1) I run over fields and woods all day,
Under the bed at night I sit alone,
With a long tongue hanging out,
Awaiting for a bone.
What is it?
2) What flower is in between your nose and your chin?
3) I am a country. My 1st, 2nd, and 7th letters form an
external point. My 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th is what you
will be when you solve this puzzle. My 5th, 2nd, 3rd,
1st, and 4th is in heaven. My 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th
is on earth. What country am I?
4) I'm so fast you can't see me,
Though everyone sees straight through me,
I don't stop until the day you die.
What am I?
5) A tree doubled in height each year until it
reached its maximum height in 20 years. How
many years did it take this tree to reach
half its maximum height?
*Answers are located in "comments"
for your convenience & felicity but
no machination or peeking allowed.
ANSWERS TO RIDDLES:
ReplyDelete1) A Shoe
2) Two lips!
3) England
4) A Blink of an Eye
5) 20 years
Star Spangled Banner
ReplyDeleteUnless you know all four stanzas of the Star Spangled Banner you may find
this most interesting. Perhaps most of you didn't realize what Francis Scott
Key's profession was or what he was doing on a ship. This is a good brush-up
on your history.
(Editor's Note- Near the end of his life, the great science fiction author
Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about the four stanzas of our national
anthem. However brief, this well-circulated piece is an eye opener from the
dearly departed doctor......)
' I have a weakness -- I am crazy, absolutely nuts, about our national
anthem. The words are difficult and the tune is almost impossible, but
frequently when I'm taking a shower I sing it with as much power and emotion
as I can. It shakes me up every time.'
NO REFUGE COULD SAVE : BY DR. ISAAC ASIMOV
I was once asked to speak at a luncheon. Taking my life in my hands, I
announced I was going to sing our national anthem -- all four stanzas. This
was greeted with loud groans. One man closed the door to the kitchen, where
the noise of dishes and cutlery was loud and distracting. 'Thanks, Herb,' I
said.
'That's all right,' he said. 'It was at the request of the kitchen staff'
I explained the background of the anthem and then sang all four stanzas. Let
me tell you, those people had never heard it before -- or had never really
listened. I got a standing ovation. But it was not me; it was the anthem.
More recently, while conducting a seminar, I told my students the story of
the anthem and sang all four stanzas. Again there was a wild ovation and
prolonged applause. And again, it was the anthem and not me.
So here’ the story.. Now let me tell you how it came to
be written.
In 1812, the United States went to war with Great Britain, primarily over
freedom of the seas. We were in the right. For two years, we held off the
British, even though we were still a rather weak country. Great Britain was
in a life and death struggle with Napoleon. In fact, just as the United
States declared war, Napoleon marched off to invade Russia. If he won, as
everyone expected, he would control Europe, and Great Britain would be
isolated. It was no time for her to be involved in an American war.
At first, our seamen proved better than the British. After we won a battle
on Lake Erie in 1813, the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent the
message, 'We have met the enemy and they are ours.' However, the weight of
the British navy beat down our ships eventually. New England, hard-hit by a
tightening blockade, threatened secession.
Meanwhile, Napoleon was beaten in Russia and in 1814 was forced to abdicate.
Great Britain now turned its attention to the United States, launching a
three-pronged attack.
The northern prong was to come down Lake Champlain toward New York and seize
parts of New England.
The southern prong was to go up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and
paralyze the west.
The central prong was to head for the mid-Atlantic states and then attack
Baltimore, the greatest port south of New York. If Baltimore was taken, the
nation, which still hugged the Atlantic coast, could be split in two. The
fate of the United States, then, rested to a large extent on the success or
failure of the central prong.
The British reached the American coast, and on August 24, 1814, took
Washington, D.C. Then they moved up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On
September 12, they arrived and found 1,000 men in Fort McHenry, whose guns
controlled the harbor. If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would
have to take the fort.
On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had
been arrested in Maryland and brought along as a prisoner. Francis Scott
Key, a lawyer and friend of the physician, had come to the ship to negotiate
his release.
The British captain was willing, but the two Americans would have to wait.
It was now the night of September 13, and the bombardment of Fort McHenry
was about to start.
As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over Fort
McHenry. Through the night, they heard bombs bursting and saw the red glare
of rockets. They knew the fort was resisting and the American flag was still
flying. But toward morning the bombardment ceased, and a dread silence fell.
Either Fort McHenry had surrendered and the British flag flew above it, or
the bombardment had failed and the American flag still flew.
As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the
fort, trying to see which flag flew over it. He and the physician must have
asked each other over and over, 'Can you see the flag?'
