OperaBuff

Have you considered window washing? Start-up costs are minimal, the skill is quickly learned, and the market demand is fairly constant.

I don't follow baseball, but thought you all might be interested in trying to win $5,600,000 in a contest sponsored by MLB. Sounds like an easy contest to me, but then what do I know.. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/bts/y2011/splash_index.jsp

That name doesn't ring a bell. Thanks very much for trying though. This guy was 5th corps, at least that's my memory. I guess it's possible he was 4th corps, and was assigned to HQ for his interim year. It's been so long ago, but I've often wondered what he's up to these days. Thanks again.

I received that same email, Kit. Pretty funny, I liked it. In addition to the list from cman, there's another messaging language called Leet. It's for the more advanced, deep-dish users of computer languages, not used too much by the average texting teen. Computer programmers used it amongst themselves where I worked. Wikipedia has a good description of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet As the article shows, typing Wikipedia in the Leet language would look like this: W1|<1P3[)14

That video of the guy moonwalking, is it still there? What a closet case he is. Yep, Rosalie, there's nothing quite like having your musical talent imitate dance moves that were created by a creepzoid child molester. Way to go, girlfriend. What a way to edify the body of Christ.

Someone told me, back in the day, that Stevie Kay used to sing on TV commercials before her Way days. I'm thinking it was for Ford commercials. I can't recall for sure, nor can I confirm that it was true. She had a great voice, very powerful. I used to run out of breath trying to sing her songs.

This study of II Thessalonians 2 seems pretty decent, written by one Jeff Stanley, whoever he is. http://www.biblicalresearchjournal.org/brj-pages_pdf/002jfs_2007-04_ii_thess_2.pdf The first paragraph of this excerpt cites one of the rare appearances of the Idiom of Permission in the church epistles; I include the second paragraph because it excites me! (italics mine): "When Verse 11 says, 'God shall send them strong delusion,' God’s Word is using an Old Testament-style figure of speech. It is called the Idiom of Permission, and shows God actively causing what, literally speaking, He only permits or allows. The true God, who is light and who is love, does not send delusion. But if people decide that they want to be deluded, He allows it. Although the Idiom of Permission occurs hundreds of times in the Old Testament, this is one of the few places in the Church Epistles where it is used. "When the events of II Thessalonians 2 come to pass, the oikonomia of the mystery of Ephesians 3:9, in which we are living now, will be over. Whatever benefits the unbelievers enjoy today, riding the coattails of God’s blessings through Christ Jesus to the body of Christ, will have vanished into the air. The oikonomia of the grace of God of Ephesians 3:2 will have ended forever." *** I've also been thinking quite a lot over the past year about something else, namely the extraordinary lengths, the almost mind-boggling lengths God goes to in order to not violate man's freedom of will, while at the same time working His own will. He simply does not violate man's freedom of will. Consider back in the garden of Eden, for example; surely God could have somehow physically restrained Eve from eating of the fruit of the tree (whatever that was, I'm still not sure). But He didn't. He never does. Mankind's freedom of will is inviolate with God. Yet, so great a truth as this is, almost no attention is paid -- almost no ink has been spilled in the Word -- to describe it. It's just there to see, plain as day, for anyone who has eyes to see. More or less taken for granted. I'm wondering if this idiom of permission is somehow linked to that. To avoid spilling a lot of ink mentioning the adversary's actions against mankind, God is mentioned instead. But in a manner that assumes we know God is light and good and perfect.

That would have been in 1975, Thomas. It was all innocent fun, just boys being boys.

Me too. One of the web links above described the idiom of permission as a Hebrew idiom. I'm going to search in the direction of Judaism for more info.

