WC062123: Things I like/dislike about the Romance Genre

 

Things I like/dislike about the Romance Genre.

My wife and daughter went crazy over Bridgerton. We faithfully watch every episode of every season on Netflix, and in order to save money I bought every e-book in the series (nine at last count) and let them get on my Amazon account to read them on their readers. Otherwise, they would both have bought them, and they are not cheap.

Soooo... What do I like about Romance novels?

1. I like the historical settings, if done right. The history has to be based in reality. Get the time period right. It gives great insight into the life and times of the place and time period.

2. The social restrictions of the day and how the heroine of the story either conforms or rebels against them.

3. Attitudes of men concerning women in all ages.

4. The elusive striving for love and happiness.

5. Not all, but many have sex as the hook for the reader. This sometimes has rape or at least coercive sex, not necessarily physical abuse, but other ways of pressuring a woman to consent that today I find at least on WC women are finding offensive. 

6. Gone With The Wind is a prime example here. The scene in the book and movie when Rhett has had enough of Scarlet refusing him, he picks her up, and carries her up the staircase. That was considered very romantic until recently and now I have read women claiming this is rape culture. The fact that it includes slavery is now putting it on the banned books list.

What I dislike about Romance books 

1. Sometimes the sex can be too blatant or repetitive. Anne Rice's Beauty series becomes too pornographic and treats romance as roadkill.

Jean Auel's Clan of the Caveman series has rape in the first book, but the other books the sex becomes so repetitive I grew bored and skipped them. She must have cut and pasted the scenes whenever she decided to spice up the story between describing fauna and flora.

2. Sometimes what women consider romance is not what I consider it to be.

In college literature class we read The Horse Dealer's Daughter, by D.H. Lawrence. In class I was called upon to tell the plot. I responded by saying a man see's a woman walk into a lake trying to drown herself. He rushes in, takes her to her home and while drying off she attacks him by putting her arms around his legs and not letting him go.

Mrs. C. became indignant and said, Mr. Prescott you may have considered she attacked him, but this is considered to be one of the most romantic stories in English literature."

I stand by my response.

3. For some reason there's a trope involving a stalker. Either the woman is being stalked or in the Fifty Shades trilogy the man is being stalked.

4. Somehow a man can do just about anything if he's rich enough. It's always romantic with a Billionaire, used to be millionaire, but inflation has hit.

 

Compromise with Walmart

 Thursday DVD player died. I went to Wally World and ran into a difficulty. The one I bought was broken and they would not refund my money. Had a sleepless night with adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Finally cooled down and wrote this letter to the store:

To: Manager Aaron,

2550 Coors BLDV NW

Albuquerque, NM 87120

 

Dear Sir,

 

On June 15, 2023, I purchased a Sony DVD player in your store. I requested the salesclerk in Electronics to get the player out of the glass case it was stored in. She rang up the sale (see receipt 1 attached) and then saw that it had a reduced price on it.

She directed me to the service department to correct the problem. At the service department the clerk refunded the first purchase price and rang up the other price. (See receipts 2 and 3). The player was taped but did have hole in the front of the box.

I took the player home and found that the on/off button was broken. The remote had batteries in it which I replaced. The remote turned the machine on with a blue light visible, but it would not open the DVD tray. The button on the machine would not open the tray. This made the machine inoperable.

Returning to the store I expected to get a refund for a machine not in working order. I was informed that at the purchase I was told it was “AS IS” and not refundable. I do not remember hearing the salesclerk saying this. I was naturally upset for having paid nearly ninety dollars for a broken machine that was useless. A few words were spoken, but I did not utter any obscenities, though they did enter my mine and still do.

Under the U.S. Uniform Commercial Code: Section 2-314: 2 Goods to be merchandisable must be at least such are, c) are fit for the ordinary purpose for the which goods are used, d) run, within the variations permitted by the agreement of the even kind,…

In layman’s terms this means if I buy a DVD Player and it does not play DVD’s this violates the implied warranty of the product.

To insist that a product that is purchased is not refundable when there is the reasonable expectation that it will work as expected is illegal. This was not a scratch and dent defect, it was broken at the time of sale, and that is not covered by “All Sales Final.”

The item I bought was not on a table with a sign marked it as all sales final. I did not hear the words “All sales final,” because if I did, I would not have bought it.

I was willing to buy the player as new at the new price, as sales receipt 1 indicates. I am willing to buy this product if it is new at the full retail price, by paying the extra $29.36 if the $88.09 already paid is applied.

Your benefit is the sale of a product and a satisfied customer.

Took it to the store.

I now have a new DVD player and am content to have settled the matter.

