Words 1.13

 Words Twice a Week        1.13

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 thoughts, and a prayer, on some of the lessons for this Sunday – Second after Epiphany

Ps 36.5-10

+ if we look at the whole psalm, vs1-4 are a description of the wicked (and I love this: “They stay awake thinking up mischief”!), vs11-12 are a prayer for protection from the world, and inbetween, vs 5-10 focus on God’s saving love.

+ God’s love in v5 and v7 surround God’s faithfulness, righteousness, and judgment. 

+ God’s love is cosmic in scope, and includes humans and animals.  How does the whole animal testing and using pig hearts fit into that picture?

+ “all people take refuge in the shadow of God’s wings” – Thy Holy wings O Savior, Spread Gently Over Me.

+ The abundance of your house – sounds like dinner at an old English fort?  One writer notes that it could be an image of the feast after a sacrifice, kind of like a family BBQ with the neighbors invited in.

+ vs10 – love to those who know God – but doesn’t God love all?  And salvation to the upright of heart – does salvation come for being upright, or does salvation make you upright?

Isaiah 62.1-5

+ the suggestion is again that this comes from a time after the Return from Exile while things were still not going all that well.  A prophet speaks up saying a new time is coming, and the anticipated joy spills over into the difficult present time.  Kind of like our expectation that this COVID experience will one day be over and we will once again go out for coffee comfortably?

+ For Zion’s sake, for Jerusalem’s sake, by extension, for all of God’s people’s sake, by further extension, for all people’s sake/for God’s sake?

+ a new time, a new relationship starts with a new name.  Where did your name come from, what relationships are involved?  If you were going to choose a new name, what would it be? Why/ What relationship or reality would it signify?

+ Or, “What’s in a name – a rose by any other name would smell as sweet!”

+ the new name is “My Delight is In Her”, and “Married” (a big verse in my family – my mom’s name was Beulah.  As far as I could tell she was happily married!)  The new reality is “A crown of beauty, a royal diadem”. (a good strong hymn in United Methodist tradition – in any of the settings, really.)

+ the marriage image – what does it say about our relationship with God, what does it say about our understanding of marriage?

+ and in particular, how is our land going to be called “Married” unless we change the way we live in it?  An opinion piece in the New York Times by David Brooks about how America is coming apart at the seams. How does the marriage image resonate with life around us?

1 Corinthians 12.1-11

+ the beginning of a three chapter section on “spiritual gifts”, or perhaps “spiritual persons”. One writer notes that Paul uses the word “charismata” – which would emphasize “gifts of grace” more than “spiritual”.

+ vs4-6 – there are varieties of gifts, varieties of service, varieties of activities.  If we add “prayers”, we get my stewardship phrase – Prayers, presence(activities), gifts, service!

+ then there’s the whole laundry list – something for everyone, all from the same God.

+ wisdom and knowledge – someone said knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

+ what does it mean that faith is given “to another”, not to all?  Do some people just seem to have more faith? Have faith more easily?  What do you think this means?

+ healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpreting – have you ever encountered any of these.  I’ve heard a few people speaking in tongues – not sure if I believed some of them.  I was in a prayer group once that the leader dearly wanted folks to be speaking in tongues – we didn’t.  My understanding was/is that there are a couple of different kinds of speaking in tongues – one which is a more personal prayer language (Paul talks of prayer too deep for words) and another which is more addressed to the community and someone needs to interpret.  One guy said, “Well, since there is no one here to interpret what I just said, I will.”  I didn’t buy it!

+ vs11 – I really love this “All these are activated…”  Things that get activated – phones, credit cards, streaming subscriptions, Christians!  What gifts might be latent in you just waiting to be activated.  Would 5-10 minutes of devotions, prayer, ??? activate some gift, ability, intention, ??? in your life?  

+ we often think of “gifts” as some skill or ability that will make us rich or famous, but Paul says they are for the common good.  Might even be something that you don’t enjoy or feel accomplished at, but is good for the community.

+ particularly as we are trying this thing called Mutual ministry, how do we go about identifying, activating, authenticating different gifts/persons?

John 2.1-11

+ the Mother, Jesus, the disciples, others are at the wedding.

+ (this and the next couple of points are from Fred Craddock -) it was the third day – previously John has said “on the next day”.  (If you counted them up this would be the fourth day, thought there seems to be a break from what has gone before.)  The “third day” resonates as a resurrection image, appropriate for the “first sign”.

