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Our Daily Thread 4-1-13

Good Morning!

April has arrived.  🙂

So…… Play Ball! 🙂

I love Opening Day.

Yankees vs. Red Sox, 1:00pm  start.

Go

yankee balls

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Quote of the Day

“I think that the legitimacy of the court would be undermined in any case if the court made a decision based on its perception of public opinion.”

Samuel  Alito

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And for our music today, why a Yankee of course. 🙂

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Hopefully the rain is over, and it doesn’t pull a cruel April Fools Day joke on me by causing the game to be canceled. 😦

Anyone have a QoD?

52 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-1-13”

  1. How about a fond memory of a baseball game? I remember being at a game in the old Memorial Stadium (those were the days) and my MIL was watching batting practice with binoculars. A foul ball was coming right at her and she didn’t see it but my hubby did and reached over and caught it inches from her face.

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  2. I was introduced to a new tradition this Easter. We had a meal together after our service and the centerpiece were baskets with plastic eggs. But instead of candy, each one contained something associated with the Cross and the Resurrection. One had nails, another had thorns, and so on. It was very meaningful and provoked discussion about the Scripture verses associated with the items – for instance, why one had dice in it.

    I was curious to know just why eggs and rabbits were associated with Easter, so I looked it up. Early on in church history, eggs symbolized the Tomb, because the hard, apparently dead shell would crack apart to reveal a living chick. Eggs have always been decorated (they have been found in ancient tombs), probably for the same reason people paint rocks – it is a good surface on which to make designs. At Easter, eggs would be dyed red, symbolizing the blood of Christ, and then people would go around to one another, tapping their eggs together and saying the greeting, “He is risen” and the reply, “He is risen indeed.” The rabbit, or hare, was used in Medieval Art to represent the Virgin Mary, so the rabbit bringing eggs was probably in association with the Incarnation.

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  3. As you may know the geeks in this house have been watching a lot of the History Channel lately. Saturday nights Paul was watching more of The Lost Gospels. I happened to perk up my ears and listen at some point when they we using the “lost” gospel of Mark to explain this passage that is actually in our everyday Gospel of Mark:
    Mark 14:51
    [ A Young Man Flees Naked ] Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him,

    Now in the “lost” gospel it talks about the “certain young man, clothed only in linen cloth” spending the night in the chamber alone with Jesus the night before. The “so called expert” on the subject explained that “we do not know if this means Jesus was gay or if it was some sort of Easten initiation rite!!!!!

    This is where I have to admit to all of you that I was wrong when I said it really didn’t change things if Jesus were married to Mary Magdalene or not. Now I see it as a slippery slope to first get us comfortable with that idea before bringing forth yet another idea that he was homosexual.

    Also, yesterday on Sunday Morning they had a segment on Mary the mother of Jesus. They talked about how she wasn’t at the crucifixion and that there was a rift between mother on son. There is a new play on Broadway that protrays her as very angry and thinking her son was crazy.

    Yep, there’s a slippery slope there.

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  4. So many great ballgames . . . I was in Chavez Ravine when Sandy Kofax pitched his last game. We were at the Big A when the Angels won the pennant and went on to win the world series. My son had been a believer since he was small and that season he was 12; it was baseball heaven for a boy that age.

    Still, I think the best memory is when that son was 11 and made it to the city championships. Last game, last inning, one out, his team down by one. The coach’s son is on second and my son Joe on first. The next two batters in the line-up are twins and strike-out kings. The first twin fouls away four pitches, but eventually strikes out. The next twin is up and gets caught looking at a fastball in the wheelhouse. The next pitch is a rocket that he swings and misses, but the catcher just bobbles. The coach’s son takes off for third, Joe follows his lead and runs to starts to steal second. The coach is very angry yelling at them both. The catcher freaks out a bit an throws down to third, but overthrows it. The coach’s son uses the bag to turn toward home. Joe is hot on his heels and hits third seconds later. He sprints for home, slides as the ball comes whizzing over his right shoulder. The catcher tries to get control to make the tag, but as the brick dust rises into the air so does the cheers from the stands. What a game, what a finish to not only a season, but three years with that coach. That was some good baseball!

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  5. Linda’s QoD: I haven’t really got any memories of baseball games. This is the closest thing (and I only remember it because of the consequences): One summer we stayed with relatives and our cousins were on a local baseball team. We spent the time waiting for them to get through their games, by playing on the wonderful playground (in the golden days before everything went plastic to prevent lawsuits). Somehow, we got into a sand fight with a bunch of other kids (I have no idea who started it or what is was about, though I think my cousins were more involved and we were bystanders caught in the fray). That night I had a terrible time breathing and coughed up sand all night. I remember all the adults being horrified at it and I think restrictions were placed upon our interaction with the other children in the town. Precious little angels, weren’t we? 😉

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  6. Cool story, Linda! When I was little, we used to go to Astros games frequently. During the seventh inning stretch, we’d play Take Me Out to the Ballgame on kazoos. Those are some good memories!

