Winning Words 10/25/12
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”  (Carl Sagan)  I’ve begun to make a list of exciting discoveries that have been made in my lifetime.  TV, genome, jet travel, atomic power, moon landing, bio-engineering, I-phones, polio vaccine, organ transplants, computers…it could go on and on.  You might add to my list.  We have come to expect the unexpected…cures for the incurable.  It’s a great world.    ;-)  Jack

 FROM BF IN MICHIGAN:  Microwave!  Who would've ever thought popcorn could smell/taste so good! ////FROM JACK:  I think that the microwave was one of the side benefits of the astronaut program.  Our old popcorn popper now stands idle

 FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  I think our congregation could be called a "destination church".  Now many members are getting elderly and becoming homebound. This was undoubtedly unexpected for us, before we really couldn't conceive these problems of distance becoming so real now and so necessary to solve. It's a great world--we have the mailwomen/men and such wonderful telephone service now where we have these unlimited long-distance rates. We are starting a card-sending and telephone-calling caregiving group and tremendously thankful for snail-mail and unlimited long-distance minutes. A shout-out for the old inventions so necessary for our new situations.////FROM JACK:  I didn't expect the backward look in order to appreciate the present.

 FROM CS IN WISCONSIN:  All electrical gadgets that removed us from manual labor – dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, electric typewriters, electric sewing machines, sergers for home use, I-pads, I pods, hand held game toys; dimensional x-rays, laparoscopic surgeries, angiograms, Skype, digital cameras, USBs and external hard drives – just all the changes in how we save our computer information, GPS instead of maps…don’t have to learn how to refold them anymore.////FROM JACK:  We got our first dishwasher this year, and it's been going almost every day since.  Google Earth is good, too.

 FROM RI IN BOSTON:  Television was "something incredible waiting to be known" but it seldom has fulfilled its great potential.  However, talking about Carl Sagan, he always enlightened us with his knowledge of science, and he used TV to do it.  He is missed.////FROM JACK:  I remember standing in front of a store window and seeing my first TV picture, a shadowy figure in the midst of a snowy background.  Recently I marvelled at the high definition picture of a football game on my daughter's large flat screen set.////RI:  Early TV sets were curious.  Our more affluent neighbors had a TV shortly after they came on the market, and I remember they had a round picture.  I suppose it was simpler and less expensive for the manufacturer to produce a round picture tube.  And of course they needed a complex antenna on the roof to receive a good picture.////JACK:  Who doesn't believe in the theory of evolution?

 FROM (SAINT) JUDY:  Billions and billions of discoveries are yet to be made too!!  So many exciting things have happened and will be happening.  Air conditioning is top on my list along with radio, which I use everyday.  Pacemakers came from space exploration.  This is an exciting time to live!////FROM JACK:  How about fake knees?

 FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Yes, it is a wonderful world.  50 years ago we were living in Ann Arbor and expecting twins at any time.  When I went to Mercy Hospital the night of Oct.26, the whole world was on edge because of the possibility of a nuclear war. The twins were born on Oct. 27 at 4:10 and 4:20 p.m.  The most amazing things to me are all of the opportunities that all of our children have had and what America offers to the world today. Everything won't be perfect until we get to heaven. It is fun to learn new things and to meet new people from all over the country and all over the world.  The motto of The Experiment in International Living for which I led groups to Europe in the 50's was Expect the Unexpected.  The first group we did was to find ten host families for ten Fulbright students in Moline before they went off to their university.  There were nine men and one woman from Germany . One was Walter Vogel, and his host family included Mr. Hoffman, who was big at John Deere.  Many years later Walter was the president of Deere and Co.////FROM JACK:  You've reminded me of the imigrant comedian, Yakov Smirnoff, whose famous line was, "What a country!"  He talked about going to an American grocery store.  "You have powdered milk, powdered eggs and baby powder.  What a country!"

 FROM CS IN MICHIGAN:  It IS a great world. Amen!////FROM JACK:  The song, "It's a small world..." might be changed to...
it's a world of laughter, a world or tears
its a world of hopes, its a world of fear
theres so much that we share
that its time we're aware
its a great world after all
CHORUS:
its a great world after all
its a great world after all
its a great world after all
its a great, great world

 FROM ILLINOIS LIZ:  Like.////FROM JACK:  K

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Each generation stands on the shoulders of the one before, and we can never say, "What else is there to invent?"  Because history has shown there is still a lot...if nuclear warfare doesn't  interrupt our wonderful world's progress.  I was taught in H.S. that the atom could not be split...and lo and behold a few years later it was!!  Great world, with so much potential!!////FROM JACK:  Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers gave us a glimpse of what was to come.  Is there a similar comic strip today?