Leaderboard

Praise the Lord!! Praise the Lord!!

I am doing all the heavy-hitting today, a complete christmas dinner with all the trimmings. She may not be able to eat much of it, but its still a good way to be together. THAT is our GIFT this year, that God gave us. A friend who sent me an email the other day said it like this: What more could we ask for?

? And be whole Mar 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

5 Chilling Facts You Probably Didn't Know About The Exorcist On December 26, 1973, The Exorcist, based on the book by William Peter Blatty, opened in theaters across the country. The film has been out for 46 years now, but there are still some chilling details that even the biggest horror buffs might not know. Here are 5 crazy facts about the movie The Exorcist… The Theatrical Release Caused “Cinematic Neurosis” Over the holiday weekend that The Exorcist opened and the weeks that followed, visceral audience reactions swept the country. Fainting, vomiting, panic, and even reports of miscarriages and heart attacks lead to further reporting of panic and hysteria surrounding the film’s release. The frenzy was so publicized that it even lead to medical journalists giving a psychiatric name for the craze associated with the horror film, titled “cinematic neurosis.” To say that the film struck a nervous chord in America would be putting it mildly. The Movie Was Based on a Real Exorcism William Peter Blatty's novel upon which the film was based, also called The Exorcist, was itself inspired by a real-life exorcism that took place in 1949. A boy in Maryland, known only by the pseudonym "Ronald Doe," suffered from an inexplicable ailment. After the death of the boy’s aunt, strange occurrences that included odd noises, furniture moving by itself, and objects flying through the air began. Doctors couldn't help, so the family consulted their Lutheran Priest. He referred them to the Roman Catholic Church, which approved an exorcism after inspecting the circumstances of the possession. The Film Set Was Believed to Be Cursed Actor Jack MacGowran and actress Vasiliki Maliaros both died shortly after filming wrapped on The Excorcist. MacGowran of the flu, Maliaros of natural causes. Actresses Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair were both injured while filming the movie, and the son of Mercedes McCambridge, who voiced the demon, murdered his wife and two daughters before taking his own life after being accused of fraud in November of 1987. All told, nine people associated with the movie died violently, mysteriously, or during or immediately after filming. It Was Banned in the UK In 1974, The Exorcist was released in the UK with an X rating. A few local authorities banned the film, which led to buses providing transit for The Exorcist viewing tours. Then, in 1988, it was banned from video sale under the Video Recordings Act. Though it had already been available for seven years, it was taken off shelves. Because apparently the British government had nothing better to do in the 80s than review movies for home release suitability. It Was the First Horror Film to Be Nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Exorcist was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and took home two: Best Screenplay and Best Sound Mixing. It's nomination for Best Picture made it the first horror film nominated for the prestigious award, a feat not even Rosemary's Baby could claim six years earlier, when it nabbed a few historic noms. The Silence of the Lambs is the only horror film to win the Best Picture award.

And feared God ? Neh 7:2 That I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.

I dont see what possible advantage this kind of idea would have to any serious study of scripture. I took the trouble to read this article, and IMO it is one of the most dis-jointed, convoluted pieces I have read in a long time. Too many connections that have no basis in fact for my taste.

