This came up in my Facebook memories this week and I thought it would be cool to share. In my Bible classes, the pastor/teacher always talks about how amazing the Bible is. The fact that it was preserved throughout history and we can hold it in our hands today and read those words in itself boggles my mind.
I’m a visual person. I am well aware of the various cross references throughout the whole of Scripture, but this image/chart really allows you to see just how many there are!
The Facebook post reads:
“This might be the most amazing data picture you see in a lifetime! It shows the 63,779 cross-references in the Bible. The white bars along the bottom represent each Bible chapter, Gen. 1 – Rev. 22. The line’s color shows the reference’s distance from the other. A cross-reference is a scripture that references another scripture. Had the Bible been written by one person or at one time this would still be amazing; however, the Bible was written by 40 authors over the span of 1500 years on 3 different continents.”
This week, while it has been nice to have some new features to post here, I feel like I haven’t really told you what’s been up our way. It’s been a pretty busy week or so.
I had the chance to spend the day with my daughter this week. We went to lunch at McDonald’s (her choice). We went to one of the big public libraries that we had never been to before. They had all kinds of cool things for the kids to play with there. I could hardly get her to leave so we could go to the Children’s Museum.
At the Children’s museum, we did our normal stuff: the big water table, the indoor treehouse, played on the indoor ambulance, and went down the big slide. We took a detour and walked through another part of the museum which has old cars, old uniforms, an army tank, and other neat stuff. She was really fascinated by the cars, an old sled, and the old logging stuff.
We had a couple nice days where we got to sit outside and play. Both kids were excited to get on their scooters.
Daisy was loving playing fetch with her ball. I swear, she could play this all day. The school kids who play ball on the baseball diamond behind our house must have fouled a couple into our yard, because Daisy was chewing the cover off a couple of them.
She eats everything! Sam made the mistake of leaving one of the canvas laundry bags that hangs on our hamper on top of Daisy’s cage while we were gone the other day. We came home and that dog pulled the whole thing (including the metal rods) into her cage and chewed/ate it! Urgh!
It was actually nice enough last weekend that I was able to mow the grass for the first time. I am overdue to change the oil on my riding mower, so I hope to be able to do that before the next mow. It’s probably a guy thing, but I love the look of a fresh mowed lawn (even if there are spots because of the moles!).
The kids and I got to sit down and watch the new Bluey episodes. There were three of them – the third one being a “bonus” that no one said anything about. This little cartoon is something that I absolutely love. The extended 28 minute episode was to be the Season 3 finale and it was just amazing. It was so well done.
My buddy from work has a little girl and I was asking him how she was doing. He was talking about how they watched the new Bluey together and before we knew it, there we were – two grown men – talking about how great the show is. We joked and said that the show is an adult cartoon that kids can watch, too. It isn’t odd for my wife and I also find ourselves talking about the show.
The biggest thing from this week is that we took Andrew in to get more genetic testing. He is still having some issues and they wanted to dig a bit deeper. They are thinking there is a possibility of Muscular Dystrophy. Nothing is 100% yet, and we are certainly praying about it. We’re hoping that the results will help give us a few more answers and some direction.
I guess that brings you up to speed. Thanks for reading.
It seems that I have been reading a lot of non-fiction lately. It isn’t anything deliberate, it just happens to be the way the books I have “on hold” have become available. The latest is on a topic that has fascinated me for years – The JFK Assassination.
The assassination happened seven years before I was born. My grandmother had saved newspapers from the week after he was killed. She had some books on the events as well. In school, I remember the first research report I ever wrote was on the assassination.
I have read many of the books surrounding the event and have heard almost every conspiracy theory involved with it. When I saw this book come up on Goodreads, I naturally had to read it. Believe it or not, there was one thing in this book that I had never heard before.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
Dallas, Texas. November 22, 1963. Shots ring out at Dealey Plaza. The president is struck in the head by a rifle bullet. Confusion reigns.
Special Agent Paul Landis is in the follow-up car directly behind JFK’s and is at the president’s limo as soon as it stops at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He is inside Trauma Room #1, where the president is pronounced dead. He is on Air Force One with the president’s casket on the flight back to Washington, DC; an eyewitness to Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office.
