December 24, 2018 – davidbruceblog #2

Proverbs 17

1 Better is a dry morsel, if peace be with it, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.

2 A discrete servant shall have rule over a lewd son, and he shall divide the heritage among the brethren.

3 As is the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, so the Lord trieth the hearts.

4 The wicked giveth heed to false lips, and a liar hearkeneth to the naughty tongue.

5 He that mocketh the poor, reproacheth him, that made him: and he that rejoiceth at destruction, shall not be unpunished.

6 Children’s children are the crown of the elders: and the glory of ye children are their fathers.

7 High talk becometh not a fool, much less a lying talk a prince.

8 A reward is as a stone pleasant in the eyes of them that have it: it prospereth, whithersoever it turneth.

9 He that covereth a transgression, seeketh love: but he that repeateth a matter, separateth the prince.

10 A reproof entereth more into him that hath understanding, than an hundred stripes into a fool.

11 A seditious person seeketh only evil, and a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

12 It is better for a man to meet a bear robbed of her whelps, than a fool in his folly.

13 He that rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.

14 The beginning of strife is as one that openeth the waters: therefore or the contention be meddled with, leave off.

15 He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.

16 Wherefore is there a price in the hand of the fool to get wisdom, and he hath none heart?

17 A friend loveth at all times: and a brother is born for adversity.

18 A man destitute of understanding, toucheth the hand, and becometh surety for his neighbor.

19 He loveth transgression, that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate, seeketh destruction.

20 The froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a naughty tongue, shall fall into evil.

21 He that begetteth a fool, getteth himself sorrow, and the father of a fool can have no joy.

22 A joyful heart causeth good health: but a sorrowful mind drieth the bones.

23 A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to wrest the ways of judgment.

24 Wisdom is in the face of him that hath understanding: but the eyes of a fool are in the corners of the world.

25 A foolish son is a grief unto his father, and a heaviness to her that bare him.

26 Surely it is not good to condemn the just, nor that ye princes should smite such for equity.

27 He that hath knowledge, spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.

28 Even a fool (when he holdeth his peace) is counted wise, and he that stoppeth his lips, prudent.

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Source: http://www.genevabible.org/files/Geneva_Bible/Old_Testament/Proverbs.pdf

• Dick Wolf, executive producer of Law & Orderand all of its spinoffs, occasionally has to make tough decisions. NBC’s president of Entertainment Warren Littlefield called him when Law & Orderwas in its fourth season. Mr. Wolf remembers, “Warren called up and said, ‘You’ve got to put women in the show.’ And I said, ‘Well, I just can’t add characters. That means I’d have to make some changes.’ He said, `Exactly.’” Mr. Wolf added S. Epatha Merkerson and Jill Hennessy to the cast, but that meant that he had to fire two male members of the cast. One of those two was Dann Florek. Mr. Wolf called Mr. Florek and told him, “Look, you know, this is a very difficult call. You’re the guy who’s first there every day. You always know your lines. You never bump into the furniture. You’re fired.’ It was terrible. It was the worst call of my professional career.” Fortunately, Mr. Florek later was rehired to play the captain on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

• Actress Suzanne Pleshette is best known for her role as the TV wife of Bob Hartley, played by comedian Bob Newhart, on the hit sitcom The Bob Newhart Show. As Emily Hartley, she was pretty and sexy and memorable; however, her funniest TV moment may have come at the very end of another series starring Mr. Newhart: the series titled Newhart, in which his character runs a country inn in Vermont. At the end of the series finale, Bob wakes up in bed next to Emily, and the audience learns that the entire series Newhartwas actually a dream caused by Bob Hartley’s eating too much Japanese food before going to bed. This, of course, became a part of pop culture, and the satiric Oniononce ran a 1999 story with the headline “Universe Ends as God Wakes Up Next to Suzanne Pleshette.” Ms. Pleshette was known for her deep, smoky voice. She once said, “Telephone operators have called me ‘sir’ since I was 6.”

• Actor Dule Hill played the personal aide to the President on the TV series The West Wing. After three years of playing the role, he was honored when a full-page photograph of him appeared in a book about the series. He bought a copy of the book and gave it to his grandmother. Of course, she was very happy to receive the book. Looking at the full-page photograph of her grandson, she said, “Look what I lived to see.” Mr. Hill says, “I remember that moment—knowing her journey. She’d worked as a seamstress, walked to the bus in the middle of winter…. It taught me that when you pursue your dreams and sometimes you keep working hard, working hard and you may not get the reward yourself—but for the grace of God, it all works out in the long run. That taught me a lot. You don’t know what you do today how it affects tomorrow.”

• Before interviewing Edythe Eyde for a book about the life experiences of elderly lesbians, Zsa Zsa Gershick noticed she had a TV tuned to a daytime talk show about women with very large breasts. Seeing a woman with a size 44EEE chest, Ms. Gershick asked, “What in the world would anyone do with breasts that size?” Ms. Eyde winked and said, “Well, I don’t know about you, but when I was younger, I would have had a hell of a good time!”

• When major-league hockey player Mario Lemieux was young, he and his young brothers were hockey fans. One day, they were watching Hockey Night in Canadaon television when their babysitter turned the channel to one showing a movie that she wanted to see. This shocked and outraged the boys. They locked their babysitter in the bathroom, and when she shouted at them to let her out, they turned up the volume of the hockey game they were watching.

• Margaret Thatcher was a formidable woman and a formidable politician, and her staff was afraid of her. Once, she held a meeting with her staff—yes-men all—and then they went to a restaurant for lunch. The waiter asked Mrs. Thatcher for her order, and she ordered beef. He then asked her, “And the vegetables?” Mrs. Thatcher replied, “They will have the beef as well.” (Actually, this is a joke from a TV satirical puppet show titled Spitting Image.)

• Oral historian Studs Terkel had a show called Stud’s Placein the early days of television, but he was blacklisted because—always interested in politics and the common man—he had signed many, many leftwing petitions. Someone asked him about the petitions, “Don’t you know communists are behind this?” Mr. Terkel replied, “And if the communists are against cancer does that mean we have to be for cancer?”

• Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which she regularly killed vampires with a combination of karate moves and stakes to the heart, really got into the role. She once visited an amusement park where an actor dressed as a vampire jumped out to scare the amusement park visitors—Sarah gave the “vampire” a karate chop.

• Luxury car buffs should love the 1960s tongue-in-cheek TV spy series The Avengers. Among the cars driven by John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee, are a yellow 1923 Rolls Royce Phantom Tourer Mk1, a yellow 1927 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, a green 1926 Speed Six Bentley, and a green 1926 4 1/2 litre Bentley.

• Children’s fantasy author Tamora Pierce sets herself a quota of pages to write each day. As deadlines grow nearer, she must write more pages. If she doesn’t reach her quota of pages, she won’t allow herself to watch TV that day. (Most evenings, she watches TV.)

• Children’s book author and illustrator Graeme Base, who created Animaliaand The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery, is sometimes asked what advice he would give a young person who wants to create their own books. Mr. Base’s advice is simple: “Sell the TV.”

• A priest who guested on Groucho Marx’s quiz show You Bet Your Lifetold him, “I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve put into the world.” Groucho replied, “And I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve taken out of it.”

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