Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2018-21

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IN THIS ISSUE

• Rick Wilson writes in Heroic Stories about a baseball game
• Carol Hansen sends a correction of a story in the last issue
• Kate Brookfield shares an article about alarms
• Catherine Nesbitt forwards a story of an encounter in a library
• Julie Andrews Turning celebrates a birthday with a song
• Barbara Wear´s post shows how things get better with age
• Irene Harvalias forwards some interesting facts
• Sites are suggested by Barbara Wear, Irene Harvalias, and Tom Telfer

Rick Wilson of Laurel, Maryland, writes in Heroic Stories:

MORE THAN JUST A GAME

The green team was undefeated. The blue team had lost to them twice in the regular season. The Laurel Boys and Girls Club junior division baseball championship would be close.

Ken, blue team´s coach, is a calm, disciplined man who believes you win by sticking to the basics. Walter, leader of the green team, is a passionate competitor who says to win, "You got to want it more than the other team." Bob, the umpire, is a big guy with the booming voice of a senior chief petty officer, which he is. His 20-year Navy career brought respect for rules. Our last character is David. He is small and developmentally disabled, but loves to play baseball. He attended every practice and was ready to play every game.

Every time David got up to bat, he drew a base on balls (Bob might have given him an extra small strike zone). In the middle innings, the blue team got a healthy lead, but by the last inning the green team fought back to within one run, and was up for their last at-bat. Walter was coaching from third base. There were two outs, but two runners were within easy scoring distance at second and third when David took his place in the box.

The pitcher fired the first pitch right over the plate, belt high and right down the middle. David didn´t swing. Bob didn´t say a word, but signaled a strike with a hand motion. The second pitch was a carbon copy of the first. David stood rock still again. A short pause, then "Strike two!" came the call. David turned away from the plate and began to cry. Bob called time.

Walter walked over to David. A substitute hitter would have made it easier on everyone. David would not have any more pressure, Walter and the green team would have a better chance to win, and Bob would not have to call David out. Not today. I don´t know what Walter said, but David´s tears stopped. Then the intense competitor and the little boy who loved baseball hugged each other for a long time.

With his tears dried, David took his place in the batter´s box. He held his pose as another perfect pitch crossed the plate. "Strike three!" came the soft call from Bob. The blue team had won.

In this rare moment, we won something much more important than a baseball game. David showed us it´s OK to be afraid, and getting back into the game with two strikes on you is often the most courageous thing you can do. Bob taught us playing by the rules is what makes a contest worth winning. Walter showed us competitiveness doesn´t come from needing to win at all costs, but from loving the game

Sometimes in life, as in baseball, real heroes need to dry their eyes, dig in and wait for the next pitch, even if they know they might strike out.

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CORRESPONDENCE

Carol Hansen sends a Snopes´ site which claims that the story of Steve Jobs´ deathbed speech quoted in last week´s Spinner is incorrect. Check out the story here: http://tinyurl.com/y73rgkce

Kate Brookfield sends this article from the Oxford Dictionary website that might make you feel differently about your morning alarm:

THE ORIGINS OF "ALARM"

It´s not a great start to the day, is it - waking up to the alarm clock? Even the most dutiful morning person will likely admit that being dragged unwillingly out of the warm depths of sleep is discouraging, disappointing, and undignified, enough to ruin any piece of music that you might choose as an alarm tone. If you choose your favorite song, it´ll soon become your least favorite. If you keep the factory-set melody, composed and group-tested to evoke cheerful feelings, you´ll soon hear its cheerfulness as a cruel form of mockery. I´m willing to admit that I adopted a cat that I was fostering in part because he likes to wake me up, demanding food, before my alarm is usually set to go off, and I prefer waking with the feeling of claws in my face to waking with a merry song ringing in my ears.

Not to oversell ourselves at Oxford Dictionaries, but the history of language may help to make your morning a little easier. It can´t end the necessity of waking to an alarm, but it can at least restore to the process a little grandeur.

The English word alarm had its start in the Middle French à l´arme (and alarme) and the Italian all´arme, both of which terms had the translation, ´to arms!´ Shakespeare used an early form of the word in English, alarum, retaining in all his usages the word´s martial meaning: a call for weapons to be drawn, a call for readiness in the face of danger. But he also restricted its usage to a musical context: soldiers with trumpets and drums played the alarum as a musical signal to soldiers with arms:

A flourish, trumpets! Strike alarum, drums!
Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women
Rail on the Lord´s anointed. Strike, I say!
(Richard III, 4.4.149-51)

According to the music historian Erika Honisch, these sounds migrated from the battlefield to palaces, town squares, and churches, as composers began to use the word l´arma (taken again from all´arme) to instruct trumpets and drums to play a fanfare. A king entering a city, or attending church during a political summit, might be greeted by improvised patterns of military calls that showed off the military capabilities of the players. Indeed, she says, because trumpets and drums were military instruments, a royal household would pay its trumpeters and drummers out of different funds from the rest of the musicians.

