Green, Green, Green

 Help! Sharkbytes.  Not actually asking you to help pull weeds, but tell me what the heck this is.This deceptively attractive creature has invaded our wildflower garden and our day lily beds with a vengeance.  Don't recall having this in previous years, but we have it now.

The leaves are in pinwheel formation and up to an inch in length.  The flowers are tiny, a couple of millimeters, some singles, some in clusters of up to a half-dozen.  It is easy to pull, but it is sticky, almost as though putting ones fingers in a paste-pot.

Sharkbytes, or Sharkey, or Shark is a naturalist par excellence.   If this plant is  native to her bailiwick, she will know its name, and much more.  These plants provided me with a good bit of Saturday afternoon entertainment, as I pulled, and pulled.  Much more difficult to pull were the thistle which we have every year.  The thistle produces a lovely  lavender flower which the butterflies like.  We don't mind a few, for we can usually behead them before they strew their seeds, but too many is more than enough.

Gardening is so much fun!  Wish I had the energy for it.

Sunday School Lesson

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?

 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.  John 6:28-35

Image: Christ Walking on the Waters by von Klever

Handicapping the Horses

The first Saturday in May. The horses go to the post at Churchill Downs this afternoon. For those of you who care, it looks as though Baffert may have another winner on his hands. So I am told. I rather favor a horse named "Hansen" and not because I know a thing about the horse, the trainer, the rider, or horse-racing in general, for that matter.

I choose Hansen because I once knew a girl whose surname was Hansen with an "e" and the last time (and only time) I wagered on a horse it was called "Wendy" and I once knew a girl named Wendy. Won, too.

Then, too, I am partial to greys.  Maybe I oughta...

Supermoon

Folderol.  Don't take my word for it; read it in Discover Magazine.
If you had read none of the hype, nor listened to any astrologers, you  would not be able by eyeballing it to discern any difference between this full moon and any other.  Take a look to the east just after sunset.  See for yourself.

And, no.  It is not a harbinger of any disaster, nor will it cause one.

Helen Continues Her Story

I always felt a little sorry for my father.  It seemed my mother never warmed to his family, and I only recall two occasions on which she visited any of his family with him.  Dad's sister, Clara, married Uncle Ned.  He had a yacht and Mother and Father went to Long Island once to cruise on his yacht.  Later when he retired, Uncle Ned bought a farm in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and I believe my parents visited there once.

*****

My father's sister Julia married Uncle Clifford.  They had two sons, Clifford, Jr. and Herbert.  Herbert went to college and was involved in a fraternity hazing incident and had to be committed to a mental hospital where he remained until his death.

Uncle Clifford had an optical supply store¹ and after he died Clifford Junior managed his mother's affairs, and my father bought the business of them.  Later, when Father got out of the business, he sold to a gentleman who had been a long-time employee of Uncle Clifford and himself.

Clifford the Younger later ran afoul of the government.  I don't know that he was culpable of any criminal intent, but he committed suicide.  His children, who were our cousins, rather dropped out of sight.  I think one or two of them moved to Michigan and we lost contact.

*****

I knew Uncle Steve quite well as he maintained a room on Grandma's floor in our house where he frequently stayed.  He never divorced his wife, but he had a long-term mistress by whom I believe he had children.  He used to receive mail at our house addressed to Mr. Olsomer.²  I don't know if that was the name of the woman with whom he lived or if it was perhaps just another name he used.

Helen's daughter Ellie remembered Uncle Steve, too, as he boarded with her parents when Ellie was quite young.  This was before Dick was born, and when the baby arrived they needed the extra room for him, and Steve moved out.  Ellie remembered Uncle Steve's little white moustache, his psyllium seed on his cereal which got her into a fine fix once,³ and his magnificent chess set, which he wouldn't let her touch.

¹Both the optical supply store and the Knapp family home were located in Harlem.  The time frame is the first two decades of the twentieth century.
²Looking at some family history in later years, I discovered what I believe to be evidence that the woman Steve lived with was named Olsomer.
³Ellie, at breakfast, once insisted that she should have psyllium on her cereal, too.  Her mother assured her she did not want it, that she would not like it; forget it.  The child insisted, mother gave in and sprinkled the stuff on the child's cereal.  Then the real conflict began upon the taking of the first taste.  Ellie was still sitting at table well past lunch time.

Helen is mother of Ellie, my late second wife.  Helen's stories begin here. 

Buick Redux

I was as surprised as anyone when I logged onto String Too Short to Tie this morning and found that there was no new post. For anyone who made a return trip, here, accept this repost for today. Will try to have something for tomorrow!

 I have never owned a Buick, but yesterday's post and the comments thereon suggest that a sequel is in order. A few days ago, I saw this 1939 phaeton model Buick parked on a downtown street. It evoked memories. I saw this same car yesterday as it drove down the street.

