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WITandWISDOM(tm) – November 6, 2007 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: “A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a whole life’s experience.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Source: Maximum Impact, http://www.maximumimpact.com ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Several centuries ago in a mountain village in Europe, a wealthy nobleman wondered what legacy he could leave to his townspeople. He made a good decision. He decided to build them a church. No one was permitted to see the plans or the inside of the church until it was finished. At its grand opening, the people gathered and marveled at the beauty of the new church. Everything had been thought of and included. It was a masterpiece. But then someone said, "Wait a minute! Where are the lamps? It is really quite dark in here. How will the church be lighted?" The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls, and then he gave each family a lamp, which they were to bring with them each time they came to worship. "Each time you are here'" the nobleman said, "the place where you are seated will be lighted. Each time you are not here, that place will be dark. This is to remind you that whenever you fail to come to church, some part of God's house will be dark" That's a poignant story, isn't it? And it makes a very significant point about the importance of our commitment and loyalty to the church. The poet Edward Everett Hale put it like this: I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something I can do. What if every member of your church supported the church just as you do? What kind of church would you have? What if every single member served the church, attended the church, loved the church, shared the church, and gave to the church exactly as you do? What kind of church would you be? Submitted by Malladi Murthy in India ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Can You Remember...? 1. After the Lone Ranger saved the day and rode off, the grateful citizens would always ask, "Who was that masked man?" Invariably, someone would answer, "I don't know, but he left this behind." What did he leave behind? (BONUS POINTS: What was the name of his sidekick? By what nickname did his sidekick call the Lone Ranger? -3 points-) 2. When the Beatles first came to the United States, we watched them on The __________ Show. (BONUS POINT: What is Ringo's real name? -2 points-) 3. "Get your kicks __________!" 4. "The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed __________." 5. "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, __________." 6. After The Twist, The Mashed Potato, and The Watusi, we danced under a pole as low as we could go, doing __________. 7. "N-e-s-t-l-e-s, Nestles makes __________." (BONUS POINT: What was the name of this product's spokes animal? -2 points-) 8. "Satchmo" was America's "Ambassador of Goodwill" and a great jazz trumpet player. His name was __________. 9. What product took a licking and kept on ticking? (BONUS POINT: Name its famous pitchman. -2 points-) 10. Red Skelton's hobo character was named __________ and Red ended every show by saying, "__________ and __________." (2 points) 11. Some Americans who protested the war in Vietnam did so by burning __________. 12. The cute little car with the engine in the back and the trunk in the front was manufactured by Volkswagen. We called it the __________ or __________. (BONUS POINT: What was the name of the first Disney movie starring this vehicle? -2 points-) 13. In 1971, Don MacLean sang a song about "the day the music died." This was a tribute to __________. (BONUS POINT: What was the name of the song? -2 points-) 14. We can remember the first satellite placed into orbit. Its name was __________. 15. One of the big fads in the late 50s and early 60s was a large plastic ring twirled around the waist called the __________. We also hurled a plastic disc around the backyard and up onto the garage roof, called a __________. (BONUS POINT: Name the company that manufactured it. -3 points-) THE ANSWERS 1. A Silver Bullet. (BONUS ANSWERS: Tonto. Kemosabe.) 2. Ed Sullivan. (BONUS ANSWER: Richard Starkey) 3. On Route 66. 4. To Protect the Innocent. 5. The Lion Sleeps Tonight. 6. The Limbo. 7. The Very Best ... Choooooocolate. (BONUS ANSWER: Farfel) 8. Louis Armstrong. 9. A Timex Watch. (BONUS ANSWER: John Cameron Swayze) 10. Freddy, the Freeloader. Good Night and God Bless. 11. Their Draft Card. Some also burned their bra, but that really came later, during the rise of feminism. 12. Beetle or Bug. (BONUS ANSWER: Herbie, or The Love Bug; I will accept either choice) 13. Buddy Holly. (BONUS ANSWER: American Pie) 14. Sputnik. 15. Hoola Hoop. Frisbee. (BONUS ANSWER: Wham-O) THE RESULTS 20-25 right = Good news! Stop worrying about Alzheimer's, your memory is great! 15-20 right = Pretty good, but you might want to brush up on your trivia. 10-15 right = Eh, who wants to live in the past, anyway? 0-10 right = Maybe you should spend more time with Mom and Dad. Editing, bonus questions and ratings by Mark Raymond Source: Mark Mail, http://mrhumor.net/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more and more baby boomers and older people are getting hurt while lifting weights than ever before. The most common injury in these age groups occurs when the person is moving the weights around in the closet to make room for their exercise bike. Submitted by Lorraine ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Johnathan Goodwin’s Creations Part 2 of 2 [November 5, 6] Two years ago, Goodwin got a rare chance to show off his tricks to some of the car industry's most prominent engineers. He tells me the story: He was driving a converted H2 to the SEMA show, the nation's biggest annual specialty automotive confab, and stopped en route at a Denver hotel. When he woke up in the morning, there were 20 people standing around his Hummer. Did I run over somebody? he wondered. As it turned out, they were engineers for GM, the Hummer's manufacturer. They noticed that Goodwin's H2 looked modified. "Does it have a diesel engine in it?" "Yeah," he said. "No way," they replied. He opened the hood, "and they're just all in and out and around the valves and checking it out," he says. They asked to hear it run, sending a stab of fear through Goodwin. He'd filled it up with grease from a Chinese restaurant the day before and was worried that the cold morning might have solidified the fuel. But it started up on the first try and ran so quietly that at first they didn't believe it was really on. "When you start a diesel engine up on vegetable oil," Goodwin says, "you turn the key, and you hear nothing. Because of the lubricating power of the oil, it's just so smooth. Whisper quiet. And they're like, 'Is it running? Yeah, you can hear the fan going.'" One engineer turned and said, "GM said this wouldn't work." "Well," Goodwin replied, "here it is." Observers of Goodwin's work say his skill lies in an uncanny ability to visualize a mechanical system in precise detail, long before he picks up a wrench. (Goodwin says he does much of his mental work during long drives.) "He has talent unknown to any mortal," says Mad Mike, Pimp My Ride's host. "He has this ability to see things so exactly, and I still don't know how he does it." For his part, Goodwin argues he's merely "a problem solver. Most people try to make things more complicated than they are." He speaks of the major carmakers with a sort of mild disdain: If he can piece together cleaner vehicles out of existing GM parts and a bit of hot-rod elbow grease, why can't they bake that kind of ingenuity into their production lines? "Detroit could do all this stuff overnight if it wanted to," he adds. Source: FastCompany.com, http://www.fastcompany.com