I woke this morning to a news report to let me know you had died. I didn't want to believe it, but I knew it was true. The radio doesn't lie at 5:25 in the morning.
I listened to the reports as I sat on the couch with my Bible and the newspaper. I cried. A lot. I couldn't help it--and didn't even try to hide it. You see, you meant so much to me.
You kept me company every spring and summer (and into early fall) from July, 1969 until this past year. It didn't really matter what you were talking about, or the outcome of the game--as long as I heard your voice, somehow I felt like things were as they should be. When you spoke, I knew you were talking just to me. You told me that I was your friend night after night.
The games will still be played, I will still listen, but it won't be the same.
Goodbye, Joe. I wish we had met in person.
I hope we can someday.
(Joe Nuxhall died late Thursday night, November 15, 2007. He was 79.)
Friday, November 16, 2007
What Is This?
Another blog? By who?
What does Jeff know about bees? More to the point, why do I want to read about bees from Jeff?
Answers: Yes. Jeff Dunn. They sting. You don't.
But the good news is, this blog is, for the most part, bee-free. Let me 'splain.
Amos Root was a Sunday school teacher, would-be inventor and editor of a magazine called Gleanings in Bee Culture. In the January, 1905 edition, Root began an article thus:
"I have a wonderful story to tell you - a story that, in some respects, out rivals the Arabian Nights fables - a story, too, with a moral that I think many of the younger ones need, and perhaps some of the older ones too if they will heed it. God in his great mercy has permitted me to be, at least somewhat, instrumental in ushering in and introducing to the great wide world an invention that may outrank the electric cars, the automobiles, and all other methods of travel, and one which may fairly take a place beside the telephone and wireless telegraphy. Am I claiming a good deal? Well, I will tell my story, and you shall be the judge. In order to make the story a helpful one, I may stop and turn aside a good many times to point a moral."
The real-life fable Root had to share was his firsthand account watching two brothers fly--fly!--a machine in the air around a field in Dayton, Ohio. This was the first published report of Orville and Wilbur Wright's incredible invention: The airplane. In the pre-Internet, pre-cell phone, pre-radio and television era, word of new things spread slowly through the printed page.
Root drove from Medina, Ohio to Dayton because he heard that two inventors there were experimenting with powered flight. He went back with a story to tell his boys Sunday school class, then shared it with those who subscribed to his beekeeping journal. Word spread, and after many months people from Washington, DC to France learned that the world had grown smaller. The Wright Brothers' conquest of the air caused people to rethink belief they thought unchallengeable.
It is my intent to introduce to you, dear reader, to the Wright Brothers of today. Not necessarily to inventors, but to ideas and idea-makers who will challenge your closely-held beliefs. I hope to introduce you to books, music and movies that will encourage and shake you. I pray that God, in his great mercy, will permit me to be, at least somewhat, instrumental in ushering in and introducing to you ideas, concepts and theology that may outrank those that are keeping you in a dull, uninspired, frustrating and boring life. Am I claiming a good deal? Well, I will tell my stories, and you shall be the judge. In order to make the stories helpful, I may stop and turn aside a good many times to point a moral.
I may even talk, sometimes, about bees.
What does Jeff know about bees? More to the point, why do I want to read about bees from Jeff?
Answers: Yes. Jeff Dunn. They sting. You don't.
But the good news is, this blog is, for the most part, bee-free. Let me 'splain.
Amos Root was a Sunday school teacher, would-be inventor and editor of a magazine called Gleanings in Bee Culture. In the January, 1905 edition, Root began an article thus:
"I have a wonderful story to tell you - a story that, in some respects, out rivals the Arabian Nights fables - a story, too, with a moral that I think many of the younger ones need, and perhaps some of the older ones too if they will heed it. God in his great mercy has permitted me to be, at least somewhat, instrumental in ushering in and introducing to the great wide world an invention that may outrank the electric cars, the automobiles, and all other methods of travel, and one which may fairly take a place beside the telephone and wireless telegraphy. Am I claiming a good deal? Well, I will tell my story, and you shall be the judge. In order to make the story a helpful one, I may stop and turn aside a good many times to point a moral."
The real-life fable Root had to share was his firsthand account watching two brothers fly--fly!--a machine in the air around a field in Dayton, Ohio. This was the first published report of Orville and Wilbur Wright's incredible invention: The airplane. In the pre-Internet, pre-cell phone, pre-radio and television era, word of new things spread slowly through the printed page.
Root drove from Medina, Ohio to Dayton because he heard that two inventors there were experimenting with powered flight. He went back with a story to tell his boys Sunday school class, then shared it with those who subscribed to his beekeeping journal. Word spread, and after many months people from Washington, DC to France learned that the world had grown smaller. The Wright Brothers' conquest of the air caused people to rethink belief they thought unchallengeable.
It is my intent to introduce to you, dear reader, to the Wright Brothers of today. Not necessarily to inventors, but to ideas and idea-makers who will challenge your closely-held beliefs. I hope to introduce you to books, music and movies that will encourage and shake you. I pray that God, in his great mercy, will permit me to be, at least somewhat, instrumental in ushering in and introducing to you ideas, concepts and theology that may outrank those that are keeping you in a dull, uninspired, frustrating and boring life. Am I claiming a good deal? Well, I will tell my stories, and you shall be the judge. In order to make the stories helpful, I may stop and turn aside a good many times to point a moral.
I may even talk, sometimes, about bees.
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