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WIT & WISDOM - December 23, 1998 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Work like you don't need money, Love like you've never been hurt, And dance like no one is watching. - Unknown [1] ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: While teaching my 12-18 year girls at church, one of the other teachers put "X-Mas" on the board, and asked the girls to share their thoughts on the word. Everything from presents to parties was talked about, then I mentioned that I didn't like the word, as "X" had taken the place of Christ. The other teacher then rewrote the word as "Christmas", and the girls began to discuss how and why the word had changed. One of our older girls, Becky, was quiet for a moment, then asked me if "mas" wasn't the Spanish word for more. I told her that it was, then she said, "I think instead of the 'X' we should emphasis the 'mas'; after all, it is telling us that we need more Christ in Christmas." No truer words have been spoken. By Shane Kirkpatrick [2] ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: For those people who send you annoying, bragging Christmas Letters, send them this one: By Donald Plumley CHRISTMAS GREETINGS! It is that time of year again to share with you our adventures in this journey we call life. 1998 has been another year of magic and wonder. . . Lori almost 3, is quite a talker. She continues to amaze the professors at the University with her intuition in foreign languages. It was fun for her to serve as Official Translator for Warren Christopher at the Bosnian-Serbian Peace Talks. She intends to spend this Holiday transcribing War and Peace into Arabic and Cantonese. Chris, now 5, is growing leaps and bounds. When he got his first set of building blocks he seemed quite interested in large buildings. This year he designed his first skyscraper and ground was broken in Hong Kong for the new "Little Man" Towers. It is great to have a budding architect at home as he made a new addition to the house and a wonderful gazebo for our garden. Martha Stewart will be filming her next show here in April. Betsy had a very busy year. In between her work as President of the American Cancer Society and Senior Partner of Goldman Sachs, she introduced a line of children's novels and hand made active-wear. She remains occupied with the children and has introduced them to Yoga and power walking this year. We are particularly proud of Mom as a starting forward representing the United States in the World Cup. Dave was immersed with his Graduate School studies, and managed to co-author a paper on Multidimensional Customer Attribute Analysis by Conjoint Survey and accept a Nobel Prize for his discoveries in Quantum Physics. Along the way Dave took three startups through their IPO. We are proud of his work serving on the Board of Directors of IBM, Coca-Cola, and Walt Disney. Dad was also active with the kids teaching Lauren Ballet and helping to lower Chris' handicap to 5. We were able to squeeze a little traveling in this year. We started in Aspen, went to Belarus, the Congo, Denmark, Ethiopia, the Falklands, Greenland,, Holland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Venezuela, and Zaire. Our trip sailing our new boat around the world was a great experience for the kids, we learned to communicate with Dolphins and discovered a new region of deep water volcanoes. And Sergeant, our German shepherd, learned to speak. Latin. Other than that, it was a very quiet year. So from our household to yours, all the Blessings of the Season and may your New Year be prosperous. We found out yesterday that we won the $150 Million Powerball Lottery. - Betsy, Dave, Chris & Lori [3] ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. They'd been worn all week and needed the air. [4] ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: WHY IS A MILE 5,280 FEET? The 5,280 feet to a mile ratio started in ancient Rome. The Romans, who measured distances in paces, had a measurement called "milia passuum," Latin for "a thousand paces." Since each pace was 5 feet, a milia passuum was 5,000 feet. Makes sense so far, right? British farmers measured their land in furlongs, with each furlong measuring 660 feet. When they adopted the milia passuum - abbreviating the name to "mile" - they decided that it should equal a whole number of furlongs. They could have made a mile equal 8 furlongs and then cut each furlong down a bit - keeping 5,000 feet to the mile and making things easier for us today - but they didn't. Instead, they lengthened the mile to 8 full furlongs, or 5,280 feet. Main Source: IMPONDERABLES by David Feldman [5] ~~~~~~~ CONTRIBUTORS: [1] (Carol Blum) [2] (Shane Kirkpatrick) [3] (Just 4 Laughs! Http://www.GeoCities.com/Hollywood/Set/6993) [4] (Marsha Gainey via Have A Nice Day [5] (http://www.MailBits.com/Trivia) |