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.