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Panacea for a Rainy Day: Freshly Popped Corn & Chai

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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.
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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”

 

 

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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!