Time Machine co -ordinates VILXI50283156

And we are back to abnormal here on August 31st, 1956- where the only partly interesting story involved the first flight of what would be a veteran presence in the USAF...

This is the K-135 stratotanker named "City of Renton", which made the first flight of the series today.  An amazing beast that was 150 % stronger, 125 MPH faster, and held double the fuel load of it's predecessor, the K-135s hit their 60th anniversary of service two years ago and are only just now being replaced by a Boeing frame based on the 767.


And with a roar of its mighty engines, we take off on the second half of the thousand post reich, er, career of Time Machine and all its relations.  And, it's Labor Day weekend, so that means the Top 15 of Summer '18 are coming your way!  Plus two debuts- one all the way up at #6- on the M10, and a 6D that includes Batman, Tweety Bird, Percy Faith, Johnny Cash... and...

...yes, Bonanza !  Plus, Bill Haley is here to help out with things!  Strap in, we're back at flight altitude!


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So welcome to Bill Haley, and the first question I have to ask is, are you related to Cheap Trick's Rick Neilson?

Um, I'm going to go with "no"... that, or, "God, I hope not!"

So this week, instead of short changing you with a little bitty Panel list, I'd let you do the intros to the Top 15 of Summer '18!  Are you up for it?

Well, if Gilbert O, can hit the list at 72, I can give'er a try!  Say how old am I now, anyway?

Let's see... you are 31 where I grabbed you from... you'd have been 93 this year...

Oh, I'm dead now?  How old am I when I die?

Spoilers... somewhere between 32 and 92....

Ha, that's fair I guess.  Lemmee at that list!

Alright, but let me tell everyone this is by the traditional 10-9-8 point system, covering all the weeks between May 30th and now, and the one tie is broken by figuring which one will eventually end up with more points.  Okay, Bill, sock it to me!

All righty-roonie!  First off, that lovely young lady Dorothy and her boys, currently holding at #2 on the charts with our #15 of the year, Ain't our Time To Die!

#14 is the man with the big bushy mustache, Jim Croce, and his Lover's Cross...

Another lovely young lady and her band at #13, Sara Tudzin and illuminatti hotties with Shape Of My Hands.

And the gorgeous chicks just keep coming!  Caroline Rose is at number one dozen with Jeannie Becomes A Mom!  And you have ME on this show...

Then comes the runner up in a 10th place tie, them boys called Kidsmoke with Patterns!  Okay, back to you, boss!

Thanks, Bill!  Before I delve into the Panel list for the week, here's our first debut at #10- the third hit for Cullen Omori, off the now-released lp The Diet...





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With just 7 stations to choose from, I did a bit of a hybrid- I collected points from the 5 #1s (that's right, two got 2 #1s) and ranked them that way.  Your choices include one song that debuted on Cashbox at #37- under FIVE different acts!  By Billboard who actually separated their songs, the tune When The White Lillies Bloom had the following chart peaks:

Lawrence Welk hit #70
Leroy Holmes #53
Florian ZaBach #50
Billy Vaughn' Orchestra #16

And the man that got the panel position, Helmut Zacharius at #12.

Also, we have TWO contestants from Elvis this week- Hound Dog, which was the Cashbox #1, and Don't Be Cruel, at #5.

And the other two are the Platters with My Prayer at #2, and Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman at #3 with The Flying Saucer.  So here's the deal- first try to guess the 2 songs with 2 #1 votes, and then pick the winner of the two!


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Bill, you ready for the next five Songs of Summer '18?

Yeah... say, how old was that Bologna Casserole at the buffet line?  I think it's turned a bit...

I think it was MADE turned.

Hmmm... so next we have the other #10, ELO with this week's #1 song- oh, was I supposed to say that?


Technically, no, but I'm easy...


Cool, man!  So the song is Buildings Have Eyes, and what does ELO stand for, boss?

Electric Light Orchestra...

Oh, so are they sponsored by GE or something?

No, actually you are supposed to read it like it's a light orchestra, of only 9 or so players, with electric instruments.

No foolin'!  No wonder they just go by the letters!

So then #9 is is the lovely Sarah Barthel and Phantogram with Saturday.  Boy, you sure like the pretty girls...

Next is the award winning family of the year... say, you left off the name of the family, boss!

No, it's not a family, it's just the name of the band.

Ah... so, Family Of The Year with Let Her Go at #8.

At numero seveno, here's a mouthful, the Derevolutions with Now You Know My Name.  And what a name!