+ note Jesus’ story starts with a wedding in Galilee and a funeral in Jerusalem.  Just a nice touch, or is there more to think about there?

+ and “What did mother expect – Jesus to go buy more?, Jesus and disciples to leave and reduce demand?

+ Do Mary’s words “activate” Jesus in some way? But note that Jesus acts as God’s will is revealed to him, not out of kindness, friendship, even observed need.  Grace is more than compassion – Compassion might provide wine, Grace reveals God.  A sign is not proof – it is a window through which God is revealed.  (So what does this story reveal about God?)

+ I like Jesus’ reply in the NRSV – “what concern is that to you and to me?”  Some other translation have something more like “Don’t tell me what to do!” 

+ Then here’s a line fro, Earthwords from several years ago – “When the wine failed there was water, when the water fails….”

+ the line about serving the good wine first...where are you in life – drinking the good wine? Do you get to the good wine by walking with Jesus?

Ok, here’s this nice prayer from the lectionary website -

O God of steadfast love,

at the wedding in Cana

your Son Jesus turned water into wine,

delighting all who were there.

Transform our hearts by your Spirit,

that we may use our varied gifts

to show forth the light of your love

as one body in Christ. Amen.

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 1.9

 Words Twice a Week        1.9

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.

And it seem like we need a poem or a prayer or something for the week – I’ll think about it.  

Some days from the church calendar -

Jan 10  William Laud  He was a bishop and even archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645.  Caught up in the politics and church struggles of the day, he was arrested for treason in 1640 and imprisoned in the Tower of London.  Five years later parliament passed a “bill of attainder” and Laud was beheaded, despite the fact that he was granted a royal pardon.  There was a joke - “give great praise to the Lord, and little Laud to the devil" attributed to the court jester.  (Apparently Laud was short and sensitive about it.)

Jan 11  Mary Slessor  Born in 1848, she became a Scottish Presbyterian missionary to Nigeria.  She quickly learned to the local language, and was well respected by the people.  She was instrumental in stopping the common practice of infanticide of twins.  A variety of things are named in her honor, both in Scotland and Nigeria, including a women’s hostel, a road, a roundabout, and main-belt asteroid 4793 Slessor (1988 RR4).  She was featured on the 10 pound bank note from Clydesdale Bank in 1997.

Jan 12   Caeseria of Arles –  Not much is known about her.  She was the first abbess of the St Jean Convent, founded by her brother, the location of which is unknown.  The nuns there “spent their time in prayer, caring for the poor by washing and mending their clothes, doing menial work such as needlework, weaving, and transcribing books. They ‘lived in permanent enclosure’, were not allowed meat except during illnesses, and did not bathe during Lent.”  Ok.  She might have died around 525.

Jan 14  George Berkeley  He was a bishop in the Angelican Church of Ireland  He was a philosopher primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are ideas perceived by the minds and, as a result, cannot exist without being perceived.  “Berkeley's razor” is a rule of reasoning that represents an extreme, empiricist view of scientific observation that states that the scientific method provides us with no true insight into the nature of the world. Rather, the scientific method gives us a variety of partial explanations about regularities that hold in the world and that are gained through experiment. The nature of the world, according to Berkeley, is only approached through proper metaphysical speculation and reasoning.  (I’m not sure I understand that, but it sounds a little weird to me.  I don’t think I’d want to have him as my doctor!)

He spent some time in America, where he purchased a plantation and several enslaved Africans to work it.  Hmmmm.  Apparently his thought was precursor to Mach (Austrian physicist and philosopher - “Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 3…) and Einstein, but still I’m not sure I’d put too much energy into celebrating his day!

Jan 16   Richard Benson  Born in 1824, he was a priest in the Church of England and founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the first religious order of monks in the Anglican Communion since the Reformation.  The form of religious life Benson instituted was not purely contemplative—its members engaged in active external ministry—but they recited the Divine Office together daily in choir.

Some days from the world/earth calendar -

Jan 10

+ Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linneaus died on this day in 1778.

+ The first General Assembly of the United Nations opened in 1946.  51 nations were represented.

Jan 11

+ Aldo Leopold was born on this day in 1887.  Settle in by the fire and read a few chapters of A Sand County Almanac.