 

 

 

WC061423: What I love about being a blogger/reader

 

Today's challenge is What I love about being a blogger/reader.

Most of the blogs I read and comment on are about books and reading. Two birds with one stone.

I enjoy telling some things about me and my likes and dislikes concerning books and learning about the likes and dislikes of other bloggers.

This challenge has been my mainstay for the last few years for most of blog posts. I still post musings and other things on my mind, but that's only when I'm between writing on my next novel or anthology of short stories.

I have a good friend in Yogi, who I recently discovered he was a year behind me in high school. Blogging for years and on FB and didn't know.

Berthold has been a really good blogging friend over the years. I've read and given him advice on his writing and he's done the same for me. He's a constant source of books I'd never have heard of and have enjoyed.

I met Lydia through Berthold and she got me interested in Top Ten Tuesday and Wednesday Challenge.

I've been a voracious reader all my life and haven't let up. Today my eyes get tired easily even with a large font on an e-reader, so I'm switching to audio books. It drives my wife crazy when she wants to talk to me and I have to turn off the book on my phone, and it runs my hearing aids battery down real fast, but mostly I enjoy listening and rest my eyes. Allergies are bad this year. 

I made the mistake of downloading a Game of Thrones book. The narrator is horrible and when Martin goes three or four pages on the lineage of ancient kings and kingdoms it's easier to just skip pages than fast forwarding the whole chapter.

It's good to be retired so when I'm not waging war on goat heads, tumble weeds, milk weeds and other unwanted plants in my yards; I can read, listen and write to my hearts content, until my wife wants me to go shopping with her.

WC060723: Older books other people should read

 

Today's challenge is: Older books other people should read. I'm altering the challenge to not just older books, but older authors as well.

Anything and everything by Isaac Asimov.

Also I'll add Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Frank Herbert and many other great science fiction authors.

All of Dr. Seuss, especially the ones that they are trying to ban. 

Absolute best for understanding how prosecutors assemble the evidence and dissect it to discover motive and then prove it in court. Bugliosi has other books out as well.

Anything and everything by Harlan Ellison.

The mother of modern science fiction. She imagined galactic empires, stargates, and much more we take for granted today.

Don't forget the classics. 

Nonfiction is important too. Be it science, medicine, psychology, or history never stop learning.

WC 053123: Someplace I'd like to visit someday.

 

Today's topic: Someplace I'd like to visit someday.

It's only wishful thinking now. Age and health prevent me from taking such a trip, but here goes.

The dream trip I couldn't afford was offered by a teacher at my school who was coordinating it, when I had a family of four, a dog and mortgage. 

An EF package offered that was a flight from New York to Rome, then to Naples where you went on a cruise through the Greek Islands and then left for home from Athens. Two weeks total $10,000 for two, plus flight to New York and back from New York.

I did get to visit the state where I was born, on a Marine Corps base and left still an infant. 

I sponsored four students from New Mexico the YMCA's Council On National Affairs in Asheville, NC.

We flew to Dallas, met up with the delegations from Texas and Oklahoma then boarded a bus and drove nonstop from there to Asheville, same on the trip back. Two sixteen-hour drives with 50 high school students was a true adventure.

WC 051723 Non book related hobbies.

 

Today's challenge is non book related hobbies. 

1. I've spent a lot of time in my front yard the last couple of weeks replacing a nearly dead lilac bush and rose bushes that died over the winter. My back yard is a constant battle against tumble weeds, goat heads and other problem native plants at the same time encouraging native flowers to cover a big dry area. Digging up weeds, planting new plants and spending time watering keep me pretty tired.

2.Trying to do daily walks around the neighborhood since I've dropped the gym.

WC051023: A story about my first crush.

 

Hmmm? A story about my first crush.

Fantasy Crushes:

I remember watching one of the first Saturday Night at the Movies, How to Marry a Millionaire with Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe. I was around eight years old, and I loved Marilyn. Then it was Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Don't get me started on Raquel Welsh in 100 Rifles standing under a train water tank in a wet top. Other crushes include Diana Rigg, Farrah Fawcet, Morgan Fairchild, and many more.

Okay real down to earth girls and women I've been infatuated with. Starting in 7th grade. In band there was KG, she looked 21 at 13. Eye candy, but don't even think about it! Every senior in high school knew about her, not much hope for a prepubescent boy sitting across from her in the simi-circle playing clarinet. She was also one of the most stuck up and insufferable classmates I knew until we graduated high school, she was naturally prom queen.

I sat next to JS in band playing clarinet. She was friendly and for the first school sock hop I asked if she would go with me and she said yes. The day of the dance she passed me a note saying she wouldn't. I was crushed. The next year she moved away. Side not here. Years later wife is in hospital after delivering our son, I was with her and a nurse brings Edward for wife to feed, and JS is the nurse.

