Strange Royal Facts

I have compiled below some odd facts about former Royalty. Enjoy!

Queen Christina of Sweden (15th Century)

Queen Christina was petrified of Fleas! She was so scared of the little pests in fact that commissioned the construction of tiny cannons that shot even tinier cannon balls at the the bloodsuckers! Whether it worked or not, I don't really know. But it is said that she spent many hours per day firing at them.

Queen Juana of Spain (14th Century)

Queen Juana of Spain (at far left) was deeply in love with her husband, King Phillip. Nothing strange there. But she was so in love that when he passed away in 1506, she refused to allow him to be buried and kept his coffin with her for the rest of her life.

Princess Isabelle - Daughter of King Charles VI of France (Late 12th Century)

Isabella, who was the daughter of the King of France was promised to be wed to Richard II of England to help bring peace between the two warring countries. No problems there, except she was only 7 years old!! The Groom himself was 29 but still consented to the wedding. 3 years after the wedding took place, her husband King Richard was usurped by Henry IV and died 1 year later leaving Isabella, the 7 year old bride as a widow at the tender age of 10.

More later - Take Care,

Vincent Pendley

The Coffee Cup Analogy

I came across this on the web and am taking no credit myself. I'm just republishing it because it is very interesting and makes a great point. Enjoy!

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other’s cups.”

“Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

So please, don’t let the cups drive you…enjoy the coffee instead.

Originally Posted at http://myriadhues.wordpress.com

Interesting facts about Schools

Many familiar schools had different names years ago. Here's a list of what some famous schools were once called.

- Brown University was called Rhode Island College

- Caltech was Throop College of Technology

- Juilliard was the Institute of Musical Arts

- MIT began as Boston Tech

- UCLA had the unusual name California Normal School at Los Angeles.

The oldest continuously operating public school in America is the Boston Latin School, which was founded in 1635.

Harvard, founded in 1636, was named for clergyman John Harvard. It also has more endowments than any other school with a staggering total of $28 Billion.

There are a lot of weird college scholarships available. Some of the stranger ones are given below for the following:

- Being Left Handed

- Being very Tall or Short

- Being good at Duck Calling

- Writing an essay on how milk helped you in school. (Milk mustache scholarship)

- Skateboarding

- Having the last name Van Valkenburg, Gatling, or Gatlin.

- Knowing a lot about the FBI

- Making your own prom dress from duct tape

- Having the best apple pie recipe

- Writing an essay about the novel The Fountainhead

- Planning to study Parapsychology

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Be sure to check out my Music Website at:

http://www.reverbnation.com/vincependley

Also be sure to check out this great website:

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Little Known Star Trek Trivia

Captain Kirk never said, "Beam me up, Scotty," in any episode of Star Trek.

Lloyd Bridges and Jack Lord both turned down an offer to play the part of Kirk.

Aluminum powder blown by a fan provided the shimmer effect of the transporter beam.

Star Trek never made it higher than number fifty-two in the ratings.

The Star Trek theme song has lyrics

William Shatner recorded a spoken-word album in 1969 - The Transformed Man - on which he delivered interpretive recitations of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Mr. Tambourine Man," backed by an orchestra.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife will have their ashes launched into deep space in 2010.

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Be sure to check out my Music Website at:

http://www.reverbnation.com/vincependley

Also be sure to check out this great website:

http://www.whisperofthegarden.com

Little known Facts about Television

In 1884 Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a 20-year old university student in Germany, patented the first electromechanical television system which employed a scanning disk.

A Russian scientist - Constantin Perskyi - first coined the word "television" at the 1900 Paris World's Fair when referring to the transmission of still photographs through electrical wires.

In 1925 Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving silhouette images in London, and of moving, monochromatic images in 1926. Baird's scanning disk produced an image of 30 lines resolution, just enough to discern a human face, from a double spiral of lenses.

Remarkably, in 1927 Baird also invented the world's first video recording system, "Phonovision" -- by modulating the output signal of his TV camera down to the audio range he was able to capture the signal on a 10-inch wax audio disc using conventional audio recording technology.

In 1927, Philo Farnsworth made the world's first working modern television system with electronic scanning of both the pickup and display devices, which he first demonstrated to the press in 1928.

General Electric introduced the first American TV set for sale in 1928.

The first remote control, called "Lazy Bones" was sold by Zenith in 1950. It was connected to the set by a wire.

Color TV's became available in 1951 but most didn't own one until the 1960's

The first show Nationally televised in Color was the 1954 New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade on NBC.

By 1966, all new network programs were broadcast in color.

In 1967, the US Congress mandated PBS (Public Broadcasting System) It began broadcasting in 1970.

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Be sure to check out my Music Website at:

http://www.reverbnation.com/vincependley

Also be sure to check out this great website:

http://www.whisperofthegarden.com

Little known Facts about Squirrels

The word "Squirrel" comes from the Greek Skiouros, meaning "Shadow-Tailed", because they use their tails to keep warm or shade themselves from the sun.

Some squirrels are predatory.

A squirrel's teeth grow continuously and they gnaw to wear them down.

Squirrels are believed to have twice knocked out the NASDAQ market. In 1987, a squirrel caused a transformer power surge, shutting the exchange down for 82 minutes. In 1994, another squirrel chewed through a power line, disrupting trading for 32 minutes.

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee used to fry squirrels in a popcorn maker he had in his college dorm.

Squirrel meat is high in cholesterol.

Some people in the backwoods of Kentucky consider squirrel brains a delicacy.

The eastern gray squirrel is legally classified as Vermin in Britain.

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Be sure to check out my Music Website at:

http://www.reverbnation.com/vincependley

Also be sure to check out this great website:

http://www.whisperofthegarden.com

Really Funny Posts in Real Church Bulletins

Below is a list of completely real phrases that either appeared in Church Bulletins, or were announced in Church between 2007 - 2009. Enjoy!

- The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

- The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

- Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

- Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands!

- The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

- Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say, "Hell," to someone who doesn't care much about you.

- Don't let worry kill you off---let the church help.

- Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

- For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

- Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

- The Rector will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing: "Break Forth Into Joy."

- Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

- At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

- Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

- Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

- Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

- The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

- Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00PM; prayer and medication to follow.

- The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

- This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

- Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in theFellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.

- The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.

- Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

- The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

- **Weight Watchers** will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use the large double door at the side entrance.

- The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday : "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours".

If you hear any more of these, please pass them along or leave a comment!

Thanks
Vinnie

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Be sure to check out my Music Website at:

http://www.reverbnation.com/vincependley

Also be sure to check out this great website:

http://www.whisperofthegarden.com