The Megiddo Mosaic

A lot has been written in blogs about this church floor mosaic, recently unearthed on the grounds of a prison in Megiddo, Galilee. It seems everybody got at least something wrong.

I haven't been able to read the whole inscription, so I can't comment on why spelling varies so much on the names listed on the eastern side. But photos of the western inscription are easy to read, so I'll focus my attention on that.

Literally and lineally translated, the inscription is as follows:
Hereby presents
Akeptous--
She who [is a] lover of God--
This tab-
le to G-d J-s Ch-t
as a memorial

Translations vary for the first and third lines; but there is no other translation possible for the fifth line than "to God, Jesus Christ." Yet many have been so unprofessional as to offer the following:
to the god Jesus Christos
to the Lord Jesus Christ
to the God Jesus Christ

This line, however, is absolutely explicit in its implication: Prior to Constantine, prior to the Nicene council, Jesus Christ was considered, not a god, but God Himself.

The Da Vinci Code is wrong. But we knew that already.

What's the use of an education?

My son got a job this summer. Nothing unusual about that, a lot of teens his age get jobs for the summer. But my son didn't quit when time came to go back to school. Instead, he got a raise, and more responsibility. Still working part-time, he's going to be making more than his dad once his next promotion comes through, probably before his age mates have started their senior year of high school.

So who needs school to succeed? My son doesn't. His teenage co-worker, who makes about $20 an hour, didn't finish high school. Neither, I suspect, did their employer. In fact, I'm pretty sure that most of their customers have had more education than anyone in the company. The culture here in north-central Indiana doesn't support the idea that education beyond the elementary level is essential to success.

Here are some interesting statistics on the comparative demographics of counties just north, and just south, of the Michiana state line ( including Indiana Counties: Elkhart, Kosciusko, St. Joseph, La Porte, Marshall and Starke; and Michigan Counties: Cass, Berrien, Kalamazoo, Van Buren and St. Joseph)

Indiana Counties Population 709,797
High school Graduates 78.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher 15.2%
Home Ownership 75.9%
Median Household Income $41,681
# Persons with Church Affiliation 287,164
Religious Congregations 817 (1 per 858 population)

Michigan Counties Population 597, 335
High School Graduate 81.7%
Bachelor's Degree or Higher 17.9%
Home Ownership 75.2%
Median Household Income $40,315
#Persons with Church Affiliation 218,982
Religious Congregations 583 (1 per 1025 population)

Note:
Indiana is more religious and less educated than Michigan.
But has a higher income and higher home ownership rate than Michigan.


I'd also like to see a list comparing the education of millionaires to the general public. Do you suppose more than 15% of them have bachelor's degrees? Bill Gates doesn't. I know of quite a few in Indiana who never got even so far as High School. But they do employ a lot of high school and college graduates!

Conclusion: Education and Income are not inextricably linked. The ability to communicate, follow directions, and get along with co-workers is far more an indication of ability to succeed than level of education.

So why are so many employers still insisting that college graduates only need apply?

Decent AND stylish?

The revival of Islamic garb among jet-setting Middle Eastern women is stretching the limits of the traditional dress code:

The Koran and Sunnah, or teachings of the Prophet, instruct Muslim women to cover their whole body, except for the hands and face, with loose and nondiaphanousclothes. They make no mention of form, style and color, leaving the door open to personal interpretation.
"A woman's clothes shouldn't make her look odd in the society she belongs to, but that doesn't necessarily mean they shouldn't be colorful or trendy," Sheikh Shafii explains. "In a society where everybody wears showy clothes, a veiled woman can wear showy clothes and in a society where people tune down style and colors, it is preferable that she does that, too. It is all very relative."



http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=15121

The whole story behind the Grandfather Clock

From the internet

My Grandfather's Clock
by Henry Clay Work

In Piercebridge, England in north Yorkshire there was an old hotel called the George Hotel.The place was a rest stop for weary travelers and was run by two brothers, last name of Jenkins. In the lobby of the hotel was an old upright clock. The clock always kept perfect time until one of the old Jenkins brothers died. Gradually the clock started losing time, first a minute or so every few days, then a minute a day, then several minutes a day. Clockmakers were called in to repair the clock, but no matter what their level of expertise, it seemed nothing could be done.One day shortly after the second old man Jenkins passed away in his ninetieth year, the old clock quit running completely. It never ran again. Attempts to fix the clock by the new owner of the George Hotel failed. But the clock, having become somewhat of a mysterious landmark in the hotel, was left to stand in the corner of the lobby - dusted and polished, but silent.

Sometime during the 1870's, a man, a songwriter from the States came to stay at the George Hotel. He was told the story of the Jenkins brothers and the old clock. It inspired him. When he got back to the States he wrote a tune about the clock and its story, but to personalize the lyrics somewhat he decided to write about one old man and visualized that old man as his own grandfather. The tune was named My Grandfather's Clock.

I found this story in Paul Aurandt's book Destiny and 102 Other Real Life Mysteries.

Henry Clay Work had already gained much success in the United States during the Civil War for several tunes he penned - Kingdom Coming and Marching Through Georgia among them.The tune My Grandfather's Clock became very well known, but perhaps more well known than even the tune is name for that type of clock. Before Henry Clay Work named the tall standing clock in his song "My Grandfather's Clock," those types of clocks were known as case clocks, coffin clocks, standing clocks, upright clock, long clocks, etc. It was only after the tune was written that they became known as Grandfather Clocks.

My Grandfather's Clock

My mother used to sing this song to me. It would have been written shortly after her grandmother was born in 1872, and perhaps she sang it to her.

Her son, my own grandfather, died on his 96th birthday--after relinquishing the long-held claim that he would live to be 100.

If I live to my 90th birthday, I want this sung at my funeral dinner. I don't have as lofty a goal as my grandfather--I don't expect to live any past 90--but I don't want to die until my youngest grandchild is at least 5 years old (as his was).

There must be over a hundred slightly differing versions of this song online. Many leave out the third or fourth verse, and I found half a dozen different renditions just of the word after "pluming". Although several could, by intrinsic probability, offer themselves as the oldest and best version, this is the only one with "its" before childhood (clearly the more difficult reading), and furthermore is on the site of a biography of the author, Henry Clay Work. It is the best known of the dozens of songs he wrote. He gained fame during the Civil War for his wartime songs, so he was already quite famous when he wrote this one.
1
My grandfather's clock
Was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half
Than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn
Of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.
2
In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy;
And its childhood and manhood
The clock seemed to know,
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four
When he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.
3
My grandfather said
That of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time,
And had but one desire,
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place,
Not a frown upon its face,
And the hands never hung by its side.
But it stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.
4
It rang an alarm
In the dead of the night,
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit
Was pluming for flight,
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time,
With a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side.
But it stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Note: Before this song became popular, the floor standing clocks were known merely as tall clocks, and became known as Grandfather Clocks as a result of the singing of this song, written by Henry Work. --Colophon from another website

One website offered this history for the lyrics: Music By: Henry Clay Work; it is reported that James P. Christian owned the old Grandfather's Clock which inspired C. Russel Christian to write the famous poem by that name.