Thoughts For The Day From Papa ‘a

Good Morning All!

How about those Chicago Cubs!  Winners over the Dodgers last night in fabulous Wrigley Stadium…GO CUBS GO!!!

Happy Birthday wishes go to my friend Bob B., who celebrates his 55th birthday today and to Olympia High School Class of 1973 classmate Roger K., who celebrates his birthday tomorrow (April 25th).  Here’s to you two gentlemen!  Happy Birthday wishes also go to actress-singer Ann-Margret, who is 78 today; to former “Tonight Show” host, comedian & car collector extraordinaire Jay Leno, who turns 69 today; to actress Penelope Cruz of “Sahara” movie fame, who is 45 today; and to TV personalities Drew & Jonathan Scott of “The Property Brothers” HGT fame, who both celebrate their 41st birthdays today.  Here’s to all of you!

As I was traveling along the freeway the other day, I couldn’t help but notice another sure sign of Spring…instead of snowboards strapped on a ski rack on top of a SUV, there were three weedeaters…what a clever way to make a ski rack a year round accessory!  Now that’s a great example of someone “thinking outside the box”….

I went down to our church yesterday to help get the sprinkler system turned on and boy, did I learn a lot about all of the pipes and valves contained in the deep recesses of our church buildings.  Our church building is on the national historic registry of buildings, having been built in the 1890s…one of the oldest church buildings still standing in Spokane.  Well, as you might imagine, walking through the basement of a structure like that is like visiting a museum.  It’s amazing to me that we have a outside sprinkler system and it all seems to work well, despite all of the pipes and control panels it takes to cover all of the church grounds.  Do you ever have moments where it suddenly hits you as to the miracles of the many conveniences we now have to enjoy…automatic sprinkler systems, weedeaters, running water, indoor plumbing, ultrasounds, CAT scans and the like.  I don’t know about you, but I take all of these things way too much for granted.  It’s really marvelous to behold (and enjoy) all of these modern conveniences…”the good ‘ol days” really are today.

Speaking of today, I have the privilege of speaking at a “Business After Hours” event at Vitalant (formerly Inland Northwest Blood Center) this evening about the importance of blood platelet donation.  While the need for whole blood donation is really important, there’s a critical need for platelet donors.  Platelets are essential in treating various kinds of cancer and in treating trauma cases (serious injuries that are often times life threatening).  They (platelets) only have a shelf life of five days, whereas whole blood can be stored for later use for a long period of time.  We can all think of someone who is a hero to us and one of my biggest heroes is Brita Bowman…the reason I became a platelet donor.  Brita was a bright-eyed 8 year old girl who was diagnosed with leukemia and died at age 10.  During her fight against leukemia, Brita required blood platelets to help her body fight the cancer.  I think she was able to live for 18 months after her diagnosis due to her strong faith in God, the love & faith of her family, her friends from Wilson Elementary School and, in part, due to receiving the needed platelets.  She died in 1997, but here memory and inspirational life story lives on in those who knew and loved her.  Brita was known by her loving spirit and her exceptional artistic abilities.  Like her Dad, she was a terrify artist & designer.  Her determined fight against leukemia helped her health care providers find ways to help other children who have fought this cancer since her death.  If you feel moved to become a whole blood and/or platelet donor, please contact Vitalant at www.vitalant.org.  There are blood centers all across America where you can make a difference in this way.  I know Brita would be thrilled to have you as part of her team!

Do you ever start a book and then wonder when the interesting part is going to begin?  Well, I’ve been having that experience with “The Weight of Ink” by Rachel Kadish.  The author certainly has a way with words, but the story starts out slow only to get fascinating about half way into it.  It’s the story of a young Jewish woman who serves as a scribe for a Jewish rabbi in the mid 17th century and then those researchers who study these manuscripts after having discovered them in a house just outside of London.  It talks about the migration of Jews across Europe to escape persecution…first in Portugal during the Inquisition and then on to Amsterdam and then to London.  The story focuses on London during the time of the plague that decimated approximately 20-25% of London’s population in the 1660s.  An interesting aspect of the story is that the young Jewish scribe writes the rabbi a series of letters under a male name and asks him to respond to her questions about the nature of God and biblical truth.  It’s really quite fascinating as you get into the story…you just have to wade through the first part of the book…I guess this is another example when perseverance pays off!  While I have enjoyed this book, I would have to say that I still enjoy books that are page turners from beginning to end…the kind of book that you can’t put down and want to read it all in one sitting.