I sat next to VT in a number of classes in 8th grade. She was friendly and looked great in a mini skirt. I danced with her at school sock hops, but in 9th grade. I asked her to go to a dance hosted by DeMolay's, which I belonged to, she refused. She was staunchly Catholic, and I was rabid Baptist.

In high school there was RC, my lab partner in Chemistry, but she had a boyfriend.

SV was the most pleasant girl I've ever met. We had Latin class together and there was a mutual friendship. I was going with a girl from church, and SV was a year behind me, I also ran track with her brother. Senior year girlfriend was going to UNM, and she dumped me for college boys. I asked SV to our JROTC dining out on Kirkland Air Force Base. The only time we dated. She already had a date for prom, so I asked another girl I was friendly with for that dance. I still remember her fondly, what kept us apart was she was Mormon, and I was still a rabid Baptist.

In college there were a number of really great looking women. The one I and most of the men on a campus of only fifteen hundred students fell head over heels for was RB. Great face, fantastic body and friendly, not stuck up at all.

For a year I tried to get the courage to ask her out and chickened out every time. Sophomore year I got the courage, she said yes, and we went to a concert. I was scared stiff and couldn't think of a thing to say the whole date. It was the only time I was tongue tied on a date. Never had the courage again. 

Friday Book Review: Art & Fear

 

Art & Fear is an eye-opening book. I didn't buy it. My church has a bookcase that people can leave books, and all are welcome to take one or more to read. This one caught my eye. It's a short book only 122 pages, but it is filled with good advice and explanations of what it is like to be an artist, and why so many who start on the journey drop out.

One interesting chapter was about teaching art, in high school or university even graduate school and becoming teachers and professors. He focuses here on art classes, but the same could be said for many teachers in all subjects. 

I've always aspired to be a writer. From Junior high on I wrote poetry and dabbled in short stories in times of depression and loneliness or boredom during summer break. I found writing to be frustrating because what was in my head had a hard time being put onto paper. My hand couldn't write as fast as my thoughts.

In college I continued but found it really frustrating to type on a manual typewriter or even an electric one. I knew though that I had stories in me, and I'd be a writer.

After college and the five years before getting my methods courses and student teaching out of the way I had time to start writing. I started a science fiction story and am still trying to whip it into shape for publication. When I started teaching, I found little energy for writing. Life did get in the way. Married with two children and trying to make a living.

Then the computer and word processing freed me of the tyranny of typewriters and liquid paper. I wrote my first novel, Vander's Magic Carpet on a 386 IBM computer without a hard drive on 51/4" floppy disks, over a summer and sent it off to an awards contest. Then my writing dried up.

I began writing Optimus: Praetorian Guard and it took me ten years as I could only write on it after two weeks of decompressing from school. 

Bayles & Orland their chapter The Academic World talk about how teaching art kills the teacher of being able to produce art. They never mention the C-word or creativity or the A-word adrenaline. This explains why settling for a paycheck in teaching erodes the teacher of devoting themselves to art.

Since I retired my adrenaline level is way down and I'm financially secure enough to devote hours per day to my writing and that's made all the difference. I never feared that I wasn't good enough I instinctively knew Bayles & Orland's first point. Art if for the artist. I write because the story is in me, and I have to get it out. If others like or appreciate what I've written that strokes my ego and makes me feel better, but I don't lose sleep if no one wants to read my books.

There is mention of censorship which is prevalent today with artwork being burned and books banned, but that's been the norm for all art.

One interesting fact they mentioned. Many civilizations have come and gone. Most took centuries before they developed writing, but all from day one had art. Even before there were civilizations there was cave art painting and clay sculptures. Art is always present.

I want to end with their summation:

VOX HUMANA

To make art is to sing with the human voice. To do this you must first learn the only voice you need is the voice you already have. Artwork is ordinary work, but it takes courage to embrace that work, and wisdom to mediate the interplay of art & fear. Sometimes to see that the universe is not formless and dark throughout but awaits simple the revealing light of your own mind. Your art does not arrive miraculously from the darkness but is made uneventfully in the light.

WC 050323: Small Talk

 

My views on small talk.

I'm not much of a person for small talk. For me it's the usual: "Hi, how are you doing?" With "Just fine." As the answer. Then "How are you doing?" to the other person and they answer the same.

Most of my social interactions are at church. What I mentioned above is what transpires before or after the service. We then go to the fellowship room for what is called Friendship Cafe. 

There is coffee and tea, people sign up in advance to bring snacks. We sit at round tables, nibble and chat.

