Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Francis Abbott – the Hermit of Niagara – 1829 - 1831
It is a full moon again for the last few nights. Some say that this causes all kinds of extra problems for people… like more killings and fights and stuff that is nasty.
Well as it goes last evening I sat in the Emergency Department with a friend of mine that was going through some terrible things emotionally. His mind will not shut off. Sleep seems impossible to the point that his mind is playing huge and cruel tricks on him. In fact it has gone past the “trick” stage and is now dangerous to the point of complete collapse… which doesn’t seem possible because of the way that he is refusing to take the sleep offered.
It is a full moon.
While sitting beside my friend’s emerge bed I met another character that may be one of the most mysterious that I have ever come across. His name is Francis Abbott. He is kind of famous in that a section of the Niagara Falls is named in his honour or memory… the “Hermit’s Cascade”.
My other friend Pierre Berton introduced me to Francis as I was reading Pierre’s book entitled Niagara: A History of the Falls.
On June 18, 1829 Francis Abbott arrived at the Falls on foot. He was a well formed man with a roll of blankets, a flute, a book and a cane. He entered a modest Inn and stayed. The Falls’ magic seem to capture him from what Pierre wrote.
You will have to read about the Falls in those early days to understand what was taking place in and around the area. It was at that time a swirl of tension between business and tourists and people making money off all of them.
Wild stories had grown over the previous years about the Falls. Adventurers and Tourists flocked to the area to see it for themselves. There was magic in the air as people were drawn to it. Just as it seeme to draw people today – it did so in 1829.
Francis Abbott somehow managed to wangle a place on Goat Island. No one else was allowed on it other than one family that lived there before Augustus Porter bought the Island (but that is another amazing story).
Francis Abbott then lived on the Island and acted out his last two years of life for the world to see. He became known as the Hermit of the Falls.
Some of the strange actions and activities were his antics on a wooden platform that extended out over the falls from the Island. On a slippery board with little or nor railing he would walk out over the falls. Among other death defying stunts he would hang from the planks over the water for up to 15 minutes at a time… dangling over the water.
Of course as with everything about the present Niagara Falls area it would draw a crowd as tourists and locals would stand gawking at the lone Hermit doing his thing.
Almost two years to the day of his arrival, Francis Abbott had entered the water near the Goat Island to bathe, one report indicated, and while doing so he either slipped, let go by accident or maybe even on purpose – and disappeared over the water fall. They found his body eleven days later.
In the small hovel that he lived in was his dog that would not allow anyone in to the place but was removed with great effort. Within was his flute, violin, guitar and music laying scattered about. On a crude table were found a portfolio and the leaves of large book, all blank. Dozens of witnesses had seen him scribbling day after day in his book – yet at the end there was nothing left. Not even his name was written.
As I read these words I looked up at my friend and watched his great anxiety. Here in the clean hospital and the year is 2010. He is protected and given top medical attention for his mental problems. In 1829 Francis Abbott slipped in the water accidentally or on purpose and was gone.
Last evening as I left the hospital my mind swirled with emotions… and thoughts of Francis and my friend.
Gotta run… my friend is going to need help today… and I need to do a whack of things before this day is done.
Take a few minutes to click on the links below. The adventure and story about Francis Abbott is worth a read.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=V0sTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=francis+abbott&source=bl&ots=uoz7Q_pffw&sig=EJJ-4oXWc0FNnE2R8msOtwyWBxk&hl=en&ei=CSizS93jKoeENOOi9NII&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false
http://books.google.ca/books?printsec=frontcover&dq=francis%20abbott&sig=EJJ-4oXWc0FNnE2R8msOtwyWBxk&ei=CSizS93jKoeENOOi9NII&ct=result&id=V0sTAAAAYAAJ&ots=uoz7Q_pffw&output=text&pg=PA3
http://www.niagarafrontier.com/cataract.html
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19481029&id=-W4rAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kJkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3962,5848017
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Keep Your Head Up Kid: The Don Cherry Story – Reflection on the Old Guy
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Keep Your Head Up Kid: The Don Cherry Story – Reflection on the Old Guy
The words read… Quote…
At the age of 36 he had cracked his knuckles over the head of myriad junior-league journeymen, skated with Maurice Richard and played a sum total of one game in the big league. The game he’d bled for finally had no room for him. Washed-up and penniless, he tried his hand at selling Caddies and banging nails. Neither worked out. “By late 1970 I was going from construction site to construction site begging for jobs,” he recalls. “If I lucked out, I’d work eight hours and make 16 dollars. I had no money and no job. That was my lowest point. So I go and ask the Lord for help. I know, I know, people reading this will think I'm an evangelist or a kook or something, but from that moment -- and I know you think I'm nuts right now -- from that moment on everything went straight up. It had to. I was hungry. I would have killed to succeed. When I finally got my chance, nobody was going to take it away.”
End Quote..
If you hadn’t seen the photo… can you guess you who said this? Do the details give you any hint of who it might be?
These words are a direct quote from a person that few people recognize as anything but soft and caring… anything but someone that would pray!
Well meet Don Cherry, the one portrayed as the Loud Mouth from Coaches Corner on CBC Hockey, that dresses in loud and outlandish outfits that knock people’s eyes out. With his shirts always with an Edwardian Collar he stands out in a crowd.
Meet Don Cherry that has become an odd Canadian Icon. When he dies they will likely start calling him a Canadian Treasure.
I know many National Hockey League stories where men tried hard to play themselves to the top as famous hockey players. Then they ended up washed up, dieing of disease and alone. In our city not long ago an old man that lived on the street and begged for money while living on the in famed “Ontario Works”, was once a young guy headed to the fame of the NHL.
Don Cherry could have been one of these… but for Rose, his belief in prayer and some real good luck along the way… he would have been.
I watched the Don Cherry movie that aired on Sunday night and Monday night. And I can say that I loved it! What a great Canadian production.
Albeit… many TV programs are preceded by the warnings of Sex, Violence and Mayhem… this one wasn’t. It did have a warning or instruction at different points in the movie – something like… this movie has nothing to do with the NHL – National Hockey League… or that they do not necessarily hold this a part of their belief system... like they do before Religious Programs!
What a crock! It was the NHL and its roots… the things of the past. Not the NHL of today with its zillion dollar players and unbelievable political crapola that all the big wigs present. It was real living in a very simple way.
Wait and see how many NHL Executives come to Don Cherry’s funeral! I just bet that they will lay claim to him as one of “their treasures” as well. It is all about marketing!
Some movies take stories and twist them. I don’t believe this one did that. How can I say that?
Well… Don Cherry was often on the set watching what was being done. And most of all… his son Tim was the director! The son knew the story better than anyone and dad would pull no punches if it was off the real story. I think that is why I was so deeply moved by what was presented – it was honest… and on TV and in movies today… honesty is not always there.
I can honestly say(after that ‘honest’ statement above) that Don Cherry makes me feel like he is a buffoon on the Coaches Corner portion of CBC Hockey. His reflections are kind of a know it all, braggart type that just raises his voice louder if he wants to make a point. Well he is all that… but there are producers behind much of that as well. The loud clothing, and just about extreme everything are down right funny… specially when he is as old as he is – at 76!
You need to take time to read the Wikipedia posting of Don Cherry(ice_hockey). The story is truly Canadian and in itself an inspiration describing where this guy came from.
I give Don Cherry two thumbs up and say that I appreciate you my friend. You give many of us a new hope today… and I cheer you on!
You go Don!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/television/the-soft-side-of-grapes/article1513600/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Cherry_(ice_hockey)
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
The words read… Quote…
At the age of 36 he had cracked his knuckles over the head of myriad junior-league journeymen, skated with Maurice Richard and played a sum total of one game in the big league. The game he’d bled for finally had no room for him. Washed-up and penniless, he tried his hand at selling Caddies and banging nails. Neither worked out. “By late 1970 I was going from construction site to construction site begging for jobs,” he recalls. “If I lucked out, I’d work eight hours and make 16 dollars. I had no money and no job. That was my lowest point. So I go and ask the Lord for help. I know, I know, people reading this will think I'm an evangelist or a kook or something, but from that moment -- and I know you think I'm nuts right now -- from that moment on everything went straight up. It had to. I was hungry. I would have killed to succeed. When I finally got my chance, nobody was going to take it away.”
End Quote..
If you hadn’t seen the photo… can you guess you who said this? Do the details give you any hint of who it might be?
These words are a direct quote from a person that few people recognize as anything but soft and caring… anything but someone that would pray!
Well meet Don Cherry, the one portrayed as the Loud Mouth from Coaches Corner on CBC Hockey, that dresses in loud and outlandish outfits that knock people’s eyes out. With his shirts always with an Edwardian Collar he stands out in a crowd.
Meet Don Cherry that has become an odd Canadian Icon. When he dies they will likely start calling him a Canadian Treasure.
I know many National Hockey League stories where men tried hard to play themselves to the top as famous hockey players. Then they ended up washed up, dieing of disease and alone. In our city not long ago an old man that lived on the street and begged for money while living on the in famed “Ontario Works”, was once a young guy headed to the fame of the NHL.
Don Cherry could have been one of these… but for Rose, his belief in prayer and some real good luck along the way… he would have been.
I watched the Don Cherry movie that aired on Sunday night and Monday night. And I can say that I loved it! What a great Canadian production.
Albeit… many TV programs are preceded by the warnings of Sex, Violence and Mayhem… this one wasn’t. It did have a warning or instruction at different points in the movie – something like… this movie has nothing to do with the NHL – National Hockey League… or that they do not necessarily hold this a part of their belief system... like they do before Religious Programs!
What a crock! It was the NHL and its roots… the things of the past. Not the NHL of today with its zillion dollar players and unbelievable political crapola that all the big wigs present. It was real living in a very simple way.
Wait and see how many NHL Executives come to Don Cherry’s funeral! I just bet that they will lay claim to him as one of “their treasures” as well. It is all about marketing!
Some movies take stories and twist them. I don’t believe this one did that. How can I say that?
Well… Don Cherry was often on the set watching what was being done. And most of all… his son Tim was the director! The son knew the story better than anyone and dad would pull no punches if it was off the real story. I think that is why I was so deeply moved by what was presented – it was honest… and on TV and in movies today… honesty is not always there.
I can honestly say(after that ‘honest’ statement above) that Don Cherry makes me feel like he is a buffoon on the Coaches Corner portion of CBC Hockey. His reflections are kind of a know it all, braggart type that just raises his voice louder if he wants to make a point. Well he is all that… but there are producers behind much of that as well. The loud clothing, and just about extreme everything are down right funny… specially when he is as old as he is – at 76!
You need to take time to read the Wikipedia posting of Don Cherry(ice_hockey). The story is truly Canadian and in itself an inspiration describing where this guy came from.
I give Don Cherry two thumbs up and say that I appreciate you my friend. You give many of us a new hope today… and I cheer you on!
You go Don!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/television/the-soft-side-of-grapes/article1513600/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Cherry_(ice_hockey)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Mustard Plasters: Facing “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”!
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Mustard Plasters: Facing “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”!
It is a fantasy I know but I hold to it. I actually believe that by writing down what I see, am reacting to, and am thinking that someone will listen and perhaps consider the point of view offered. The actual fantasy turns to be a pipe dream when I think the countries leaders would listen.
Believe it or not they do actually listen but never hear. I have evidence of that. But I don’t want to put them down. I just point to the fact.
It doesn’t stop me from describing the obvious however.
I point to two different inputs I have received in the last 24 hours. There has been more that two – but two is enough for this posting.
First, I point to Chantal Hébert who writes from Montreal as a National Columnist. This particular article appears in today’s “Star” newspaper. The article is super as she reflects on what has happened in Montreal this past weekend.
Yesterday I referred to this Liberal Conference, the Thinker’s Conference, pulled together but Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal Leader of their party.
Mike is gutsy to say the least. He has asked people that are experts in their fields to speak honestly to the Liberal Party Leadership. And boy did they ever speak honestly… maybe way more than the actual leadership of that party would have liked it to happen.
Pausing for a moment and thinking it through. The entire conference was well aired and given tremendous press and air time in the media. The speakers didn’t mince their words but spoke from the heart. And everyone was listening, including their opponents, the Conservative and NDP(new Democratic Party) – as well as the rest of us.
If there was ever an opportunity to have the vulnerability of your opponent exposed it was this one.
Chantal Hébert reported in her that article that…
Quote…
“If there was a thread between the presentations, it is that the Liberals will not be able to address tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes. On the contrary, the notion that the party's recent spell in power was a policy golden age was rather systematically debunked.
On health care for instance, the point was repeatedly made that the failure of recent Liberal governments to tackle the structural defects of the medicare financing model had left the system unequipped to deal with the upcoming double challenge of shrinking government revenues and a demographic shift to an older society.”
End quote
The words that Chantal used stated the obvious, “not be able to address tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes” that stands out so clear.
That is so blatantly obvious to all of Canada. But it is not only the Federal Liberal programming and policies, it is everywhere… through the whole of the society. We try to fix today’s ailments by using yesterday’s medicine.
Mustard Plasters
In my family’s history and the way that we used to do things is a good example. As kids we used to get colds and the flu. A common family remedy that my mom used was the infamous “Mustard Plaster” that was applied to the center of series of wet rags, wrapped securely and then laid on the victim’s chest. A burning sensation came from the hot compress that was eating at your chest. Undoubtedly you went to sleep. But then you woke with this slimy and cold compress on your chest… if you moved or stirred you would get a second compress under the cover with you… IF THERE WAS ANY SKIN LEFT ON YOUR CHEST!
Wikipedia states the following about Mustard Palsters…
Quote…
A mustard plaster is a poultice of mustard seed powder spread inside a protective dressing and applied to the chest or abdomen to stimulate healing. In times past and present, the mixture was spread onto a cloth and applied to the chest or back. The mustard paste itself should never make contact with the skin. Applied externally, black mustard is used in the treatment of bronchial pneumonia and pleurisy.
