Posted on Leave a comment

Panacea for a Rainy Day: Freshly Popped Corn & Chai

P1695
P1696
P1697
P1698

Posted on Leave a comment

On This Day: April 30

Updated April 29, 2012, 2:28 pm

NYT Front Page

On April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces.
Go to article »

On April 30, 1902, Theodore Schultz, the American economist who won a Nobel Prize for his important studies of the human factor in the workplace, was born. Following his death on February 26, 1998, his obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

 

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1789 George Washington took office in New York as the first president of the United States.
1803 The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France.
1812 Louisiana became the 18th state.
1859 “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens was first published in serial form in a literary magazine.
1900 Hawaii was organized as a U.S. territory.
1939 The New York World’s Fair opened.
1958 The American Association of Retired Persons was founded in Washington, D.C.
1970 President Richard Nixon announced the United States was sending troops into Cambodia.
1975 The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces.
1993 Top-ranked women’s tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back by a man who ran onto the court during a match in Hamburg, Germany.
1997 ABC aired the “coming out” episode of the sitcom “Ellen,” in which the title character, played by Ellen DeGeneres, admitted she is a lesbian.
2001 Chandra Levy, a federal government intern, went missing in Washington, D.C. (Her remains were found more than a year later in a city park.)
2003 Mahmoud Abbas took office as the first Palestinian prime minister.
2005 Missing Georgia woman Jennifer Wilbanks, the so-called “runaway bride,” turned up in Albuquerque, N.M.
2009 Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection.
2009 British forces exited Iraq.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Johnny Galecki, Actor (“The Big Bang Theory”)

Actor Johnny Galecki (“The Big Bang Theory”) turns 37 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

Dianna Agron, Actress (“Glee”)

Actress Dianna Agron (“Glee”) turns 26 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

1926 Cloris Leachman, Actress (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Phyllis”), turns 86
1933 Willie Nelson, Country singer, turns 79
1938 Gary Collins, Talk show host, turns 74
1940 Burt Young, Actor, turns 72
1943 Bobby Vee, Singer, turns 69
1953 Merrill Osmond, Singer (The Osmonds), turns 59
1954 Jane Campion, Director (“The Piano”), turns 58
1959 Stephen Harper, Prime minister of Canada, turns 53
1961 Isiah Thomas, Basketball Hall of Famer, turns 51
1965 Adrian Pasdar, Actor (“Heroes”), turns 47
1973 Akon, R&B singer, turns 39
1981 Kunal Nayyar, Actor (“Big Bang Theory”), turns 31
1982 Kirsten Dunst, Actress, turns 30

 

Historic Birthdays

Theodore Schultz 4/30/1902 – 2/26/1998 American economist, Nobel Prize 1979.Go to obituary »
68 St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle 4/30/1651 – 4/7/1719
French philanthropist and founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools
87 David Thompson 4/30/1770 – 2/10/1857
English explorer and fur trader in western Canada and the United States
82 Eugen Bleuler 4/30/1857 – 7/15/1939
Swiss psychiatrist; pioneered study of schizophrenics
86 John Crowe Ransom 4/30/1888 – 7/4/1974
American poet and critic
53 Joachim von Ribbentrop 4/30/1893 – 10/16/1946
German foreign minister under the Nazi regime (1933-45)
84 Simon Kuznets 4/30/1901 – 7/8/1985
Russian-born American Nobel Prize-winning economist and statistician
82 Eve Arden 4/30/1908 – 11/12/1990
American radio and television actress
82 Vermont Royster 4/30/1914 – 7/22/1996
American journalist and editor of The Wall Street Journal
83 Robert Shaw 4/30/1916 – 1/25/1999
American choral and orchestra conductor
78 Franz Lehar 4/30/1870 – 10/24/1948
Hungarian composer; wrote “The Merry Widow”

 

 

Posted on Leave a comment

April 30

MORNING

“His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers.”
Song of Solomon 5:13

