Nine Dragon's Heads

“One of the men in my ward grew up not only without parental support but with parental opposition to his activity in the Church. He made this observation in a sacrament meeting: ‘My father cannot understand why anyone would go to church when they could go skiing, but I really like going to church. In the Church, we are all on the same journey, and I am inspired in that journey by strong youth, pure children, and what I see and learn from other adults. I am strengthened by the association and excited with the joy of living the gospel.’ The wards and branches of the Church offer a weekly gathering of respite and renewal, a time and place to leave the world behind—the Sabbath. It is a day to ‘delight thyself in the Lord,’ to experience the spiritual healing that comes with the sacrament, and to receive the renewed promise of His Spirit to be with us.” – D. Todd Christofferson

Four Cross Patches

Parker Brothers began selling their Monopoly board game February 6, 1935. They licensed the game for sale outside the United States the following year. In 1941, the British Secret Intelligence Service contracted with John Waddington Ltd. (the licensed manufacturer of the game in the United Kingdom) to create a special edition for World War II prisoners of war held by the Nazis. Cleverly hidden inside these games were road maps, working compasses, real money, and other objects that were deemed useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by British fake charity groups that were also created by the secret service. I have no idea whether or not any of these games actually made it into POW’s hands, or if any led to successful escapes. But I’ll bet they improved prisoner morale. 

Thirty-six Double Four-Patches

Last month the American Museum of Natural History in New York (think Night at the Museum) unveiled its newest exhibit: the skeleton of what may be the largest dinosaur ever discovered. Titanosaur (It doesn’t even have a scientific name yet) was 122 feet long – four times the length of the museum’s famous blue whale. According to the museum’s catalog, there should be a vertibra in their possession belonging to an even bigger sauropod. The five-foot-long section of spine was part of a massive shipment donated by the paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope at the time of his death. The vertibra is listed on the shipping manifest. The museum has a description but no bone. For over a hundred years, folk have been searching for solid evidence that the largest known creature – Amphicoelias fragillimus – ever existed. It seems more than likely to me that Cope simply made it up. After all, it was too big to lose.

Four Dragons' Heads

He started out as a college sophomore, threatened with expulsion (and a lot of other bad things) for hacking into Harvard’s computer system and making private student ID photos public. Today Mark Zuckerberg is the sixth richest man on Earth. It’s something I think no one anticipated twelve years ago today, when Facebook was launched. It was called “The Facebook” then, and was originally for Harvard students. Today there are more than one and a half billion active users, and we’re addicted. We can’t imagine life without it. As Entertainment Weekly put it, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?" We even let it steal our sleep. If you check Facebook more than once a day, chances are you’re an insomniac. By the way, if you’re reading this between midnight and 5:00 a.m., turn off your screen and go back to bed.

Twenty-five Double Four-Patches

Norwood Thomas and Joyce Morris met in England seventy-two years ago. They were together a short time before he parachuted into Normandy with the 101st Airborne. After the war, Thomas returned to his Virginia home. He wrote Joyce and asked her to come to America, but she declined. So Thomas moved on. He met and married someone else; they raised a family and grew old together. After her death, he began to wonder about the girl he’d left behind. That’s when Thomas’ son Steven received an email from Joyce’s son Robert. Joyce, who now lives in Australia, had asked Robert to see if Thomas was still alive and if he’d be willing to talk. The two sons set up a Skype session so Thomas and Joyce could catch up. Their story went public in November. Since then, hundreds of people have donated to their GoFundMe account. 93-year-old Thomas and 88-year-old Joyce will meet again in Adelaide this Valentine’s Day.

Cross Patch Block

Happy Groundhog Day! If you’re not at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney this morning, shivering to the sound of a polka band and waiting for a woodchuck to see his shadow, you might celebrate the holiday the way I am – by watching a little Bill Murray. I like the dialog in the movie Groundhog Day: “Come on, ALL the long distance lines are down? What about the satellite? Is it snowing in space? Don’t you have some kind of a line that you keep open for emergencies or for celebrities? I’m both. I’m a celebrity IN an emergency.” I also like it for the quilts. There’s a very feminine shabby chic postage stamp quilt on the bed where Phil Connors keeps waking up on February second. There’s also a really fun wall hanging featuring appliquéd ground hogs (with shadows) and Trip-Around-the-World blocks behind Phil’s head as Rita meets Ned Ryerson. 

Sixteen Double Four-Patches

“When I was about 14 years old, my father was called to serve as a mission president in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was not happy about leaving my home in Wyoming and everything I loved to live in a big city for three years. This was the first time in my life that I began to feast upon the words of Christ. I read the Book of Mormon, I prayed, and I determined that, rather than be a burden to my father and mother, I would be a blessing to them during their service. Reading the scriptures and praying can help us press forward with a steadfastness in Christ and maintain a brightness of hope and love toward God and all men. I learned that reading the scriptures and praying help me press forward with a steadfastness in Christ and maintain a brightness of hope and love toward God and all men.” - M. Joseph Brough