Tuesday, March 18, 2014

What God Wants From Us

     



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178 pounds

One day last week while I was out in the scrubland just East of Tucson tending to Eva, the front doorbell rang, which upset Eva to no end and  provoked a fit of tremendously loud barking as she sped across the hardened tile floor to face the door. When I finally got her settled down on the carpet in the adjacent parlor, I went onto the front porch and faced the two young boys, both about nine or ten years old, each holding a tin can with slots in the tops and the word HAITI printed on the sides.

"We're collecting donations for Haiti for our church," the tallest of the skinny kids told me in a high pitched, quavering voice as he thrust his can in my face.

"What's wrong with Haiti?" I asked him.

"The children are all starving and they had earthquakes," he answered.

"Where is Haiti?" I said.

"It's a place where poor people live on the other side of the world," he said.

"If they are on the other side of the world then why should I give them money? I said.

"Because God wants us to," he said.

Well, I stayed out there talking with the two boys for some time.

When I came back inside Eva sidled up to me with her tail wagging.

"I took care of it, baby," I assured her, and she ran off in search of her favorite tug-toy, somehow knowing, probably by the tone of my voice, that we would be playing happily together for the next few minutes or so.

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Did You Know . . .?

Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of television, hated his invention until he saw the moon landing broadcast on it in 1969.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1937 nearly 300 students in Texas were killed by an explosion of natural gas at their school.

The school's natural gas bill averaged about $300 a month. Eventually, officials at Consolidated School were persuaded to save money by tapping into the wet-gas lines operated by Parade Oil Company that ran near the school. Wet gas is a type of waste gas that is less stable and has more impurities than typical natural gas.

At 3:05 p.m., a Thursday afternoon, the 694 students and 40 teachers in attendance at the Consolidated School were looking forward to the final bell, which was to ring in 10 minutes. Instead, a huge and powerful explosion, which literally blew the roof off of the building, leveled the school.

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WORD FOR TODAY

correlate
verb
1. To put or bring into causal, complementary, parallel, or reciprocal relation.
2. To establish or demonstrate as having a correlation: correlated drug abuse and crime.
3. To compare things and bring them into a relation having corresponding characteristics

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


(Mar 18, 1926 - Mar 14, 2010)
Peter Graves was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his role in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973 (original) and from 1988 to 1990 (revival). His elder brother was actor James Arness (1923–2011).



(born March 18, 1963)
Vanessa Williams is an American singer, actress, producer and former fashion model. In 1983, she became the first African-American woman crowned Miss America, but a scandal arose when Penthouse magazine bought and published nude photographs of her. She relinquished her title early and was succeeded by the first runner-up, Suzette Charles of New Jersey. Williams rebounded, launching a career as an entertainer, earning multiple Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award nominations. She is the most successful Miss America winner in the field of entertainment.



(born March 18, 1979)
Danneel Harris is an American actress and model. She is best known for her roles as Shannon McBain on One Life to Live and Rachel Gatina on One Tree Hill.



(born March 18, 1980)
Sophia Myles is an English film and television actress. In 2001, she got a small role alongside Johnny Depp as his on-screen wife, Victoria Abberline, in the thriller film From Hell. She had a supporting role in the 2003 film Underworld and its sequel Underworld: Evolution. In 2003, she played the schoolgirl lead in the thriller Out of Bounds and she also played Lady Penelope in the Thunderbirds. In 2006, Myles co-starred with actor James Franco in Tristan and Isolde, playing the role of Isolde.

Myles appeared as Madame de Pompadour in a 2006 episode of Doctor Who, "The Girl in the Fireplace". She co-starred opposite Max Minghella, playing his love interest in 2006's quirky comedy film Art School Confidential. Also in 2006, Myles appeared in a BBC TV adaptation of Dracula; she played Lucy Westenra alongside Marc Warren, David Suchet and Dan Stevens.

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Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.
--Albert Camus

NASA TV

   


2 comments:

  1. A perfect Eva story. I love your Eva tales (yes, pun intended).

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    Replies
    1. Eva has a way about her that lightens a heavy mood. She has three motivations that I can recognize... Eat - Play - Explore. Anything else is just some mysterious and incidental annoyance.

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