Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life Devotional for November 4
There are a lot of "odd but true" facts that float around. I guess they fit the category of things that make you go, "Huh?" They are those facts that follow the famous and the infamous that just don't seem to be real. They are as varied as can be but some have a common thread that tie them together. In the realm of happenstance they are the nuggets in the bottom of the pan after all the water is sloshed out. They run the gamut from the ridiculous to the unbelievable.
Every now and then political figures are linked in bizarre ways. One such instance involves a man who desired the White House. John F. Kennedy's mother, Rose, was born on July 22 which just happens to be the birthday of former presidential hopeful Bob Dole. Speaking of Bob Dole, following his loss to Bill Clinton in the election he moved into the infamous Watergate apartments. His next door neighbor? None other than Monica Lewinsky, the intern who almost cost Clinton the presidency.
Most of you may not have any idea where Winnetka, Illinois is. You might try asking Ann-Margaret. She attended school there; as did Rock Hudson and Charlton Heston. In 1978 Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand had a hit with a duet, "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." The two Brooklyn-born superstars had sung together before the '78 hit. Believe it or not, while they were students in New York City's Erasmus High School, they both sang in the school choir.
Speaking of being together. Danny DeVito and Michael Douglas were cast as strange bedfellows in the films "Romancing the Stone" and "Jewel of the Nile." Strange bedfellows indeed considering the fact that they shared an apartment when they were first starting out. Another dynamic pair that roomed together is Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman while studying theatre at Pasadena Playhouse. The two were voted the rather dubious honor of "Least Likely to Succeed."
Odd links like these are the stuff of pondering playfulness. Other odd links are the stuff of focusing a person's destiny. There is a man named Perez in the lineage of Jesus (Matthew 1:3) listed as the son of Judah by Tamar. The reason Judah fathered a child with her is because he did not give her a husband in a timely fashion after Judah's son Er died without a son. However, he did it without knowing as Tamar posed as a prostitute to lure Judah into her bed while he was on a trip to Timnah. (read the story in Genesis 38) How perfect that one who would die for the sins of man, regardless of their severity, would have such a questionable background.
