Don't Doubt Your Fortune Cookies

     The exact sentence that reveals Semrau's point of this article is "Quite simply, use what you have until it can no long function." The intent that Waldemar Semrau has in writing this article is to encourage people never to give up and waste their lives. Semrau discusses how there are three stages to one's professional life, each being 25 years long. At the age of 75, however, Semrau doesn't plan on ending his career and doing nothing the rest of his life. He intends on "going green", which means working until he no longer can. How will he do this? Semrau thought back to his dream of becoming a surgeon as a child. Now that he retired from his job as an engineer, Waldemar decided to finally follow that dream and go to medical school. Not just any medical school either; Harvard Medical School. All in all, his point of this article is to go green and conserve, reuse, and recycle yourself and your talents, because nothing good should ever go to waste.

     I think that Semrau's writing strategy was effective because by keeping information from the readers, we never fully understand his purpose until all of the facts come together.

Luther's Lyrics

The message being portrayed in the hymm "Savior of the Nations, Come" is how incredible Jesus' coming to Earth was, but more importantly, how miraculous His second coming will be. Luther marvels at the miraculous birth of Him, born to a virgin in a manger, as well as His death, eternal life, and conquering of all sin. A language tool I found being used in this hymm was diction. Luther demonstrates diction by his specific word choices. In the second verse, his use of the word "pure" brings focus on the fact that Jesus was born without original sin. Although He was bore of a woman, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, making Him pure and perfect. Again in the third verse, Luther uses the word "disowned" to describe how the world treated Jesus. This word helps us understand how so many people would not accept Jesus to be the Savior and Son of God. In the fifth verse, Luther writes "Boundless shall Thy kingdom be, When shall we its glories see?" I think the word "boundless" is a good choice because it reminds us that God's kingdom is so immeasurable and tremendous, and we really don't know when we'll get the privilege to live there with Him.

Sermons & Such

Christ was mentioned 34 times in Rev. Borghardt's sermon.
Verbs used: died, is lamb, lives, rose, is holy, wants you, came, holds you, calling you, reigns


The theme of Edward's sermon was very different from the theme of  Rev. Borghardt's. Edward's sermon had a harsh theme and was meant to inflict fear upon people. He talked about God's wrath and anger, and how He could strike down on us anytime. In contrast, Reverand Borghardt's sermon talked about how great Jesus is. He focused on God's grace, how Christ saves us through his death and through our Baptism. Borghardt's sermon was more joyful and praising towards God. Both of these sermons were meant to bring people to the faith, but was done so in two opposing ways.

What Do You Have Hanging?

This article talks about how a lot of people are unaware of the law prohibiting items from hanging from their rearview mirror. Most policemen let it slide unless the item hanging is destructing vision of the road. For this reason, people want the law changed so small items are legal to hang.

"I call it a 'gotcha' law. It's an excuse to pull someone over."

I like this quote because it shows that even though most policemen won't pull you over for a small item hanging from your mirror, there's still a chance that one will. Regardless of how small your graduation tassel or Mardi Gras beads are, a jerk policeman can still give you a ticket. That's why this law is so tricky.

I disagree with the ban of items hanging from a rearview mirror. Unless someone is hanging a Christmas wreath or some other huge item from their mirror, I see no point in being pulled over. Even though most policemen won't pull someone over for something small hanging, there's always the slight possibility that you can get a ticket. So many people don't follow the law anyways, so why enforce it if it's not hurting anyone?

He's Got a Big Ego, Such a Big Ego

Mitch Albom's point made in this article is that the only reason for the criticism that LeBron James received after his decision to leave Cleveland is because of his huge ego. Race has nothing to do with the matter. But of course, when asked if race has anything to do with the criticism, the answer will always be yes because he is an African American.


I agree with Albom because people would have reacted the same way about any other professional athlete pulling the stunt LeBron did. There was no other time that race had to do with LeBron James' criticism, so this time shouldn't be any different. I think that African American use the race card as a crutch to turn their bad situation around and put the focus on something else.


Albom's most effective point made in his essay is that LeBron made quite an ordeal about announcing what team he would be signing with next. When he appeared on the worldwide TV special, the way LeBron said he was leaving Cleveland showed arrogance.  "I'm gonna take my talents to South Beach," stated James. One of the reasons LeBron decided to sign with Miami Heat was to join other "big-name" players and stack the team. Responding with such a selfish and egotistical comment should be the obvious answer for the criticism LeBron's received.