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WITandWISDOM(tm) - August 6, 1999 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. - Vincent Van Gogh (E-zine: INSPIRE http://www.infoadvn.com/inspire/) ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: The sign in the window read: "Boy Wanted". Young John Simmons, though he was lazy, saw his opportunity and applied. He was quickly hired by elderly Mr. Peters. The pace was leisurely so he enjoyed the job. Toward the middle of the afternoon however, he was sent up to the attic -- a dingy place full of cobwebs and infested with mice. "You will find a long, deep box there," explained Mr. Peters. "Please sort out the contents and see what should be saved." John was disappointed. It was a large container, and there seemed to be nothing in it but old junk. After a few minutes he went back to the ground floor. Asked by the proprietor if he had completed his work, he replied, "No, sir, it was dark and cold up there and I didn't think it was worth doing." At closing time he was paid and told not to return. The next morning the old sign "Boy Wanted" appeared in its usual place. Crawford Hill was the next to be employed. When he was asked to tidy up the same box, however, he spent hours separating the usable nails and screws from the things to be discarded. Suddenly he raced down the stairs all excited. "At the very bottom I found this!" he exclaimed, holding up a 20-dollar bill. At last the store owner had discovered a conscientious boy to whom he could entrust his business when he retired. Years later Mr. Peters said, "This young man, who is now my successor, found his fortune in a junk box!" Then, correcting himself, he added, "No, he actually found it in his mother's Bible because he heeded the verse she made him memorize: 'He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much!'" Luke 16:10 - Illustration take from Bible Illustrator for Windows Version 1.0, Copyright 1990-1994 by Parsons Technology, Inc. (E-zine: SERMON FODDER http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/Sermon_Fodder) ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: THE FUTURE - YEAR 2000 What will the future be when the Big Odometer rolls over to the year 2000? Well let's grab our "Uncle John's Indispensable Guide to the Year 2000" and find out, as we journey back in time for predictions. FOOD: By the year 2000, chemistry will replace agriculture. Everybody will carry his little gaseous tablets, his little ball of fatty matter. - M. Berthelot, Strand magazine, 1901 By 2000, sawdust and wood pulp will be converted into sugary foods. Discarded table linen and rayon underwear will be bought by chemical factories and converted into candy. - John Smith, Science Digest, 1967 POLITICS: One can only smile at the thought of England and the United States planning for the year 2000. They will be lucky to survive until 1950. - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, 1941 ELVIS: By the year 2000, one out of three people will be Elvis impersonators. - Michael Sweet, The New York Times, 1991 HOUSEWORK: When the housewife of 2000 cleans house she simply turns the hose on everything. Why not? Furniture, rugs, draperies, unscratchable floors - all are made of synthetic fabric or waterproof plastic. After the water has run down a drain in the middle of the floor, she turns on a blast of hot air and dries everything. - Waldemarr Kaempffert, Popular Mechanics, 1950 ROBOTS: We may wake up each morning to the patter of little feet - robot feet. - Walter Cronkite, Life in 2001, 1967 CANNIBALS: I predict an outburst of cannibalism that will terrorize the population of one of the industrial cities in the state of Pennsylvania - Pittsburgh! - Criswell, Criswell Predicts, 1968 SCHOOL: All the teacher will have to do to bring swift punishment will be to press a certain button and a current of electricity will shoot through the victim and make him think he is a human pin-cushion. - "Uncle Richard Tells of the Bad Boys of the Year 2000", The Chicago Tribune, 1900 - The OREGONIAN (Barbara Henry) ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: A nun who works for a local home health care agency was out making her rounds when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it there was a station just down the street. She walked to the station to borrow a can with enough gas to start the car and drive to the station for a fill up. The attendant regretfully told her that the only gas can he owned had just been loaned out, but if she would care to wait he was sure it would be back shortly. Since the nun was on the way to see a patient she decided not to wait and walked back to her car. After looking through her car for something to carry to the station to fill with gas, she spotted a bedpan she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful, she carried it to the station, filled it with gasoline, and carried it back to her car. As she was pouring the gas into the tank of her car, two men walked by. One of them turned to the other and said: "Now that is what I call faith!" (E-zine: TIDBITS DAILY DEVOTIONAL http://members.aol.com/champ7/Tidbits.htm) ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Do you remember this nursery rhyme from your childhood? "May had a little lamb/its fleece was white as snow/and everywhere that Mary went/the lamb was sure to go." There really was a Mary and a little lamb. Mary was Mary Sawyer of Sterling, Mass. According to Ruth Hopfmann of the Sterling Historical Society, the story of Mary and her lamb dates back to 1816 when Mary's lamb followed her to school one day. Mary hid the lamb under her desk. All went well until Mary was called to the front of the class for a recitation. The lamb again followed and was banished to a nearby shed until dismissal. Visiting the school that day was young John Roulstone, who commemorated Mary's adventure in three verses. Fourteen years later, Sara Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, included Roulstone's poem in a booklet of poetry and added several verses of her own. Fleece from the lamb, it is said, was used to knit two pairs of stockings. Those stockings were unraveled by Mary Sawyer herself in 1883 when, in a fund-raising project aimed at saving Boston's Old South Church, she sold cards wrapped with the yarn and telling the story of the verse. Today Mary and her lamb live on, not only in the verse but in a statue of the two that stands in the town common. - Three Minutes a Day (Vol.27, Christopher Books) - Bits & Pieces, April 29, 1993 (Magazine: BITS & PIECES http://www.epinc.com/) |