A Quote to Start Things Off

""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York. The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression. Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another. Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23

Monday, April 5, 2021

D is for Doctor

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter D

In the original version of  You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, in between production numbers they would run a series of vignettes that were generally taken directly from Peanut's cartoons.  In one such vignette Linus and Charlie Brown are discussing an information form they had to fill out for school.  Linus says to Charlie Brown when they asked for family physician I wasn't sure, so I just wrote down Dr. Seuss.

The bit speaks for multiple generations of children that Theodore  Seuss Geisel delivered the best medicine to through his auspicious career as a children's author and illustrator. 



Who does the Dr. look like?









That's what I thought.



That's more like it.

Years lived before 1921: Seventeen
Years lived after 1921: Seventy

"It's fun to have fun you just have to know how" - The Cat in the Hat. 

Using a combination of poetry, linguistic calisthenics, an out of this world imagination and the artistic talent to match Dr. Seuss knew how to have fun and share it with the world. Geisel  shared this fun with his readers writing over 60  books over 50 years while employing various pseudonyms.  His work lent itself quite nicely to the television as well as the movies. Everyone seems to have a favorite Dr. Seuss story.  For me. it's Green Eggs and Ham.  I loved reading it as a kid and that joy was only surpassed by the joy I had of reading it to my own kids.  

When I think of Dr. Seuss I think of Beginner Books which has the slogan "I can read it all by myself". So I think it is very appropriate to show a video of a child doing just that with the book In a People house. 









A To Z Easter Eggs


 A to Z ArchivesDr, Seuss and More at HSD. Written in March of 2011 for Dr Seuss' birthday, this post is more about people with common ties with Geissel, such as the nickname Ted, the title Dr. being born on March 2nd or in 1904. 

Born on March 2nd and 10 Songs at Random Acts of Roller.  When I wrote Born on March 2nd, I did not realize I had done pretty much the same thing 10 years ago in one of the sections pf Dr. Seuss and more. 10 songs contains a song featuring  Allen Sherman voicing the Cat in the Hat in the original television special. 


 After you've looked at the additional content from my other blogs head back to the challenge and explore continue exploring.


Sunday, April 4, 2021

1921 A Tale of 13 Presidents

 Happy Easter!


Sundays are traditionally days off for the A to Z challenge and while this Sunday is no exception, I have decided to include an A to Z Easter egg today by listing all the presidents of the U.S. who were alive in 1921 either before, during or after their presidency. I have the two presidents who were in office in 1921 in bold.  

1921 President Chart

#. President
(date of birth-date of death)
Time in office Years lived prior to 1921Years lived after 1921
26. William Howard Taft
(9/15/1857-3/18/1930)
1909-1913649
27. Woodrow Wilson
(12/28/1856-2/3/1924)
1913-1921653
28. Warren G. Harding
(11/2/1865-8/2/1923
1921-1923562
29 Calvin Coolidge
(7/4/1873 - 9/5/1933
1923-19294812
30. Herbert Hoover
(8/10/1874-10/20/1964)
1929-19334743
31. Franklin Roosevelt
(1/30/1882 - 4/12/1945)
1933-19453924
32. Harry S Truman
(5/8/1884 -12/6/1972)
1945-19533751
33. Dwight D. Eisenhower
 (10/14/1890 -3/28/1969)
1953-19613148
34. John F. Kennedy
(5/29/1917 -11/22/1963)
1961-1963442
35. Lyndon B Johnson
(8/27/1908 -1/22/1973)
1963-19691352
36. Richard M. Nixon
(1/9/1913 -4/22/1994)
1969-1974873
37. Gerald R. Ford
(7/14/1913 -12/26/2006)
1974=1977885
39. Ronald Reagan
(2/6/1911 - 6/5/2004)
1981-19891083

The A to Z challenge will resume on Monday with the letter D.  Before I go, speaking of Monday, Easter Eggs and the U.S. Presidency, traditionally the Monday after Easter is the Egg Roll on the lawn of the Whitehouse.  It has been cancelled this year but the White House Historic Association is hosting virtual online egg roll activities including this Easter Egg Roll Bingo sheet.

Enjoy your Easter Sunday. Remember that it was a stone not an Easter Egg that was rolled away That Jesus was risen, He was risen in deed,


Saturday, April 3, 2021

C is for C.S.

