A Brainteaser and a Biblical Quotation

A communications code word of seven letters and a chiefly Scottish word of four letters have two letters in common. The fourth letter in the communications code word is the same as the third letter in the chiefly Scottish word, and the second letter in the chiefly Scottish word, the Scots' word for church, is the same as the sixth letter in the communications code word. What are that seven-letter communications code word and that four-letter, chiefly Scottish word for church?

To read the answer to this brainteaser, click here  for the communications code word and here for the chiefly Scottish word.

From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,

called to be an apostle

and set apart for God's good news. . . .

To those in Rome

who are dearly loved by God

and called to be God's people.

(Common English Bible: Romans 1:1, 7)

For the Birthday of Agatha Christie

Today is the 135th anniversary of the birth of English detective-story writer Agatha Christie (1890 -1976).

"Truth," I observed, laying aside the Daily Newsmonger, "is stranger than fiction!" So begins Agatha Christie's detective story "The King of Clubs" (1923), in which detective Hercule Poirot says in part, "Not only is truth stranger than fiction -- it is more dramatic."

The great minds of Agatha Christie"s fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss (Jane) Marple have at least once thought alike. In Mrs. Christie's detective novel The ABC Murders Poirot says, "There is nothing so dangerous for anyone who has something to hide as conversation! Speech, so a wise old Frenchman said to me once, is an invention of man's to prevent him from thinking. It is also an infallible means of discovering that which he wishes to hide. Every time he will give himself away." In Mrs. Christie's detective novel A Caribbean Mystery Miss Marple says, "Conversations are always dangerous, if you have something to hide."

Puzzle: What's in a Name?

"What's in a name?" wrote William Shakespeare. "That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."

"The rose of all the world is not for me," wrote Hugh MacDiarmid. "I want for my part only the little white rose of Scotland that smells sharp and sweet . . . "

The two words of the name WHITE ROSE contain the nine letters of a single word. What is that nine-letter word?

To read the answer to this puzzle, click here.

William Shakespeare

Emmett Till

EMMETT TILL

by James A. Emanuel

I hear a whistling

Through the water.

Little Emmett

Won't be still.

He keeps floating

Round the darkness,

Edging through

The silent chill.

Tell me, please,

That bedtime story

Of the fairy

River Boy

Who swims forever,

Deep in treasures,

Necklaced in

A coral toy.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till. To read more about Emmett Till, click here.

"The Death of Emmett Till" is a folk song that Bob Dylan wrote and sang. To read the lyrics of that song, click here. Listen now to Bob Dylan singing 'The Death of Emmett Till" in the music video below.

My Arrogant Younger Brother

The final two lines in the second stanza are those

of Proverbs 21:4 from The New English Bible.

Brother on his high 

Horse looks down on me and rides 

Roughshod over me.

I will not sit at table 

With my proud, pompous brother.

Brother on his high 

Horse looks down on me and rides 

Roughshod over me.

"Haughty looks and a proud heart --

These sins mark a wicked man."

The Prayer of Abandonment

"Charles de Foucauld is remembered today as a desert hermit and missionary, and as author of 'The Prayer of Abandonment,' a petition of radical faith and surrender." So begins "A Short Sketch of Charles de Foucauld's Life" by American writer William Woolfitt in his poetry collection Charles of the Desert: A Life in Verse (Paraclete Press, 2016). "The Prayer of Abandonment," without its title, is the epigraph in that poetry collection. Here is that prayer.

I abandon myself into your hands;

do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do, I thank you:

I am ready for all, I accept all.

--Charles de Foucauld

1858 - 1916

To read more about Charles de Foucauld, click here.

Emily Dickinson's Best Poems

My Arrogant Younger Brother Roger

Brother on his high

horse looks down on me and rides

roughshod over me.

His haughty eyes and his proud

heart I must not tolerate.

In Memory of John Denver

Though I am not Prince

Matchabelli, nor was meant

To be, I can't seem

To forget you, John Denver.

Your "Windsong" stays on my mind.

Listen now to John Denver

singing his "Windsong":

Who is now reading this?

Here is an untitled poem from "Calamus" (1860), a group of poems in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Intended as a complementary section to the group of poems titled "Children of Adam," the poems celebrate "the manly love of comrades." Calamus is a hardy and aromatic kind of grass or rush, often called sweet flag.

Who is now reading this?

May-be one is now reading this who knows some wrong-doing of my past life,

Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly loved me,

Or may-be one who meets all my grand assumptions and egotisms with derision,

Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.

As if I were not puzzled at myself!

Or as if I never deride myself! (O conscience-struck! O self-convicted!)

Or as if I do not secretly love strangers! (O tenderly, a long time, and never avow it;)

Or as if I did not see, perfectly well, interior in myself, the stuff of wrong-doing,

Or as if it could cease transpiring from me until it must cease.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

A Father Who Trusts in the Lord

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in Him.

(Jeremiah 17:7)

"But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,

     whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water

     that sends out its roots by the stream'

It does not fear when heat comes;

     its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

     and never fails to bear fruit."

(The Bible, New International Version: Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Competition: Runners

THE RUNNER

On a flat road runs the well-train'd runner,

He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs;

He is thinly clothed; he leans forward as he runs;

With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais'd.

Walt Whitman

I can be precise about the day it began. It was December 10, 1974. That was the day I met Billy Sive, and he asked me to coach him.

So begins Patricia Nell Warren's novel The Front Runner (1974), a landmark classic novel that is the most celebrated gay love story of all time. As the back cover of Wildcat Press's 20th Anniversary Edition of that novel says, "Harlan Brown is a tough, conservative track coach -- hiding from his past at a small college. Billy Sive is a brilliant young runner who is homosexual -- and doesn't mind who knows it. When they fall in love, they will enter a race against hate and prejudice that takes them to the '76 Olympics and a shocking, shattering conclusion." To read more about the novel The Front Runner, click here.

Easter, the Day of Resurrection: Mary Magdalene

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

John 20:11-16

But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher, and saw two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said unto her, "Woman, why weepest thou?" She said unto them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

Jesus said unto her, "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" She, supposing him to be the gardener, said unto him, "Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said unto her, "Mary." She turned herself, and said unto him, . . . "Master." 

Mary Magdalene

by Richard Burton

At dawn she sought the Saviour slain,

To kiss the spot where he had lain

And weep warm tears, like springtime rain;

When lo, there stood, unstained of death,

A man that spoke with low sweet breath;

And "Master!" Mary answereth.

From out the far and fragrant years

How sweeter than the songs of seers

That tender offering of tears!

Monday in Holy Week

MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK

by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

"The Voice of my Beloved."

Once I ached for thy dear sake:

Wilt thou cause Me now to ache?

Once I bled for thee in pain:

Wilt thou rend My Heart again?

Crown of thorns and shameful tree,

Bitter death I bore for thee,

Bore My Cross to carry thee,

And wilt thou have nought of Me?

Salt Water: A Puzzle

"There's room in the world for one historical folk-rock singer to make a decent living, and I happen to be it." So said a famous Scottish musician the letters of whose first and last names can be rearranged to form the phrase SALT WATER. What are that historical folk-rock singer's first and last names?

The answer to this puzzle is here and in the music video below.