Mustard oil irritates mucous membranes; therefore, excessive internal use has been known to cause stomach problems and kidney irritation[citation needed]. Breathing the vapors of a mustard plaster can trigger sneezing, coughing, asthma attacks, or eye irritation. Leaving a mustard plaster on the bare skin for too long will lead to burning, blisters, or potentially even ulcers. A mustard plaster should never be left on for longer than 30 minutes. The actual mustard paste never comes in direct contact with the skin, just the cloth on which it is spread.
A typical mustard plaster recipe includes powdered mustard (amounts vary from recipe to recipe) and flour combined with water or egg white. This is then spread on a layer of cotton or flannel cloth and placed on the body. Some old sources suggest that the mustard powder be blended with egg white rather than water to prevent blistering of the skin.
Mustard plasters should not be used on children under the age of 6. Black mustard should not be used in patients with ulcers, venous problems, or kidney disease.
End Quote…
I never knew enough to question my mother. Her mother and her grandmothers and great grandmothers had all used this method since it was first thought up – by whoever. It was a very old answer to today and “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”.
What was really working back then was the fact that you stayed in bed until the fever broke naturally. But the focus was the remedy that someone had thought up.
In today’s government and all parties, the two things that held to hard and fast is….
1. Blame the other parties for the present problems…
2. Hold to what we always have done this way as the supreme answer…
If my mom kept doing that in the more modern days, and if I had picked that “Mustard Plaster” idea up to use it in my generation, we would never go to the Doctor when we are sick today. Pharmacists and Chemists would have never developed more modern Anti-biotic.
Thank God she didn’t stay the stuck in the old way!
I said earlier in this posting that there were Two things that had come my way… here is the second from my friend David Grant who posted his comment on what I wrote yesterday.
Quote…
“In the days of a shrinking economy and higher taxes it really is overwhelming to be looking ahead to the "golden" years. People were taught that security was a worthwhile goal only to find out that someone moved the goal line. The challenge is that we don't know how to do things differently. But it's even more than we don't know how, we don't know how to think differently.
I see more and more people acting like deer caught in the headlights. They are immobilized, a lot of them are praying but they aren't praying for something to change inside of themselves. They are praying for solutions that don't require any personal involvement or initiative.
Our dependency on the "system" is now complete. The ideas of vision, helping others, teamwork, equality and personal dignity have been abandoned as we fearfully wait our impending doom.
Is that how it is supposed to be? It is if security is what you sought all your life. There are answers but only if people choose to not live in isolation and learn to trust each other again.”
End Quote..
David have you ever described what I am seeing as well. That is our Canadian Population entirely. We on mass have adopted this attitude. And I am one of them for sure.
And David what a perfect setting for facing “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”!
Locally…
Our Peterborough Petes Hockey Team is an amazing group of guys that try their hearts out to win. They skate hard, they play well, and they do everything imaginable to win. This recent season and run up to the playoffs, then the play offs was a horrible nightmare of these young guys… as well as their coaches and management. They lost almost everything with good reasons.
The local TV interviewers caught the local reaction from the fat, old guys in the stands that know everything there is to know about hockey. The interviewer asked the leading question of “loyal fans” as they exited the last game where the local team lost yet again, “What do you think should be done to help this team win again?”
Almost all of the interviewees stated that “we should” FIRE the Coach and the General Manager! The age old prescription “blame some one else”, and “take out your frustration on someone else”.
As you can see I am not impressed with the local reaction of arm chair, fat seated blow offs.
The real answer is to recruit new players and build a better team… with maybe more money from the arm chair, fat seated blow offs to support what needs to be done. If everyone would stick together what an amazing team, our team, would be.
That is what happened in the other places the winning teams came from! They stuck together and did their best and… WON!
I am not writing about hockey but rather facing “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”!
Is politics and sports the only area that this happens in? Nope… you should hear my stories about Church… but that is another posting someday. Hokey Mokey!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/786553--thinkers-conference-tough-questions-few-answers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_plaster
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Mustard Plasters: Facing “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”!
It is a fantasy I know but I hold to it. I actually believe that by writing down what I see, am reacting to, and am thinking that someone will listen and perhaps consider the point of view offered. The actual fantasy turns to be a pipe dream when I think the countries leaders would listen.
Believe it or not they do actually listen but never hear. I have evidence of that. But I don’t want to put them down. I just point to the fact.
It doesn’t stop me from describing the obvious however.
I point to two different inputs I have received in the last 24 hours. There has been more that two – but two is enough for this posting.
First, I point to Chantal Hébert who writes from Montreal as a National Columnist. This particular article appears in today’s “Star” newspaper. The article is super as she reflects on what has happened in Montreal this past weekend.
Yesterday I referred to this Liberal Conference, the Thinker’s Conference, pulled together but Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal Leader of their party.
Mike is gutsy to say the least. He has asked people that are experts in their fields to speak honestly to the Liberal Party Leadership. And boy did they ever speak honestly… maybe way more than the actual leadership of that party would have liked it to happen.
Pausing for a moment and thinking it through. The entire conference was well aired and given tremendous press and air time in the media. The speakers didn’t mince their words but spoke from the heart. And everyone was listening, including their opponents, the Conservative and NDP(new Democratic Party) – as well as the rest of us.
If there was ever an opportunity to have the vulnerability of your opponent exposed it was this one.
Chantal Hébert reported in her that article that…
Quote…
“If there was a thread between the presentations, it is that the Liberals will not be able to address tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes. On the contrary, the notion that the party's recent spell in power was a policy golden age was rather systematically debunked.
On health care for instance, the point was repeatedly made that the failure of recent Liberal governments to tackle the structural defects of the medicare financing model had left the system unequipped to deal with the upcoming double challenge of shrinking government revenues and a demographic shift to an older society.”
End quote
The words that Chantal used stated the obvious, “not be able to address tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes” that stands out so clear.
That is so blatantly obvious to all of Canada. But it is not only the Federal Liberal programming and policies, it is everywhere… through the whole of the society. We try to fix today’s ailments by using yesterday’s medicine.
Mustard Plasters
In my family’s history and the way that we used to do things is a good example. As kids we used to get colds and the flu. A common family remedy that my mom used was the infamous “Mustard Plaster” that was applied to the center of series of wet rags, wrapped securely and then laid on the victim’s chest. A burning sensation came from the hot compress that was eating at your chest. Undoubtedly you went to sleep. But then you woke with this slimy and cold compress on your chest… if you moved or stirred you would get a second compress under the cover with you… IF THERE WAS ANY SKIN LEFT ON YOUR CHEST!
Wikipedia states the following about Mustard Palsters…
Quote…
A mustard plaster is a poultice of mustard seed powder spread inside a protective dressing and applied to the chest or abdomen to stimulate healing. In times past and present, the mixture was spread onto a cloth and applied to the chest or back. The mustard paste itself should never make contact with the skin. Applied externally, black mustard is used in the treatment of bronchial pneumonia and pleurisy.
Mustard oil irritates mucous membranes; therefore, excessive internal use has been known to cause stomach problems and kidney irritation[citation needed]. Breathing the vapors of a mustard plaster can trigger sneezing, coughing, asthma attacks, or eye irritation. Leaving a mustard plaster on the bare skin for too long will lead to burning, blisters, or potentially even ulcers. A mustard plaster should never be left on for longer than 30 minutes. The actual mustard paste never comes in direct contact with the skin, just the cloth on which it is spread.
A typical mustard plaster recipe includes powdered mustard (amounts vary from recipe to recipe) and flour combined with water or egg white. This is then spread on a layer of cotton or flannel cloth and placed on the body. Some old sources suggest that the mustard powder be blended with egg white rather than water to prevent blistering of the skin.
Mustard plasters should not be used on children under the age of 6. Black mustard should not be used in patients with ulcers, venous problems, or kidney disease.
End Quote…
I never knew enough to question my mother. Her mother and her grandmothers and great grandmothers had all used this method since it was first thought up – by whoever. It was a very old answer to today and “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”.
What was really working back then was the fact that you stayed in bed until the fever broke naturally. But the focus was the remedy that someone had thought up.
In today’s government and all parties, the two things that held to hard and fast is….
1. Blame the other parties for the present problems…
2. Hold to what we always have done this way as the supreme answer…
If my mom kept doing that in the more modern days, and if I had picked that “Mustard Plaster” idea up to use it in my generation, we would never go to the Doctor when we are sick today. Pharmacists and Chemists would have never developed more modern Anti-biotic.
Thank God she didn’t stay the stuck in the old way!
I said earlier in this posting that there were Two things that had come my way… here is the second from my friend David Grant who posted his comment on what I wrote yesterday.
Quote…
“In the days of a shrinking economy and higher taxes it really is overwhelming to be looking ahead to the "golden" years. People were taught that security was a worthwhile goal only to find out that someone moved the goal line. The challenge is that we don't know how to do things differently. But it's even more than we don't know how, we don't know how to think differently.
I see more and more people acting like deer caught in the headlights. They are immobilized, a lot of them are praying but they aren't praying for something to change inside of themselves. They are praying for solutions that don't require any personal involvement or initiative.
Our dependency on the "system" is now complete. The ideas of vision, helping others, teamwork, equality and personal dignity have been abandoned as we fearfully wait our impending doom.
Is that how it is supposed to be? It is if security is what you sought all your life. There are answers but only if people choose to not live in isolation and learn to trust each other again.”
End Quote..
David have you ever described what I am seeing as well. That is our Canadian Population entirely. We on mass have adopted this attitude. And I am one of them for sure.
And David what a perfect setting for facing “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”!
Locally…
Our Peterborough Petes Hockey Team is an amazing group of guys that try their hearts out to win. They skate hard, they play well, and they do everything imaginable to win. This recent season and run up to the playoffs, then the play offs was a horrible nightmare of these young guys… as well as their coaches and management. They lost almost everything with good reasons.
The local TV interviewers caught the local reaction from the fat, old guys in the stands that know everything there is to know about hockey. The interviewer asked the leading question of “loyal fans” as they exited the last game where the local team lost yet again, “What do you think should be done to help this team win again?”
Almost all of the interviewees stated that “we should” FIRE the Coach and the General Manager! The age old prescription “blame some one else”, and “take out your frustration on someone else”.
As you can see I am not impressed with the local reaction of arm chair, fat seated blow offs.
The real answer is to recruit new players and build a better team… with maybe more money from the arm chair, fat seated blow offs to support what needs to be done. If everyone would stick together what an amazing team, our team, would be.
That is what happened in the other places the winning teams came from! They stuck together and did their best and… WON!
I am not writing about hockey but rather facing “tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's recipes”!
Is politics and sports the only area that this happens in? Nope… you should hear my stories about Church… but that is another posting someday. Hokey Mokey!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/786553--thinkers-conference-tough-questions-few-answers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_plaster
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The Shrinking Workforce, Ageing Population and Slowing Economy – Welcome to My World
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
The Shrinking Workforce, Ageing Population and Slowing Economy – Welcome to My World
Over the last few days I have been on a Roller Coaster of emotions. From delight to the exact opposite. Yikes what a ride it has been!
The other evening I completed the book work and assembling all of the paper stuff in order to get our income tax stuff done. What a painful time that has been. Gulp! It is my yearly sweating the small stuff… even though the book says to not sweat the small stuff! Holy Mackerel what can be done to make this easier? There has to be some way! Maybe that is why death is more attractive for some.
I have realized this year in a very full way that we are next to being broke. How we made it through this year on the income that we have versus the expenses that we incurred – is a cotton pickin’ miracle!
I am not laying this situation as a heavy on anyone… it is just my new reality. I have a lot more month left than I have money to cover it. That is new reality of retirement in Canada. We have entered the Fixed Income Retirement Era in a world with the elastic debt. That is “FIRE” in a volatile world!
While our Canadian Government continues to blow up bigger and bigger – like a Hot Air Balloon – people like us have to suck it in.
Oh boy…
In Montreal at this present moment “Mikey I.”, the leader of the Liberals, is waking up with a head ache… or perhaps is sipping his very strong coffee as he prepares for the day. His Political Party is conducting a Thinkers Conference where very important and sharp people are presenting their ideas and research on the state of Canada right now. The intent is to glean enough “good stuff” from the experts that the Liberals will in turn be able to form a new “Platform” to defeat the Conservatives in the next election.
I am impressed with the effort. As they collect together the experts and their ideas they are listening.
Politicians usually do not listen – they speak. They know everything that we all need to know and everyone should know that from that point on… it is on a “need to know basis” for the rest of Canada… that they lead…and if someone thinks that the rest of Canada needs to know – they will tell you.
Hey that is the way that they all operate!
The Star Newspaper is reporting on this conference. In an article by Les Whittington and Susan Delacourt this following statement is made..
Quote…
“Former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge spelled it out in bleak terms, saying Canadians need to have the courage to engage in an "adult conversation" about what governments can afford at a time of a shrinking workforce, ageing population and slowing economy.
"We kind of are wishing the problem away by assuming that we can curtail expenditures without curtailing the real services that governments are providing to you and me as citizens," he said after addressing 250 convention attendees.
The reality is that governments face "stark and unpalatable choices," he said. "There is no magic solution and we absolutely must have an adult discussion of how we're going to do it.”
Dodge set the tone of the second day of the conference by saying the current economy isn't producing enough wealth to pay for Canada's "caring society" during the rest of this decade and into the 2020s.
As a result, Canadians face the prospect of more seniors living in poverty, reduced government services and declining health care.”
End Quote
Did you catch that…? “the prospect of more seniors living in poverty, reduced government services and declining health care.”?
Double Oh Boy!
The reality is that many of us seniors have arrived at that point now. That is… there isn’t enough money left to do anything at the end of the month. In order to do something we have to stop doing other things in order to do that one thing that we would love to try.
Going back to work is a reality that is soon pressing our freedom of doing nothing now. Dropping volunteering in the community is a major consideration when you haven’t got a way to get to the volunteer job. The car died and there is no way to replace it. It died and so did your involvement out there!
The Liberals have noted that it is “a time of a shrinking workforce, ageing population and slowing economy.”
