Martin World News

The trick with Martin World News is not finding stupid stories on news sites, but finding stupid stories that actually have some humor to them.  I give myself an "M" for 'mixed'...

Fox News:  The further adventures of Who Cares?

Headline:

Sarah Palin says she and ex-NHL star are ‘just friends’

Fox News, especially on the weekends, is much like getting your news from People Magazine anymore.  This headline is a good example.  Backstory: Palin allegedly flaunts NYC COVID rules by having a dinner party at a popular restaurant (served outside in a heated tent in near zero temps, mind you). A paparazzi asks the party, which included former Rangers star Ron Duguay, about said alleged flaunting.  Duguay responded in much the way he would have on the ice, asking the photog if he wanted trouble- and (again, allegedly) knocking the camera from his hand.  Predictably, the next day here's a gossip headline about whether the two famous dinner-partiers are an item.  I would be really comfortable at this point, if Fox would give up the pretense and drop the word "news' from their site.  Bonus: 7 out of their 'mini-headline row' are either "entertainment" or "lifestyle".

 

Best part of this story: The restaurant employee who told the photog,  "People come to eat, we are not the border police".

 

 

BBC World: #Metoo, virus division

 

Headline:  Harry and Meghan reveal Spotify Covid row concerns

 

Well, thank God the 'formerly royal' couple have weighed in on the biggest non-controversy of the week.  And it is really indicative of what a waste of time it all is, since the deal for podcasts for the couple's foundation with Spotify so far lists only a year-old "Holiday Special".  I can easily see how that content is going to concern Spotify over the $100 million deal with Rogan, an alleged comedian who is a threat to people too stupid to realize he's an alleged comedian. 

Best part of the story: This quote from the original announcement of their podcast 'series', 12-16-2020:

"The trailer on the Spotify's website features the duke and duchess promoting the deal, with Harry saying: "That's what this project is all about, to bring forward different perspectives and voices that perhaps you haven't heard before and find our common ground." "

Wow, and they packed that all into one holiday special.

 

Moscow Times: But, it was a FICTITIOUS  Nona Gaprindashvili

 

Headline: Georgian Chess Champion’s ‘Queen’s Gambit’ Lawsuit Against Netflix Upheld in Court 

 So allegedly (don't you just love this word?), Netflix did a fictitious show called "Queen's Gambit" about chess at the top level- and somewhere in the series' first season, a character says real life chess champ Nona Gapridashvili "never faced men".  Which is untrue- Nona listed 59 men she has played. Netflix's defense is that the show, of course, is fictitious- and thus, the characters can say whatever they want. Because they precede the show with, “the characters and events depicted in this program are fictitious. No depiction of actual persons or events is intended.”

  The court says that covers the show in general, but not outright lies about real people in particular.  Perhaps, Neil Young, et al, should remove themselves from Netflix as well.

 

Best part about the story: "Born in Soviet Georgia in 1941, Gaprindashvili held the title of women’s world chess champion for 16 years. Contrary to the show’s remark, Gaprindashvili faced plenty of male competitors, once 28 men at the same time." 

And finally..

Daily Mail (and links thereafter):; get ooeht ahr i'll 'it you wit me 'arpoon 

Headline: Irish fishermen vow to carry out 'peaceful protest' to disrupt Russian naval exercise off the island  as Moscow warn their 'reckless act' will put them 'in harms way'

 

Irish fishermen won a victory over the mighty Russian Navy this week.  Russia, in its never-ending pursuit of being a pain in the ass, told Ireland they were going to run "live fire" naval exercises- not within the nation's territorial waters, but in their EU 'economic exclusion zone'...

 

Among the many problems: Russian and NATO subs who will inevitable follow the exercises, and according to one captain, are "concerned that Russian subs could get caught in deep-sea fishing nets and pull down a trawler. He said: ‘We have seen it happen in Ireland, we have seen it happen in Scotland. It makes all fishermen very, very nervous.’ "; also, the fact that the exercises are starting right when the prawn quota fishing opens up in the area, and boats are already standing by. 

 

 Another concern is the effect Russian radar will have on the hake that swim near the ocean floor there... not to mention the subs.So the Irish South And West Fish Producers Association was planning to send three trawlers right into the midst of the 'live fire' area to protest.; Knowing how bullheaded the fishermen would be, the Irish Foreign Minister then got involved:

"This isn't a time to increase military activity and tension in the context of what's happening with and in Ukraine," (Foreign Minister Simon Coveney) said. "The fact that they are choosing to do it on the western borders, if you like, of the EU, off the Irish coast, is something that in our view is simply not welcome.''

 He then wrote a letter to his Russian counterpart, who at last had the maneuvers moved farther out to sea.

Best part of this story: Now we know we don't need to send US troops to Ukraine, just Irish fishermen.

The Better Part, week #53

 

This week's FB posts...

The Better Part, Day #252:

 

Listening to a continuing series on idolatry, it suddenly struck me that all those songs I dedicated to girls as a 'youngster'? They were either saying what I thought she did for me (and were really saying what I WANTED her to do for me), or how I 'felt' about her (and was really how I wanted her to feel about ME). The message went on to say that relationships (even had they occurred) like these are doomed to fail because what we want these other people to see/feel/do with us is really what we need GOD to do for us. If the relationship with Him isn't #1, anything else is idolatry.

 

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #253:

 

 

As Michael Youseff was counting down a list of Biblical signs of pride, way down the list he named, 'sarcasm'. If you know me, you know my first reaction was, "Oh, no, not sarcasm!" But as I thought about it, I can see that like so many other things, imprudently used sarcasm is another arrow in the quiver of pride.

