

The Prayer for Peace in the World -

God of all Creation, 

let the peace which is in your heart 

flow into your world, 

and may all who share your world 

live together in justice, kindness and humility. 

We ask it in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace. Amen.

And then here’s really good prayer that The Church of the Heavenly Rest sent out -

As the fever of day calms towards twilight

May all that is strained in us come to ease.

   We pray for all who suffered violence today,

   May an unexpected serenity surprise them.

For those who risk their lives each day for peace,

May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.

   That those who make riches from violence and war

   Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.

That we might see through our fear of each other

A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.

   That those who enjoy the privilege of peace

   Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.

That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,

That our swords be beaten into ploughshares

   And no hurt or harm be done

   Anywhere along the holy mountain.

— John O’Donohue

Some thoughts on some of the lessons for next Sunday – Sunday of the Transfiguration

Exodus 34:29-35  

+ Moses goes up the mountain to talk with God and when he comes down his face shines so brightly he needs to put a veil over it.  When do we use a veil?  Why?

+ It suggests the holiness of God – where do we experience that?

Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

+ Context – Jesus just gave the first passion prediction complete with Peter’s confession, a word about discipleship (ending with line about how “some will not die before seeing the kingdom of God/Time of God’s Peace)”, then eight days later (a new creation?) takes Peter, James, and John aside (up the mountain) where he is “Transfigured”.  Is this Luke suggesting that the new creation/kingdom of God/Time of God’s Peace is with us in Jesus?

+ in the Transfiguration, we come face to face with the reality that Jesus is both human and divine.  This is a reality that we cannot really process. One writer suggests we express it in hymns, poems.

+ The disciples are heavy with sleep but stay awake – does this suggest a “thin place/thin time” inbetween states of being when they glimpse a reality beyond our own?  Or is it meant to mirror our confusion with this human/divine thing?

+ they stay awake here, as opposed to Gethsemane where they slept.  Did the excitement of the moment keep them awake?  What might they have seen in Gethsemane?

+ Apparently in the Orthodox tradition this is when they understand Jesus becoming God.  How do you think about this human and divine thing?

+ Moses and Elijah appear.  The Law and the Prophet?  And it’s like if you could invite three people to dinner - what do you suppose they talked about?  Here’s something to think about - traditionally we say Moses and Elijah were maybe telling Jesus what the Crucifixion/Resurrection would be like – but why would Jesus need anyone to tell him anything?  What might he be saying to them?

+ Peter says “It’s good to be here; let’s build booths”  and Luke immediately suggests that there is something inadequate about that.  It’s probably more of a worship image than a “let’s put down roots.”  I’m glad about that.  We do enough worrying about our buildings.  Possibly what’s inadequate is that Peter seems to be equating Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, when certainly Jesus would be superior.

+ The cloud comes and the voice from the cloud – “This is my Son, Listen to him.”  What has Jesus just said?  Passion prediction, pick up your cross, and (immediately before!) “some will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God”.  What is he going to say next?  “How much longer must I bear with you...Let these words sink into your heads – the son of man is going to be handed over to humans.”  And another passion prediction.

+ They told no one what they had seen, even though Jesus does not tell them to keep quiet as he does in Matthew and Mark.  Why?

+ On the next day (vs37) - The disciples are still not able to heal the boy.  The Kingdom of God/Time of God’s Peace is still among us, but hidden?  Does this justify Jesus’ “faithless and perverse generation”?  Seems harsh to me.  It does suggest that healing (spiritual? Physical?) is part of the Time of God’s Peace.

+ we think of the Transfiguration pointing back to Jesus’ baptism and ahead to the Crucifixion/Resurrection – where do you see connections?

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 2.20

 Words Twice a Week       2.20

Some days from the church calendar -

Feb 22  Eric Liddell  The Chariots of Fire guy!  Born January 16, 1902, he was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player, and Christian missionary. Born in Qing China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended boarding school near London, spending time when possible with his family in Edinburgh, and afterwards attended the University of Edinburgh.  At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Liddell refused to run in the heats for his favored 100 meters because they were held on a Sunday. Instead he competed in the 400 meters held on a weekday, a race that he won. He returned to China in 1925 to serve as a missionary teacher. Aside from two furloughs in Scotland, he remained in China until his death in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945.