Joe: I do not deal with favor, I deal with truth and facts. I do not agree with Dr. Heiser that it was a local flood, but I agree with his understanding of supernatural and not flesh mixing angels. I don't seem to get the same thing from him that you are saying at all! The opposite which what I quoted from him. So let's his quote speak for themselves shall we! Despite the metaphorical nature of the language in the Eden story, the idea of divine beings producing human spawn who would oppose Yahweh’s desires does appear in Genesis 6:1–4. “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” (Genesis 6:1–4, ESV) The origin of the Nephilim How are we to understand from Genesis 6:4 that the Nephilim were upon the earth at the time of the flood “and also afterward”? How do we process their original presence? Any viewpoint that strips the account of its supernatural flavor must be discarded. The events described in Genesis 6:1–4 were part of Israel’s supernatural worldview. We cannot pretend they saw things as most modern readers would. Since the Nephilim were part of Israel’s supernatural worldview and their descendants turn out to be Israel’s primary obstacle for conquering the promised land, the conquest itself must also be understood in supernatural terms. There are two possible approaches to the origin of the Nephilim in Genesis 6:1–4 that are consistent with the supernatural understanding of the sons of God in the Israelite worldview. How did the Nephilim survive the flood? Genesis 6:4 pointedly informs readers that the Nephilim were on earth before the flood “and also afterward.” The phrase looks forward to Numbers 13:33, which says with equal clarity that the oversized descendants of Anak “came from the Nephilim.” The sons of Anak, the Anakim, were one of the giant clans described in the conquest narratives (e.g., Deut. 2:10–11, 21; Josh. 11:21–22; 14:12, 15). The text clearly links them to the Nephilim, but how is this possible given the account of the flood? The problem is one that has puzzled interpreters since antiquity. Some Jewish writers presumed the answer was that Noah himself had been fathered by one of the sons of God and was a Nephilim giant. Genesis 6:9 clearly wants to distance Noah from the unrighteousness that precipitated the flood—so this explanation doesn’t work. There are two alternatives for explaining the presence of giants after the flood who descended from the giant Nephilim: The flood of Genesis 6–8 was a regional, not global, catastrophe. The same kind of behavior described in Genesis 6:1–4 happened again (or continued to happen) after the flood, producing other Nephilim, from whom the giant clans descended. Who (or What) Were the Nephilim? - LogosTalk Sitchin's Mistakes Sitchin assumes "nephilim" comes from the Hebrew word "naphal" which usually means "to fall." He then forces the meaning "to come down" onto the word, creating his "to come down from above" translation. In the form we find it in the Hebrew Bible, if the word nephilim came from Hebrew naphal, it would not be spelled as we find it. The form nephilim cannot mean "fallen ones" (the spelling would then be nephulim). Likewise, nephilim does not mean "those who fall" or "those who fall away" (that would be nophelim). The only way in Hebrew to get nephilim from naphal by the rules of Hebrew morphology (word formation) would be to presume a noun spelled naphil and then pluralize it. I say "presume" since this noun does not exist in biblical Hebrew -- unless one counts Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33, the two occurrences of nephilim -- but that would then be assuming what one is trying to prove! However, in Aramaic the noun naphil(a) does exist. It means "giant," making it easy to see why the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) translated nephilim as gigantes ("giant"). Here is a screen shot (not good quality) of Aramaic naphil(a) from Morris Jastrow's Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (1903; page 923, or page 243 of 1061 of the online PDF of volume 2). Notice that Jastrow actually gives us the form of the plural in Aramaic: nephilim (ending in "n" not "m" as Aramaic plurals do). It is most likely that nephilim is an Aramaic term imported into Hebrew during the final editing of the Hebrew Bible in Babylon (where Aramaic was the lingua franca) and then the ending was corrected to Hebrew rules of word formation. Both phenomena are known in the Hebrew Bible. The notes on this below are from the scholarly 2 volume work, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, by P. Jouon and T. Muraoka (Paragraph 90, sections c and d-a): As noted above, Sitchin wants to argue the term nephilim means "those who CAME DOWN from heaven" so he can make the nephilim sound like ancient astronauts. Not only does this confuse two characters in the Genesis 6 episode (the sons of God and the nephilim are not the same; they are different groups; see below), but it is a translation impossibility with respect to biblical Hebrew grammar. The verb "to go down" in biblical Hebrew is not naphal; it is yarad. The verb naphal can mean something approximate to "came down" under one condition: it must occur in the Hiphil ("causative") stem in Hebrew grammar. If you know Hebrew, you know this is because the Hiphil stem adds either a prefixed letter to the verb and an a-class vowel (or both) in the verb conjugations, and any such occurrences in the Hebrew Bible are therefore not spelled "nephilim." Lastly, I want to discuss what is still to me an amazing error in Sitchin's printed work. Granted, I do not believe Sitchin knows much about the ancient languages in which he claims expertise, but this error is especially shocking. Why? It shows Sitchin cannot tell the difference between Hebrew and Aramaic--and they both use the same alphabet. In his book Stairway to Heaven, Sitchin quotes from a Dead Sea Scroll called the Genesis Apocryphon 110-112. In an effort to defend his idea that the nephilim and the sons of God are the same, he writes: "But as we examine the Hebrew original, we find it does not say 'watchers'; it says 'Nephilim'." The quotation shows that Sitchin did not know the Qumran text was written in Aramaic, not Hebrew, and he also mistranslated it, for the word "Watchers" is actually in the text he quotes AND has pictured in his book! To the right is an image of the transcription of the passage in Sitchin's book and a translation. Both come from The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition Vol. 1:Q1-4Q273 - Vol II: 4Q274-11Q31 CD , ed. by Florentino Garcia Martinez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, scrolls specialists (our text is in volume 1). The pink word is the word for "Watchers" and the yellow word is the word Sitchin notes in his quotation, "nephilim." Sitchin either did not know the word "Watchers" was indeed in the text or left it out of his discussion. Since BOTH words appear in his transcription in his book, I'm not sure which is the case. Dr. Michael S. Heiser; The Nephilim: Sitchin Is Wrong Here is another problem there were many different tall tribal people in Canaan: Og of Bashan and his people were Amorites, the Rephaites, King Rabbath of the Ammonites as well but not tyrant like the the Anakim. A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but YAWHEH destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead: Deut 2:21 Remember the Ammonites come from Lot and one of his daughters! Here is the problem that you need to really look at the whole picture. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of IsraEL, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Num 13:31-3 All the people they saw were tall in stature, but the sons of Anak, the correct word is they were bullies and tyrants. Again, I repeat the Hebrew word H5303"nephı̂yl nephil," there is no Biblical plural word nephilim at all it made up and it is the work of Satan. He will deceive man any way he can if you let him!