 

At this point, I returned to the message, only to hearYouseff tell the following joke (making a point about one of the earlier signs of pride:

 

"A pastor was preaching on pride, and after the sermon a lady came up and said, "Boy, you were sure right about pride! Everybody falls victim to it! Why this morning, right before church, I committed the sin of pride."

The pastor says, "Tell me what happened."

She says, "Right before church, I spent an hour looking in the mirror, admiring how beautiful I am."

The Pastor nodded his head. "Ma'am, that isn't pride," he told her. "That's delusion."

 

Sarcasm anyone?

 

Point being not to bust Youseff, but to point out quite clearly what a sneaky enemy pride really is.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #254:

 

Last night before I went to bed, I came to God about a lot of things. Things about this world, the state it's in, as well as where it has been and the depth of evil we can hit. Once upon a time, it might have ended as a, "I don't get why you aren't doing something about all this!" rant. Last night, though, I trusted in God to change MY mind, and renew my pages. 

 

I turn on my radio to Bott network, and drift in and out of sleep. And every time I wake up, I hear someone giving God's answer to one or more of my issues. After about a couple hours of this, I knew that my prayers had been heard. So maybe the problems and the pasts are still there. But I was returned to the points of all the 'Eben-Ezers' lined up in my past, the goal that lies to the future, and the hope in the here and now.

M10 show, week #9

 

Elvis:  Boss, don't ya think it's time ta get to this week's post?

 

Yep, sorry, I was just answering last week's comments!  Sure can tell I went back to work from my COVID 'vacation'... plus, I was dealing with the Great Spotify Controversy...

You might wanna explain...

 

Well, Neil Young is trying to lead an exodus of stars from Spotify, because they have a podcast by Joe Rogan- and Rogan is an anti-vaxxer.  Let me make one thing clear:  I think the political anti-vaxxers and the political vaxxers are idiots wasting my time, both sides.  They take an important debate, inject unthought-out dogma, and create a colossal waste of time.  The thing I care about is, here's Neil Young, who wrote the song Ohio to protest the deaths of kids fighting for FREE SPEECH, demanding that we take away someone else's free speech, or he's gonna hurt all his innocent fans on a music platform.  In my mind, he, Barry Manilow, and Peter Frampton have LOST theirs (minds, that is).  Free speech means the guy you don't agree with gets his say, too... and if you don't like it, JUST DON'T LISTEN!  #Getpoliticsoutofmusic.

Ya done, now?

 

Yeah, pretty much.  Oh, and a salute to the late Meatloaf, who proves how stupid the debate is by losing his life, apparently to COVID.  Others have asked what my fave from the Loaf is, and I'll play it at the end.  First, though, we have 2 debuts, and this one comes in at #10....

******************************************

 

Okay, so Meat Loaf got me thinking about acts that had food in their names hitting the chart.  One site actually had a list of 60 acts with "food" in their titles; after removing ones I didn't know and those whose last names were the reasoning (Fiona Apple, Chuck Berry for example), I still had 26 I at least knew the names of... Now let me take a quick look at if any of these charted in the Martin Era 2.1 (1960-1979)... which one of the many acts charted the MOST from 1960-79?

1- Country Joe and the Fish, with a high of #98 for Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine...

2- The Electric Prunes with a high of #17 for I Had Too Much To Dream

2- Blue Oyster Cult, with a high of #7 for Don't Fear The Reaper

4- Meat Loaf, with a high of #11 for Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

5- Vanilla Fudge, with a high of #6 for You Keep Me Hanging On

5- Cream, with a high of #5 for Sunshine Of Your Love

5- Strawberry Alarm Clock, with a high of #1 for Incense And Peppermints

7- The Raspberries, with a high of #5 for Go All The Way

13- Bread, with a high of #1 for Make It With You

And ready for the act with the most?

15- Peaches and Herb, with a high of #1 for Reunited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I wouldn'tna expected them!  So now, here's our new debut at #9... an' it ain't ol' Neil!

 

 

 

*******************************************************

 

Okay, on to the rest of the M10...

 

8- dropping one for the 1971 song by Middle Of The Road, Medicine Woman

7- Up that one spot for Maddie and Tae and Strangers

6- Falling from 2, Eddie Vedder and The Haves

5- Up one for Beach House and Pink Funeral

4- Off of the #1 throne, Manchester Orchestra and Lucius with Inaudible

3- after falling to 5 last time, Beach House back up here with ESP

2- Matt Berry up from 4 with Summer Sun (and no, they left him off that 60 food acts list)

And no stranger to #1 for the new top dog...the sixth tour at the top for...

 

 ...the Explorer's Club, with Tragedy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And finally, we sign off with that favorite of mine, and one of those four on our food list...

Wednesday Bible Study: What Jesus asked, Part 2

 

Last time, Jesus asked a question that answered, "What are we to do to follow You?", and that answer was, "You have to be different."  This time, He uses questions to answer their question, "But if I become different, what happens to me?"  And depending on if we read it forward or backwards, He teaches not only what's important here, but in the next life.  He answers it with four directly asked questions (not counting those in Matt. 6:31).

Mat 6:25  "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Mat 6:26  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Mat 6:27  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Mat 6:28  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
Mat 6:29  yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Mat 6:31  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
Mat 6:32  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
Mat 6:33  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Reading forward, He deals with the things of life from most important to least.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 

 This is the NECESSITIES of life.  

Are you not of more value than they? 