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  7. Kim, I think of it not so much as a slippery slope, but a silly slope. So many “scholars” trying to convince us of something new and profound. Remember the Jesus seminars? Where it took them three days to come up with this profundity, “Jesus was a Jewish, itinerant preacher.” Pretty sure that dawned on me the first time I read the Gospel of Matthew at 14. The problem is that so many of the “scholars” have no real familiarity with context, even with the text actually.

    A friend of mine was home on break one time from Harvard Divinity School (she did her undergrade at Oberlin and Oxford). She asked me why Christians make such a big dea about the resurrection when St. Paul never mentions it? This was so wrong it confused me. So I grabbed a New Testament and started to show her where Paul mentions the resurrection. We had not even gotten to 1 Cor 15 before she exploded in anger and ended the conversation by telling me I was stupid and naive. She was at Harvard don’tchaknow 😉

    The gay Jesus has been around for awhile, but the arguments, like you showed are so see-through that they come across as absurd.

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  9. I’m so excited. We’re staining our kitchen floor today, and then, hopefully, getting the first coat of polyurethane down!!!! Not many baseball memories for me – although my uncle, a pastor, pitched for a fastball team. Whenever he was at bat the other teams would say stuff like “watch your language now, preacher at bat”

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  10. I would have to say my first visit to the new Yankee Stadium. It was impressive, and I was skeptical at first, because I always loved old Yankee Stadium. Even my neighbor the Indians fan was impressed. But it was really something. The high-ceilings in the hall where quite a sight, as was the displays of memoribilia. The new Monument Park was cool too. We sat inside the Mohigan Sun sports bar. It was the first and only time I ever watched a game in August where it was airconditioned at the stadium. We sat right in the front row near the black glass you see in centerfield. It looked down into Monument Park. AJ Burnett and Mariano Rivera warmed up right in front of us. It was pretty cool. 🙂

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  12. I loved baseball growing up and still do, although I don’t particularly follow it.

    How long before Christmas?

    Ah yes, the gay Jesus. Hey, wasn’t Paul gay, too, but the reason he was so unpleasant (orthodox) was because he was denying his gay nature? I’m sure I’ve read that someplace. 😉

    And I was just thinking about the Jesus Seminar, I guess that ended some time ago, but for several years, like clockwork, they purposely timed the release of what was their latest shocking conclusion was for Easter week (their schtick was that they’d cast different colored beads for what they thought was accurate & inaccurate through the gospels; no surprise, most of what was written they tossed). The timing guaranteed them some headlines and news magazine covers leading up to the holiday.

    Jesus was a liberal and he definitely didn’t rise from the dead. That really about summed it all up. And they all could have just voted on that at the beginning without going through the years-long dog and pony show designed mainly to get publicity.

    When did casting colored beads to decide history become a valid academic exercise? Really?

    Sigh.

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  13. Favorite baseball memories? Watching my son, who is not very athletically gifted, get some really good hits while playing at the neighborhood ball field on a league. Seems like at first, when he was quite young, he would hit the ball and stand there surprised instead of running.

    A group from our office attended a Braves game several years ago. That was a nice time, too. There was a big delay because of rain and a lot of people left. My husband and I stayed and were finally rewarded by seeing the Braves win.

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  16. Just in from painting the five year old’s toenails. Yes, you heard that right. I who do not do or endorse the use of nail polish, am again polishing my daughter (and son’s when he gets out of the bath) in an apparently fruitless effort to get her to stop putting her toes in her mouth to bite her nails and eat what grows under them, and to get his toe fungus back under control.

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  18. Go Boise. I occasionally peruse the real estate offerings up there … 🙂

    I’ve started anew on my better eating plan today — salad for lunch, cut raw carrots and walnuts for snacks, yogurt & frozen blueberries … But this being the day after Easter, we have the left-over candy here — lots of Peeps, chocolate/peanut butter Reese’s eggs &, of course, jelly beans. So far I’ve not had any of that, though. 🙂

    Posted this on the political thread, but for those who don’t always frequent that section, this is an excellent perspective from World on the same sex marriage battle:

    http://www.worldmag.com/2013/04/it_s_better_outside_the_gay_marriage_camp

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  20. DonnaJ, that is pretty funny. Jounalists today need my old J professor. He demanded that we know the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology and the western canon. He would have thrown that report out of the building saying something like, “I don’t care how well you write, if you don’t know anything you’re of no use.”

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  21. I just got home from Surfiside Beach. Elvera is still there. Most of you know the drill. I’ll explain later.
    There is no reason even to speculate that Jesus and Mary Magdeline were married.

