Winning Words 10/22/09
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” (John Muir) One of my favorite poems is by John Donne. It begins: “No man is an island…” We’re all interconnected. What affects one of us, affects all of us. BTW, a friend of mine whose last name is Muir, is related to John Muir. Do you have any famous people on your family tree? ;-) Jack

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND by John Donne
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

FROM CA IN VEGAS: I was told growing up that Lawrence Welk was my grandmother’s cousin. I guess that made him my third cousin. FROM JACK: Take a survey of your students and see if any of them know who Lawrence Welk was. I do. A one, a two.

FROM PRPH IN MINNESOTA: when son Mathew went to law school at the U of Chicago, he had Obama as a professor for all three years. does that count? FROM JACK: Double points.

FROM A FRIEND NAMED DIMAGGIO: Joltin' Joe! FROM JACK: If that's true (Why would I doubt you?), why do you pronounce your name differently that people pronounce his? I'm impressed!

FROM MOLINER CF: My brother was an only child. Otherwise he might have been able to say that he was related to "Moliner CF." FROM JACK: No wonder they called him, Lucky!

FROM CWR IN B'MORE: ........no, but my relatives do........me.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: Not in mine, but you know Gary's....the famous explorer Fraser....(just about everything in Canada with Fraser or Frasier was discovered by Gary's relative, including the Fraser Mountain Range and the Fraser River etc.) and of course, Abraham Lincoln. I am just me but with a lot of love from the past generations. FROM JACK: How about the Fraser automobile? Have you heard of it? Oops...wrong spelling...Frazer

FROM SG IN TAMPA: Not that I know of, but I have a son-in-law who is related to the discoverer of Pike's Peak and another son-in-law whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower. FROM JACK: In-laws count. I always thought that Pike's first name was an interesting one...Zebulon. It was the name of one of Jacob's sons.

FROM MOLINER JT: We're traced back to "Eric the Red". Not bad !! FROM JACK: Eric was one tough cookie.

FROM MH IN MICHIGAN: Queen Mary of Scotts, Jayne Mansfield I think FROM JACK: A couple of doozies. Do you know how that expression started?