By the mid-17th century, speakers of English were using the term alarm to refer to a clock mechanism that strikes a fanfare. Italians preferred the term sveglia, and the French preferred reveil-matin, both terms that likewise had military dimensions. But popular usage would grow increasingly domestic. In 1713, the French composer François Couperin wrote a charming composition called ´Le reveil-matin,´ or ´the alarm clock´ (literally, ´the matin bell´), which imitates, as Honisch notes, not a military call to arms, but a mundane civilian wake-up call.

Perhaps this knowledge will make you feel a little better about getting up to the sound of your alarm: TO ARMS! The world is calling on you to fight the good fight! Or at least you can commiserate with the American composer Irving Berlin, who brought his experience in the military to his writing of the 1918 classic, ´Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.´

Catherine Nesbitt forwards this short story of

WHISPERS IN A LIBRARY

A man was looking for a place to sit in a crowded university library.

He asked a girl: "Do you mind if I sit beside you?"

The girl replied, in a loud voice "NO, I DON´T WANT TO SPEND THE NIGHT WITH YOU!"

All the people in the library started staring at the man, who was deeply embarrassed and moved to another table.

After a couple of minutes, the girl walked quietly to the man´s table and said with a laugh: "I study psychology, and I know what a man is thinking. I bet you felt embarrassed, right?"

The man responded in a loud voice: "$500 FOR ONE NIGHT? I`M NOT PAYING YOU THAT MUCH!"

All the people in the library looked at the girl in shock. The man whispered to her: "I study law, and I know how to screw people."

Julie Andrews Turning celebrated her 79th birthday with a special appearance at Manhattan´s Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the AARP. One of the musical numbers she performed was ´her version of

MY FAVOURITE THINGS

Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,
Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favourite things.

Cadillac's and cataracts, hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favourite things.

When the pipes leak, When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favourite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,
Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favourite things.

Back pain, confused brains and no need for sinnin',
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',
And we won't mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favourite things.

When the joints ache, When the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim,
Then I remember the great life I've had,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Barbara Wear sends this piece which shows that

TIME GETS BETTER: WITH AGE

Read it through to the end, it gets better as you go!

* I´ve learned that my dog doesn´t want to eat my broccoli either. Age 7

* I´ve learned that when I wave to people in the country, they stop what they are doing and wave back. Age 9

* I´ve learned that just when I get my room the way I like it, Mom made me clean it up again. Age 12

* I´ve learned that if you want to cheer yourself up, you should try cheering someone else up first. Age 14

* I´ve learned that although it´s hard to admit it, I´m secretly glad my parents were strict with me. Age 15

* I´ve learned that silent company is often more healing than words of advice. Age 24

* I´ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it. Age 30

* I´ve learned that there are people who love you dearly but just don´t know how to say it or show it. Age 42

* I´ve learned that you can make someone´s day by simply sending them a little note. Age 44

* I´ve learned that the greater a person´s sense of guilt, the greater his or her need to cast blame on others. Age 46

* I´ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on and it will be better tomorrow. Age 48

* I´ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly after they die. Age 53

* I´ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life. Age 58

* I´ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. Age 62

* I´ve learned that you shouldn´t go through life with a catcher´s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. Age 64

* I´ve learned that whenever I decide something with kindness, I usually make the right decision. Age 66

* I´ve learned that everyone can use a prayer. Age 72

* I´ve learned that even when I have pains, I don´t have to be one. Age 74

* I´ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch - holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. Age 76

* I´ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. Age 80

* I´ve learned that you should pass this on to someone you care about. Sometimes they just need a little something to make them smile.

Irene Harvalias forwards these

INTERESTING FACTS

Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only ... Ladies Forbidden." And thus, the word GOLF entered into the English language.

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the U.S. Treasury.

Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%. Now get this: the percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%.

The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $16,400.

The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: "Tom Sawyer."

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has the horse with both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died because of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four feet on the ground, the person died of natural causes

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn´t added until five years later.

ED. NOTE: Not everything you read online is true, so don´t accept everything as gospel. Remember the last words of Steve Jobs!

SUGGESTED SITES

Barbara Wear sends the link to a video of a dummy that doesn´t need a ventriloquist to perform:

Irene Harvalias thinks we should have something like the RiverBus in Hamburg. It would be a great connection between North Vancouver and Vancouver, instead of the Seabus, which does not travel on land:

Tom Telfer forwards this link to a video of awesome kids performing amazing stunts and activities:

Tom also posted this 350.org URL to Facebook, which advocates for ways of fighting climate change:

In this TED talk, Juan Enriquez envisions how humans will modify life, including themselves, to adapt to a future on earth and elsewhere: