Month: September 2007

  • True or False?

    True or False?

    Legend asserts the White House gained its name from the color of paint chosen for the new structure that replaced the one burned down by the British in 1814.

    white house

    The answer is False:  This is what snopes.com says:  The legend does not correspond to historical fact.  The President’s House had been given a coat of whitewash as early as 1798.  References to the building as the “White House” antedate the War of 1812.  As early as the spring of 1811, Francis James Jackson, the former British minister to the US, wrote that his successor would “act as a sort of political conductor to attract the lightning that my issue from the clouds round the Capitol and the White House at Washington.”

  • Yankton Bucks upset Sioux Falls in a great game.  Home Coming Game at that!
    (The football field is just across the street from our house.)

  • Because He Chooses To…
    by Max Lucado

    Love
    . We’ve all but worn out the word. This morning I used love to describe my feelings toward my wife and toward peanut butter. Far from identical emotions. I’ve never proposed to a jar of peanut butter (though I have let one sit on my lap during a television show). Overuse has defused the word, leaving it with the punch of a butterfly wing.

    Biblical options still retain their starch. Scripture employs an artillery of terms for love, each one calibrated to reach a different target. Consider the one Moses used with his followers: “The LORD chose your ancestors as the objects of his love” (Deut.10:15 NLT).

    This passage warms our hearts. But it shook the Hebrews’ world. They heard this: “The Lord binds himself to his people.” Hasaq speaks of a tethered love, a love attached to something or someone. I’m picturing a mom connected by a child harness to her rambunctious five-year-old as the two of them walk through the market. (I once thought the leashes were cruel; then I became a dad.) The strap serves two functions, yanking and claiming. You yank your kid out of trouble and in doing so proclaim, “Yes, he is as wild as a banshee. But he’s mine.”

    In this case, God chained himself to Israel. Because the people were lovable? No. “GOD wasn’t attracted to you and didn’t choose you because you were big and important–the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise he made to your ancestors” (Deut. 7:7–8 MSG). God loves Israel and the rest of us because he chooses to.

    What is your definition of love?

  • Devil’s Nest

    Jesse James was sued in 1870 over horse

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPI) — A Missouri lawyer has discovered documents detailing what is believed to be the only successful lawsuit brought against the 19th century gunslinger Jesse James.
    Henry McDougal, who practiced in Daviess County, northeast of Kansas City, not only sued James and his brother, Frank, but also obtained a judgment, collected and lived to tell the tale, The Kansas City Star reported Monday.
    Jim Muehlberger is the Kansas City lawyer who uncovered the documents detailing the litigation.
    “It’s an example of equal justice under the law,” Muehlberger said. “The criminal justice system would be completely unable to deal with Jesse James for about 10 years. But here the system worked, in a civil case, through the courage of a very young lawyer.”
    In January 1870, McDougal, then 25, sued Jesse and Frank James, seeking compensation for a mare, saddle and bridle the brothers stole at gunpoint following a deadly bank heist.
    The owner of the horse estimated his loss to be at about $223.50.
    The James brothers retained an attorney and the legal battle lasted 21 months before it was resolved.

    This story brought back some memories. Not far from here is a place called Devil’s Nest.  It’s reported to have been Jesse James hide out.  The story goes on that the Yankton sheriff chased the gang across the river, but wouldn’t risk losing deputies by further pursuit. “Let the devils stay in their nest,” he said. “I’m not going to send my men in there to be shot.”

    As a boy I vividly remember the “Grand Opening”.  Fetus from Gun Smoke was there.  Thousands of people from all over came.  Cars were backed up for miles.  It was an occurance that’s never been repeated any where in this area. 
    Here is one picture of Devil’s Nest:
    Devils Nest Spread 1

  • Itinerary

      

    Itinerary for Africa:

    Day

    Date

    City-Airport

    Time

    Carrier

    Flight

    Friday

    1/4/2008

    LV Sioux Falls

    5:00 PM

    Northwest

    5630Q

     

     

    AR Minneapolis

    6:10 PM

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    3 hours in Minneapolis

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Friday

    1/4/2008

    LV Minneapolis

    9:20 PM

    Northwest

    0056Q

    Saturday

    1/5/2008

    AR Amsterdam

    12:40 PM

     

     

     

     

    (gain: 6-hour time difference)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    1 hour 15 minutes in Amsterdam

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Saturday

    1/5/2008

    LV Amsterdam

    1:55 PM

    KLM

    8443Q

     

     

    AR Abuja,Africa

    8:20 PM

     

  • Aesop’s Fables

    The North Wind And The Sun

    The North Wind And The SunA dispute arose between the North Wind and the Sun, each claiming that he was stronger than the other. At last they agreed to try their powers upon a traveller, to see which could soonest strip him of his cloak.
          