Speaking of interesting reads, I’ve been enjoying “Images Of South Sound” that was in my Dad & Mom’s collection of books.  It’s a terrific collection of old photos of my hometown, Olympia WA…where to coin an old Olympia Beer advertising jingo…”it’s the water, and a lot more!”  One of the articles and accompanying photos is of Talcott’s Variety Store that later became Talcott’s Jewelers.  It started in 1872 by Lucius Talcott.  The Washington State Seal which is located in the rotunda of the state capitol building in Olympia was designed and manufactured by the Talcotts.  Their jewelry store continues to this day.  I used to deliver “Spud-Nut” donuts to it every Saturday…one of my many enterprises as a young boy (donut salesman, yard boy, newspaper deliverer…you name it!).  According to the article about Talcott’s, toward the end of the 19th century, Leopold Schmidt arrived in Olympia from Montana and refreshed himself from Olympia’s first soda fountain—a result of the artesian well drilled by the Talcotts.  So the story goes, he was impressed by the crystal purity of the water and decided to drill a well of his own and established the Olympia Brewing Company in Tumwater in 1896 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Speaking of interesting people, I was fascinating researching the life of Frank Ryan, celebrated Cleveland Browns quarterback in the 1960s.  His football card is part of my 1969 Topps Football Card collection.  Well, come to find out, it looks as though Mr. Ryan may go down in history as the smartest intellectual ever to play in the NFL.  He was born in 1936 in Fort Worth TX and attended Rice University in Houston to study physics.  Given his desire to obtain a Ph.D., Ryan originally decided not to play professional football after the Los Angeles Rams chose him in the fifth round of the 1958 NFL Draft.  He changed his mind after he was able to enroll at both UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley in pursuit of an advanced degree.  Ryan spent the first four years of his football career primarily in a reserve capacity, earning $12,000 a year.  He became part of a multi-player deal with the Cleveland Browns in 1962, as the arrival of highly touted newcomer Roman Gabriel made Ryan expendable.  In 1964, Ryan established himself as one of the leagues best passers.  He led the Browns to the NFL championship that year on a team that included the great running back Jim Brown and wide receivers Gary Collins and Paul Warfield.  After winning the championship, Art Modell raised his salary to $25,000, up from about $18,000 the previous season!  Ryan had a remarkable career after football.  In 1965, he earned his Ph.D. from Rice.  He worked for seven postgraduate years under Dr. G.R. MacLane, one of the best geometric-function theorists, and produced the dissertation “Characterization of the Set of Asymptotic Values of a Function Holomorphic in the Unit Disc.” (whatever that means!).  Ryan learned computer programming and software through the Chi Corp., a Case Western Reserve’s then newly launched private computer company in Cleveland.  He compiled advanced statistics to apply what he learned to football.  The Browns were shown his results and liked the project but didn’t offer the extra cash to move it forward (Baseball later used this statistical analysis to advance coaching strategies…I think Tony LaRussa and the Athletics and Cardinals used this approach successfully…now most teams use this statistical analysis…Frank Ryan was a bit ahead of his time!)  He later became Director of Information Services for the U.S. House of Representatives, where he helped advance the computer age in politics by playing an integral role in establishing the body’s first electronic voting system.  This enabled voting procedures that usually ran for 45 minutes to be shortened to around 15 minutes.  By the time he left the post, the office had an annual budget of eight million dollars with a staff of 225!  Ryan then went on to become athletic director and lecturer in mathematics at Yale University.  Ryan ended his professional career as a professor of mathematics and computational and applied mathematics at Rice University, his alma mater.  Now retired, Ryan lives on 78 acres of heavily forested land in Grafton, Vermont with his wife, Joan, a retired sportswriter and nationally syndicated  columnist for The Washington Post.  His wife was one of the first female sportswriters to ever grace a locker room and has written a book on women in sports.  The two Texans met in college, fell in love with Vermont while Ryan was on staff at Yale, and have been married since their senior year at Rice.  Ryan’s second career was fodder for many jokes by sportswriters.  Red Smith wrote that the Browns’ offense consisted of a quarterback who understood Einstein’s theory of relativity and ten teammates who didn’t know there was one.  Ryan was somewhat put off by the focus on his academic life, as he considered himself to be a regular football player.  Here’s to the remarkable life of Frank Ryan…”the smartest football player who ever lived!”.

 

Here are some thoughts for the day:

“I grew up in Houston, and I remember we had separate drinking fountains, and black people sat in the balcony of the theater…We had an African-American housekeeper growing up who was really like my second mother.  I thought it was silly—hatred just because of the color of somebody’s skin.”

—Dennis Quaid, actor & star of the movie “Frequency”

 

“As for me, prizes are nothing.  My prize is my work.”

—Katharine Hepburn, multi-Oscar winning actress

 

“Joy is the serious business of heaven.”

—C.S. Lewis, “Letters to Malcom, Chiefly on Prayer, as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom:  Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and                   Literature”, compiled by Andrea Kirk Assaf & Kelly Anne Leahy  (2018)

 

Here’s to a great Wednesday and lots of love always!

Press on,

Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)