Good Morning All! Happy first day of Winter…only 4 our shopping days ’til Christmas!
Happy Birthday to Olympia High High School classmate & friend Dan, concert & special events promoter and football coach extraordinaire, who turns 65 today. Welcome to Medicare Dan! Have fun on your special day of celebration! And Happy Birthday to friend Steen, business & organizational development guru extraordinaire! Here’s to you! Happy Birthday wishes also go to actor Samuel L. Jackson, who is 71 today; actor-comedian Ray Romano of “Everybody Loves Raymond” T.V. fame, who turns 62 today; and one of my favorite actors, Kiefer Sutherland of “Designated Survivor” fame (he was terrific in this Netflix series with Maggie Q!), who is 53 today. Here’s to all of you!
I happened to be listening to a Kenny G Christmas album this morning (he can really play the soprano saxophone, don’t you think?) and the last song on the CD was “Auld Lang Syne” and featured former President Ronald Reagan invoking the words “slipped the surly bonds of earth” when speaking of the valiant crew of the Challenger Space Shuttle that were lost in a tragic accident in 1986. I looked up the reference to “the surly bonds of earth” on the internet and here is what I found:
The words that President Reagan used were excerpts from a poem entitled “High Flight”, written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. in August or September, 1941. It reads as follows:
“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds—and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of—
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue…I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
and, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God.”
—Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., “High Flight” (1941)
John Gillespie Magee was an American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was born in Shanghai, China in 1922, the son of missionary parents, Reverend and Mrs. John Gillespie Magee; his father was an American and his mother was originally a British citizen. Magee came to the U.S. in 1939 and earned a scholarship to Yale, but in September, 1940 he enlisted in the RCAF and was graduated as a pilot. He was sent to England for combat duty in July, 1941. In August or September, 1941, Pilot Officer Magee composed “High Flight” and sent a copy to his parents. Several months later, on December 11, 1941 his Spitfire collided with another plane over England and Magee, only 19 years of age, crashed to his death. His remains are buried in the churchyard cemetery at Socpwick, Lincolnshire, England. Here’s to Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee and all who gave everything for freedom in World War II and for writing the words that were used to honor the sacrifice made by the Challenger crew in 1986!
I came across the 1969 Topps Football Card for Baltimore Colts linebacker great Mike Curtis yesterday. He was born in 1943 in Rockville, Maryland where he attended Richard Montgomery High School and then went on to play college football at Duke University. He was a 1st round draft pick in the 1965 NFL draft and played 14 seasons with the Balitmore Colts, Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins. He was a four-time Pro Bowler and was considered on of the meanest, hardest hitting players of his era. His nickname was “Mad Dog.” Although quarterback sacks were not officially recorded during the time he played, Curtis was a good blitzer, recording 22 sacks, including one in which a famous photograph was taken of Curtis tackling Roman Gabriel’s head. He was originally drafted as a running back but switched to linebacker. He was a team captain for most of his career with the Baltimore Colts. In 1970, he made a key pass interception that set up the game-winning field goal in the Colts’ Super Bowl V win over the Dallas Cowboys with just 59 seconds left in the game. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the 1976 NFL Expansion Draft after being left unprotected by the Colts due to a conflict with the Colts general manager. He started all 14 regular-season games for the Seahawks during their first NFL season and was one of the team’s co-captains. He was waived by the Seahawks and picked up by the Redskins where he finished his career in 1979. Curtis is the only NFL player to be named All-Pro at Outside & Middle Linebacker. He is the first Duke Blue Devil to play in a Super Bowl. Legendary Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr once said that Curtis is “scarier than Butkus” (Chicago Bear great Dick Butkus). In 2013 Curtis was inducted into the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame. He has yet to be named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 1972 Curtis wrote a book about his career entitled “Keep Off My Turf,” in which he stated that the New York Jets, who upset the Colts in Super Bowl III, “were lucky that day,” and that the 1968 Colts were “twice as good as the Jets.” In 2017 Curtis wrote the forward for “The First 50 Super Bowls: How Football’s Championships Were Won” by Ed Benkin. His 1969 Topps Football Card calls Mike Curtis “A daring and aggressive player. Mike is devastating when the Colts call on him to blitz the quarterback. He has the speed and power to blast through the line and break-up attempted pass plays….Excellent tackler.” Here’s to Mike Curtis and the great Baltimore Colts teams of the 1960s.
Here’s the word definition for the day:
“Lachrymose”: “Easily given to tears; weepy”…”Sorrowful; tending to cause tears.”
Watching the current debacle in Washington, D.C. can make one “lachrymose.”
Here are some thoughts for the day:
Only bad golfers are lucky. They’re the ones bouncing balls off trees, curbs, turtles and cars. Good golfers have bad luck. When you hit the ball straight, a funny bounce is bound to be unlucky.”
—Lee Trevino, PGA golfing great
“Look for the valleys; the green places; and fly through them. There will always be a way through.”
—C.S. Lewis, “The Magician’s Nephew,” as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom” (2018)
“What grace that You entered our brokenness;
You came in the fullness of time.
How far we had fallen from righteousness
but not from the mercies of Christ.
Your cross is our door to redemption; Your death is our fullness of life.
That day, how forgiveness flowed as a flood,
magnificent, marvelous, matchless love.”
—Keith & Kristyn Getty, “Magnificent, Marvelous, Matchless Love” (2000)
Here’s to a great Saturday and lots of love & good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)