Is there a religion today that would not benefit from calling home its missionaries and setting them to work among its hypocrites?
— Robert Brault
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A skeptic doubts the best authority; an enthusiast is likely to accept the poorest.
— James Lendall Basford
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All the Negro asks is that the door which rewards industry, thrift, intelligence, and character be left as wide open to him as for the foreigner who constantly comes to our country. More than this he has no right to request. Less than this a republic has no right to withhold.
The 1991 song “Wind of Change” by The Scorpions is a beautiful ballad, which is unusual for a heavy metal band. It celebrates the collapse of the Soviet Union and new hope for a peaceful future.
The depressing fact that Glasnost and perestroika fizzled out, that very little changed, makes the song ironic and sad, but no less compelling.
The Scorpions, a German band from Hanover that formed in 1965, is still active today. They have sold an amazing 100 million albums worldwide.
Lead singer Klaus Meine (who also provides the song’s excellent whistling) was inspired to write “Wind of Change” after the band performed at the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival, to the cheers of 300,000 Russian fans. Hopeful times, indeed.
Recently, due to Putin’s war on Ukraine, the band changed the song’s opening lyrics. The original was “I follow the Moskva [Moscow River] down to Gorky Park, listening to the wind of change.” The opening today is “Now listen to my heart. It says ‘Ukraine,’ waiting for the wind to change.”
Wind of Change
By The Scorpions, 1991 Written by Klaus Meine
I follow the Moskva Down to Gorky Park, Listening to the wind of change. An August summer night, Soldiers passing by, Listening to the wind of change.
The world is closing in, And did you ever think That we could be so close, Like brothers? The future’s in the air. I can feel it everywhere. I’m blowing with the wind of change.
Take me To the magic of the moment On a glory night, Where the children of tomorrow Dream away In the wind of change.
Walking down the street, And distant memories Are buried in the past, forever. I follow the Moskva Down to Gorky Park, Listening to the wind of change.
Take me To the magic of the moment On a glory night, Where the children of tomorrow Share their dreams With you and me.
Take me To the magic of the moment On a glory night, Where the children of tomorrow Dream away In the wind of change.
The wind of change blows straight Into that face of time, Like a storm wind that will ring The freedom bell for peace of mind. Let your balalaika sing What my guitar wants to say.
Take me To the magic of the moment On a glory night, Where the children of tomorrow Share their dreams With you and me.
Take me To the magic of the moment On a glory night, Where the children of tomorrow Dream away In the wind of change.
2. Most US colleges and universities recognize top academic achievement with three levels of honors: cum laude (top 20-30 percent of graduates), magna cum laude (top 5-15 percent), and summa cum laude (top 1-5 percent). What do the three Latin terms mean in English?
3. How long ago is “four score and seven years” ago?
4. What are the singular forms of the words spaghetti, ravioli, and confetti?
5. Why is the Golden Gate Bridge so named?
The Answers…
1. 12 American astronauts have walked on the Moon. Namely, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Ed Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Gene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt.
2. Cum laude means “with praise.” Magna cum laude means “with great praise.” Summa cum laude means “with highest praise.”
3. 87 years, a score being 20 years. Lincoln began his Gettysburg Address with that phrase in 1863, referring to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
4. Spaghetto, raviolo, and confetto, of course.
5. The bridge is so named because it spans the Golden Gate Strait, where San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean.
NAPLES, FLORIDA — Biologists have captured an 18-foot Burmese python in the Florida Everglades that weighed 218 pounds, the heaviest on record.
Burmese pythons are an invasive species from Southeast Asia first found in the Everglades in the 1990s. The snakes have no natural enemies and threaten a range of native mammals, birds, and reptiles.
The captured snake was a female carrying 122 developing eggs, which were destroyed along with the mother. A postmortem showed that the snake’s last meal was a whitetail deer.
Importing the pythons was banned by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2012, but the snakes thrive in the South Florida wetlands. Their current population is about one million.
Over 1,000 Burmese pythons have been eliminated in Florida since 2013. Typically, biologists implant radio transmitters in male snakes, which always seek out the largest females, and follow the signals. Eliminating females is considered the best way to interrupt the breeding cycle.
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — A South Korean software engineer marked the demise of Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s much-maligned browser, by erecting a tombstone with the epitaph, “He was a good tool to download other browsers.”
The engineer said Explorer was “a pain in the ass,” but he was forced to use it because Explorer was the default browser for so many government and business offices.
Explorer was launched in 1995. It came pre-installed on billions of computers equipped with the Windows operating system and quickly became the world’s leading browser. But many considered Explorer to be sluggish and flawed, and by the late 2000s, Google Chrome took over as the top browser.
In June, Microsoft retired Internet Explorer to focus on the Microsoft Edge browser, which was released in 2015.
“I won’t miss it,” the software engineer said of Explorer’s passing. “Its retirement, to me, is a good death.”
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — The government of New Zealand and the country’s agriculture industry have jointly agreed to a tax on methane emissions by sheep and cattle, to be paid by farmers and the farming industry.
Currently, agricultural emissions are exempt from such taxation, and pressure has increased for industry and the government to take action.
New Zealand, population five million, is home to 26 million sheep and 10 million cows, which are the source of about half of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The plan hopes to reduce methane emissions at manure treatment facilities as well as from the belching of farm animals.
Under the plan, farmers and agricultural businesses can reduce their methane taxes via such methods as using feed additives that minimize belching and placing covers on manure ponds.
