King James

No, not Lebron.  The English Royal, King James I, the one with the Bible named after him. When I was a kid, I thought God had dictated the Bible directly to the pen of King James. So when “Revised Standard” and "New Revised" versions started appearing, I was suspicious.  On whose authority?

Actually .. The King James Bible was written between 1604-1611 and contains 66 books, 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament.  The Bible contains texts that are central to both Christianity and Judaism, is a source of spiritual guidance, faith teachings, sermons, parables, teachings from the life of Jesus and early Christians and Jewish traditions. 

The source documents for the New Testament were the Textus Receptus, a series of Greek texts from the 16th century. The Old Testament was a revision of the Bishop’s Bible utilizing Hebrew and Aramaic Masoretic Text, the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible. The translations were accomplished by 27 scholars, all members of the clergy of the Church of England. 

For me the beauty and lyricism of the language makes King James my preferred text. I struggle with contemporary translations. Jesus to Lazarus, "Dude, it's time to wake up".  Nope.  I think I'll stick with "Lazarus, come forth".

The Bible is of course central to the theology of Christianity and Judaism, but it has also impacted the everyday speech for the English speaking world. And it has inspired architects, painters, sculptors, writers, musicians and poets for centuries.  And of course, the jewelry industry.

But the English of 1611 contains many now archaic, obsolete words and phrases, usages and words whose meanings have changed over the past 400 years. This injects a level of confusion for the contemporary reader.  

Most commonly the obscure language in the King James Bible gets dismissed and skipped over with little thought - unless you are a Biblical scholar. So, it is with some degree of joy I’ve discovered a book, Mene, Mene, Tekel, a lexicon of words from the Bible, which attempts to explain some of the mysterious King James language and the sources of common English phrases.

Here's a sampling from the lexicon.

Common phrases you might not realize are Biblical

1. Adam’s Apple.  [Some accounts of the fall from Paradise have it that a piece of the forbidden fruit lodged in Adam’s throat - hence “Adam’s Apple”]    Genesis 3  
2. God Save the King.  [Brits grabbed it]    I Samuel 10:24 
3. The grain of a mustard seed.  [see also tall oaks from little acorns grow]    Mark 4:31
4. Our daily bread.  [Prayer for necessities not luxuries]     Matthew 6:11  
5. Separate the sheep from the goats.  [Slander of goats]    Matthew 25:32  
6. The skin of our teeth  [a near run thing]     Job 19:20 
7. Sign of the times     Matthew 16:3  
8. Suffer fools gladly  II Corinthians 11:19  
9. Swords into plowshares    Isaiah 2:4  
10. A thousand years are but as yesterday   Psalm 90:4 
11. To everything there is a season    Ecclesiastes 3:1
12. Turn the other cheek   Matthew 5:39 
13. Vanity of vanities   Ecclesiastes 1:2  
14. Wars and rumors of wars   Mark 13:7 
15. Feet of clay  Daniel 2:33  
16. Fight the good fight   I Timothy 6:12 
17. Kiss of death   Mark 14:45  
18. Labor of love   I Thessalonians 1:3 
19. A lamb to the slaughter   Isaiah 53:7  
20. A man after one's own heart   I Samuel 13:14  
21. No room at the inn    Luke 2:7  
22. Pearls before swine  Matthew 7:6  
23. The salt of the earth  Matthew 5:13 
24. Sour grapes   Ezekiel 18:2  
25. The stars in their courses   Judges 5:20  
26. The widow's mite   Mark 12:42 
27. Blind leading the blind  Matthew 15:14
28. Nothing new under the sun  Ecclesiastes 1:9 
29. Through a glass darkly  1 Corinthians 13:12
30. In the twinkling of an eye  1 Corinthians 15:52 

Puzzlers

1. Bowels of compassion.  [In the 17th century, the bowels were considered the seat of sympathetic emotions, so there it is in John]   I John 3:17 
2. You cannot serve God and Mammon   i.e. God vs. wealth.  [In  America, it seems God is not a close second]   Matthew 6:24 
3. A pale horse.  [The 4th of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - death]   Revelations 6:8  
4. Balaam's ass.  [Prototype of Mr. Ed]   Numbers 22   
5. The Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit ... Blessed are the meek ...   Matthew 5  
6. A brother to dragons, a companion to owls.  [An outcast]   Job 30:29  
7. The halt and the blind. [halt as in lame]    Luke 14:21 
8. Strain at a gnat, swallow a camel.  [Don't spend time on the trivial]   Matthew 23:24  
9. The voice of the turtle   Song of Solomon 2:12  
10. Hosanna.  Save we pray  Mark 11:9
11. The mark of Cain   Genesis 4:15  

Ponderables

1. Depart in Peace.  Simeon sees the infant Jesus and utters, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace” indicating he was now ready to die.  [Often the final words of a Lutheran church service are “Depart in Peace”   Hmm]   Luke 2:29.
2. Kick against the pricks. [Engage in repeated self defeating behavior]  Acts 9:5  
3. Cast your bread upon the waters.  [Act charitably without the expectation of return]  Ecclesiastes 11:1 
4. A jewel of gold in a swine's snout.  [Outer beauty but inner not so much]   Proverbs 11:22  
5. Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. [Forseeing a time when there is no evil. Hard to imagine]   Joel 2:28 

Life Lessons

1. Entertain angels unawares.  [A caution to treat all people well because you just never know] Hebrews 13:2
2. Let not your left hand know what your right hand does.  [Don’t blow your own horn]  Matthew 6:3
3. Lift the needy out of the dung hill.  Psalm 113:7  
4. Love thy neighbor  Matthew 22:39  
5. Many shall come in my name.  [Beware of false messiahs]  Mark 13:6 
6. The race is not to the swift  Ecclesiastes 9:11 
7. The rich have many friends.  [Why do we behave like sycophants before the wealthy?]  Proverbs 14:20  
8. The sabbath was made for man.  [But going to the casino Sunday morning instead of church is pushing it]   Mark 2:27 
9. What is man that thou art mindful of him?  [An insignificant thing.  see also: the musical Hair]  Psalm 8:4  
10. Where the carcass, there are the eagles.  Matthew 24:28  
11. A soft answer turneth away wrath.  Proverbs 15:1  
12. Pride goeth before a fall   Proverbs 16:18  
13. Six things doth the Lord hate   Proverbs 6:16-19    
14. Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake  I Timothy 5:23 

The go to source for book titles

1. Behold a Pale Horse - Milton Cooper  Revelations 6:8  
2. Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner  2 Samuel 19:4
3. Generation of Vipers  - Philip Wylie   Matthew 3:7  
4. Giants in the Earth - Ole Rolvaag   Genesis 6:4  
5. The Golden Bowl - Henry James   Ecclesiastes 12:6
6. Inherit the Wind - Jerome Lawrence  Proverbs 11:29  
7. The Sheep from the Goats - John Simon  Matthew 25:32  
8. The Skin of Our Teeth - Thornton Wilder  Job 19:20  
9. A Still Small Voice - John Reed  I Kings 19:12  
10. The Last Adam - James Gould Cozzens  I Corinthians 15:45   
11. Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman  Psalm 90   
12. Uncertain Trumpet - Maxwell Taylor   I Corinthians 14:8   
13. A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo  Mark 13:7  
14. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein   Exodus 2:22
15. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck  Revelations 14:19  
16. East of Eden - John Steinbeck    Genesis 4:16
17. Bury the Dead - Irwin Shaw   Matthew 8:22  
18. Through the Eye of a Needle - Peter Brown  Mark 10:25  
19. The Just and the Unjust  - James Gould Cozzens  Matthew 5:45  
20. Lilies of the Field  - William E.  Barrett     Matthew 6:28
21. Cloud of Witnesses - Dorothy L. Sayers   Hebrews 12:1
22. Fear and Trembling  - Søren Kierkegaard    Philippians 2:12
23. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway     Ecclesiastes 1:5

An obscurity

Jael, one tough cookie.  She drove a tent spike through the temple of the commander of the Canaanites  Judges 5:26  

Numerology

144,000

666

40

12

7

3

And of course, all of Handel's Messiah.

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin 

Thomas, We Hardly Knew Ye

For those loyal readers of this blog, you know a lot about the Village of Lowry, the small community I call my hometown. A village conjures images of a sleepy, friendly place - it takes a village to raise a child kind of place. I have posted dozens of essays about that little spot in Pope County, some not so bucolic :  its history, early settlers, people, family, businesses, landmarks, the railroad, disasters, tragedies-natural and man-made, rebellions, folk lore, photographic history, the Leghorns-both the chickens and ball team, accidents, murder-suicides, WWII and Great Depression ... (see a few samples below)

But only a passing reference to the naming rights.  These belong to Thomas Lowry, the Twin Cities street car, real estate and railroad magnate. He was the President of Soo Line Railroad & Twin City Rapid Transit street car line. I suspect few if any current Lowry residents would recognize the name. In the 1890's, apparently, Lowry was in the running to be a Soo Line hub and repair center but lost out to Glenwood so that probably contributed to Thomas' apparent antipathy for his namesake village - and he garnered a like return. But by all accounts he was highly respected and admired, known to his employees as "the old man,  pillar of the Twin Cites society. He died in 1909 of tuberculosis.

