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Our Daily Thread 6-25-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1788 Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution and became the 10th state of the United States.

In 1868 Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union.

In 1877 in Philadelphia, PA, Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone at the Centennial Exhibition.

In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea initiating the Korean War.

In 1951 in New York, the first regular commercial color TV transmissions were presented on CBS.

And in 1962 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of unofficial non-denominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.

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Quote of the Day

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell

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It’s Clint Warwick’s birthday.

And David Paich’s as well.

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Anyone have a QoD?

59 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-25-13”

  1. Good evening Jo.
    Hi! to the rest of you.
    Kevin, When I got out of the AF, my life became so hectic that I passed that phase without thinking about it anymore. It wasn’t until I retired that I began to think of things that used to be. After retirement, I considered ham radio, but never got into it.
    Sometimes, when I’m nervous, or
    just completating, I tap out with my fingers:
    COCA COLA or BENS BEST BET because I like the musical sound of them in code.
    only, BENS BEST BENT sounds better, but it doesn’t say anything.
    No, PEPSI COLA doesn’t work. PEPSI is hard to send, for me anyhow. 😆

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  2. Good morning all. I will spend the next two days in my natural habitat—a classroom. I will be taking the second part of RSTLM. I have already had the two days of Recruit/Select, about hiring the right people to begin with but this is the rest of the course–Train, Lead, and Motivate. I don’t think I am a natural born leader but I do think I am a fairly good Trainer and Motivator.

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  3. My question today is for our writers, editors, and journalists. When I was in school I was taught that any word that was used to denote God was capitalized. : For God so loved that world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

    In our church bulletin the worship songs and the Psalm are printed, the pronouns and words used for God are not capitalized and it bugs me.
    Thought?

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  6. Kim, I agree with you in that I thought it was standard.
    But I looked it up in the NIV and Ps. 62:7 says:
    “My salvation and my honor depend on God;
    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.”
    V8 “Trust in him at all times,’
    O people…….”.

    So, I guess it doesn’t hold at all time. So, I don’t know what the standard is.
    I haven’t looked it up in KJB (the real Bible 🙂 )

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  8. I think the capitol letters come from Catholicism, so most of the non-Catholic bibles don’t follow it. I know the NASB do (older versions, I don’t have the newer one), but ESV doesn’t. And neither does my Reina Valera 1995 (Spanish bible).

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  9. I just checked Bible Gateway and it seems the American version of the Catholic Bible (Douay) does not capitalize the pronouns referring to God either. So it must be a preferential thing. I also discovered that the Psalms are numbered differently for some odd reason.

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  11. Joe, AJ is on vacation and doesn’t have time to fool around with the likes of us.
    😉

    Pertinent to a discussion held here a week or so ago. It was about tipping and leaving gospel tracts in restaurants:
    Reported at the SBC National Convention by Thom Rainer, president of SBC LifeWay Christian resources. He was recounting the words of a Houston restaurant owner to his staff:
    “I told my fellow employees at the restaurant to get ready for small tips, lots of gospel tracts to go with the cheap tips, and plenty of people ordering desserts.”

    This is not funny.
    As I commented at the time. Those tracts usually go out with the rest of the left over. The waitresses don’t have time and, in most restaurants, they don’t clean off the tables anyhow. A busboy does it. My son, Chuck, used to bus tables at Three Chefs.

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  12. On this day in 1950, I was standing in formation on the ramp at Keesler AFB when I heard that N. Korea had started a war. We all figured we would be in it. Some were. I wasn’t.

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  13. I tip 15% of the total before tax. If I have a gift card, I tip the value of the meal before tax. I draw the line at tipping for haircuts, pick-up at pizza places, and a few other things.

    I think business owners should pay their people what they are worth. Depending on tips is a miserable way to make a living.

    I’ve noticed that Olive Garden now makes their wait staff split the take with the bus boys and the chefs.

    I’ve also noticed that Outback has turned their bus boys into Hosts, and make their wait staff bus tables now.

    ??? Shake-ups in the restaurant world???

    Your thoughts?

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  14. I usually tip more than 15%. The reason is pretty simple. Waitresses and Waiters are usually part-time employees plus they often make less than minimum wage. A lot of young women who are waitresses have children. So I usually donate more.

