M10 2.0.3

 

So while we are waiting for me to decide on an M10 (Still have two songs to listen to), I see that YouTube celebrated their birthday by posting a list of their most watched videos.  Now, not all of them are music , or what I would listen to:  the top three were The Baby Shark Dance, Luis Fonsi's Despacito, and @CoComelon Nursery Rhymes and Kid's Videos' version of The Wheels On The Bus.  But I thought I would see which videos I KNEW I had actually watched, figuring I could do a top ten on here.  By the time I hit #500 on their list, I had seven.  Keeping in mind that the top video had 15 Billion views, here's the most watched video I myself ever posted- which had 21:

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So the most watched videos that I have watched ran like this:

 

At 2.4B views, Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know at 83.

At 2.1 B views, a-Ha's Take On Me at #118.

At 2B views, Linkin Park with In The End at #134.

At 1.8B views, Michael Jackson's Billie Jean at #165.

At 1.7B views, Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe- a view I immediately regretted, BTW- at #188.

At 1.5B views, Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun at 235.

And with 1.4B views, the Police and Every Breath You Take.  

I might later try to round out that top ten.  Be advised, that is FAR from all; the songs I knew, just the ones I had watched.

Anyway, I have three new entries into the M10 this week.  The first at #10 is this fun cover of the Beatles and Revolution by the Flaming Groovies...

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That, BTW, has around 1,000 views.  Next at #9 is an outfit called the Sam Roberts Band...

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That came out in 2003 and thus has racked up 2.7 Million views.  The third is at #8, and is by a band I didn't know until last week was still around- the Smithereens:

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Well, maybe they are- the song was new on Spotify, but YouTube says, nope, came out in 2011 and has 86K views.  But as you might know- the only rule on the M10 is "Chris never heard it before".  

As I glide a little farther down the YT list, here are the rest of the M10:

Lucius, a victim of numbers, slips 3 to 7 with Impressions.

Also falling is the former #1 by Greta Van Fleet, Black Smoke Rising.

Up from the bottom (or at least #9) to 5 is Linkin Park's Up From The Bottom.

Up 2 to #4, Amira Elfeky and Forever Overdose.  

Up a pair to #3, Allison Krauss and co. with Richmond On The James.

Out of the top spot to #2, Beabadoobee and Sway.

And the new #1....

...Cole Swindell and Spanish Moss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, the list ended at #535- no further entries to the Chris List.

A to Z mash up part 2

 

For those of you that didn't catch it, you can scroll back to Saturday for part one, on my semi- annual lazy man's A to Z, this year featuring Bible fun!

Malchus- In case you didn't know, this is the poor slob that got his ear cut off by Peter.  Probably not exactly a a "poor slob"; his name means "king", so he must have been part of a rich bloodline before taking a job as Caiphas's lackey.  Fortunately, while Peter tried to "crown" him, his fishing skills were more with a net; Malchus might have had a splitting headache had Peter been a fly fisherman.

Nabal- One of the more amusing Old Testament stories, Nabal's name meant fool, and his wife Abigail said, "It fits."  The standard translation says he was "a Calebite", which would really have nothing to do with the story, but it isn't a big stretch to say it COULD have been translated "son of a dog".  And apparently he rubbed off on some people; because when David vowed revenge against him for his insults, he claimed he would kill "all of his who urinate against the wall".  Classy.

Ozem- I really had to stretch to find a funny O story that didn't involve Onan (for obvious reasons, if you look up his story), so I settled on Ozem.  He was the sixth of the 7 boys of Jesse, just older than David.  His name in history was made when invented Ozempic in 1010 BC.

Paltiel- After David had to hit the road to avoid being Saul's pincushion, Saul gave David's wife, Saul's daughter Michal to hard luck Paltiel.  13 or so years later, With Saul dead and Ishbosheth in Abner's doghouse (see part one), David demanded Abner go fetch her back.  Paltiel followed,  bawling his eyes out, until Abner put a hand on the hilt of his sword and said, "Get lost, loser."  Good times.