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter C 

                                            C.S. Lewis
                                            Years lived before 1921: Twenty-three
                                            Years lived after 1921: Forty-Two
 

Clive Staples(C.S.) Lewis was a professor, author, apologist and theologian.  Lewis was born in 1898 in Ireland, but he is best known as being from Oxford, England where he essentially lived from 1917 to his death in 1963.

The two most influential women in Lewis's life was his mother who died when he was 9 and his wife Joy Davidman Gresham who came to faith in Christ through reading Lewis's books. Both women died of cancer.

Lewis, who is certainly my favorite author, who may be best known for his children book series , The Chronicles of Narnia was a gifted author of many genre's running the gamut from poetry and science fiction to literary criticism and Christian apologetics.  

Lewis passed away on November 22, 1963.  If that day seems somewhat familiar to you it is because that is the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Also dying on the same day along with  Kennedy and Lewis was Brave New World author Aldous Huxley.  

This coincidence prompted author and professor  Peter Kreeft to write the book Between Heaven and Hell which is a fictionalized conversation between Lewis, Kennedy and Huxley that took place immediately after their death. Kreeft uses the conversation as an opportunity to examine both the claims of Christ and the theistic, humanistic and pantheistic world views that the 3 people represented.  It is a quick and thought provoking read.




     

    

                                                             
                                                                                                  




John Fitzgerald Kennedy                                                        Aldous Huxley

35th Presdient of the U.S.                                            

Years Lived before 1921: Four                                                Years lived before 1921: Twenty-eight

Years lived after 1921: Forty-two                                            Years lived after 1921: Forty-two



A To Z Easter Eggs


 A to Z Archives: The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis at Random Acts of Roller. A review of the aforementioned last book in the Chronicles of Narnia. 

Voyage of the Dawn Treader and An Open Letter to My Narnia Classes at HSD.  The first post is a review I wrote of the film adaptation of Dawn Treader.  The 2nd are reflections on some Narnia books from a class I taught at a home school co-op 10 years ago.

After you've looked at the additional content from my other blogs head back to the challenge and explore continue exploring. 


Friday, April 2, 2021

B is for Billy (Graham and Sunday)

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter B

One thing I discovered quickly in my preparation for this years A to Z challenge is that there were more than 26 people I wanted to write about it.  Of course quite a few of them I had to discard, but where I could I have tried to put a few in the same post if I feel they are some what connected.

For the letter B I found 2 men with not only the same first name but also the same occupation.


                                                    William Ashley (Billy) Sunday
                                                    Years Lived Before 1921: Fifty-nine
                                                    Years Lived After 1921: Fourteen



Billy Sunday  was a famous evangelist and prior to that he was a baseball player.  He was born in Iowa in 1862.  His father died in the Civil War a few weeks after his birth.  He was raised in an Orphan's homeHall o. He loved baseball and was discovered by future hall of famer Cap Anson and signed with the Chicago White Stockings (Cubs).  He played for  Chicago from 1883 to 1887 and played

After you've looked at the additional content from my other blogs head back to the challenge and explore continue exploring. He played for the Pittsburgh Allegheny's (The Allegheny's changed their name to Pirates at the end of the 180 campaign.)  from 1888 to 1890 before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies midseason.

While Playing for Chicago Sunday was converted to Christianity after attending meetings at the Pacific garden Mission.  In 1886 He met Helen "Nell" Thompson who he married in 1888.  In 1891 he quit baseball and began work at the YMCA.  After the YMCA he began  preaching at revival meetings first with J. Wilbur Chapman in 1893 and then on his own in 1896.  

Sunday would often incorporate baseball into his crusades.  Sometimes forming teams to play and playing for both sides.  He believed in the authority and inerrancy of scripture and unlike some 
preachers of his day addressed social issues.  He denounced child labor, supported the vote for women and did not segregate his revivals even in the deep south.  He was a strong proponent of World War I and and even stronger advocate of prohibition.

"Nowadays we think we are too smart to believe in the Virgin birth of Jesus and too well educated to believe in the Resurrection. That's why people are going to the devil in multitudes." - Billy Sunday


Before Sunday's death in 1935 it is estimated that 100.000.000 people attended his revivals and 1,000,000 professed Christ as a result of his preaching.   


