Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
…especially when you’re Sweet Sixteen!
Updated June 18, 2012, 2:28 pm
On June 19, 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
On June 19, 1903, Lou Gehrig, the New York Yankees first baseman from 1925 to 1939, was born. Following his death on June 2, 1941, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1586 English colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in America. 1862 Slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories. 1903 Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig was born in New York City. 1910 Father’s Day was celebrated for the first time, in Spokane, Wash. 1917 During World War I, King George V changed the British royal family’s German-sounding surname, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor. 1934 The Federal Communications Commission was created. 1961 The Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland’s constitution requiring state officeholders to profess a belief in God. 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after an 83-day filibuster in the U.S. Senate. 1987 The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creation science as well. 1999 Britain’s Prince Edward married commoner Sophie Rhys-Jones in Windsor, England. 2000 The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, barred officials from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer before football games. 2007 A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque in central Baghdad, killing at least 87 people. 2008 Democrat Barack Obama announced he would bypass public financing for the presidential election, even though Republican John McCain was accepting it. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) turns 40 years old today.
AP Photo/Joel Ryan
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki turns 34 years old today.
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
1930 Gena Rowlands, Actress, turns 82 1945 Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner, turns 67 1947 Salman Rushdie, Author, turns 65 1948 Phylicia Rashad, Actress (“The Cosby Show”), turns 64 1950 Ann Wilson, Rock singer (Heart), turns 62 1954 Kathleen Turner, Actress, turns 58 1955 Mary Schapiro, SEC chairwoman, turns 57 1962 Paula Abdul, Singer, TV personality (“American Idol”), turns 50 1970 Michael Trucco, Actor (“Battlestar Galactica”), turns 42 1972 Robin Tunney, Actress, turns 40 1975 Poppy Montgomery, Actress, turns 37 1978 Zoe Saldana, Actress (“Avatar”), turns 34 1980 Lauren Lee Smith, Actress (“CSI”), turns 32 1998 Atticus Shaffer, Actor (“The Middle”), turns 14
Historic Birthdays
Lou Gehrig 6/19/1903 – 6/2/1941 American professional baseball player.Go to obituary »
39 Blaise Pascal 6/19/1623 – 8/19/1662
French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher89 Thomas Sully 6/19/1783 – 11/5/1872
American portrait painter83 William Henry Webb 6/19/1816 – 10/30/1899
American naval architect and shipbuilder58 Elbert Hubbard 6/19/1856 – 5/7/1915
American editor, publisher and author85 Laura Hobson 6/19/1900 – 2/28/1986
American novelist and short story writer65 James J. Walker 6/19/1881 – 11/18/1946
American politician; mayor of New York City (1925-32)89 Wallis Warfield Windsor 6/19/1896 – 4/24/1986
American who married the Duke of Windsor75 Guy Lombardo 6/19/1902 – 11/5/1977
Canadian-born American dance-band leader75 Paul Flory 6/19/1910 – 9/9/1985
American Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1974)71 Abe Fortas 6/19/1910 – 4/5/1982
American lawyer and associate justice of the Supreme Court (1965-69)38 Viktor Patsayev 6/19/1933 – 6/29/1971
Russian cosmonaut; died in space
MORNING
“For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.”
Amos 9:9Every sifting comes by divine command and permission. Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger upon Job. Nay, more, in some sense our siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text says, “I will sift the house of Israel.” Satan, like a drudge, may hold the sieve, hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the Master is accomplishing the purity of the grain by the very process which the enemy intended to be destructive. Precious, but much sifted corn of the Lord’s floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth both flail and sieve to his own glory, and to thine eternal profit.
The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in his hand, and will divide the precious from the vile. All are not Israel that are of Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender, and hence the winnowing process must be performed. In the sieve true weight alone has power. Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before the wind, and only solid corn will remain.
Observe the complete safety of the Lord’s wheat; even the least grain has a promise of preservation. God himself sifts, and therefore it is stern and terrible work; he sifts them in all places, “among all nations”; he sifts them in the most effectual manner, “like as corn is sifted in a sieve”; and yet for all this, not the smallest, lightest, or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground. Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child, nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of his redeemed people. However little we may be, if we are the Lord’s, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus.
EVENING
“Straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.”
Mark 1:18When they heard the call of Jesus, Simon and Andrew obeyed at once without demur. If we would always, punctually and with resolute zeal, put in practice what we hear upon the spot, or at the first fit occasion, our attendance at the means of grace, and our reading of good books, could not fail to enrich us spiritually. He will not lose his loaf who has taken care at once to eat it, neither can he be deprived of the benefit of the doctrine who has already acted upon it. Most readers and hearers become moved so far as to purpose to amend; but, alas! the proposal is a blossom which has not been knit, and therefore no fruit comes of it; they wait, they waver, and then they forget, till, like the ponds in nights of frost, when the sun shines by day, they are only thawed in time to be frozen again. That fatal to-morrow is blood-red with the murder of fair resolutions; it is the slaughter-house of the innocents. We are very concerned that our little book of “Evening Readings” should not be fruitless, and therefore we pray that readers may not be readers only, but doers, of the word. The practice of truth is the most profitable reading of it. Should the reader be impressed with any duty while perusing these pages, let him hasten to fulfil it before the holy glow has departed from his soul, and let him leave his nets, and all that he has, sooner than be found rebellious to the Master’s call. Do not give place to the devil by delay! Haste while opportunity and quickening are in happy conjunction. Do not be caught in your own nets, but break the meshes of worldliness, and away where glory calls you. Happy is the writer who shall meet with readers resolved to carry out his teachings: his harvest shall be a hundredfold, and his Master shall have great honour. Would to God that such might be our reward upon these brief meditations and hurried hints. Grant it, O Lord, unto thy servant!
Third Sunday In June
The Google logo today shows an image of a kid running ahead of a guy who is presumably the Dad, and a kite is flying along behind them as if to imply that they’re going to fly the kite. Nice. It reminds me of my own childhood of my father teaching me how to fly a kite from our rooftop on late Spring afternoons.
The kite-flying was only one of several things that my Dad taught me how to do, and one of several things that I learnt well (the others I didn’t take to quite so easily or so well!). Some other things he taught me to do:
But beyond all this, my father taught me a few other things as well. Here’s a very small list. He taught me:
So, yes, the image of the kite does remind me of many things today. Also, it makes me reflect on what that means to me, and the fact that I have been privileged to have a loving father.
Here’s hoping for many more such years of treasuring my father and of reminiscing on our relationship on this third Sunday in June each year.
We spend less of our money on groceries than we did 30 years ago.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR
The way we spend our grocery money has also changed.
We now spend a much bigger share of our grocery money on processed foods, which includes things like frozen dinners, canned soups and snacks. We spend much less on meat, largely because meat is much cheaper than it was 30 years ago.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR
“We’ve seen major restructuring in poultry, pork and beef industries that has allowed efficiencies and brought down the cost,” Walter Falcon, a Stanford economist who’s an expert on food, told me.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR
Here’s one more chart for you if you want to compare prices then and now:
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR
Served with love at the graduation garden party of my firstborn on June 9, 2012. Most of them prepared at home, including the fabulous veggie and fruit platters!