And at #6, we have the next day of the week, Sunday by... Geowulf?  Isn't that Beowulf?

Nope, Geowulf is right...

Hm, kids these days.  Well I suppose it isn't any worse than Crazy Otto or the Chuckles...

Okay, thanks again, and hold that spot for the top five at the end.


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Let me do a quick run through the stat pack next.  I knew 12 of 50 here in the US and 8 of 30 in England, where Que Sera Sera- our upcoming 6D victim- was #1.  And the big mover was Bill Doggett's Honky Tonk, which cruised up 27 spots from 46 to 19.

Now as I let the cat outta the bag, It was indeed Doris Day at #4 without Panel love with Que Sera Sera.  It was composed by Jay Livingstone and Ray Evans, who are also the composers of the Bonanza theme song.  Now the pilot had the four stars singing actual lyrics, but Pernell Roberts thought it was silly and refused to do it for the main show and they were dropped.  The orchestration was arranged by two more famous names.  One was David Rose of The Stripper fame; the other was Billy May, who also did the Batman TV theme, as well as a song that Warner Brothers star Mel Blanc took to #9 in 1950- I Taught I Taw A Puddy Tat with the voices of Sylvester and Tweety.

Al Caiola took the instrumental version of the Bonanza theme onto the charts, hitting #19 in 1961.  He was a session guitarist, whose range of performances ran from A Summer Place by Percy Faith and Chances Are by Johnny Mathis, to Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs Robinson and Dion's Abraham Martin And John!  Meanwhile, back at the Ponderosa, Johnny Cash rewrote the lyrics to Bonanza and released it as a single- ignored on Country and hitting #94 on the pop charts.

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And now before Bill goes on with the songs of Summer '18 and I sort through the remnants of the M10, two things.  The first, if you took My Prayer and/or Don't Be Cruel, YOU still have a shot at winning!  Two, the debut up at #6 I found out after the fact was a cover of a Lucinda Williams song, to which I said, that explains it!  At #6, here is newcomer to the M10 Vanessa Carlton...





Wow, boss, you did it again with those three!

Yep, I think so... you ready to wrap up all but the last of your countdown?

You betcha!  At #5...

...the Jayhawks and Everybody Knows!  Say, they must be big, because... well, just lemmee hold that thought.  At #4...

...another of your sweeties, Shilpa Ray and Shoot This Dying Horse!  That bring ya to #3, and...

,,, now hears a name that'd be fitting right in in my era, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, with Nature's Natural.  Say, that seems kinda common sense...  And back to the point I almost made early, back again at #2, this week's #3 on the M10...

...the Jayhawks an' Backwards Women!  Okay boss, she's all yours!

Thanks for riding along!  So, sorting out the rest of the countdown...

...with a lot of songs moving up fast, room had to be made.  Quiet Hollers slips from 8 to 9 with Addicted, Player from 6 to 8 with Addiction, and of course Kidsmoke dropped to 7.

Beach House soars up 5 from 10 to 5 with Equal Mind... Blackberry Smoke from 7 to 4 with One Horse Town... and if you were paying attention you know the top 3 stayed in place, with the Jayhawks at 3, Dorothy at 2, and ELO at the top.

I'm sure you know, if you've spent the summer with me, that the top Song of Summer '18 is...

Caroline Rose and More Of The Same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And who did you pick between Elvis and the Platters?  Well you're a winner by a 267-224 nod if you took...

...the Platters and My Prayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's it for this time, be here next week, God willing, for 1957!

Wednesday Bible study: There's fear, and then there's...

Today we dig into the book of Habakkuk, a prophet we know only a little about.  What we do:  His name is a matter of debate, although most believe it comes from an obscure word for "embraced".  We know by his intro that he is one of the "official" prophets of the Temple.  And from his book we surmise that he was prophesying right before Babylon's first attack on Judah.  First attack?  Yes, because, for those of you who struggle with OT history, there were 3 attacks by Babylon.  The first came at a point you should remember from previous  WBS's that we've done.  Egypt comes through on their way to help out the rump Assyrian Army, destroys Judah's army and kills king Josiah, gets their butts whupped at Carchemish by Babylon.

