John's Two Thrillers of Summer 2010

John has studied the Dead Sea Scrolls since our senior year of college. Three years ago he was extremely disappointed to find that the scrolls area in the British Museum was under construction, and thus, he could not see them. So one thing we HAD TO DO while we were in the midwest this past month was go to the Minnesota Science museum and see the scrolls.


According to John, the exhibit was put together really well. I definitely enjoyed the displays but must admit that my favorite part was walking through it with John. He would look at a picture on the wall and tell me a long story about the photographed people or that specific scroll. Or we would stand in front of a map of all the caves, and John was able to tell me about the different caves, the different scrolls found within, and the significance of them. Really, a wealth of knowledge.

Near the end of the exhibit you walk into a dark circular room with five small display frames near the walls. Beside each frame is a large banner showing the scroll fragment inside the frame and its translation. Next to that is a small plaque that contains a bit of information, stating why the fragment is important. Most people would read the banner and look at the fragment, perhaps checking out the plaque afterward but not John. He'd just wait his turn to look at the fragment and then examine it. Here's what happened one time:

John ducks down, looks at one of the fragments, and says "Oh yeah, this is Paleo Hebrew [basically a different alphabet/font from what is found in most of the scrolls]." Wait, how did he know that in a quarter of a millisecond? I had just read that on the plaque, but John is telling me without reading the plaque. Okay, I'm going to quiz him. "Why would this be in Paleo Hebrew and other scrolls not be?" "It is a sign that they might have revered the text more because it was the Pentateuch." He was right again!

Now please excuse my bragging on my husband. Most of what he studies and works with consists of ancient dead languages. Even though I have studied linguistics, studied the various aspects of language and gramamr, and teach a language, much of what he does means very little to me. Yet here was a time when everything was comprehensible and meaningful, and he just blew my socks off. So, thus the opportunity to brag had to be taken.

Okay, onto John's second thriller. It consisted of eating one of these:


A McDonald's Twist Cone.

These are rarities these days, as almost all McDonald's now only have vanilla. Why? Not completely sure, but once a manager told me in my McDonald's days that a machine that allows for chocolate, vanilla, and twist costs somewhere between $10-20,000 more than one with just vanilla.


I do know, however, that my husband seemed more excited to eat his twist cone than he was to see the Dead Sea Scrolls.