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Our Daily Thread 1-27-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1606 the trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were executed on January 31.

In 1880 Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp.

In 1888 the National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC.

In 1926 John Baird, a Scottish inventor, demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine called television.

In 1945 Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

In 1951 in the U.S., atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.

And in 1973 the Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.

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Quote of the Day

“It is a great consolation for me to remember that the Lord, to whom I had drawn near in humble and child-like faith, has suffered and died for me, and that He will look on me in love and compassion.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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We’ll start off with some Mozart today. From Dagmar Dolatschko

Next up, Jack Brymer, who also has a birthday today, playing more Mozart. From UltimateMozart

And it’s also Skitch Henderson’s. From MusicProf78

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Anyone have a QoD?

43 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-27-14”

  4. Becca-boo and I are going on our first homeschool field trip today. The Children’s Museum is hosting a day for homeschoolers, so we’ll be heading into town later this morning . We live in the suburbs, about 40 minutes from downtown, so don’t make it into town very often. Becca’s super excited (it’s a wonderful children’s museum–very large with lots of different exhibits–and it’s all hands on). I’m excited for the opportunity to spend some time with her doing something she loves. I’m so grateful to be homeschooling her–truly a blessing. She is much happier and is making progress, getting concepts she missed in a large classroom. And , though it has been trying at times , we’ve also shared many precious moments since embarking on this journey…

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  5. Annms, you may want to look into A Record of the Learning Lifestyle by Notgrass as a wonderful record keeping tool for Becca. I tried to link but Smartphone wants to paste when I need copy. We used that for a few years. Just wish I had found it early on in homeschooling.

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  6. A curious quesion here. AnnMS, is your older daughter a little jealous of the extra time Becca is spending with you? Remember my curiousity comes from being an only child. This is the first time in my life I have ever had two of anything to “divide” my love. I now have two dogs.

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  7. Mr. P and I went to a movie Saturday. We saw Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit. Good movie. We went to Home Depot and got a plant for the family room and a new bird feeded. Thiis family room was an addition to the house back in the 1970’s and has two oversized sliding glass doors on one wall and one sliding glass door on another wall. We hund the feeder outside one of the glass doors that won’t open. This morning I have had finches, Cardinals and a few other birds on it. Yesterday I had the biggest dove I have seen in a while on my patio. They all seem to be sharing quite well.
    There is another feeder on a post in the back yard. The gentleman who had owned and lived here was quite the wood worker and this is very pretty and all but I can’t figure out how the feeded works. He built it with a lard plastic container in the center and chicken wire around it. I didn’t see where the seed would come out for the birds. Of course, I was standing on a chair, maybe if I take the latter out there I can see and figure it out.

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  8. Once upon a time, long, long ago and far, far away, I was riding the Washington Metro into town. I got into a conversation with a man who was from the Midwest somewhere. He was taking his home schooled family into town to see all the important landmarks and museums in Washington. This is really a good lesson for young people. I mentioned that it was cheaper and more convenient to take the Metro rather than drive because when you get into Washington, there’s no place put your car. Parking garages charged about $10.00/day (at that time). He answered that with a family of five, it might be better to drive and park. Good point.
    I also suggested that since he was in the area, it would be a good thing to take his family to Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown. All in the same vicinity.
    A trip to Washington is good training for young kids. Chuck grew up there. Mary has a picture of her posing with Pocahontas (at Jamestown). I was a grown man before I realized there was never a real battle at Yorktown.
    I have visited most of the landmarks in Washington. But it occurred to me, during one of the funerals, that I had never visited the Washington Conthedral.

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  10. Hope you are feeling better today, Michelle, speaking of funerals and all…sometimes colds make you feel dead to the world with how they stuff up the head so you can’t breathe or hear!

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  13. Chas,

    That’s why most people don’t drive to NYC anymore either. Between tolls to get in (and out) and parking, you’re down 75 bucks before you even start. Take a bus or train. Your wallet will thank you. 🙂

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  14. Auschwitz was a converted Polish army barracks and transient camp. Its now a museum complete with a gift shop and snack bar. Birkenau is the death camp and has been more or less left alone. I toured Auschwitz but when I went to Birkenau the gate was closed, so I crawled under the wire making me one of the few people to break into Birkenau. I was there in late December so it was dark and cold. A very quiet eerie place.

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  15. Annms, it’s always a joy to read your posts about how well the homeschooling is going and how Becca seems to be blossoming because of it.

    The Nazi camps — such a horrific time in the world’s recent history. May the nations never forget.

    I was up early when the dogs needed to go out at 3 a.m. After letting them out, I fell back asleep, but at 4:30 I heard frantic, high-pitched barking and the clanging of the barriers I have up against the back fence to block Cowboy’s escape route.