Coming back through, they unseat the son of Josiah (taking him back to Egypt to die) and put in Jehoiakim.  Jehoiakim plunders his country to pay the Egyptian ransom, which of course pisses off the pursuing Babylonians.  In 605 BC, they besiege the city, and Jehoiakim flips.  Later, the Babylonians would take the city (597), which was the prophesied taking of the Temple's treasures from Hezekiah's days; they put Zedekiah in charge, he rebelled, and ten years later they erased Jerusalem from the map.  Habakkuk comes in around 607, so a lot of his prophesy deals with the upcoming Babylonian attack.  But not all.


Habakkuk 3 is a song written that could be applied two ways, as most prophecy is; in one sense, it is about the final attack 20 years hence; but more vividly it is the story of what we call Armageddon.  I'm going to give you our verse for the week, and then I'm going to backtrack so we can understand.


Hab 3:16  I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 

Before we start to unpack this, one of the commentators mentioned that this is the SECOND time in the chapter Habakkuk heard the Lord, and we have to go back there first.

Hab 3:2  O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. 

The prophet makes three statements we need to look at here.  First, "I fear your work".  And as you read the rest of the chapter, you see it is not because it is directed at him (standing in for Israel), but because God is planning an awesome vengeance against his enemies, a vengeance so awesome that it almost seems it is the planet itself He is out to destroy:

Hab 3:8  Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? 

Next is the twice repeated phrase "in the midst of years".  This too is a controversial term.  The commentators swing wildly here.  Many believe it directly references "the current time"- that which Habakkuk was experiencing.  One (who only gets brought up in a poo-pooing by another) thought it meant "in the middle of the rest of time".  The Septuagint apparently gives the sense of "between the now and the future."  But IMHO the best way to look at it is from Adam Clarke's commentary, which renders it, "As the years approach".  In other words, it's going to happen soon- and then be revived, and made known all over again.  Score one for the Septuagint.

And of course the third:  "In wrath, remember mercy."  This tells us that what is coming is so bad that, once seeing the vision, Habakkuk prayed He wouldn't forget to save the remnant.  And Jesus Himself tells us Habakkuk had reason for that worry:

Matt 24:22  And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

And so now we know what it was that Habakkuk heard that had such an effect on him.  And only now can we sort through the various opinions to figure out which is right and why.  Luckily, I have (tried to) do that for you, so sit back and listen to how I see it- which the majority of the commentators basically agree with.

In between 3:2 (the first time he heard) and 3:16 (as he looks back on what he heard) is the story of God destroying His enemies once and for all.  Let me bring our verse back down here.

Hab 3:16  I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 

Divide this verse in two parts.  As the beginning of 3:2 was the preface to what he heard, the first part of 3:16 is his reaction to what he heard.  And as the rest of 3:2 basically says, "Bring it on, Lord, but don't forget about us on the way", the "Yet" of 3:16 is his determination to TRUST that God will do as He said and have mercy on the remnant.

The lesson here is the extent to which we can trust the promises of God.  For Habakkuk, it meant, even if it seems the whole world is going to be destroyed, he could trust God.  We can trust Him just the same.

MWN :Mixed up headlines

So let me lead off with something just slightly against post rules... I can't help thinking FoxNews put these two picture headlines together this way on purpose:

And with that, let me see what I can mix up for more laughs.  Rules:  Front page of news site for both headline and picture what doesn't go there:


1- Fox News

The picture:

The headline:

High schooler arrested after alleged freakout over pro-Trump cap


...or...

1,500-year-old mask of Maya ruler found


Yet another accolade for the former POTUS: 1,500 year old teenager...



2- BBC

The picture:

The headline:

Aretha Franklin's Casket Arrives In Style



"Um, Harriet, don't they usually fire a salute UP, not at the casket?"




3- CNN

The picture:

The headline:

K-pop group BTS breaks Taylor Swift's record



BTS standing for "Bomb 'em, Trump 'em, Slip 'em the Prez..."


4- Moscow Times 1

The picture:

The headline:

Small Breasts Are a 'Physical Defect,' Russian Anti-Monopoly Watchdog Says

And boy, wouldn't I like to be them right now... NOT!





5- Moscow Times 2

I know it's backwards but- The headline:

No, the U.S. Can't Bring Russia to Its Knees 

But wait, the picture...

"Is not the US, idiot, I lost contact..."

6- Deutsche Welle

The picture:

The headline:

A Predictable Disaster


"Madame Merkel, my faith doesn't allow you to... OOOH..."





And finally, let me end it like I began it, with a "somebody put this together on purpose, from the Japan News 'advertise with us' section:

And the only thing I can add to that is...