The birds he just referenced 'do not sow, reap, or gather.'  These are the ACTIVITIES of life.  The 'day-to-day', if you will.

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 

This is also put in the MKJV,  Mat 6:27  Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?
This then is the QUALITY of life.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

This is the FINERY of life.  See, in four quick questions, Jesus disposes of virtually every concern of how following Him will change their lives.  But He doesn't just discount them and let them lay- and you see that when you look at our final verse in the passage:

Mat 6:33  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 

 

...not as the ending, but the HINGE of the passage.  Because, read backwards, this is how Jesus wants us to prioritixe the things of the Kingdom!

THE FINERY

1Co 9:24  Do you not know that those running in a race all run, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain.
1Co 9:25  And everyone who strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Then those truly that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

The most fruitful lives on earth earn the greatest rewards in heaven!  Jesus doesn't take away from us the things we strive for- He gives us BETTER ones.

THE QUALITY

Luk 14:8  When you are invited by anyone to a wedding, do not recline in the chief seat, lest a more honorable man than you may be invited by him.
Luk 14:9  And he who invited you and him shall come and say to you, Give place to this man; and then you begin with shame to take the last place.
Luk 14:10  But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, Friend, go up higher. Then glory shall be to you before those reclining with you.
Luk 14:11  For whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.

Humbling yourself- accepting the quality of life that God gives you- that is what will bring you higher in heaven.

THE ACTIVITY

Rev 4:9  And whenever the living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to Him who sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
Rev 4:10  the twenty-four elders fell down before the One sitting on the throne. And they worshiped Him who lives for ever and ever, and threw their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rev 4:11  O Lord, You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because You created all things, and for Your will they are and were created. 

 

Our activity there will consist of one main thing- to worship the God who brought us before Him through Jesus.  Before Him, all those prizes and accolades will pale before just being there.

THE NECESSITY

1Co 3:11  For any other foundation can no one lay than the one being laid, who is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12  And if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
1Co 3:13  each one's work shall be revealed. For the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try each one's work as to what kind it is.
1Co 3:14  If anyone's work which he built remains, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

So, from our view on earth, the most important thing about heaven is to GET IN.  But 'just getting in' covers us in soot, not glory.  From God's perspective, the most important thing in OUR priorities should be living the live that gets the PRIZES.  And so, His answer to the question, "But if I become different, what happens to me?", is, "Depends on where you place the priority."

The Better Part, week #52

 

A COVID-strewn collection of FB posts:

The Better Part, Day #247:

 

Last night at some point I heard a chunk of the passage that says, "If you come before the altar and realize that your brother/neighbor has something against you..." and so at my last break 'pray for missions' time, I "left my gift at the altar" and confessed to God about my opinion of my lack of obedience to Him. Seconds into it a co-worker came up, apologizing because she had made a mistake which would cause me to remake a part. As always, I told her it was no problem, things happen.

She was rattled though, because she was distracted by a 'at home' problem, and she's the kind of person that really takes screwing up to heart. That's when I smiled and said, "Let me tell you about what was going on before you came over..."

 

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #248:

 

I heard Martin Luther paraphrased as saying that you cannot break any other commandment unless you first break the First Commandment- You shall not have other gods before Me. And that is dead on- Because Idolatry is pride in action, and you can trace every other sin you commit to pride- if you're willing to look at it from God's POV. Any other rule is just another means of putting yourself ahead of God.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #249:

 

Another couple of days of "discussion" with "political Christians" is at an end, and I learned a valuable lesson only God can teach. Those who are 'fools' by the Proverbs definition will always be the ones that shout you down, insult you to get a rise, or, as in this case, start something and then sit back and eat popcorn watching the carnage. But the truly wise will be silent- or maybe say one calm, intelligent thing. And unlike the fools, you'll never know who really was touched, turned to see things differently. So don't give up making your stand for Christ, no matter how loud the fools or how quiet the touched.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day#250:

 

 

In the story of Elijah's victory over the priests of Baal, one thing that every sermon I've ever heard on it leaves out: That in the midst of a famine, from which they were praying for relief, Elijah poured 12 ( a significant number of the Lord) pitchers of precious water on the sacrifice first- thus giving to God that which they desired most.

 

Ironic that the best the priests of Baal could give was their own blood- and that, too, was required of them by the Winner of the contest.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #251:

 

 

Neh 13:6 While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king

Neh 13:7 and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

Neh 13:8 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 

 

 

David Jeremiah this morning pointed out to me that I am like the Temple: Ran by a fleshly priest (Eliashib) who had an adulterous connection to an evil stronghold (Tobiah and his room), which was empty of the Word that should have been there (the tithes and offerings for the priests), and in sore need of the Holy Spirit to come home and throw all the crap out (Nehemiah).

 

 

 

M10 Show week 8

 

'Allow, Doctor Bombay here, fresh in from a trip paragliding- and if you'd seen the pair-a birds I was gliding with, you'd understand why I was flying- Ha HA!  I was called in because your hosts for today are both a bit under the weather-  that dreaded Chinese Dodo virus or somesuch.

 

Elvis:  Man, you wouldn't think it's so funny ifn you had it!  I thought Fauci said imaginary characters wouldn't get it...

 

Bombay:  Please, what your mortal quacks don't know could fill a crater on the second moon...

Elvis:  Wait, there's no second moon... is there?

Bombay:  Of course not, dear boy, you're merely having double vision!  Leave it all to me.  It's not as if most of your countdown isn't still stuck in place, so it shouldn't be all that hard...

Elvis:  Yeah, wait'll you hit the wrong button once...

