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WITandWISDOM(tm) - July 2, 2004 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others rather than his own; and who appears well in any company; a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe. - John Walter Wayland Submitted by John L. Bechtel ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Celeste Sibley, one-time columnist for the Atlanta (GA) Constitution, took her three children to a diner for breakfast one morning. It was crowded and they had to take separate seats at the counter. Eight-year-old Mary was seated at the far end of the counter, and when her food was served she called down to her mother in a loud voice, "Mother, don't people say grace in this place?" A hush came over the entire diner and before Mrs. Sibley could figure out what to say, the counterman said, "Yes, we do, Sister. You say it." All the people at the counter bowed their heads. Mary bowed her head and in a clear voice said, "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food." Source: Bits & Pieces, May, 1990, Copyright (c) Economic Press, Inc http://www2.ragan.com/html/main.isx?sub=226 Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Scientists in Germany tested a border collie and found it had a vocabulary of 200 words. Nine-year-old Rico, who lives with his owners in Dortmund, could also pick up the meaning of new words on first hearing. Researchers said its language learning skills were comparable with a three-year-old child. Rico's owner, Susanne Baus, began teaching him to fetch different objects by name when he was less than a year old. She would place three different toys in different locations around the flat and ask the dog to retrieve one. He was rewarded with food or play and soon developed an impressive word count. Dr Julia Fischer and colleagues from the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig decided to put him to the test. In a series of controlled experiments, he correctly retrieved 37 out of 40 toys from a collection when its name was called. The scientists estimated that Rico's vocabulary was comparable with language-trained chimpanzees, sea lions, dolphins and parrots. They then tested Rico's ability to learn new words, placing seven well-known toys in a room with one that the dog had never seen before. His owner then asked him to fetch the toy using an unfamiliar word. Seven times out of 10 he brought back the correct toy. A month later, the dog correctly remembered the name of the new toy. "This retrieval rate is comparable to the performance of three-year-old toddlers," the researchers said. Source: Ananova http://www.ananova.com ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: You know it's going to be a bad day when your teenager knocks on your bedroom door first thing in the morning and says, "Today is Nerd Day at school, Pop. Can I borrow some of your clothes?" Source: Pulpit Supply, mailto:pulpit-supply-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: WITandWISDOM of June 7, 2004 described the poverty of many in the world. One of our readers writes about the relationship between the economy and the standard of living in Taiwan as compared to the United States: I lived in Taiwan for a year and a half when it was considered a primitive, third world country. Don't you believe it was primitive by any means. It was organized to take advantage of a really labor intensive economy. We had something like 30 people who came to our house in the course of a month to do some little task by which they made their living. You just had to learn to live with lots of people rather than machines. We got by, rent, food, help, the whole works for about $60 a month. It was easy to get spoiled over there. One wife returning home to America awoke to the startling fact she had to fix breakfast for her family. The was no "amah" to do it. She burned the toast! You got by well over there if you adjusted to local conditions. Here is a fact that smacked me in the face when I was in Taiwan: If you saved the equivalent of the income of a common laborer in a year, you could invest it and live off the interest. You didn't have to work any more. I don't know any Americans who think they could do that with a year's income invested here. Submitted by R. P. Cly |