To my mind, this idiom of permission is tremendously important. I'm thinking of many examples of Old Testament scripture that always seemed perfectly clear to me, but when this idiom is applied the meaning of the scripture changes entirely. The exodus from Egypt and the passover, for example. I always thought God decided to kick some Egyptian butt to get His people out of bondage to Pharaoh. Maybe it's not that cut and dry. God didn't kill all those firstborns? I always thought He did. God didn't harden the heart of Pharaoh, it was Pharaoh who hardened his own heart by ignoring God's commandment? God didn't send the hail and fire upon the land of Egypt, He permitted the adversary to do it? That can't be right, can it? Guess I need to figure out when and where the idiom of permission applies and when it does not. Looks like I have a busy summer of studying ahead of me!

Broken Arrow, did yinz ever live arahnd Pittsburgh? That's where I'm from. We usually spell it yinz, which is closer to its pronunciation. http://www.pittsburghese.com/

At summer school in 1975, I became friends with a Corps guy who was in residence that summer which would make him 5th Corps, I'm almost positive. I've been trying for years to remember his name, but no luck. Nicest guy ever. Soft spoken, friendly, helpful, everyone liked him. He was into making silver jewelry and loved to talk about his silver jewelry with people. I'm not sure if he stuck with it or not, or if he's still in or got out. I'm blanking on his name, but I'll recognize it if I hear it. That's not much to go on, but it's all I've got. Thanks.

I once saw Paul Cuoco sing 'Give A Listen' while he was nekkid as a jaybird! Does that belong in this thread? He didn't put me in mind of CSN&Y at all...

WordWolf, thank you. That's what I needed to do further digging, the name (or at least one name) of the thing. Idiom of permission. I found another website that encapsulates it nicely, or at least addresses my initial lack of understanding. The link is here: http://www.picturesofsilver.com/appendix/idiomperm.htm To quote the money graf from there: "In the Old Testament, God uses an idiom in which a verb is used in a permissive sense. What is written as the Lord 'smote Uzzah' was actually the Lord 'allowed Uzzah to be smitten.' God set up His laws and man can break himself on them if he so desires. God also set up the law of gravity, but only a fool would think that God killed a man who jumped off a ten-story building. The man killed himself by violating God's law of gravity. So the true picture in the Scripture is that the adversary kills, hurts, and harms. Man allows this to happen as he attempts to break God's laws. "God uses the idiom of permission for several reasons. The idiom of permission does not glorify the adversary. Imagine how the Old Testament would read if everything the adversary did to man was attributed to him. We would read about the adversary on every page! This would be clearly out of harmony with God's commandment in Exodus 23:13, and would not be a blessing to God's people to read." Exodus 23:13 And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. Too bad for the apparent plagiarism in the two links you gave. So painfully obvious. Unless Evangelion (cited in the first link) and David Burke (cited in the second link) are the same person, someone would appear to be a thief.

Thanks to all for the info and links. I have several old dictionaries in my book collection, including a Shorter Oxford, looks like I need to dust it off, thanks Twinky. You were brought up learning "thou"? I had no idea it was still in use any where in the world. Cara thanks for the memory jog; I think you're right, the usage of active voice for passive is a figure of speech and not a Jacobean English device. I've been looking in the wrong places for that answer. Right church, wrong pew! WG, I have an IT professor friend, think I'll ask him to check with his English department colleagues for reference advice. You might be interested in this, I recall reading several years ago that some high school and college administrators decided to remove Shakespeare from their library shelves. There are too many "dead white guys" swaying the minds of the youngsters, they explained.

I'm looking for a good source to help me understand the ins and outs of Jacobean English, as used in the King James Bible. The source could be a book, web site, a previous thread in GSC, whatever. Just a reliable source or two to explain the usage of 'thee' and 'ye' and 'thou' etc. More importantly, to explain to me the manner in which actions by God were described in the Old Testament books. I'm not sure exactly how to phrase it because I'm just not clear on it, but it's something to the effect that verbs were used in the passive voice to describe actions. Or maybe it was that verbs were used in the active voice to describe passive actions. Something like that. Anyway, thank ye for whatever help thou canst provide me.

