Jesus Christ’s first miracle in the New Testament, as described in the Book of John, was turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana in Galilee.
The Gospel of Thomas includes miracles performed by Jesus as a child. It is considered a Gnostic text, and proto-orthodox Christians regard it as inauthentic and heretical.
According to tradition, Saint Thomas did his missionary work in India. There the Christianity is practiced in Syriatic and is of the Church of Antioch making it one of the oldest (possible the oldest) continuances of Early Christian rites and practices.
Up in the very north end of Greenland, up at 83° north latitude, is Thomas Glacier. It is in an area called Roosevelt Land which is in Northeast Greenland National Park.
Northeast Greenland National Park is the world’s largest national park. It is 375,000 square miles in size. Were it a country, Northeast Greenland National Park would be the 30th largest country in the world.
The Kingdom of Denmark, which includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands, would be the 12th largest country in the world by area. However, the country of Denmark, which excludes the autonomous territories, is considered to be only the 130th largest country in the world.
The 10 largest countries in the world by total area are Russia, Canada, China, United States, Brazil, Australia, India, Argentina, Kazakhstan, and Algeria.
Listed with total area, and total land mass in square miles:
| Rank | Country | Area (sq mi) | Land Mass (sq mi) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | 6,601,665 | 6,323,142 |
| 2 | Canada | 3,855,101 | 3,511,022 |
| 3 | China | 3,747,877 | 3,624,807 |
| 4 | United States | 3,618,783 | 3,531,837 |
| 5 | Brazil | 3,287,955 | 2,966,151 |
| 6 | Australia | 2,969,906 | 2,966,151 |
| 7 | India | 1,269,345 | 1,147,955 |
| 8 | Argentina | 1,073,518 | 1,056,641 |
| 9 | Kazakhstan | 1,052,089 | 1,042,360 |
| 10 | Algeria | 919,595 | 919,595 |
The Slavic languages are a language family, spoken primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and portions of Asia. There are ten Slavic languages which have more than a million speakers, and which are the national languages of the countries in which they are predominantly spoken:
- Russian
- Belarusian
- Ukrainian
- Polish
- Czech
- Slovak
- Bulgarian
- Macedonian
- Serbo-Croatian
- Slovene
The Balkan Mountains define the Balkan Peninsula. The highest point is Botev Peak, 7,795 feet high. Botev Peak is close to the geographic center of Bulgaria and is named for Bulgarian poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev. It was previously named Yumrukchal, and also Ferdinandov.
The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the the Adriatic, the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and the Black Seas. It is separated from Central Europe in the north by the Danube and Sava Rivers.
The Danube River flows through more countries than any other (ten): Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.
“An der schönen blauen Donau” (“By the Beautiful Blue Danube”), commonly known as “The Blue Danube” in English, is a waltz, composed by Johann Strauss II in 1866. The piece has become one of the most consistently-played and familiar works in classical music. The piece regularly appears in popular culture, including being featured in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and in the Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies animated short “A Corny Concerto.”
After a trip to Vienna, Walt Disney was inspired to create four feature films. One of those was The Waltz King, a loosely adapted biopic of Johann Strauss, which aired as part of The Wonderful World of Disney in the U.S. in 1963.
Klaus Nomi sang an avant-garde countertenor version of the Cold Song from the opera King Arthur by Henry Purcell just a couple of weeks before his death from AIDS.
The SS Arthur M. Anderson was the last ship to be in contact with the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on the night she foundered, 10 November 1975. 29 men perished on the Mighty Fitz.
Canadian folk and country singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot passed away yesterday (May 1st, 2023), at age 84. Lightfoot was a prominent writer and performer during the 1960s and 1970s, and is widely considered to be one of Canada’s greatest songwriters. He was known for a number of popular songs, including “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
The bell of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, which is located in Whitefish Point, Michigan. The lighthouse located on the same grounds is the oldest operating lighthouse on Lake Superior. The present light tower was constructed in 1861 during Abraham Lincoln’s administration.
I’ve been to that museum. Highly recommended.
That museum is on my list.
Update: okay, I’ll turn my comment into a play.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is at the Whitefish Point Light Station, in Chippewa County, Michigan. The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee is the opening line of Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Also in the song, for the line The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald, that church is the Mariners’ Church of Detroit, at 170 East Jefferson Avenue.
Comment: that church is also on my list. Would be great to be there for the observance on a 10 November. Chilling, really.
Gordon Lightfoot and Ian Tyson played together in the opening ceremony for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary; their set included Tyson’s “Four Strong Winds” and Lightfoot’s “Alberta Bound”. With temperatures below freezing, Lightfoot was coatless because he rushed out of the bathroom, after hearing their cue at the last minute.
The 1988 Winter Olympics would be the last attended one for both the Soviet Union and East Germany NOCs. It would also be the last Winter Olympics that the USSR (later, Russia) would lead in Gold medals won (11) and total medals (29).
The 1988 Winter Olympics were also remembered for the “heroic failure” of both the British ski jumper, Michael Edwards, and the debut of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team. Both of them became subjects of major feature films about their participation in these Games: Cool Runnings by Disney in 1993 and Eddie the Eagle by 20th Century Studios in 2016.
In 2004, the Democratic ticket for President and Vice President of the United States included two men named John - Kerry of Massachusetts and Edwards of North Carolina. They were narrowly defeated by the Republican ticket of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney that November.
The 2000 presidential election could have had a bizarre outcome. Bush and Cheney were both residents of Texas meaning if they won the state, the 32 electors could have each voted for Bush or Cheney but not both. Under the 12 Amendment, a holdover from the original voting rules were that electors had to vote as one of the two candidates for someone not from their state. Cheney fixed that problem by changing his residency back to his home state of Wyoming.