Bombay:  At any rate, there is one new debut- and I use the term loosely, because it first came out when I did- on TV, that is.  If it really came out when I did, those horns would be made from Ceratopsids, I would think!   And don't worry about the buttons, my boy, I'll just snap my fingers and click my heels, and...

*POOOF* 

 

Bombay:  Oh, dear, must have had that Ceratopsid on my mind!  It was a difficult birth...

Elvis:  Ya think?  Here, let me.  From 1968, this is our new-ish debut at #10 by Roger Nichols and the Small Circle Of Friends...

 

**********************************************************

 

Bombay:  Thank you, young man!  I remember it like it was 54 years ago...

Elvis:  It was.  Say, what kind of doc are you?

Bombay:  A witch doctor...

Elvis:  Say what?

Bombay:  I am supposed to ask at this point if you have a special to bring in...

Elvis: What I've got is achy bones and a light fever, an'  my throat is itchin' like a man on a fuzzy tree...

Bombay:  I see what you did there!  Let me go fetch ingredients for your cure, while... here, you take car of this.  *POOOF*

Elvis:  Hey, easy on the smoke next time!  Here's the rest of the top 10, recorded earlier so's I could edit out the coughing...

9- Slipping one spot is Cat Power and Pa Pa Power...

8- Up 2 is Maddie and Tae an' Strangers...

7- Holding, an' I sure could use one, Medicine Woman by Middle Of The Road 

6- Holding, Beach House an' Pink Funeral...

5- Down 3, Beach House and ESP...

4- Up one, Matt Berry an' Summer Sun, speakin' o' things I could use right now...

3- Up one, Explorers Club an' Tragedy....

2- Up one, Eddie Vedder an' The Haves...

An' a second week at the top fer....

 

 ...Manchester Orchestra an' Lucius with Inaudible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*POOOF*

Elvis:  Whut the Sam Hill....

Bombay:  The rare Chinese Dodo, my boy!  Now all we have to do is wait for it to cough up a hairball, and...

Elvis: Waitaminite!  It's cats what get hairballs...

Bombay:  Of course!  That's why we have to wait for it to cough up the cat first!

 Elvis:  It's gonna cough up a CAT?

Bombay:  Well, actually a bit more of a Siberian Saber-tooth Tiger, but...

Elvis:  That's it!  We're done here!

Wednesday Bible Study: What Jesus asked, Part one

 

This week, I am wading my way through a nasty sinus attack to kick off a new line of studies:  The questions that Jesus asked in the Gospels.  The first one in Matthew is this one, right after Jesus finished teaching the Beatitudes...

Mat 5:13  "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 

Now the first thing to look at here is, WHY are we to be salt of the earth?  I thought to myself (with a little digging help), "What IS salt good for?"

- Flavoring.  It's had to grasp how many things salt makes better until you have to cut back salt.  And it's a flavor that stands on its own.  Like I said last night on something completely unrelated, "You never hear of, 'Table salt, now with 50% less sugar' ".

- Preservation.  You wonder why everything you buy has 'sodium this' and 'sodium that'?  They preserve the food.

-Melting of ice.  I know, not one you normally think of in this particular aspect, but just wait.

-Value.  Show of hands, everyone who knew 'salary' comes from the fact that Roman soldiers were paid in salt.  Everyone?  I thought so.

So now, how does this fit with us being the salt of the earth?

-Flavoring:  Every sacrifice had to have salt thrown on it.  God wanted salt on his sacrifices; it makes the mundane better.  We bring the flavor to the world, through faith, through service, through praise.  By the way we stand out, we draw people to God.  We don't need flavorings like glamor, fame, or power; the salt we draw from Christ is sufficient.

-Preserving: I could give you many examples of this based on prayer, but let me do it from the logical end instead.  Observe:

Act 2:38  And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

2Th 2:6  And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 

The Holy Spirit is in every saved believer.  By our existence, and the existence of the Spirit in us, we preserve the world from the judgment to come- until the day He (and perhaps we) is 'out of the way".

Melting of ice:  Our job is to melt the hard hearts around us with Christ's love and mercy.  Keeping in mind that there are some souls frozen so cold that even salt won't melt them.

Value:  With Christ in Heaven, we are His face on earth.  WE are the most precious possession the world has- and most of the world doesn't even know it.

But, now there is one aspect that Jesus was focusing on here, and that is the crux of His question.  If we are not flavoring the world, standing out so that people draw near, what good are we?  As Christians, we have two options:  To stand out and flavor the world; or keep our flavor to ourselves... and get trampled.

The question, "How shall it be restored?" Jesus has just gone through the steps that would bring blessings to man.  The salt in us comes from living out those things- poverty of spirit, meekness, willingness to suffer persecution, and so on.  He is just about to teach on how no one puts a light under a basket- that we can't just look at these things we should live out and NOT live them out.  I guess it's just the difference in whether we want to be table salt at the Lord's feast- or the bag of sidewalk melter in His mud room.

Willie O'Ree

 

So I have heard all the talk about Willie O'Ree, the first black player in the NHL, but I really hadn't even heard of him before his recent accolades.  That's on me, so I decided to look it up.

Willie played a couple of uneventful games in 1957-8, but his season in the NHL limelight was 1960-61, when he became a regular on the Bruins, logging 43 games.  He would be the only black player in the NHL for 13 years.  Let me tell you what I found.

This is not by way of a bio, just chasing stats.  The 1960-61 Boston Bruins season started with a goal by a Fort Wayne Komet legend, Len Ronson.  But it started slow for Willie- and the Bruins.  The B's were a bad team, and it was three days before Christmas that Willie first reached the score sheet, logging 2 assists in a 4-2 win over the team that would be his nemesis, the Chicago Black Hawks.  I don't know where in the timeline this story pops in, but...