And yet they have screamed at the Conservatives that it is all the Conservative’s fault! What a CROCK!
A whole lot of us are getting very old very fast. And the reality is that it is costing us a huge amount more.
In Ontario and British Columbia this summer the hated and dreaded HST will come into being. That is the “Harmonized Sales Tax” – where the Federal Tax presently called GST and the Provincial Tax called PST will be come the HST.
At first that seems to be an easy, no brainer changeover. Except for one thing. The Government is about to really stick it to the seniors ONE MORE TIME! Are you ready for this….?
The funeral that you will need soon will now have an additional 8% stuck on to it. They are going to get you ONE MORE TIME – just in case they haven’t got you enough already. That stinks.
Each and every time you get a hair cut they will stick it to you ONE MORE TIME! And that is about to happen quite a few ONE MORE TIMES!
I wonder if the brilliant people in Montreal’s Liberal Thinkers Conference have thought it through?
In two provinces the Liberals could be re-elected by simply standing up and saying they will exempt the Seniors from any HST and will give the Seniors a “Treaty Card” – like the Aboriginal People have.
That is a sideline to what I write about to day – but a huge issue. How will we pay more with less?
I am just about at the point that a trip to church will be once a month to save on the gas that is needed to drive there. And if my van dies, which may happen, I will be looking for a closer church.
Yikes… I KNOW I need a strong coffee this morning! And “Mikey I.” I appreciate you for at least trying!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/786553--thinkers-conference-tough-questions-few-answers
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
The Shrinking Workforce, Ageing Population and Slowing Economy – Welcome to My World
Over the last few days I have been on a Roller Coaster of emotions. From delight to the exact opposite. Yikes what a ride it has been!
The other evening I completed the book work and assembling all of the paper stuff in order to get our income tax stuff done. What a painful time that has been. Gulp! It is my yearly sweating the small stuff… even though the book says to not sweat the small stuff! Holy Mackerel what can be done to make this easier? There has to be some way! Maybe that is why death is more attractive for some.
I have realized this year in a very full way that we are next to being broke. How we made it through this year on the income that we have versus the expenses that we incurred – is a cotton pickin’ miracle!
I am not laying this situation as a heavy on anyone… it is just my new reality. I have a lot more month left than I have money to cover it. That is new reality of retirement in Canada. We have entered the Fixed Income Retirement Era in a world with the elastic debt. That is “FIRE” in a volatile world!
While our Canadian Government continues to blow up bigger and bigger – like a Hot Air Balloon – people like us have to suck it in.
Oh boy…
In Montreal at this present moment “Mikey I.”, the leader of the Liberals, is waking up with a head ache… or perhaps is sipping his very strong coffee as he prepares for the day. His Political Party is conducting a Thinkers Conference where very important and sharp people are presenting their ideas and research on the state of Canada right now. The intent is to glean enough “good stuff” from the experts that the Liberals will in turn be able to form a new “Platform” to defeat the Conservatives in the next election.
I am impressed with the effort. As they collect together the experts and their ideas they are listening.
Politicians usually do not listen – they speak. They know everything that we all need to know and everyone should know that from that point on… it is on a “need to know basis” for the rest of Canada… that they lead…and if someone thinks that the rest of Canada needs to know – they will tell you.
Hey that is the way that they all operate!
The Star Newspaper is reporting on this conference. In an article by Les Whittington and Susan Delacourt this following statement is made..
Quote…
“Former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge spelled it out in bleak terms, saying Canadians need to have the courage to engage in an "adult conversation" about what governments can afford at a time of a shrinking workforce, ageing population and slowing economy.
"We kind of are wishing the problem away by assuming that we can curtail expenditures without curtailing the real services that governments are providing to you and me as citizens," he said after addressing 250 convention attendees.
The reality is that governments face "stark and unpalatable choices," he said. "There is no magic solution and we absolutely must have an adult discussion of how we're going to do it.”
Dodge set the tone of the second day of the conference by saying the current economy isn't producing enough wealth to pay for Canada's "caring society" during the rest of this decade and into the 2020s.
As a result, Canadians face the prospect of more seniors living in poverty, reduced government services and declining health care.”
End Quote
Did you catch that…? “the prospect of more seniors living in poverty, reduced government services and declining health care.”?
Double Oh Boy!
The reality is that many of us seniors have arrived at that point now. That is… there isn’t enough money left to do anything at the end of the month. In order to do something we have to stop doing other things in order to do that one thing that we would love to try.
Going back to work is a reality that is soon pressing our freedom of doing nothing now. Dropping volunteering in the community is a major consideration when you haven’t got a way to get to the volunteer job. The car died and there is no way to replace it. It died and so did your involvement out there!
The Liberals have noted that it is “a time of a shrinking workforce, ageing population and slowing economy.”
And yet they have screamed at the Conservatives that it is all the Conservative’s fault! What a CROCK!
A whole lot of us are getting very old very fast. And the reality is that it is costing us a huge amount more.
In Ontario and British Columbia this summer the hated and dreaded HST will come into being. That is the “Harmonized Sales Tax” – where the Federal Tax presently called GST and the Provincial Tax called PST will be come the HST.
At first that seems to be an easy, no brainer changeover. Except for one thing. The Government is about to really stick it to the seniors ONE MORE TIME! Are you ready for this….?
The funeral that you will need soon will now have an additional 8% stuck on to it. They are going to get you ONE MORE TIME – just in case they haven’t got you enough already. That stinks.
Each and every time you get a hair cut they will stick it to you ONE MORE TIME! And that is about to happen quite a few ONE MORE TIMES!
I wonder if the brilliant people in Montreal’s Liberal Thinkers Conference have thought it through?
In two provinces the Liberals could be re-elected by simply standing up and saying they will exempt the Seniors from any HST and will give the Seniors a “Treaty Card” – like the Aboriginal People have.
That is a sideline to what I write about to day – but a huge issue. How will we pay more with less?
I am just about at the point that a trip to church will be once a month to save on the gas that is needed to drive there. And if my van dies, which may happen, I will be looking for a closer church.
Yikes… I KNOW I need a strong coffee this morning! And “Mikey I.” I appreciate you for at least trying!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/786553--thinkers-conference-tough-questions-few-answers
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Barbie Basics Model Collection Doll – and giving “permission to play”
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Barbie Basics Model Collection Doll – and giving “permission to play”
Well it is all about Barbie® dolls.
“Oh groan”, cries half my audience of this Blog… that is the male half if you would like to know. And the other half may wonder at a former minister going off half cocked again or as one favourite TV program locally states it, “Wildly off in all directions!”
Like who cares about Barbie® dolls!!!?
Well I can tell you having had two daughters and now a granddaughter – they care. At least at one point they cared. They all have had Barbie® dolls at one point in their life.
Barbie® dolls are now just over 50 years old. So you can see that there has been an entire culture of young ladies that are now growing older very quickly. And the first generation to own Barbie® dolls are likely between 58 to 62 years of age. They are by a majority now Grandmothers that likely have granddaughters that can now be introduced to Grandma’s favourite doll when she was a little girl!
I doubt that there has been any other doll that has been so endeared for so many years and still remains as a number one seller in stores today… and is a hot item on the numerous Internet selling sites.
You better believe that this is a growing hotter market as Grandma gets back into dolls again. And they are by the thousands.
But also if you reason it out the Mommies of the present Barbie® doll generation coming up, daughters of the Grandmas that had the first Barbie® dolls, are also getting back into it again… at least some of them are. But it is a completely different reason.
Now I apologize for the next statement in advance. I just know that I am going to get some flack and flame when I make it. Now if that previous sentence has you ready… here goes.
This is 2010. And most first generation Barbie® doll owners that are now grandmothers, and the first generation owner’s daughters are… (are you ready – here it comes…) – OVER WEIGHT! They do not fit into anything that they once wore when they played with Barbie® dolls!!!!
That is not unfair to say it… it is just a fact! Almost every magazine in the last year has pointed to the absolute epidemic of fatness… and the related diabetic, heart and stroke related diseases that are coming. This society is grossly overweight.
Check out the favourite TV program for many that have a very fat, loud mouth actress trying to lose weight in front of cameras. She is wildly popular.
Check out the “biggest loser” type TV that have people crying, sweating and struggling desperately to lose even a few pounds. The audience is lapping it up – because they can now identify with real people just like themselves.
Now having said that – I AM NOT RAILING ON FAT PEOPLE! Some, if not all of my friends, struggle with their weight.
I am suggestion here that Barbie® dolls have a very odd part in lives of people that are over weight. She is skinny and they are not. By having a skinny doll that reminds us of where we once used to be… in an odd manner it draws us back to a time when… and the smile comes across everyone’s face… we were kids…
When my friend ~ M ~, that is also a grandma in about the target age bracket that I have pointed out, walked into the Wal-Mart she discovered that the New Barbie® dolls were anything but the old norm.
As she described the sight that caught her eye she was in shock. The New Barbie® doll was wearing a very slinky black dress with a neck like that plunged to meet the skirt bottom that was coming up from below. Meet the NEW SEXY Barbie® doll and she is on the store shelves in almost all the stores since about January.
These few words do not give you the proper idea I am sure… that’s why I offer the photos plucked from numerous web sites.
Barbie® dolls have changed over night! When she hit 50 years old she transformed into one slinky, skinny, sexy, girl doll that might even cause the hormones to stir in the Ken and G.I. Joe dolls – that is also over 50 years old!!!! I would actually be afraid, if I was a store owner, of what might be happening in the store after it closes!
Now hold on… the NEW SEXY Barbie® doll is named “Barbie Basics”. The bi-lines that are included with the advertisements are insinuating to say the least. Are you ready for this… it screams sexy and alluring SEXY Barbie® doll
Entertainmentearth’s Web Site offers these words to entice the potential buyer… quote…
“Barbie Basics Model Collection Doll Wave…
Black label Barbie! All the plastic without the diva attitude! Black is just as fashionable as turquoise!
Customize. Personalize. Play. Barbie Basics is all about permission to play. Each doll is in the fashion staple Little Black Dress. Break her out of the box and customize to make her your own. Each doll comes attired in different little black dresses. Add one of the accessory packs (sold separately) to personalize your very own Barbie doll. Includes doll only. Window box. Ages 6 and over.” End quote.
Did you catch all that? That paragraph is loaded with innuendos of all sorts.
The number one statement that I point to is the sentence, “Barbie Basics is all about permission to play.” And if you are not aware that “permission to play” is all about a kind of Sex in the City mentality – if you want it... why shouldn’t you have it!? Attitude – big time!!!! It has a lot to do with adultery in certain layers of our society and a lot to with unfaithfulness in marriage.
My friend, the grandma at Wal-Mart, only saw the outfit and did not read the words and intent behind this new doll collector’s item. She just saw the clothing and that told her all she needed to know. Grandma’s are funny that way – they know everything.
And THEY KNOW if you buy this kind of doll for your granddaughter you are saying something that you really don’t want to have your granddaughter hearing you say! Because in an ever so simple and soft Grandmotherly way you say, “Honey, you now have permission to play… grin, grin, wink, wink… a little sex on the side is okay… when you want it go for it dear!”
When my friend ~ M ~ contacted the Mattel Toy people here is a few lines from the email that she received back from them… quote…
Dear Ms. “~ M ~”,
Thank you for writing to share your disappointment with the Barbie Basics® Model Collection. While Mattel is well known for making Barbie® dolls for children, we also have a whole division dedicated to producing Barbie® dolls for adult collectors.
Barbie® Collector produces dolls for the adult collector, the Barbie
Basics® Model Collection is for adult collectors and not intended for
children.
End quote… (the entire email is included at the end of this posting)
DID YOU GET THAT? For ADULT COLLECTORS!!!
Then why is it in the Toy Department and why does the Ad scream at me “Ages 6 and over.”????
Someone is not talking to someone else at Mattel or American Girl® (that I think actually owns the Barbie® doll). And when you talk to them – they are not listening. Like one older lady explained to me about people like this, “Their minds are Cement, thoroughly mixed up with stuff and completely set!”
So why make a big deal out of it?
Well I do make a big deal of it because of one person in my life, who’s name is Emma. She is 11 years old now. She is a beautiful girl that will have the world as it is offered to her some day… but she doesn’t need have “permission to play”. That would simply mess her life and relationships up completely.
It is also about “Objectification”. Check out what Wikipedia states about this…
Quote...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Objectification is the process by which an abstract concept is treated as if it is a concrete thing or physical object. In this sense the term is synonym to reification.
The term may also be applied to a female, in which case it refers to regarding or treating the female as 'a thing' or object, separate from their personal attributes or characteristics. For example, sexual objectification refers to regarding or treating a person as merely a non-human object, or tool, for sex - sometimes described "as a means to an end".
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum has argued that something is objectified if any of the following factors is present:
Instrumentality - if the thing is treated as a tool for one's own purposes;
Denial of autonomy - if the thing is treated as if lacking in agency or self-determination;
Inertness - if the thing is treated as if lacking in agency;
Ownership - if the thing is treated as if owned by another;
Fungibility - if the thing is treated as if interchangeable;
Violability - if the thing is treated as if permissible to smash;
denial of subjectivity - if the thing is treated as if there is no need to show concern for the 'object's' feelings and experiences.
End Quote
Personally – I will not be buying a Barbie Basics Doll for Emma. I think she is too smart to own one anyway. But Peer Pressure is happening already and I shudder!
Every week I deal with Pedophiles and Sexual Perverts in my volunteer work… and they do not need help from anyone. They each have given themselves “permission to play”.
Get your act together Mattel People or American Girl®… you do not have permission to give “permission to play” to my kids or grandkids. Who do you think you are!!!?
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MTR9920A
http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/theampersand/archive/2010/03/26/barbie-amp-me.aspx
Barbie Basics Model Collection Doll Wave 3 Case
Black label Barbie! All the plastic without the diva attitude! Black is just as fashionable as turquoise!