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  16. DrivesGuy,

    You can post news stories here for the week. I’m fishin’. 🙂

    Chas,

    I always have time for the likes of you folks. 🙂

    Kim,

    When I type it out I always capitalize any reference to Him. But I do note that in some cases many websites don’t, even in Bible text. So if you copy and paste., it’s lower case.

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  17. We always tip at least 15% because our daughter used to be a cook and we know how she appreciated her share of the tips.

    Kim, I ALWAYS capitalize all the nouns and pronouns relating to God. It bugs me to no end to see them not capitalized.

    On another note, we ripped the vinyl siding off the original part of our house yesterday – what a mess. Now we have to make some decisions on where to go from here. Do we remove the stucco (which is in good shape) before we side with cement board or do we use furring strips and foam insulation and just go over top? We also found 2 basement windows (the only original glass in the house) hidden behind the vinyl. Someone had just put the vinyl straight over top – great place for mice to nest – ugh. Now we need to decide if we close those in properly or replace them with vinyl windows. Any suggestions are appreciated. It’s going to be a very busy summer!

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  18. Re capping deity pronouns: for a while it used to be considered proper and respectful; in addition, sometimes it helped reduce confusion, though one can get around that by simply saying “God” again instead of “He.” But different versions do it differently. NKJV and NASB capitalize; NIV lowercases. When I was in high school, one of my textbooks (secular) actually said it was proper to capitalize them!

    One time we had an author who was using the NIV and she wanted to capitalize deity pronouns; her editor checked with the NIV to see if that was OK, and they said no, print it exactly as written. So that same editor went back to them and said, “In that case, what do we do when we come across “Lord” in caps and small caps? Do we have to use the small caps too?” (We hadn’t been doing so.) The publisher said yes, we did. So our style sheet had to add, “When using NIV, use cap and small caps for ‘Lord’ when they are used in the text (Old Testament passages).” And we all basically said, “Thanks a lot” to that editor for asking a question that didn’t need to be asked!

    I once did some writing projects for a small KJV-only publisher that insisted that Bible verses be printed exactly as they were in the Bible–including starting each new verse with a capital letter even if it isn’t the beginning of a sentence. This is a made-up example, but the KJV does stuff like this: “1. I love to eat many things, including peanut butter, 2. Jelly, graham crackers, and 3. All kinds of chocolate.” Now, you don’t even notice the caps if you’re reading the passage, since you have the verse references and you just kind of see what it’s doing. But when you take out the verse numbers, it just looks odd and random: “I love to eat many things, including peanut butter, Jelly, graham crackers, and All kinds of chocolate.” Publishers always go ahead and treat it as a sentence, but this one publisher didn’t. I went back to the lady (her boss had made the decision) and said, “Well, the KJV also uses italics when a word wasn’t in the original, when it was added, and we now use italics for emphasis. When we’re reading it in a printed Bible, we probably won’t even notice the italics, but if we copy the italics in a book, it will look like we’re emphasizing those words, and actually they’re the words that should be de-emphasized since they were added. Can we at least leave out the italics?” I don’t remember the decision on that, but I think we left out the italics.

    Honestly, though, I don’t think it “matters” all that much whether you capitalize deity pronouns; it’s at best only a symbolic gesture. (Why do we capitalize “I”?) I can go with it either way a publisher chooses, although I personally cap. But more and more people aren’t capping the word “Bible.” I see that all the time, sometimes in print. The word “bible” only means “book” (I just bought The Cardmaker’s Bible. That isn’t blasphemous; the word isn’t somehow holy.) But when one is meaning to refer to the Holy Bible, it is proper to capitalize it, and it is also clearer. Like the difference between God and a god, the Bible is not just a book.

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  19. Finally, what a joy to hear others agree with me about capitalizing any reference to God. It actually makes some verses much clearer about who they are referring to. The NASB always capitalizes the pronouns.

    I must admit, I am a poor tipper, but happy to find that they do not tip in PNG or in Australia. Nice to look at the price and know that that is what I will be spending.

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  23. In terms of AP style for secular publications (which is what most journalists are bound by for professional use), God is capitalized, pronouns referring to him are not. “Bible” is still capitalized also but I notice more and more younger journalists don’t capitalize it (hopefully that is changed when copy is edited, but with fewer and fewer editors looking at copy anymore, I’m sure bible in lower case slips through a good number of times).

    But Bible is upper case, “biblical” is always lower case.