We traveled 350 miles to Atlanta for a family gathering. So many will be there that the church social hall was rented out for the day for Christmas dinner. Fun times!

Joe: That is true some of them were bullies and tyrants like the Philistines, Goliath was a bully also and he came from Ham's second son. The Hebrew word is "nephı̂yl nephil" H5303 and not H5307 "nâphal" The plural word that is translated Nephilim is not in the Bible! Again a made up plural word it is strange to me that EL, ELAHH and ELOHIYM which are singular and the plural word is in the Bible. The word is a Latinized transliteration that is not correct! There’s a lot said and written about the word nephilim. I know it may sound incredible, but practically all of it is wrong—even what’s written by Old Testament scholars. It’s a case of one scholar parroting what the scholar before him or her has said, and so on down the line. If you’re not a Hebrew scholar, have no fear. You’ll be able to understand this. That is, you don’t need to know how to read Hebrew to follow what I’ll say. If you’re a follower of ancient astronaut theorist Zecharia Sitchin, you may want to run the other way since this short paper will not only show you how the meaning Sitchin’s says is impossible really IS what the word means, but you’ll see how sadly inept Sitchin’s work in Hebrew is. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you are a Hebrew scholar, please note that I’m serious about the above claim that most of what’s written about this word is wrong. You’ve probably accepted the idea that the word nephilim is simply the masculine plural participle of Hebrew naphal. It isn’t. As you read, ask yourself a fundamental question: Have I ever asked myself why the typical explanation that nephilim comes from Hebrew naphal doesn’t jive with Hebrew morphological patterns for a masculine plural participle in any stem? Dr. Michael Heiser, (“Mike has taught over two dozen courses over the span of 15 years of undergraduate teaching. He is currently the Academic Editor at Logos Bible Software in Bellingham, WA.”) In Genesis, chapter six, the account of Noah and the flood includes a Hebrew word that is erroneously translated as “giant.” Strong’s Greek dictionary shows that the word actually means “properly, a feller, that is, a bully or tyrant.” “Feller” is an older language word derived from the word “fell,” which is defined: “Cruel; barbarous; inhuman,” according to Webster’s 1828 dictionary. Compilation and commentary by Stella Paterson; January 2013 (Amended February 2, 2013) And YAHWEH Said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession. The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims. Deut 2:9-11 For it was of YAHWEH to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as YAHWEH Commanded Moses. And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained. Jos 11:20-22 Joe: I want to thank you once again, because of you, I truly was concern for you and others! I also want know how H5307 "nâphal," which is the root word and the word nephilim the so call plural is not spelled or related to this Hebrew word at all. Matter of fact it it looks like H5303"nephı̂yl nephil," yet they want to relate it H5307"nâphal?" Would care to explain this logic, I can show it not correct and you can see it truly, yourself! This plural word that just does not appear to be correct because it was made up to try and put a myth in the Bible. The Bible clearly says to add or subtract from it and here we go again! Thanks to you, I prayed about it and THE HOLY SPIRIT guided to me to do some intensive research on the word. The word is not a plural ancient Hebrew word and a modern renown scholar like Dr. Michael Heiser in the Hebrew language agrees with me. I have had Logos for many years. The differences with all of these scholars they don’t realize that men were taller than they are now. Again, I give you the Redwood Trees! What I don’t understand is why, you don’t want to reason as you have in the past? I know exactly what you said, and it was “Following your claim that Canaanites were black (which I don't accept), most of the people God destroyed were probably black. Does that make God a racist?” First, you don’t accept the truth in the Bible that all of the Canaanites were not Black! When the Bible said that they came from Ham. Not once did it mention anything about anyone of them coming from falling angels in that passage or any passage. No, YAHWEH is not racist nor did HE allow angels to mate with human. HE stated from the beginning that male and female created flesh beings would mate and reproduce. HE never warned anywhere to the pair after sin to watch out for angels who would try to mate with them. THE ALMIGHTIES ONES, I serve warn about all sin and this would not make any sense. Finally, the above Scripture shows that Joshua destroyed Anakims and the Bible said none were left in the land. So, your claim does equate with any of the Bible. I have provided you Bible Scriptures first. I pray for you earnestly to pray for THE MOST HIGH to reveal to you the truth. Blessings!

