What Would Jimmy Do?

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about the “Christmas Star” that will appear in the sky on December 21st. The so-called “star” will be the closest visible conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 800 years.

On December 21 (the winter solstice) the two planets will appear nearly aligned, resulting in a very uncommon event — one that hasn’t happened in 800 years. When something extremely rare or unexpected happens, we often say, “the planets aligned.” In this case, it’s more than just a “saying.”

I think this is pretty cool, and weather permitting, I intend to check it out. However, from what I’ve read, timing is important — the “Christmas Star” won’t be visible the whole night, you’ll only be able to see it for about an hour shortly after sunset.

Some people see this, happening so close to Christmas, as a Christmas miracle or maybe the star of Bethlehem… no matter what you call it, it seems like a pretty special event.

This got me to thinking about events in history that have happened on Christmas over the years. I remember one year I took a break from Vietnam over Christmas and spent it in Manila. That year (1968) Apollo 8 orbited the moon. The three astronauts on board became the first men to leave Earth’s gravitational pull, first to orbit the moon, first to view all of Earth from space and the first to see the dark side of the moon. I remember watching as the astronauts read the opening lines of the book of Genesis from the Bible. The broadcast ended with the line “Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.” I watched the telecast on a black and white TV in the Hyatt Hotel in Manila.

All of this prompted me to do some extensive research about significant events that have happened on Christmas over the years.

In the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
Charlemagne was a Frankish warrior king who united much of the continent under the banner of the Carolingian Empire. He is often called the “Father of Europe.” On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne “emperor of the Romans” in a ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica. Charlemagne served as emperor for 13 years, and his legal and educational reforms sparked a cultural revival and unified much of Europe for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire.

In 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned king of England.
He was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. The coordination came just after William’s legendary invasion of the British Isles, that had ended with a victory over King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. William’s 21-year rule saw the building of famous structures like the Tower of London and Windsor Castle. He also gave large land grants to his French-speaking allies. This permanently changed the development of the English language (nearly one-third of modern English is derived from French words.) It also contributed to the rise of the feudal system of government that characterized much of the Middle Ages.

In 1776 George Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River.
Near the end of 1776, the Revolutionary War wasn’t going well for the colonial forces. On Christmas Day, General George Washington led 2,400 troops on a daring nighttime crossing of the icy Delaware River — and launched a surprise December 26th attack on Trenton, which was held by a force of German soldiers known as Hessians. Washington’s gamble paid off — many of the Hessians were a bit hung over from the previous night’s holiday bender and the colonial forces defeated them with minimal bloodshed. This crossing of the Delaware served as a crucial rallying cry for the Continental Army.

In 1814, The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812.
On Christmas Eve,the United States and Great Britain sat down to sign a peace agreement ending the War of 1812. The treaty was signed in Ghent, Belgium. British forces had burned the White House and the U.S. Capitol earlier in the year, but the American and British delegations agreed to a settlement that essentially ended the war as a draw. All conquered territories were relinquished, and captured soldiers and vessels were returned to their respective nations. 
(Interestingly, the Treaty of Ghent effectively ended the 32-month war, but it didn’t take effect in the United States until it was ratified —in February, 1815. One of the greatest American victories of the war — the Battle of New Orleans occurred more than a week after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed.)

In 1868, President Andrew Johnson issued a final pardon to Confederate soldiers. 
Near the end of his term as president, Andrew Johnson give a handful of former Confederate rebels a Christmas present. By way of proclamation 179, on December 25, 1868, Johnson issued amnesty to “all and every person” who had fought against the United States during the Civil War. The Christmas pardon stood as a final and unconditional act of forgiveness for unreconstructed Southerners, including many former Confederate generals.

In 1914, The World War I Christmas Truce was reached.
On the evening of December 24, scores of German, British and French troops in Belgium laid down their arms and initiated a spontaneous holiday ceasefire. The truce was reportedly instigated by the Germans, who decorated their trenches with Christmas trees and candles and began singing carols like “Silent Night.” British troops responded with their own rendition of “The First Noel,” and all eventually ventured into “no man’s land” — the treacherous, bombed-out space that separated the trenches, where they greeted one another and shook hands.
According to accounts from the men involved, the soldiers shared cigarettes and whiskey and some exchanged Christmas presents with men they had been shooting at only hours before. The truce was not sanctioned by the officers on either side, and eventually the men were called back to their respective trenches to resume fighting. Later attempts at holiday meetings were mostly forbidden, but the “Christmas Truce” still stands as a remarkable example of shared humanity and brotherhood on the battlefield.

The Christmas Truce is a great example of what Christmas is all about. It seems hard to believe that soldiers in a World War can put down their weapons and shake hands, and Republicans and Democrats can’t sit down together and talk about what’s right for their country. Maybe this will be the year for a true Christmas Miracle, maybe the “Christmas Star” is a sign, maybe this Christmas will be remembered for more than more Americans died on December 25 than any other Christmas in our history.
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A few days ago I got an e-mail from a friend that contained an article comparing Trump’s reluctance to concede and give up power to a similar situation in Nazi Germany. I hadn’t read that particular article, but it was similar and contained essentially the same information as a few other sources I had read.

Well, for some reason that got me to thinking about a story that I read to our kids by Dr. Seuss titled “Yertle the Turtle.” In case you haven’t read the story, Yertle is the king of a pond, but he wants more. He demands that other turtles stack themselves up on top of each other so he can sit on top of them and survey his kingdom. Mack, the turtle at the bottom, is exhausted. He asks Yertle for a rest but Yertle ignores him and demands even more turtles so he can have a better view. Eventually Yertle  notices the moon and he’s furious that anything dare be higher than himself, and is about ready to call for more turtles when Mac burped. The sudden movement topples the whole stack and sends Yertle flying into the mud, freeing the rest of the turtles from their stacking duty. 

