I’ve been writing a blog of one sort or another for almost twenty years and covered everything and anything that tickled my fancy. Approximately six months ago (I’m guessing) I posted a Bible Trivia Quiz which was moderately received by my ever so faithful readers. I normally shy way from religion as a tropic of discussion but thanks to a persistent reader I will make an exception today. A young gentleman from Alabama has sent me so many email requests to do more with Bible trivia that today I’ll be posting something that just might convince him to remove me from his mailing list. The answers will be posted below. Todays topic will be:
Biblical Multiple Marriages
What king had 700 wives and 300 concubines?
Who was first man in the Bible mentioned as having more than one wife?
Who fathered 70 sons by his many wives?
What hairy man had three wives named Judith, Bashemath, and Mahalath?
Who married sisters Rachael and Leah?
Whose father had two wives named Hannah and Peninnah?
What early king had two wives named Ahinoam and Rizpah?
What women was married to two of Judah’s sons?
What New Testament woman had at least five husbands?
What son of Solomon had 18 wives and 60 concubines?
LOVE OR PUNISHMENT – WHO KNOWS?
Answers
Solomon (1 Kings 11:3), Sapphira (Act 5:5-10), Gideon (Judges 8:30), Esau (Genesis 26:24: 28:9), Jacob (29:15-25), Samuel (1 Samuel 1:1-2), Saul (1 Samuel 14:50: 2 Samuel 3:7), Tamar (Genesis 38:6-10), The woman at the well (John 4:6-19), Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:21)
Human beings are strange animals. We all seem to think that everything we think and speak is something new and original and profound. It’s not until we mature into thinking adults (most of us) that we realize just how repetitive and cyclical almost everything is. Todays post will concern a few classic nursery rhymes we’ve all heard or used and the approximate date of their origins. Have fun.
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“Hush-a-Bye Baby” – 1765, New England
Hush-a-bye baby, on the tree top,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
Down will come baby, cradle, and all.
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“Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” – Pre-1760, England
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full . . .
👼👼👼
“Hey Diddle Diddle” – Post-1569, Europe
Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon . . .
👼👼👼👼
“Sing a Song of Sixpence” – Pre-1744 – England
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
💞💞💞
Here’s a special ditty just for Mary (my better-half).
“Mary, Mary” – 18th Century – England
Mary, Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
and pretty maids all in a row.
Secular tradition claims the original ” Mary” was actually Mary, Queen of Scots
I’m a consistent user of quotations. Sometimes they’re funny and other times they only assist my poor writings to make them seem more pertinent. Todays post contains a variety of quotes from a host of known and unknown writers. Some are funny and some not so funny. You may recognize the names of the authors and maybe you won’t. It’s not really about the authors but what they’ve written. Even people who are not well known actually have the ability to say some truly profound things.
“The Vatican is against surrogate mothers. Good thing they didn’t have that rule when Jesus was born.” Elaine Boosler
“It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and I’m wearing Milk Bone shorts.” Kelly Allen
“Human kind cannot bear very much reality.” T.S. Eliot
“When a man brings his wife flowers for no reason – there’s a reason.” Molly McGee
“The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots.” Rebecca West
❤️❤️❤️
“The poor wish to be rich, the rich wish to be happy, the single wish to be married and the married wish to be dead.” Ann Landers
“Canadians should come down to California and take the jobs away from our Mexicans.” Stanley Ralph Ross
“Politics is a means of preventing people from taking part in what properly concerns them.” Paul Valery
Wise men talk because they have somethin to say; fools talk because they have to say something. Plato
“A good husband is healthy and absent.” Japanese Proverb
😼🐱😾
“My cat shit on my last painting. Should I take it personally?”
Are you ready for a new batch of disturbing, disgusting, and naughty limericks? One of my biggest problems in posting limericks is that I have thousands of them available but in most cases they are extremely difficult to categorize. I made the ultimate sacrifice recently and forced myself to read hundreds of limericks and to try and establish some sort of categories. Todays post will include limericks concerning Sex Substitutes. These will be copied directly from my collections with rather blunt, off-color, and the occasional appropriate profanity. These will be rated “R”, so keep the youngsters away. Lets get rolling . . .
