43 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-16-19”

  3. Num see’s been posting a lot.
    Good morning everyone but Jo.
    Good evening Jo.
    I’m going back to see what #20,000 says.

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  5. Wow! 200,000! And there was no race to get it sine we can’t see those post numbers. Even the Secret Room won’t get that far. (I see you ladies have run that one up over 6,500.)

    At any rate, here is a contemporary version of a hymn I like a lot: “Thine Be the Glory, Risen Conquering Son”.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I went back to see what Mumsee’s 3ooK was about. But I forgot already. It may have been about outdoor critters, but I prefer to think it was “What!”

    I need to remain anonymous after that. 😉

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  9. QoD
    Kate Smith wanted “God Bless America” to be our national anthem, rather than the Star Spangled Banner. I agree. the SPB is not about a nation, but a flag. Not only that, it’s unsingable.
    But that isn’t the question.
    Question: Does any country, besides USA have a song that is a prayer for the nation?

    Liked by 1 person

  11. I think I shall be anonymous. I am sitting in the Cincinnati airport heading for Dallas in a bit. Then on to home sweet home where I will catch up on what y’all have been up to!

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  15. Michelle, mix powedered (confectioner’s) sugar and borax equally. Put in a small bowl and leave on the counter. The ants are drawn to the sugar and carry it back to the colony and the borax kills them.

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  16. I had the bone density scan this morning. Now I have completed everything but the 24-hour urine test. I certainly am not carrying the container around with me and finding a day when I can stay home AND get it to the lab the first thing the next morning is a challenge.
    I am reminded of how healthy I have been up to this. When I fill out the medical questionnaires each time I go for a test, I mark more No’s than Yes’. That is a good place to be. I am also very thankful that none of this showed up before now. I currently have really good insurance.

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  20. Yesterday a link was shared on FB about the Notre Dame fire which was troubling in the amount of rumour it generated in the comment section. It was written by Rod Dreher at the American Conservative. I will not share it here because it contains false and misleading information (it can be Googled by those wanting to verify), including an update claiming that the rose windows of the cathedral had exploded – they have not (https://nationalpost.com/news/world/the-survival-of-the-rose-windows-a-small-light-in-a-day-of-darkness-for-paris). The speculation of conservative readers identifying as Christian in the comment section of Dreher’s post is even more ridiculous. The irony is, that Notre Dame, which literally translates to Our Lady (referring to Mary) is a Catholic Cathedral, while Dreher converted to the Orthodox Church because of his disgust at the scandals of Catholicism, – but Dreher is an enormously popular and influential writer among the conservative Christian Americans in general. I mention the article because it is a prime and very obvious example of the rumours that conservative sites and ‘Christian’ bloggers have been generating in order to stir up the faithful to action. I shouldn’t be surprised that those who call themselves Christian are rushing to wring more sinister meaning out of an accidental fire, but I shocked that those who call themselves Christian should be so ignorant of the word of God that they allow themselves to be taken in by rumour.

    This is why our society is so polarized. Those who should be the most balanced, the most sane, because our Lord told us not to let our hearts be troubled (John 14:27), are wringing their hands over report and rumour, allowing themselves to be made fearful by paper tigers and hollow giants. Christians are the salt and light of the earth and when they lose their balance over rumour, then it is no wonder the rest of the world does so. We have the Scripture warning us repeatedly not be shaken in mind (II Thessalonians 2:2) and not to let rumours of war and disaster disturb us (Mark 13:7). What is happening in the Western church right now more matches Ezekiel’s description, “Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients” (7:26). But it is happening because people want to hear rumours – several commentors on Dreher’s blog openly wanted to hear that the fire was terrorist related – so that they have something to feed their fearful anger and outrage, because as Paul said, they have “itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (I Timothy 4:2-3). Like Jonah (chapter 4), they want to see disaster to befall, instead of glorying in the mercy of God. I have said it before and I say it again, the church is the Jonah of the West, causing the cultural storm because of her disobedience to the call of God.

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  24. I must have missed it, but I didn’t notice much speculation yesterday regarding the fire, only a few off-the-wall tweets maybe. I do think it was probably not an unlikely question that came to mind early on, considering it was Holy Week. I like and follow Deher on Twitter but did not see his particular tweet. Perhaps there were more widespread suspicions beyond the initial concerns? I thought it was fairly clear early on that the fire *likely* (though not confirmed) started as a result of the ongoing renovation. Once that was mostly settled, I didn’t see a lot of suspicions being raised. One question I had, though, was whether anyone was inside at the time, that never seemed to be addressed in the news coverage I saw.