    In my own personal journal writing I always tend to capitalize the pronouns — as has been noted, different Bible versions do it differently. Since I use mostly the (old) New American Standard and/or ESV, I regularly see it both ways. But capitalizing the pronouns still seems more natural to me in personal writing. Maybe because I’ve used the New American Standard for so much longer.

    Tipping again? 😉

    20% on the total, after-tax bill.

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  24. So in your mind, is a 15% a “little tip”?

    I’d hate to be thought of as one of those poor tippers. 😦

    But I am very budget conscious. I’ve had to be, since I’m the only wage earner in the household. My income has put us just above the “poverty line” most of my adult life….

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  26. If we look high enough, we can just glimpse the poverty line. Idaho is having a push to increase the lowest wage, I figure if you don’t like what you get paid, move. Idaho is a great place to live and it is worth it.

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  27. I tip the same as you, Makeit. I round up. Sometimes I will do 20% or more. It depends on several things. The servers in our state make minimum wage, plus tips. I know several and they have always remarked at the money they make for a job without any extra education. Not to say they are uneducated, but the job does not require it.

    If I am in a state where I know the servers are paid very low wages, I adjust my tipping. If I were an employer I would be ashamed to pay those low wages. “Do unto others…” and several other verses come readily to mind. There are franchises that are rather close together next to state lines. One may pay minimum wage, plus tips (and raises) while the other slave wages. If one restaurant can make a decent living with the higher wages, the other should be able to, also. I believe God hates that.

    I know a lot of servers who are anything, but poor people trying to get by. Their tips go for fun trips, extra things they want etc. They have benefits, if they are full time. The combined incomes in their homes are more than in mine, in many cases. That is not always true, but it is often enough to not stereo-type all servers. Tips are supposed to be earned, not charity. I don’t think a lot of servers want to think they are being given charity.

    OTOH, we should take advantage of the opportunity to tip generously when the occasion warrants it. It can be a good opportunity.

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  28. A lot of businesses (often food service) shut down because the owners are just barely making it and cannot afford higher wages. It is not necessarily because they won’t but because they see a niche and want to meet it but don’t yet have the resources to make it go. Minimum wage is there to help both sides.

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  29. Chas, I was an avid ham in high school and active in the National Traffic System, which was mostly run in code at that time. We handled a lot of routine messages for the public in a day when long distance phone calls were expensive and people rarely called across the country. We were faster than US Mail and free. But with the Internet and cheap or free long distance, what we did seems just quaint now.

    I do see that hams are still a big help in emergency communications. And they still do a lot of tinkering and innovation.

    I’ve said for 30 years that someday I’ll jump back in, but so far I haven’t had the right combination of time, money, space, and motivation.

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  30. It seems the “standard” for tips goes up over time. As far as I can remember it’s always been 15%. But when my grandmother’s vision was failing and I had to help her pay when she took me out, she always insisted that 10% was plenty. I guess that’s an older standard. I tried to tell her it should be more but she wouldn’t hear of it. (When she wasn’t looking, as we were leaving, I’d leave a little cash of my own on the table to make up for it.)

    Lately I’ve been hearing that 18% is the new standard.

    I tend to calculate 15% before-tax and then round up for decent service. 20% if it was extra good.

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  31. I also grew up when 10% was standard. Some restaurants automatically add 15% for groups over eight.

    Mumsee, I have no problem with minimum wage, but servers getting $2.10 or $2.30 an hour is way too low, IMO. One of my daughters was paid this and I know that in some very swanky places (and she worked in one) that this was their wage. Tips were fine, but there were always some hours spent folding napkins and doing other work, when there were no tips.

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  33. oh, I see. I would expect the servers to be paid minimum wage and tips as extra. The servers should not be just getting tips, in my opinion.

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  36. Well, at least in my state, if the wages don’t equal at least minimum wage for a shift, then the restaurant makes up the difference–the “base pay” is quite a bit less than minimum wage, but they total it up at the end of each shift to be sure it’s at least minimum wage overall–only a couple of times did the restaurant have to make up the difference, on a slow night. And those who are doing other tasks than waiting on tables make more per hour since they aren’t receiving tips. (My girls have both worked in restaurants, different restaurants, and some nights they’d be a waitress and some nights a hostess. Their hourly pay would depend which job they were working on a given shift.)

