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In These Otsego Hills

January 17, 2013

Even more from the email bag ...

This week we offer a selection of "Holy Humor."

A father was approached by his small son who told him proudly, "I know what the Bible means!"

His father smiled and replied, "What do you mean, you 'know' what the Bible means?

The son replied, "I do know!"

"Okay," said his father. "What does the Bible mean?"

"That's easy, Daddy..." the young boy replied excitedly," It stands for 'Basic Information Before Leaving Earth.'"

———

There was a very gracious lady who was mailing an old family Bible to her brother in another part of the country.

"Is there anything breakable in here?" asked the postal clerk.

"Only the Ten Commandments," answered the lady.

———

Somebody has said there are only two kinds of people in the world. There are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good morning, Lord," and there are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good Lord, it's morning."

———

There is the story of a pastor who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation: "I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program. The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."

———

While driving in Pennsylvania, a family caught up to an Amish carriage.

The owner of the carriage obviously had a sense of humor, because attached to the back of the carriage was a hand-printed sign... "Energy efficient vehicle: Runs on oats and grass. Caution: Do not step in exhaust."

———

A Sunday school teacher began her lesson with a question, "Boys and girls, what do we know about God?"

A hand shot up in the air. "He is an artist!" said the kindergarten boy.

"Really? How do you know?" the teacher asked.

"You know — Our Father, who does art in Heaven... "

———

People want the front of the bus, the back of the church, and the center of attention.

———

The minister was preoccupied with thoughts of how he was going to ask the congregation to come up with more money than they were expecting for repairs to the church building. Therefore, he was annoyed to find that the regular organist was sick and a substitute had been brought in at the last minute. The substitute wanted to know what to play.

"Here's a copy of the service," he said impatiently. "But, you'll have to think of something to play after I make the announcement about the finances."

During the service, the minister paused and said, "Brothers and Sisters, we are in great difficulty; the roof repairs cost twice as much as we expected and we need $4,000 more. Any of you who can pledge $100 or more, please stand up."

At that moment, the substitute organist played "The Star-Spangled Banner."

And that is how the substitute became the regular organist !

———

Alice Grayson was to bake a cake for the Baptist Church Ladies' Group in Tuscaloosa, but forgot to do it until the last minute. She remembered it the morning of the bake sale and after rummaging through cabinets, found an angel food cake mix and quickly made it while drying her hair, dressing and helping her son pack up for Scout camp.

When Alice took the cake from the oven, the center had dropped flat and the cake was horribly disfigured. She said, "Oh dear, there is no time to bake another cake."

This cake was important to Alice because she did so want to fit in at her new church, and in her new community of friends. So, being inventive, she looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake. Alice found it in the bathroom, a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in and then covered it with icing. Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it looked perfect.

Before she left the house to drop the cake by the church and head for work, Alice woke her daughter, Amanda, and gave her some money and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the moment it opened at 9.30 a.m., and to buy the cake and bring it home.

When the daughter arrived at the sale, she found the attractive, perfect cake had already been sold. Amanda grabbed her cell phone and called her mom. Alice was horrified, she was beside herself. Everyone would know! What would they think?

She would be ostracized, talked about, ridiculed!

All night Alice lay awake in bed thinking about people pointing fingers at her and talking about her behind her back.

The next day, Alice promised herself she would try not to think about the cake and would attend the fancy luncheon/bridal shower at the home of a friend, and try to have a good time. Alice did not really want to attend because the hostess was a snob who more than once had looked down her nose at the fact Alice was a single parent and not from the founding families of Tuscaloosa, but having already RSVP'd she could not think of a believable excuse to stay home.

The meal was elegant, the company was definitely upper crust old South...and to Alice's horror, the CAKE in question was presented for dessert! Alice felt the blood drain from her body when she saw the cake! She started out of her chair to tell the hostess all about it, but before she could get to her feet, the mayor's wife said, "what a beautiful cake!"

Alice, still stunned, sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say, "Thank you, I baked it myself." Alice smiled and thought to herself, "GOD is good."

PLEASE NOTE: Comments regarding this column may be made by mail at 105 Pioneer St., Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 547-8124 or by email at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com

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In These Otsego Hills
  • Comments and questions and updates, oh my ... We must say that we tend to think the number of issues floating around recently is somewhat overwhelming. In fact, there are times when we feel we are having trouble keeping track of them all. And so, we thought we might attempt to sort some of them out.

    June 13, 2013

  • Once again, hope springs eternal ... We are happy to report that although Mother Nature did her best to thwart the annual Upper Pioneer Street Block Party, she was not successful.

    June 6, 2013

  • To park or not to park ... Every so often one's plans go awry. And sometimes it is really rather disappointing. But every so often the opportunity arises to transform the situation into something which works out to be quite all right.

    May 30, 2013

  • The week that was ... For a number of years now, we have not been in Cooperstown for the spring season. And we must admit that we had quite forgotten what it is like. But since we decided that travel was not on the docket for this year, we have become reacquainted with the Cooperstown spring. And we must say we rather enjoyed it with the possible exception of occasional uncalled for snow and seemingly frigid temperatures.

    May 23, 2013

  • Imagine what might have been ... A while back we got a telephone call from a reader of this column wanting to know why we had not written a column in support of Otsego Manor continuing to be owned and operated by Otsego County. And even though we have followed the debate over this issue in the newspaper, we readily admitted we did not feel we knew enough about the situation to take a stand.

    May 16, 2013

  • Time, if not traffic, moves on ... It is with sadness we note the passing of two people who we have known since moving to Cooperstown in 1982.

    May 9, 2013

  • The importance of speaking up ... Over the years we have come to understand that, in writing a weekly column, it is not possible to always please everyone. And such was the case with our column that ran at the end of March in which we wrote about our experience as in inpatient following a total hip replacement.

    April 25, 2013

  • Easter brought plenty of dinners to attend We are most happy to report that we did very well this year in the "Easter Dinner" category. In fact, we managed to take in two such dinners, the first of which was a family get-together held on Saturday night at the Fly Creek home of Alice and Harvey Eckler.

    April 11, 2013

  • For everything there is a season ... It is with sadness that we note the recent death of Grace Welsh.

    April 4, 2013

  • Not just the cost of health care matters ... After last week's column regarding billing procedures within the health care industry, we have been asked if we have an opinion regarding the quality of health care regardless of its cost. And while we cannot speak to the overall quality of health care in the country, we can answer the question when it comes to our own experience, most particularly our inpatient experience, with the quality of the health care system locally.

    March 28, 2013