Lo, the flowery month is come! March winds and April showers have done their work, and the earth is all bedecked with beauty. Come my soul, put on thine holiday attire and go forth to gather garlands of heavenly thoughts. Thou knowest whither to betake thyself, for to thee “the beds of spices” are well known, and thou hast so often smelt the perfume of “the sweet flowers,” that thou wilt go at once to thy well-beloved and find all loveliness, all joy in him. That cheek once so rudely smitten with a rod, oft bedewed with tears of sympathy and then defiled with spittle–that cheek as it smiles with mercy is as fragrant aromatic to my heart. Thou didst not hide thy face from shame and spitting, O Lord Jesus, and therefore I will find my dearest delight in praising thee. Those cheeks were furrowed by the plough of grief, and crimsoned with red lines of blood from thy thorn-crowned temples; such marks of love unbounded cannot but charm my soul far more than “pillars of perfume.” If I may not see the whole of his face I would behold his cheeks, for the least glimpse of him is exceedingly refreshing to my spiritual sense and yields a variety of delights. In Jesus I find not only fragrance, but a bed of spices; not one flower, but all manner of sweet flowers. He is to me my rose and my lily, my heartsease and my cluster of camphire. When he is with me it is May all the year round, and my soul goes forth to wash her happy face in the morning-dew of his grace, and to solace herself with the singing of the birds of his promises. Precious Lord Jesus, let me in very deed know the blessedness which dwells in abiding, unbroken fellowship with thee. I am a poor worthless one, whose cheek thou hast deigned to kiss! O let me kiss thee in return with the kisses of my lips.

EVENING

“I am the rose of Sharon.”
Song of Solomon 2:1

Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world in a tenfold degree. Amongst flowers the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can be in the gardens of earth. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark in comparison with him, for the King in his beauty transcends all. “I am the rose of Sharon.” This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not “the rose” alone, he is “the rose of Sharon,” just as he calls his righteousness “gold,” and then adds, “the gold of Ophir”–the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest. There is variety in his charms. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell, finds appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of his love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume. Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ, nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate him. Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the rose of Sharon. What emblem can fully set forth his beauty? Human speech and earth-born things fail to tell of him. Earth’s choicest charms commingled, feebly picture his abounding preciousness. Blessed rose, bloom in my heart forever!

 

Posted on Leave a comment

A Baby Monarch In the Making: Not So Great a Camouflage

P1682

Posted on Leave a comment

Second Cup on the Patio: Before the Day Picks Up

P1677

Posted on Leave a comment

On This Day: April 29

Updated April 28, 2012, 2:29 pm

NYT Front Page

On April 29, 1992, deadly rioting that claimed 54 lives and caused $1 billion in damage erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
Go to article »

On April 29, 1901, Hirohito, ruler of Japan during World War II and Japan’s longest-reigning monarch, was born. Following his death on Jan. 7, 1989, his obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

 

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1429 Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English.
1861 Maryland’s House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union.
1862 New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War.
1899 Jazz musician and bandleader Duke Ellington was born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, D.C.
1916 The Easter uprising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities.
1945 Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler married his longtime mistress Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker. (The couple killed themselves the next day.)
1945 American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
1981 Truck driver Peter Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the “Yorkshire Ripper,” the killer of 13 women in northern England over five years.
1992 Rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Fifty-four people were killed.
1996 The musical “Rent” opened on Broadway.
1997 A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Uma Thurman, Actress

Actress Uma Thurman turns 42 years old today.

AP Photo/Evan Agostini

Jerry Seinfeld, Actor, comedian (“Seinfeld”)

Actor-comedian Jerry Seinfeld (“Seinfeld”) turns 58 years old today.

AP Photo/Charles Sykes

1917 Celeste Holm, Actress, turns 95
1933 Rod McKuen, Poet, turns 79
1934 Luis Aparicio, Baseball Hall of Famer, turns 78
1934 Otis Rush, Blues musician, turns 78
1936 Zubin Mehta, Conductor, turns 76
1943 Duane Allen, Country singer (The Oak Ridge Boys), turns 69
1947 Tommy James, Singer (The Shondells), turns 65
1950 Debbie Stabenow, U.S. senator, D-Mich., turns 62
1955 Kate Mulgrew, Actress (“Star Trek: Voyager”), turns 57
1957 Daniel Day-Lewis, Actor, turns 55
1958 Michelle Pfeiffer, Actress, turns 54
1958 Eve Plumb, Actress (“The Brady Bunch”), turns 54
1968 Carnie Wilson, Singer (Wilson Phillips), turns 44
1970 Andre Agassi, Tennis player, turns 42
1983 Tommie Harris, Football player, turns 29

 