Worldwide, agriculture is the largest source of methane emissions caused by human activity. In the U.S., agriculture causes about one-third of total methane emissions, and the oil and gas industry causes another third.
Rap, or, if you prefer, hip-hop, is a low form of art. It’s sort of the bastard offspring of music and poetry, manifesting as a kind of chanting. The expression “rap is crap” sums it up nicely.
But about 10 years ago, a Brooklyn music producer named Oscar Owens, aka Rench, found a way, more or less, to rescue rap from itself. He blended it with bluegrass, creating a new genre that, God help me, I find acceptable as music.
Rench formed the band Gangstagrass, a mixed bag of musicians that delivered the theme song of the popular TV series “Justified.” That tune, “Long Hard Times to Come,” was a collaboration between Gangstagrass and the rapper T.O.N.E-z.
Gangstagrass band members today are (left to right below) Dan Whitener (vocals/banjo), Dolio the Sleuth (vocals), Rench (vocals/guitar), R-Son The Voice of Reason (vocals), and Brian Farrow (vocals/fiddle).
Long Hard Times to Come
By Gangstagrass (Featuring T.O.N.E-z), 2010 Written by Rench and T.O.N.E-z
On this lonely road, Tryin’ to make it home. Doin’ it by my lonesome. Pissed off, who wants some. I’m fightin’ for my soul. God get at you, boy. You try to Bogart, fall back, I go hard.
On this lonely road, Tryin’ to make it home. Doin’ it by my lonesome. Pissed off, who wants some. I see them long hard times to come.
My life is ill, son. Prepared to kill, son. A paradox of pain, baby. It’s real, son. Lonely traveler. Ain’t tryin’ to battle ya. But if you’re feelin’ tough, dog, I welcome all challengers.
Ain’t got no family. You see, there’s one of me. Might lose your pulse Standing two feet in front of me. I’m pissed at the world, But I ain’t lookin’ for trouble. I might crack a grin. I ain’t looking ‘to hug you.
Think about it: Nobody wants to die. There’s rules to this game, son. I’m justified. I’m ready to go, partner. Hey, I’m on the run. The devil’s huggin’ on my boots. That’s why I own a gun.
This journey’s too long. I’m lookin’ for some answers. So much time stressin’, I forget the questions. I fear no man. You don’t want no problems, B. Eyes in the back of my head. You better not follow me.
On this lonely road, Tryin’ to make it home. Doin’ it by my lonesome. Pissed off, who wants some. I’m fightin’ for my soul. God get at you, boy. You try to Bogart, fall back, I go hard.
On this lonely road, Tryin’ to make it home. Doin’ it by my lonesome. Pissed off, who wants some. I see them long hard times to come.
You probably think I’m crazy, Or got some loose screws. But that’s alright, though. I’m-a do me, you do you. So how you judgin’ me? I’m just tryin’ to survive.
And if the time comes, I ain’t tryin’ to die. I’m just tryin’ to fly And get a little love. Find me a dime piece And get a little hug.
Hook the car up, Hit the bar up, Clean the scars up, Hey, yo, the star’s up. Hey, this is the life of an outlaw.
We ain’t promised tomorrow. I’m livin’ now, dog. I’m walkin’ through life, But yo, my feet hurt. All my blessings are fed. Man, I’ll rest when I’m dead.
Look through my eyes And see the real world. Take a walk with me. Have a talk with me. Where we end up, God only knows. Strap your boots on tight, You might be alright.
On this lonely road, Tryin’ to make it home. Doin’ it by my lonesome. Pissed off, who wants some. I’m fightin’ for my soul. God get at you, boy. You try to Bogart, fall back, I go hard.
On this lonely road, Tryin’ to make it home. Doin’ it by my lonesome. Pissed off, who wants some. I see them long hard times to come.
On this lonely road, Tryin’ to make it home. Doin’ it by my lonesome. Pissed off, who wants some. I’m fightin’ for my soul. God get at you, boy. You try to Bogart, fall back, I go hard.
On this lonely road, Tryin’ to make it home. Doin’ it by my lonesome. Pissed off, who wants some. I see them long hard times to come.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
— George Bernard Shaw
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Religion is poison because it asks us to give up our most precious faculty, which is that of reason, and to believe things without evidence. It then asks us to respect this, which it calls faith.
— Christopher Hitchens
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The facts may tell you one thing, but God is not limited by the facts. Choose faith in spite of the facts.
— Joel Osteen
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Global air travel is a miracle when you stop to think about it. But no one does. Instead, we’ve made the very angels ordinary. And … we’re left with nothing but our contempt for the familiar.
1. The mythological griffin (or griffon, or gryphon) is a combination of what two animals?
2. What US president took the oath of office using his nickname instead of his given name?
3. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in 1939. What is his origin story?
4. What do you call the slot in the shaft of an arrow where the bowstring fits?
5. What was the profession of the seven dwarfs, the characters in the 1812 German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm?
The Answers…
1. An eagle and a lion.
2. Jimmy Carter.
3. Rudolph was created by the Montgomery Ward department store chain as a Christmas promotion. Bob May, a copywriter in the MW advertising department, wrote the story about shy little Rudolph leading Santa’s sleigh, etc., and an illustrated version of the story was printed and made available to shoppers.
4. The nock.
5. They were miners. Or, in the parlance of 1812, delvers.
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