After it was all finished, Key wrote a four stanza poem telling the events
of the night. Called 'The Defense of Fort McHenry,' it was published in
newspapers and swept the nation. Someone noted that the words fit an old
English tune called, 'To Anacreon in Heaven' -- a difficult melody with an
uncomfortably large vocal range. For obvious reasons, Key's work became
known as 'The Star Spangled Banner,' and in 1931 Congress declared it the
official anthem of the United States.
Now that you know the story, here are the words. Presumably, the old doctor
is speaking. This is what he asks Key:
Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
('Ramparts,' in case you don't know, are the protective walls or other
elevations that surround a fort.) The first stanza asks a question. The
second gives an answer:
On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
'The towering steep' is again, the ramparts. The bombardment has failed, and
the British can do nothing more but sail away, their mission a failure. In
the third stanza I feel Key allows himself to gloat over the American
triumph. In the aftermath of the bombardment, Key probably was in no mood to
act otherwise? During World War I when the British were our Staunchest
allies, this third stanza was not sung. However, I know it, so here it is:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
(The fourth stanza, a pious hope for the future, should be sung more slowly
than the other three and with even deeper feeling):
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto --'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I hope you will look at the national anthem with new eyes. Listen to it, the
next time you have a chance, with new ears. Pay attention to the words. And
don't let them ever take it away ... not even one word of it.
The New Engine Difference -
ReplyDeleteI'm in our van sitting at a red light - and suddenly this cloud of dark,
acrid smoke starts belching out of my exhaust pipe. It was disgusting!
Apparently, the motorists behind me felt the same way - they started honking
at me. That helped tremendously. I just wished honking would have solved
the problem. Believe it or not, it didn't. One mechanic told me, "I
wouldn't leave town with that van if I were you." He was right - of course,
the smoke wasn't the problem - the problem was the engine. No, it didn't
need to be fixed. It was far too gone for that. It had to be replaced!
The van I drove away from that garage looked like the same van I drove into
that garage. Wrong. It was new on the inside - and as a result, it was no
longer leaving an ugly trail behind it.
Actually, a lot of us have some emissions coming out of our lives that
aren't too pleasant either. Maybe you know some of those feelings - too
often there is anger spewing out - or self-pity because we feel like a
victim - or negative, critical attitudes. We say what we later regret we
said - we do what we later regret we did - we're hooked on what we wish
we could stop - we leave a trial behind us of people who have choked on the
smoke we put out. And it's not that we haven't tried to fix it. From New
Year's resolutions to religion to self-improvement, we've tried to stop
polluting our own lives and the lives of those around us but we've got a
problem inside.
God diagnoses that problem in His book. In Jeremiah 17:9 it says, "The heart
is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" In
other words, the engine is shot, and it can't be fixed. It has to be
replaced, which leads us to God's tremendous offer. And it's our word for
today from the Word of God, Ezekiel 36:26, "I will give you a new heart and
put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you a heart of stone and give
you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you."
God says our heart is too darkened and hardened by sin to ever quit putting
out pollution. We can certainly never get into His totally unpolluted
heaven with this polluted heart we all have. Our only hope for this life -
and for eternal life - is a new heart. We can't perform heart surgery on
ourselves! Only the divine surgeon can do that! He stands ready to take
that heart of yours that's been hardened by all the hurt and the anger and
the sin and replace it with a heart that's clean and sensitive and new!
He'll put His Holy Spirit in you to make you the person you've wanted to be
but you never could be.
But the operation had to be paid for just as the engine replacement on my
van had to be paid for - and I didn't have anything to pay it with. But to
my amazement, some of God's people quietly got together and they paid the
bill. That's what Jesus was doing for you when He was agonizing on that
cross. He was paying the bill for your sin; a bill you could never pay - so
you could be forgiven.
You ready for a new heart? Then it's time to open your heart to Jesus
Christ. I would love to help you be sure that you have begun your personal
relationship with Jesus Christ - that you belong to Him.
I think one way we might be able to help and encourage you at this
crossroads time in your life, is if you will go to our website. It's really
been set up to explain in simple, non-religious terms how to be sure you
belong to Jesus Christ. The website is yoursforlife.net. And I'd encourage
you to go and visit us there before you forget about it. Maybe you'd rather
just write for my booklet Yours For Life, where you'll get much of the same
information about how to begin a relationship with Jesus and get a new
heart. You can call for that booklet toll free at 877-741-1200.
All of our lives we try to stop the ugly stuff that comes out of us, but it
still keeps coming until we get a new engine - a new heart. Jesus is
waiting for you to tell Him right now that you want it.
To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
please visit: yoursforlife.net or call 1-888-966-7325.
Click Here
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Wist u dat de God van u houdt?
Avez-vous su que Dieu vous aime ?
Wußten Sie, daß Gott Sie liebt?
Avete saputo che il dio li ama?
Você soube que o deus o ama?
¿Usted sabía que el dios le ama?
http://everystudent.com/menus/intl.html
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