Historic Birthdays

Hirohito 4/29/1901 – 1/7/1989 Japanese emperor (1926-89).Go to obituary »
62 Oliver Ellsworth 4/29/1745 – 11/26/1807
American senator, jurist and chief author of the Judiciary Act of 1789
63 Alexander II 4/29/1818 – 3/13/1881
Russian emperor (1855-81); emancipated the serfs in 1861
58 Henri Poincare 4/29/1854 – 7/17/1912
French mathematician, theoretical astronomer and scientific philosopher
88 William Randolph Hearst 4/29/1863 – 8/14/1951
American newspaper publisher
82 Sir Thomas Beecham 4/29/1879 – 3/8/1961
English conductor and impresario
88 Harold Urey 4/29/1893 – 1/5/1981
American Nobel-Prize winning chemist (1934); helped develop the atom bomb
72 Sir Malcolm Sargent 4/29/1895 – 10/3/1967
English orchestra conductor
75 Duke Ellington 4/29/1899 – 5/24/1974
American composer, bandleader and pianist; a founder of big-band jazz
90 Fred Zinnemann 4/29/1907 – 3/14/1997
Austrian-born American motion-picture director
72 George Allen 4/29/1918 – 12/31/1990
American professional football coach

 

 

Posted on Leave a comment

April 29

MORNING

“And all the children of Israel murmured.”
Numbers 14:2

There are murmurers amongst Christians now, as there were in the camp of Israel of old. There are those who, when the rod falls, cry out against the afflictive dispensation. They ask, “Why am I thus afflicted? What have I done to be chastened in this manner?” A word with thee, O murmurer! Why shouldst thou murmur against the dispensations of thy heavenly Father? Can he treat thee more hardly than thou deservest? Consider what a rebel thou wast once, but he has pardoned thee! Surely, if he in his wisdom sees fit now to chasten thee, thou shouldst not complain. After all, art thou smitten as hardly as thy sins deserve? Consider the corruption which is in thy breast, and then wilt thou wonder that there needs so much of the rod to fetch it out? Weigh thyself, and discern how much dross is mingled with thy gold; and dost thou think the fire too hot to purge away so much dross as thou hast? Does not that proud rebellious spirit of thine prove that thy heart is not thoroughly sanctified? Are not those murmuring words contrary to the holy submissive nature of God’s children? Is not the correction needed? But if thou wilt murmur against the chastening, take heed, for it will go hard with murmurers. God always chastises his children twice, if they do not bear the first stroke patiently. But know one thing–“He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” All his corrections are sent in love, to purify thee, and to draw thee nearer to himself. Surely it must help thee to bear the chastening with resignation if thou art able to recognize thy Father’s hand. For “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.” “Murmur not as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer.”

EVENING

“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God.”
Psalm 139:17

Divine omniscience affords no comfort to the ungodly mind, but to the child of God it overflows with consolation. God is always thinking upon us, never turns aside his mind from us, has us always before his eyes; and this is precisely as we would have it, for it would be dreadful to exist for a moment beyond the observation of our heavenly Father. His thoughts are always tender, loving, wise, prudent, far-reaching, and they bring to us countless benefits: hence it is a choice delight to remember them. The Lord always did think upon his people: hence their election and the covenant of grace by which their salvation is secured; he always will think upon them: hence their final perseverance by which they shall be brought safely to their final rest. In all our wanderings the watchful glance of the Eternal Watcher is evermore fixed upon us–we never roam beyond the Shepherd’s eye. In our sorrows he observes us incessantly, and not a pang escapes him; in our toils he marks all our weariness, and writes in his book all the struggles of his faithful ones. These thoughts of the Lord encompass us in all our paths, and penetrate the innermost region of our being. Not a nerve or tissue, valve or vessel, of our bodily organization is uncared for; all the littles of our little world are thought upon by the great God.

Dear reader, is this precious to you? then hold to it. Never be led astray by those philosophic fools who preach up an impersonal God, and talk of self-existent, self-governing matter. The Lord liveth and thinketh upon us, this is a truth far too precious for us to be lightly robbed of it. The notice of a nobleman is valued so highly that he who has it counts his fortune made; but what is it to be thought of by the King of kings! If the Lord thinketh upon us, all is well, and we may rejoice evermore.

 

Posted on Leave a comment

I Know… (but) I Do Not Know!

What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.

– Augustine of Hippo (354-430AD)