Good Morning All!
Happy U.S. Constitution Day! This day commemorates the establishment of our nation’s Constitution, the bedrock of the freedoms we enjoy in this democratic republic of ours. Here’s to The Constitution!
Speaking of celebrations, here’s to my cousin, Larry, who turns 80 tomorrow. Happy Birthday Larry! Happy Birthday wishes also go to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback extraordinaire, Patrick Mahomes, who turns 24 today; to former NBA New York Knick player and coach of the Chicago Bulls, Phil Jackson (who also has a home in Lakeside, Montana!), who is 74 today; and to former San Francisco Giant great Orlando Cepeda, who turns 82 today! Here’s to all of you!
Prayers continue to be lifted up for healing for my better half, Judy, who is recovering from hip replacement surgery and for our friend, Ben, who is recovering from renal cancer surgery and will be having back surgery soon. All goes well for both of them so far! Also, prayers are lifted up for Judy’s cousin, Chris, who recently had surgery for a brain tumor. May all of his tumor be gone once and for all!
Judy & I have been benefiting of late from the generosity of fellow members of our church fellowship, Christ The Redeemer (www.christredeemer.com) and caring neighbors, as we’ve been on the receiving end of a number of meals to help us get through Judy’s recovery period. It’s been wonderful to receive delicious meals from Jesse & Katie (chicken & caesar salad); Jim & Cindy (enchilladas, bean salad & chocolate chip cookies); watermelon salad & chocolate chip cookies from Chris & Caroline; and iced pumpkin shaped sugar cookies from Neil and Sherry…ummmm….good! Thanks everyone for your love & care!
Well, I think I may have created a bird welfare state in my backyard. I keep our bird feeders stocked with lots of bird seed for all of the sparrows who frequent our place. They seem to like to take up residence in our backyard hedge and enjoy all of the amenities we have to offer…free food, free spa (a clean birdbath) and exceptional surroundings. Word had gotten out about our hospitality. Just yesterday I saw a nuthatch stop by for some goodies…the first time that’s ever happened! Not to mention being visited by chickadees and english sparrows from time to time. Who wouldn’t want to stop by for all of the “free stuff”…
Speaking of birds, there was a great picture of an arctic tern that appeared in the most recent edition of the magazine “Birds & Blooms”. For all of you bird and/or flower lovers out there, this is the magazine to get. It’s chock full of great photos of birds & flowers of all varieties. The caption under the arctic tern’s picture talks about the tern embarking on an astonishing 12,000-mile journey from Greenland (or Iceland) to Antarctica every fall. Come spring, it does it all over again. No wonder we thought they acted like “angry birds” when we visited them in Iceland recently. Who wouldn’t have an attitude if you had to travel some 12,000 miles every year!!!
And speaking of Icelandic birds, I had the pleasure of seeing two oystercatchers (Eurasian Oystercatcher) in the front yard of the farm house close to our vacation rental near Akureyri in north central Iceland. They have bright red eyes with black & white feathers and a long, slender orange beak…I’d never seen one before. Rather distinctive, I might say! As their name implies, they are known for getting shellfish out of their shells. The oystercatcher has developed several methods of doing this, such as breaking the shells on stones or hooking the meat out with its own very special tool. One of the oystercatcher’s techniques is to slip its beak in between the shells and then quickly sever the muscle that mollusks use to open and close. Sometimes the shellfish are faster than the oystercatcher, however, pinching the bird’s beak between its shells. Then the oystercatcher may be stuck with a shell clamped tightly around its beak for hours! As one of my favorite bird books, “Birds”, describes oystercatchers it says that “Sometimes, a few oystercatchers will assemble and peep in chorus, striding back and forth with their heads to the ground, as if presenting a folk dance or piece of performance art…Oystercatcher marriages are particularly steadfast and long-lasting. They also live longer than any other waders—there are oystercatchers in their 30s that are still going strong…”(Hjorleifur Hjartarson & Ran Flygenring, “Birds”, 2017)
Here’s the movie tip for the day:
Check out “Operation Finale” on Amazon Prime. It stars Ben Kingsley and Oscar Isaac. It was made in 2018 and tells the story of the capture of Nazi Adolph Eichmann, who helped engineer the “Final Solution” in Nazi Germany. Members of the Israeli Mossaud (sp?) traveled to Argentina to apprehend him. It’s a harrowing tale, suspenseful and thought-provoking all at the same time. You won’t want to miss it!