One pleasant day somewhere in the early fifties, a bunch of us drove from the Springs to Denver in a 1939 Buick. It belonged to the parents of one of the girls in the group and was driven by her boyfriend, who was a wildman behind the wheel. But we survived without incident. The purpose of the trip was to spend a day at Elitch Gardens, Denver's "fun park." The old wooden roller coaster, The Wildcat, got well used that day. I suspect that it met its demise decades ago. Given a car full of teenagers and the freedom of choice they had, it hardly needs to be told that we arrived back home very, very late at night.

About the same time in history, I had a friend whose father owned a 1951 Buick Roadmaster. This beast was a beautiful bronze color and was equipped with "Dynaflow" transmission. I vividly remember the "winding up" as one attempted to accelerate from a stoplight. The auto had a quite powerful engine, a 320 ci straight eight, and once you got it going, the car would cruise at exhilirating speeds. But the Dynaflow was not designed to win any drag races!

I was talking with my sister yesterday who just the day before had had a conversation with the friend mentioned.  Reminded me of this post.

King James Authorized Version #T

The first English translations of the Holy Scriptures were undertaken in the fifteenth century. The Wycliffe Bible pre-dated the printing press (Gutenberg, c. 1440) but nevertheless had a wide circulation by way of manuscript production.

The work of William Tyndale in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, along with the work of Myles Coverdale resulted in the Great Bible of 1539 and under the auspices of Henry VIII became the standard for use in the Church of England. When Mary I ascended to the throne in 1553 she returned the Church to the fold of the Roman communion. Many of the English reformers left the country. Geneva, under John Calvin, became the center of Latin biblical scholarship, and the English amongst the followers of the reformed faith developed the Geneva translation of the Bible. It was a revision of previous English Bibles based on comparative studies of the original languages.

When Elizabeth I came to the throne the Church of England was reestablished as the church in England. It was determined that both the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible failed to conform to the ecclesiology and episcopacy favored by the Church of England, particularly with regard to its stance on the ordination of the clergy. Thus in 1568 a revision known as the Bishops’ Bible was introduced for use in the church. However, the Geneva Bible continued to be much more widely read, since it was more readily available in inexpensive copies.

When James VI of Scotland ascended to the English throne as James I he convened the Hampton Conference in 1604. His Majesty ordered that a new translation of the Holy Scriptures be made, and he gave specific instructions that certain words in the original languages would be translated in such a way as to conform to the structure of the Church of England.*  For example, “ecclesia” should be translated as “church” and never as “congregation.” The official Authorized King James Version (KJV) of the Holy Bible was published by the King’s printer, Robert Barker, on May 2, 1611.

Thus ends the necessary historical background which must precede my own observations. Or, as everyone says these days, “That being said...” (*growl*) I grew up reading the KJV, and I still find it the most satisfying. Although I read from many other translations and paraphrases of scripture, I suspect that I shall always prefer the King James. Or, as the old saw goes, “If the King James was good enough for Paul and Silas, it’s good enough for me.” There are those, I must say, who carry their preference for the King James to the extreme, going so far as to castigate and vilify other translations and translators. Say what one might about paraphrases, translators in prayerful good conscience make every effort to convey the original intent in language that the reader is familiar with. I have one friend who refers to the KJV as the “King Jesus Version.” Excuse me if I find this a bit extreme. After all, Jesus spoke and read Aramaic, and billions of people today read no English at all!)

What is important in all of this is that the Word of God (The Holy Bible) should be available, accessible, and read by all, for in it are the Words of eternal life!

*There is little doubt that James's efforts in this as in all his actions were designed to ensure his continued reign in England.  He famously said, "No bishop, no king."  On the matter of the Puritans' desire to reduce or eliminate certain conventions and ceremonies within the church, he is quoted as saying, " Shoes were worn when England was Catholic, so why don't Puritans go barefoot?"

References
1.  Grimm, Harold J.  The Reformation Era.  The Macmillan Company, New York, 1954.
2.  Wikipedia

Pictures!

 The faithful old Canon PowerShot A520 served me well for a lot of years and took hundreds of pictures.  It still works, evidence pictures below, but it is getting a bit stubborn about reviewing shots and often one has to turn it off completely and restart in order to review.  So I have been thinking for seven or eight months about new equipment.

And as I was spending money in an electronics shop the other day, this "on sale" item caught my eye.  It is a bit smaller, has a bit larger viewing area, and has seriously higher resolution.  I hope I am going to like it.

The upper two pictures were taken with the Canon PowerShot A4000 IS, and its "portraits" were snapped with the old camera.  Can you see any difference?  The objects were posed identically and the A520 defaulted to flash.  The A4000 IS used available light.