What he saw is indelibly imprinted upon his psyche. He writes and files his report. And yet . . . Agent Landis is never called to testify to the Warren Commission. The one person who could have supplied key answers is never asked questions.
By mid-1964, the nightmares from Dallas remain, and he resigns. It isn’t until the fiftieth anniversary that he begins to talk about it, and he reads his first books on the assassination. Landis learns about the raging conspiracy theories—and realizes where they all go wrong.
Admittedly, I had hoped for a lot more about the events of that day. The author doesn’t really get into November 22, 1963 until a little over halfway through the book. He spends time explaining how he came to be a Secret Service agent and how he eventually was assigned to the White House and Mrs. Kennedy. There were some really enlightening stories about her and the reader gets a glimpse into what she was like behind the scenes.
Once he gets to the events that lead up to the trip to Dallas, things get really interesting. For months after the assassination, he would keep seeing it over and over again. I cannot imagine the trauma that the Secret Service men experienced that day and the days afterward. Eventually, it became to much and he resigns.
The most interesting thing to me was that he distanced himself from that day in Dallas for years! He never read any of the books (including the Warren Commission Report), watched any of the TV coverage and TV specials, he avoided it all. It wasn’t until recently that he began to discuss it and that led to this book.
Does the book add to the many conspiracy theories? Maybe a little. Does the book clear up questions about the assassination? Well, it cleared up one for me.
If you like historical non-fiction, or are interested in the JFK assassination, I think you will enjoy this one.
For Tune Tuesday today, we celebrate the birthday of one of the greatest singers of all time. Roy Orbison was born on this day in 1936. A few years ago, I wrote a blog about him and this may or may not be a bit of a rehashing of that.
Roy Orbison is a rock and roll legend. I refuse to debate this. It is a fact. The Beatles and Elvis Presley (both legends in their own right) have stated on record that Roy was a major influence on their music. Roy’s music was different – it had it’s own style and a certain darkness to it. My first exposure to Roy Orbison was when I was about 4 or 5 years old.
I remember my dad had an album of Roy’s Greatest Hits. My favorite song as a kid was Dream Baby. I didn’t know that was the name of it. I know this because when I asked him to play it, I would ask for it by singing the opening bass line: “Daddy, play ‘boom boom boom, bum bum boom.’” I remember the first song on the album was Candy Man, which started with a harmonica. That is the instrument Roy asked for as a kid.
When asked hey wanted for his sixth birthday, Roy told his parents he wanted a harmonica. Luckily for the music industry, his father bought him a guitar instead. While some stories differ, most biographies claim that Roy learned how to play from his father Orbie Lee Orbison. Some sources say that he learned from his Uncle Charlie, Orbie’s brother.
He formed a band while in Wink, Texas called the Wink Westerners and that band played some high school dances. While in college, two friends of his had written a song called “Ooby Dooby.” They began playing that in their shows and because of their success, they got their own radio show on station KMID. In 1955, the band got their own TV show and artists came to play and sing on it. Among them, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
Roy pulled Johnny aside and asked for advice. He wanted to know how to get a record released on the radio. Johnny suggested that he call Sam Phillips over at Sun Records in Memphis. Johnny gave Roy the number and sure enough Roy called. I am sure he was not expecting what happened. Sam Phillips answered the phone and after a brief conversation, Sam hung up on him, but not before telling Roy, “Johnny Cash doesn’t run my record company!”
Roy eventually found a place to record and recorded “Ooby Dooby” with his band, now called the Teen Kings. The song was released in 1956 and Roy took it to a well known record dealer named Cecil “Poppa” Hollifield. He heard the song and immediately called a “connection” he had in Memphis and played him the record over the phone. His connection asked for a copy of the record, and three days later he called Poppa up to tell him he wanted the Teen Kings in Memphis in three days to record in his studio. That connection was none other than Sam Phillips of Sun Records!
That deal got him out on tour with Johnny Cash, Faron Young, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Horton among others. In 1958, Roy was asked to tour with the Everly Brothers. During the tour, the Everly Brothers told Roy they needed a new single and asked if he had any songs. He picked up his guitar and sang the song Claudette. They liked it, and asked him to write down the words and chords. The song was the B-side of All I Have To Do Is Dream. Roy had some of his other songs recorded by artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and even Ricky Nelson.