    It certainly could have been worse judging by the final toll. At least good portions of the edifice were saved. But it is always so jarring to see historic architecture (even if some of it was only from the 1800s) destroyed.

    I’ve been working on a port story all day, working from home. Now awaiting calls for comment which probably won’t yield much due to the nature of the story (ongoing confidential talks). The mayor’s office had no comment, the others have yet to weigh in.

    I started gathering items for the 2 built-in wall shelves in my home den/office last night, including roscuro’s bird-on-the-cross photo that I now have in a simple black frame. 🙂

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  25. Among other items gathered are an antique iron (tiny, heavy, with a wood handle, from my mom’s stuff that was probably from her parents’ stuff); a couple primitive (and old) ceramic jars that make nice vases; a metal milk can; and 6 (!) wood duck decoys, some of which I’ll set on top of the roll top desk hutch way up high, the others can be dispersed on the 2 shelves.

    And I’d still like to put a few of the antique books up there that I’d cleared out from (and stored back into) the garage. There was a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress and some other interesting titles in very old bindings that would look nice, I think.

    I just have to re-find them …

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  28. AJ, I was going to ask, is that a wood duck up in a tree? I have yet to see a wood duck this year, though I’ve kept my eyes open for them! (And my husband and I drove this morning to a birding spot known for many, many bird species, and I got three new species for my “life list”–but no wood ducks.)

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  30. I cannot share it with you in any way but a friend who has been to Paris multiple times (she has said she would rather drive a 20-year-old car and go to Paris) posted a photo of the cross and the collapsed, charred wood and ashes. Above it she wrote, “Isn’t this how we all arrive at the cross?”

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  31. As I type this, Nightingale is having a birthday party for Janie upstairs. (She turned two sometime around March 25th.) She originally was planning this party for Janie’s first birthday last year, but got too busy at the time.

    Now, before you start thinking she’s one of those who go overboard with their pets, let me assure you that this “birthday party” is really just an excuse for her to have fun planning it and have some friends over. (She invited her friend Stacey and her five children, and another friend and her daughter. Heidi and I were up there for a couple hours, too.) She enjoys planning, preparing for, and setting up for these events almost more than the events themselves.

    What a really cute and clever job she did on this little party! She made cookies using a dog bone-shaped cookie cutter, and she bought three cheap plastic dog food bowls to put the salads in. She also made a little “cake” for Janie which is pretty much like a meatloaf, with banana and peanut butter mixed together to make “frosting”. She also made “pupcakes” out of that stuff, sticking a Milk Bone dog biscuit on the top of each one, and she also put those dog bone-shaped cookies on the tops of the cupcakes for the people. (The cookies and the dog bone biscuits are about the same size and shape.) Those are arranged on a tiered cupcake tray, with the pupcakes on the top two tiers, and the cupcakes on the bottom two or three tiers.

    For the children, she made a blue kind of KoolAid type of drink, and she’s calling it Toilet Water. 🙂 And then there was the general party decorating she did, which was very nice.

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  33. There is one very simple explanation for how the fire and police department already know the fire started. It is reported that the fire began accidentally due to ongoing repairs. There is no reason to think the start of the fire was not witnessed. Two years ago, there was a fire at a hospital in a nearby community to where my parents live. The roof was being repaired. Something went wrong, and the roof caught on fire. Although the fire was put out, the smoke went through the ventilation system, necessitating the hospital being shut down for a year in order to be repaired. They knew how the fire started, because the repairman who accidentally started it was right there when it started, and he had tried to put it out himself, which is how it got out of control.

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  34. I need to catch up, buried in port-only news today; but have they stated the fire’s cause or likely cause? Is there some kind of dispute?

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  35. This looked like the most recent report within a longer story:

    __________________

    What caused the fire?

    Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Île-de-France region in which Paris lies, confirmed Tuesday that the fire was an accident, although officials haven’t elaborated on the exact cause. Paris police said it may be linked to the $6.8 million renovation efforts underway.