+ Amelia Earhart flew solo from Hawaii to Oakland Ca in 1935.  She was the first one to do it.

+ Edmund Hillary one of the first two to stand on top of Mt Everest, died in 2008.

Jan 12

+ an earthquake in Haiti in 2010 killed 316,000.  Doesn’t seem like the country has ever recovered.

+ Jack London was born on this day in 1876.  He lived a varied life – too much so to really come up with a short summary here.  You’ll just have to click the link and read the article.  On the positive side, he bought a ranch and tried to run it with sustainable practices, on the negative side he supported the eugenics idea.  It’s a little too dark and cold to read To Build a Fire, maybe just remember it from high school.

+ Agatha Christie died in 1976.  No matter how dark or cold it might be, one of her books is always a good read.

Jan 13

+ George Fox died in 1691.  He was a founder of the Society of Friends – the Quakers.

+ James Joyce died in 1941.  I’ve tried several times to read Ulysses, haven’t made it more than a chapter or two so far.  You?  I did read Dubliners.  So here’s something else to try – the James Joyce Ramble – a 10 k race around Dedham MA, where actors read works of Joyce along the course.  I don’t know if that makes sense or not!

+ Johnny Cash sang at Folsom Prison in 1968.

Jan 14

+ The European Huygens space probe landed on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005.  It was the first landing in the outer solar system.  Did you know about that?  I didn’t.  Have there been others?

+ Humphrey Bogart died in 1975.

+ In 1943 Churchill, Roosevelt, and de Gaulle met in Casablanca to discuss WWII strategy.  Did they meet at Rick’s Place?  Did Sam play it again?

+ Alan Rickman died in 2016.  You may know him a Severus Snape, but he actually played a variety of roles.  He played the Lt General in Eye in the Sky, and the caterpillar in Alice movies.

+ Speaking of which, Lewis Carroll died in 1898.  So I don’t know – does that all make Jan 14 kind of spooky, or could you come up with connections like that for any day if you dig a bit?

Jan 15

+ Wikipedia went on line in 2001.  Did you believe it would work?  Did you try to make an entry for yourself?  Have you ever tried to add to an entry?  I haven’t.  I will say that this Words Twice a Week would be quite a bit different without it.  Probably should send $10 their way.

+ Martin Luther King Jr was born in 1929.

Jan 16

+ The League of Nations held it’s first meeting in 1920.  The US refused to join and many of the powerful nations tended to disregard it’s decisions.  It disbanded in favor of the United Nations in 1946.

+ Prohibition begins in the US in 1919.

That’s what I got for now…..We’ll see about a prayer or poem later

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Words 1.6

 Words Twice a Week        1.6

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.

Here are some thoughts on some of the lessons we might encounter today (The Epiphany) and this Sunday – First after the Epiphany/Baptism of Jesus.

Isaiah 43.1-7  

+ words to a people lost in exile?  Entering the third year of a pandemic?  Facing the breakdown of community and culture and institutions?

+ the backstory in Is 42.18-25 – Israel is suffering because it is in fact God who has been against them.  Isaiah now says “Don’t be afraid” because God will no longer be against them.  Why?  Because God created this people for intimate communion/relationship and that requires fear to be banished.  You can’t be close with someone you are afraid of!

+ “God has rescued us” – this is something that has already happened(?) and will make a difference in the future.  We can think about what it must have meant to original hearers – how do we think about what it means for us today?

+ vs4 – God gave up nations – what does that mean?

+ the sons and daughters are created to bring honor to God.  How do we help with that? How do we hinder it?  When we tolerate a world in which sons and daughters live in poverty, hungry and homeless, growing up malnourished if they grow up at all?

+ vs1 “I have called you by name” and vs7 “they are called by my name.”  Those who are redeemed are also claimed.  Nice.

+ How Firm a Foundation – and “I’ll never, no never, no never, forsake.”  Just a nice, powerful hymn.  I remember hearing one of our first Black female (United Methodist) bishops finishing up a sermon by moving back and forth across the room reciting it, along with half the congregation.  Moving.

Isaiah 60.1-6

+ “God’s glory will appear over you.”  God’s glory “on the way down to us” or God’s glory “emanating from a faithful people”?  Probably the one and then the other, at least in the original saying/hearing.