We know each other and don't have to find out what job they had, it's more about what's going on in their lives right now.

I've had a nice conversation with an American of Japanese descent who is a veteran from WWII, we celebrated his 94th birthday recently. He had some interesting stories, none of them about the war.

A group of women are planning a social tea at the end of the month with the proceeds of $10.00 per person going to the Heifer Fund. A group that buys a family a cow in a third world country for them to help on their farm. There is much planning still.

We talk about how our last week went. Someone returned from vacation to find their plumbing was backed up and the cost of fixing it. 

Another person is going to Africa in a few months, he's an electrician and the group he's with is maintaining a water station so the people in the village don't have to walk miles to a river for water. Our church has taken up a collection to help him with this project.

I shared that my son is driving down to Tuscon, (he got back yesterday) to visit his son, my grandson, before he's going into the Marines.

My wife and daughter belong to the craft group that meets one afternoon a week, and they talk the latest projects they're working on.

To me "small talk" is about the inconsequential, we tend to talk in our group about what's important to each person. Sometimes the weather is important: "Damn, it's cold outside," or "My what a beautiful day."

Sometimes someone will tell a joke and others then tell theirs. It can become a competition.

Then some of us go into Bible study where we tend to share some deep secrets while trying to relate to the topic we're studying.

Outside of church, I don't come into contact with that many other people for small talk, the benefits or consequence of being retired, and not being able to golf anymore due to a bad back.

  

Monday Musings: Sales in UK

 

In 2011 I bought my first Kindle and started publishing on Amazon.  Amazon required a set amount and I set my price at .99. Then I went crazy writing short stories, took my first novel out of mothballs, updated it and it became my second published novel, originally written over twelve years earlier.

I bought the publishing rights from the vanity press and converted my first printed novel into e-book.

This was the early years of Kindle and e-books. What I wrote sold well for about three years. In that time, I earned $200.00 in royalties. At .39 per download fairly good. Then it dried up.

Publishers started converting better known author's books into e-format and no matter how many new novels I wrote only a few have sold since.

I had one short story that had 720 downloads, but Amazon put it out as free. Didn't get a dime, and only one review. It was shortly after this that they came out with Unlimited. 

 If someone downloads your work, you are paid per page read. I've received two dollars here or there from those royalties and it's disappointing how many people start to read the book and stop at ten or twenty pages and that's it. Hey, I try to write good hooks.

UK Amazon only paid in checks, and they wouldn't write one until it reached a hundred dollars. Around 2017 I received a check for twenty dollars, glad they realized it was unreasonable to expect small time writers to reach that standard. I also received a check from Amazon Australia for a buck ninety-eight.

The last few years I've started turning my e-books into paperbacks as the price of printing and buying them from Amazon has gone way down. I can set my own price and royalty. Also buy copies and sell them.

I compiled three of my short stories together into Three Medieval Battles: Crecy, Poitiers and Flodden.

Suddenly the last few months downloads and sales of this book have gone up. Mostly sales of e-books, but last month someone bought a paperback and on unlimited someone read the whole book. All in the UK.

I know this is a drop in the bucket to most authors, but I'm proud that an author from Albuquerque, New Mexico has in the last twelve years sold my words and wisdom not only in America, but in Australia, Canada, and the UK. It seems the UK likes my books the best. Most of that money from the check sent by them was for Vander's Magic Carpet.

Retro post, book signing March 14,2007.

 

Cottonwood mall, book signing on March 14, 2007. Click on link. https://pmprescott.blogspot.com/2007/03/oh-what-feeling.html

WC042623 Films to watch when you've had a bad day

 

Today's challenge is films to watch when you're having a bad day.

1. Addam's Family. I had a really difficult year with multiple problems at school and with my family. This movie came out and I laughed all the way through it. Leaving the theater I told my wife, "I needed that."

2. The Fifth Element. Whenever my wife got home on a Friday and we were both stressed to the limit. I'd look at her and say "Big Badda Boom." She'd nod and we'd get lost in that world.

3. History of the World Part I, my wife loves "Quick Time Harch." I like the line, "It's good to be the King."

4. Young Frankenstein. I laugh all the way through it no matter how many times I see it. 

5. Becker. I bought the entire series on DVD's. Whenever we need to laugh, we watch a number of shows.

6. The WKRP in Cincinnati Thanksgiving episode. 

7. Laurel and Hardy's Box set of their TV show, love Who's on First.

8. Rita Rudner's HBO special: Married Without Children. "Refrigerator blindness."

9. Red Skelton Box set, none of his guest stars could keep a straight face.

10. Carol Bernett Show Box set. Tim Conway was pure genius.

It was with regret I threw away all I had of Bill Cosby. His jokes stopped being funny. You listen to the speaker not the speech.

