"Some verses from the Bible"

From my father's mother, Edna Aline McCollough Hardin Ford Lewis:

"Some verses from the Bible and some other sources. that I like to read again and again"

Talking to God is the prescription for anxiety.

Prayer is the key to Heaven; Faith is the key that unlocks the door.

Thankfulness turns all that it touches into happiness.

Exercise yourself spiritually and practice being a better Christian, because that will help you not only now in this life, but in the next life too.
1 Timothy 4:8

Father, the lonely are everywhere. Why don't I see them? Why don't I have sensitivity enough to feel the needs of those close to me? Soften my heart. Help me to take time to care, to love, to express compassion. Today lead me to a person I can help.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.

Love that is saved can never be left to anyone. Give it away- Today.

What no man ever saw or heard, what no man ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love Him.
Corinthians 2:9

Father help us to look beyond the little things which people to upset us, so that we may appreciate the big things they do to help us.

When Cecil was sick and dying, this verse from Isiah was my constant help:

I, the Lord your God hold your right hand: It is I who say to you "Fear not, I will help you."

Freddy Krueger

When the kids on Elm Street found themselves in a dream with Freddy Krueger, could they not make themselves wake up? This Freddy vs. Jason movie is cracking me up!

Freddie brought Jason back, and now he can't make him STOP!!

100 most influential Americans

from the December 2006 The Atlantic Monthly

The top 10 are:

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
5. Alexander Hamilton
6. Benjamin Franklin
7. John Marshall
8. Martin Luther King Jr.
9. Thomas Edison
10. Woodrow Wilson

nice-looking guy

A. J. Hawk, a rookie linebacker for the Green Bay Packers.

new Vmax!

I've bought a new Vmax, a 1999 one, though I've still got to pick it up in Philadelphia, where the current owner lives. Here's a collaged picture of it (click for a larger version). And if you want to buy your own Vmax, I've got a 1985 for sale.

"The Queen"

I saw "The Queen" today, with Helen Mirren, James Cromwell, et. al. I thought Mirren did a great job, but I didn't really understand the point of the movie, other than its being at attempt to show that someone could do a job imitating Queen Elizabeth II. Other than that, the movie (and definitely its soundtrack) could've done just fine on television. I didn't think there was much substance to the movie: it wasn't insubstantial, of course, but was, I thought, unsubstantial.

Here's Roger Ebert's review of the movie: I do agree that it was interesting to see the queen doing unqueenly like things, like driving her Range Rover, talking car mechanics with the Balmoral support staff, admiring a dead stag, etc.

"Prime Suspect 7"

Don't miss the final case of Helen Mirren as Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre this Sunday and then concluding on Sunday, the 19th.

MR2...Mister Mister...aka Meatwad

Meatwad...I like him!

quotes on life and death

From Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life, by Eugene O'Kelly.

For anything that men can tell, death may be
the greatest good that can happen to them:
but they fear it as if they know quite well
that is was the greatest of evils. And what is
this but that shameful ignorance of thinking
that we konw what we do not know?

• Socrates

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.

• Steven Wright
  

If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.

• Maria Edgeworth

May you live every day of your life.

• Jonathan Swift
  

"It is never good dwelling on good-byes," she said. "It is not the being together that it prolongs, it is the parting."

• Elizabeth Asquity Bibesco, "The Fir and the Palm"

There is no death! What seems so is transition;
this life of mortal breath
is but a suburb of the life Elysian,
whose portal we call Death.

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

best American work of fiction?

In the last 25 years? The New York Times Magazine said:

The Winner:

• Beloved Toni Morrison (1987)

The Runners-Up:

• Underworld Don DeLillo (1997)
• Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy (1985)
• Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels John Updike (1995)
• American Pastoral Philip Roth (1997)

The following books also received multiple votes:

• A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole (1980)
• Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson (1980)...and others
  

What's your connection's speed?

dreaming of dreaming

Is what we see or seem
but a dream within a dream?

• Edgar Allan Poe

Biloxi $5 note

I didn't even know there were such.

ocean fish in 2048

They're disappearing, quickly...


The world's fish and seafood populations will collapse by 2048 if current trends in habitat destruction and overfishing continue, researchers say.

calming the condemned

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-03-deathrowdrugs_x.htm

This combination of lethal injection drugs is posted on the wall in the equipment room next to the death chamber at Southern Ohio Corrections Facility in Lucasville, Ohio.

Andrew Mellon/Andrew Carnegie

"Andrew Mellon was daring capitalist, but a painfully shy man," said Steve Forbes in The Wall Street Journal. "From his 60s on, Mellon lived a dramatic public life--as a tax-cutting Treasury secretary, a scapegoat for the Depression, and a generous patron of the arts." A review by David Cannadine, concludes by saying that "if this man was a villain, here's hoping that America produces 'more such ill-lived lives.'"

Matthew Price in The New York Observer says of Andrew Carnegie, "Andrew Carnegie's early decades were the Horatio Alger story 'writ fabulously large.' and when the 4-foot-11 steel magnate decided to start giving away his money, he became a more ruthless businessman than he'd ever been before." "'There are more knots to untie in Carnegie than there are in 10 men.'"

• from this week's issue of The Week

repost of something important...hydration

WATER

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
(Likely applies to half world population)

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?

nice Biloxi pictures

Of the old days...well, at least the '60s and/or '70s:

East Biloxi, aka "the Point." It's the point of the Biloxi peninsula. Across the now-defunct bridge is Ocean Springs. Oh, it's so different now, not even counting Hurricane Katrina's destruction. No casinos, just shrimp boats and companies, as there were when my family moved to Biloxi in 1979.

This is a picture of the Broadwater Beach Hotel, so highly thought of. Presient Nixon stayed there after Hurricane Camille, on his visit to the coast. The President Casino had taken over lately, but the hotel has recently been razed, having been so damaged by Katrina. Sad.

fortune cookie

"Fate will find a way."

Like, "The future is coming"...or "The future's gonna happen"? Yeah.

US 90/Old Spanish Trail

I didn't know that old Highway 90 is part of the Old Spanish Trail. Begun in 1915, this trail was part of the "Good Roads" movement, a 2743-mile route running from San Diego, California, all the way across the U.S. to St. Augustine, Florida.

This is the oldest automobile road along the Gulf Coast, and was the first black-top link between Mobile and New Orleans.

Is Bush an idiot?

From Scarborough Country, on MSNBC:

some Bushisms

Of many...

"I think tide turning as I remember it, I was raised in the desert, but tides--it is easy to see a tide turn. Did I say those words?"

"No question that the enemy has tried to spread sectarian violence. They use violence as a tool to do that."

"We need an energy bill that encourages consumption."

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking of new ways to harm our country and our people. And neither do we; we must never stop thinking about how best to defend our country."

"I am the decider, and I decide what is best."

"The United States of America is engaged in a war against an extremist group of folks."

"Families is where our nation finds hope; where wings take dream."

"If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for--anything."

"If you don't stand for something, you don't stand for anything."

"Fool me once, shame on you--fool me--you can't get fooled again.

"In my State of the--my State of the Union--my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it."

"At the high school level and find out that the literacy level of our children are appalling."

"I hear there are rumors on the Internets that we are going have a draft."

"You are working hard to put food on family."

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."

"Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. If you a--you're a--"

"You have been given sovereignty, and you are viewed as--a sovereign entity. And, therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities."

"They muster--mis-underestimated the compassion of our country. I think they mis-underestimated the will and the determination of the commander in chief, too."

a profound quote to remember

"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace."

• Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (Nobel Prize 1952)