Happy Mother's Day!

"Mothers are very important. Without mothers, there would be no fathers. Without fathers, there'd be no Father's Day, and without Father's Day, the tie and fountain pen industries would go out of business."

Tay Yek Keak of the Straits Times (LTW)

 
Sodom, Gomorrah and California

i thought this article by Ed Harrell was very funny!!!

This column comes to you this month from that notorious moral wasteland--CALIFORNIA. Can any good thing come out of California? Is it not true that at some time in the early twentieth century the whole country tilted and all of the loose nuts slid away to the West Coast?

Just in case the anxiety level of any readers is nearing a critical point, we should note that Focus Magazine is printed in Russellville, Alabama. That surely has some purifying effect.

Glib generalizations can color and distort our perceptions. For instance: "Yankees are rude." Not really; some of the most helpful and courteous people I have ever encountered lived in big northern cities. "Indians are spiritual and non-materialistic." So I thought when I moved to India for the first time twenty-seven years ago, but I have been cheated and lied to more in three years in India than in the rest of my life in the United States.

"Texans are loud." I made that one up after my trip to India this summer accompanied by David Owen, Tom Kinzel, Roger Shouse, and two Texans, Robert Gabhart and Russ Bowman. Ask David, Tom and Roger–Texans are loud. But my Texas theory, clearly proven by Gabhart and Bowman, was blown out of the water when I met a lot of strong, silent Texans on a recent trip there.

Or, consider my favorite generalization: "Southerners are courteous, friendly, and gracious people." That just goes to show that some generalizations are correct.

Now, a quick plug for California. Some of the best people you will ever meet, and some of the best churches you will ever visit, are in California. Consider, for instance, the three young, but not-too-young, editors of Focus. So pack away your regional prejudices and be prepared for some good California surprises.

There are good people and good churches in all sections of the United States and in many places outside this country. Each place presents its own challenges. In some places the challenge of worldliness is more pronounced; in other places, the chief enemy of true righteousness is a fossilized and traditional concept of the church of Jesus Christ.

Some challenges are probably tougher in California than in Alabama. Which makes me admire all the more the many fine Christians who live there. Anybody who can drive in Southern California without being stricken with road rage, or at least cussin’ a little, has learned a lot about patience and self-control.

Easy generalizations can hinder our work as Christians. It would be a mistake to think that nothing good could come out of Nazareth, or that the righteous can not eat with sinners, or that Gentiles could not be a part of the kingdom of God.

Prejudice is a wicked thing. Christ liberated us from all ethnic, class, and racial barriers and placed us in an environment "where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3: 11).

Christianity can bloom anywhere that there are people who are willing to take up their cross and follow Jesus. I am thankful for the thousands who have made that commitment in California, as well as in all other places.

Travel has certainly broadened my view of the world and made me less likely to accept easy stereotypes.

Still, all in all, on the whole, in my experience, Texans are loud.

 
Quirky Post-Its

who says rgs girls are dull? here are some raunchy messages siuyo and i have passed to each other under the desk (usually during chinese or geography) over the years:

b: Xiaoying will ya marry me?
s: Heh, heh. I'll love to but polygamy's illegal in Singapore. Let's elope!

s: Vanessa, my honey, bunny, funny, have you any money? Darling, I'll give you some paper today & chem. notes to draw cartoons (do you have french?), alpha orange, beta blue, gamma purple. Tomorrow, before softball, we can colour together.

s: Darlin, Do you have magic markers which can be used to colour cartoons? Do you have to leave straight after school for drama centre? X.

s: Ok - You'll do a bit at home and then we can do before softball next week. Sigh, then I'll have to get someone else to do content page. I had this image of both of us eating in class together and colouring chem. *SNIF*

 

I am a jelly doughnut

In his famous speech in Berlin, J. F. Kennedy, the president of the United States, announced Ich bin ein Berliner.

This is frequently (and willfully?!) misconstrued as translating to the English phrase I am a jelly doughnut. While the German word Berliner indeed also refers to a German bakery deli, and a naive learner of the German language might be lead to believe Kennedy only embarrassed himself, it was actually never conceived in this meaning by the German audience.

For a scholarly discussion, see the following journal article: Eichhoff, Juergen; Monatshefte, 85 no 1, (1993) p. 71. Ich bin ein Berliner: A History and a Linguistic Clarification.

Summary: President John F. Kennedy's well-known exclamation has been often declared to be incorrect German, causing the President to be totally misunderstood by his audience. It is shown here that and why the statement, translated for Kennedy by a native speaker of German, is the correct and the only correct way of expressing in German what the President wanted to say. 1995-10

 
Hmmm....I have learnt that there is a drawback to buying the cheap $1.90 karaoke VCDs: they only have one track and so don't have the option of switching off the voice track so you can hear yourself better. Then again, that may not be all a bad thing....unless singing a Celine Dion disc and wondering why she can warble so high....anyway, my new hobby is singing in the night. Maybe the new neighbours will move out.....like the last two did. Realized that slow and drawn out weepy songs are easier than the "beat-y" tongue twister type like "American Pie" (don't even think of "Vanilla Ice"). Home karaoke is quite pleasing in its own rights (although no one will fetch you coke and nibbles when you press a button)