    These speculations about non-canonical gospels have been around for centuries. My speculation about the young man who fled naked at the arrest of Jesus is that it was John Mark. I reason that because of the fact that he’s the only one to mention it. And only he would know. That means that he would have been at the celebration of the Passover. (Last Supper)

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  25. Chas, sadly, maybe not that many. 😦 Aside from many reporters and editors lacking much knowledge about religion, there have been so many cutbacks that it might have just not been seen by that many eyes.

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  26. Re. QoD. I’ve only seen one professional baseball game in person. The Boston Braves were playing someone in Boston. Does that tell you something?
    Most interesting memory was the College World Series in 2010. South Carolina was playing Clemson. (third time, I think they split earlier)
    Ninth inning, South Carolina ahead 4-3. Clemson at bat.
    Two men out, tying run on second base.
    Batter steps up.
    Camera scans over to a lady in the stands. She puts her hands together, as in prayer (evidently for her baby). I shout at the tube, “NO FAIR! If God becomes involved in a sporting event, it’s no longer fair.”
    Her child takes a couple of strikes, & fouls, but then hits the ball.
    A pop up right behind first base. First baseman and right fielder run over to catch the ball for an easy out.
    NOT SO!
    These two guys forget everything they learned in HS ball and ran into each other.
    The ball hits the ground.
    The lady’s baby is safe on first and the runner advances to third.
    Gamecocks get the next man out and advance to beat UCLA for the championship.
    Almost as exciting as the SC defeat of Michigan in this year’s Outback Bowl.

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  27. Looking at the NYT error, one doesn’t need religious knowledge to spot the error rather a decent level vocabulary and sense of grammar. One does not resurrect into somewhere rather one resurrects from somewhere. That alone should be enough for a second thought or glance but as Donna points out editors are a rare breed these days.

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  29. Hello Everyone! I am finally back online and home from MI. I got in Sat night, but my computer was not letting me online until I called Dell tech support to get it fixed.

    Baseball memories – My Dad used to take us out to see the Syracuse Chiefs games when we were kids. I loved going to the games with him. We also went to see the Oneonta Yankees when we were visiting my grandparents. My Dad was born and raised in Oneonta, NY. (I was also born there.) My Dad played semi pro ball in Cuba.

    My younger brother was in little league and one year his team was undefeated in the league. That was a great year. It was also the year my brother hit his first homerun. We were so proud of him.

    I used to go to my brother’s practices all the time. There was this little kid who had a glove way bigger than his hand. The little brother on one of my brother’s teammates. All he wanted was someone to play catch with. So I always played catch with him. Fast forward about 15 years: we were stationed in Germany and I used to meet my German teacher in Munich when he brought students over on his annual trip. One visit, he introduced me to one of his former students and asked me if I remembered his sisters who were more in my age bracket. In fact, it was that same little kid I used to play catch with. He had graduated from high school and was in college. He happened to be spending a summer traveling through Germany and Europe. He ended up staying with us a few days at a time basing out of our house to regroup before a new leg of his trip. Mr. Klasko and I were able to tell him all kinds of places to go that were off the beaten path. Fun times.

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  30. Oh dear…I grew up a Cincinnati Reds fan…hey..that’s where I grew up…you have to love the hometown boys and I thought Sparky Anderson was the best manager who ever lived…and then I saw Joe Torre whip the NYY into shape….and now, I love the Yankees…and Joe is gone ( not dead, just no longer with the Yankees!)…but I still love watching the Yankees play… 🙂

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  31. Klasko, welcome back and neat story.

    My dad bought me a baseball glove (adult size) when I was probably 7 or 8. It was huge, I was a little freckled, red-haired girl with iron-on patched jeans and sneakers — and a gigantic baseball glove on my right hand (I was a lefty). Heaven to me.

    My mom was horrified, of course. As I recall I’d admired it at the sporting goods store a few days earlier. It was a big surprise (to my mom and me both, though in very different ways) when he walked into the house with the glove in a big shopping bag that next Saturday morning (my mom was trying to pin-curl my hair at the time, I don’t think she ever was able to finish as I think I bolted straight out the back door to try the glove out, my dad laughing, my mom yelling at my dad 🙂 ).

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  37. If you ever want to have a good laugh at your own expense…Make a deal with God. I told a few of you here while back that I wanted my church to be able to do something, so I told God that whatever I earned in commissions in April I would give the church 50% rather than 10%. Two of my closings that were supposed to happen last week got pushed to the middle of April, a closing I was supposed to have today got pushed to Wednesday and I am about to put a few more on the books.

