RaMbLeS
Welcome to RaMbLeS, a collection of weekly musings on life and Scripture. It all began in 2005 on Google’s blogspot as the aBeLOG (a name now recycled), a semi-autobiographical devotional that attempted to keep well-wishers abreast of my activities as I relocated to Scotland for a few years. Since my return, I’ve continued my RaMbLeS, and here’s its most recent incarnation on Homiletix, as random reflections usually based on current news articles and travel experiences and whatever else takes my fancy!
Mendacious!
Continuing the theme of lying from one of my blogs from last month …
Carlo Collodi (1826–1890) of Florence, Tuscany, was right after all. Or at least, he was on to something almost two centuries ago. Signor Collodi was the creator of Le avventure di Pinocchio or, as is better know to us, The Adventures of Pinocchio. Pinocchio, the protagonist, was created as a wooden puppet by a carver in a Tuscan village—an animated and sentient puppet! This being—described
Snore!
“Sleep tourism.” Yup, it’s a thing. And growing in popularity, too, CNN reports.
Hotel establishments are now focusing on those potentially hapless clients who may be suffering sleep-deprivation, what with the pandemic, threat of nuclear war, economy, elections, and so forth.
Over the past 12 months, Park Hyatt New York has opened the Bryte Restorative Sleep Suite, a 900-square-foot suite filled with sleep-enhancing amenities. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts recently
Pill?
Talking of ants and not being a sluggard ….
Good news for those of us who decided—quite reluctantly—that we needed more exercise! Well, we do. But not in the way we thought we did: running like hamsters and generally behaving wildly, sweating and panting, in garments of “athleisure” (with fancy names like Lululemon, Lucy, Lorna Jane, Gap Body, and UnderArmor). Finally, good news for us who hated that kind of working out (though we did love looking like
Ants!
It is unlikely you’ve ever spent time wondering about ants. Even if you have, it is even more unlikely that you’ve excogitated about the number of said insects.
But in the long shot hope that you have, your faithful blogger is herewith providing the answer, courtesy of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
20,000,000,000,000,000.
Yup, there are twenty quadrillion of these things crawling about on planet earth. So say researchers from the School of Biological
Fudge?
No, not the kind you eat with bliss, but the fudging one does with truth.
Apparently, that’s pretty common. A recent study showed that, on average, Americans fib four times a day. Respondents also feel someone lies to them about six times daily.
“Hey, that bright red tie looks great on you; and I love its purple polka dots.”
“Lady, that meatloaf of yours was outstanding.”
And my favorite: “That was a great sermon!”
Uh, huh!
(If you want to get away with food-related
Caffeinated?
Finally, I figured it out. It’s been a mystery to me. I did come up with reasons, most of them banal, but now I’ve gotten it. I know why churches serve coffee before the service. Yup, I do.
I was helped in my discovery by a recent article in the Journal of Marketing, “Caffeine’s Effects on Consumer Spending.”
Researchers from the University of Florida reported that shoppers who sip on a complimentary cup of coffee before shopping ended up spending 50% more
Leg!
Storks must be in good shape. They’ll live long.
Because of what researchers from Brazil, Finland, Australia, the UK, and the US reported recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The ability to stand on one leg for at least 10 seconds is, apparently, strongly linked to the risk of death over the next seven years.
Stop right there. Especially if you are middle aged. And go try it out. Now!
(I did. Y’all are doomed to consume my blogs each Sunday for at least
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching. 