Ho Ho Ho, Here's 5 Things You Didn't Know About Christmas December 25 is Christmas Day, and it has been celebrated since the year 336 A.D. when the Roman Emperor Constantine held the first celebration. Here are 5 surprising facts you probably didn't know about Christmas... Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer Was a Promotion By a Popular Department Store The red-nosed reindeer was created in 1939 by Robert L.May, an advertising copywriter for Montgomery Ward department store based in Chicago. Every year the store would give away free coloring books as holiday gifts to the children who visited the store. Rudolph's story sold 2.4 million copies in its first year of publication. The famous song was released in 1949 becoming one of the best-selling songs of all time. You Can Thank Prince Albert For Your Christmas Tree You might want to brew a cup o' tea when decking your halls this year. The origin of Christmas trees goes all the way back to ancient Egyptians and Romans, who marked the winter solstice with evergreens as a reminder that spring would return soon. But it wasn't until Prince Albert of Germany introduced the tree to his new wife, Queen Victoria of England, that the tradition really took off. A drawing of the couple in front of a Christmas tree appeared in Illustrated London News way back in 1848 and as we say today, the idea went viral. The First Department Store Santa Appeared in Massachusetts James Edgar was a department store owner in Brockton, Massachusetts. In 1890, he dressed as Santa Claus, which delighted his patrons as they brought their children in to greet him. However, Santa Claus wasn’t the only character portrayed by Edgar. In addition, he was known to dress as a sea captain, George Washington, and a clown, among others. Edgar was an imaginative, progressive man, instituting a layaway policy in his department store. Celebrating Christmas Used to be Illegal .By the time the Puritans settled Boston, celebrating Christmas was outlawed. Talk about missing the Christmas spirit! From 1659 to 1681, anyone caught making merry would face a fine for celebrating the once-pagan day. And after the Revolutionary War, the new Congress found the day so unimportant that they even held the first session on December 25, 1789. Christmas wasn't proclaimed a federal holiday for nearly another century, proving that the Grinch's notorious hatred of the holiday was alive and well long before he was. Edward Johnson Invented Electric Christmas Lights Edward Johnson was an inventor that never created anything of value. The highlight of his career was that he often worked with the legendary Thomas Edison. All this changed in 1882, when Johnson created the first-ever electric Christmas lights, for personal use at his home in New York. Though very much a one-hit wonder, these lights were enough of a hit to permanently etch his name onto the long list of great American inventors.