    I got them rounded up and back inside (my fear was that they’d cornered a skunk and would be reeking — the neighbor’s dog got sprayed last week — but thankfully whatever it was, it apparently wasn’t a skunk).

    But with the flashlight I did notice that the barriers had been pulled out, so I had to get out there this morning first thing after it was light to reinforce that area. I’ll probably have to go to a more permanent fix — chicken wire, which means getting a staple gun and pavers to anchor the wire at the bottom. But for now, I put enough extra metal panels up there that the temporary barriers should be pretty immovable again.

    Ran into the former LA City atty at the dog park yesterday, so odd to see him slumming in his sweats. Last time I saw him, when he was still in office (he lost his recent bid for re-election), he was dressed to the nines. Anyway, had a long interesting chat with him about city government (which he said he’s glad to be away from).

    I have to say that the dog park is a real social equalizer. Rich and poor, and everything in between, all just hanging out and playing with their dogs.

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  17. My uncle’s mother was imprisoned and died in the Auschwitz/Birkenau complex. He escaped in the Kindertransport to Britain. His older brother migrated to Palestine, where they were later reunited. They were both present during the creation of the Israeli state. He said that the Theone’s Zion Chronicles series had an accurate depiction of the violence and uncertainty of that time.

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  18. Bright and sunny here, looks like temps will climb back up to near 80 later this week. This is really the warmest (& driest) winter I can remember.

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  19. KIm, our local weatherman says that the southland, meaning, you, KBells and Janice are going to be hit by snow. It will pass south of us.,
    Since you went to school in Md. you are likely familiar with it. If you aren’t familiar with it, stay off the road. If you don’t have snow or all weather tires, you could get into trouble.

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  20. People talk about the Nazi concentration and death camps because they discovered them. Nobody mentions the Soviet camps which were just as bad.
    It has been so long ago that I forgot the details, but the WW II battle of Warsaw was in atrocity. Bothe sides, Nazi and Soviet, worked for the destruction of the city and people.
    And Stalin let millions die of starvation in Ukrane.
    They were as bad, if not worse than Hitler. They just don’t get the press.

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  21. I drive an SUV and have “sport” tires on my truck although it has been a while since I drove in those conditions. I have the interview at 4, vestry at 6 and should be home safe by 8pm. I intend to stay there. Mr. “I Grew Up in DC What’s All the Fuss?” doesn’t understand that Southern drivers aren’t used to this and will become idiots. While I am secure in my driving ability it isn’t worth risking myself to someone elses.

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  23. Chas, it is true that more attention is paid to the Nazis death camps and part of that is because they were discovered during WWII. However, I think is also because the Nazis targeted specific, readily identifiable groups for extermination, i.e. Jews, Gypsies, etc.; whereas Stalin and others like him were much more random in who was put into the Gulag – basically anybody that was perceived as a threat to their power. The atrocities of Stalin and other Communistic dictators were more like the work of deranged madmen, killing as the whim of paranoia takes them; whereas the Nazis worked in cold blooded, deliberately calculated sanity.

    The average citizen of the Soviet Union lived in fear of the Gulag, for they too could end up there by one wrong word; but the average citizen of the Reich approved the basic premise of the concentration camps, for they too felt that society had certain undesirables who should be purged. That is the reason why the Nazis death camps cannot be forgotten; because of the hideous side of human nature that was revealed by their discovery – not that insane dictators could kill randomly, but that average, law-abiding citizens could so hate their neighbours, that they would stand by to see them systematically exterminated.

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  24. Roscuro, I learned a lot of history from the Zion Chronicles. Very eye opening.
    Chapel went very well yesterday. Thanks to anyone who prayed. It is always good to share what God has done and the kids were very attentive as I acted the story out.

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  25. When I visited the Terror Museum in Budapest, they have an enormous room with a map/carpet marking all the places of Soviet camps. Truly appalling, just like the museum. (http://wp.me/p3HcoH-3n) That doesn’t even consider the Ukranian famine put into place by Stalin. Or, as the opening sentences of the book I read on the subject, Harvest of Sorrow, put it: 26 people died for every letter in the entire book.

    How was it done?

    The authorities sealed the border and announced no food for the kulaks. Kulaks traditionally were small farm owners, but they expanded the definition to pretty much include everyone in the country.

    The death toll rivaled that of Hitler’s camps. Indeed, Stalin killed people than anyone.

    An interesting recent movie is The Long Walk. Not exactly true, but gives a picture of what the camps were like circa WWII.

    Of course Russians have been exiling people to Siberia for a very long time. 😦

    Man’s inhumanity to man–I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.