                                                            William Franklin (Billy) Graham Jr.

                                                            Years Lived Before 1921: Three

                                                            Years Lived after 1921: Ninety-seven

 


Billy Graham grew up in North Carolina where his childhood dream was to be a baseball player. He addressed this in a book  he wrote in his 90's:

Since there were few things in life that I loved more than baseball, as a young man I dedicated myself to the sport and hoped that my passion for the game would lead me straight to the major leagues.

My goal was simple: stand at home plate, with bat in hand, immersed in an important game. I often pictured myself hitting a big-league grand slam into the stadium seats and hearing the crowd roar with thunder as I ran the bases—nearing home.

He then followed it up with this ...

I never would have guessed what lay in store. After giving my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ—repenting of my sin and putting my entire life into His hands—I laid down my dreams, along with my bat, and fully embraced God’s plan by faith, trusting that He would lead me all the way. He did, He is, and He will.

As I look back, I see how God’s hand guided me. I sense His Spirit with me today, and most comforting is the knowledge that He will not forsake me during this last stretch as I am nearing home. If that doesn’t give me a sense of hope, nothing else will.


Billy Graham came to faith in Christ through a revival  meeting that came to his town.  This was the beginning of the end of his baseball dreams but also the beginning of his own career as an evangelist.  Unlike Sunday Graham was well educated getting degrees in 1940 from Florida Bible Institutes and in 1943 from Wheaton College.  It was at Wheaton where he met and married Ruth Bell. Like Sunday some of his first forays into ministry were with young people.  While Sunday worked for the YMCA Graham worked for an organization called Youth For Christ.  I first heard the Gospel through Youth for Christ and volunteered as a youth leader my first 3 years after high school so I feel like I can relate to Billy Graham on that level.

From 1947 to 2005 Graham conducted 417 crusades in over 180 countries and territories on 6 continents.  

Graham successfully utilized radio, newspapers, magazines and television in his ministry.  He was able to be a very public Christian figure and avoid any major scandals in his ministry.  While he certainly had critics, his style of clearly communicating the gospel on a global scale for more than a half a century is definitely the greatest evangelical achievement of the 20th century.

A TO Z Easter Eggs

A to Z Archives 

Meaningful (and civilized) dialogue between adherents of different worldviews at Dave Out Loud. In 1969 Woody Allen and Billy Graham appeared together on a T.V. special.  I uploaded the video from you tube onto my vlog last year to show how civil disagreements can be.

The Politics of Christianity at Random Acts of Roller. I use the legacy of Billy Graham as a counter example to how politically one sided I thought American evangelicalism was growing.

A To  Z Extra

 Sunday Mond ay  atCrazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog. How 2 Chicago Cubs outfielders named after days of the week are better known for their stands rather than their stats.

That's all I have as Day 2 of the challenge comes to an end.   After you've looked at the additional content on my other blogs head back to The A to Z challenge and  continue exploring. .  

 

Sunday Monday

 According to baseball reference there are only a handful of players who have had the first name, nickname or last name of a day of the week.  The 2 players with any significant playing time were both outfielders for the Chicago Cubs and both are more known for activities removed from the regular activities of a basbeball player.  These players are Billy Sunday and Rick Monday and while they played a century apart from each other they do have some things in common. 


Billy Sunday who played in the National League from 1883 to 1890 (1883 to 1887 with the Cubs, who went by the name White Stockings during those years) led baseball in 1890 with most double plays as an outfielder with 11.  Rick Monday who played from 1966 to 1984 (1972 to 1976 with the Cubs) led the American League in 1867 with 6 double plays as an outfielder and then in 1974, as a Cub, led the National League in the same category with 5. 

Billy Sunday who is still ranked in the top 250 on the all time list for steals (#246 with 246 steals) is best remember for saving souls than stealing bases.  He is probably the 2nd most well known evangelist in the United States behind Billy Graham. You can read more about Sunday and Graham by going to my blog HSD.

Rick Monday is also known more for saving although he was neither an evangelist or a relief pitcher.

In 1976 at a game in Los Angeles a father son tandem tried to burn an American Flag. Monday intervened as you can see below . . .  



Billy and Rick , two Cubs outfielders who made the most of their days. 

A to Z 2023 Road Trip

#AtoZChallenge 2023 RoadTrip