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WITandWISDOM(tm) - January 9, 2007 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence. - Frederick Douglass Source: Inspire, http://www.inspirelist.com/ ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, who died a few years, became a familiar sight to millions in his company’s television commercials. I used to refer to him as Uncle Dave. He wasn’t my uncle, but I hoped that if he ever heard about my referring to him that way he might remember me in his will. He didn’t. I guess I can just call him plain old Dave Thomas now. Dave also appeared in a lot of in store training films. In those, as in many of the more familiar commercials, he would dress as his workers. One year he appeared on the cover of one of the company’s annual reports dressed in a knee-length work apron holding a mop and a plastic bucket. For many years, a framed copy of that picture graced the back rooms and manager’s office of most Wendy’s. That picture was built on the fact Dave was a self-made millionaire. He didn’t finish high school. He worked his way up through the ranks of Colonel Sanders’ Kentucky Fried Chicken chain long before he went off on his own and started Wendy’s. Here’s how Dave explained that picture: “I got my M.B.A. long before my G.E.D. At Wendy’s M.B.A. does not mean Master of Business Administration. It means Mop Bucket Attitude.” Dave Thomas taught all of his employees that service comes before success. By Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO Source: SermonCentral Weekly Newsletter, http://www.sermoncentral.com/newsletter_subscribe.asp ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Rev. Don Holesapple, a Baptist preacher, tells the story on himself about the time he received a call from a woman who was quite upset over the death of her pet cat, Homer. She wanted the preacher to conduct the funeral service for Homer! Holesapple explained that this was a little out of his line and referred her to a friend, a Presbyterian pastor at a church down the street. Later, Holesapple learned that the Presbyterian preacher had referred her to a Methodist minister, who had referred her to someone else. About an hour later, she called Holesapple back, still upset. The woman said she was at her wit's end, couldn't find a preacher to conduct Homer's services, and didn't know what to do. She said she planned to give one thousand dollars to the church of the minister who performed this service for Homer. Holesapple said it took him only a moment to mull this over, and then he said to her, "Well, why didn't you tell me Homer was a Baptist cat in the first place?!" James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 372, http://isbn.nu/0842315691 ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: Legend has it that when the famous frontiersman Davy Crockett was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1827, a newspaper reporter asked him if he’d ever been lost. Crockett had grown up in the woods and wilderness of middle and western Tennessee and was often gone out on hunting trips for weeks at a time. Crockett thought about the question for a moment and said, “Nope, I’ve never been lost. I have been a might bewildered for a week or two, but I’ve never been lost.” Source: SermonCentral Weekly Newsletter, http://www.sermoncentral.com/newsletter_subscribe.asp ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: What was Sherlock Holmes’ original first name? Before deciding on the name "Sherlock," Arthur Conan Doyle had named his now famous detective Sherrinford. The name was used in a short story Doyle wrote in 1886. Holme's sidekick in the story was called Ormond Sacker soon to be renamed Thomas Watson. Source: ArcaMax - Trivia, http://tinyurl.com/9kf44