If you dial 988 (in the United States) you will be connected to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. The new 988 number replaces the previous 11 digit number. The old 1-800 number will continue to work but 988 is the same for calls, text and chat. Veterans can dial 988 and press 1 to connect to the Veterans’ Crisis Line. The new 3 digit number provides ease of access during times of crisis for vets and non-vets alike. Help is available for individuals in need or those who care about them.

Email has been around as long as the internet. (Yeah I know… It’s actually been around much longer but the way we use email today began with the http protocols of 1993.) There are 28 of you that follow The Master’s Table via email, a small number compared to the Facebook and WordPress followers. But just like the 988 number you want to be easily accessible to as many people as possible. I discovered just this week that the Unity Baptist website has zero email subscribers… because there is no option to sign up! I looked at the website front to back, top to bottom, and it’s just a design element that was never added. We have now fixed that. More people download the Sunday sermon every week than attend worship in person. For a small church in a rural community, the website does quite well. We live in a world connected by digital technology and now, for those interested, you can sign up to received new posts via email.

Tuvia Pollack is a friend I made blogging before the social media networks Facebook and Twitter were even things. He is an ethnically Jewish Christian believer who moved his family from Sweden to Jerusalem, Israel. I use him as a primary source for all things Hebrew. An accountant by profession his interests include history and writing. So yeah, he’s pretty cool.

Cylinder #5 has left the conversation. It’s all good, you don’t need that. There are millions of 4 cylinder cars on the road today, I happen to drive one myself.

You probably recognize the Empire State Building just by looking at the top third of this image. It’s the rest of the NYC skyline that makes you say “wait… what?” The Empire State Building was completed in 1931 and was the world’s tallest building until the World Trade Center opened in 1970. When the WTC towers came down in 2001 it was once again the tallest building in the city. The picture above was taken in 1942. Today it is surrounded by tall buildings in every direction but it seems a little odd to see it standing there almost by itself.

Johnny Cash had a great sense of humor. One Piece at a Time was written by Wayne Kemp and recorded by Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three in 1976. I have been familiar with the song for many years but never knew they actually built the car described. Click here if you are unfamiliar or need a refresher. Bruce Fitzpatrick, standing next to the car in the above pic, built the car from Cadillac parts ranging from 1949 – 70 to promote the song internationally. According to Wikipedia, after the House of Cash Museum closed Fitzpatrick retrieved the car… and crushed it. (There is another Psycho-billy Cadillac from Rosco, IL. But the Fitzpatrick car was presented to Cash in 1976 and we have pictures of him in the car. It also more closely resembles the details described in the song as he used the lyrics for blueprints.)

Summer is winding down as are the morning walks/long hikes the kid and I take. Shown above is one of those “there’s something you don’t see everyday” things I like to discover. I don’t know what it is, possibly a cistern or something like a water tower to create pressure at the bottom of the hill. Johannah wanted to climb up there and look inside. I told her that was the most “entrance to the Upside Down” thing I have ever seen in real life. Look at it, there are literally dead vines growing out of the hole. Nope, nope, nope.

This one is for Johannah. I remember playing the original Legend of Zelda on the NES back in the early 90’s. A decade later my wife played Ocarina of Time many hours over a period of many days/weeks on the N64. We recently upgraded to the Nintendo Switch and our tween, who will officially become a teenager in a couple of weeks, has been exploring the world of Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild and building worlds of her own in Minecraft. Don’t worry, she still reads thick books, sculps and paints, and has even practiced her flute once or twice this summer.

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