In 1959, Roy was signed to an independent label called Monument. It was at this label that so many of Roy’s big hits came, starting with Uptown. That was followed by Only The Lonely (which reached #2), Blue Angel, and I’m Hurtin’. What followed was Roy’s first #1 song, Running Scared.
Roy had hoped to change up the “pop” sound and try something different. They recorded the song twice and he was disappointed with the two takes, so they cut it again. Instead of using a falsetto voice, Roy sang the high natural A and nailed it. The accompanying musicians were awestruck and had never heard anything like it. Producer Fred Foster said “Nobody had ever hear anything like it before!”
What followed was four solid years of top 40 hits. Those hits included Crying, Candy Man, Dream Baby, Working for the Man, In Dreams, Pretty Paper, Leah, Blue Bayou, Mean Woman Blues, and Its Over. His success got him a spot opening up for some concerts in England. He was the opening act for a few guys who were known as The Beatles (they had yet to become a big thing in the US). The tour sold out in minutes, and on the first night of the show, they say that Roy played 14 encores before the Beatles ever got on stage!
In 1964, Roy recorded what is probably his biggest hit, Oh Pretty Woman. It would be his last big hit while at Monument records. Touring hurt his personal life, and his wife Claudette began having an affair. One day while writing with songwriter Bill Dees, Claudette entered the room and said that she was going to Nashville. Roy asked her if she had any money, and Dee’s replied, “A pretty woman never needs any money.” With that phrase, and about 40 minutes, they wrote Oh, Pretty Woman, which went to number 1 in almost every country in the world.
In 1966, Claudette was killed when a pickup truck pulled out in front of her and she hit the door. She died instantly. Two years later, Roy was on a tour in England and he received a call that his home had burned down. As if that wasn’t enough bad news, he was also told that his two oldest sons were killed in the fire. He tried to cope by keeping himself busy with work. He starred in the film The Fastest Guitar Alive, which ended up being his only lead role.
Roy changed labels a few times after this and eventually re-signed with Monument. In 1987, Roy Orbison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bruce Springsteen was there to do the honors. A TV special followed. Roy had always wanted to do one and this special included some powerful special guests: Elvis Costello, k.d.Lang, Tom Waits, Bonny Raitt, Jennifer Warrens, Jackson Brown, and Bruce Springsteen. The special was called Roy Orbison and Friends – A Black and White Night Live. It was aired on cable and released on video and became one of Roy’s great concerts.
Jeff Lynne of ELO was busy producing George Harrison’s Cloud Nine album, and was working on Tom Petty’s and Roy’s albums at the same time. This led to them all getting together with Bob Dylan for the Traveling Wilburys project which was a huge success! Handle With Care was a big hit from the album.
In late 1988, Roy put the finishing touches on the Mystery Girl album. It was set for release in 1989. There would be a world tour to support the project. The album would include the smash hit “You Got It”. On December 6, 1988, Roy was complaining of chest pains. Just before midnight, he had a heart attack and collapsed at his mother’s home. Roy Orbison died at the young age of 52.
I was still a senior in high school and I was going to WKSG to rip news and type up stories for the news director. I would stay till 6am and then head to school. I remember going to the AP wire and seeing the “URGENT” breaking news that Roy had died. We were an oldies station and this was big news. I remember when we broke the news. It is one of those moments I will never forget.
You Got It was released after Roy’s death and reached the top 10. One of the coolest tributes to Roy was when the Traveling Wilburys released the song End of the Line. In the video, the group is on a train singing. When Roy’s vocal comes on, the camera is on a rocking chair in which Roy’s guitar is sitting. Next to it, is a framed photo of Roy. Powerful!
Back to the Wilburys for my song choice for this blog. A song that was supposed to be a group song on the album was You’re Not Alone Anymore. After rehearsing it a bit and trying a few things, it was decided that there was really only one voice that could do the song justice, and that was Roy. It is an amazing vocal and an amazing song!
Roy Orbison is a legend. His music was like no one else. His style was like no one else. His vocals were indescribably beautiful, haunting, and amazing. Heaven’s choir is blessed to have him in their baritone section. Happy Birthday, Roy!
In a past blog I mentioned that I had a few ideas for new features – most are music oriented. I haven’t decided whether to do some weekly or biweekly, so I’m playing it by ear.