    The other woman in the office with me is the Transaction to Close Manager and she made the comment to me that I am lined up to have a really good April…suddenly I started laughing and told her I had a deal going with God and now that I had told her she could hold me accountable. 😉

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  38. I played a lot of baseball, terribly, as a child. I lived in Brea, a fairly sports crazy town in Orange County, CA. I was the original, no hit, no throw, no catch, no run zero threat player, usually stranded in right field in the hope no one would hit a ball to me. We had a pretty good field with lights. I had bad eyes, and if someone hit a pop fly I would lose the the ball as it went above the lights, and panic, figuring the ball was going to land on my head, and covering my head with my glove in panic, much to the disgust of my team and the poor coach.

    We had one player, named Gary Holman, who was so far above everyone else in sports talent he might have been in a different dimension. In junior high he was the center on the basketball team, the quarterback on the football team, the fastest runner and highest jumper on the track team. In our Little League, he batted .500 and was only allowed to pitch one game a week because he usually pitched no hitters. I remember standing at bat as he pitched. The ball whizzed past so fast I could hardly get my bat off my shoulder. I was terrified that he would throw a wild pitch (which he never did) and remove my head from my shoulders.

    I left Brea when I started high school. I assumed that Gary would have a terrific sports career whatever sport he chose, probably becoming a professional. Years later, I found him on the Internet. He made it to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He lasted one year in the majors, just as a utility infielder. It was interesting that a person who seemed so far above the rest of us in ability, turned out to be very “ordinary,” when he reached the top levels.

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  39. We moved to Atlanta in 1966, the first year the Braves were there. I had a transistor radio and Milo Hamilton brought the games to life for an eight year old. It was a Golden Age. Over three years I got to see Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, Bob Gibson, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver and a young Nolan Ryan.

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  41. rickyweaver, you bring back memories. We did not have A/C in our home in the Atlanta area when I was growing up. They don’t call it Hot’lanta for nothing, ya know? In the evenings, especially if a good game was running late on the radio, all the lights would be out in the house, the windows open to bring a breeze drawn in by a window fan unit and we would be listening to Milo—my parents in their bedroom unless my dad was lying in the living room floor next to the screen door which meant he was hogging the cool air from the fan. Unfortunately for me, my room was the one that got the sun late in the day so it was roasting. My brother’s room was on the other side of the house and I am sure it was very warm in there according to how the windows were situated. Funny thing that after I went off to college my parents got some A/C. Now that was one way to encourage a young person to leave the nest! But I can still remember the excitement of those games on the radio. Nothing else has ever been the same.

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  42. Hello all! Popping back in after my media fast last week…lots to catch up on, so I’ll probably be pretty quiet for a while longer this week, maybe longer, while I try to make sense of the skimming I did just now on the daily threads I missed. Something about getting your ears pierced while roller skating and eating black jelly beans…is that pretty close? 😉

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  43. Janice, My parents grew up in West Texas. The culture was Southern, but the scenery was not. Mother really loved our three years in Georgia. We would climb Stone Mountain and take trips to Savannah, Chaleston and Gatlinburg. It was hot and our school had no air conditioning, but those were great years.

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  44. Some good news for 1st Arrow this week: he got a promotion (he works for a convenience store chain) and is now a Shift Leader. A funny thing happened — when they sent him a new name tag, instead of saying “Shift Leader”, it said, “Store Leader”. He told his boss (the store leader) things were going to be different around there now. 😉

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  50. 🙂 Oh, we always look on the sunny side of life here in the golden state, Tychicus. 🙂 That’s why we’re always wearing sunglasses.

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  51. Testing:

    A number of GOP aides cite Schumer’s involvement as a primary reason that they remain skeptical about the prospects for immigration reform. Some have expressed concern that Rubio, a rising star in the Republican party, walked into a trap the moment he agreed to join Schumer’s gang. Schumer may be less interested in compromise, they suggest, than in deliberately designing legislation that conservatives would be unable to support; this tactic would force Rubio to back out and thereby create a divisive campaign issue for Democrats to run on in 2014 and 2016. “He’ll do whatever he can to characterize us as extreme, or racist, the usual,” says a Republican Senate aide. “It’s just another thing they could use to beat our guys over the head with.”

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  52. Testing: NRO has an article today, Beware Schumer’s Latest Pose including:

    A number of GOP aides cite Schumer’s involvement as a primary reason that they remain skeptical about the prospects for immigration reform. Some have expressed concern that Rubio, a rising star in the Republican party, walked into a trap the moment he agreed to join Schumer’s gang. Schumer may be less interested in compromise, they suggest, than in deliberately designing legislation that conservatives would be unable to support; this tactic would force Rubio to back out and thereby create a divisive campaign issue for Democrats to run on in 2014 and 2016. “He’ll do whatever he can to characterize us as extreme, or racist, the usual,” says a Republican Senate aide. “It’s just another thing they could use to beat our guys over the head with.”

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