Vacation finale

So much of the end of our vacation looked like this:

Much of Saturday morning was like this (and sometimes worse, as Bobby G can attest to), and then Sunday early AM gave us a lightning storm for the ages.  Scrappy, who never got upset at storms before this summer, had to cuddle on me, and the thunder was so loud, you know how when you used to turn up your cheap speakers and got that fuzzy distortion?  It sounded like THAT.  Almost made the ears hot.



Our only Sunday activity was a short walk into high humidity, which turned the neighborhood into a fungi Land Of The Lost...

And the proof of the rain can be seen in the "slicked-back" look at the ditch...

Backtracking, it did clear off enough Friday to get a little shopping in, which I'll go into in a bit, and for Laurie to actually catch some birds at our new feeder whilst I napped...

....when I got up, though, it was just Scooter...

One of the items Laurie got was this drone...

...this teeny tiny drone...

And its teeny tiny instruction manual and teeny tiny snap on parts that were just a teeny tiny bit annoying.  So far Laurie has mastered the art of going floor to ceiling in .89 seconds and back almost as fast.  I tried once and managed straight level flight- right into the nearest wall- followed by a bounce off the floor and an under the radar trip into the trash can.  It will take some practice- and perhaps wide open spaces.


On the other hand, I have been dealing with the removal of my Golden Monkey Beer from most of the places I can usually get it.  I wrote Victory Brewing, they sicked me on the local distributor, and they have not yet been polite enough to respond.  So I bought a mixed 6 to see who might assume the title of "plan B", hopefully for the short term.  I have tried out 4 of them so far.  Friday, I tried...

Bell's Amber Ale, weighing in at 6.5% ABV, sporting a nice taste similar to the Jeremiah Red I get at BJ's Brewhouse.  I gave it 2-1 odds to win the contest.  Followed that up with...

Sun King's Pachanga "Mexican lager"  Weighing in at 4.2%, the lightweight of the group is a corn beer, and thus tasted like I was drinking it through a tortilla-shell straw.  Which wasn't bad for a one off, but... I gave it 20-1.

Saturday, I started off with...

Matilda from Goose Island.  Weighing in at a lusty 7.0%, this was, like Golden Monkey, a beer that changes as it goes down.  Officially a "Belgian strong pale ale", it was a bit clove-y at the top, but sweetened and "fruited" about 2/3s of the way down.  I put it as the favorite at 3-2.   I finished the weekend with...

Upland's Oktoberfest.  I have never been a huge fan of Oktoberfests, so I was taking a personal chance here.  Weighing in at 6.7%, it was "toasty" without tasting like coffee grounds.  So while I would give it about a 15-1 seasonal shot, it is my favorite amongst the Oktoberfests I have had.


Two more candidates await me at the end of the week, and we'll see how it goes from there.  And with Laurie already back to work Sunday, and tales of disaster awaiting having already reached my ears from my place of employment, it will be a long week ahead.

Sunday Message: what after all is enough?

I wanted to share with you a devotional sent out the other day by Chuck Swindoll.  I believe it makes a graphic point... I know it did to me.

For a moment, let's pretend you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I'm the owner and I'm interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until the new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family in the move to Europe for six to eight months, and I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you direction and instructions. I leave and you stay.

Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival I drive down to the office. I am stunned! Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the receptionist's room and she is doing her nails, chewing gum, and listening to her favorite rock station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing, the carpet hasn't been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I ask about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, "I think he's down there." Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office (which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas).

"What in the world is going on, man?"

"What do you mean, Chuck?"

"Well, look at this place! Didn't you get any of my letters?"

"Letters? Oh, yeah—sure, got every one of them. As a matter of fact, Chuck, we have had letter study every Friday night since you left. We have even divided all the personnel into small groups and discussed many of the things you wrote. Some of those things were really interesting. You'll be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two! Great stuff in those letters!"

Sound a little familiar?

Jesus, the Lord, goes to the bottom line when He said, in effect, "I left you an example of what you should do—carry out my directions, fulfill my commands, follow my instructions." That's obedience. That's doing what we are told to do.


And it is still easy, even from here, to miss the point.  For example, I was getting ready to do next week's Bible Study, and I stopped.  I thought about a debate inside me that started last week, when a certain corner here became the latest place where the allegedly homeless and "looking for work" gather to take handouts.  My initial reaction was as you see above.  In Ft Wayne, it is well known that these people "appear" at certain well picked and rotating intersections, as if working shifts.  But does Christ call me to differentiate?  I gained no great epiphany on the matter, so I decided the course of wisdom was to make this week's contribution go to the Rescue Mission.  That way, it goes to a need, rather than a bottle or a dishonest gain.  But was THAT enough?  Should I have spent some time this vacation week volunteering instead?  What, after all, is enough?