Customize. Personalize. Play. Barbie Basics is all about permission to play. Each doll is in the fashion staple Little Black Dress. Break her out of the box and customize to make her your own. Each doll comes attired in different little black dresses. Add one of the accessory packs (sold separately) to personalize your very own Barbie doll. Includes doll only. Window box. Ages 6 and over.
(from Entertainmentearth)
Email from concerned Grandma ~ M ~…
Hi Murray,
I wondered if you wanted a topic for your blog?
I was in the Barbie doll section of Walmart looking to buy one when I saw a series of Barbies in black, provocative, revealing dresses, ie; one Barbie had a V-neck open down almost to her waist, short skirts up to hip line etc. I was totally disgusted with the dolls and got the Walmart manager and let him know what I thought. I Called Mattel and emailed and they said they are a line for adult collectors. I responded by saying, why are they in the toy dept? I thought you could do an interesting blog on this topic and make parents aware of what their kids are looking at in the toy dept. and how Mattel is Not prepared to change anything. I am waiting back to hear from Walmart. I am boycotting Mattel at the present time!!
~ M ~
Hi Murray, I've forwarded Mattel's response. Walmart has not yet responded. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say! The dolls are in the Barbie section of Walmart. I'm sure they are probably in Zellers too. Evidently they were a new line brought out in Jan.
~ M ~
Dear Ms. ~ M ~,
Thank you for writing to share your disappointment with the Barbie Basics® Model Collection. While Mattel is well known for making Barbie® dolls for children, we also have a whole division dedicated to producing Barbie® dolls for adult collectors.
Barbie® Collector produces dolls for the adult collector, the Barbie
Basics® Model Collection is for adult collectors and not intended for
children.
We hope that you find this information helpful. We do appreciate
receiving feedback from our customers. Please be assured your comments have been noted.
Sincerely,
American Girl® Customer Service
Phone: 1-800-845-0005 or 608-831-5210
Fax: 608-828-4790
Available Monday - Sunday 6 a.m. - Midnight, Central Time
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Barbie Basics Model Collection Doll – and giving “permission to play”
When my friend ~ M ~ contacted me about a particularly disturbing challenge that she had encountered at our local Wal-Mart, I wasn’t sure that it would have much to do with me. That is until I started doing some research and giving it some thought. It was then that it made more sense – this is crisis of sorts – a real turning point for a large portion of our community.
“What in the world are you talking about Murray?” you ask.
Well it is all about Barbie® dolls.“Oh groan”, cries half my audience of this Blog… that is the male half if you would like to know. And the other half may wonder at a former minister going off half cocked again or as one favourite TV program locally states it, “Wildly off in all directions!”
Like who cares about Barbie® dolls!!!?
Well I can tell you having had two daughters and now a granddaughter – they care. At least at one point they cared. They all have had Barbie® dolls at one point in their life.
Barbie® dolls are now just over 50 years old. So you can see that there has been an entire culture of young ladies that are now growing older very quickly. And the first generation to own Barbie® dolls are likely between 58 to 62 years of age. They are by a majority now Grandmothers that likely have granddaughters that can now be introduced to Grandma’s favourite doll when she was a little girl!
I doubt that there has been any other doll that has been so endeared for so many years and still remains as a number one seller in stores today… and is a hot item on the numerous Internet selling sites.
You better believe that this is a growing hotter market as Grandma gets back into dolls again. And they are by the thousands.
But also if you reason it out the Mommies of the present Barbie® doll generation coming up, daughters of the Grandmas that had the first Barbie® dolls, are also getting back into it again… at least some of them are. But it is a completely different reason.
Now I apologize for the next statement in advance. I just know that I am going to get some flack and flame when I make it. Now if that previous sentence has you ready… here goes.
This is 2010. And most first generation Barbie® doll owners that are now grandmothers, and the first generation owner’s daughters are… (are you ready – here it comes…) – OVER WEIGHT! They do not fit into anything that they once wore when they played with Barbie® dolls!!!!
That is not unfair to say it… it is just a fact! Almost every magazine in the last year has pointed to the absolute epidemic of fatness… and the related diabetic, heart and stroke related diseases that are coming. This society is grossly overweight.
Check out the favourite TV program for many that have a very fat, loud mouth actress trying to lose weight in front of cameras. She is wildly popular.
Check out the “biggest loser” type TV that have people crying, sweating and struggling desperately to lose even a few pounds. The audience is lapping it up – because they can now identify with real people just like themselves.
Now having said that – I AM NOT RAILING ON FAT PEOPLE! Some, if not all of my friends, struggle with their weight.
I am suggestion here that Barbie® dolls have a very odd part in lives of people that are over weight. She is skinny and they are not. By having a skinny doll that reminds us of where we once used to be… in an odd manner it draws us back to a time when… and the smile comes across everyone’s face… we were kids…
When my friend ~ M ~, that is also a grandma in about the target age bracket that I have pointed out, walked into the Wal-Mart she discovered that the New Barbie® dolls were anything but the old norm.
As she described the sight that caught her eye she was in shock. The New Barbie® doll was wearing a very slinky black dress with a neck like that plunged to meet the skirt bottom that was coming up from below. Meet the NEW SEXY Barbie® doll and she is on the store shelves in almost all the stores since about January.
Barbie® dolls have changed over night! When she hit 50 years old she transformed into one slinky, skinny, sexy, girl doll that might even cause the hormones to stir in the Ken and G.I. Joe dolls – that is also over 50 years old!!!! I would actually be afraid, if I was a store owner, of what might be happening in the store after it closes!
Now hold on… the NEW SEXY Barbie® doll is named “Barbie Basics”. The bi-lines that are included with the advertisements are insinuating to say the least. Are you ready for this… it screams sexy and alluring SEXY Barbie® doll
Entertainmentearth’s Web Site offers these words to entice the potential buyer… quote…
“Barbie Basics Model Collection Doll Wave…
Black label Barbie! All the plastic without the diva attitude! Black is just as fashionable as turquoise!
Customize. Personalize. Play. Barbie Basics is all about permission to play. Each doll is in the fashion staple Little Black Dress. Break her out of the box and customize to make her your own. Each doll comes attired in different little black dresses. Add one of the accessory packs (sold separately) to personalize your very own Barbie doll. Includes doll only. Window box. Ages 6 and over.” End quote.
Did you catch all that? That paragraph is loaded with innuendos of all sorts.
My friend, the grandma at Wal-Mart, only saw the outfit and did not read the words and intent behind this new doll collector’s item. She just saw the clothing and that told her all she needed to know. Grandma’s are funny that way – they know everything.
And THEY KNOW if you buy this kind of doll for your granddaughter you are saying something that you really don’t want to have your granddaughter hearing you say! Because in an ever so simple and soft Grandmotherly way you say, “Honey, you now have permission to play… grin, grin, wink, wink… a little sex on the side is okay… when you want it go for it dear!”
When my friend ~ M ~ contacted the Mattel Toy people here is a few lines from the email that she received back from them… quote…
Dear Ms. “~ M ~”,
Thank you for writing to share your disappointment with the Barbie Basics® Model Collection. While Mattel is well known for making Barbie® dolls for children, we also have a whole division dedicated to producing Barbie® dolls for adult collectors.
Barbie® Collector produces dolls for the adult collector, the Barbie
Basics® Model Collection is for adult collectors and not intended for
children.
End quote… (the entire email is included at the end of this posting)
DID YOU GET THAT? For ADULT COLLECTORS!!!
Then why is it in the Toy Department and why does the Ad scream at me “Ages 6 and over.”????
Someone is not talking to someone else at Mattel or American Girl® (that I think actually owns the Barbie® doll). And when you talk to them – they are not listening. Like one older lady explained to me about people like this, “Their minds are Cement, thoroughly mixed up with stuff and completely set!”
So why make a big deal out of it?
Well I do make a big deal of it because of one person in my life, who’s name is Emma. She is 11 years old now. She is a beautiful girl that will have the world as it is offered to her some day… but she doesn’t need have “permission to play”. That would simply mess her life and relationships up completely.
It is also about “Objectification”. Check out what Wikipedia states about this…
Quote...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Objectification is the process by which an abstract concept is treated as if it is a concrete thing or physical object. In this sense the term is synonym to reification.
The term may also be applied to a female, in which case it refers to regarding or treating the female as 'a thing' or object, separate from their personal attributes or characteristics. For example, sexual objectification refers to regarding or treating a person as merely a non-human object, or tool, for sex - sometimes described "as a means to an end".
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum has argued that something is objectified if any of the following factors is present:
Instrumentality - if the thing is treated as a tool for one's own purposes;
Denial of autonomy - if the thing is treated as if lacking in agency or self-determination;
Inertness - if the thing is treated as if lacking in agency;
Ownership - if the thing is treated as if owned by another;
Fungibility - if the thing is treated as if interchangeable;
Violability - if the thing is treated as if permissible to smash;
denial of subjectivity - if the thing is treated as if there is no need to show concern for the 'object's' feelings and experiences.
End Quote
Personally – I will not be buying a Barbie Basics Doll for Emma. I think she is too smart to own one anyway. But Peer Pressure is happening already and I shudder!
Every week I deal with Pedophiles and Sexual Perverts in my volunteer work… and they do not need help from anyone. They each have given themselves “permission to play”.
Get your act together Mattel People or American Girl®… you do not have permission to give “permission to play” to my kids or grandkids. Who do you think you are!!!?
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MTR9920A
http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/theampersand/archive/2010/03/26/barbie-amp-me.aspx
Barbie Basics Model Collection Doll Wave 3 Case
Black label Barbie! All the plastic without the diva attitude! Black is just as fashionable as turquoise!
Customize. Personalize. Play. Barbie Basics is all about permission to play. Each doll is in the fashion staple Little Black Dress. Break her out of the box and customize to make her your own. Each doll comes attired in different little black dresses. Add one of the accessory packs (sold separately) to personalize your very own Barbie doll. Includes doll only. Window box. Ages 6 and over.
(from Entertainmentearth)
Email from concerned Grandma ~ M ~…
Hi Murray,
I wondered if you wanted a topic for your blog?
I was in the Barbie doll section of Walmart looking to buy one when I saw a series of Barbies in black, provocative, revealing dresses, ie; one Barbie had a V-neck open down almost to her waist, short skirts up to hip line etc. I was totally disgusted with the dolls and got the Walmart manager and let him know what I thought. I Called Mattel and emailed and they said they are a line for adult collectors. I responded by saying, why are they in the toy dept? I thought you could do an interesting blog on this topic and make parents aware of what their kids are looking at in the toy dept. and how Mattel is Not prepared to change anything. I am waiting back to hear from Walmart. I am boycotting Mattel at the present time!!
~ M ~
Hi Murray, I've forwarded Mattel's response. Walmart has not yet responded. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say! The dolls are in the Barbie section of Walmart. I'm sure they are probably in Zellers too. Evidently they were a new line brought out in Jan.
~ M ~
Dear Ms. ~ M ~,
Thank you for writing to share your disappointment with the Barbie Basics® Model Collection. While Mattel is well known for making Barbie® dolls for children, we also have a whole division dedicated to producing Barbie® dolls for adult collectors.
Barbie® Collector produces dolls for the adult collector, the Barbie
Basics® Model Collection is for adult collectors and not intended for
children.
We hope that you find this information helpful. We do appreciate
receiving feedback from our customers. Please be assured your comments have been noted.
Sincerely,
American Girl® Customer Service
Phone: 1-800-845-0005 or 608-831-5210
Fax: 608-828-4790
Available Monday - Sunday 6 a.m. - Midnight, Central Time
Friday, March 26, 2010
Project Hero – Baloney!
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Project Hero – Baloney!
“We think that the death of individuals is always a tragic matter, but we think that heroism is something different.” – quote from Professor Joyce Green, University of Regina
The professors at my old school have just launched a volley that has tipped their ship. 16 of them to be exact have stood up and made a statement. Yikes.
And to put it bluntly the ships around them are lobbing volleys of political shells back at them. The prime lobbers are Politicians – Provincial and Federal volley experts.
These smart professors should have thought this through before going off half caulked or half cocked. Are they dumb or something?
If you live some where else than in Saskatchewan you will not likely be following this confabulation taking place in the U of R. Actually there was very little confabulating with the outside world when the 16 profs signed their names to the letter. Their letter was objecting to the University placing itself in the popular mode of joining the rest of the Universities in Canada to give the children of Soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
A couple of things disturb me as well – but do I dare speak out about them?
I cannot see the sense in the Western World trying to change the minds of a people in the many different tribes of Afghanistan with a war. From where I sit it appears that US lead War against Terrorism has gone way too far. Our young men are being killed left, right and centre for nothing.
The big ad campaigns keep mustering for support for our country to keep pouring millions into something that cannot be won – or changed. And to top it off the ones that pay the most are the families that lose their young men.
It is insane.
It is impossible for anyone to object at this stage. The war mindset is just too big. The players that are involved are too many. We have a greater war back home than we have overseas. And not much can be done about it either.
Now the greatest players are the War Vets and the groups that have lost someone… the families. There is nothing more powerful than grief. They feel it and so I.
From where I sit watching what has gone on it is amazing. The movement in many local situations, Community Colleges and Universities, is to help others by providing scholarships in memory of a fallen community member is admirable.
In Peterborough a young man that graduated from the Community College had entered the arm services thinking he could make a difference. Tragically he was killed. The college has used this deep grief to help the family and has set up a special form of future funding for students attending their college in days to come – in memory of this young man. This is smart and very helpful.
There is a good feeling about this… in the community. It is also a brilliant ad campaign on the part of College Strategists to make the college’s profile better than ever. They didn’t have to pay a cent.
As I see it the extension of this Dead Soldier Memory Funding is to make an offer to give the children of the dead soldiers a free education at a University. The University strategists jump on board and announce that they are giving any children, in this sad situation, their schooling – FREE… and then calling it “Project Hero”.
The notorious 16 from the U of R have stated their strong feelings for the way that the U of R administration(University strategists) has gone about this.
Now being an ordinary citizen of Canada that has not fought in a War, has not lost anyone to it yet, and doesn’t always believe what my leaders are saying… I question it too. In fact I have lots of questions. But dare I voice them out loud?