Monday Musings A Day Late

 Some things snowball in a 50-year-old house.

The spigot on my backyard cracked over the winter and it needed to be replaced. My son came up from Los Lunas. After lunch at a pizza joint, he went to replace it. We bought a replacement, and he couldn't get it to thread onto the nipple. It was rusted and corroded. He tried all he could, but it wouldn't go on.

With the water turned off I was looking at having to find a plumber. Good luck on a Sunday and most likely not getting one to look at it for a day or two. I was on my way to find a motel room for the night when I saw Glenn with his garage door open.

Glen has been my handyman for a number of years. When I was using the fireplace I bought firewood from him, he reroofed my house, installed my new front door and screen door, put in a gate at the side of the house and other small jobs over the years.
His health has gone down and the last time I tried to call him his phone was disconnected.

His mother passed away in December, she lived a few doors down from us and he's living there now. He would like to keep the house but will mostly likely have to sell it. Found out he was living in Farmington. 

Anyway, I asked if he would replace the nipple on the backyard water spigot. He spent four hours trying to get it off. Nothing worked.

We got a motel room. He went to a plumbing place and got advice. He called and said he bought some penetrating oil and a packet of inserts that he could put inside the nipple and with a ratchet would get it out.

He came by around noon on Monday and did everything he could, but all the inserts did was spin on the inside. I was looking at another night or more in a motel and finally trying to get a plumber. 

To Glenn's credit, I paid him Sunday 50 dollars for his time, and he refused for me to refund him for what he bought and any extra money. He called a plumber friend, and he came over within an hour. 

The socket that the nipple went into was so corroded it wasn't going to let go of the nipple. He had to cut a hole on the outside wall to reach where the socket joined with the copper water pipe. He cut the copper pipe, took out the socket and nipple, cut a piece of copper pipe and soldered it onto the rest of the pipe. Added a new socket and nipple and put on the correct spigot. Took less than thirty minutes.

He wanted a hundred dollars, I only had ninety on me. He took the wrong spigot I'd bought for the difference. Who knew there was a right and wrong spigot, thought all I needed was one that was a half-inch.

Glenn's going to patch the hole around the spigot and he's checking on replacing a big wooden gate in the backyard (access for the box the electric company has in the corner there). It's pulling out of the cinder block wall and I'm replacing it with chain link. I was going to have him do that before he went out of town.

Next time I'm calling a plumber.

Friday Book Review: The Greeks A Great Adventure

 I didn't know it at the time, but this was the first book by Isaac Asimov I read. It's not a science fiction book, it's a history book.

I was in 8th grade and needed to read to write a book report. I found this one in the library. I've always had a thing for history it's in my blood.

It's a fantastic book. Easy to read, but it covers Greek history from early settlers through the 20th century.

What struck me as odd was the Asimov would put in a commentary from time to time giving the reader perspective other that just names, dates and battles.

In 9th grade a friend of mine loaned me his book of Nine Tomorrows by Asimov and from there I read a ton of his books over many years. When my son was in middle school, I had him read Nine Tomorrows, and then his robot stories and he fell in love the Foundation Trilogy. 

When I started teaching world history, I went to the library to see if they had this book available. It was in the main library, and they sent it on loan to my school. I was surprised that he wrote this book, and that he wrote many other histories. The Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, Western Asia, Egypt, England, France and others. I ordered those books, read them and added them to my curriculum. Each book had a timeline. I copied them and gave them out to the students. The books are long out of print and very few libraries carry them. A great pity as they are the best books out there for a young adult to fall in love with history.

They have never been available to the general public. I think the publisher didn't consider them marketable in a regular book store.

WC: Best of Advice I'll Always Remember.

 

I've been given lots of advice over the years. 

Don't go to bed angry. 

Don't take any plug nickels.

As a teacher I was advised not to smile before Christmas, and to always under react.

This book isn't exactly full of advice but explains the need to control stress levels and how to live a more productive life. 

Hart starts by talking about how good stress (Eustress) and bad stress (Distress) act the same way on the body.

It puts the body into fight or flight mode which is great for snap decisions, but leaves careful thought behind.

When you're stressed you're always in panic mode. You have to destress to think creatively.

I understood when writing my first book why I couldn't write during the school year. I was so stressed from teaching that I couldn't create. I edited what I wrote over the summer when I was destressed and could create. It took me ten years to finish the book this way, but I was frustrated trying to write when I was too stressed for creative thought.