Then I remembered two things.  One was a maxim I have used here before- that God leads in gentleness, and Satan accuses in derision.  If it was something that was going to accuse me every way I turned, it wasn't likely from God.  The gentle leading about MY attitude, though, was.

The other is an old sermon of Dennis Miller's that Laurie hooked me up to this week.  It involved Micah 6, and God reading out charges to the people, and the people responding with that same question- What, after all, is enough?

Mic 6:6  "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 
Mic 6:7  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 
Mic 6:8  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 


The particular sermon had to do with the middle of the three, and the meaning behind the word translated "kindness".  This is the Hebrew word Che'sed (with an apostrophe, Miller noted, to keep congregants from asking what "cheesed" meant), and it means much more than kindness.  In fact, not only does it not have a good match in English, but the Hebrew dictionary gives a definition about ten times the length of a normal definition.  On my e-sword compare function, various translations include mercy (mostly), loyalty, constant love (or steadfast love, which Miller preferred), the Lord's gracious love.   And the note isn't to SHOW that mercy/kindness/love, it is to LOVE it.  In other words, where showing is an outward sign, loving is an INWARD CHANGE.

Miller used an amusing example of a lady going 8 miles an hour on the road in front of you.  Say she slides off the road ("Which I don't know how she could possibly do that at THAT speed", he quipped), and you get out and help her, that's SHOWING mercy.  But before she did, did you wonder what circumstance in her life was causing her slow speed- or did you just grumble, "C'mon, lady, what's wrong with you?"  LOVING mercy asks the question in love first.


The other items aren't as simple as they look either.  I like Wesley's explanation on doing justly:

To do justly - To render to every one their due, superiors, equals, inferiors, to be equal to all, and oppress none, in body, goods or name; in all your dealings with men carry a chancery in your own beasts, and do according to equity.


Miller explained the third in terms of a dog show, in which the doggie is marked off for walking with his head anywhere but RIGHT BESIDE the leg of their Master.

So the sum is that the answer to the question, "What, after all, is enough?", isn't DOING, per se- but it is attitude, love, and obedience.  So, say I apply this to my "homeless donation" example.  I first must ask, am I being fair to those who are doing the asking?  By writing them off right off the top, am I oppressing them in my judgment?  Then, I must remember that I DON'T KNOW the answer to the first one.  But love tells me I should do something.  What that is depends not on what the Devil eggs me to do just to make me waste my opportunities, but on what God asks of me.


When I do that in obedience, I am doing more than "reading the boss's letters". 

Vacation Thursday- Black Pines

So after the lovely wildflower walk, and before the food coma from my brilliant idea ("Let's go to Red Lobster, but don't order the same thing we always get") there was a jaunt to Black Pines...

Cody the chimp, sadly missed..

They have a new program to try to keep the animal disturbance down- make one person from each party who's been there before an "ambassador", helping to remind others to obey the rules.  I spent a bit of our beginning  scolding Laurie for leaning on "keep off" signs and making squirrel noises to monkees.

"Yeah. I'm not paying attention to her, anyways.  You, either."

I so want a Patagonian Cavy for a pet.  Doubt the complex would approve it... or my old butt could keep up...

Lazy day... baby you'n'me, and the honeybees...

God...what did I drink last night?

Hey... that's a funny looking lion...

And those don't look like "male alligator"...

"They aren't, you idiot..."

"I'm the male alligator, you simpleton..."

This guy here actually made New Haven's mayor ban live animals as New Haven Days prizes..

From the radio commercial:"This is about the worst boa in America, the one who posts on the other job sites looking for anyone with a pulse, Let's call him Dave..."

"Heh, that was pretty funny for a simpleton!"

Laurie poses with Ft Wayne Mayor Tom Henry...

I read his sign.  "Greater Rhea".  I said, "Better than being Dia-Rhea."  He made kind of a loud moo at me and walked away.

Oh, got to let you in on the one thing I didn't photograph, the white Cockatiel.  We were having a nice conversation- mostly "hello, hey baby" and the like.  Then I said "Whatzup?"  He screamed so loud I thought I was going to get fired from being an ambassador...  I think he called me an ass once, too...