Life Saver

Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.

Christ is Born!

In the year, from the creation of the world, when in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, five thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine; from the flood, two thousand, nine hundred and fifty-seven; from the birth of Abraham, two thousand and fifteen; from Moses and the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt, one thousand, five hundred and ten; from the anointing of King David, one thousand and thirty-two; in the sixty-fifth week, according to the prophecy of Daniel; in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; in the year seven hundred and fifty-two from the founding of the city of Rome; in the forty-second year of the empire of Octavian Augustus, when the whole earth was at peace, in the sixth age of the world, Jesus Christ, eternal God, and Son of the eternal Father, desirous to sanctify the world by His most merciful coming, having been conceived of the Holy Ghost, and nine months having elapsed since his conception, is born in Bethlehem of Juda, having become man of the Virgin Mary. 

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Music and Fruitcake

I'm making fruitcakes tonight.  I'm also listening to Christmas music just a wee but early.  This is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

The shepherds heard the story proclaimed by angels bright,
How Christ, the Lord of glory was born on earth this night.
To Bethlehem they sped and in the manger found Him,
As angel heralds said.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;
True Man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.

O Savior, Child of Mary, who felt our human woe,
O Savior, King of glory, who dost our weakness know;
Bring us at length we pray, to the bright courts of Heaven,
And to the endless day!

Really? Who needs one of these?

Jay Leno has one.  The company's stock is being talked about by stock traders and investors.  I'm sure techno-geeks are drooling.  But what good is it?  Why would I need one of these?  I don't even use the inkjet printer that is attached to my computer.  And I already have too much stuff.  I don't need a machine that makes more stuff.

Cocktail of the Week: Piña Colada

Many years ago, in 1954 at the Hilton Caribe's Beachcomber Bar the Piña Colada was introduced.  About 30 years later, I guess it was 1980 or 1981, I was in Michigan visiting my cousin.   At that time a really really bad song by Rupert Holmes was popular.  I think the real name of the song was Escape but I always thought of it as the Piña Colada song.  I suppose most people who heard it thought of it the same way.  Regardless of that, my cousin and I, though we were under-aged (I was 12.  He was 15.) becme totally enthralled by the Piña Colada.  That meant that his fave ice cream was Piña Colada flavored, and my fave jelly beans were Piña Colada flavored.  Five years later while on an 18 hour pass from Fort Monmouth in New Jerssey, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan I tasted a real Piña Colada.  About 8 months after that I bought a Piña Colada at the Casa Gallardo restaurant in Tampa for a 17 year old girl who would later become my first wife.  It was her first mixed drink.  I haven't had a Piña Colada since that night.  I think I should have another.

Recipe
2 oz. white rum
1 oz. coconut cream
1 oz. heavy cream
6 oz. pineapple juice
4 oz. ice

Blend all ingredients until smoothe.  Pour into a goblet and garnish with pineapple and cherry.