I learned to handle stress by finding ways to relax and calm down, I had fewer sleepless nights trying to figure out how to reach certain students and a difficult class, which gave me better ideas instead of just brooding.

Since I've retired and shed the stress of the workplace, I've written seven books and numerous short stories in ten years.

Monday Musings: How Old Was Jesus When He was Crucified?

 Today's is: How Old Was Jesus When He Was Crucified?

The year of the crucifixion is set from AD 30 to 33. Pilate was governor from AD 26-36. There are records of his problems with the Jewish leaders the first couple of years and things settled down, until the Samaritans revolted in AD 36. He was recalled on charges of tyranny, brutality and executing men without cause. Seems Pilate didn't cover his ass as much as he thought by washing his hands.

Christian tradition maintains that Jesus was 32 and half years old at crucifixion. This is based on the year AD 1 was his birth and there is historical reference to his death by Josephus and Roman records on Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea at the time.

Problem 1.

Setting the dates. Pope Gregory set the dates, which is why we call it the Gregorian Calendar, a thousand years after Christ died. He had little historical record to base his dating.

Josephus recorded that Herod the Great died in the year of an eclipse. There was a solar eclipse in the Roman year 752, dated from the founding of Rome.

This is why Gregory chose the Roman year 752 as the birth of Jesus. 

Off by four years. Roman records later discovered pointing to the year 748 for Herod's death and his kingdom divided. There was a lunar eclipse that year. 

Quinctillius Varus was governor of Syria at the time and when Herod died. The Jews revolted and Varus crucified 2,000 of the Jewish leaders to settle things down. Luke gives the name Quintus as governor of Syria, but Quintus was governor there in AD 7. Luke got it wrong, but then 60 years later the names were most likely mixed up by the people he interviewed.

Star of Bethlehem. Astronomy has looked at the phenomenon that called the wise men to come to Judea. It was a conjunction of Venus, Mars and Jupiter aligning. This happened a few months ago and from Albuquerque we could see these bright objects on the lower horizon in the west.

The wise men were most likely Astrologers and triangulated the "star's" position. They saw it coming over a period of time and coordinated a meeting to be there when the final confluence happened. This happened in 7 BC.

Three dates for the birth of Jesus. This gives us the Roman years 752, 748 and 745.

Problem 2.   

The main source of information about Jesus's ministry comes from Luke 3:23. It says Jesus was "About 30 years of age."

If you take 30 years "literally" Jesus was born in year 1 He was crucified at age 32 or 33 calendar years. Four years after Herod died.

If you take it "figuratively" you can round down to his birth at AD 4 and crucified at age 36.

AD 7 is a bit of a stretch figuratively for his ministry starting in AD 30. His age at crucifixion would have been either 39 or 40.

AD 1 Jesus was 32 or 33 when crucified in AD 32 or 33, that's the Christian tradition, but four years after Herod's death. 

AD 4 is viable, "About" could be rounded down to age 28 and crucifixion at age 31 0r 32. 

AD 7 would makes him 39 or 40.

I have a problem with AD 4 being the year of his birth. That's when Herod died. He ordered the slaughter of boys in Bethlehem from two years and under. Maybe he was playing it safe, but it points that Jesus wasn't in the cradle when Herod died.

The wise men found him in a house, and he's referred to as a child not a babe or baby.

Matthew 1:10-12. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

AD 4 is too early and that only leaves AD 7.

Now let's do the math.

Jesus is born in 7 BC, his family flees to Egypt before Herod can kill him. Herod dies in 4 BC and the family returns to Nazareth.

He starts his ministry at age 30 in AD 23. He's crucified in AD 32 or making him 39 or 40.

Jesus's ministry is divided in two parts. His beginning ministry and his public ministry.

Is this biblical? No, but it is logical without having to defy historical facts and a timeline. All the pieces of the puzzle of the life of Jesus fits.

1. AD 23-30: He didn't just out of the blue start calling disciples. He had to build a reputation as a noted rabbi. For seven years he taught in the synagogues making a name for himself and impressing on the people in Judea and Galilee his knowledge. He planted the seeds.

2. AD 30-32 or 33: 

A) He dedicates his public ministry by going into the wilderness and fasting for 40 days. He's tempted by Satan, resists and then is nourished back to health by the Archangel Michael. 

B) He's baptized by John the Baptizer. From here he gathers his disciples and for three years has his public ministry. Five thousand people didn't flock to hear him out of the blue. He had a reputation of a teacher they wanted to hear.

c). He's crucified, rises from the grave after three days, shows himself for a time and then ascends to heaven.

Conclusion: Jesus was 40 when he was crucified. The number of completion in the Bible.

