Archives

Sandwich Day

Nov3

sandwichPhoto courtesy of flickr.com
John Montague, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, was born November 3, 1718 in London. He became England’s first Lord of the Admiralty and later Postmaster General. Captain James Cook named the Sandwich Islands for the Earl of Sandwich. He was also an inveterate gambler, and of course, the story is that he invented the sandwich while engaged in an extended gambling session that lasted over twenty-four hours. Not wanting to leave the game, he asked his servants for a meal he could eat conveniently without making a mess. He got The Sandwich.

The Sandwich Project A website with recipes for 2273 sandwiches (as of November, 2005). If you don’t find your favorite there, you can add it to the list.

A History of Sandwiches

Sandwich Lover’s Club Blog
I Love Sandwiches Blog

And if you really love sandwiches, this Cafe Press store has a whole line of merchandise for you.

So what’s your favorite sandwich?

Morning Star of the Reformation

Oct31

I found this poem by Wordsworth while reading for my British Literature class:

WICLIFFE

ONCE more the Church is seized with sudden fear,
And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed:
Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed
And flung into the brook that travels near;
Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can hear
Thus speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind,
Though seldom heard by busy human kind)–
“As thou these ashes, little Brook! wilt bear
“Into the Avon, Avon to the tide
“Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,
“Into main Ocean they, this deed accurst
“An emblem yields to friends and enemies
“How the bold Teacher’s Doctrine, sanctified
“By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed.”

And, of course, it’s true. Wycliffe preached, “Were there a hundred popes and all the friars turned to cardinals, their opinions in matters of faith should not be accepted except in so far as they are founded on Scripture itself.” Wycliffe died, and fifty years after his death, they dug up his body, burned it, and scattered his ashes in the river Swift, a tributary of the Avon.

But Wycliffe’s views and teachings travelled to Bohemia and greatly influenced a man named Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake for teaching what Wycliffe taught first.. A century later Martin Luther wrote, “I have hitherto taught and held all the opinions of Hus without knowing it . . . We are all of us Hussites.”

Tonight we watched the movie Luther in honor of Reformation Day. I’ve been reading the book Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired by Benson Bobrick. Perhaps some more thoughts on translating the Bible into the languages of the common people and on the Reformation will be forthcoming soon. For now, I’m simply thankful for the great blessing I have taken for granted all my life, the blessing of being able to read God’s very Word for myself in my own language.

By the way, I’m declaring November Thanksgiving for the Saints Month here at Semicolon. (If Rebecca Writes can have Spurgeon Month, I can certainly devote a month to giving thanks for those who have served the Lord faithfully and in doing so directly and indirectly blessed me.) What thirty+ saints in the history of the church am I thankful for? Stay tuned to find out.

Today I’m giving thanks for John Wycliffe, John Hus, and Martin Luther, a triumvirate of reformers, Bible preachers and lovers of Jesus Christ who gave us, among other blessings, the concept of having the Word of God available in our very own language.

The Most Dangerous Thing Is Illusion

Oct31

Harry Houdini died of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix on October 31, 1926. Magician dies on Halloween; how odd is that?

Houdini was born in Budapest, Hungary on March 24, 1874. He was the son of a rabbi, and his birth name was Erik Weisz. The family moved to America in about 1878. Erik/Houdini ran away from home at the age of twelve. Houdini worked hard to become a vaudeville magician and entertainer; eventually he concentrated on escapes. He was known as “The King of Handcuffs” and “The Genius of Escape.”

In 1922 Houdini was vacationing with his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Doyle’s family. He attended a seance with Lady Doyle who claimed to receive a message from Houdini’s deceased and beloved mother. Houdini did not believe in the message, and he and Doyle became estranged over this seance and over Houdini’s continuing efforts to unmask fake and fraudulent “mediums.”

Teaching materials on Harry Houdini from PBS’s The American.Experience.

October 28th Blogiversary

Oct28

I’ve been blogging for two whole years now. Have I said anything worthwhile? I sincerely hope so.

Most frequent searches that end up at Semicolon:

“What to do when bored” leads to this favorite Bored: Nothing To Do, a list of 100 suggestions for bored urchins.
Searches for “TV detectives” lead to my list of ten favorite TV detectives.
People who are looking for an SAT shower curtain often end up here, and happily for them the link to Amazon to buy the curtain still works.
A search having to do with preschoolers and picture books will, I hope, lead the reader to my Picture Book Preschool curriculum page.
As you might imagine, there are a lot of people who come here looking for help on the rules for usage of the lowly semicolon itself. I really ought to do a post on that subject someday as a public service.

My 10 favorite posts from the past two years:

1. Revealing Literature: A Life in Books

2. Ways to Be Texan

3. Can Anything Good Come Out of San Angelo?

4. Homeschooling by Grace

5. Where I am From

6. Celtic Community

7. Showers of Blessing

8. Cafes, Cathedrals, and Communities

9. 10 Most Helpful FIction Books of the Last Two Centuries

10. The List, a list of books I want to read this year.

Leif Erikson Day

Oct9

“in 1964, President Lyndon B Johnson, backed by a unanimous Congress, proclaimed 9 October to be Leif Erikson Day, in commemoration of the first arrival of a European on North American soil.” –BBC History

So, in honor of Leif Erikson and all those Viking-types, I’ve ordered these two books by Lars Walker of Brandywine Books. Cheapskate that I am, I was still hoping to check them out of the library before committing myself to spending actual money. But if I’m going to read them , I’ll just have to buy them. I’ll tell you how they were when I get them read.