Hi Ted! I didn't know you posted in here. Awesome. We never met, but I sure remember hearing you sing back in the day. I was in The Way during the mid-70s and heard you sing often, you and all the other great singers and musicians back then. My favorite of yours was always 'Too Many Do-goods' haha! Too cool. About this contemporary praise and worship music, I just can't get past it. I don't like it, and I ain't never gonna like it. I don't like cauliflower either. So there. The idea someone cited in this thread, that singing highly repetitive praise music helps bring God into the meeting, that just creeps me out. I keep thinking of trance music, and much of the rap music genre, as extreme examples of the ill effects of such music on the human mind. The great American soprano Jessye Norman once gave an interview in which she described the ill effects of highly repetitive music; she used the proper musical and psychological terminology to describe it, neither of which I am able to do. I've been looking for two days to find a copy of that interview, but no luck. Then, on top of the praise and worship music in churches today, they add those danged PowerPoint slide presentations up on the front wall. Man, that just makes me nuts. I'm not a child. I know how to read lyrics from a hymnal. I guess I just miss all the great old gospel songs and church hymns of the late 19th and early 20th century, many of which were in Sing Along The Way. There's not a thing in the world wrong with those songs and hymns, so why are they being overlooked? I don't get it. I can't bring up Jessye Norman without offering a taste. Check out Jessye performing an aria from the Saint-Saëns opera 'Samson and Delilah'. Awesome, awesome, awesome:

Personally, I'd have liked to see them capture him, hold him until the new Freedom Tower is built at ground zero, them make him jump out one of the top story windows like so many people did from the World Trade Center. But that's just me. I'm ok with the double tap to the brain, too. I like your joke WordWolf! I like it so much I'm gonna steal it. With love in my heart of course, so it's not really stealing. I hope that didn't sound bitter.

Mykonos is stuffed with tourists, not one of my favorite places to visit. I still exchange cards with the family on Spetses who last 'adopted' me. So kind. The grandmother took me to the mainland by ferry one evening, put me in her car, and drove us to a concert at Epidaurus, stopping at a roadside vegetable market or two enroute. When we arrived at Epidaurus is when I learned she headed an influential local family; she bypassed the long line of cars waiting to enter the grand outdoor theater and drove across a field straight to the head of the line, rattled off something in rapid-fire Greek at the stunned officers guarding the gate, and was immediately waived through to a special parking area. It was a fine evening indeed.

It's very cool, Human. I have no shelf big enough to hold it, so it's sitting on my bedroom floor temporarily. To give you a visual on the size, here's a picture of one that I copied from the greatsite.com web page. Bibles this size were sometimes called pulpit Bibles; they were often chained to the pulpit to prevent theft. kjv.tiff

Go Navy!

Egads. Can they not find better prose than this flat pancake of a paean to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible? "The King James Bible deserves to be recognized for its contribution to American society. It really has been the vehicle that formulated our language and programmed our thinking for centuries. There is no equivalent piece of English literature." Really? Seriously, that's it? A hideously passive clause, followed by valley girl conjecture, followed by a full body slam? Really? Seriously? Egad. There must be at least 400 GSC'ers who can produce better prose than that for this august occasion. My celebration of the 400th anniversary began in January this year, when I purchased a replica of a first edition from greatsite.com, which advertises itself as the world's largest dealer of rare and antique bibles. Originals, as you can imagine, sell for megabucks; this replica was a few hundred dollars. You should see this replica! Oh my. It weighs about 30 pounds and stands about 18" tall. Each page was photographed from an original and printed on linen paper, then bound in birch boards and finally covered in red leather. Oh my!

I mean, golly! You paid for that manuscript in my library! I wish you could see it.

Jackson Browne The Barricades of Heaven "Pages turning, Pages we were years from learning. Straight into the night our hearts were flung. Better bring your own redemption when you come To the barricades of heaven where I'm from." http://youtu.be/rHQX19KnZpY

Ah, I wish you could see that run-on sentence it in the original! It is magnificent. I have seen it in the original; I have the old manuscript in my library. I wish you could see it.