O'Ree claims he was called racist names by several of the Blackhawks players.  During the game, Eric Nesterenko butt-ended O'Ree, knocking out his two front teeth and breaking his nose.  O'Ree responded by hitting Nesterenko over the head with his stick, which O'Ree claims "almost created a riot". O'Ree claims the fans called him racist names and that the Blackhawks players were threatening to kill him, and that he was "lucky to get out of the arena alive".

 

Hang on though, because he does get a measure of revenge.  His first goal came on New Years Day 1961 in a 3-2 win over the rampaging Montreal Canadiens- and I do mean rampaging, as surrounding his tally against the leagues best goalie, Charlie Hodge, there were 92 minutes in penalties, mostly instigated by Habs enforcer Ralph Backstrom.  At this point any win was a good one for the B's, mired in last at 8-20-9.

On a line with Don McKenney and Gary Oullette, Willie got a couple more assists before his next tally, a score 47 seconds into the second period against another top goalie, Detroit's Hank Bassen, to give his guys a 3-0 lead en route to a 4-2 win.

Once again with Chicago on Ground Hogs Day, he got into a shoving match with Hawks' star Stan Mikita, resulting in a pair of roughing minors in a 2-2 tie.  After grabbing another assist on the 5th, he came his closest to an all-out fight on the 9th in a 5-1 loss at home to Montreal.  Backstrom slashed him, and when he tried to retaliate, his team's tough guy, Dallas Smith, stepped in and fought Backstrom.  Willie got a rough, and Backstrom got a 2 and a 5, with Smith getting the other 5 for fighting.

Down the stretch, the team got worse and Willie got better, picking up 4 more assists over the month, but Willie saved the best for last.

The second to last game of the season was a 6-2 loss in Toronto to rookie goalie (and future star) Cesare Maniago.  But Willie put the B's on the board with his 3rd- unfortunately, they were already down 3-0 at the time.

The last game, and wouldn't you know it, the Black Hawks came to the Boston Garden.  Trailing 2-1 in the 2nd, Willie beat Hall of Famer Glenn Hall to tie the game, and the home team capped the season with a 4-3 win.  That left them at 15-42-13, last place, 11 points behind the 5th place Rangers and 49 behind Montreal.  (Side note here:  The Blackhawks would upset the Habs in round one of the playoffs and go on to win the Cup, breaking a 5-year hold by Montreal on Lord Stanley's silverware.

And that would be Willie's NHL career- 4 goals and 10 assists over 45 games.  He would be traded to Montreal that next year- and while Willie considered their snubbing him "racist"- and it may well have been- two things to remember here are that the Canadiens pushed French-Canadian players, and they were so deep that their second level minor league team had just come off a six-year cup streak of their own.

Willie found stardom later in the old Western League, scoring 30+ goals 5 times and winning 2 scoring championships, eventually getting his number retired by the San Diego Gulls.  And now we all know a little more about a brave man who just wanted to play the game.

M10 show week 7

 

 

 

Elvis:  Boss, you don' look so good...

 

Yeah, some kinda cold's dragging me a bit, but I had to save the M10 report for Friday morning, because I was busy researching a couple of items for it last night.  And the night before, it was trying to make a top ten when you have seven songs that SHOULD be (on a normal week) no lower than #3!  Luckily this is a written post and not a podcast (or I'd prolly break the 'cough button'), so- eventually- we'll be okay.

Well, maybe you... but what if I get yer cold?

 

Relax, Fauci says there's no evidence of transmission from real people to imaginary characters...

Well, thank God for th... hey!

 

Anyway, let's kick things off with our first debut at #10.  Brand new stuff from the upcoming album Through The Madness Vol. I, here's Maddie and Tae...

********************************************************* 

 

So I was thinking about how the unique feature about the M10 is the rule that the songs can be from any year, as long as they are new to me... and I was wondering just how many songs from different eras that lets in!  I had to set a condition that new releases from old albums- such as Medicine Woman from Middle Of The Road, currently on the countdown- count, whereas re-releases of old songs from newly released box sets ( for example Elton John's The Girl On Angel Pavement) do not.  And with a suspicious eye towards some I might have messed up do to recordkeeping errors or plain dimwittery, I have the results right here...

But first...

The art o' suspense again, boss?

 But of course!  Last night, I realized something about two of our current M10 crop as I played them for Laurie, and how that added to my liking them in the first place.  First, go back and listen to Beach House's Pink Funeral , remove the vocals in your head, and tell me that isn't ELO, circa the lps Time or Secret Messages!

Then, move up to Matt Brady's Summer Sun, and imagine it being off a late 60's Byrds lp!

 

Yeah, I c'n get that...

 

And now, on to the other thing I had to research, and it has to do with the other debut at #8.  The lady singing it, I was first introed to in early 2020, in a lyric from Mo Kenney's Ahead Of Myself about listening to her.  A few months later, during the Cover Summer, she actually made the chart, partnering with Jakub Dylan on his cover of You Showed Me.  And now- ironically from a covers lp of her own, coming out soon, she hits the chart on solo!  Covering, of all people, Ryan Gosling and Dead Man's Bones, here is Cat Power...

 

 

******************************************************* 

 

All right a'ready, you fixin' to reveal those ree-sults?

