The Sports Page -- June 12, 2022

PGA: could be an incredible day for the PGA today.  

Later:

Wow, wow, wow! What an incredible day! Rory started to "scare" me four holes from the end, and then he came back strong. I am so amazed how he kept his composure. And I am very, very impressed with the Canadian spectators. Nothing got out of hand. It appears three Canadian police on bicycles were able to keep the hordes off the final green. Amazing. Rory wins by two. Tony Finau in second all by himself two strokes behind. Justin Thomas faded on the last hole and finished four strokes behind Rory. One for the ages. By the way, other than making a gazillion dollars this weekend, how did Phil Mickelson do on the Mideast Senior And European Junior Varsity League (aka, the LIV) do?

NASCAR: 3:00 p.m. CT today?

NBA: game 5, tomorrow night, Monday.

NHL: Stanley Cup, first game, Tampa Bay Lightning at Colorado Avalanche, Wednesday, June 15, 2022; the following Saturday, June 18, Father's Day eve.

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Daycare In Australia

Reality sports.

Why we love TikTok.

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The Book Page

I'll finish Edmund Wilson's The Dead Sea Scrolls, 1947 - 1969, c. 1955, 1967, and 1969, over the next couple of days.

Today's chapter: the Mesha Stele. 

The Mesha Stele, the first major epigraphic Canaanite inscription found in the region of Palestine, the longest Iron Age inscription ever found in the region, constitutes the major evidence for the Moabite language, and is a "corner-stone of Semitic epigraphy," and history. 

The stele, whose story parallels, with some differences, an episode in the Bible's Books of Kings (2 Kings 3:4–28), provides invaluable information on the Moabite language and the political relationship between Moab and Israel at one moment in the 9th century BCE. 

It is the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to the kingdom of Israel (the "House of Omri"); it bears the earliest certain extrabiblical reference to the Israelite god Yahweh. 

It is also one of four known contemporary inscriptions containing the name of Israel, the others being the Merneptah Stele, the Tel Dan Stele, and one of the Kurkh Monoliths. 

Its authenticity has been disputed over the years, and some biblical minimalists suggest the text was not historical, but a biblical allegory. The stele itself is regarded as genuine and historical by the vast majority of biblical archaeologists today.

I have to LOL. Does one really think the writer would have been sophisticated enough to write an allegory? On a stele? This is "transference" at its best. The big questions are:

• exactly where was the stele located in reference to the contemporary audience?
• exactly who was the audience for this stele?
• why would a writer choose a stele to compose an allegory?
• were steles unique or commonplace?
  

I finished the chapter on Masada yesterday. 

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Word For The Day: Tattoo

I've seen a number of YouTube videos of "tattoos" and to my discredit, I have never looked up the etymology of tattoo.

But here it is, as good as it gets, from Edmund Wilson's The Dead Sea Scrolls, 1969, p. 223:

Tattoo is a word which the Israelis have borrowed from the English. "Tattoo" means primarily the beating of a drum at night to recall the soldiers to their quarters. 

Wow, isn't that interesting?

More:

But as "tattoo" is defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary the word may be extended to mean an "elaboration of this -- the drum beating -- with music and marching as entertainment."

And then Edmund Wilson goes on to describe the Israeli Jerusalem tattoo, on the night of May 14th, 1967, which preceded the next day's parade that celebrated the nineteenth anniversary of Israel's Independence Day.

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Global Warming

It is so incredibly hot today. LOL.

Hey, it's summer, and it hasn't been this hot in ten years in north Texas. I never complain about hot weather; I'll mention it but never complain about it. It's wonderful. And most Americans can handle summer weather better than winter weather, and that's a fact, Jack.  

It's so hot today, I have to water the plants on the patio twice today and that's despite keeping them in the shade. Currently 94°F at DFW. 

So far, the Texas grid is holding. 

Air conditioning on in the apartment?

• June 8, 2022, 90°F+: nope.
• June 9, 2022, 90°F+: nope.
• June 10, 2022, 99°F: nope.
• June 11, 2022, 100°F: nope
• June 12, 2022, 100°F+: not yet

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Crazy: I Remember When I Lost My Mind

Crazy, Cover, Foxes and Fossils