+ vs5  “See and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice (swell with pride – CEV)”.  Does that go with vs4 and the sons and daughters arriving, or with the rest of vs5&6 – the abundance of the seas and the wealth of the nations?  If it’s the sons and daughters – what about the (your) sons and daughters causes your heart to swell with pride?  And have you let them know?  And if it’s the abundance of the sea and the wealth of the nations that causes your heart to swell with pride – hmmm.

+ Of course, scholars suggest this part of Isaiah (Third Isaiah, they call it) comes from a time after the return from Exile, when the Temple is rebuilt, but the people are still living I a certain poverty.  So how would different peoples hear it today?

+ the world in darkness; the coming light.  What thoughts, ideas, issues come to your mind?

+ “Arise” – an imperative or an invitation.  Or both?

Psalm 29 – Don’t like this psalm.  If you’ve followed WTAW for any length of time, you’ve probably heard about that already.  

Here’s what I wrote last year -  

  Ok, I don’t really like Psalm 29.  I used to, I used to think it was really cool.  We read it adding one more group of people with each verse so it got louder and louder and ended with a great crash.  I always wanted to get a couple of tympani (kettle drums, we used to call them) to end with.  But then I read this article (“Rescuing Earth from a Storm God, Ps 29 and 96-97”, by Norman C Habel [he was one of the moving forces behind the “Season of Creation” that many churches observe towards the end of the Season after Pentecost] and Geraldine Avent) about how Ps 29 portrays God as (ecologically, environmentally) violent and destructive, and how Ps 96.7 – Ps 97.6 has a similar theme and structure, but presents God as “creating, nurturing, restoring”.  “In Ps 29 Earth is reduced to a battered object; in the second hymn (Ps 96, 97) Earth becomes a subject, a “thou” who rejoices and celebrates...In terms of the eco-justice principles reflected in our approach, Psalm 29 devalues Earth by treating it as a domain for divine power plays, while Psalms 96-97 acclaim the participation of – and consequent valuing of – the entire Earth community in a rich response to YHWH’s advent.  It is especially obvious that the first psalm negates and silences the voice of Earth while the second makes the voices of Earth and the wider Earth community (a community that includes everything from the fish of the sea and the trees of the forest to the skies above and all peoples below) central to its call to celebrate.”  So ever since I’ve had issues with Ps 29.  

Years ago I did a series called “Earthwords – Creation flavored Thoughts on the Lectionary Texts.“  Here’s what I wrote in 2010 – (there’s a little bit of overlap – feel free to skip it all if you’re tired of this rant!)

   Readers of Earthwords will remember that I am not particularly enamored with the Psalm.  Vs1-2 urge us to "ascribe glory and strength to the Lord", and then the rest of the psalm says the reason is because God is powerful enough to really batter the earth.  Is this thunderstorm meant to be a preview of things to come?  In a really good piece ("Rescuing Earth from a Storm God: Psalms 29 and 96-97" in The Earth Story in the Psalms and the Prophets) Norman Habel and Geraldine Avent encourage us to see in Psalms 96 and 97 an image of a God whose power is to be intimate with the Earth community and to bring health and blessing rather than violence and destruction. 

   Form-wise, while the "thunderstorm" format complete with thunderous crack of "Glory" is novel, it doesn't hold up over 20-30 years of repetition.  Even the alliterative "flashing forth flames of fire" gets stale after a while.  At least that's my take on it.  I admit I was rather enamored of the poem when I was just starting out in the ministry, even considered trying to bring in a tympani for the "Glory".  Maybe trying to get too cute with it has spoiled it for me…

   “Breaking the cedars of Lebanon” - again, it's more impressive to grow a tree than to break one off, he says, looking at the "broken off balsam of Marquette County still drying out decorated in our living room."

   “Skipping like a calf or a young wild ox” - a God of powerful love sets all the world "a-skipping"?  Or maybe keeps all the world off balance?

   “The Lord sits enthroned over it all” - or is the Lord intimately involved with it all?  I go more with the latter. 

   Each Earthwords entry had a prayer – here’s the one from 2010:

Eternal God,

we ascribe to you the power of creation,

we ascribe to you the experience of evolvement. 

A gathering of an interconnected Earth community,

we ascribe to you praise and astonishment

for the world you fashion and guide.

Baptize us anew with wonder and wisdom

to find our way within it

to your side.

  (Was that supposed to be “involvement?”)  Nice either way!)