As I spend a great deal of my day sitting at this computer, it gives me time to think and possibly overthink everything. I feel like I have a comprehensive view of the world and all of it’s effed up citizens and countries. The more you discover about the human race the worse it seems to get. If the World Cup didn’t tell all of us Americans just how lucky we are in comparison to every other country on earth, just listen to their citizens as they post about us. Americans do more pissing and moaning about their circumstances and never fail to trash American at every turn. These visiting Europeans are setting a fine example for all of our disgruntled Americans. They’ve been lied to for decades about this country and realized it almost immediately upon their arrival. The “bitchers and moaners” in this country should be required to spend a couple of weeks anywhere else and maybe just maybe they’ll gain a better perspective about their home. Take thousands of dollars of your hard earned money and attend the next World Cup. Pay for travel, food, lodging, and entry fees and then get back to me. Just be careful and don’t drink the water. LOL
“Good leaders make for good countries.” ME!
“High sentiments always win in the end. The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.” George Orwell
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” Gen. George S. Patton Jr.
“I am more afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion than an army of lions led by a sheep.” Talleyrand
“My view is that to sit back and let fate play it’s hand and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.” John Glenn
“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.” Abraham Lincoln
I’ve been watching hundreds of Europeans since the World Cup ended who seem to be quite taken with the USA and especially all things Texas. Here’s another little gift directly from the wild, wild, west to all of those visitors. Even our limericks rock . . . .
I love American history and will find, purchase, and read anything remotely related to it. Todays post will supply you lovers of history with a few facts you may not be familiar with. The first section will list the normal necessities of the early American soldiers.
A flintlock musket and bayonet.
A bayonet and spontoon (a large metal spearhead on a wooden pike).
A sword for Infantry officers and a heavy saber for Cavalry.
A Tomahawk or Axe if no bayonet was available.
A Cartridge bag containing cartridge paper, lead balls, and black powder. Riflemen carried powder horns and shot bags.
A Flint and tinderbox for staring fires.
A hunting knife, knapsack and blanket.
A canteen with folding eating utensils, scissors, and fishhook.
A sundial compass.
AND NOW YOU’RE READY TO FIGHT
A Serious Footnote
In those days women weren’t permitted in combat but here’s a story of one determined woman named Deborah Sampson. Her ancestors arrived on the Mayflower and she spent most of her childhood as an indentured servant. At the age of 21 she disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Massachusetts militia as a infantry soldier, fighting as “Robert Shurtleft” (her deceased brother) for almost 2 years. When rumors of her deception spread in her hometown, she was excommunicated by her Baptist church for “dressing in men’s clothing”. Badly wounded at Tarrytown, she treated herself. Later when she contracted a fever in Philadelphia, an Army doctor discovered her secret and General George Washington may have been advised. Neither man betrayed her, and under her assumed name, she received an honorable discharge as “Robert Shurtleft”. Her subsequent efforts to receive a military pension were championed by no less than Paul Revere.
Now that all of my technology issues have been resolved I decided to go off in a different direction for todays post. Since we’re in the middle of a war with Iran I decided to read up on the Civil War for stories and facts of that conflict that might help to further prove that all wars suck. As I was reading my way though the Civil War notes I discovered these three short stories I found interesting. Maybe you will too.
If the Civil War had a champion soldier, he must have been George Barnhart Zimplemen, of Terry’s Texas Rangers CSA, a private by choice, who went through more than 400 battles and skirmishes up to May, 1865, he led his regiment in the number of horses shot from under him, and suffered two wounds, one of which maimed him for life. He survived the war.
Two brothers, Jack and Jasper Walker, of Charlotte, North Carolina. Jasper, fought at the battle of Gettysburg with the 13th North Carolina regiment. Jasper was wounded on July 1st, as the fifth color-bearer of his regiment to be shot. He was captured and a surgeon amputated his right leg and then sent him to a Northern prison. On the retreat from Gettysburg, Jack Walker was also shot and lost his left leg by amputation. He also was sent to another northern Federal prison. The brothers returned home after the war to become prosperous citizens, familiar in the town as they stumped about on cork legs. On Jaspers wedding day, he accidently fell and broke his artificial limb, he then borrowed the leg of his gallant brother which fit perfectly. This, as Confederate veterans were fond of telling youngsters, was the only case on record in which one man was married while standing on the leg of another.
Paul A. Futz, who enlisted as a Confederate private in 1861 at the age of fifteen, was caught with two other soldiers smuggling quinine through the Federal lines. The smugglers chewed up their papers but their captors still shot the older two. The tradition is that the pardoning of Futz was President Lincoln’s last official act.
The more I dug into the Civil War the more weird stories I discovered. Be warned, I’m against any wars except those that threaten my way of life and that of my family. If you do that then your ass is in trouble.
I’m feeling a little calmer and relaxed after resolving all of my recent computer woes. What better way to begin another week than with a few limericks from one of my favorite limerick writers, John Ciardi. He was renowned far and wide for his limerick wars with Isaac Azimov. Enjoy some of his work.