 

Yes, I am!  Setting the bar at 'must be before the current year or the year before', there have been 110 songs out of the 638 total M10 songs that meet the requirement- the oldest being the 1959 Graduation's Here by the Fleetwoods.  However, the number per year has been dropping- the last two years failing to break out of single digits.  In fact, while the overall percentage of "old songs" sits currently at 17.24% , there are two years- the half-year of 2015, and 2019- that together had a percentage of 30.21%;  half of the 46 songs that made the chart that first year were oldies!  But 2020 racked up only 9.9%, and last year was lower, at 8.9%

 

Runnin' out of oldies to try out...

 

Could be, but we'll see.  This year all ready is running at 25%...

 

Yeah, one outta four...

Meanwhile, over at Billboard, 25 Christmas songs dropped out of the hot 100 this week, making room for Elton and Dua's Cold Heart to pop back up from 20 to 7 (it did the same on the British Charts, 45 to 13), and Maneskin's Beggin' re-entered at 38.  Weird, wild stuff!  Buddy, hit the M10!

 

Yeah, an you go fetch a cough drop!  

9- droppin 3 in its 8th week, Geowulf's Open Me Up...

6- up 4, Pink Funeral...

7 (Medicine Woman), 5 (Summer Sun), 4, (The Explorer's Club an' Tragedy ), an' 3 (Eddie Vedder an' The Haves), all stuck in the same spot...

...but the top gets flipped with Beach House's ESP dropping ta 2, an' the new #1...

 

 

 ...the Manchester Orchestra, along with....

 ...Lucius, and the remix of Inaudible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nicely done!  Now excuse me while I go lay down...

Pass me a cough drop before ya go, wouldja? 

Wednesday Bible Study: Peoples of the Epistles, part 8

 

As I began the battle to understand 2 Thessalonians, I ran across the dispute about the authenticity of this book by "scholars" who pride themselves at nitpicking, and claim that it has a less personal tone than the first, and that Paul's theology changes.  Well, like the first book, the main 'theology' as they call it is about, "What about the end times?"  Which really caused me to dig deeper into the concept of the Rapture- the removal of Christians before the Great Tribulation- and I (at times unwillingly) learned some things about it.  But let's take this a step at a time.

In the first book,the main problem was, what happens to those who die BEFORE Jesus comes back; in the second, it's "Somebody told us we missed it, it already happened!"  In the first, Paul comforted them about that the Dead would rise FIRST, and then the living- "We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed", 1 Corinthians 15- would meet the Lord in the clouds.  Those who believe in a Rapture believe that this is not the Second Coming, because it is in the clouds and not touching down on the same ground as He left (Zechariah 14:4); others claim there is but one return, and what Paul describes takes place at that point, when Christ returns to destroy the ungodly.  A pastor that does a Q&A radio show holds to this view, saying that the Rapture concept is a fairly recent one- and I have seen evidence that this is true.  I even asked my pastor about this, and this in part is his reply:

Hi Christopher:

I’m happy to chat further sometime, but my simple answer is this:

No one knows!  (I believe there is some reason to believe in a rapture by the way, but I’m not banking on it.). 

I don’t think it matters HOW it happens but that we are faithful UNTIL it happens!

 

 

 

Which is indeed the point of the matter.  But just from me, the evidence in the scriptures SEEM to point to a Rapture as a second, prior event.  For one, I point out that in Revelation 19, the Marriage Feast Of The Lamb, celebrating the Church becoming Christ's Bride, happens BEFORE the Second Coming.  HOWever, let me bring this up to you.  I have had many dreams (just regular common ordinary ones) in which something happens and I think, oh yeah, that's because THIS happened earlier.  But it wasn't actually IN the dream before- it seems that in dreams, your 'timeline' is like a string you can pile up on top of itself.  I believe vision books like Revelation COULD work that same way- and all the "And after these things" and "And then I saw"s  might just not be arranged in chronological order.  Therefore, in interpreting matters like this, we have to remind ourselves of Paul's "through a mirror darkly" guideline and remember that Pastor Denny indeed hit the nail on the head.

Anyway, the second book and the second question Paul reminding them of what he told them before- there is a progression of signs that have to occur.  The Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the earth (2:6-7); the 'Falling Away' that Christ predicted (Matthew 24:12) begins (2.3); and the Anti-Christ sets himself up as God in the Temple (2:4).  Which makes our sign that we haven't missed it even clearer, since the Temple needs rebuilt!  Paul goes on to explain briefly what will happen when the 'Lawless One' arises, which might go a long way to proving the "one second coming" argument, but again, remember that, if you read the above verses in context carefully, the only thing that you do know is that the Falling Away begins ( though you can deduce this is because the Spirit is removed) and the 'Lawless One' is revealed (though hasn't necessarily declared himself God yet).

So what is causing all these questions?  That is what we can learn from the Thessalonians.  First off, there are a lot of "unruly people" (1 Thess 5:13, 2 Thess 3:6) causing problems.  They are busybodies (2T 3:11) who are idle and gossiping, using the idea of "oh well, we missed it" to avoid work- and keeping the pot stirred.  And the way to defeat this?  Paul gives them two tasks.

First, stand fast only in what they either heard or read from the Apostles.  In other words, STAY IN YOUR BIBLE.  Like I said in a last week's Better Part, we have a great example of obedience in the returning exiles bringing back the Feast of Booths after 1,000 years- just because they actually HEARD the scriptures, and decided to obey them.

Second, pray for others!  If you didn't notice yet, the best way out of any of your own spiritual problems is to pray for someone else.  Nice how God works that!

So if the main problem with the Thessalonians was worrying, their cure applies to us, as well.