Friday Book Review: The True History of the Revolutionary War Part III

 

Last week I posted concerning passion week delaying the last installment on this book.

The True History of the Revolutionary War Part III

 For the first three years (1775-1777) of the war General Sir William Howe fought under the orders of “Use the Sword and Olive Branch.” This explains his toying with Washington like a cat with a mouse.

He’d get Washington in a bind like Brookline Heights and Harlem Heights, then let him go. He herded him through New Jersey into Pennsylvania, but never threw used his superior numbers to overwhelm him, which he could have easily done. At any time when Washington was hold up in Valley Forge, he could have squashed him like a bug. He didn’t. He left Burgoyne to fight his way down New York on his own, which resulted in the loss at Saratoga. Howe’s only miscalculation was Burgoyne bungling his march so badly he had to surrender. It’s only my conjecture, but he most likely thought Burgoyne would get roughed up on his march to New York City and lick his wounds. At this point Britain might have reconsidered the cost of the rebellion and given America its independence.

Saratoga changed the dynamic. France and Spain signed an alliance with the colonies and declared war on England. Admiral Sir Richard Howe sailed to Gibraltar to life a siege of England’s most valuable asset. England could no longer afford the Hessian mercenaries and a large army on the continent. Fighting took place between the nations in the Caribbean, Africa, India, and the Spice Islands (Indonesia).

General Howe was relieved, and he went home a very much richer man than he arrived. Graft and Corruption by officers and Quartermaster’s was rampant.

General Sir Henry Clinton replaced Howe and his orders dropped the condition of using the olive branch. He was to put the colonies to the sword.

Parliament did offer the olive branch by offering the colonies independence of a sort by allying itself with England for protection. The plan the Colonial Congress first offered to Parliament before the Declaration of Independence. It was too late for compromise after so much blood had been shed.

A French fleet landed four thousand men at Newport, Rhode Island which were bottled up by the a few British ships for years.

To punish New York for the loss at Saratoga Clinton’s sword was unleashed in Wyoming Valley where all settlements were massacred by soldiers and their Iroquois allies. They invaded the neighboring county and did the same. England had a habit of withdrawing and leaving their native allies vulnerable to colonial retribution and the Iroquois Nations were destroyed. This is one of those dirty laundry parts of history left out in middle school and high school textbooks. It’s barely mentioned in U.S. or American history college texts.

The British raided coastal cities burning and pillaging as they went, killing all prisoners. They called it bayonets only.

The next phase of the war went to the south. Here was the real mistake and how the British lost the war. This part of the colonies comprised most of the loyalists. Colonel Campbell took Charleston while General Prevost drove up from Florida to Charleston. He decimated South Carolina leaving a thousand slaves to starve to death. From this time on they gathered the slaves and resold them to the Caribbean colonies.

This inflamed the loyalists and those that up to this time stayed out of the fight. A colonel Buford marched to Charleston to try and aide the city, but turned around when he heard it had fallen. A British Colonel Tarleton caught up with Buford and wiped the force out to a man. From this point on when the rebels won a battle, and the British raised the white flag of quarter the rebels responded by saying “Tarleton’s quarter.”

The actions of the British could be compared to Sherman’s march to the sea. Maybe this is where Grant and Sherman came up with the idea.

 Cornwallis was placed in charge of South Carolina, and he decided to invade North Carolina. If you get a map and look at which colony had the most battles fought on its soil, it is North Carolina.

Cornwallis started his first invasion with a large baggage train causing him to advance slowly. He was defeated by the hit and run tactics of rebels in the swamps and had to turn back, losing most of his baggage train. This was working until Congress sent General Gates to take command and he stupidly decided on a frontal attack. (Not in the book, but when the bullets started flying it was reported Gates rode north and didn’t stop till he passed three states. So much for the Gates being the hero of Saratoga.) The army he left behind was killed to the last man.

This was the lowest point of the war, not even Valley Forge demoralized the rebels as the scourging of South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina. The French and Spanish were rethinking the alliance. Holland joined the alliance but was quickly bottled up in their ports by the British Navy and they lost Cape Town. They really got the short end of the stick. Then Benedict Arnold turned traitor. Washington only by the skin of his teeth kept West Point from being handed over to the British by the hero of Saratoga.

(Arnold was given command of part of North Carolina, he asked the rebel traitors what they would do if he was in their hands, they responded, “We’d take your good leg and bury it at Saratoga in your honor and hang the rest of you.” Could be apocryphal).