Today is the first installment of Movie Monday Music. As a fan of movie soundtracks, I thought it might be neat to feature from them. This will allow me to feature some hits and some odd cuts, too.
For Earth Day, I wanted to pick a song from a movie featuring Earth or World in the title. One movie jumped right out at me – 1992’s Wayne’s World.
The soundtrack album topped the Billboard Top 200 album chart and for a good reason – it had some great music on it. There were songs from Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Eric Clapton, Tia Carrere and, of course, Queen.
I suppose I could feature Bohemian Rhapsody, but that would be too easy. Instead, I chose a song that I’ve always liked – Dream Weaver by Gary Wright.
The song was recorded and released in 1975. With the exception of the percussion, all the instrumentation was done on a synthesizer. It went to number one in Canada, but topped out at number 2 in the US.
Another movie connection for the song: Wes Craven once said the song was the inspiration for his film Nightmare on Elm Street.
What should have been an easy trip to Lowes wound up being longer than I anticipated. Let me explain.
When Sam got home this morning, she was talking about the yard and the things that I need to get done. She wanted me to run to Lowes to get some lawn/leaf bags, oil and filter for my mower, price out how much stain would cost to stain the porches, check to see if they had a couple stone squares that match our walkway, and a zero gravity chair (or cushions for our current yard furniture).
Andrew had my spare car key because he likes to hold it. I told him to leave it in the car or give it to me and while we argued about this, my dad called. It was a video chat, so we sat in the inner doors of Lowes talking to my dad. Once he saw we were at the store, he said he would call us later.
Ella got in the back of the cart and Andrew wanted to walk. Lawn bags were right at the entrance, so we checked one item off the list quickly. Then we walked over by the lawnmower stuff. Naturally the kids had to get on all the riding mowers while I looked for the stuff for my mower.
Strike one. They don’t carry my brand of mower, so there was no way to know if I had the right filter. After this, we looked for her chair. Strike two. They didn’t have any in stock, but they did have cushions. They were more expensive than I had hoped, but at least the chairs we have now are more comfortable.
Then we headed to the paint and stain. I had done a quick measure of the porches and had an idea of square footage. The stain can said it would cover about 250-300 square feet. I called my father-in-law and asked if one can would be enough. He told me that it should, but it might soak a lot of it up and may need a second coat. He told me to wait until we do a quick fix on a board that popped up, so I did.
While I called him, the kids were playing with these flashlights they found. They immediately started asking for them. I told them no, because they each had $40 flashlights in their hands. I finally talked them each into getting little $3 ones.
We went outside to look at walkway stones. Strike 3. They had the color I have, but not the same pattern. Oh, and I didn’t know what size our stones were. Because we were outside, the kids wanted to look at the flowers. Now they are both out of the cart and running around. They were pushing spreaders, playing with fencing, and causing havoc.
We went back inside and went to the checkout, once I rang everything up and walked out the car, I grabbed my keys and loaded the car. It was then that I remembered Andrew had walked in with my spare key.
“Bubby, where is Daddy’s key?”
“I don’t know.”
This leads me back inside the store for a great search over every area we’d been. I stopped at the service desk to ask if anyone had turned in a key first. Nope. So , we walked the entire store again. I looked in every place he could have put it, including inside every spreader.
I felt bad for a guy selling a riding mower, because I was looking all around the one the customer was buying, just in case he dropped it. Nope.
Paint aisle? Nope. Garden center? Nope. Chair aisle? Nope. I was just about to ready to give up when I remembered the flashlights.
Sure enough, under a pile of small flashlights, there it was. I was angry, but relieved. Part of me thinks that I would have rather had him cry through the store because I wouldn’t let him hold the key than to have had to search the whole place for it.
The spare key is back on the hook of our key rack.
I am a computer dummy. I can type and print things, but when it comes to certain things, I am clueless. Therefore, I am writing this in hopes that one of my amazing readers/followers might be able to help me.
As many of you know, I have a few features here on my blog (Tune Tuesday, Book Recommendations, on occasion Friday Photo Flashback, and a few others I may bring back). I have been thinking about creating a couple other weekly features, but I’d like to create some kind of logo for them.