The relativity of "I'm hot, I'm cold"...

 It's cold here in Fort Wayne.  So I said to myself, where was the warmest spot in the world today (Monday)?  Answer was about as middle of nowhere as you can get...

Somewhere near the Urandangi Aerodrome, near the border between Queensland Australia and the Northern Territory, sits the Dangi Pub.  The high was recorded at the aerodrome, but if it's going to be 113.2 F (45.1C), I'm darn sure gonna be at the pub!  Lets get a review of the establishment...

Good host, great tour guide, cheap beer, free meals if you lend a hand, great showers, roosters that think they are blue heelers, baby kangaroos to help feed. All round a place worth visiting. Our Dog loved the lawn. Camping should have a surcharge, even if it's a donation to RFS. THANKS PAM for a beautiful stay.

For those not hip to the lingo, the RFS is basically what we yanks would call the local Volunteer Fire department.   Pam got quite a few compliments, so good on her!   By contrast, Fort Myers FL had the US high today, some 26 degrees cooler than the Dangi.

In the mean time, as I type Monday it is a balmy 16.3F here at Martin Central, and that means I should probably go visit the coldest place in the world today, just so I don't whine about it.

Nestled between Rabbitkettle Lake and the river of the same name is the Rabbitkettle Automated Reporting Station in Canada's Northwest Territories.  Nearly 3,000 miles NW of Martin Central ( a 52- hour drive, says Google), it dropped to -63F today, almost 50 degrees colder than the South Pole was.

This is -52.8C, proving once again that after a certain point, cold is cold.  In trying to learn more about the area, which is in or near a national park, I found there is a campground, with the following description...

There are no public roads inside Nahanni National Park Reserve, there are several ambitious and demanding overland routes.

 

I also learned they are near a set of mountains called "the Cirque of the Unclimbables"...

 

  ...so this is really looking like a fun alternative to Pokagon.  In the states, the coldest Monday was Badoura, Mn, which is... well, imagine you're throwing a dart at the center of Minnesota and you miss high.  This place, it says I could get to in under 12 hours, but having been at -34F today, who wants to?

The Better Part, week #51

 

I know I talked about cutting this off after the first of the year, but I couldn't hardly read this...

Col 4:17  And say to Archippus, "See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord."

...and quit the next week, could I?  Here's this week's FB posts:

The Better Part, Day #243:

 

Today, a bit about signs and promises. Just now, I was looking at the various devotionals I get in my inbox each day, and there was a pattern- a message about God's promises. In the midst of the second one, my anti-virus tried to tell me that the click-through to the full devotional on the e-mail was to a site that "might be dangerous". I think it was just reacting to the change from secure one way e-mail to a site with opportunities to listen, donate, etc.

 

But for me, it was a sign- "Satan is trying to distract you from the point- a point that either I or one of you needed tonight. " And that point was, that the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, ended with powerful promises- and the first of the New Testament, Matthew, opens with a (yawn) genealogy. But that genealogy was the most powerful promise of all- a promise kept over millennia, through generations. A promise we share in, just as much as all those names on Matthew's list. Not all promises are flamboyant- and, it seems, the 'quieter' they are, the more powerful they become.

 

 

 

The Better Part, day #244:

 

I have been listening to a "Bible answer" show now and then, about which I have a few problems with some of the answers. My old nature keeps telling me, "They are wrong, you are right, you should expose them being wrong, just turn them off", etc, etc. But you know what? That old nature's problem with "respectfully disagreeing" has rarely been tested the other way. How would I react if I was the one "being exposed?" I know how the old nature would do it; my blog is pockmarked with examples in the comment sections on controversial topics.

 

Old nature would melt down. Thus, my current 'disagreements', right or wrong, tell me one thing: I need to pray about having that good defense of my faith. Good, not only meaning correct, and well thought out, but prayed over and respectful.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #245:

 

For those who think we evangelicals "worship the Bible" (you know who you are), think on this. When the exiles returned from Babylon and Ezra read the books of the Law (i.e. the early form of the Bible), the first reaction after tears was to ask Ezra why it was that the Festival of Booths wasn't being celebrated, and could they do it now? The Feast of Booths hadn't been observed in A THOUSAND YEARS. The established "Church" of the day had ignored it for a millennia- But people who loved God enough to obey His Word re-instituted it. They should have been our example- they were for Martin Luther, who conquered that same famine of God's Word that same way- by obeying.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #246:

 

1Sa 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, "Till now the LORD has helped us." 

 

 

Michael Youseff pointed out something the other day- more in how he said it than what was said. He said, "There are only two reasons to look back in your past."

 

One, he addressed very shortly: "To look back at your mistakes and LEARN from them." Not dwell on them, or tear yourself apart nitpicking them, but learn from them. (I've already spent twice the time he did on it.) 

 

The other part, which he embellished for several minutes, was, "In order to praise God for all He has done for us!" Next time you feel like getting down on yourself, think on that. I know I will!

I'm about ready to swear off the outside world...

 Let me tell you about my Saturday...

Temps in the teens (but rising), I head to our local Kroger.  Despite the chronically depleted shelves, I found most of what I went for, with the exception of my Pepsi Zero Sugar (which is going through the usual bi-monthly cycle of "we're gonna be out all over Fort Wayne for the next two weeks").   As I couldn't grab a bottle to go home on, I went to my usual back-up: a small bottle of chocolate milk.  Guess what?  After excusing myself to a couple who had to park their cart right in front of the case door I needed to have a conversation, I reached up- only to find but one bottle of chocolate AND PEANUT BUTTER milk.  Those of you that know me know that PB doesn't fly with me.