Like, has the University strategists thought this through all the way? Many of the soldiers that have died are single men. They don’t have kids! So their kids will not attend the University – plain and simple.
Many of the other soldiers that did have kids, are all so young that the present University strategists will be long gone when these kids grow to adulthood and get any where near the university age.
There may be a few that had children that were University attendance level. But that is few.
The other major questions are also simple. What are we doing for families of the fallen soldiers? In fact how do we treat the married families during the time that a soldier is away? How is their housing? What conditions do they live in? Then after their loved one dies, who helps them in the years to come… a single mom living with three kids… that has lost her source of income… her stability with the death of her spouse… and now left to raise three kid – ALONE?
The fact is if these young ladies(for most are just that – young) will struggle endlessly in days to come. In Ontario we will offer them something called “Ontario Works” – which is our fancy name for welfare.
Here is a new idea for University strategists!
Why not invite the young moms of the fallen soldier to come to your University to study and get a degree with you! If she hasn’t completed her schooling yet, Help HER! Then provide her with FREE DAY CARE and FREE HOUSING and a GOOD ALLOWANCE to feed herself and her kids – ALL FREE!!!!
If we don’t help these young ladies, the families, the young kids, and all that are involved has as much chance of making it as a Snow Ball in a Hot Furnace.
When the kids have been helped by the University in that way – they just might attend some day.
If these kids are not helped now – they will pretty much follow what mom’s way of living has been. That is horrible to think through. They will be trapped, but somewhere their father’s death was used by University strategists.
And 16 professors dared to stand up and say this isn’t right. And dozens of politicians scream out their offence to someone that is thinking.
Today I want to thank the University Profs for thinking. Also thanking them for standing up for what they believe. When the rest of the public finally sees what is happening – truly – they will see all the noise now is just simply ridiculous.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/criticism-of-scholarships-for-children-of-fallen-soldiers-draws-sharp-rebuke/article1512784/
http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/confab.htm
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Project Hero – Baloney!
“We think that the death of individuals is always a tragic matter, but we think that heroism is something different.” – quote from Professor Joyce Green, University of Regina
The professors at my old school have just launched a volley that has tipped their ship. 16 of them to be exact have stood up and made a statement. Yikes.
And to put it bluntly the ships around them are lobbing volleys of political shells back at them. The prime lobbers are Politicians – Provincial and Federal volley experts.
These smart professors should have thought this through before going off half caulked or half cocked. Are they dumb or something?
If you live some where else than in Saskatchewan you will not likely be following this confabulation taking place in the U of R. Actually there was very little confabulating with the outside world when the 16 profs signed their names to the letter. Their letter was objecting to the University placing itself in the popular mode of joining the rest of the Universities in Canada to give the children of Soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
A couple of things disturb me as well – but do I dare speak out about them?
I cannot see the sense in the Western World trying to change the minds of a people in the many different tribes of Afghanistan with a war. From where I sit it appears that US lead War against Terrorism has gone way too far. Our young men are being killed left, right and centre for nothing.
The big ad campaigns keep mustering for support for our country to keep pouring millions into something that cannot be won – or changed. And to top it off the ones that pay the most are the families that lose their young men.
It is insane.
It is impossible for anyone to object at this stage. The war mindset is just too big. The players that are involved are too many. We have a greater war back home than we have overseas. And not much can be done about it either.
Now the greatest players are the War Vets and the groups that have lost someone… the families. There is nothing more powerful than grief. They feel it and so I.
From where I sit watching what has gone on it is amazing. The movement in many local situations, Community Colleges and Universities, is to help others by providing scholarships in memory of a fallen community member is admirable.
In Peterborough a young man that graduated from the Community College had entered the arm services thinking he could make a difference. Tragically he was killed. The college has used this deep grief to help the family and has set up a special form of future funding for students attending their college in days to come – in memory of this young man. This is smart and very helpful.
There is a good feeling about this… in the community. It is also a brilliant ad campaign on the part of College Strategists to make the college’s profile better than ever. They didn’t have to pay a cent.
As I see it the extension of this Dead Soldier Memory Funding is to make an offer to give the children of the dead soldiers a free education at a University. The University strategists jump on board and announce that they are giving any children, in this sad situation, their schooling – FREE… and then calling it “Project Hero”.
The notorious 16 from the U of R have stated their strong feelings for the way that the U of R administration(University strategists) has gone about this.
Now being an ordinary citizen of Canada that has not fought in a War, has not lost anyone to it yet, and doesn’t always believe what my leaders are saying… I question it too. In fact I have lots of questions. But dare I voice them out loud?
Like, has the University strategists thought this through all the way? Many of the soldiers that have died are single men. They don’t have kids! So their kids will not attend the University – plain and simple.
Many of the other soldiers that did have kids, are all so young that the present University strategists will be long gone when these kids grow to adulthood and get any where near the university age.
There may be a few that had children that were University attendance level. But that is few.
The other major questions are also simple. What are we doing for families of the fallen soldiers? In fact how do we treat the married families during the time that a soldier is away? How is their housing? What conditions do they live in? Then after their loved one dies, who helps them in the years to come… a single mom living with three kids… that has lost her source of income… her stability with the death of her spouse… and now left to raise three kid – ALONE?
The fact is if these young ladies(for most are just that – young) will struggle endlessly in days to come. In Ontario we will offer them something called “Ontario Works” – which is our fancy name for welfare.
Here is a new idea for University strategists!
Why not invite the young moms of the fallen soldier to come to your University to study and get a degree with you! If she hasn’t completed her schooling yet, Help HER! Then provide her with FREE DAY CARE and FREE HOUSING and a GOOD ALLOWANCE to feed herself and her kids – ALL FREE!!!!
If we don’t help these young ladies, the families, the young kids, and all that are involved has as much chance of making it as a Snow Ball in a Hot Furnace.
When the kids have been helped by the University in that way – they just might attend some day.
If these kids are not helped now – they will pretty much follow what mom’s way of living has been. That is horrible to think through. They will be trapped, but somewhere their father’s death was used by University strategists.
And 16 professors dared to stand up and say this isn’t right. And dozens of politicians scream out their offence to someone that is thinking.
Today I want to thank the University Profs for thinking. Also thanking them for standing up for what they believe. When the rest of the public finally sees what is happening – truly – they will see all the noise now is just simply ridiculous.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/criticism-of-scholarships-for-children-of-fallen-soldiers-draws-sharp-rebuke/article1512784/
http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/confab.htm
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Do you want to be free of your debt, can’t get a loan now or things in your life are falling apart? Have I got an answer for you!
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Do you want to be free of your debt, can’t get a loan now or things in your life are falling apart? Have I got an answer for you!
My financial woes are over! I cannot believe it! In fact when my friends hear what I have discovered they will die. They will want the secret I am sure.
In fact… if I do this right my friends will pay me for the info.
Come to think of it I can start now with YOU, the reader of this Blog.
Do you want to be free of your debt, can’t get a loan now or things in your life are falling apart? Have I got an answer for you!
I will personally loan you the money. I have access to tons of it. I have discovered a gold mine of wealth and prosperity that is ready for you to take into your life too. No kidding this is REAL.
Now some of my “friends” that know me better know that I can be sceptical with stuff in general. I can be the biggest doubter making the Doubting Thomas look positive. NO I AM NOT NEGATIVE – just careful with the “crapola” that comes my way.
But this time I am sure that it will work!
You can have any where from $2,500 -$50,000,000.00 on a fixed 4% interest rate annually. That is for sure! That is real as I sit here pecking out these words for you. That is good news for sure and you are able to do this through me – because I am a good guy.
Now I will help you see the full extent of what I am talking about. At $2500 you will only pay $100. Now that is a bargain! For $50,000,000 you will only pay $2,000,000 a year.
I will guarantee this amount.
How does it work? Well I will be open and honest with you – no cover up here like some Ministers have done when they start dabbling in the financial end of things.
I received an email from Nick C. Vasquez who represents the RoalLoan company. He is offering me this absolutely great deal where he will get me the money for only 3%... and then allow me to make arrangements with you to get it from me at only a 1% rate.
That $2500 loan would only be $100 interest for you – which is cheap! And from that $100 I would get $25.
Now the $50,000,000 loan is even better for both of us. The low rate/amount of $2,000,000 per year on your part would yield $500,000 for me.
And as you know me and my Ministry so well, and trust me so much, and know that God has richly blessed me with so many “giftings”… you know that I need the support to do way more than I am doing now!!!
If you could think of this as an investment in My Ministry. It will be a great help to you… and to me also. We both could do so much. You saving buckets of money and stress not working with a Bank and its money grubbing characters… and Me… able to do far more an be freer that ever before.
Now you say… “Why couldn’t I do that too?” Well the answer is, “YES YOU CAN!”
“HOW?”, you shout.
“By simply paying me a small commission on the people that you sign up. That commission is only .005 or ½ a percent on each loan you write up to $50,000 and then only ¼ of a percent after that” is my answer to that question.
This is a good deal!
You are doubting, I can tell. I am a minister and have been for 35 years… and I know a good doubt when it is coming on. People have shown me that for years by ever so slightly leaning back on their pew, crossing their arms and then slightly shaking their heads. I know you did that – I have a deep discernment that is able to reach out across the miles of the Internet. I can sense when you are not believing me.
You do not need to doubt… just trust me!
Now just in case you are really doubting… read the email text that I just received from my new friend…
Here it is…
Are you a business man or woman? Are you having financial distress or you want to fulfill that dream of yours and you need fund? Are you having difficulties in obtaining a loan from hard lenders or banks because of their high loan fees/requirements? Do you need a loan for any legitimate reason?
Then worry no more as the "Royal Loan Company" has come to offer loans to interested applicants both locally and overseas no matter the sex or location but age must be 18 years and above. We offer loans ranging from $2,500 -$50,000,000.00 on a fixed 3% interest rate annually, we offer personal loans, debt consolidation loans, venture capital, business loans, student loans, home loans or loans for any legitimate reason.
For further enquires and to apply for a loan from us, please feel free to
contact our application desk via this
Regards,
Nick C. Vasquez
(Online Advertiser)
ROYAL LOAN COMPANY (RLC)
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
Do you want to be free of your debt, can’t get a loan now or things in your life are falling apart? Have I got an answer for you!
My financial woes are over! I cannot believe it! In fact when my friends hear what I have discovered they will die. They will want the secret I am sure.
In fact… if I do this right my friends will pay me for the info.
Come to think of it I can start now with YOU, the reader of this Blog.
Do you want to be free of your debt, can’t get a loan now or things in your life are falling apart? Have I got an answer for you!
I will personally loan you the money. I have access to tons of it. I have discovered a gold mine of wealth and prosperity that is ready for you to take into your life too. No kidding this is REAL.
Now some of my “friends” that know me better know that I can be sceptical with stuff in general. I can be the biggest doubter making the Doubting Thomas look positive. NO I AM NOT NEGATIVE – just careful with the “crapola” that comes my way.
But this time I am sure that it will work!
You can have any where from $2,500 -$50,000,000.00 on a fixed 4% interest rate annually. That is for sure! That is real as I sit here pecking out these words for you. That is good news for sure and you are able to do this through me – because I am a good guy.
Now I will help you see the full extent of what I am talking about. At $2500 you will only pay $100. Now that is a bargain! For $50,000,000 you will only pay $2,000,000 a year.
I will guarantee this amount.
How does it work? Well I will be open and honest with you – no cover up here like some Ministers have done when they start dabbling in the financial end of things.
I received an email from Nick C. Vasquez who represents the RoalLoan company. He is offering me this absolutely great deal where he will get me the money for only 3%... and then allow me to make arrangements with you to get it from me at only a 1% rate.
That $2500 loan would only be $100 interest for you – which is cheap! And from that $100 I would get $25.
Now the $50,000,000 loan is even better for both of us. The low rate/amount of $2,000,000 per year on your part would yield $500,000 for me.
And as you know me and my Ministry so well, and trust me so much, and know that God has richly blessed me with so many “giftings”… you know that I need the support to do way more than I am doing now!!!
If you could think of this as an investment in My Ministry. It will be a great help to you… and to me also. We both could do so much. You saving buckets of money and stress not working with a Bank and its money grubbing characters… and Me… able to do far more an be freer that ever before.
Now you say… “Why couldn’t I do that too?” Well the answer is, “YES YOU CAN!”
“HOW?”, you shout.
“By simply paying me a small commission on the people that you sign up. That commission is only .005 or ½ a percent on each loan you write up to $50,000 and then only ¼ of a percent after that” is my answer to that question.
This is a good deal!
You are doubting, I can tell. I am a minister and have been for 35 years… and I know a good doubt when it is coming on. People have shown me that for years by ever so slightly leaning back on their pew, crossing their arms and then slightly shaking their heads. I know you did that – I have a deep discernment that is able to reach out across the miles of the Internet. I can sense when you are not believing me.
You do not need to doubt… just trust me!
Now just in case you are really doubting… read the email text that I just received from my new friend…
Here it is…
Are you a business man or woman? Are you having financial distress or you want to fulfill that dream of yours and you need fund? Are you having difficulties in obtaining a loan from hard lenders or banks because of their high loan fees/requirements? Do you need a loan for any legitimate reason?
Then worry no more as the "Royal Loan Company" has come to offer loans to interested applicants both locally and overseas no matter the sex or location but age must be 18 years and above. We offer loans ranging from $2,500 -$50,000,000.00 on a fixed 3% interest rate annually, we offer personal loans, debt consolidation loans, venture capital, business loans, student loans, home loans or loans for any legitimate reason.
For further enquires and to apply for a loan from us, please feel free to
contact our application desk via this
Regards,
Nick C. Vasquez
(Online Advertiser)
ROYAL LOAN COMPANY (RLC)
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Ann Coulter - “inflammatory right-wing pundit” – or a Born Again Christian Nut Case?
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today's Blog
Ann Coulter - “inflammatory right-wing pundit” – or a Born Again Christian Nut Case?