5 Things You Didn't Know About Van Gogh_2 On December 23, 1888, Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. Van Gogh's life had been marked by irrational and unexpected behavior, but these episodes did not stop him from creating some of the world's most famous paintings. Here are 5 things you didn't know about Van Gogh... He Produced Some of His Most Famous Paintings While in a Mental Asylum After the ear incident came hospitalization, and following that, Van Gogh voluntarily went into a mental institution. The more than 100 paintings he produced during this period include some of his most celebrated works, such as “The Starry Night,” which was acquired by New York City’s Museum of Modern Art in 1941, and “Irises,” which was purchased by an Australian industrialist in 1987 for a then-record sum of $53.9 million. There Were Four Vincent van Goghs Vincent van Gogh the artist was named after his older stillborn brother Vincent, who was in turn named after their grandfather. Another of van Gogh’s brothers, Theo, fathered a son – whom he named Vincent Willem van Gogh. He Used to Work as a Priest but Was Dismissed When He Decided to Live With Minimal Material Goods Van Gogh spent some time as a priest, working with miners and impoverished communities. He had a sudden revelation at one point that he should get rid of his material goods and began living a spartan life, essentially as a pauper. The church was not supportive of this, reasoning that a priest living in what looked like poverty was a poor representation of the church, and Van Gogh was dismissed. He Sold Only One of His Paintings While He Was Alive Out of about 900 paintings, Van Gogh managed to sell only one, and that one was toward the end of his life. His fame occurred after his death when his brother, and then his sister-in-law (after his brother's death), started to loan out his paintings in an effort to make his name and art more well-known. His sister-in-law, Jo Van Gogh-Bonger, also published his letters to his brother after her husband's death. In fact, she declined to simply sell the collection of paintings and instead began arranging exhibitions. Even after her death, her son, named Vincent Willem Van Gogh after his uncle, continued the work, eventually opening the Van Gogh Museum in 1973. He Committed Suicide in 1890 .On 27 July 1890, van Gogh shot himself in the chest and died 2 days after. It is thought that the shooting took place in the wheat field where he had been painting. After the shooting, he managed to walk back to his residence at Auberge Ravoux where he was treated by two doctors. However, he eventually passed away as a result of infection. According to his brother Theo, his last words were "La tristesse durera toujours", meaning: "the sadness will last forever".

Five Super-Presidential Marriages in U.S. History On December 22, 1968, Julie Nixon married David Eisenhower at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. Here are 5 political marriages that intertwined in surprising ways throughout the years... David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon Started Dating in College David Eisenhower, the grandson of Dwight Eisenhower, and Julie Nixon, the daughter of Richard Nixon, had become acquainted during the Republican National Convention in 1956. They started dating in 1966 while they were both attending college. It was reported that when David Eisenhower went to Smith College, where Julie Nixon was a student, he announced to a security guard “David Eisenhower here to see Julie Nixon”, the guard thought it was a joke responding, “Yeah, and my name is Harry S. Truman.” The Daughter of George Washington’s Stepson Married an Interesting Fellow Although George Washington had no children, he treated Martha’s children from her previous marriage just like his own, going so far as to adopt George Washington Parke Custis, who was his step-grandson. Custis’ daughter, Mary Anna, married Robert E. Lee, who was her third cousin. That was an interesting family connection, especially since the great-great-grandmother of Lee was the great aunt of Thomas Jefferson. Zachary Taylor’s Daughter Married a Man Who Was Famous During the Civil War Sarah Knox Taylor, one of Zachary Taylor’s daughters, fell hard for Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, who was his second-in-command and later became the President of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Davis served as Colonel under the command of General Zachary Taylor in the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican–American War. In 1835, the young couple married, despite hesitation by her parents. However, the new bride contracted malaria quickly after her marriage and died three months later. William Henry Harrison Was Benjamin Harrison’s Grandfather Benjamin Harrison served as the 23rd President of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, creating the only grandfather–grandson duo to have held the office. Benjamin’s daughter, married James Blaine Walker, the grandnephew of James G. Blaine, her father’s secretary of state. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Married His Cousin Here’s a twist. How about a presidential relative who married another presidential relative, and then later became president himself. Did you follow all of that? Here is what happened: Teddy Roosevelt’s niece, Anna, married his fifth cousin, Franklin. You probably know them better as FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt. That's right, Franklin Delano Roosevelt married his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1905.