But in the Village of Lowry, there is no Thomas Lowry Bronze Statue, no Thomas Lowry Portrait in the village offices, no Thomas Lowry Memorial, no nothing. Just his name on the water tower. You would think his wealthiness would have been nudged to at least endow a hospital named for him or a recreation center or a fire truck - something. He had the coin. He spent some to buy the Lincoln Funeral Car to use as a street car promotion. But a raging grass fire in Columbia Heights destroyed it before it could be restored and moved to a museum site near the Sibley House. But for his village, nada. A spurned step-child.

It's not as if the Thomas was a wallflower.  

Here's Thomas Lowry memorial in Minneapolis.

And the Thomas Lowry Mausoleum in Lakewood Cemetery.

I believe there are more things named after Thomas in Minneapolis & St. Paul than most any other person.  The swanky Lowry Hill neighborhood, 94 Lowry tunnel, Lowry Ave & Lowry Ave Bridge, Thomas Lowry Park, Thomas Lowry Elementary School (torn down), Lowry Hotel (condemned), Lowry Medical Arts Building (now condominiums), The Lowry seafood restaurant (defunct) - and Lowry Dairy Queen (thriving but unfortunately in Nordeast, not rural Pope County).

   

 

So he certainly wasn't shy about having his name plastered about. But if our village founders had exercised a little more prescience, they could have named the place Carnegie and at least gotten a library out of the deal.

Appendix A

Here's a sampling of Village of Lowry related posts if you want to catch up.

Postcard from Gust Nelson. Lowry circa 1916

The Town                                                  The Bank

The Red Brick School                              Lowry Pioneers

Lowry Area Honor Roll                            Lowry's Latvian DP's

        

Hoplin & Nelson Hardware                      Hold That Line

Quaking in Our Boots                               Martin & Marian

H&N Nick Chicks                                    The Barber Shop

The Town Hall                                          Lowry To The Rescue

Architectural Wondering                           Death and Destruction

Workin' at the Store                                   Doc Gibbons & Doc McIver

Main Street - west side                             Main street - east side

Town Team Baseball

Photographic History of the Village of Lowry    

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin 

Deep Thoughts July '26

Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken.  It’s not about non-conformity. It’s about how we can’t really know where our choices are going to lead us. Not only that, but we’re probably going to regret those choices either way. There is always going to be a road not taken. We only get to live once. Nothing we do is ever going to wholly satisfy us in the end.  From The Index of Self-destructive Acts

Life can only be lived forwards and understood backwards.  Kierkegaard

Memory is a dog that wants to please its master. William Boyd

85% of Americans believe they are above average drivers.

54% of American adults read below the 6th grade level. (~130 million)

Women account for 80% of all fiction sales in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

62% of all statistics are made up.

MAGA Christianity. Pete Hegseth's pastor prayed for a Democratic Senator's death on a podcast. 

American Taliban.

In South Korea, Seoul Central District Court sentenced former president of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison after he was found guilty of leading an insurrection against the government. 

The only way "talking head" pundits can maintain the attention of their audiences is to ramp up their outrageous behaviors. 

High School history & civics courses are often taught by teachers whose main interest is coaching.  More than ever, democracy demands knowledgeable citizens.

It seems America faces a choice: Either it can have unrestrained partisan gerrymandering, or it can have a democratic republic. It can’t have both.  Henry Olsen

It is unbelievable how many announcers deem sports plays unbelievable.

Why are so many boys often named after the father but girls rarely after the mother?

Know this about your laissez faire attitude towards discrimination. It will eventually get around to you.

The designated hitter rule is an example of Marxist alienation from holistic labor. George Will probably

It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.  Will Rogers

If your pocket buzzes you with a text notification, do you immediately look at it? Ivan Pavlov QED.

The following poem accompanied the Minnesota state seal and 1983 flag. If you love the old flag, this is what you stand for:

The Seal of Minnesota. By Mrs. Eastman.

Give way, give way young warrior,

 Thou and thy steed give way—

 Rest not, though lingers on the hills,

 The red sun's parting ray.

The rocky bluff and prairie land

 The white man claims them now,

...

+ 8 more stanzas in the same vein

Dwight D Eisenhower credited his mother with helping him handle his temper. “She did a lousy job,” recalled one aide.

Congressional pay of 175k is not enough so insider trading is necessary to take care of their family. Mike Johnson

Well over half of Congress are millionaires. The Senate has been dubbed the “Millionaires Club” with 73 of 100 with net worth > 1M

More and more people are investing in Hamburger Helper.

The stock market is not the economy. The top 10% wealthiest American households own approximately 87% of all stocks.

If you are under the illusion that you understand Wall Street, there is this. "Daily DOW options arrive as zero-day trades reach half Cboe index volume"

How's your crypto account doing these days?

Those who teach poetry make more money than those who write it.

Minnesota is the hardest place in the country to get people to move to - or from.  Lee Lynch

I find this disheartening. University of Minnesota golf course's 18 holes will be replaced with 1800 housing units.

The Saturday Strib barely covers the birdcage.

