“Spreading your wings in a perplexing world”
April, 2017 James Hurd
Contents
New blog article: The YMCA—a Dangerous Place
Writer’s Corner
Book and Film reviews
E-zine subscription information
How to purchase Wingspread: Of Faith and Flying
Quotable quotes
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New blog article: The YMCA—a Dangerous Place
Why do I do stupid things? Once when I drove to a wedding, I found the correct church, arrived in good time, remembered my gift, only to discover an empty parking lot. Turns out I was exactly one day late. On the first day of a recent school semester, I walked into the wrong classroom to greet incredulous students. I’ve put the wrong oil in my car… once without replacing the drain plug. A couple of years ago, when I pulled into my garage I forgot to press the “park” button on my hybrid car, and got out with it still turned on. It rolled forward and rammed the workbench….
Read more here: https://jimhurd.com/2017/04/18/the-ymca-a-dangerous-place/
(*Request: Please share with others, and leave a comment on the website after reading the article. Thanks.)
Writers’ Corner
Writer of the Month. Mark Twain. Pen name of Samuel Clemens (1835-1910). Quintessential American storyteller and humorist. His Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Life on the Mississippi betray his deep 19th century roots in Middle America.
Word of the Month. Platform: Refers to everything the writer does to increase her visibility—website, social media, networking, etc.
Quiz of the Month:
Disinterested means?
Impartial
Uninterested
Bored
Unengaged
Answer to last week’s quiz:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace.
The last comma is called an Oxford comma. It’s optional, but if you use it, be consistent and always use it before the last item in a series.
Tip of the Month: Sometimes you need to create a natural break in your narrative. Instead of inserting asterisks or a little symbol, perhaps the easiest way is inserting a couple of blank lines.
More of “How to write good”:
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass
When he shot at the dove it dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
Book and Film Reviews
Ellis Peters, The Virgin in the Ice. Another of the Brother Cadfael Chronicles that brings to life 12th century England and the town of Shrewsbury. Cadfael is a veteran of the Crisades, an absentee father, and now a herbalist at the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, Shrewsbery, England. He is also is a first-class sleuth.
Greg Boyd, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God. Vols. 1&2. 2017. Yahweh the warrior, and the peaceful Jesus. Another offering from Boyd, who reflects on the works and message of Jesus in the light of a sometimes violent god. (Unrated…. Okay; I haven’t read it yet!)
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Something to ponder
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:
57 Asians21 Europeans14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south8 Africans52 would be female48 would be male70 would be non-white30 would be white70 would be non-Christian30 would be Christian6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’swealth and all 6 would be from the United States.80 would live in substandard housing70 would be unable to read50 would suffer from malnutrition1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education1 would own a computer
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding, and education becomes glaringly apparent.* * *
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