What the heck is a “inflammatory right-wing pundit”?
Now add the words “Ann Coulter” to that and you might get an answer for yourself.
Last night it hit my news stream. Ann Coulter was rejected by the University of Ottawa… or at least the meeting was cancelled because of a possible danger from within the potential audience.
Earlier in the week the University of Ottawa administrator, sent an e-mail from the school warning her to use "restraint, respect and consideration" when addressing Ontario students this week. Ann Coulter fired back that the statement made her a victim of a "hate crime."
And of course all of the media jumped on the statements that are firing back, left right and centre.
In London, Ontario at a similar gathering she let her volley of offences fly.
I caught her one statement on the news report…
Her statement on Monday night was recorded by many…
Quote…
“On Monday, before a packed audience of about 800 at the University of Western Ontario in London, she said airlines should ban all Muslim passengers and told a Muslim student to "take a camel" as an alternative to flying.”
End quote
Her attitude towards the Islamic world is absolutely pronounced. She dislikes them… or in case I get a slap from Dear Ann as well as the University Dude… I should say… is not in agreement.
But with my careful statements about Ann in that way… Ann would dislike me as well because I am being politically correct in what I say.
For me to say that “she hates the Islamic world” would make me a Hate Crime instigator – against her.
But who is Ann Coulter?
After reading much of the information on her I can say she is smart… very smart. She has done well in school and in working career. She certainly knows how to sell her books and herself. She is likely the only person that I have heard of that has been fired from jobs and then invited back to the same job by the same people that fired her!
I wonder who was more dysfunctional in that hiring and firing situation?
Some people love her. Some people hate her. There doesn’t seem to be any middle of the road… except the politically correct that want to be fair to all sides. I am not sure which group I fall into?
The part that is really hard to take is her religious views. She is way out there some where. She would never make it as a pastor who has to be politically correct for and with everyone! (For 35 years I did that and am now a “recovering pastor” because of it! But that is another story all together!)
As a minister I looked for some hint of what she does believe about God and Faith and all that mushy stuff that most of Canada is allergic to… and so is the USA.
Whoa! She calls herself a Presbyterian! She talks like a Pentecostal! And looks and sounds like someone that could attend either.
You need to read what is published about her on Wikipedia… hang on when you read it!
Quote…
“Coulter says that she holds Christian beliefs, and has declared that she is Presbyterian; she has mentioned that her father was Catholic while her mother was not. At one public lecture she said: "I don't care about anything else: Christ died for my sins and nothing else matters." In a 2004 column, she summarized her view of Christianity: "Jesus' distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I'm here to redeem you even though you don't deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it." She then mocked "the message of Jesus ... according to liberals," summarising it as "...something along the lines of 'be nice to people'," which, in turn, she said "is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity".
Confronting some critics' views that her content and style of writing is un-Christian, Coulter has stated that "I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it." She has also said: "... Christianity fuels everything I write. Being a Christian means that I am called upon to do battle against lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy — you know, all the virtues in the church of liberalism." In Godless: The Church of Liberalism, as well as in personal appearances, Coulter characterized evolution as "bogus science", and contrasting her beliefs to what she called the left's "obsession with Darwinism and the Darwinian view of the world, which replaces sanctification of life with sanctification of sex and death."
End quote
This week in some of my “non-Christian” meetings I will NOT TELL ANYONE that I am one! And I won’t tell them that I was a Pastor of a Church. That will be just because they will ask me what kind of church I was involved with… Hokey Mokey!
After Ann comes to your country you will need to hide if you are fundamentalist of any sort… which kind of makes you into a right winged nut case.
But I pick from the Wikipedia quote and important statement…
"I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it."
I have met people like that in church for over 35 years!
Ooops – now I have Ann Coulter and a majority of the former congregants more than a little upset with my statements.
“Now Pastor Murray… that was a long time ago! People have changed!! Haven’t they?” some ask.
Nope. I found evidence of it happening again not far away and not long ago.
Many people will hold to Ann’s way of thinking and then spiritualize it.
“… being a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, is okay and don't you ever forget it!”
“It is not okay. Dear Ann… Straight out I say it. It is not okay to smash people with your words to sell your books. It is not okay to waltz into out country and spew your foul attitudes. And even if some person that we will never know about pays you to come to our country – I do not agree with that and you need to stay home and let your evil thoughts percolate south of our border! Go away Ann and don’t even think of using our Human Rights Commission to try to stick to us!”
Whew! That almost made me feel better.
But for 35 years I have not been able to say that to the people that have said… "I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it."
Maybe that is why I am a “recovering pastor” from a world that hates so much that it hurts.
Ann, seriously, come with me to some of the countries and people that I have been to… and see what needs to be done. Come with me and witness what God’s love does for an Islamic person that is hurting. They hurt just like I do. They cry the same… and their heart breaks when their kids are killed fighting wars or trying to obey the laws of their land… just like Christians do.
What a tumult of feelings today. Thanks Ann. Thanks a lot!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Coulter
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Coulter+turns+tables+administrator/2719746/story.html
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today's Blog
What the heck is a “inflammatory right-wing pundit”?
Now add the words “Ann Coulter” to that and you might get an answer for yourself.
Last night it hit my news stream. Ann Coulter was rejected by the University of Ottawa… or at least the meeting was cancelled because of a possible danger from within the potential audience.
Earlier in the week the University of Ottawa administrator, sent an e-mail from the school warning her to use "restraint, respect and consideration" when addressing Ontario students this week. Ann Coulter fired back that the statement made her a victim of a "hate crime."
And of course all of the media jumped on the statements that are firing back, left right and centre.
In London, Ontario at a similar gathering she let her volley of offences fly.
I caught her one statement on the news report…
Her statement on Monday night was recorded by many…
Quote…
“On Monday, before a packed audience of about 800 at the University of Western Ontario in London, she said airlines should ban all Muslim passengers and told a Muslim student to "take a camel" as an alternative to flying.”
End quote
Her attitude towards the Islamic world is absolutely pronounced. She dislikes them… or in case I get a slap from Dear Ann as well as the University Dude… I should say… is not in agreement.
But with my careful statements about Ann in that way… Ann would dislike me as well because I am being politically correct in what I say.
For me to say that “she hates the Islamic world” would make me a Hate Crime instigator – against her.
But who is Ann Coulter?
After reading much of the information on her I can say she is smart… very smart. She has done well in school and in working career. She certainly knows how to sell her books and herself. She is likely the only person that I have heard of that has been fired from jobs and then invited back to the same job by the same people that fired her!
I wonder who was more dysfunctional in that hiring and firing situation?
Some people love her. Some people hate her. There doesn’t seem to be any middle of the road… except the politically correct that want to be fair to all sides. I am not sure which group I fall into?
The part that is really hard to take is her religious views. She is way out there some where. She would never make it as a pastor who has to be politically correct for and with everyone! (For 35 years I did that and am now a “recovering pastor” because of it! But that is another story all together!)
As a minister I looked for some hint of what she does believe about God and Faith and all that mushy stuff that most of Canada is allergic to… and so is the USA.
Whoa! She calls herself a Presbyterian! She talks like a Pentecostal! And looks and sounds like someone that could attend either.
You need to read what is published about her on Wikipedia… hang on when you read it!
Quote…
“Coulter says that she holds Christian beliefs, and has declared that she is Presbyterian; she has mentioned that her father was Catholic while her mother was not. At one public lecture she said: "I don't care about anything else: Christ died for my sins and nothing else matters." In a 2004 column, she summarized her view of Christianity: "Jesus' distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I'm here to redeem you even though you don't deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it." She then mocked "the message of Jesus ... according to liberals," summarising it as "...something along the lines of 'be nice to people'," which, in turn, she said "is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity".
Confronting some critics' views that her content and style of writing is un-Christian, Coulter has stated that "I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it." She has also said: "... Christianity fuels everything I write. Being a Christian means that I am called upon to do battle against lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy — you know, all the virtues in the church of liberalism." In Godless: The Church of Liberalism, as well as in personal appearances, Coulter characterized evolution as "bogus science", and contrasting her beliefs to what she called the left's "obsession with Darwinism and the Darwinian view of the world, which replaces sanctification of life with sanctification of sex and death."
End quote
This week in some of my “non-Christian” meetings I will NOT TELL ANYONE that I am one! And I won’t tell them that I was a Pastor of a Church. That will be just because they will ask me what kind of church I was involved with… Hokey Mokey!
After Ann comes to your country you will need to hide if you are fundamentalist of any sort… which kind of makes you into a right winged nut case.
But I pick from the Wikipedia quote and important statement…
"I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it."
I have met people like that in church for over 35 years!
Ooops – now I have Ann Coulter and a majority of the former congregants more than a little upset with my statements.
“Now Pastor Murray… that was a long time ago! People have changed!! Haven’t they?” some ask.
Nope. I found evidence of it happening again not far away and not long ago.
Many people will hold to Ann’s way of thinking and then spiritualize it.
“… being a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, is okay and don't you ever forget it!”
“It is not okay. Dear Ann… Straight out I say it. It is not okay to smash people with your words to sell your books. It is not okay to waltz into out country and spew your foul attitudes. And even if some person that we will never know about pays you to come to our country – I do not agree with that and you need to stay home and let your evil thoughts percolate south of our border! Go away Ann and don’t even think of using our Human Rights Commission to try to stick to us!”
Whew! That almost made me feel better.
But for 35 years I have not been able to say that to the people that have said… "I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it."
Maybe that is why I am a “recovering pastor” from a world that hates so much that it hurts.
Ann, seriously, come with me to some of the countries and people that I have been to… and see what needs to be done. Come with me and witness what God’s love does for an Islamic person that is hurting. They hurt just like I do. They cry the same… and their heart breaks when their kids are killed fighting wars or trying to obey the laws of their land… just like Christians do.
What a tumult of feelings today. Thanks Ann. Thanks a lot!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Coulter
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Coulter+turns+tables+administrator/2719746/story.html
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
CINNAMON & HONEY – the answer to my Old Problems
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
CINNAMON & HONEY – the answer to my Old Problems
Along with knowing Elvis Presley more or less personally, having “met” him at such an early age and then following him until his end… and worse yet outliving him… I have concluded that I am older now. Notice that I did not say “old”.
Yet if I am really honest I can say that I am getting older – or old.
I know this is true in that I do old things now. Old things? Yep Old Things.
Here is one good example. I read all the emails and articles about health products that might help my body.
When I was young I could have cared less about that kind of thing.
My grandsons never ever forward to me all the Health related, old people related emails. In fact I doubt that they get them. But my Older Friends pass them along to me almost without a thought… assuming that I need them… and I note that they must have already read them as well.
My friends and I are all OLD. Gasp… take a deep breath… maybe that should be “are growing older”
An email came yesterday that is just too good. My friend Terry sent it my way. And it is all about “Cinnamon and Honey” and the way that these two things can improve your health and help your body.
The email had a great series of photos of another artist that paints streets… with the Cinnamon and Honey thing at the end.
I checked the email to see who Terry had sent it to… and I was the only one. Yikes… Terry doesn’t have any other older friends… or forgot to send it to them. (Note: The forgetting part is also part of that Old thing…)
In minutes I read the email over… then went back to see if I could get it all again. Funny thing is that with the second and third reading I discovered new things again. Seems to me I had heard them somewhere before… maybe it was the first time I read it – a few reads ago.
For this reason I love to look over the Reader’s Digest magazine. Its jokes are so good. I laugh every time. The really funny thing is that I don’t remember the joke part until after I re-read the joke again – the next day. But the really great part is that the joke is funny the second and third and fourth time I read it.
Maybe the Cinnamon and Honey concoction will help with the Reader’s Digest jokes.
Now if you are struggling to remember if Terry sent you the email on Cinnamon and Honey… and have just checked your email inbox… don’t worry – six of your other friends reading this have done the same thing.
After having read this Cinnamon and Honey email I have come to realize that I will do exactly what the email is suggesting I do. It is suggesting that I mix a Honey and Cinnamon into hot water and them drink it. Not quite a Coffee… but it sounds like a possible thing that I could take.
BUT – Cinnamon and Honey in Hot Water is a little mundane. I have a better idea. I can eat fresh and hot Apple Pie with Cinnamon in it. And to make sure that it doesn’t get mundane – I will add Ice Cream to it.
Now the email has suggested that you take this three times a day – morning, noon and night. I can do that!
It has promised me that my aches and pains will go away in one week. Any arthritis that I have encountered now will be gone in days… and if I have really been stiffened up I will be running in one week!!!!
But listen to this – the email states that Cinnamon and Honey will also take care of HEART DISEASES, ARTHRITIS, BLADDER INFECTIONS, CHOLESTEROL, COLDS, UPSET STOMACH, GAS, IMMUNE SYSTEM, INDIGESTION, INFLUENZA, LONGEVITY, PIMPLES, SKIN INFECTIONS, WEIGHT LOSS, CANCER, FATIGUE, BAD BREATH, and HEARING LOSS
So – Terry… I want to thank you for the best email yet… and specially the fact that it triggered a great idea… Apple Pie – hot with Ice Cream three times a day! Wahoo!
For you that have not received Terry’s email… I have included it at the end of this posting.
Enjoy!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
PS – I have absolutely no idea of the source for this information and take absolutely no responsibility for any side affects that might occur from following the suggestion stated in the following information. Contact Terry for further information… but due to Privacy Issues I cannot give you his email address.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
CINNAMON & HONEY
Honey is the only food on the planet that will not spoil or rot. It will do what some call turning to sugar. In reality honey is always honey.. However, when left in a cool dark place for a long time it will do what I rather call "crystallizing". When this happens I loosen the lid, boil some water, and sit the honey container in the hot water, turn off the heat and let it liquefy. It is then as good as it ever was. Never boil honey or put it in a microwave. To do so will kill the enzymes in the honey.
Cinnamon and Honey
Bet the drug companies won't like this one getting around. Facts on Honey and Cinnamon: It is found that a mixture of honey and Cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also accept honey as a 'Ram Ban' (very effective) medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases.
