A man bought a horse from a deeply religious farmer. Before the man left the property with his new horse, the farmer explained that the horse didn't know traditional commands, but rather responded only to religious language: “When you want him to start moving, you say, ‘Praise the Lord.’ When you want to stop, you say, ‘Amen.’”
A few days later the man went for a ride on his property. The horse was obedient, but, unfamiliar with the new terrain, was unaware that he was moving rather rapidly toward the edge of a ravine. The man tried to stop him by calling “Whoa!” but the horse kept right on galloping. Then, just as they were at the edge of the ravine, the man remembered the proper command, and managed to shout, “Amen!” The horse stopped just in time, and the man heaved a sigh of relief, wiping his brow as he exclaimed, “Praise the Lord!”
For today's NYC photo, we will start with a closeup of Lady Liberty's face and her torch. You can see the tablet in her left hand, but from this angle, you cannot tell it reads July 4, 1776. About the torch, "The flame has been changed three times. Bartholdi's original design of the flame was for it to be constructed of copper and clad in gold. Hoping to make it more of a navigational beacon, it was first changed so that portholes could be added and it could appear to be lit from within. When that idea failed, Gutzon Borglum, who later went on to design and create Mount Rushmore, made the second change by adding glass panels and copper framing. This design leaked terribly and caused further deterioration within the statue. Finally, as part of the 1986 restoration project, Bartholdi's original flame design was recreated and installed and is visible today."
Here is a view of NYC and Freedom Tower from our ferry on the way back from Ellis Island.
And this is, I think, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which connects Staten Island to Brooklyn.
Did you see that 'Feel the Bern' Sanders won the primary in West Virginia last night? I mention that because I liked a headline I saw online, "Miners Give Clinton the Coal Shoulder." Get it? coal instead of cold?
And did you hear that Stephen Curry became the first ever NBA MVP with a unanimous vote? Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James: they never achieved that.
Feeling like a Cheery Peach Dump Cake today? Well, although I have linked the recipe here, what it really means is pour in the fruit, then put the cake mix on top, butter on top of that, and bake. Even a kitchen-klutz like me could prepare one. No, I haven't done so, but my point was that I could.
Do you remember when you were 15? I don't remember much about it (or maybe I choose not to). Anyway, a 15-year-old from Quebec discovered an unknown Mayan city in Belize. He did so by realizing the ancient Mayan people appeared to develop their cities based on the stars in the sky, and decided to test his theory. After covering a star chart depicting several constellations over a map of the Yucatan peninsula, located in southeastern Mexico, he discovered a correlation that no other scientist has thus far made known: The ancient Mayans built their cities based on the locations of the constellations. "I did not understand why the Mayan built their cities away from rivers, on infertile lands and in the mountains," Gadoury told the Journal de Montréal. "[They] had to have another reason, and as they worshiped the stars, the idea came to me to verify my hypothesis. I was really surprised and excited when I realized that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Mayan cities."
What will he do when he is 16? Find proof that Canada actually owns the USA? No, I bet he goes to Disneyland. He should maybe go to Shanghai Disneyland to see the new Pirate of the Caribbean ride. I found a video of the ride online. There may be some bad language interspersed throughout, and the ride is in Chinese, so watch it without listening. It looks amazing.
OK, you can see that I found a couple of things I wanted to share from the web today. Now, let me work through my pre-web-search thoughts. Oh yes, my the song I woke up with in my head was 'Blue Jay Way' by The Beatles off of their Magical Mystery Tour album. Do you remember it? It is also included in the soundtrack from the stage show Love in Las Vegas.
On my commute this morning, I ran into unexpected traffic near work. Usually, at 5am, I breeze through and never have to slow down below the speed limit. Today, though, there was a car-be-que (definition at the link, not a video. I was driving, for goodness sake) on the other side of the freeway, but leaping flames on the roadside are enough to also make both side slow down for a look. The fire truck had not even arrived yet. I don't know anything about the condition of the people in the car.
I am moving between buildings on Friday, so I need to pack up on Thursday afternoon. It is not quite as daunting as moving a household to a new home, but still a bit of a pain to empty all drawers and cabinets into boxes. We have to carry our laptops home that night (which I usually do anyway) because they are not liable for damage. Anyway, now I will have to walk another 200 steps or so from the parking garage.
From today's devotional, we get a reminder that we should be worshiping God and not idols. The Scripture is Psalm 115:3-11. "Once we get past the context of the times in which this psalm was written, its instruction becomes clear. In those days, idols of stone, wood, and metal fashioned into the form of an angel, man, beast, or half-man/half-beast were common. People worshiped before these figures and tried to conform their lives to what they thought its will was. The lesson is that a man can rise no higher or be no stronger than his idol. An idol—anything worshiped that is not the Creator God—is inadequate. It can do nothing to improve what the man is. Worshiping anything less than God does not enable us to rise above being merely human."
I've shared a lot of words today and not as many images. I do have one more visual addition to the post.
It is finished. OK, my using those words simply means today's blog post is complete, not anything more portentous. I need to work on a presentation for the bigwigs about one of my projects. The presentation needs to address specific questions they raised, but without burdening them with the details I use to actually track the work. Y'all have a Wonderful Wednesday.
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