So on to the checkout, where, with a light load, I felt no problem getting into the shortest line behind two similarly loaded customers.  What I didn't know was, out of all the lanes open, mine was the only one with NO bagger, and thus the young man (named Blaze) had to blaze through checking out And bagging.  When I got up there, I thought to help make it go faster by trying to bag as soon as I ran my card.  But of course, I had to deal with the following derailments of my plan:

- Blaze didn't SEE me run my card. (stay tuned...)

- The damnable bags fought tooth and nail to NOT open.

-Finished, I go to leave (after telling a lady who finally came over to help bag, "Remind me not to hire in as a bagger", to which she replied, "I know, our bags suck") and Blaze says, "Sir, you didn't pay!"  I said yes I did, then he realized he hadn't seen me and thus hadn't hit the final button and printed my receipt.

Loading the bags in the trunk, a lady pulled up behind me.  Apparently she and a friend had shopped together, using the same cart, and pulled up trunk to trunk with said friend to divide their booty.  Knowing this would give me a problem backing out, I crossed the street on foot to the gas station in vain hopes of finding a PZS there.  The one thing that did go right happened then- by the time I got back to my car, the ladies had finished and the blocker was leaving.

Now, we get home, where I spend the distance through the complex following somebody in a Cube creeping along, looking for somebody they were trying to pick up (and of course was mere feet from MY door).  Laurie, who had stayed home this time, had asked me to call her when I got home so she could help (and pretty much all I needed was the door opened), but of course when I tried to call, I get "Your balance is low".  Queue up ten minutes once inside fighting with AT&T over passwords they won't accept and enough frustration that 2 hours later Misty STILL won't sit next to me while I'm typing, and I check Twitter.  

Our local meteorologist Tweets that our oncoming chances of rain and freezing rain are just a couple hours out.  I check Weather Underground and they agree- but the radar shows nothing for hundreds of miles.  So I gather up Misty and say, "Let's take a walk before it gets nasty."  It is now 24F out.

Rain?  Not a cloud in the sky...

By the time we hit Dead Tree Road,here comes the front

Back of the woods- yeah, now I start to see it...

"This kinda sucks- but at least it's getting warmer..."

Same shot as the first, about 40 minutes later...

By the time we got to this point, it's 32F... and I'm ready for lunch.  Do what you will, o weather!

M10 show week #6

 

Elvis:  Man, this is six weeks a' doin' Time Machine Lite?

I prefer not to call it by that name, thanks... although this week, one of our two debuts IS from 1971...

More Tom Jones?

Not this time, buddy! Plus, I thought I'd start off a new year with a January M10 feature, so we got that coming, too!  But first, debut #1 of the week comes in at #10- and for the first time since someone ELSE on this week's list did it during the Cover Summer of 2020, this act has 3 songs on the ten at the same time!  From the first chapter of Once Twice Melody, here's the tenth all time hit from Beach House!

***************************************************** 

 

 So, what's this feature this week? 

The biggest hit of January on the M10! Now, to make it fair, months that four weeks of charts instead of five, I added the closest date to January to even things out.  Eight songs managed 40 points plus on our 10-9-8 system... the other seven were: Beach House's Beyond Love in '16, Puddle Of Mudd's Gimme Shelter in '17, Castlecomer's She's So High in '19, MGMT's In The Afternoon in '20, and last year's hit from Saintseneca, Ladder To The Sun, along with two songs that tied for second- The Decemberists and Travelling On from '19 and last year's Kitchen Table from Molly Parden.  And the biggest hit of January I'll reveal in... Hey, King? whereforth art thou?

Right here, thumbin' thru the books... I wanted to see if I ever had three in the top ten at the same time.

 

And?

Well the closest I came, far as I can see, was August of '56, when Hound Dog wuz #1, Don'T Be Cruel wuz #5, an' I Want You, I Need You I Love You wuz #12.  The week before, I Want You wuz #8 and Don't Be Cruel wuz #13.

 

Impressive!  You know, the Beatles....

I don' wanna hear about them dern Beatles!!!!!!

 

I know, I couldn't help myself.  Speaking of which, I couldn't help but be excited when I saw UK band Middle Of The Road had JUST released a single off their 1971 lp Acceleration!  It debuts on the 10 this week at #7....

*******************************************************

 

Sally Carr, boss, Sally Carr...

I know, right?  At any rate, let me get some of those pesky top tens, AKA the reason we're here...

 

9-  Beach House again down 3 in its 8th week with Once Twice Melody.

8- Also spending ( one would imagine) its 9th and last week on the chart down one, Duran Duran and Tove Lo with Give It All Up.

6- A third dropper with 7 weeks under its belt, down three for Geowulf's Open Me Up.

5- Leaping 5, the acid jazz of Matt Berry and Summer Sun.

4- Stuck at #4- for now- that other band that managed three songs in the ten- for three weeks that June and July- The Explorer's Club and Tragedy.

3- Leapfrogging TEC, Eddie Vedder up 2 with The Haves.

 

************************************

 

Okay, buddy, spin that disc!

You bet!  That song that has the most January points of all time- posting weeks of #3, #2, and three at the top....

 

 

********************************************************

 

 

That was a MAJOR earworm for me that winter, and sprung Tennis to major M10 stardom!

 

What about the top two, boss?

 

Well, that was the debate for the week, but I had to leave it status quo ante.  At #2 once again are Manchester Orchestra with Lucius and Inaudible; and at the top for a third week...

 

 ...once again, Beach House and ESP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy your weekend, kids!