Chasing Heaven

(US Naval Academy, 1890s)

Although there might be more than one way to skin a cat, the pathway to Heaven remains decidedly straight and narrow.

Nevertheless, humans have tried to find upsy-daisy shortcuts throughout the ages.  One such contrivance has been the sport of extreme pole-vaulting.  Not content with simply bouncing about from one ground-zero to another, the Dutch have been leaping skyward for centuries.

They don’t let a little thing like a canal get in the way.  This potential deterrent simply adds to the thrill of defying earthbound forces.  After soaring to “the height of a four-story building,” it’s then time to hope for a smooth landing.  If all goes well, you walk away unscathed.  If all does not, you either walk away wet or not at all.   

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/sports/article/dutch-canal-leaping-pole-vaulters-053959922.html       

Learn Your Urn

An 1889 word to the wise...

Today’s thrift shops have become a counterpart io yesterday’s Macy’s or Gimbel’s.   Just as those two giants did not habitually share information, neither do average folks while dropping their household dispensables into anonymous bins.

All well and good until one such donation happens to contain a sprinkling of human remains.  This occurred at a Goodwill shop in Vancouver, Washington.  When said urn with its unusual contents was discovered by a curious employee, the local police were alerted.  Attempts at locating its past owner appear to be met with dead silence.

As if that weren’t enough, another thrift store wound up with a locket containing – you guessed it – more of same.  These heart-shaped cremains indefinitely hung above the unwitting buyer’s sink, who referred to them as her “spooky little friend.” 

Resources

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/reminder-check-urns-cremated-remains-donating-resale-shops-201426653.html

What we think we know

 

Fruit Bat
(Photo by Lietuvos zoologijos)

We not only think we know what we think we know, but we also continue to pass it on for decades.

Take “blind as a bat” for instance.  Are bats really blind, or is that just something optometrists use for effect?  It turns out that some bats are more or less blind, whereas others are less so than more so.  Fruit bats are said to “have huge adorable eyes that work very well. “

And how about those buckled top hats that “Pilgrims” wear within many a school play, along with all-black outfits?  Did European denizens of the “new world” really sport such garb while chasing down summertime deer?  Or did they instead don multi-colored linen shirts and shifts?

So is the Great Wall of China really visible from space?  It might just depend upon how well “visible” and “space” are defined.  “NASA has gone on record saying it’s not visible from the moon and barely visible from low-earth orbit.”  This popular trope is likely just a PR stunt to promote human dominance over all else…

Resources

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/15-myths-american-schools-still-teach-that-are-totally-false/ss-AA1Fh2dq?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=d47dd4aaf03c48beb5844410eeec57af&ei=38#image=15.

Six Ways to Skinday

 

Narcissus at the Spring
(Painting by Jan Roos)

“Skin, skin, skin, keeps the insides in…”  Yet youths who are more concerned with the outside than the inside are smothering their covering with toxic ingredients.

Northwestern Medicine reports that many “aged 7 to 18, are using an average of six different products daily [which] often contain ingredients that can lead to skin irritation and allergies…”  The mixing and matching of such potions not only yields health risks, but also financial ones.  These elixirs don’t come cheap, “averaging $168 per month, with some exceeding $500.”

Social media tends to emphasize outer rather than inner beauty, and teens are especially vulnerable to such propaganda.  Bankruptcy doesn’t stop at the bank - it can overrun emotional bulwarks and drown bright futures within a deluge of depression.

Resources

https://www.iheart.com/content/2025-06-10-tiktok-skincare-crazes-loved-by-teens-could-be-harmful/

Best of the Worst

 

(Public Domain)

If French fries are your thing, then your thing (along with the rest of you) might be in grave danger.

Routinely dousing your body with fats, sodium, calories and carcinogens is one way to hasten the inevitable.  Nevertheless, foodies are seeking ever more renditions of this guilty pleasure.

Gabby Romero of Delish.com was apparently bored one day, so he came up with a list of the yummiest French fries.  Checkers/Rally’s won the day, due to its “beer battered… savory, salty spice blend.”  This dubious distinction gave it the one-up as far as taste or tastelessness is concerned.

Resources

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/06/14/the-unfortunate-health-risks-of-french-fries/

https://www.iheart.com/content/2025-06-11-best-fast-food-french-fries-for-2025-revealed/

Stubborn Is as Stubborn Does

Fanjingshan, Ghizhou, China
(Public Domain)

Stubborn has gotten a bad rap over time.  Rather than eliciting praise for being dedicated, it’s been maligned for being “pigheaded” and “uncooperative.”

Yet there are certain things not worth cooperating with. When outside forces threaten to turn your ancestral village into a tourist trap, it might be wise to summon up a heaping helping of stubborn.

Which is exactly what Chen Tianming did when authorities came after his “family’s humble stone bungalow” within China’s beautiful Guizhou province… Amidst a “flurry of demolition notices,” Tianming not only remained in place, but also expanded upon his existing home. 

Continuing onward and literally upward, Tianming painstakingly added one story after another to his original structure.  Taipei Times reported: “He now presides over a bewildering 10-story, pyramid-shaped warren of rickety staircases, balconies and other add-ons,” all of which ironically attracts way more tourism than the surrounding bulldozed landscape.

Resources

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2025/06/09/2003838309

 

   

Antivenom: Live and Let Die

(Public Domain)

The story of Adam, Eve and the Serpent is quite well-known, even among non-believers.  Many would agree that serpents can be life-threatening, although some would distinguish between physical and eternal life.

If eternal life is your goal, it could be best to ignore the temptations that a serpentine figure might offer. If physical life is your perceived end game, it still might be wise to proceed cautiously through slithery terrain. In either case, advance preparation is key.

An effective “antivenom” for slippery slopes can be devotion to a Truth that could ultimately yield freedom from all vicious cycles.  Or, you could instead spend precious days, months and years encouraging snakes to bite your temporal flesh.

The latter is what a fellow named Tim Friede is all too familiar with.  After becoming comatose from self-induced poisoning, Friede later declared, “I know what it feels like to die from snakebite.”  He went on to repeatedly defy the adage “Once bitten, twice shy.”  After more and more bites, Friede was finally ready to abandon the Serpent.  And yet, he then wistfully uttered, “I do miss it.”  An all-too-common feeling we humans tend to have while loosening the grip of toxic habits...

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/man-let-snakes-bite-him-025559322.html