          The North Wind had the first try; and, gathering up all his force for the attack, he came whirling furiously down upon the man, and caught up his cloak as though he would wrest it from him by one single effort: but the harder he blew, the more closely the man wrapped it round himself.
          
          Then came the turn of the Sun. At first he beamed gently upon the traveller, who soon unclasped his cloak and walked on with it hanging loosely about his shoulders: then he shone forth in his full strength, and the man, before he had gone many steps, was glad to throw his cloak right off and complete his journey more lightly clad.

    Moral: Persuasion is better than force.

    The tickets are bought for my Africa trip in January. 

  • Aesop’s Fables

    The Fox And The Stork

    The Fox And The StorkA Fox invited a Stork to dinner, at which the only fare provided was a large flat dish of soup.
          
          The Fox lapped it up with great relish, but the Stork with her long bill tried in vain to partake of the savoury broth.
          
          Her evident distress caused the sly Fox much amusement. But not long after the Stork invited him in turn, and set before him a pitcher with a long and narrow neck, into which she could get her bill with ease.
          
          Thus, while she enjoyed her dinner, the Fox sat by hungry and helpless, for it was impossible for him to reach the tempting contents of the vessel.

    Be careful what you find enjoyment in. 

     

    My cousin Audrey carved this.
    Vote for her:  #14    Woodcarving 

  • New Bridge Progress.  Nebraska on the bottom.  Yankton South Dakota on top.  

  • scan0001 
    Happy Birthday Alicia – 23 on the 23rd.  (Alicia is the one standing in front of me.)

  • THE STORK

    The Stork – while it is sleeping it stands on one leg, with its neck bent backward, and its head resting between its shoulders.
    The Bible’s name of this bird means gentleness or affection, and the stork very well deserves such a name. It is very kind indeed to its young ones, and takes pains to find some things for them that it does not itself eat.

           It is said that when a house, on the top of which was a stork’s nest, once took fire, the mother bird would not fly away, because the young ones were not large or strong enough to go with her, and so they were all burned together.

           They are very kind to the old birds, too; and the younger storks sometimes carry the old ones on their wings when they have become tired with flying a great way; and bring food to them in their nests just as the old ones used to bring it to them.

           It is a beautiful example for every child, teaching him to repay his parents in every way he can for all their love and care.

           The stork is about a yard long from its head to the end of the tail; its color is white, excepting some of the great quill feathers, which are black. Its nest is large and flat, and made mostly of sticks; the eggs are about as large as those of a goose, and a little yellowish.

           It does not sing; the only noise it makes is by striking one part of its bill upon the other. While it is sleeping it stands on one leg, with its neck bent backward, and its head resting between its shoulders.

           The Jews were forbidden by God to use the stork for food; perhaps this was because it lives upon such animals as frogs, fishes and serpents.

           The stork is a bird of passage; it spends the summer in Holland and other countries in the north of Europe, but flies to a warmer climate before cold weather comes. They seem to have a kind of agreement among themselves about starting on these long journeys; and for a fort-night before they are ready, they may be seen collecting in great numbers-then all take to their wings at once.

           This explains a verse in the eighty chapter of Jeremiah, “The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times;” that is, her times of going to a warmer climate or returning.

           After the winter has gone, the storks fly back to their summer home, and very often take their old nests again.

           In Europe, these are generally made on the tops of houses or old chimneys, and the birds are so gentle and harmless that the people never disturb them, but are glad to see them come back.

           In some countries the roofs of the houses are flat, and the people walk and sleep on them; in these places the storks often build their nest on the flat branches of some spreading tree. In the 104th Psalm we read, “As for the stork, the fir-trees are her house.”