OK – enough on Ps 29

Matthew 2.1-12

+ The “Wise Men” arrive – although why we call them “wise” is a mystery.  They were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, but shouldn’t they have known better tha to go see Herod in the first place?

+ They went home by a different route – it’s fun to think about going home on different streets. Are there other way we might go home from church, from the manger, differently.  The bit above about “skipping like a calf”?

+ as we think about “getting back to life’ after/in this pandemic – how will we live differently?

+ they go home, out of the story, and are not hear from, or of, again.  Frederick Buechner tells of a day when he was particularly “down/depressed” and out of nowhere and for no particular reason a friend/acquaintance came uninvited, unexpected from several states away – they spent the day together doing nothing all that significant, and the friend left.  And it was one of the most significant, substantial days of Buechner’s life.  Has someone ever come unexpectedly into your life bearing a gift and then disappeared?

+ Herod and the innocents.  I know it’s not in this lesson, but we know it’s there.  Brian Mclaren in We Make The Road By Walking links this to old men sitting safely and sending young men and women into war.  Or we could extend it to the well off sacrificing/slaughtering/ignoring the children who are cold, hungry, homeless…

+ a powerful few lines from Fred Craddock – “Herod died, says Matthew, but in a real sense he is still alive, the personification of all the forces arrayed against the way of God’s love and grace in the world.  The church should be realistic enough to know he is there and he is powerful; the church should be trusting enough to know he is not finally powerful.”  And I would just add that we should recognize and confess that there is some of Herod in each of us, individually and congregationally.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

+ It’s not in this lesson – I’m not sure if I mentioned it before or not, but I love the way Tom Key deals with 3.9 – the ax laid to the root – in The Cotton Patch Gospel.  He brings out a chainsaw!

+ 3.15-17 is about the one who is coming; 3.21-22 is about the baptism of Jesus.  In between, John drops out of the story and ends up in jail.  So it never really says who baptized Jesus, and at the same time it foreshadows what those who sign on with Jesus might be up against!

+ It’s interesting to ponder John’s expectations (fire and smoke) and Jesus’ experience – prayer.

+ and again, I know I mentioned it before, but the unquenchable fire – is that a bad/threatening image, or a good/campfire with s’mores kind of a thing?

+ the Holy Spirit – even in these few verses there does not seem to be consistency.  Vs16 connects the Holy Spirit with a prophetic, perhaps cataclysmic vision, vs22 connects it with the peaceful communion and relationship between God and Jesus.  How do you think about the Holy Spirit?  

+ “You are my son” – who heard that?  Just Jesus?  The whole crowd?  Note that as Matthew tells the story, the voice says “This is my son...”

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 1.1

 Words Twice a Week        1.1.22

(Well, really 1.2.22, and 1.3.22 by the time I actually got anything done. But I just think the date 1122 is kind of fun.  In a month we’ll have 2.2.22 and even 2.22.22!  sounds like tailor made for Valentines day!!)

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.

A few days from the church calendar -

Jan 2  Juliana of Lazarevo  She was born in Moscow, to Justin and Stefanida Nedyurev, and married Giorgi Osorgin, owner of the village of Lazarevo, near Murom. She lived a righteous life, consecrating herself to helping poor and needy people.  Her life is considered as an example of a layman living in the world, as anyone may be supposed to please God not only by withdrawing from the world to a monastic cell, but within a family, amid cares for children, spouse, and members of the household.

Jan 4  Elizabeth Ann Seton   Born in 1774, she started out as an Episcopalian, but when her husband developed tuberculosis and they traveled to Italy looking for a cure, she joined the Catholic Church.  Returning home after he died, she was rejected bt family and friends.  A priest suggested she start a school for girls.  She ultimately gathered enough helpers to found an order – the Sisters of Charity – which established schools and orphanages.  She became known as Mother Seton, and was the first native-born American citizen to be canonized.

Jan 5  Sarah, Theodora, and Syncletica  - Desert Mothers.  Sarah, as opposed to Julianna above, was a hermit and followed a life dedicated to strict asceticism for some sixty years.  Theodora was married to a prefect of Egypt.  In order to perform penance for adultery, she disguised herself as a man, and pretending to be a eunuch and joined a monastery in Thebaid. (Doesn’t make much sense to me either)  Her true identity as a woman was discovered only after her death.  Syncletica was of a wealthy background and is reputed to have been very beautiful. From childhood, however, Syncletica was drawn to dedicate her life to God.  From the time she took responsibility for her family's affairs, after her parents' deaths, she gave to the poor all that had been left to her. With her younger blind sister, Syncletica abandoned the life of the city and instead resided in a crypt, thus adopting a hermetic lifestyle.   Her holy life soon gained the attention of locals and, gradually, many women joined her to live as her disciples in Christ.  (That’s all from wikkpedia, and frankly, there isn’t much more on any of them.)

