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WITandWISDOM(tm) - November 2, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Phyllis Diller in Entertainment Weekly: “Look at Bob Hope. Look at Milton Berle, George Burns. Look how long they lived. Seeing the funny side of things keeps you alive.” Source: The Reader's Digest, ©, All rights reserved., http://www.readersdigest.com/ ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: As volunteers in the local Young Life club, Mike and Karla Yaconelli befriended a student whose father, an alcoholic, had emotionally and physically abused his entire family. They worked with the young man for six months. The Yaconellis were remodeling their house and needed new kitchen tile laid. The only professional available was the young man's father. Reluctantly Mike agreed to employ him—but only after obtaining a legal bid. The boy's father performed the work. On his last day, Mike asked him to drop by his office later for his check. He replied that he would because he needed to talk to Mike about the money. "I knew he'd try to cheat us," Mike muttered to Karla. He braced himself for a confrontation. At the end of the day, the boy's father entered Mike's office and began to talk as he wrote out his bill. He acknowledged that he'd abused his family. He told how he'd observed Mike's involvement with his son change the boy's life. After seeing his son's change, he said, he'd gone to AA and remained sober ever since. He handed Mike the bill, saying, "I've never been able to thank you, but I'm thanking you now." It showed the agreed-upon bid price, and was marked "paid in full." My Response: Given the same situation, would I even have hired the father? Adapted from Who Can You Trust? By Howard Butt Jr., © 2004, http://isbn.nu/1578568013 Source: Men of Integrity, http://tinyurl.com/jsmyw ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: A Croatian woman suffered burns to her bum after lightning struck her in the mouth and passed through her body. Natasha Timarovic, 27, was cleaning her teeth in her home in the city of Zadar when lightning struck the building. She said: "I had just put my mouth under the tap to rinse away the toothpaste when the lightning must have struck the building. "I don't remember much after that, but I was later told that the lightning had traveled down the water pipe and struck me on the mouth, passing through my body. "It was incredibly painful, I felt it pass through my torso and then I don't remember much at all." Doctors at the city hospital where she was treated for burns to the mouth and rear said: "The accident is bizarre but not impossible. "She was wearing rubber bathroom shoes at the time and so instead of grounding through her feet it appears the electricity shot out of her backside. "It appears to have earthed through the damp shower curtain that she was touching as she bent over to put her mouth under the tap. If she had not been wearing the shoes she would probably have been killed by the blast." Croatian daily 24 Sata said the young woman had been released from hospital after being kept in overnight and was expected to make a full recovery. Source: Ananova http://www.ananova.com ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: When my daughter was about four years old, she still had a hard time grasping the concept of marriage. (I still do !) But anyway, I got out our wedding album, thinking visual images would help, and explained the entire service to her. Once finished, I asked if she had any questions, and she replied, "Oh. I see. Is that when Mommy came to work for us?" Source: Funny Pages ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Your Hands . . . About a quarter of the motor cortex in the human brain (the part of the brain which controls all movement in the body) is devoted to the muscles of the hands. There are no muscles inside the fingers. The muscles that bend the finger joints are located in the palm and in the forearm, and are connected to the finger bones by tendons, which pull on and move the fingers like the strings of a marionette. The force generated by the muscles that bend the fingertips must be at least four times the pressure which is produced at the fingertips. The thumb is controlled by nine individual muscles, which are controlled by all three major hand nerves. Each hand contains: 29 major and minor bones. 29 major joints. At least 123 named ligaments. 34 muscles that move the fingers and thumb: 17 in the palm of the hand, 18 in the forearm. 48 named nerves: 3 major nerves, 24 named sensory branches, 21 named muscular branches. 30 named arteries and nearly as many smaller named branches. Source: Gleaner, October 2006