    No deaths have been reported, but one firefighter was reportedly seriously injured. The final damage estimate is likely to be extensive.
    _________________________

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  36. From another report:

    _________________

    It is currently suspected that the fire may have been accidentally started as a result of some of the reconstruction work, with Glenn Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College telling the Times that “There’s a history of churches and synagogues and other houses of worship falling victim to construction fires.”

    He further explained that this is often caused by the open flames and sparks associated with welding and similar construction hazards combined with flammable materials like the wooden beams that made up the interior of Notre-Dame’s roof.

    However, much of the potential evidence of what caused the fire was likely lost in the blaze itself; how much information it will be possible to uncover with regards to specific culpability has yet to be seen.
    _______________________

    I get that there were likely a bunch of conspiracy theories, but that frankly is par for the course, thanks to human nature fueled by the power of social media, no?

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  37. Actually, what the fire marshall told my boys when he came here to lecture them for playing with fire, is that there is quite a science to determining the cause of a fire. They do some interesting detective work and can pretty much pinpoint it But it takes time. It is likely the fire started from renovation, but for now, it is all just speculation and a waste of breath.

    That is how they determine the fire started from: exploding ammo on a rifle range, or exploding targets on a rifle range or a campfire, or a cigarette, or a lightning strike, or arson, or a bit of broken glass on a hot day, or power lines. It can be guessed but they will come through with an educated guess when they are done. I would think a repairman would have spoken up but if sparks were embedded in tinder while they were there and did not start until they went home for the day, makes sense they would not know for sure.

    I have not heard any conspiracy theories about it until I read it in Phos’s post.

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  38. I hadn’t really either, which made me think I was missing something. I saw some random things yesterday after it first happened but that’s kind of to be expected, everyone speculating.

    The house next door to me caught on fire from a worker’s welding iron or something that was left plugged in down in the basement. Really weird, some kids knocked on my door, must have been around midnight, I answered and they said the house next door is “on fire!” I looked over and sure enough, the windows were orange! Yikes.

    Leashed up the dogs and joined everyone else standing on the other side of the street as we watched the fire dept go to work and put it out. Could have been worse, house survived fine. But lots of things had to be replace (floors, roof, etc.)

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  39. My boys, of course, considered me a lunatic, but I was adamant they were not to use any spark producing tools during the dry season. No sanders, or anything else. My little five acres are not that big a deal, except to us, but I did not want to be responsible for taking out the neighbor’s crops. Kind of nice to have my house still standing as well.

    Liked by 1 person

  40. I am home…and it has been a long day of travel and last minute gate changes! I will catch up on the coming and goings here later. And I have my iPad once again. So much easier to see things when the print is larger! And it was 70 degrees in this part of Colorado when I landed….no snow! 🙃

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  41. Ah, the flying anon, revealed.

    First editor read my story but the senior editor wants to read it, too, and there’s no telling when that’ll happen. He’s obsessed, thinks we have such a “fun” job that we should be willing to work all hours of the day and night like he does. He’s a very nice guy who’s become just incredibly annoying to many of us.

    This job has become so difficult at times in the past couple years.

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  43. If someone was there when it started and told how it started, then an investigation need not take much time. My sister had a house fire a few years ago, and even though she and her family weren’t there when it started, they knew how it started–in fact, her husband left church to run home and turn off the iron, having remembered he left it plugged in, and he met the fire department at his front door. Speculation wasn’t needed, though his “speculation” was confirmed.

    I think, though, that one reason people speculate even though the news has already answered the “how” question is simply that we have lived long enough to know that sometimes the initial report isn’t accurate–and sometimes it is inaccurate on purpose. For example, Ronald Reagan was much closer to death from the would-be assassin’s bullet than was indicated in the initial reports–to avoid citizen fear and panic. So sometimes people are “reassured” with the nicer-sounding story. Or a murder is reported as a probable suicide (or vice versa). Also, eyewitness reports can be wrong. For instance, if a man using a welding torch discovers a fire in the vicinity of the area where he is welding, he may assume that he started it, when in fact he did not. It doesn’t necessarily take a conspiracy theorist to say “Yes, I know they said this . . . but initial reports are sometimes misleading, and I’ll wait to see what they say once the official report is in.”

    I think it sounds very probable it was construction-related, but I personally would be hedging my descriptions with such things as “an apparent accident” rather than stating it with certainty this early in the game.

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