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WITandWISDOM(tm) - November 22, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: An employee who will lie for you will lie to you. - Michael Josephson Source: Chapnotes, mailto:xanmansa@chapnotes.org?Subject=Subscribe ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Althea Gibson lived with her parents, three sisters, and one brother in a small apartment in a rundown section of Harlem in New York City. Restless, tired of being crowded, poor, and discriminated against because she was black, she could have become a juvenile delinquent like many of the kids around her. Although Althea never had a tennis racket in her hand until she was 14, she was already very good at paddle tennis, winning medals in competition with other Harlem areas. One day she saw the recreation leader of the area watching her. "You're light-footed and have a lot of power," he told her. "I wonder what you'd do with regular tennis." The man bought her a secondhand restrung racket and arranged for her to have lessons. Through painful training she learned not only to play good tennis but also to practice court manners, such as returning balls to other players instead of whamming them out of her way and, when she lost a match, shaking hands with the winner. After finishing junior high school, Althea entered a vocational high school, but found it boring. When she skipped classes her father beat her, so she stayed away from home. She tried to find work but realized that she didn't have enough education to get a good job. At 19 she went back to school as a high school sophomore. Along with her studies she kept on practicing tennis. Finally came the day when she played in the Wimbledon tennis matches in London, the foremost tournament in the world. And she lost. That could have been the end of Althea Gibson's career in tennis. But it was only the beginning. She traveled throughout the world on a good-will tour and kept on practicing. When she came to Wimbledon the second time, she won. Source: Climbing Jacob’s Ladder, by Jeanne Larson and Ruth McLin, © 1979 by the Review and Herald Publishing Association ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: After an Air Canada flight reached its cruising altitude, the captain announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain. Welcome to Flight 293, non-stop from St. John's to Toronto. The weather ahead is good, so we should have a smooth, uneventful flight. So sit back, relax and . . . OH, MY GOD!" Silence followed! Some moments later the captain came back on the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry if I scared you. While I was talking to you, a flight attendant accidentally spilled a cup of hot coffee in my lap. You should see the front of my pants!" Overhearing the noise, one first-time flyer yelled, "Yeah, well you should see the back of mine!" Source: Chapnotes, mailto:xanmansa@chapnotes.org?Subject=Subscribe ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles M. Schulz Source: Smile a Day Newsletter (c), http://www.net153.com/best.htm ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: In 1996, every American taxpayer worked until July 3rd to pay off his or her share of government imposed financial costs. - Thomas Oller, Assemblyman, California