Cornwallis brought the war out of the ashes to the rebel’s victory. He invaded North Carolina again without a baggage train. They would live off the land. The problem was that his first invasion devastated the first part of the march. The further he marched up North Carolina Rebel General Nathaniel Greene moved into South Carolina and cut his retreat. He was defeated at King’s Mountain and Cowpens without a way back to Charleston leaving him to press on to the north expecting the British Navy to rescue him when he reached the Chesapeake River.

Here is where Fisher praises Washington for being a master strategist. He gathered his men to march on New York. They were little better clothed and fed than the army at Valley Forge. The British fleet was recalled from the Caribbean to New York. Rochambeau was finally able to leave Newport and march to Washington’s aide. When they joined up, they pivoted from New York to Yorktown. The French navy followed the British and blocked the Chesapeake bay keeping the British navy from giving Cornwallis relief.

With Cornwallis’s surrender hostilities mostly settled down. New York and Charleston were still in British hands, but the rest of the colonies were under rebel control. Many of the loyalists or Tories fled to either Nova Scotia or the Bahamas.

It was two years before the treaty was signed and another year before the British left New York and Charleston.

 

Final insight: Fisher contended that a British victory would be hollow. That the rebels had a plan B so to speak. They would move to the west of the Allegheny mountains and form a new country there. Much like the Boers of South Africa tried to do a hundred years later.

He also contended that the revolutionary spirit would not die out and that the British would have to maintain a strong military presence to keep the peace. He likened it to 700 years of occupation of Ireland with no peace in sight. He wrote this in the late 1800’s and for Northern Ireland it is still true today.

 

 

 

 

 

WC: 041223: Remedy for the Common Cold.

 

Today's challenge is: My best home remedy for the Common Cold.

I used to get the cold about three times a season. My remedy then was to fight it. It usually started the day before I had a monthly golf tournament. I'd get up, bundle up in thermal underwear, sweater, warm socks, hoodie and large leather jacket with winter golf gloves.

I loved golfing in the winter. The ground was solid as a rock and my drives would double as they rolled forever.

We rode carts and there would be a Coleman heater in the cup holder with clear plastic covering over the outside of the cart with plastic doors. We'd do 18 holes with minimal time in the cold and wind.

The rest of the week I'd stay in bed, took Tylenol, Dayquil and Nyquil. Ate Chicken Noodle soup, toast and tea for breakfast and weathered it.

I no longer golf, but since I've started using a C-pap machine I haven't had a cold in eight years. I get seasonal allergies, but so far (knock on wood), no flu, colds or Covid.

Passion Week: Day 8

 Day 8, Mary Magdelene and other women go to the tomb to finish the burial procedure and find it empty. The guards fled as the stone rolled away. Mary Magdelene meets Jesus who calms her. She tells Peter, Peter goes inside to see the unwrapped linen strips and folded cloth that was on his head.

I used day by number so as not to confuse the reader.

Day 1 is Palm Sunday, and so on. 

Day 4 should be Good Wednesday.

Days 5, 6, and 7 Jesus is in the tomb. Three full days.

If Jesus was crucified on Friday, he's only in the tomb a day and a half.

Matthew 12: 38-41

38 Then some of the teachers of the Law and the proud religious law-keepers said to Jesus, “Teacher, we would like to have you do something special for us to see.” 39 He said to them, “The sinful people of this day look for something special to see. There will be nothing special to see but the powerful works of the early preacher Jonah. 40 Jonah was three days and three nights in the stomach of a big fish. The Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the grave also. 41 The men of the city of Nineveh will stand up with the people of this day on the day men stand before God. Those men will say these people are guilty because the men of Nineveh were sorry for their sins and turned from them when Jonah preached. And see, Someone greater than Jonah is here!

The sign Jesus gave to scribes and pharisees was being in the tomb three full days, not a part of Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday.

Three full days is also proof he was dead and not in a coma.

The other part of the prophesy is that these scribes and pharisees would reject his "something special" and then salvation would be open to the gentiles metaphorically "Nineveh."   

Friday Book Review: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

 This was one of those flash in the pan pop culture phenomenon books. Today I'd say it was a book compilation of blog posts. Various essays on whatever crossed Robert Fulghum's mind.

The book is available in softcover, hardcover and audiobook formats. He's never converted it to e-book.

There is one essay that has always stayed in my mind over the years. He starts off with a diatribe against the Russians, ending with the phrase, "They're not like us."

Then he tells the story of a Russian soldier in Angola. The rebel faction attacked their compound, and he was captured. He was captured because he refused to leave the dead body of his wife.

Here Fulghum waxes eloquent about him being just a man, in love with just a woman and nothing else mattered.

He ends the essay with the opening diatribe with the ending "They're not like us." Then adds the word, "Sure."

Just thinking about the essay while writing about it brings tears to my eyes.