25 June 2012

Stonewall Jackson's Arm Has Gone Missing! Well, at least that's what I've read, anyway. My article on the matter is here; the link about the missing arm is at the bottom. If you ever visit Historic Ellwood in the Wilderness Battlefield Park, bear in mind that the marker in the family cemetery may be displaying an untruth.

"You have lost your left arm, but I have lost my right." - Robert E. Lee's note to Jackson upon hearing of the amputation. Now the Park Service has lost the left arm.

I have posted more videos of the most adorable baby in the known universe, my grandson. Yes, yes, I know what you are thinking, "Another grandfather crazy nuts about his new grandchild." True, but it's so much more than that. Observe this photo. This baby is so advanced that my kids have been able to train him to hold his own pacifier although he's only a week old. I hope he uses his powers for the good of mankind, like Doc Savage.

Gibson video: Ethan and Gibson. Father and son moments.
Another Gibson Video: Face Time with Baby Gib. Includes a discourse about thumb-sucking.

Gibson Picasa photo album, the repository of All Things Gibson, so that future generations may see that he was not just a legend, he was once a mere baby.

I hate, hate, hate it that we're 2/3rds of a continent away from that baby. This is a very unsatisfactory situation. Now I know how my Mom felt, living in New Hampshire when the grand kids were in Maryland. But at least we have Apple Face Time, which works quite well.

Yard sales last Saturday were good. I got three CDs (Christopher Cross' Greatest Hits, a Time-Life R&B collection and a Canadian Brass CD), a deluxe two DVD set (Troy) and a book (about historical plagues). All for under two dollars. It's hard to top the tertiary market for value

I got released from my Webelos Den Leader calling yesterday, after serving for two and a half years.(3 1/2 years in Scouting, if you count the time I spent as the Eleven Year Old Scout Leader the year before.) I'll miss the crazy energy that comes with being in a room with a bunch of ten year old boys; the noise, not so much. I agreed to help out during July while my replacement prepares. Onto the next thing the Lord wants me to do, whatever that is. I do admit feeling somewhat apprehensive about this...

Since I keep records of all my activities, I have noted that I have spent a total of eleven and a half years in Scout callings (Cub and Boy Scout) since 1988. 11 1/2 years! How time flies.

I mentioned that I am now reading a Doc Savage adventure, The Lost Oasis. I wonder how I got through 30+ of these as an eighteen year-old. I must have been a lot less discerning than I am now. This being classic pulp fiction, it's written in a breathlessly enthusiastic style: "Doc's amazing strength enabled him to climb the thin cable in no time!" or, "Doc's honed bronze body swerved in time to miss the oncoming bullet!" or, "His incredible hearing caught the entire whispered conversation!", etc. It's kind of like reading a comic book! Everything, even the most mundane statement, is followed by an exclamation mark!

(And no, Mike, don't apologize for giving these to me! It may not seem like it from the foregoing paragraph, but I am enjoying reading them! Honest!)

I watched a couple of documentaries recently:

The Buried Secrets of the Bible (a PBS NOVA show) - No, not Dan Brown bogus esoterica, although I think that's the audience they were going for. This was a somewhat dry account of how the first five Biblical texts align or don't align with history as recounted from other accounts. Known as the Pentateuch, the first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) are traditionally ascribed to Moses. But were they written by him, really? Probably not. Am I losing my faith because of this? No.

By the way, my pal Mike and I share a common ability: We can sing the names of all the books of the Old and New Testament to the tune of Scotland the Brave, thanks to an obscure song by an obscure musical group named The 3 D's. I, myself, can sing Chocolate Rain a full octave below Tay Zonday. But I digress.

The Vikings (another NOVA production) - I've seen a number of productions of this type, which assure us that the Vikings were not merely the blood thirsty barbarians that the victimized chroniclers claim they were in historical accounts. No, they were surprisingly cultured and had the benefit of superior shipbuilding technology. Small comfort that was to the Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Slavs and Arabs who were terrorized by their raids...

That's all.