Feb 24  Saint Matthias  He was chosen to replace Judas.  According to Acts, he was with Jesus from his baptism through the resurrection, although he is never mentioned in any of the gospels.  It does make you wonder – how did he feel about the position, how did the others feel about him?  And this is kind of interesting – he is a patron saint of: alcoholics; carpenters; tailors; Gary, Indiana; Great Falls-Billings, Montana?

Also on Feb 24 Amanda Berry Smith    Born in slavery, she was a Methodist preacher and former slave who funded The Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children. She was a leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout Methodist camp meetings across the world.  She was referred to as "God's image carved in ebony". 

Feb 26    Emily Malbone Morgan   In 1883, Morgan's childhood friend, Adelyn Howard, fell ill with a hip disease, which made her a lonely invalid in a town in which she had no friends or family. The following year, Morgan, with Howard and Harriet Hastings of Wellesley, Massachusetts founded the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, to allow the shut-in Adelyn—and other religious women who valued thanksgiving, intercessory prayer, and simplicity of life—to pray and work for social justice. Morgan had a talent for providing hospitality, and considered her "greatest desire...has always been to make tired people rested and happy."  The group ministered to women working in the nearby textile mills, in part by establishing houses throughout the northeastern United States where such working-class women and their children could vacation.

Also on Feb 26  Photine – the Woman at the Well!  Like the woman at the well, I was seeking for things that could not satisfy….  Or Jesus met the woman at the well….

And some days from the earth/world calendar -

Feb 21

+ Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.

+ Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848.  The New Yorker was first published in 1925.

+ W.H. Auden was born in 1907

Feb 22

+ it’s 2.22.22.  I don’t know what that means!

+ the first Woolworth store opened in 1879

Feb 23

+ Woody Guthrie wrote This Land Is Your Land in 1940 in New York.

+ The Gutenberg Bible was published in 1455

+ Stan Laurel died in 1965.  We watched the recent Stan and Ollie film (I think it somehow just ended up in our Netflix queue) and it was touching.  The two guys at the end of their career and their lives.  The film takes a few liberties, but apparently the text at the end is accurate – that Stan refused all acting roles after Oliver died, but that the continued to write material for them until he died.  He lived his final years in a small flat in Santa Monica, CA. He continued to correspond with fans, and his phone number was listed in the local directory.  He influenced Jerry Lewis and Dick Van Dyke among others.  Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!"  A few minutes later he died quietly in his armchair.  At his funeral service Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest. I wasn't the funniest; this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy and read The Clown's Prayer. Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again."

+ George Fredrick Handel died in 1685.  He wrote Messiah in 1741.  He also wrote four coronation anthems, one of which Zadok the Priest has been played/sung at every British Coronation since 1727.

+ The first mass inoculation for polio was held.

Feb 24

+ Gregorian calendar was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.  It is a reform of the Julien calendar, mainly having to do with the spacing of Leap days and years.  Quick now – what’s the rule for leap years?  The reform also advanced the date by 10 days: Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582.

Feb 25

+ Muhammad Ali, still known as Cassius Clay, became World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, by beating -                 . in 1964.  That was later that year that he denounced his “slave name” and took the name Muhammad Ali.

Feb 26

+ It’s the birthday of John Harvey Kellogg – Corn Flakes for breakfast?

Feb 27

+ The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch "council communist", was the apparent culprit; however, Hitler attributed the fire to Communist agitators. He used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties, and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists. This made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 2.17

 Words Twice a Week        2.17

And here’s one for free from The Writer’s Almanac -

It's the birthday (the 17th) of the man who said, "A good sermon should be like a woman's skirt: short enough to arouse interest but long enough to cover the essentials." That's writer and (Church of England then Roman Catholic) priest Ronald Knox, born in Kibworth, England (1888). 

Some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this week – Seventh after Epiphany

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

+ Joseph and his brothers.  Here’s nice piece from Fred Buechner on brothers -

   CAIN MURDERED ABEL. Jacob cheated Esau. Joseph's brothers sold him for twenty shekels and would probably have paid twice that to get him out of their hair. The Prodigal's elder brother couldn't stand being in the same room with him even with a fatted calf for inducement. As the Bible presents it, one of the closest of all relationships is also one of the saddest. 

