I was sitting on a Boeing 767 on the return journey to Heathrow from Toronto.  The airline was showing the film “Patch Adams” about a doctor who made people laugh. He argued that laughter increased the positive antibodies that fight disease. He was denied his qualification by the hospital where he was studying because he…
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This article appeared in The Times newspaper some years ago – “THE heart-tugging video diary of Christian the lion, a big cat who lived in a London antiques shop, has become an internet sensation – 38 years after he was returned to life in the African bush. The home movie has been watched 6m times…
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Bruce Forsyth, the British entertainer, has celebrated his eighty seventh birthday and is still making the occasional appearance on television. It seems amazing that anyone that age could summon the strength and capacity to perform in that profession at that age. But, Dr. Robert Schuller Snr was still preaching at eighty in the Glass Cathedral…
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A dog called Oscar had as his friend a white cat called Arthur; they were constant companions. One day Arthur died and his owner buried him in the back garden. Next morning he awoke to find Oscar curled up beside Arthur in the same basket where they always slept. It seems that Oscar went out…
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A few years ago there was an internet campaign to save a radio station that broadcasts nothing but birdsong. It is what they call “the whistling call of the wild” as the sound of British birds from a country garden is played on a continuous loop.  They are resisting the possibility of a commercial programme…
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“Early Christians had a weekly celebration of the liturgy on the first day (Sunday), observing the Resurrection. Hence, among Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, Sunday is a liturgical feast; Protestants, applying the idea of the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday, forbade all but pious activity.” There are those denominations that hold ‘religiously’ to Saturday being the…
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Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe in 1719, was put in the pillory from 29th to 31st July 1703 because of a tract he published. His intention in producing the leaflet was to make it look as if a foaming High Anglican zealot of the most bigoted stamp wrote it. Drawing on High-Church sermons, the…
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A few years ago at a men’s breakfast in church I sat with a man who had recently started coming to HICC with his wife. Before they came to us, they worshipped at a non conformist church in Harrow, although originally they were Roman Catholics. When he rang to tell them of his move the…
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My late wife was an excellent singer until Myasthenia Gravis robbed her of her voice. My daughter having grown into her teens took over where Patricia left off and became a fine soloist singing with the British Continentals. My younger son, while studying medicine at Bart’s Medical School, won the Ronnie Scott’s Band of the…
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In January 1999 Sarah Flannery won the Esat Scientist of the year for Ireland with her project on cryptography. “Single-handedly a 16-year-old appeared to have found a way of securely encrypting – that is, the science of secrecy – hiding sensitive information on the Internet, which worked 22 times faster than the one developed at…
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