Shanah Tovah

Oct4

shofar

Happy New Year! Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It’s a day of rest, a day for offerings, and a day for the blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn trumpet. Traditionally, the blowing of the shofar has three purposes:

1. It is a call to repentance, beginning the Ten Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. During this time Jewish people are exhorted to seek reconciliation with those whom they have wronged during the year. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24

2. The shofar is also blown to “remind” God of His covenant with His people Israel. Our Lord, of course, needs no reminder of His commitment to those who are in Christ. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

3. Finally the shofar is sounded to confuse Satan, the accuser, as he accuses the saints before the throne of God. “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.”

So Rosh Hashanah is a good time to remember God’s mercy through Christ, His faithfulness in Christ, and God’s power over Satan by the suthority of Christ.

L’shanah tovah tikatevu= May your name be inscribed (in the Book of Life).

Blog Day 2005

Aug26

Have you ever noticed that the date 3108 looks a lot like the word “blog”? Well, neither have I–maybe because here in the U.S. we write dates in the “correct” order: month, day, year, 08/31/05. Actually, now that I think about it, the European style makes more sense: from shortest to longest, day, month, year.

Anyway, someone did notice the similarity and decided that August 31st would be a good day for Blog Day:

In one long moment on August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new Blogs, Preferably, Blogs different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

I think it sounds like fun. I’m looking for my five blogs to highlight, and I have my own self-imposed rule: All the blogs I highlight will be from outside the United States. They will also probably all be in English since I can only read one other language, Spanish, and I imagine most of my readers read only English. So, get ready for Blog Day next Wednesday.

In Late Summer Our Thoughts Turn To . . .

Aug7

Shakespeare, of course. A couple of weeks ago we made our annual trek to Shakespeare at Winedale where the plays are presented by college students in an old country barn converted to theater. We saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and The Taming of the Shrew.. We learned that Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play, but the time is worth the use on’t, that the younger generation is seriously annoyed by The Taming of the Shrew, but I think they enjoyed being annoyed, and that Bottom is a funny name for a funny character.

So now a week and a half later we haven’t had our fill of Shakespeare, so we’re hosting our own Shakespeare festival. Since none of us is an actor that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, we’ll be taking advantage of the miracle of DVD. Here’s the invitation I gave out to a few families this evening:

You’re invited to:

The First Annual Semicolon Shakespeare Festival
Presenting at 7 p.m. each evening:
Tuesday, August 9th Much Ado About Nothing

Wednesday, August 10th Romeo and Juliet

Thursday, August 11th Henry V

You and any or all of your family are invited to attend any or all three of the plays. Much Ado and Henry V are the movie versions directed by Kenneth Branagh. Romeo and Juliet is the 1968 version directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

I’d be happy to invite all my blog buddies, but the trip to Houston might be a little too long for some of you, and my living room might be a tad too small. So if you want to rent the movies and watch them in the comfort of your own home, you’re hereby invited to host your own Shakespeare festival.

Which of the three plays we are planning to watch contains which quotation and who said it?

1. “In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.”
2. “O, swear not by the moon, the fickle moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.”
3. “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous; and it pricks like thorn.”
4. “The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry! England and Saint George!'”
5. “If we are marked to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.”
6. “O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you!
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep.”
7. “Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
8.”See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!”
9. “O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention;
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene.”
10. “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.”

Sundae Sunday

Jul17

ice cream sign

I scream, you scream,
We all scream
For ice cream!

According to several sources, today is Sundae Sunday or National Ice Cream Day. Whether it’s an official holiday or not, I say any excuse to celebrate with ice cream is a good excuse.

Here’s a great page with lots of information about ice cream, including poems, trivia, stories, and a list of thirty-one suggested ice cream sundaes, one for each day of July. Hurry up, you’re 16 days behind!

I think today would be a good day to make some good old-fashioned homemade ice cream. Unfortunately, I’m not sure we have an ice cream freezer that’s in working order. Has anyone else made homemade ice cream this summer? What’s your favorite flavor?

Did you know that:

The first ice cream is believed to have been made in Italy in about 1550. Or maybe it was invented in China. Or France (Catherine de Medici). Or England (Charles I). Or not.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both quite fond of ice cream, but it was Dolley Madison who served ice cream at her husband’s Inaugural Ball in 1813.

Americans eat the most ice cream, but New Zealanders consume the most ice cream per capita.

80 percent of the world’s vanilla bean used for ice cream is grown in Madagascar.

French vanilla ice cream has a high fat content and enough eggs to give it a yellow color. It usually contains small bits of vanilla bean.

Spumone, an Italian ice cream, is made of a layer of chocolate ice cream, a layer of vanilla, and a layer of rum-flavored whipped cream

Gelato, another Italian product, is characterized by an intense flavor and is served in a semi-frozen state that is similar to “soft serve” ice cream. Italian-style gelato is more dense than ice cream, since it has less air in the product. Typically, gelato has more milk than cream and also contains sweeteners, egg yolks and flavoring.which contains chopped nuts and fruits. (Eldest Daughter became a fan of gelato when she was in Italy a couple of years ago, but I have yet to try it.)

sign