Today's science says that even though honey is sweet, if taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm diabetic patients. Weekly World News, a magazine in Canada , in its issue dated 17 January,1995 has given the following list of diseases that can be cured by honey and cinnamon as researched by western scientists:
HEART DISEASES:
Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread, instead of jelly and jam, and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack. Also, those who have already had an attack, if they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat. In America and Canada , various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as you age, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and veins.
ARTHRITIS:
Arthritis patients may take daily, morning and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week, out of the 200 people so treated, practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain, and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.
BLADDER INFECTIONS:
Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.
CHOLESTEROL:
Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, given to a cholesterol patient, was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, if taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol is cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.
COLDS:
Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and clear the sinuses.
UPSET STOMACH:
Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also clears stomach ulcers from the root.
GAS:
According to the studies done in India and Japan , it is revealed that if Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.
IMMUNE SYSTEM:
Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacterial and viral diseases.
INDIGESTION:
Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals.
INFLUENZA:
A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural ' Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu..
LONGEVITY:
Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Take four spoons of honey, one spoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of water and boil to make like tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans also increase and even a 100 year old, starts performing the chores of a 20-year-old.
PIMPLES:
Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it next morning with warm water. If done daily for two weeks, it removes pimples from the root.
SKIN INFECTIONS:
Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections.
WEIGHT LOSS:
Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. If taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.
CANCER:
Recent research in Japan and Australia has revealed that advanced cancer of the stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder for one month three times a day.
FATIGUE:
Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Senior citizens, who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts, are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M. when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, increases the vitality of the body within a week.
BAD BREATH:
People of South America , first thing in the morning, gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water, so their breath stays fresh throughout the day.
HEARING LOSS:
Daily morning and night honey and cinnamon powder, taken in equal parts restores hearing. Remember when we were kids? We had toast with real butter and cinnamon sprinkled on it!
You might want to share this information with a friend, kinfolks and loved ones. Everyone needs healthy help information ~ what they do with it is up to them ~ share with your email buddies!!!!!
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
CINNAMON & HONEY – the answer to my Old Problems
Along with knowing Elvis Presley more or less personally, having “met” him at such an early age and then following him until his end… and worse yet outliving him… I have concluded that I am older now. Notice that I did not say “old”.
Yet if I am really honest I can say that I am getting older – or old.
I know this is true in that I do old things now. Old things? Yep Old Things.
Here is one good example. I read all the emails and articles about health products that might help my body.
When I was young I could have cared less about that kind of thing.
My grandsons never ever forward to me all the Health related, old people related emails. In fact I doubt that they get them. But my Older Friends pass them along to me almost without a thought… assuming that I need them… and I note that they must have already read them as well.
My friends and I are all OLD. Gasp… take a deep breath… maybe that should be “are growing older”
An email came yesterday that is just too good. My friend Terry sent it my way. And it is all about “Cinnamon and Honey” and the way that these two things can improve your health and help your body.
The email had a great series of photos of another artist that paints streets… with the Cinnamon and Honey thing at the end.
I checked the email to see who Terry had sent it to… and I was the only one. Yikes… Terry doesn’t have any other older friends… or forgot to send it to them. (Note: The forgetting part is also part of that Old thing…)
In minutes I read the email over… then went back to see if I could get it all again. Funny thing is that with the second and third reading I discovered new things again. Seems to me I had heard them somewhere before… maybe it was the first time I read it – a few reads ago.
For this reason I love to look over the Reader’s Digest magazine. Its jokes are so good. I laugh every time. The really funny thing is that I don’t remember the joke part until after I re-read the joke again – the next day. But the really great part is that the joke is funny the second and third and fourth time I read it.
Maybe the Cinnamon and Honey concoction will help with the Reader’s Digest jokes.
Now if you are struggling to remember if Terry sent you the email on Cinnamon and Honey… and have just checked your email inbox… don’t worry – six of your other friends reading this have done the same thing.
After having read this Cinnamon and Honey email I have come to realize that I will do exactly what the email is suggesting I do. It is suggesting that I mix a Honey and Cinnamon into hot water and them drink it. Not quite a Coffee… but it sounds like a possible thing that I could take.
BUT – Cinnamon and Honey in Hot Water is a little mundane. I have a better idea. I can eat fresh and hot Apple Pie with Cinnamon in it. And to make sure that it doesn’t get mundane – I will add Ice Cream to it.
Now the email has suggested that you take this three times a day – morning, noon and night. I can do that!
It has promised me that my aches and pains will go away in one week. Any arthritis that I have encountered now will be gone in days… and if I have really been stiffened up I will be running in one week!!!!
But listen to this – the email states that Cinnamon and Honey will also take care of HEART DISEASES, ARTHRITIS, BLADDER INFECTIONS, CHOLESTEROL, COLDS, UPSET STOMACH, GAS, IMMUNE SYSTEM, INDIGESTION, INFLUENZA, LONGEVITY, PIMPLES, SKIN INFECTIONS, WEIGHT LOSS, CANCER, FATIGUE, BAD BREATH, and HEARING LOSS
So – Terry… I want to thank you for the best email yet… and specially the fact that it triggered a great idea… Apple Pie – hot with Ice Cream three times a day! Wahoo!
For you that have not received Terry’s email… I have included it at the end of this posting.
Enjoy!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
PS – I have absolutely no idea of the source for this information and take absolutely no responsibility for any side affects that might occur from following the suggestion stated in the following information. Contact Terry for further information… but due to Privacy Issues I cannot give you his email address.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
CINNAMON & HONEY
Honey is the only food on the planet that will not spoil or rot. It will do what some call turning to sugar. In reality honey is always honey.. However, when left in a cool dark place for a long time it will do what I rather call "crystallizing". When this happens I loosen the lid, boil some water, and sit the honey container in the hot water, turn off the heat and let it liquefy. It is then as good as it ever was. Never boil honey or put it in a microwave. To do so will kill the enzymes in the honey.
Cinnamon and Honey
Bet the drug companies won't like this one getting around. Facts on Honey and Cinnamon: It is found that a mixture of honey and Cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also accept honey as a 'Ram Ban' (very effective) medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases.
Today's science says that even though honey is sweet, if taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm diabetic patients. Weekly World News, a magazine in Canada , in its issue dated 17 January,1995 has given the following list of diseases that can be cured by honey and cinnamon as researched by western scientists:
HEART DISEASES:
Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread, instead of jelly and jam, and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack. Also, those who have already had an attack, if they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat. In America and Canada , various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as you age, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and veins.
ARTHRITIS:
Arthritis patients may take daily, morning and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week, out of the 200 people so treated, practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain, and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.
BLADDER INFECTIONS:
Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.
CHOLESTEROL:
Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, given to a cholesterol patient, was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, if taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol is cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.
COLDS:
Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and clear the sinuses.
UPSET STOMACH:
Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also clears stomach ulcers from the root.
GAS:
According to the studies done in India and Japan , it is revealed that if Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.
IMMUNE SYSTEM:
Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacterial and viral diseases.
INDIGESTION:
Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals.
INFLUENZA:
A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural ' Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu..
LONGEVITY:
Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Take four spoons of honey, one spoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of water and boil to make like tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans also increase and even a 100 year old, starts performing the chores of a 20-year-old.
PIMPLES:
Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it next morning with warm water. If done daily for two weeks, it removes pimples from the root.
SKIN INFECTIONS:
Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections.
WEIGHT LOSS:
Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. If taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.
CANCER:
Recent research in Japan and Australia has revealed that advanced cancer of the stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder for one month three times a day.
FATIGUE:
Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Senior citizens, who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts, are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M. when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, increases the vitality of the body within a week.
BAD BREATH:
People of South America , first thing in the morning, gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water, so their breath stays fresh throughout the day.
HEARING LOSS:
Daily morning and night honey and cinnamon powder, taken in equal parts restores hearing. Remember when we were kids? We had toast with real butter and cinnamon sprinkled on it!
You might want to share this information with a friend, kinfolks and loved ones. Everyone needs healthy help information ~ what they do with it is up to them ~ share with your email buddies!!!!!
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Day I was introduced to Elvis Presley
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
The Day I was introduced to Elvis Presley
After reading the articles my mind flashed back to about 1956. What a rush! Whoa!
It was a Sunday afternoon in Regina. It was after church on Sunday morning in the springtime. We had been invited to another family’s home for Sunday Dinner. Everything about that afternoon was magical.
Their house was huge compared to the little place that we lived in on Elliott Street. They live in the Wascana Area – south of the main area of Regina and west of the Parliament Buildings – where other rich people lived.
We had come to visit the Zelkie Family. Their son Don was just a little older than me – probably going on 15 and much more knowledgeable than I was about lots of things. His dad was a Railroad Engineer and that was a good job in those days.
Don showed me the record player that they had sitting in their front room. He did it when his dad took my dad outside to look at something in the garage. It was the perfect moment to show me and share with me one of Don’s exciting discoveries. What a moment it was to taste something new… and mysterious. I knew it was because of the way that Don acted as lifted the new record album from under the other records.
Don looked over his shoulder to the kitchen and glanced out the widow to the garage to make sure he had enough time.
Carefully he extracted the shiny black record from its cardboard jacket and then placed it carefully on the turn table. He pushed the button and the record started turning with a very different sound coming out of the record player.
Our home had records as well but nothing like what I was hearing coming from that machine. The voice was so different from others that I had heard in the church world… and basically up to that point that was all we were allowed to listen to… or it was all that we had available.
My Uncles all made music but it was more Western in style. They played it on the farm in the East Room each Sunday that we came to visit.
From the record player came a new sound.
Don glanced at me as he played the record and then quickly at the kitchen and out to the garage again. We were apparently doing something at that moment that made him keep up his guard. He was on the watch for the danger of his dad returning.
His mom was in the kitchen preparing the last fixings for the dinner. My mom was with her. That was when Don’s mom picked up the sound and called out, “DON… what are you doing? I can hear that. Your dad is NOT going to like what you are doing!”
Don glanced nervously out of the house window toward the garage. My dad and his dad were still talking and he had time left to let me hear more. Don grinned at me and then continued listening to the music and the voice of the person on the record. Pure delight was registered on his face as he shared this moment with me.
I didn’t really know what was going on, but looking at Don’s expression I knew I should be savoring something of a forbidden fruit.
Don looked at me and explained, “The guy’s name is Elvis Presley. He sings hymns too as well as this popular stuff. In fact he attends church just like we do and has since he was a little boy – just we have.”
I couldn’t understand what that meant exactly. The music that I was listening to was not the kind that church had – it was better – much better – but I wasn’t sure why… except that Don was doing something that his dad was going to kill him for doing.
The back door latch made a sound and two dads entered still talking. Don quickly lifted the needle arm and lifted his prized record from the turn table… inserted it in its jacket and returned it to his hiding place under the other records. The two of us then left the front room to head off to his bedroom to talk.
Don explained a little more about Elvis and how much he liked him. To me it made no sense at all… except that an older boy was telling me his secrets. He told me how much the girls at his school loved this Elvis. That to me made no sense at all. Girls were sisters… and sisters were stupid!
That was about the spring of 1956.
In the fall of 1956 my dad took a very dangerous step and bought a TV. TVs were not something that everyone had. Some of the preachers in the church and specially some of the people like Don’s dad thought these TVs were from the Devil. And no one that attended church would have a TV!
Well after dad made that decision to buy it our lives changed completely. A whole new world opened to us.
On TV there was something broadcast from a far away place called New York. It was the Ed Sullivan Show.
It was during that first month of our having the TV that I saw this guy with a white sports jacket on. His name was Elvis Presley and I had heard the song before – on Don’s record.
People were screaming when Elvis apparently wiggled on the stage…but all you could see was his head, chest and sports coat. None of us knew what was going on because the TV cameras wouldn’t allow you to see what he was doing with his hips.
For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why Don’s dad Albert hated this Elvis so much. Christian guys like Albert were supposed to love people. He sure didn’t love Elvis. And Elvis sang old hymns as well as that other stuff.
In 1956, the fall, one of my uncles gave me some old radio parts which he told me still worked. I plugged it in and began listening to music – Rock and Roll in particular… and haven’t stopped.
Yesterday as I finished reading the sad story of the life of Elvis I pondered his life and mine.
When I was twelve he was 20. I was 14 when he was inducted into the U.S. army. His daughter Lisa Marie Presley was born the same year as my oldest daughter 1968.
On August 16, 1977 I had started my new task as a Minister traveling across Canada doing Youth Work for the head office of our church. That was the day Elvis died.
He was a very fat blob and his body was suffering from the abuse of many, many drugs. His family was gone. He was all alone in his huge Graceland home surrounded by everything that one could ever want… but had nothing.
The funny thing is that we call him “The King” or the “King of Rock and Roll”.
54 years ago this springtime is when I listened to that record with Don, watched out for his father coming back inside, and then scooted off to Don’s bedroom to listen to the new stories… and I was introduced to Elvis. That was so long ago.
Whoa!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Marie_Presley
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
After reading the articles my mind flashed back to about 1956. What a rush! Whoa!
It was a Sunday afternoon in Regina. It was after church on Sunday morning in the springtime. We had been invited to another family’s home for Sunday Dinner. Everything about that afternoon was magical.
Their house was huge compared to the little place that we lived in on Elliott Street. They live in the Wascana Area – south of the main area of Regina and west of the Parliament Buildings – where other rich people lived.
We had come to visit the Zelkie Family. Their son Don was just a little older than me – probably going on 15 and much more knowledgeable than I was about lots of things. His dad was a Railroad Engineer and that was a good job in those days.
Don showed me the record player that they had sitting in their front room. He did it when his dad took my dad outside to look at something in the garage. It was the perfect moment to show me and share with me one of Don’s exciting discoveries. What a moment it was to taste something new… and mysterious. I knew it was because of the way that Don acted as lifted the new record album from under the other records.
Don looked over his shoulder to the kitchen and glanced out the widow to the garage to make sure he had enough time.