Do you know what I’m talking about? Many bloggers have a picture with the title of their feature on it that they designed. It is the picture that will be at the top of that particular blog post. The Daily Dose of Scripture might have a Bible on it with those words. Manic Monday Moaning might have a guy pulling out his hair and spilling coffee. Some bloggers are doing the 2024 April A to Z challenge and that has it’s on graphic.
I was hoping that (if it is easy enough) one of my readers might want to help me out with creating some. (If you want to suggest a free app or cheap way to do it myself, you can, but I’m still not sure I’d be able to figure it out.) I would certainly make sure that you are mentioned/thanked in the blogs that I use the graphic, if you choose to give me a hand.
If you are interested or want to offer some thoughts on how to do it, you can comment here or drop an email to: nostalgicitalian@yahoo.com
My wife suggested this one to me. “It’s a courtroom book, so I figured you’d like it.” She was right.
I will say up front that this isn’t like a Perry Mason whodunnit. It’s a true story about an odd man accused of killing his wife. There were times I would read something he said or did and think, “Man, this guy is weird!”
The Goodreads synopsis has spoilers, but even with them, the book was worth the read. If you don’t want to know whether or not he did it, or why he is such an oddball, grab it at your library or the book store and stop reading this now. Otherwise, here is the synopsis:
Like a nonfiction John Grisham thriller with echoes of Rainman, Just Mercy, and a captivating smalltown Southern setting, this is the fascinating true story—sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking—of an idealistic young lawyer determined to free an innocent neurodivergent man accused of murdering the wife no one knew he had.
An inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice for readers of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Just Mercy.
Was this small-town TV repair man “a harmless eccentric or a bizarre killer” (Atlanta Journal Constitution). For the first time, Alvin Ridley’s own defense attorney reveals the inside story of his case and trial in an extraordinary tale of friendship and an idealistic young attorney’s quest to clear his client’s name—and, in the process, rebuild his own life.
In October 1997, the town of Ringgold in northwest Georgia was shaken by reports of a murder in its midst. A dead woman was found in Alvin Ridley’s house—and even more shockingly, she was the wife no one knew he had.
McCracken Poston had been a state representative before he lost his bid for U.S. Congress and returned to his law career. Alvin Ridley was a local character who once sold and serviced Zenith televisions. Though reclusive and an outsider, the “Zenith Man,” as Poston knew him, hardly seemed capable of murder.
Alvin was a difficult client, storing evidence in a cockroach-infested suitcase, unwilling to reveal key facts to his defender. Gradually, Poston pieced together the full story behind Virginia and Alvin’s curious marriage and her cause of death—which was completely overlooked by law enforcement. Calling on medical experts, testimony from Alvin himself, and a wealth of surprising evidence gleaned from Alvin’s junk-strewn house, Poston presented a groundbreaking defense that allowed Alvin to return to his peculiar lifestyle, a free man.
Years after his trial, Alvin was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, a revelation that sheds light on much of his lifelong personal battle—and shows how easily those who don’t fit societal norms can be castigated and misunderstood. Part true crime, part courtroom drama, and full of local color, Zenith Man is also the moving story of an unexpected friendship between two very different men that changed—and perhaps saved—the lives of both.
The book’s ending brought smiles and tears. It hit home on a few levels. I’m glad that I read it and think if you like true crime, courtroom dramas, or a story about friendship – you will enjoy it
No one was home at my house last night. The kids were at Sam’s folks house for the night and the dog was there, too. Sam was working. So when I came home, the only thing in the house was our cat.
The cat always meets me at the door when I get home, so as I walked in she jumped off the couch and came to the door. As she did this and I was setting my work bag down something I did not expect happened. The TV turned on.
The volume was a bit high so it freaked me out as I realized that the TV had just turned on. I assumed that the remote was left on the couch and that the cat had probably just stepped on it as she jumped down. I walked to the couch, but could not find the remote.
I turned toward the TV on the other side of the room and saw the remote was directly underneath the TV on the mantle. At this point, the freak out factor rose quickly! This has never happened before.
Knowing I was the only one there (or at least I hoped that was the case), I began to walk through the house. I checked all the bedrooms, the basement, etc… Nothing. I’m sure this was just some crazy power surge or something, but it was enough to keep me up for a bit. I don’t have an explanation, but there has to be a logical one, right?
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 