Quirinius- I thought this was the only Q name in the whole Bible (I was off by one), so I'm going to stick with him.  In addition to being governor (or perhaps assisting the governor- who was on a short leash after losing around 20,000 soldiers to the Germans in the Teutobergerwald) when Mary and Joseph had to rent a room in the manger, he also busied himself defeating the Homonadenses, a mountain people whose name can be combined with Quirinius to make a very bad off-color joke.  So instead, I'll mention he also defeated the Marmaridae, for which Caesar wanted to gift him the sobriquet "Marmaricus", which he declined, citing that he was unwilling to be nicknamed "Ol' Maramalade".

Rhoda- God bless her, you gotta chuckle at Rhoda.  On one side of town, Peter is getting a miraculous, angel-aided escape from Herod's prison; on the other, the faithful are praying FOR this miracle.  Peter knocks on the door, and Rhoda, watching the door, looks through the peephole.  She sees Peter, immediately slams the peephole shut, and tells everyone, "Peter's at the door!"  Which no one believes, because she forgot to let him in.

Sceva- He was a high priest who had seven sons who were travelling exorcists. Unfortunately, they weren't very good at it, as their tag line was,  “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” One day they met a man with a not-so-stupid demon who replied, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?"  Moments later, the guy with the demon walked off whistling a happy tune- while Sceva's kids were battered, bloodied, and- you guessed it- naked.

Thomas- C'mon, you're going to tell ten guys you've travelled with for three years that their story was "a powerful, internal experience that convinced them of Jesus' resurrection, despite it being a psychological phenomenon rather than a physical event"? He's lucky one of the Marys didn't take a rolling pin to him.

Uz- Some letters make you stretch farther than others, and U is a great example.  Uz was a great-grandson of Noah, and in the book The Creation, the Garden of Eden and the Origin of the Chinese (1914), Tse Tsan-Tai claims he was the ancestor of the Amerindians/Native Americans.  

Who the heck is Tse Tsan-Tai?  Well he was in succession a dirigible inventor, who tried to sell his designs to the Germans-but Count von Zeppelin told him he'd had a better design for about 5 years; a revolutionary who got his plans betrayed (but somehow avoided imprisonment); and a Christian author and newspaperman who believed the Garden of Eden had been located in Xinjiang.

Vashti- So if you want to believe the traditions the Jews tacked on in the Midrash (some I do, some I don't, but this makes some sense), She was the daughter of Belshazzar (the "handwriting on the wall" guy), who was captured when Darius of Persia took Babylon, and given to his son (whom the Bible calls Ahasuerus) for a wife.  It couldn't have been a happy marriage, and it got worse when her drunken hubby called her to dance for his drunken buddies.  She said no, and the ever-indecisive Ahasuerus asked his drunken buddies what to do.  Their advice, probably created from fear of going home to THEIR wives said, "You gotta set an example- get rid of her- or we ALL go down with the ship!"  So out went vashti, and the Miss Persia Universe 420BC contest was born.

Weasel- Yup, I had to resort to one of the 'unclean' animals that the Hebrews weren't allowed to eat.  From what I could learn, I don't think this was a hard law to follow.  What one outdoorsman said:

I "lived" on it for a couple of weeks in the winter of 1978-9. As Mike says..it's not palatable..... and that's being charitable !!

It was all I could do to cook it !! I boiled it, of course, and just the smell was enough to ALMOST trigger vomiting. I eventually smeared a little toothpaste on my upper lip just so I could tolerate the smell.

Xerxes- Unlike the 'experts, I choose to believe Xerxes= Ahasuerus.  If only because it is my only chance of getting a Biblical X.

Y- Any name that starts with a J ( and a couple that aren't) can technically be spelled with a Y.  Of course there is one BIG Name that starts with a Y- and I'm not looking to get struck by lightning.

Zimri- Zimri wasn't happy being Captain of half the chariots of Israel.  So he waited till King Elah was good and plastered, and killed him and all his sons.  However, in a presaging of "How to become a Roman Emperor", the rest of the army decided they wanted their commander, Omri, instead.  Faced with the whole army besieging him, Zimri said, well that was a good week ( he reigned 7 days), and lit the palace on fire with himself in it.  After Zimri finished making an ash of himself, Omri built himself a new capital in Samaria.  Ironically, Omri spent some time putting down another revolt from a buddy of Zimri named Tibni- a dude whose name meant "straw" or "stubble".

And there you have it!