Carefully he extracted the shiny black record from its cardboard jacket and then placed it carefully on the turn table. He pushed the button and the record started turning with a very different sound coming out of the record player.
Our home had records as well but nothing like what I was hearing coming from that machine. The voice was so different from others that I had heard in the church world… and basically up to that point that was all we were allowed to listen to… or it was all that we had available.
My Uncles all made music but it was more Western in style. They played it on the farm in the East Room each Sunday that we came to visit.
From the record player came a new sound.
Don glanced at me as he played the record and then quickly at the kitchen and out to the garage again. We were apparently doing something at that moment that made him keep up his guard. He was on the watch for the danger of his dad returning.
His mom was in the kitchen preparing the last fixings for the dinner. My mom was with her. That was when Don’s mom picked up the sound and called out, “DON… what are you doing? I can hear that. Your dad is NOT going to like what you are doing!”
Don glanced nervously out of the house window toward the garage. My dad and his dad were still talking and he had time left to let me hear more. Don grinned at me and then continued listening to the music and the voice of the person on the record. Pure delight was registered on his face as he shared this moment with me.
I didn’t really know what was going on, but looking at Don’s expression I knew I should be savoring something of a forbidden fruit.
Don looked at me and explained, “The guy’s name is Elvis Presley. He sings hymns too as well as this popular stuff. In fact he attends church just like we do and has since he was a little boy – just we have.”
I couldn’t understand what that meant exactly. The music that I was listening to was not the kind that church had – it was better – much better – but I wasn’t sure why… except that Don was doing something that his dad was going to kill him for doing.
The back door latch made a sound and two dads entered still talking. Don quickly lifted the needle arm and lifted his prized record from the turn table… inserted it in its jacket and returned it to his hiding place under the other records. The two of us then left the front room to head off to his bedroom to talk.
Don explained a little more about Elvis and how much he liked him. To me it made no sense at all… except that an older boy was telling me his secrets. He told me how much the girls at his school loved this Elvis. That to me made no sense at all. Girls were sisters… and sisters were stupid!
That was about the spring of 1956.
In the fall of 1956 my dad took a very dangerous step and bought a TV. TVs were not something that everyone had. Some of the preachers in the church and specially some of the people like Don’s dad thought these TVs were from the Devil. And no one that attended church would have a TV!
Well after dad made that decision to buy it our lives changed completely. A whole new world opened to us.
On TV there was something broadcast from a far away place called New York. It was the Ed Sullivan Show.
It was during that first month of our having the TV that I saw this guy with a white sports jacket on. His name was Elvis Presley and I had heard the song before – on Don’s record.
People were screaming when Elvis apparently wiggled on the stage…but all you could see was his head, chest and sports coat. None of us knew what was going on because the TV cameras wouldn’t allow you to see what he was doing with his hips.
For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why Don’s dad Albert hated this Elvis so much. Christian guys like Albert were supposed to love people. He sure didn’t love Elvis. And Elvis sang old hymns as well as that other stuff.
In 1956, the fall, one of my uncles gave me some old radio parts which he told me still worked. I plugged it in and began listening to music – Rock and Roll in particular… and haven’t stopped.
Yesterday as I finished reading the sad story of the life of Elvis I pondered his life and mine.
When I was twelve he was 20. I was 14 when he was inducted into the U.S. army. His daughter Lisa Marie Presley was born the same year as my oldest daughter 1968.
On August 16, 1977 I had started my new task as a Minister traveling across Canada doing Youth Work for the head office of our church. That was the day Elvis died.
He was a very fat blob and his body was suffering from the abuse of many, many drugs. His family was gone. He was all alone in his huge Graceland home surrounded by everything that one could ever want… but had nothing.
The funny thing is that we call him “The King” or the “King of Rock and Roll”.
54 years ago this springtime is when I listened to that record with Don, watched out for his father coming back inside, and then scooted off to Don’s bedroom to listen to the new stories… and I was introduced to Elvis. That was so long ago.
Whoa!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Marie_Presley
Sunday, March 21, 2010
The Two Towers of the Ebenezer United Church
Misty Hollow Carving
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
The Two Towers of the Ebenezer United Church
It was one of those magic moments when something unusual catches your attention and demands that you look closer. I grabbed my camera and shot the above photo.
This is Ebenezer United Church, standing at 5000 Steeles Ave, Markham, Ontario. Standing proud and strong there on a busy street and a bustling new community where no one goes slow. It is in the middle of one of the fastest growing “Canadian Asian and Others” communities that I know of.
What caught my attention was the very thick and sturdy looking Cell Phone/Communication Tower standing right beside the church sign. The Tower stands almost as high as the church’s tower.
The first thought I had at that moment that I clicked the photo was, “There just has to be a story behind this rich contrast of Church Tower and Communication Tower!”
While preparing this piece for today I found the Web Site for the Ebenezer United Church where I found that Rev. Won Hur is the present pastor. I also found the following information about Ebenezer United church…
Quote…
“In the 1840's, Primitive Methodist circuit-riding Ministers preached to settlers located in Milliken's Corners (named after three of the earliest farmers John, James, and Norman Milliken). The first Primitive Methodists met in private homes and later in Brookes' Wagon Shoppe, in Scarborough. These settlers were the founders of the present Ebenezer congregation. Within a few years, the congregation had raised the $300 needed to build a church. In 1852, a frame church was erected on the Thomas Harding farm, on what is now the southeast corner of Brimley and Steeles. The original sign from that structure is on display in our narthex. The congregation flourished and in 1876 a new church was needed. Thomas Harding purchased the present site of Ebenezer United Church for two hundred dollars, and gave it to the trustees in exchange for the return of the lot of the old church. The new church was opened and dedicated on Sunday February 17, 1878. It is recorded that Reverend Boyle's sermon was one hour and forty-five minutes long.
Ebenezer's Board met quarterly at first, and instituted an envelope system and a finance committee by 1910. A temperance and moral reform committee was created during the First World War. In 1925, Ebenezer became part of the newly formed United Church of Canada. During these years, Ebenezer's congregation flourished, to the point of having 70 students in Sunday School. Even though the minister's salary was only $1,800, board minutes of 1931 record that it was five months in arrears.
Services have been held at l0 a.m. since May 1950. The sixties saw booming growth from Metropolitan Toronto, and some Ebenezer families moved away. It was suggested that the church be closed temporarily, but for 10 years only thirty families supported Ebenezer spiritually and financially.
In July 1977, Ebenezer became the base of a new pastoral charge, and because of the planned development nearby a large extension (our present sanctuary) was added in the 1980's.”
End quote
To the west side of the Old Church Building is a quiet graveyard that is home to many of the older congregants I am guessing. To the east side is the Communication Tower. What a contrast!
As we drove on past the building I couldn’t help wonder at the many, great contrasts the little church in the country has undergone. What would the oldest congregation have thought if they could have looked forward into 2010 from that humble, rural 1840s era?
Having served as a minister for so many years myself and also attended about 35 years of church political meetings, commonly known in my world as “Board Meetings”, I know the tensions that exist with one faction locking horns with another. Then on really “good nights” there could be a six way split of tensions and factions with all different opinions hot of the table… all very spiritual of course!
I can only imagine the radical Board Meetings that Ebenezer U.C. had when a Communication Tower was being discussed. There just had to be enough of the “dear old saints” left that would be expressing any where from mild objections to wild objections to that radical money making idea.
And I am guessing at this point having watched way too many Hollywood productions… the tomb stones next to the old building might have been heaving every so slightly at the dear saints rolled over in their graves below!
There is absolutely no criticism in my words or thoughts. I think that the present Ebenezer U.C. is brilliant with the Thick White Tower beside their church sign. These people have to be the most forward thinking people in that community. What a statement to make to their world – communication is what it is all about!
When I read the account of how Rev. Won Hur arrived at the place he serves today, I was humbled. What an amazing young pastor!
When I read of the church’s core values and programming I was very impressed. This place of worship has not lost it vision for a world around it. This is a place that I could attend quite easily and love every minute of the worship. They have not lost their core values of Christian witness in the middle of one the most multicultural communities in Canada. They are alive and well!
Coming back to the two towers on Steeles Ave. – the Church and the Communication Towers I realize the powerful symbolism all over again. In 1878 the day that the Old Church Building was dedicated it stood strong and tall letting that rural community know what it stood for. Today 132 years later it still is standing strong with the new symbol of the community – a communication tower broadcasting vital connection to the waiting world.
If I use my Cell Phone in or around the Ebenezer United Church on Steeles Ave… the signal would be the strongest ever. I have a feeling if I am ever able to worship with these folks the signal to the heavenly will also be the strongest as well.
Ebenezer United Church and Rev. Won Hur, you are to be bragged about for what you are doing in and for your community. I am impressed! And as a retired Pentecostal Minister that has seen just about everything in the religious world – you folks are amazing.
Some day you may see an older, white haired dude that is not dressed like a minister, slip into one of your pews. That will be me. I can’t wait to worship with you as a fellow believer in what you are doing.
Bless you Ebenezer U.C. and Rev. Won Hur.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sources:
http://www.ebenezer-uc.on.ca/
This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * *
Today’s Blog Post
The Two Towers of the Ebenezer United Church
This is Ebenezer United Church, standing at 5000 Steeles Ave, Markham, Ontario. Standing proud and strong there on a busy street and a bustling new community where no one goes slow. It is in the middle of one of the fastest growing “Canadian Asian and Others” communities that I know of.
What caught my attention was the very thick and sturdy looking Cell Phone/Communication Tower standing right beside the church sign. The Tower stands almost as high as the church’s tower.
The first thought I had at that moment that I clicked the photo was, “There just has to be a story behind this rich contrast of Church Tower and Communication Tower!”
While preparing this piece for today I found the Web Site for the Ebenezer United Church where I found that Rev. Won Hur is the present pastor. I also found the following information about Ebenezer United church…
Quote…
“In the 1840's, Primitive Methodist circuit-riding Ministers preached to settlers located in Milliken's Corners (named after three of the earliest farmers John, James, and Norman Milliken). The first Primitive Methodists met in private homes and later in Brookes' Wagon Shoppe, in Scarborough. These settlers were the founders of the present Ebenezer congregation. Within a few years, the congregation had raised the $300 needed to build a church. In 1852, a frame church was erected on the Thomas Harding farm, on what is now the southeast corner of Brimley and Steeles. The original sign from that structure is on display in our narthex. The congregation flourished and in 1876 a new church was needed. Thomas Harding purchased the present site of Ebenezer United Church for two hundred dollars, and gave it to the trustees in exchange for the return of the lot of the old church. The new church was opened and dedicated on Sunday February 17, 1878. It is recorded that Reverend Boyle's sermon was one hour and forty-five minutes long.
Ebenezer's Board met quarterly at first, and instituted an envelope system and a finance committee by 1910. A temperance and moral reform committee was created during the First World War. In 1925, Ebenezer became part of the newly formed United Church of Canada. During these years, Ebenezer's congregation flourished, to the point of having 70 students in Sunday School. Even though the minister's salary was only $1,800, board minutes of 1931 record that it was five months in arrears.
Services have been held at l0 a.m. since May 1950. The sixties saw booming growth from Metropolitan Toronto, and some Ebenezer families moved away. It was suggested that the church be closed temporarily, but for 10 years only thirty families supported Ebenezer spiritually and financially.
In July 1977, Ebenezer became the base of a new pastoral charge, and because of the planned development nearby a large extension (our present sanctuary) was added in the 1980's.”
End quote
To the west side of the Old Church Building is a quiet graveyard that is home to many of the older congregants I am guessing. To the east side is the Communication Tower. What a contrast!
As we drove on past the building I couldn’t help wonder at the many, great contrasts the little church in the country has undergone. What would the oldest congregation have thought if they could have looked forward into 2010 from that humble, rural 1840s era?
Having served as a minister for so many years myself and also attended about 35 years of church political meetings, commonly known in my world as “Board Meetings”, I know the tensions that exist with one faction locking horns with another. Then on really “good nights” there could be a six way split of tensions and factions with all different opinions hot of the table… all very spiritual of course!
I can only imagine the radical Board Meetings that Ebenezer U.C. had when a Communication Tower was being discussed. There just had to be enough of the “dear old saints” left that would be expressing any where from mild objections to wild objections to that radical money making idea.
And I am guessing at this point having watched way too many Hollywood productions… the tomb stones next to the old building might have been heaving every so slightly at the dear saints rolled over in their graves below!
There is absolutely no criticism in my words or thoughts. I think that the present Ebenezer U.C. is brilliant with the Thick White Tower beside their church sign. These people have to be the most forward thinking people in that community. What a statement to make to their world – communication is what it is all about!
When I read the account of how Rev. Won Hur arrived at the place he serves today, I was humbled. What an amazing young pastor!
When I read of the church’s core values and programming I was very impressed. This place of worship has not lost it vision for a world around it. This is a place that I could attend quite easily and love every minute of the worship. They have not lost their core values of Christian witness in the middle of one the most multicultural communities in Canada. They are alive and well!
Coming back to the two towers on Steeles Ave. – the Church and the Communication Towers I realize the powerful symbolism all over again. In 1878 the day that the Old Church Building was dedicated it stood strong and tall letting that rural community know what it stood for. Today 132 years later it still is standing strong with the new symbol of the community – a communication tower broadcasting vital connection to the waiting world.
If I use my Cell Phone in or around the Ebenezer United Church on Steeles Ave… the signal would be the strongest ever. I have a feeling if I am ever able to worship with these folks the signal to the heavenly will also be the strongest as well.
Ebenezer United Church and Rev. Won Hur, you are to be bragged about for what you are doing in and for your community. I am impressed! And as a retired Pentecostal Minister that has seen just about everything in the religious world – you folks are amazing.
Some day you may see an older, white haired dude that is not dressed like a minister, slip into one of your pews. That will be me. I can’t wait to worship with you as a fellow believer in what you are doing.
Bless you Ebenezer U.C. and Rev. Won Hur.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sources:
http://www.ebenezer-uc.on.ca/
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