MY RED BOX

These movies are highly recommended by the Butter Rum Cartoon.

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THE FUTURE AMERICAN

As I've said before, I'm reading the entire 20-volume set of the 1941 edition of Grolier's Book of Knowledge.  I'm now halfway through the 9th volume, on page 3221, just finishing a section on the United States in which it tells about many of our resources and how America is first in this and that, as it was in 1941.  At the conclusion, though, it says:


"As I read over this story I fear that it sounds boastful.  Perhaps it is, for I have preferred to tell you of the things in which our country has been most successful.  But there are other things in which we are not at the head of the world.  In music, art and literature we are not in the first rank.  In obedience to the law and respect for the rights of others, many nations surpass us.  Our politics are not always clean.  We can only hope that as the years go on we shall improve, and every one of us will do his part to make our country a better place in which to live.

"Someone has called America the 'melting-pot of the world.'  By this he meant that in our country people of different races, different languages, different religions and different ideas of life are living here together, and out of all the confusion will some day come the future American.  Just what he will be like no one can say.  He is certain to be unlike the American of the earlier days."

With abortion "legally" entrenched and marriage threatened and our Constitution disintegrating, the last line haunts me with mixed feelings.  I, for one, favor the American of the earlier days.  Still, I appreciate what this is saying, and pray that, with God's help, if there is an American of the future, he will have become a moral and caring human being.


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THE LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE

I had this poster when I was a kid and it completely fascinated me. I'd stare at it for long periods of time and imagine myself walking all over this fairy tale land and sharing in the adventures. Now after dry decades this wonderful LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE by Jaro Hess is being reprinted! It's not cheap, but I can give up a few months of my allowance to get a large print. I will have it framed this time, and will never part with it. To get your copy, go to Rosen-Ducat Photography. And please don't forget to leave a comment here to tell me of your adventures in this work of art.

In this map you'll find:

Here the North Wind lives

Bluebeard's Castle

Here lives Peter Pan

Rip Van Winkle

Do not go in here

Red Riding Hood's Grandmother's house

The Dilatory Ship that never comes in

The Castle of the Giants

The City of Many Towers where the Beautiful Princess lives

Little Boy Blue fast asleep

Here Little Miss Muffett was terribly frightened

Jack Sprat - his house

Dapple Gray Pony - she rode him through the mire

The Water Babies live here

This is the Cow that jumped over the Moon

The City of Brass

Simple Simon met the Pieman right here

Here the Old Fisherman caught the Golden Fish

High Tower where the Little Lame Prince was locked

Here is a desert

Jack the Giant Killer's house

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Crooked Man lives in this Crooked House

This house belongs to Grandfather Know-All

Here Old King Cole lives and the Fiddlers Three occasionally fiddle

Enchanted Woods

Here Fairies dance in moonlight

Contrary Mary's garden

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Mary and her Little Lamb

Flying Carpet

The Glass Mountain

Bottomless Lake

Here the Blackbird picked off the Maid's nose

Peter Rabbit lives in this hole

Jack and Jill went up this hill

Here are the Babes in the Wood covered with leaves

Bo-Peep's sheep

Old Mother Hubbard's place

The Black Hen who laid eggs for gentlemen

The Wonderful Moo-Moo Bird

The Emerald City of Oz

Do not walk too near the edge!

Long, Broad and Swift Glance

Little Bo-Peep is looking for her sheep

The Wanderer (originally the Wandering Jew)

Tom-Tom the Piper's Son ran this way

Here the Mermaids play

East of the Sun - West of the Moon

The Old Witch lives here

The Talking Bird

Hansel and Gretel find the Gingerbread House

Humpty-Dumpty had that great fall here

The Castle where the Sleeping Beauty sleeps

The Shoe where the Old Woman lives

Cinderella lives here

The house that Jack built

The path that leads to no place eventually

The Mysterious Island

In this place there are peculiar fishes

The Squall Fish

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EXPERIENCING MATTHEW 10:19-20

"...Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."

Reverend Larson was a Congregationalist minister in Everett, Washington. Because I was searching, and because Larson was a friend of my older brother, I ended up at an adult Bible study class in the minister's home. My brother was there, so was Mrs. Larson, and about ten others I had never before met.

I don't know if Rev. Larson was representative of the Congregationalist denomination, but he didn't believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus. When someone asked him about those who saw Jesus alive after He was crucified, Larson responded that Christ was seen again only in the minds of those who knew Him.

Many such perturbing fancies were put forth that night by this well-meaning minister, and I was quite bothered. Finally I opened my mouth, but know it wasn't me who spoke. At the time, I suffered from "stage fright" and tended to be quiet in groups, especially where I didn't know the people. My voice wasn't angry or argumentative. I remember it began, "I just don't see why you can't believe..." From there, out came the Gospel, in flawless narrative, in a way I never could have composed it, including the supreme sacrifice on the cross for our salvation and the physical resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Afterwards there was a moment of silence. Then, finally, a woman across from me said, "That's what I was always taught." And others spoke up in agreement. The poor pastor suddenly had a little revolution in his living room. Not one person uttered a word against what had come out of my mouth, and even Rev. Larson didn't take issue with it. No more heresy was spoken that evening.

I myself didn't have the oral skill or the gift of persuasion to alter the course of a Bible study and still the voices of discord, and the way the words flowed convince me that it was not I but the Spirit who spoke them. When we were leaving that night, confirmation was given to me by none other than Rev. Larson's wife. She stopped me at the door, looked into my eyes, and said quietly, "Thank you for setting him straight."

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MAKING OLD BODIES YOUNG by BERNARR MACFADDEN

Bernarr Macfadden, 1868-1955

I purchased from somebody online a copy of Bernarr Macfadden's 1915 book, Vitality Supreme, and as an unexpected bonus the seller threw in something even better (and more apropos to me):  Bernarr Macfadden's Making Old Bodies Young: Thirty-Eight Lessons in Building Vitality and Nerve Force and in the Art of Postponing Old Age, published in 1919.  I had never heard of this series of lessons, and had no idea how valuable it is until I began reading it recently.  It's published quite quaintly.  It has a plain slip-cover.  You slide out what looks like a book (see picture), but it's a false cover wrapped around 16 booklets comprising the 38 lessons, with entire contents printed on the inside.  It's less intimidating this way, because it doesn't (seem to) take long at all to get through each booklet, and the booklets as you read them are easier to carry around.

Now at 64 (old according to the Beatles), I feel my lifetime of lazy posture and bad eating habits catching up to me, as well as arthritis from past injuries, and know that if I continue the status quo I probably won't even live out my allotted three score and ten years.  This set of lessons, almost a hundred years old, thrown in as a gift from a stranger, is a real boon.

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DEPEW, OKLAHOMA

If ever things seem to be falling apart around you, and you feel like giving in, think of Depew. This tiny town of 477 people, on Route 66 forty-five miles southwest of Tulsa, has come down quite a bit from its glory days, and now much of it is abandoned. Many empty buildings still stand, some without roofs, as if waiting to be restored. To look at the town, a tourist may think that nothing is there.

But the people of Depew love their town, take pride in it, and hope that it will grow and prosper. You wouldn't think to look at it, but right in the town is a high school, and an active sports team -- the Hornets. To these young athletes, Depew is still a strong town. The Hornets play hard, and they play well. And this youthful spirit is Depew's future. Watch it grow.

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For the complete contents of the Butter Rum Cartoon, click here.

LET ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN EXPLAIN IT TO YOU

To have the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) explain Catholicism to you, click any of the links below:

The Philosophy of Life
Conscience
Good and Evil
The Divine Invasion
Line Up the Claimants
Revealed Truth
Miracles
New Testament Revelation
Divinity of Christ
Humanity of Christ
The Blessed Trinity
The Mother of Jesus
Christ in the Creed 1
Christ in the Creed 2
Christ in the Creed 3
Holy Spirit
The Church - The Body of Christ
Peter - The Vicar of Christ
Authority and Infallibility
Communism and the Church
Original Sin and Angels
Original Sin and Mankind
Effects of Original Sin
Sanctifying Grace
Grace and the Sacraments
Baptism
Confirmation
Holy Eucharist
The Eucharistic Sacrifice
The Mass
Sin
Sin and Penance
Penance
Sacrament for the Sick
Holy Orders
Marriage
Sex is a Mystery
Birth Prevention
Four Tensions of Love
Marriage Problems
Commandments I-III
Commandments IV-X
The Law of Love
Death and Judgment
Purgatory
Heaven
Hell
Womanhood in Religion
Prayer is a Dialog
World, Soul and Things



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HELP THE PEOPLE OF THE XINGU

The beautiful culture of the Brazilian people of the Xingu will be destroyed if we don't stop the Belo Monte Dam. This progress by civilized man will flood the virtual world of these people. Please sign the PETITION to help save them.

Recommended reading:  XINGU: The Indians, Their Myths, by Orlando and Claudio Villas Boas.


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For the complete contents of the Butter Rum Cartoon, click here.

GREAT TITS

Here are some Great Tits.

To learn more about this charming bird, click HERE.

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BROWN SHOES

After a quarter century of wearing black, postal-approved shoes, to celebrate my first two years of retirement I finally got BROWN SHOES!  I'm FREE, and they fit great!

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For the complete contents of the Butter Rum Cartoon, click here.