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WITandWISDOM(tm) - November 10, 2003 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: An individual has a healthy personality to the exact degree to which they have the propensity to look for the good in every situation." - Ralph Waldo Emerson Source: The Funnies, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/andychaps_the-funnies ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: I understand that the late Dr. Fulton Oursler used to tell of an old woman who took care of him when he was a child. Anna was a former slave who, after emancipation, was hired by the family for many years. He remembered her sitting at the kitchen table, her hands folded and her eyes gazing upward as she prayed, "Much obliged, Lord, for my vittles." He asked her what vittles were and she replied that they were food and drink. He told her that she would get food and drink whether or not she gave thanks, and Anna said, "Yes, we'll get our vittles, but it makes 'em taste better when we're thankful." She told him that an old preacher taught her, as a little girl, to always look for things to be grateful for. So, as soon as she awoke each morning, she asked herself, "What is the first thing I can be grateful for today?" Sometimes the smell of early-morning coffee perking in the kitchen found its way to her room. On those mornings, the aroma prompted her to say, "Much obliged, Lord, for the coffee. And much obliged, too, for the smell of it!" Young Fulton grew up and left home. One day he received a message that Anna was dying. He returned home and found her in bed with her hands folded over her white sheets, just as he had seen them folded in prayer over her white apron at the kitchen table so many times before. He wondered what she could give thanks for at a time like this. As if reading his mind, she opened her eyes and gazed at the loving faces around her bed. Then, shutting her eyes again, she said quietly, "Much obliged, Lord, for such fine friends." Oursler was deeply influenced by Anna's uncanny ability to always find something to be thankful for. This wise woman taught him a vital secret that many people have never learned: she taught him how to be happy. From One Minute Can Change a Life, by Steve Goodier, Life Support System Pub Inc, November 1, 1999, ISBN 1929664001, http://isbn.nu/1929664001 Source: Life Support System, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lifesupport/ ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Wellington, New Zealand (AP): A couple with a combined age of 183 will tie the knot in New Zealand. Jim Gorringe, 99, and Dinah Leach, 84, plan to wed Sunday at the St. James Rest Home in the southern city of Christchurch where they both live. Gorringe has been married once before, while it will be Leach's third wedding. Great great grandchildren will be among the guests. Both bride and groom emigrated to New Zealand from England years ago. The Guiness World Records Web site lists elderly achievements including the oldest tandem skydiver, oldest windsurfer and oldest hedge maze, but does not have a listing for oldest wedding couple. Dinah said her marriage to Jim "was not for his money. I've known him for a long time now and we've got along very well together." Quipped Jim: "We won't be having children." Source: White Board News, http://www.joeha.com/whiteboard/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: My husband is a preacher. At a revival meeting, the visiting choir sang at the beginning and then turned the service over to him. Wanting to compliment them, my husband said, "The singing was so good, we could all leave right now without any preaching." A parishioner called out, "Amen, brother!" Contributed to "All In a Day's Work" by Pam Locke Source: DailyInBox: Reader's Digest CyberSmiles, http://dailyinbox.com/rd/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Who Coined the Term "Bug"? Engineers have been referring to bugs - flaws in a piece of machinery - since the 1800s. But the computer bug is of more recent vintage. Back in 1947, Grace Murray Hopper was toiling away at Harvard's Mark II computer and found a moth lodged in the components. She extricated the ill-fated beastie and pasted it into the computer's logbook, with the notation "First actual case of bug being found." The terms bug and debugging entered the vernacular almost immediately thereafter. The famous moth now resides in the Smithsonian, where it fascinates computer historians and annoys entomologists, who know that technically a moth is not a true bug. See the "bug" here: http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/comphist/objects/bug.htm Source PCWorld, October 2003, http://www.pcworld.com |