    I don’t figure that I can second-guess how much a particular person “needs” a job or even how much income they might receive. Some waitresses get twenty dollars an hour; some get eight. Some use money wisely; some do not. One of my girls nearly always did quite a bit better than minimum wage, and it was a great job for a high-school student. For a young person still living at home, or a mother working a few hours for a second job, the income might well be more “surplus” than what I’ve had most of my adult life. If you can afford to eat out, you can afford to tip . . . but in my years in Nashville, eating out was a luxury I could “barely” afford (I included it in my budget simply because I was living alone and working from my house and needed some sort of social interaction in my life!), and most waitresses probably had more household income than I did. So I tipped fairly but not extravagantly, because I simply didn’t have the money for surplus. (Most of my “eating out” with other people was fast food.) I tipped about 15% on the pre-tax amount, rounded up. Now my husband takes care of the bill, and I don’t know what percentage he tips, or how he figures it.

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  37. As the crow flies, it is only about two hundred miles, but it is an eight hour drive, requiring a circuitous route through Montana.

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  38. Mumsee, I remember about the road system up there. Not many highways. I remember driving from Mare Island in Vallejo, Ca to Idaho Falls, Idaho back in 1975. Not too many highways then either. It amazes me how early NW pioneers made those journeys on horseback and in wagons braving the elements and all sorts of dangers.

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  39. Yeah, thanks Chas. 🙄

    I don’t eat out much and when I do it’s generally modest coffe shop fare. Tipping on a (split) bill for one is easier than if your footing a bill for a family.

    But I consider waitressing to be hard work and I am appreciative of their labor and attention to serve me and my friends. How they use it is entirely their business and any of mine. 🙂

    Good read here on another topic that will be hot by this time tomowwow:

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2013/06/media-bias-lost-souls-and-inconvenient-truths/

    Hope the link works – had to enter this one by hand

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  40. Joe, our road to town is a cliff side arrangement. Hard to believe it used to carry the stage coach and wagons of grain pulled by horses down to the river below. Before that, it was a Nezperce trail. I would find it difficult to trust horses to behave on that hill. But they did it all over the place.

    Below, in the Riggins area, there are trails running up the mountains to places like Florence where the Chinese used to go up with big backpacks carrying supplies to the folk up that way. Unimaginable to me with my life of ease and comfort!

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  44. Mumsee, I fly out of here on our Kodiak airplane next Monday and will think of you. It was built by Quest aircraft in Sandpoint. Developed by former missionary pilots to meet the needs of the mission field. We just got our fourth plane.Their web site has some great videos of the plane flying.
    Looking at the map of Idaho, I had never realized that the southern part of the state is on Mountain time and up in the north they are on Pacific time. Must be interesting.

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  45. RE: Capitalization- I hear that in German, all nouns are capitalized, beardless if they are proper nouns or not. I would find that a whole lot more confusing than pronouns for deity being lower case. But then, my Spanish students have trouble remembering that the names of the months, days and seasons are lower case in Spanish, as well as the names of languages. Isn’t the variety in languages a wonderful thing?

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  46. Go Kodiak! I remember somebody talking about them as they were just getting started. Neat deal.

    Yes, we call them the other Idaho. And the time changes, shockingly, at time zone bridge. My nephew was a new engineer and that was his project. I don’t know how much he did on it but I know he was quite involved through it. The old bridge was good too but the new one is very nice. Maybe not quite as scenic but wider and a tad safer.

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  47. MakeItMan – Yes, indeed. I even used a couple articles by a gay man opposed to SSM to try to show some people that there are reasons other than hatred, bigotry, or ignorance to oppose SSM. (On a couple Facebook posts by people I know in real life.)

    Didn’t work. I was told that there must be something wrong with that gay man (even though I mentioned there are others, too), & I am still a hateful, ignorant bigot.

    Interestingly, I didn’t even say anything against SSM per se, merely tried to show that there are some real concerns people have about it. But that was considered bad enough.

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  49. So we have these fb pages that post local crime in real time (via police scanners). There’s apparently an ADW going on (participants are all female) in front of the taco truck on one of our main drags.

    Never a dull moment.

    I think the next post will be #50 and I may nab it … Well, unless Jo’s having lunch tomorrow already and sees it first.

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  54. What is an ADW?

    Donna, we are in the Pacific Time Zone, same as you. They are in Mountain Time.

    So when you get here, you can jump right in, no jet lag to worry about.

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