News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Gates of heaven open William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 12-25-24
Ymj gjxy tk fqq lnkyx fwtzsi fsd Hmwnxyrfx ywjj nx ymj uwjxjshj tk f mfuud kfrnqd fqq bwfuuji zu ns jfhm tymjw.
Gzwyts Mnqqnx
Answer to yesterday’s puzzle:
The gates of heaven open Christmas Eve
Irish Legend
Love in action William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 12-24-24
Xli kexiw sj liezir stir Glvmwxqew Izi
Mvmwl Pikirh
Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.
Dale Evans Rogers
Remember Larry Sherry This Hanukkah
By Joe Guzzardi
Larry Sherry, the hurler who pitched his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers to a four-game 1959 World Series sweep against the Chicago White Sox, overcame multiple physical challenges before he excelled in high school basketball and professional baseball. Both sides of the Sherry family were Jewish immigrants from Russia; Sherry’s maternal great grandfather was a Rabbi. Born with club feet, Sherry endured several operations that began at age six. Young Sherry was fitted with special shoes which he wore his entire life. But Sherry overcame his physical trials to star on the diamond and to captain the Fairfax High basketball team.
Larry’s older brothers Stan, George and Norm were also standout Fairfax athletes; Norm became a Dodgers’ catcher who not only assisted brother Larry but also the greatest Jewish pitcher of all-time, Sandy Koufax. Norm, Larry and Sandy became fast friends.
Immediately after he graduated from Fairfax High in 1953 at age 17, Sherry signed with the Dodgers who assigned him to its low-minor league Santa Barbara team. Sherry was rarely used and wound up the season with a 1-2 record. The following year, he was with the Bakersfield Indians and the Great Falls Electrics with a combined 7-8 record. At Newport News in the Piedmont League, his next stop, Sherry finished with a 5-10 record and, based on his poor showings, appeared destined for a minor league career. The road for Sherry up to the parent Dodgers was long and arduous.
Pitching for Class A and Class AA minor league teams, Sherry still showed little promise. Nevertheless, the next to last place pitching-desperate Dodgers called Sherry up in 1958, and he flopped. In five innings, he had a 12.43 ERA and was promptly demoted. During the off-season, Larry and Norm headed to Cuba where the catcher taught his pitcher brother the slider. Armed with an effective new pitch, Sherry opened the 1959 season with the Triple-A St. Paul Saints. On Independence Day of 1959, the Dodgers called up Sherry again.
Larry started out with the Dodgers by losing two one-run decisions. Then, lightning struck. Sherry won seven consecutive games and was credited with three saves. Hurling ninety-four innings, he gave up only seventy-five hits, walked 43, and struck out 72. He appeared in relief fourteen times and pitched 36-1/3 innings with an amazing 0.74 ERA. Sherry then topped off his 1959 season with his spectacular World Series performance that propelled the Dodgers to a 4-0 sweep against the Chicago White Sox. Credited with two wins and two saves, Sherry pitched 12-2/3 innings with a miniscule 0.71 ERA and won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award. In 1960, then starting pitcher Sherry won fourteen games and on May 7, Larry and his brother Norm were batterymates. The Sherry brothers became the first Jewish brother battery in major league history.
Although only 25, Sherry’s effectiveness declined sharply. The Dodgers sold Sherry to the Detroit Tigers after the 1963 season. Sherry then moved on to the Houston Astros until he eventually ended up with the California Angels in 1968, his final year as an active player. Sherry’s 11 years in the majors ended with 53 wins and 44 losses, with an acceptable earned run average of 3.67.
After the Angels released Sherry, he signed on as the Pacific Coast League Seattle Rainiers’ pitching coach, and then moved on to coach the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Angels. Sherry retired from baseball in 1980 to pursue his other passion—golf—in Mission Viejo, California. Larry died from cancer at age 71. Norm’s final year in baseball was 1963 with the New York Mets. Before he died at age 89, Norm was the guest speaker at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival for the screening of “Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story.”
Larry Sherry’s career stats may be underwhelming but factor in that they were achieved with two club feet and they become remarkable.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com
Remember Larry Sherry This Hanukkah
Democrat Sites Not Being Updated
By Bob Small
Sometimes the simplest question ends up being the most complicated to discover an answer to. When one does a Duck Duck Go search for Swarthmore Democratic Committee, three locations pop up. One is a website and the other two lead to the same Facebook page.
Neither lists any of the alleged 21 Swarthmore Democratic Committee members although it does say Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet which is a Latin phrase that is used as placeholder text in publishing.
To be fair, the Media Democratic Committee page hasn’t been updated since 2106.
The Springfield Democratic Committee site lists a full slate but still includes material not updated since 2021.
Democrat Sites Not Being Updated
The Haverford Township School District is stridently secular but we still want to wish them something in the spirit of the season so with help from former Vice Principal Steven Quinn we — especially Sharon– say Happy Holidays Haverford.
Christmas Pagan? Nope — Conventional wisdom has become that the holiday celebrating the birth of Christ is something the early Christians co-opted from a pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice.
A Muhlenberg College history professor says that is completely backwards.
William J. Tighe, an associate professor at the college in Allentown, says that Christmas really was thought to be the date of the Lord Jesus’ birth.
The thinking then was that great Jewish prophets died on the date of their birth or conception.
The date of Jesus’ death can be calculated from Gospel accounts.
The faction using the Latin calendar wound up placing the Crucifixion at March 25, according to Tighe. This was the faction that became dominant in the West.
The Latin church determined that was also date that the Archangel Gabriel announced that Mary was with child. Nine months later, on Dec. 25, would be the Lord’s birth.
March 25 is still celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation.
Tighe notes that Rome didn’t celebrate Dec. 25 as a pagan holiday until the anti-Christian Emperor Aurelian declared it to be the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” in 274. By then, Christianity was already making its impact well felt on the Empire.
Tighe is also a faculty advisor to the Catholic Campus Ministry and a member of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bethlehem.
Christmas Pagan? Nope
Hat tip Bob Guzzardi
Caesar Augustus William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 12-23-24
Mrbscdwkc, wi mrsvn, sc vyfo sx kmdsyx. Ofobi dswo go vyfo, ofobi dswo go qsfo, sd’c Mrbscdwkc.
Nkvo Ofkxc Byqobc
Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
Luke 2
Chewing tobacco William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 12-22-24
Rw cqxbn mjhb j mnlann fnwc xdc oaxv Ljnbja Jdpdbcdb cqjc juu cqn fxaum bqxdum kn nwaxuunm. Jwm Sxbnyq jubx fnwc dy oaxv Pjurunn, oaxv cqn lrch xo Wjijancq, cx Sdmnj, cx cqn lrch xo Mjerm, fqrlq rb ljuunm Kncqunqnv, knljdbn qn fjb xo cqn qxdbn jwm urwnjpn xo Mjerm, cx kn nwaxuunm frcq Vjah, qrb kncaxcqnm, fqx fjb frcq lqrum.
Udtn
Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: Never slap a man while he’s chewing tobacco
Frank Underwood
