FORTY

---

Note: This is the poem with which I ended last year’s Lent poem project (The Psalm 37 Menagerie). It also proved a fine and fitting end for this year’s The Strange Sum of Things.

THIRTY-NINE

---

Note: The Jews had a law limiting whip lashes to 40 (Deuteronomy 25:3). To ensure this was never exceeded, “39 lashes” became the standard of punishment. Paul mentions undergoing this penalty five times in 2 Corinthians 11:24 . Whether Jesus’ flogging was 39 lashes or not we cannot say as His punishment was conducted by Romans. It was probably much more cruel than the Jewish version, and something that Bouguereau in his The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1880) somewhat sanitizes.

THIRTY-EIGHT

---

Note: American chemist Roy J. Plunkett accidentally discovered the non-stick polymer, Teflon, on April 6, 1938, which ended up revolutionizing cookware. The .38 Special was the standard revolver for law enforcement from the 1920’s until 1990.

THIRTY-SEVEN

---

Note: The normal temperature for a healthy body is 37 degrees Celsius (or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

THIRTY-SIX

---

Note: The gas krypton has the atomic number 36 and, due to its high stability, is often used in lighting features, including runway lights at airports.  Good news for us. Not so much for Superman.

THIRTY-FIVE

Note: Voyager 1, launched in 1977, took 35 years to reach the edge of the heliosphere (the protective solar wind zone cast around our sun) and entered into interstellar space (the vast area between stars and their astrospheres). Voyager 1 is still active and sending data back to earth some 15 billion miles away from the sun. The image is a NASA artistic depiction of the heliosphere of our sun.

THIRTY-FOUR

---

Note: “Kringle’s cane” is an allusion to the delightful end of the classic Christmas movie Miracle on the 34th Street.

THIRTY-THREE

---

Note: Jeff Bezos, founder of the Amazon empire, first became a millionaire at the age of 33. Jesus Christ died on the cross at the age of 33.

THIRTY-TWO

---

Note: There are 32 black squares, 32 white squares, and 32 pieces on the chess board at the beginning of the game!  In this poem I am imagining our current polarized culture as one big game of chess.

THIRTY-ONE

---

Note: Baskin-Robbins’ 1945 original flavors: Banana Nut Fudge, Black Walnut, Burgundy Cherry, Butterscotch Ribbon, Cherry Macaroon, Chocolate Almond, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Fudge, Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Ribbon, Coffee, Coffee Candy, Date Nut, Egg Nog, French Vanilla, Green Mint Stick, Lemon Crisp, Lemon Custard, Lemon Sherbet, Maple Nut, Orange Sherbet, Peach, Peppermint, Fudge Ribbon, Peppermint Stick, Pineapple Sherbet, Raspberry Sherbet, Rocky Road Nut, Strawberry, Vanilla Burnt Almond.  Image by Maya Schedrina on Pixabay.com, used by Commons Creative License.

THIRTY

The Last Supper, Leonardo Davinci, 1495-1498

Note: Davinci’s famous painting captures the moment Jesus announces that one of His disciples will betray Him. Davinci breaks from tradition by placing Judas close to his right. Notice that he clutches a bag of silver coins, and that his face is turned away into partial shadow. The cut-out image above with labels is from https://smarthistory.org/leonardo-last-supper/.

TWENTY-NINE

---

Notes: the human skull has 29 bones; Saturn’s orbit around the sun takes 29 years; Twentynine Palms is a city in CA known for dark night skies ideal for stargazing, and serves as a gateway to the Joshua Tree National Park.

TWENTY-EIGHT

---

TWENTY-SEVEN

---

Note: 27% of the world is land. 72% is ocean. 1% is fresh water.

TWENTY-SIX

---

Notes: I don’t know much about poker, but I do know you have to have a face that gives nothing away!  The atomic number for iron is 26. Today’s whimsical image was created by nokono and shared on Pixabay.com, used with the creative commons license.

TWENTY-FIVE

---

Note: The 50 State Quarters Program was a 10-year initiative (1999-2008) by the U.S. Mint to honor each of the 50 states with unique designs.  The back of the Wisconsin quarter featured a cow, a wheel of cheese, and an ear of corn. A few rare quarters were misprinted with an extra leaf on the cornhusk and these coins have become valuable, some selling for more than $2,000.

TWENTY-FOUR

---

Notes: 1.) Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God is the sixth of nine beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12.  2.) Alchemy is the medieval forerunner of chemistry, rooted in the notion of transforming base metals into gold. 3.) Chromium is a dense base metal with the atomic number 24. 4.)Jesus’ first miracle in the Gospel of John was turning water in purification jars into amazing wine at a wedding in Cana (see John 2:1-11). 5.) 24-carat gold is the purest form of gold with no other metals mixed in. 6.) Image by GDJ on Pixabay.com, Creative Commons License.

TWENTY-THREE

---

Note: “Twenty-three skidoo” is an early expression of American slang, meaning, “shoo”, “go away,” “get out of here”.  Below is a usage example from the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn published in 1943:

“He dispersed the crowd very simply by telling them he'd send for the pie wagon and take them all down to the station house if they didn't twenty-three skidoo.”  

TWENTY-TWO

---

Note: The coinage “catch-22” comes from the 1961 novel of the same name written by Joseph Heller and describes a scenario in which the rules of the game allow no way out.  The image today was created by 1tamara2 on pixabay.com and used under the creative commons license.

TWENTY-ONE

---

Note:  The 21-gun salute is reserved for the President of the United States, ex-presidents, a president-elect, the sovereign or chief of state of a foreign country, and members of a reigning royal family.