I just received the 2020 calendar (can it be that 2020 is on the horizon???) from Mission Aviation Fellowship, as we support missionary pilot families connected with MAF. The January, 2020 calendar features Betty Greene, a World War II pilot (she ferried planes from America to Europe across the Atlantic in the war). She made MAF’s inaugural flight, taking Bible translators into the jungles of Mexico right after the war ended. Betty was one of the trailblazing female pilots that advanced aviation in the United States. Here’s to her!
Speaking of interesting people, I came across the 1969 Topps Football Card for Ben Davis. His football card called him “One of the most exciting youngsters in the game.” He was born in 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama. Among his siblings was Angela Davis, who was a radical political/civil rights activist in the 1960s. Ben’s father, a graduate of St. Augustine’s College, a traditional black college in Raleigh, North Carolina, was briefly a high school history teacher, but found it more lucrative to own and operate a service station in the black section of Birmingham. His mother, with a Master’s Degree from New York University, was an elementary school teacher. The family owned a large home in a middle class mixed neighborhood called “Dynamite Hill” after so-called “night rider” terrorists began bomb attacks on civil rights leaders clustered there. To avoid the racial strife for which Dynamite Hill was named, children in the Davis family spent time with friends and relatives elsewhere. Ben graduated from a New Jersey high school (Fair Lawn) at the age of 15, then marked time by attending Bridgton Academy, a prep school in Maine until he was old enough to enroll in Defiance College in rural Defiance, Ohio. “I went to Defiance because I was looking for the same type of environment as the prep school,” Davis once said. “I was in the band in high school, but I decided to go out for the football team in college. By the time we were seniors, we were undefeated.” Davis was drafted in the 17th (and last) round by the Cleveland Browns in the 1967 draft. Davis became a defensive back and did well. In his rookie year (1967), he led the league in punt returns, averaging 12.7 yards per return. He also led the Browns in returning kickoffs, with 27 returns totalling 708 yards, including one of 63 yards. In 1968, Davis started as a cornerback, and led the team with 8 interceptions. He still holds the team record for seven consecutive games with an interception. An ACL injury benched Davis during the 1969 season and half of the 1970 season. He finished his NFL career with the Detroit Lions and retired in 1976. After his NFL career, Davis went into copier sales and then went into cable television and bought a radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Since 1995, he has owned and operated Britt Business Systems, a Xerox dealer, in the Cleveland suburb of Beachwood, Ohio. Davis has lived in Cleveland since 1967. Here’s to Ben Davis!
Here’s the silly question for the day:
Q: What do you call a bear with no teeth?
A: A gummy bear.
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”
—Mark Twain
“There’s a kind of a restless feeling and it pulls me from within
It sets my senses reeling and my wheels begin to spin
In the quietude of winter you can hear the wild geese cry
And I will always love that sound until the day I die
There’s a plain and simple answer to each and every quest
From every quiet dancer who might be a special guest
In a movie made for TV or a late night interview
You might even find them on the Young and the Restless too
Do ya get that restless feelin’ when you hear a whistle blast
Like an echo from the past…
Of an old engine flyin’ down a road that’s ironcast…”
—Gordon Lightfoot, “Restless”
“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
—Psalm 139, verses 9-10
Here’s to a great Tuesday and thanks be to all of our nation’s founders who crafted the U.S. Constitution!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)