Wednesday Bible Study: Altars

 

At long last, The Lord is allowing me to work on the next plan in my Stone series: Altars.  Now, you might think, when I say Altar- of the one made for the Tabernacle:

And this was an "industrial scale" altar, used for all the people of Israel, a foreshadowing of Christ dying for the sins of all.  But I want to go back to the original, personal altars:

Exo 20:24  You shall make an altar of earth to Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In all places where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. 

Exo 20:25  And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stone. For if you lift up your tool upon it, you have defiled it. 

Exo 20:26  And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness be not uncovered on it. 

 So let's look at this.  This was not the FIRST altar, to be sure- since the days of Abel, men made altars like this to the Lord.  But this is the template.

First, the construction- either of earth, or of uncut stone.  Now the commentators bring up three schools of Jewish thought why God wanted it of such humble materials:

One: because tools were of iron; iron made weapons and drew blood.  Which seems logical until you consider that Abel and Seth were sacrificing before iron was discovered (as the Bible and the Jewish sources say that ironwork was taught be the Watchers to Lamech's son Tubal-Cain).  Plus, an altar, by and large was for sacrifices, and sacrifices required blood.

Two: Because cutting into the stone led to the temptation of making a graven image.  Realizing this command had not yet been given per se, one figures that the Holy One would have built this into the mindset of those who worship Him.  This seems like the main reason- if not the only one.

Three: That it be made of the native land on which it was built.  This smacks of magic.  Also, v24 says "in all places where I record My Name"; it's not the place that matters, but God's presence.  Plus, if you go back to the story of Balaam (and get past the talking donkey), Balak had Balaam attempt his "curse on Israel" from three different 'sacred places', and it made not one difference.

Next, the purposes.  When Abraham made the first explicitly named altar, it was "to call upon the Name of the Lord"- a process started by Seth and Enosh (as we saw last week.  It was a place at which to draw close to God.

Another purpose was to mark where the Lord made an appearance to the person involved.  Jacob built one at Bethel after the vision of the angels; Gideon built one after his commissioning to fight for Israel.

A third was as a memorial.  When the people crossed into the Promised Land, God commanded one such:

Jos 8:30  Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel in Mount Ebal, 

Jos 8:31  as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has lifted any iron. And they offered on it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings. 

Jos 8:32  And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the sons of Israel. 

Another purpose was to mark a covenant.  One such was the one between Jacob and Laban:

Gen 31:44  And come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be for a witness between you and me. 

Gen 31:45  And Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial pillar. 

Gen 31:46  And Jacob said to his brothers, Gather stones. And they took stones and made a heap. And they ate there upon the heap. 

Gen 31:47  And Laban called it in Syrian, Heap of the Testimony, and Jacob called it in Hebrew, Heap of Testimony. 

Another came shortly after the one Joshua built.  The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, stayed on the far side of the Jordan, and they built "an altar of imposing size".  When the other tribes saw this, they thought at first it was a symbol of apostasy owing to its less-then-humble appearance.  But, the tribes explained:

Jos 22:24  No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? 

Jos 22:25  For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD. 

Jos 22:26  Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, 

Jos 22:27  but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the LORD.”’ 

Jos 22:28  And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’ 

So with this example, you can see that the true meaning of the altar can be lost.  The altar isn't holy, the God is.  Let me bring up one more example- this time of a bad altar.  King Saul was on his last legs with God; he had taken on himself to sacrifice to the Lord, instead of waiting on Samuel.  Samuel let him know he had lost favor with the Lord.  But there was still a war to be fought, and while Saul waited for a sign, his son Jonathan acted; seeing an opportunity for a few men to do a great thing, he said:

1Sa 14:6  Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.” 

Faith led Jonathan; and his attack was so successful, it caused a tumult in the Philistine camp which Saul heard, and went on the attack.  But, instead of simply trusting the Lord:

1Sa 14:24  And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, “Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.” So none of the people had tasted food. 

Which inevitably led, among other things, to a scene of chaos after the victory that God granted Jonathan:

1Sa 14:32  The people pounced on the spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slaughtered them on the ground. And the people ate them with the blood. 

1Sa 14:33  Then they told Saul, “Behold, the people are sinning against the LORD by eating with the blood.” And he said, “You have dealt treacherously; roll a great stone to me here.” 