5 Fascinating Facts You Didn't Know About Crossword Puzzles On December 21, 1913, the first crossword puzzle was published in the New York World. Here are 5 fascinating facts you probably didn't know about crossword puzzles... Crossword Puzzles Have Their Own Holiday December 21 is celebrated as Crossword Puzzle Day in honor of the first one that was published. It wasn’t long before doing crossword puzzles became a popular national pastime, and people around the country looked forward to their daily newspaper delivery, pencils in hand. Those who decide to celebrate Crossword Puzzle Day can make up their own, join a competition among other enthusiasts, or just enjoy some relaxing time while they exercise their brains. The First Published Crosswords Were Controversial The New York Times wasn’t complimentary early in the days of crossword puzzles when it said it was not a game or sport and was a sinful waste of time to look for letters to words that fit into a pattern that was prearranged. By the following year, nine dailies in Manhattan and 14 additional large newspapers were offering crosswords. The New York Times, ever stubborn, declared crosswords dead in 1929 and held out for many years before including them in the newspaper in 1942. Crossword Puzzles in the NYT Began Because of the War Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which brought America into World War II, an editor at the New York Times decided that publishing crossword puzzles was a good idea to occupy people’s minds and give them something to do if a blackout occurred. Published daily, freelancers construct the puzzles for the newspaper and internet and as the week goes along, they become more difficult, culminating in the huge Sunday puzzle. Will Shortz has been the editor and a contributor to The New York Times crossword puzzle since 1993. Shortz holds a degree in enigmatology (in other words, puzzles). Crossword Puzzles Were Suspected of Sending Secret Messages During the War It was suspected during World War II that crossword puzzles were being used for espionage, especially some that appeared in The Daily Telegraph in Great Britain. This is because codenames related to the Normandy invasion appeared to be in the solution to the crosswords such as “Omaha,” “Utah” and “Overlord.” Because Leonard Dawe, the puzzle creator, was at the Strand School, which had been evacuated to an area next to the place where preparations were being made for the invasion, he was arrested. It was determined later that he was innocent of any attempts at espionage. Doing Crossword Puzzles Is a Healthy Brain Exercise Crossword puzzles are not only interesting but can boost vocabulary and brain function as well as improve memory. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, working crossword puzzles may slow the memory decline found in patients with Alzheimer's or other dementias by two or more years.

5 Rare Facts About The King of Rock And Roll On this day in 1957, while spending the Christmas holidays at Graceland, rock-and-roll star Elvis Presley received his draft notice for the United States Army. Here are five shocking facts about the "King of Rock and Roll"... Elvis Was Drafted at the Height of His Career While at the top of his career and shortly after buying his mansion, Graceland, Presley got his draft notice in the mail. Although fans wrote the army in the tens of thousands, asking that he be excused from service, Presley wanted to serve. He did receive one deferment while he was finishing up King Creole. However, he was sworn into the army as a private on March 24, 1958, in Memphis. He Helped Increase the Number of Polio Vaccinations The rock and roll singer turned out to be a great role model for young people in America. Although vaccination rates were high for younger children in the 1950s, they were low for teenagers, so Elvis supported the vaccination push by appearing on national television and getting his shot. The vaccination rates shot up to 85 percent from two percent by the time Elvis left the Army on March 2, 1960. Fifteen of the Songs Elvis Recorded Contained the Word “Blue" ”“Blue Suede Shoes,” “Blue Hawaii” and “Blue Christmas” are probably the best well-known of Elvis’s blue songs, but there were 12 others, and no one seems to know why he was attracted to songs that contained this word. Other songs that Elvis recorded containing the word “blue” are “Milkcow Blues Boogie,” “G.I. Blues” and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” One interesting thing about the King of Rock and Roll is that he never wrote any of the songs he recorded. Presley Was a Germophobe The King of Rock and Roll, according to his wife, was a germaphobe and went out of his way to ensure he was safe from germs wherever he went. When he dined at the homes of other people, he went so far as to bring along his own silverware. In addition, when handed a drink, he would turn it around and drink from a cup next to the handle because he thought no one else ever did that. Presley Liked to Pretend to Be a Policeman Famous people can sometimes get away with things that ordinary folks can’t. One of the things Presley liked to do was pretend to be a member of law enforcement. He would stick a police siren on his car and pull over drivers for speeding, after which he would lecture them on the dangers of speed and hand over an autograph. Elvis also often stopped by police stations late at night and on holidays to visit the officers who were serving the public. He also famously met with President Nixon to offer his services as an undercover FBI agent.