Shade Tree Musings 7/8/07

Stuff one learns by reading the daily paper, some of it good, some nonsense, some one can get along without. For instance, there are all kinds of people in the world, some are pessimists, some optimists. Both are needed, the optimist to invent the airplane, the pessimist to invent the parachute. Now doesn’t that really make your day?

Her name is Sonya Thomas. She weighs l05 pounds and she is an assistant manger of a Burger King. In some circles she is known as the “black widow", She is a speed-eating champ, of all things, routinely defeating guys three times her size. Source of this bit of news is Richard Shea, who runs the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

They sponsor and arrange for speed-eating contests here and there. One we hear about most often is the Nathan’s annual Fourth of July in Coney Island, where Joey Chestnut this year defeated defending champ Takeru Kobayashi by cramming 66 hot dogs down his esophagus in 12 minutes, thus bringing the champ title back to the USA.

Well, you ask, what’s the harm? Except for a gross misuse of the body God gives us – outside of that, it merely goes to show that sinful man will go to any lengths for what, fleeting fame, a notice in the news, some dollars. To what end.

Maybe it is time to re-read the Book of Ecclesiastes. “Meaningless, meaningless, says the Teacher everything is meaningless” if it is done “under the Son”, that is, away from God’s guidance, direction, or will.

Enough.

GPD 7/8/07