1Sa 14:34  And Saul said, “Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, ‘Let every man bring his ox or his sheep and slaughter them here and eat, and do not sin against the LORD by eating with the blood.’” So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and they slaughtered them there. 

Note that Saul never took the blame upon himself.  Afterwards, he built an altar to the Lord- "it was the first altar that Saul built"- and tried to call upon the Name of the Lord...

1Sa 14:37  And Saul inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?” But he did not answer him that day. 

Saul had "after the fact" consideration for the Lord; and God wasn't about to honor that.  Unable to admit his own sinfulness, he tried to blame it on ANYone else...

1Sa 14:41  Therefore Saul said, “O LORD God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan my son, O LORD, God of Israel, give Urim. But if this guilt is in your people Israel, give Thummim.” And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. 

It came down to Jonathan, who was unaware of the stupid oath, who had had a bit of honey during the battle.  And still Saul was willing to kill his son rather than admit the fault was his oath- but the people, who had been blessed in battle despite Saul- stopped him.

So in the end, an altar is just earth and stone.  But the meaning- that it is the meeting place between God and man- that is the holiness.  The Pharisees, however, went too far the other way:

Mat 23:18  And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 

Mat 23:19  You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 

Mat 23:20  So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 

Mat 23:21  And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 

Just like Saul, they bound themselves in stupid oaths.  And now, our altar is the Cross, and Christ is the connection to God.  So if there is a value left in any altar, it is this: Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.

He is Risen!

 

A to Z mash up Bible edition

 

Yes, I'm finally getting around to the mash-up, and I thought I might have a little Bible fun here.  Hopefully I won't be hit by lightning...

Aaron- Perhaps the best line in the Bible comes in Exodus 32, when Moses confronts Aaron about the golden calf: "So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”  Poof!  Magic!

Beelzebub- Opinions differ, but the original word was supposed to mean "Lord of Heaven", but the way the Hebrews (and later Christ) pronounced it was variously "Lord of flies" or Lord of Dung".

Chedarlaomer- Hard to not laugh at a king of cheese. (Gen 14)

Dibri- We hit this one in my "Stones" series.  Grandfather of a guy who was stoned for mouthing off, had a name that roughly translates to "mouthy".  Go figure. (Lev 24)

Eglon- I don't know what's better about his story- that he was so fat, when Ehud stabbed him the blade disappeared under his fat rolls, or that Ehud got away b/c Eglon's servants thought he was taking a crap (Judges 3).

Felix- Sadly, the Bible doesn't give us a lot of F choices, so we are stuck with Felix.  He waited for 2 years for Paul to give him a bribe to get out, but got shipped back to Rome, where a cartoon cat was named after him.  

Gideon- His story is full of fun stuff, but my fave is when he snuck down to the enemy camp to spy, and 2 guards were discussing the one guys' dream- a barley loaf rolled down the hill and flattened all their tents.  His buddy says, "This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” Gideon sneaks off, full of confidence; the dreamer says, "Gideon who?"  and his buddy says, " 'Gideon who', what?" (Judges  7)

Haman- The villain of Esther was a lot like Wile E Coyote; has to throw a celebration for a guy he tried to humiliate, then gets hung on the gallows he had made to hang the guy.  Plus, is caught sniveling on Esther's knee when her hubby, the King of Kings, comes in.

Ishboseth- After King Saul died, his son Ishboseth- a winner whose name means "man of shame"- was left to be king- as long as he was propped up by Saul's general, Abner (big Abner, not Li'l Abner...)

"Reckon ah'm too busy avoidin' Daisy Mae, anyhow..."

...but he ends up accusing Abner of noodling with his late dad's concubine, and that pretty much screwed the deal.

Jericho- I think that we needed to get Mike Holmes to inspect those walls, amIrite?

I bet these walls would tumble down during a good horn blowing...

Korah- After the Israelites had already messed up about a bazillion times, got hit with various plagues, and  begin a 40-year tour of Lovely Sinai, Korah had the nerve to rebel against Moses, using the rationale, "You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”  If the Exodus was today, Moses would be saying, "Let's go to the film..."

And finally for part one...

Laban- He thought he was going to pull a fast one on Jacob by slipping him Leah instead of Rachel.  Turns out, not only did Jacob get the better deal there, but then God did several rounds of the "spotted goat switcheroo" to basically put him out of business.  And just for fun, Rachel took his household god for good measure!

M10 2.0.2

 

In looking for a theme for this week, I was struck by how many musicians we (us old folk) know (or might know) who have joined "Rock'N'Roll Heaven".  So this week, I will update the list (not with myself, not yet anyway).  First let me let you know that-

Dropping to 10 this week, Amira Elfeky and Death Of Me.

And debuting at 9, Linkin Park...

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So here are those I knew- well or sort of- that have passed this year...

Wayne Osmond of the Osmonds, Jan. 1 at 73

Brenton Wood (Gimme Little Sign), Jan. 3 at 83

Peter Yarrow (Peter Paul and Mary), Jan. 7 at 86

Sam Moore (Sam and Dave), Jan 10 at 89

Bob Kuban (The Cheater), Jan 20 at 84

Marianne Faithfull, Jan 30 at 78

Jerry Butler (Only The Strong Survive), Feb 20 at 85

Gwen McCrae (Rocking Chair), Feb 21 at 81

Roberta Flack, Feb 24 at 88....

and now, a little more M10:

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Austin Snell's Heavy Metal drops all the way to 8 this week.

And slipping 3 to #7, Shannon and the Clams with I'm A Fool.

And coming in at #6, why it's Amira Elfeky again...

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To continue the Dead List...

Robert John (Sad Eyes), Feb 24 at 79

David Johansen (New York Dolls), Feb 28 at 75

Joey Molland (last survivor of Badfinger), Mar 1 at 77

Jesse Colin Young (Youngbloods), Mar 16 at 83

Larry Tablyn (Standells), Mar 21 at 82

Johnny Tillotson, Apr 1 at 86

Lenny Welch (Since I Fell For You), Apr 8 at 86

Nino Tempo (Deep Purple with April Stevens) Apr 12 at 91

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And finishing the M10:

Up 5 to 5, Allison Kraus and Union Station with Richmond On The James.

Up 3 to 4 Lucius and Impressions.

Up a hot 5 to #3, Cole Swindell and Spanish Moss.

Slipping from the top to 2, Greta Van Fleet with Black Smoke Rising.

And our new #1- her second...

...Beabadoobee with Sway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I should close with, "Stay alive in '25!"

Newspage go!

 

Because you didn't ask for it, the return of the feature that shares each newspage's stupidest headline story!  Today we have:

FoxNews

'Get over this,' man tells 'picky' date with food allergies who rejected his dinner

This might be a headline story for The Joe's Diner Review, but a serious news story? Kinda fits into the "get to know someone first" category.  Better headline:  "Insensitive lout wears dinner for two".

BBC

Viral videos claim luxury bags are made in China, is it true?

Better headline:  "BBC credibility so low, looking into viral videos as news sources, is it true?"  Please tell me that "luxury" items being made on the cheap in China isn't a surprise.

BBC, also receiving votes

French jails have come under attack. Are violent drug gangs to blame?

No, I'm sure it's those darn jaywalkers (marcheurs) and Marine Le Pen....

Moscow Times

This one is more of an "answer your own question" item.  Headline one:

I Trained With Russian Diplomats. I Can Tell You How They Work

Followed by:

Russian Politician Admits He’s Been Working Remotely From Ukraine Since 2021

There you go- they work remotely from Ukraine...

Xinhua

Now China's state news commonly posts stories about schoolchildren greeting someone or some flower celebration, but that doesn't catch the true spirit of Xinhua- as the diary of Xi the Pooh.  And so I give you:

Xi says unilateralism, hegemonism receive no support of the people

Which in addition to being against every principle Xi actually lives by, probably 70% of the Chinese populace don't even know what the two words mean...

News.comAU

Video reveals gross act Katy did in space

Katy of course being Katy Perry during her all-girl trip into space last week.  What was that gross act?  I went through the whole article and the closest thing I saw to a 'gross act" was kissing the ground after they landed.  Sorry, fans of booger-picking out there...

Times Of India

Suryakumar Yadev checks Abhishek Sharma's Pocket for a Note

That smile makes me wonder what kind of note he was looking for...

And finally...

The Copenhagen Post

Danish PM enjoying an European kind of Trump Bump

Of course the first thing I thought was, "She doesn't LOOK pregnant..."