Johny Cash sang a song that I always thought displayed a lot of wisdom. I don’t recall exactly how the lyrics went, but it was something like this:

I go everywhere, man,
In my underwear, man.
People stop and stare, man,
At me in my underwear man.

These are words to live by, and I try to always follow Johny’s advice. You might think it is silly, but by this one simple step you can avoid a lot of trouble. Just ask Dennis Scott Yenzi.

Headline Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Man arrested for driving nude

A Pleasant Unity man was arrested for disorderly conduct after state police found him driving nude along Route 30 in Hempfield Township Tuesday afternoon.

Police said Dennis Scott Yenzi, 44, was driving a Ford Windstar minivan at Route 30 east around 4:18 p.m. when a passing truck driver noticed Yenzi was not wearing any clothing. The trucker notified police, who apprehended Yenzi soon afterward and cited him.

This stained glass window is in Crawford Hall on the campus of Grove City College in Grove City Pa.

From The Princess Bride

There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C., when Saul and Delilah Korn’s inadvertent discovery swept across Western civilization. (Before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy, because although everyone agrees with the formula of affection times purity times intensity times duration, no one has ever been completely satisfied with how much weight each element should receive. But on any system, there are five that everyone agrees deserve full marks.

Well, this one [Wesley and Buttercup's parting kiss] left them all behind.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The makers of the new movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice have decided to try to get onto the great kiss leader board with their new ending for American audiences.

Some people aren’t happy with this fictional ending to Jane Austen’s story.

The embrace upset the 450 members of the Jane Austen Society of North America, who ridiculed it at a preview screening.

Elsa Solender, a member and former president of the society, said: “It has nothing at all of Jane Austen in it, is inconsistent with the first two thirds of the film, insults the audience with its banality and ought to be cut before release.”

But others are more banal and so aren’t insulted at all. Instead, they seem to like it.

Francine Zawatsky of Potomac, Maryland, said that she “loved” the kiss: “I was waiting for it. It was such a touching moment.”

Very insightful, Francine. A kiss is a touching moment. Thanks.

Q.58. What does the fourth commandment require?

A. The fourth commandment requires us to set apart to God the times He has established in His word–specifically one whole day in seven as a holy Sabbath to Him.

We are to set apart one day in seven for God. Next week’s question will deal with which day we set apart for God. Today’s just points us to the command to set a day apart.

The weekly rest of the Sabbath is a picture of the rest we find in Jesus Christ, as we are no longer burdened by sin and by the yoke of trying to earn our salvation through our own good works.

Matthew 11:27-30

²⁷ All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

In downtown Pittsburgh, Mellon One reaches out to the blue sky above.

The Bible tells us of the incredible wealth in Jerusalem in Solomon’s day:

2 Chronicles 1:15

And the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah.

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2 Chronicles 9:20

All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. Silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon.

And we are told of the new Jerusalem where the gates are made from a pearl and the streets are paved with gold.

Apparently George Bush has a similar idea for the streets of our nation’s capitol to display the wealth of the nation:

Headline Washington Times: Bush, Dalai Lama discuss China curbs

Don’t ever leave your child unattended in Bodega Bay.

AFP Photo:

Caption: “The boy and the pigeons : A young boy sits amidst scores of pigeons at St Marc square in Venice. (AFP/Manuel Silvestri)”

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of coding in Perl, and I’ve started to learn Python. Like all programming languages, they have their place. Since I’ve been doing a lot of string manipulation and regular expressions, Perl is a perfect fit. And the Python seems like it will make a good “jack-of-all-trades” language. I’m enjoying them both.

But I’m glad to get a chance to do something other than Java programming. As Java is becoming more mainstream, it also is displaying a darker side than these other programming languages, as you can tell from the following headline.

Headline Telegraph: Malaysian killer commits suicide during gun battle with police in Java

It is nothing new for the church to make their own extra-biblical standards and then preach moralizing sermons to try to coerce their people to obey them. When I was growing up, it was movies, dancing, alcohol and tobacco that were the sins that required moralizing sermon and threats. But at other times, the church has aimed to eliminate other sins.

In the eleventh century, the pope declared that men with long hair should be “excommunicated while living, and not prayed for when dead”. To have long hair was a damnable offense. Anselm republished the decree to combat the rampant immorality in the court of king Henry I where long hair was quite popular with the men.

But as the church tried to enforce their own invented standards on hair length with threats and moralizing sermons, they found that people weren’t really changed. It wasn’t conviction from God, but rather manipulation from men, and so even after being coerced to cut their hair, the men would grow it long again.

From Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds:

Towards the end of the eleventh century, it was decreed by the Pope, and zealously supported by the ecclesiastical authorities all over Europe, that such persons as wore long hair should be excommunicated while living, and not be prayed for when dead. William of Malmesbury relates, that the famous St. Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, was peculiarly indignant whenever he saw a man with long hair. He declaimed against the practice as one highly immoral, criminal, and beastly. He continually carried a small knife in his pocket, and whenever anybody, offending in this respect, knelt before him to receive his blessing, he would whip it out slily, and cut off a handful, and then, throwing it in his face, tell him to cut off all the rest, or he would go to hell.

But fashion, which at times it is possible to move with a wisp, stands firm against a lever; and men preferred to run the risk of damnation to parting with the superfluity of their hair. In the time of Henry I, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, found it necessary to republish the famous decree of excommunication and outlawry against the offenders; but, as the court itself had begun to patronize curls, the fulminations of the church were unavailing. Henry I and his nobles wore their hair in long ringlets down their backs and shoulders, and became a scandalum magnatum in the eyes of the godly. One Serlo, the King’s chaplain, was so grieved in spirit at the impiety of his master, that he preached a sermon from the well-known text of St. Paul, before the assembled court, in which he drew so dreadful a picture of the torments that awaited them in the other world, that several of them burst into tears, and wrung their hair, as if they would have pulled it out by the roots. Henry himself was observed to weep. The priest, seeing the impression he had made, determined to strike while the iron was hot, and, pulling a pair of scissors from his pocket, cut the king’s hair in presence of them all. Several of the principal courtiers consented to do the like, and, for a short time, long hair appeared to be going out of fashion. But the courtiers thought, after the first glow of their penitence had been cooled by reflection, that the clerical Dalilah had shorn them of their strength, and, in less than six months, they were as great sinners as ever.

Q.57. What is the fourth commandment?

A. The fourth commandment is: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Why should we observe a Sabbath? Why should we have one day of rest a week set aside for worshiping God? God tells us in the command itself. The principle of a Sabbath goes back to creation itself. It is not rooted in the ceremonial law, but is a creation principle: For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

This is not a ceremonial commandment that has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It is in the moral law, going back to creation, and is still in effect.

Genesis 2:1-3

¹ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ² And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³ So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.