Jan 6  The Epiphany – Here’s the wikipedia page.  It lists a variety of local/national customs from a Kings Cake to a fruitcake toss to presents for children to taking down the Christmas decorations to “women’s night out kind of events.  I suppose you could also read or watch part or all of Twelfth Night by W Shakespeare.  There are a variety of versions, including a manga one.  Here’s the best version of We Three Kings that I know of!  

Jan 8  Harriet Bedell  Born in 1875, she was an Episcopal deaconess and missionary to the Cheyenne in Oklahoma, Alaska Natives (spending 15 years at a missionary school), and the Seminole of Florida.  She died on this day in 1969.

Jan 9  Julia Chester Emery  She was the National Secretary of the Women's Auxiliary of the Board of Missions for forty years, from 1876 to 1916.  She died on this day in 1922.  She initiated the United Thank Offering, complete with the box with a slit on the top.

A few days from the earth/world calendar -

Jan 2

+ In 1860 Urbain Le Verrier announced the discovery of the planet Vulcan.  He had previously, in 1846, predicted the existance of Neptune using only mathematics to explain the movements of other planets.  He proposed a planet Vulcan that was between Mercury and the sun, but no one ever found it.  

+ Birthday of Isaac Asimov in 1920.  Seems appropriate, given the preceding!

+ Apsley Cherry-Garrard was born in 1886. He was a south pole explorer, as member of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition in 1910-1913.  He wrote about a preliminary journey in a book called The Worst Journey in the World.  My notes have him as the ultimate source of the quote (in the preface to the book, paraphrased by Richard Priestly) "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton".

Jan 3

+ birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien in 1892.  We focus on Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, (and a few of us The Silmarillion and a few other more obscure works) but we also have a slim book of Father Christmas Letters that he wrote for his children year by year between 1920 and 1943.

Jan 4

+ 1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver.

+  Utah becomes the 45th state in 1896.  One requirement was that a provision prohibiting polygamy be written into the state constitution.

Jan 5

+ Ernest Shackleton died in 1922.

+ construction of the Golden Gate Bridge was begun in 1933.

+ Oil tanker MV Braer ran aground off the coast of the Shetland Islands, eventually spilling twice as much oil as the Exxon Valdez.

+ In 2005 the largest known dwarf planet – Eris – was discovered.  Ultimately led to the downgrading of Pluto which has roughly the same size.

Jan 6

+ 1838 – Samuel Morse presented the telegraph to the public with the message “A patient waiter is no loser.”  “All things come to he/she who waits”?

+ German scientist Alfred Wegener presented his theory of continental drift.

+ It’s the birthday of Kahlil Gibran in 1883.  Hands up – how many people read The Prophet?

+ Louis Braille died in 1852.  Braille kind of resonates with Morse code in my mind, though they are certainly different.

+ anyone think of anything else of importance that happened on Jan 6?

Jan 7

+ Transatlantic telephone service was established.  A three minute call between New York and London cost about $45, about $550 in today’s dollars.  On the other hand, most long distance calls aren’t even long distance anymore!

+ and in 1785 Jean Pierre Blanchard flew a hot-air balloon from Dover (England) to Guines (France) for the first time.  It took about two and a half hours.

Jan 8

+ first State of the Union Address (by George Washington) in 1790.

+ Elvis was born in 1935.  So how come it is not a national holiday?

Jan 9

+ first shots of Civil War, as the Confederates fired on the steamer, Star of the West, in 1861

+ birthday of Joan Baez in 1941, and Richard Nixon in 1913.  So here’s an interesting idea – write a short dialogue between the two of them at a dinner party.  You could do that for each day – pick two people born on that day, either similar or different, and write a short dialogue between the two…..  I’ll have to think about that a bit.

That’s what I got for now…..

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Restart

 Ok - restarting after the holidays.  Maybe even the podcast, we'll see.  

Should have something up later today.