--THE FLICKER OF THE CANDLE FEELS LIKE A ONE-WAY CONVERSATION

…Happy Monday.

It’s a beautiful morning here.  I hope it’s the same where you are.

…Here are some random things I learned last week that you may or may not already know:

-Picasso could draw before he could walk

-14% of U.S. adults older than 16 read at or below a fifth grade level

-29% of U.S. adults older than 16 can read at only an eighth grade level

-54% of women report sex gets better with age and 70% of those credit feeling more comfortable in their skin.

-In the last 3,500 years the world has only known peace for 230 of them.

-Carrots were originally purple.

-You are born with 270 bones at birth but only end up with 206 by adulthood.

-More than 90% of California and Nevada are classified as under Exceptional Draught, which is the highest level for Draught that there is.

-Last year Donald Trump made $1.5 million for each of the 17 hour long speeches he gave, making him the priciest U.S. speaker.  He is currently the second most favored Republican candidate for president behind Jeb Bush.

…ISIS troubles me greatly.

Here’s the latest on this evil group:

Last week, ISIS posted one of its most gruesome video clips, showing the execution of 16 men it claimed to have been spies. Five of the men were drowned in a cage, four were burned inside a car and seven were blown up by explosives.

“You Muslims, take the initiative and rush to jihad, rise up you mujahideen everywhere, push forward and make Ramadan a month of calamities for the nonbelievers,” IS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said in an audio message released Tuesday.

In what also appears to be a response to that call, terror attacks took place Friday across three continents: shootings in a Tunisian beach resort that left 39 people dead, an explosion and a beheading in a U.S.-owned chemical warehouse in southeast France and a suicide bombing by an Islamic State affiliate at a Shiite mosque in Kuwait that killed at least 27 worshipers.

The more than 200 civilians killed in the last two days include some who perished in IS suicide bombings, including one at the border crossing with Turkey, but they were mostly shot dead in cold blood, some in their own homes, the activists said.