    I visited Dachau as a teenager. The worst place I ever visited until I went to the Terror House Museum. 😦

    BUT, as I explained to my clueless (Hungarian descendants of Holocaust survivor) nieces, someone has to witness and testify.

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  26. That hideous side of human nature is still at work in the ‘civilised’ world. It can be seen in the 90% of parent who will abort an unborn child with Down’s syndrome; those who campaign for the euthanasia of those with Alzheimer’s and other incurable, slow-progressing diseases of old age; and those who speak of the need to lower the birth-rate of third-world countries in order to reduce the threat of immigration. Nazism is the ultimate symbol of the ‘tender mercies’ (Prov. 12:10) of the first world wicked.

    By contrast Communism has always developed in third world countries (Russia of the early 1900s was not well developed and Stalin was from Georgia). It thus has many ‘barbarous’ or ‘savage’ elements, the effect of poorly educated people gaining wealth, power and modern weaponry without being educated on the moral responsibility in using such resources. The West is, and always was, under far less of a threat from the madness of Communism than it was, and still is, of the Nazis hatred of the weak and undesirable.

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  27. Considering the discussion today, The Beloved Daughter is an excellent read, and I have it on audiobook, too. Husband could not stop listening to it last night. At 3:00 a.m. I told him he could finish it tomorrow. So guys will probably like it, too.

    Jo, if you happen to join bookfun.org to get Kindle books for international readers free in exchange for a book reviews, there is a group called Night Owls which I think you might enjoy. I am in that but have not posted on it recently.

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  28. Michelle, and Chas, famines play a large role in the history of the Soviet Union. It was anger over the inaction of the Tsarist government during the Russian famine of 1891-92 which helped bring the Communists to power. When the crops failed due to spring flooding and summer drought, the government failed to ban grain exports until late August, allowing grain merchants to export their stores before the ban took place (they were given one month’s notice that the ban would take effect). With no surplus wheat to replace the failed crops, a half million died in the ensuing famine and cholera plague.

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  29. The above account, which I first read in a little book called The Story of a Grain of Wheat (published 1911), always reminds me of another proverb: “He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.” (Prov.11:26)

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  30. By the way, Chas, my WWII expert sibling is very passionate about the battle of Warsaw and wants to write a book about it someday. The bitter irony of the Soviets as an Ally is that, despite the fact they had suffered so bitterly under the hand of the Nazis – more than 1,500,000 soldiers and civilians died under the Nazis siege of Leningrad [I was reminded of that the other night, listening to a interviewee on the radio talk of how they could only find 20 musicians in Leningrad who were capable of performing Shostakovich’s fifth symphony and even then, the conductor fainted from hunger during rehearsal] – yet they showed no empathy with their fellow sufferers from Poland.

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  33. roscuro — you hit the right note in your comparison between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The communists basically inherited the secret police and gulag from the Tsar. They may have expanded it but the methodology wasn’t much different. Aside from the Ukranian famine which is far more complex than my Ukrainian friends care to admit, Soviet terror was like the Tsar — arbitrary and at times incompetent. Nazism took a modern western “civilized” country and using modern technology, bureaucracy and governance established a totalitarian machine targeting certain groups of people in a far more efficient manner.

    As an aside, Nazism presented a far greater challenge to the western notion of progress than any other regime and hence is and should be viewed differently than totalitarian states established elsewhere.

    Chas — I suppose you are referring to the third battle of Warsaw in WWII. The first occurred in 1939 when the Germans bombed the city, then again in 1942 when they flattened the Jewish ghetto about 20% of the city, and finally in 1944/5 when they flattened the western side of the Vistula river while the Russians watched across the river in the Praga district. My friend lived in the Praga district for over 5 years, in the end he said they should flattened that side too since it was a slum before and after the war well known for its underworld connections. In additon there is the 1920 Battle of Warsaw when the Poles stopped the Soviet army under Trotsky from entering Europe. Stalin had an irrational hatred for the Poles and it may be derived from that defeat.

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  38. Emily learned today that she has been accepted into that part-time LPN program she had applied to. She is so happy, especially since she’d been waiting a long time to hear, & was starting to think she didn’t make it. But she was chosen in the “first batch”, as she was told. So proud of her!

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  41. Lots of good news on the blog today! God is good all the time, but some days we feel the goodness a bit more than on other days. Congrats to Kim and Emily. I am smiling double wide.

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  43. One of the first and perhaps only books I stayed up all night to read was by Helen MacInnes and was on the battle in Poland. I believe it was “While Still We Live” Her focus was on Warsaw.
    Congrats to Kim and to Emily. Karen, that means you will be doing more childcare, right?

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