   Envy and fear are apparently near to the heart of it—one brother is afraid the other is loved more, favored more, given and forgiven more, gets away with more—but that doesn't seem enough of an explanation somehow. You have a sense of signals crossed, of opportunities missed, of messages unheard or unheeded, in short of love gone wrong. You can't help thinking what friends they might have been if they hadn't been enemies. Cain giving Abel a hand with the spring lambing. Jacob letting Esau have his pottage just for the hell of it.   

   We all have the same dark secrets and the same bright hopes. We come from the same place and are headed in the same direction. Above everything else maybe, we all want to be known by each other and to know each other. Iraq and the United States, the Arabs and the Israelis, the terrorists and the terrorized—we are all of us brothers, all of us sisters. 

+ And here’s one from Henri Nouwen -

In our world full of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture, and country, from their neighbors, friends, and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found. Although many, we might say even most, strangers in this world become easily the victim of a fearful hostility, it is possible for men and women and obligatory for Christians to offer an open and hospitable space where strangers can cast off their strangeness and become our fellow human beings. The movement from hostility to hospitality is hard and full of difficulties. Our society seems to be increasingly full of fearful, defensive, aggressive people, anxiously clinging to their property and inclined to look at their surrounding world with suspicion, always expecting an enemy to suddenly appear, intrude, and do harm. But still—that is our vocation: to convert the hostis into a hospes, the enemy into a guest, and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.

+ the story really is a good one as we see Joseph converting hostis into hospes before our eyes.  How do you suppose the brothers felt?

Luke 6:27-38

+ “Love your enemies, do good, bless, pray…”  One writer notes “Love” here is more of a verb than a noun.  It means “Do good, bless, pray…” and we can do those no matter how we feel.

+ another writer notes that we are “Kingdom people” and Kingdom people do not reciprocate – in vs 27-31 towards those who mistreat you, in vs 32-36 towards those who treat us well.

+ do you buy the idea that if we (Christians, church folks, ???) all did this the Time of God’s Peace would be here?  I don’t really.  My first thought was what would God have to do for this to make sense?

+ the bit from Fred Craddock last week about there being no exhortations, no urging, helps.  This is not about what we do to bring in the Kingdom/Time of God’s Peace – the Time of God’s Peace is beginning/has begun and this is how we live in it.  

+ so this is where I’m ending up – The Time of God’s Peace/Kingdom of Heaven is beginning in Jesus, or is being activated in some way, or we are just learning about it – and we can become Kingdom People, Children of God.  So we live this way – loving enemies, doing good to all, because this is how God is and we are children of God.  This is how God’s People/our family lives, whether or not it makes any difference in the world.  “Other people do _______, our family doesn’t do that.” - I can almost hear my mom explaining it to me.

+ A bit more from Craddock – The difficulty many of us have with God’s kindness is therefore twofold.  First, God behaves with favor toward persons whose life-style does not merit such favor; and secondly, we are to relate to others with this same graciousness.  God’s people do not so often quarrel with God about how they themselves are treated as they do about how God is too generous toward others.

+ and in vs 37-42, the sense is not “Do not judge so that you won’t be judged;...forgive so that you will be forgiven,...give so that more will be given to you.”  It is more “Don’t judge – you are not going to be judged; forgive – you are (and are going to be) forgiven; give – you have been given (and will be given) much.”  The words are enabling/empowering more than exhorting.

+ So that’s where I am – how about you?

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 2.13

 Words Twice a Week        2.13

A little light, maybe.  The Olympics are still going on.  And there was the Super Bowl, and it’s Valentines Day.  But here’s what I got -

Some days from the church calendar -

Feb 15 – Thomas Bray  He was born in Shropshire, England, in either 1656 or 1658.  He was a clergy and abolitionist.  He was instrumental in establishing the church of England in Maryland.  He spoke out against slavery and the oppression of Native Americans.  He was also instrumental in establishing The Society for the propagation of  Christian Knowledge (kind of like the American Bible Society in the United States) and had a vision for a library in each parish.

Feb 18  Martin Luther – well, he was Martin Luther!  He died on this day in 1546.  (Hug a Lutheran today?)