The story of greedflation, that companies raise prices when there’s a crisis, not because their actual costs have gone up, but because with everybody raising prices, who will notice if I get greedy?  Paul Krugman

I’m old enough to remember when we were a serious country.  Paul Krugman

Government service used to value competence. Now the only thing that matters is fealty.

Not so long ago, it would have been called un-American.

Why can't political parties field serious candidates? Why has the bar for our politicians fallen so low?

Kakistocracy.

These days it takes at least 3 pitchers to throw a no-hitter.

$109,700. San Francisco Housing authority low income threshold for "low income" status for a single person.

Not knowing the Second Law of Thermodynamics is like never having read a work of Shakespeare.  C.P. Snow 

An example: A clean room naturally tends to get messy over time unless energy is put into it

The Trump administration has essentially ended refugee admissions to the United States, with only one exception: White South Africans.  Undisguised racism.

USAID cuts killed people. That’s the truth. NY Times

Cruelty is the point.

We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people—our strength—from every country and every corner of the world.  Ronald Reagan

Any policy designed to help people gets labeled socialism. Look it up. Social democracy is not socialism.

Very, very few Americans are socialists but very, very many say "hands off my Social Security and my Medicare".

In most states, if no one else is at an intersection, it is legal for a bicycle to treat a stop sign as a yield.

The fake AI generated image that broke my camel’s back: an image of Sandy Koufax pitching right handed. 

AI = Outsourcing your brain.

There's a high probability that you are suffering from Nomophobia.

Whereof you do not know, thereof you must remain silent. Ludwig Wittgenstein If our politicians followed Wittgenstein’s advice, we would hear little from them.

The U.S. is becoming irrelevant to the rest of the world. e.g. "Europe is done with American Big Tech".

The American Military-Industrial-Complex, aided and abetted by this administration, is endangering our security by resisting the obvious transition to drone warfare because $4 million Patriot missiles and billion dollar battleships are more profitable than a $35K drone. It is a betrayal of America in the service of money and ego.

I believe that Don Caesar would love to give thumbs up/thumbs down after each UFC bout.

22 specialists.

Humans consistently show a preference toward moving counterclockwise.

Right now, a faraway region of the universe is pulling the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies toward it. We’re technically moving at blistering speeds of around 1.3 million miles per hour in its direction. 

Almost always, ascending to the presidency represents service and sacrifice, not profit.

$2.2B

Sadly, we have learned to excuse what we should condemn. Where is the outrage?

Writing stabilizes thoughts; it allows you to see connections that thoughts alone cannot.

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin

Organ Recital

Three years ago I plied you with my emergency gall bladder surgery experience and it's deterioration so extreme the National Museum of Health and Medicine inquired about the specimen. (I might have imagined that). I vowed never anything like that pain again. Man proposes and God disposes, so I should not have been surprised by my next pain chapter, a ruptured appendix, sending me into the same hospital and a room with nearly the same lovely view of the James J Hill house and the Basilica.

My appendix, in the words of a surgical nurse, was no longer an appendix but rather a blob of acute inflammation heading toward abscess, a phlegmon, kind of a cute name for something so nasty.

[Findings suggest a contained, perforated appendicitis with phlegmon/developing abscess] 

It caused me to wonder how many necrotic organs I can produce and surrender before the entire vessel goes that route.  Both the gall bladder and appendix seem like minor, mostly useless organs one can do without. So it seems unfair that they can cause such extreme pain and threaten your life.  Compared to the sibling organs in the abdominal cavity, these two are pretty small potatoes, so to speak, not even meriting redundancy like kidneys or lungs or eyes. But my gall bladder was gangrenous for Pete’s sake and the appendix was about to rupture with peritonitis a real possibility. Another near run thing.  How many of those do you think you're allotted?

I was under the assumption that an acute appendicitis sufferer was wheeled into an OR, cut open, sewed up and sent home with an ice cream cone. But medical procedures have apparently advanced since 1955. Nowadays, surgery is something to be avoided if at all possible. Knowing a few surgeons, this is quite amazing to me as they seem to live to cut you open. Instead, the treatment was mega intravenous doses of the antibiotic Zosyn plus liter upon liter of Ringers lactate. After a couple bloody IV's, my arm looks like I'd been in a knife fight and came in second. I went into the hospital with a high fever, stomach and back pain and feeling generally pretty rotten. I confess I was pretty sure this was all kidney related but after a CT readout the UR soon put my self-diagnosis to rest and sent me on to the ER and 3 days in a hospital bed. A lesson - if you are your own medical or legal advisor, you have a fool for doctor or lawyer.

The saga is not over by any means. I continue on a twice daily antibiotic regimen with pills that cover the palm of my hand. And I must visit a surgeon in a couple weeks for another CT scan and an assessment, where the penchant to flash the scalpel may be too great to overcome. 

... to be continued

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin