Monday, February 3, 2014

Monday Morning Edition - 2456691

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And the caption said, "Clowns attend the annual service in memory of celebrated clown Joseph Grimaldi, at the Holy Trinity Church, in London."  And I said, "HUH?"  So we used those few keywords to learn "the rest of the story."

London's most peculiar church service takes place on the first Sunday of February each year as hoards of clowns congregate at Dalston's Holy Trinity Church. Now in its 68th year, the annual Clowns' Church Service remembers the great Georgian gagster Joey Grimaldi, the inventor of the modern clown, who died in 1837. Around 60 clowns, harlequins, jesters and pierrots of all shapes and sizes assemble in a colourful mass of big feet, rubber noses, curly wigs, whoopee cushions and painted faces to pay their respects to Grimaldi and to light a candle for contemporary clowns who have died over the last 12 months. Beat the February frowns and arrive early to grab a seat (the popular event is best avoided by those suffering from claustrophobia or coulrophobia). The service is followed by a clown show for children in the church hall.


The Clown's Prayer is read at the annual service. The Clown's Prayer is a poem or prayer that comedians of various sorts use for inspiration. The original author is not known.

As I stumble through this life,
help me to create more laughter than tears,
dispense more cheer than gloom,
spread more cheer than despair.

Never let me become so indifferent,
that I will fail to see the wonders in the eyes of a child,
or the twinkle in the eyes of the aged.

Never let me forget that my total effort is to cheer people,
make them happy, and forget momentarily,
all the unpleasantness in their lives.

And in my final moment,
may I hear You whisper:
"When you made My people smile,
you made Me smile."
-Anonymous-
Welcome Home, Wayne!


 And now, I have the lovely Helen to come home to and I just feel like the luckiest person in the whole wide world!

Statistics for the trip:

We traveled 23,560 statute miles on the private jet. With my commercial flight to London and back home, I went over 30,000 miles on a jet in 25 days.

We had 14 take-offs and 14 landings on the private jet.

We used 53,698 US gallons of fuel

We used 1300 pounds of ice, 70 pounds of cheese, 120 bottles of white wine and 140 bottles of red.

Whew! I'm coming home Helen.

The drought in California and Nevada has reached a point where people are praying for Divine Intervention. Yes, folks, it's really THAT bad and there's no clowning around about it.  We have several interesting links for you this morning, starting off with an interfaith Call To Pray for help from God to break the drought.

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/02/4793633/religious-leaders-farmers-pray.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/us/severe-drought-has-us-west-fearing-worst.html?hpw&rref=us

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-drought-zero-water-allocation-20140131,0,4678128.story#axzz2sCMnAXvh

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/third-year-drought-hitting-nevada-s-farms-ranches-hard

When you see a headline that states, "Navy christens 'giant Swiss Army knife" you simply have to look.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/feb/01/navy-nasa-johnglenn-NASSCO/
Susun's Dear Daughter Stasea has plans to attend the 2014 Burning Man in the Nevada Desert.  So, all these photos are for her.  This various photo galleries were posted onto the Reno daily newspaper website so we presume they are safe to watch and generally probably PG-rated. Many such Burning Man photo galleries drop rapidly into the R-rated (and beyond) zones.
http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=EVENTS04

 This is the way it always goes on the first Sunday in February.  One group of fans looks like what you see above and the other group of fans looks like what you see below.  Did you know the next Super Bowl will be in Arizona?  Yep, 'tis twue.  Here's the latest of MANY articles about the Super Bowl coming to Arizona:



1 comment:

Sue Malone said...

A fellow soil scientist attends Burning Man. I have always wanted to go, but haven't quite managed the complexities. Mo, of course, isn't the least bit interested. Probably will remain on my wish list but maybe not the bucket list