Feb 20  Frederick Douglass  He was born into slavery, but became a leader in the abolitionist movement.  It really is worth reading the story of his early life, either in the Wikipedia entry (above) or in one of his three autobiographies - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), which became a bestseller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition; My Bondage and My Freedom (1855); Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.  (Available in several formats at PWPL.)  Without his permission, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate and Vice Presidential nominee of Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket.

Some days from the world/earth calendar -

Feb 14 

+ Yes, it’s Valentine’s Day.  Probably too late to do anything but pick up some flowers or a chocolate heart.  Or, Garrison Keillor suggests writing a love poem, or copying one of his!  He said, “Copy it, but put your name on it – your wife doesn’t want a love poem from me!”  Or – pick up a “HeartBaker Pizza from Papa Murphy’s!  That’s what we’re going to do, although after the free 20 chicken wings from Applebee’s yesterday, we are not completely sure that’s a good idea!!

+ There is some indication that Frederick Douglass (see above!) may have been born on this day – apparently his mother, who he never saw in the daylight, she was only there to get him to bed at night, called him her “little Valentine”.

+ Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876.  He and somebody names Grey both filed on the same day.  Bell won.  A good thing?  Anyway, a major event in the development of communication technology!

Feb 15

+ world’s largest peace demonstration – 30 million people in 600 cities against the Iraq War.

+ The United Kingdom and Ireland decimalized their currency in 1971.  Before that a pound was 240 pence or 20 shillings.  If they could do that, it would seem like we could do it to our weights and measurements – how many ounces in a pound? How many in a quart?  Does that system make any sense at all?

+ Birthday of Ernest Shackleton.  I keep bring him up – can’t help it, it’s just too fantastic a story!  Also the birthday of Susan B Anthony – another fantastic story.

Feb 16

+ The Kyoto Protocol went into effect in 2005.  Solving the climate change issue?  (That was sarcasm.)

+ the burial chamber of Tutankhamun was opened in 1923 – and the “Curse of Tutankhamun”?

+ Harold Arlen was born on this day.  If you listen to Sounds of the American Musical you probably have heard him mentioned.  He wrote or collaborated on many of the Songs of the American Songbook – Somewhere over the Rainbow, Stormy Weather, Lydia the Tattooed Lady, Get Happy, Let’s Fall in Love, and many more.  In the 1940s, he teamed up with lyricist Johnny Mercer, and continued to write hit songs like "Blues in the Night", "Out of this World", "That Old Black Magic", "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive", "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home", "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)".

Feb 18

+ Pluto was discovered in 1930.  I’m looking, but I still don’t see it!

+ Michelangelo died in 1564.  Well, he was Michelangelo!

+ John Batterson Stetson died in 1906.  You can learn about his mansion here.  Hey, Tripadvisor says it’s one of the top 5 things to do in Florida!  I’d say do it before you wrestle the aligator!

Feb 19

+ FDR signed the executive order 9066 in 1942, sending people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps.  This was in the United States.

+ Friedensreich Hundertwasser died in 2000.  Check him out!  And he wore unmatching socks!

Feb 20

+ Ansel Adams was born in 1902.  Apparently he was an unruly child, hyper, possibly dyslexic.  For his twelfth birthday, his family gave him a camera and a trip to Yosemite.  You know the rest of the story!

+ Swan Lake premiered in 1877.  (Ok, this is one of those things where there are two different calendars – it was today in the old system, it was Mar 4 in the new system!)  Kanopy at the Library has the Ekman production – it is on a stage covered with water.  We watched it several years ago – kind of weird.  I don’t know about other streaming services or dvd’s.  I don’t think PWPL has a video of it – if you search their catalog for Swan Lake video you get Star Wars.  Apparently Obi-Wan-Keno-be is what triggers it!  So – watch Star Wars instead?  I don’t think so.  (Ok – try to get yourself into the 20th century at least, Charlie – you can probably stream it on YouTube.)

+ the Post Office was established in 1792.  No snarky remarks from me.  They are delivering our four covid home tests today – Monday.  And I did mail a couple of Valentines out of state – not sure if they made it or not.  Hope so.  Anyway – I like the Post Office.

That’s what I got for now…..

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