This story, like a lot that Dr. Seuss wrote, is actually about much bigger things than it seems and has a deeper meaning than just being a “kids story.” This story is an acknowledged representation of Hitler and the Nazi regime during World War II.

Yertle the Turtle represents Hitler. Yertle’s dictatorial  rule of the pond and takeover of the surrounding area parallel Hitler’s regime in Germany and invasion of various parts of Europe.

The story’s symbolism can be interpreted in various ways — Mack, the little turtle on the bottom represents the German society, representing the German people who follow Hitler’s rules and beliefs due to fear. Mack supports Yertle by keeping the king up high even though he is going through pain. Mack said, “… but down here below, we are feeling great pain. I know up on top you seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights. We turtles can’t stand it. Our shells will all crack! Besides, we need food. We are starving!.” This describes how the German society felt about Hitler being in power. The people were poor and had to live with rationed food, while Hitler was in great shape at the top — the people did not have rights and were suffering greatly.

Finally, Mack decided that he had taken enough — he got mad. He got so mad, he burped! And his burp shook the throne of the king. His action caused the whole stack of turtles to shake, causing Yertle the Turtle to fall off his throne and into the mud. This illustrates the German people not being able to tolerate their suffering any longer and having enough of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Mack’s burp symbolizes the uprising of voices from society. The story ends with “…. all the turtles are free as turtles and maybe, all creatures should be.”

During an interview after Yertle the Turtle was published, Dr. Seuss was asked why he used “maybe” in that last sentence and not “surely.” He said, “I wanted other people to say surely in their minds instead of my having to say it.”
In my mind, that makes a pretty good point… no one should tell us what to think or do. 

During the past few years, I’ve often thought about this story… it’s said that “out of the mouths of babes….” Maybe sometimes it takes a good “Kids” story to make us think.
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I know there’s a lot to be depressed about these days, but not everything is bad news. I’m pretty sure that just about every day, you can find something that makes you happy.

For instance… in just the past three days, both my favorite football teams — Washington and Cleveland — won. And, they both beat good teams. 
Maybe this is an omen — things are starting to look up. Go Browns and Redskins Washington Football Team.
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In case you hadn’t noticed, the year is drawing to a close and as is my custom, it’s about time for me to update everyone  on the New Year’s Resolutions I made back in December of last year. Every year, I grade myself — honestly — on how well I did or am doing, or not doing, the things I said I would, or wouldn’t do.

Here’s the list I made for 2020 — since this year didn’t really fall into the “normal year” category, I think I (and everyone else) should cut me some slack. But anyhow, here’s the list and a truthful assessment of how I’ve been doing.
• I will drive by the Shepherd Wellness Center once a month. 
I have to confess I haven’t done this — but — because of the coronavirus the wellness center has been closed for much of the year, so even though I relaxed my goal from once a week to once a month this year my falling short isn’t totally my fault.

• I promise to wave more often to strangers.
I think I did pretty good with this one, I have waved more at strangers — and, as a bonus, I’ve waved a lot to some strange people. 

• I promise to give one compliment a day. 
I  think I nailed this one, too. I even caught myself giving compliments to myself fairly often.

• I will try a new restaurant.
This one seemed like a slam-dunk, but COVID closed a lot of restaurants… but in spite of that I did try a new (to me) restaurant. We weren’t able to eat inside, but we took the food home.

• I will never back up more than necessary….
I honestly believe I was totally successful here — goal accomplished

• I will talk less, listen more.
I think this one has to go into the success column, too. You might make the argument that I’ve been around fewer people to talk to, but there were also fewer people to listen to. But I listened to the news a lot more this year, so I think that counts.

So there you have it — All things considered, I think I did pretty well again this year. In the next few days, I’ll sit down with pen, pad, and a bottle of wine and come up with my list for next year that will once again give me another chance to be a better me.
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A little before 8 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese planes made a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack was launched from aircraft carriers and destroyed or damaged about 20 American naval ships including eight battleships. More than 300 aircraft were also destroyed or badly damaged. 

The official American death toll was 2,403, including 2,008 Navy person, 218 Army, 109 Marines and 68 civilians. Of the dead, 1,177 were from the USS Arizona. That ship’s wreckage now serves as the main memorial of the attack. In addition to those 2,403 that were killed, 1,143 were wounded. 

World War II began on September 1, 1939 after Germany invaded Poland. Until that Sunday in December, the U.S. had been reluctant to join World War II, although we provided extensive assistance to the United Kingdom that was virtually the only source of resistance to the Nazis in Europe. The attack on Pearl Harbor reversed that reluctance in a day — Congress issued a declaration of war on December 8, 1941.

Congress designated December 7 as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in August of 1994. Today, due to the coronavirus, the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center will be closed to the public, but a small gathering of veterans will honor the occasion.

79 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed, “December 7,1941 — a date which will live in infamy.” This is another one of those days we should never forget….
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Here we are into December — the last month of the first year of this decade. Last year about this time I looked back at the 2010 decade… a lot of “good and bad” things happened, but I suspect history will record it as a fairly “normal” decade. 

As we’re nearing the end of the first year of this decade, 2020 is shaping up to be the worst year ever. You’ve heard that haven’t you? You’ve probably even said it. The social upheaval that flared after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, that led to protests, some accompanied by looting — the death and economic destruction caused by the pandemic — the government’s mismanagement of the pandemic — the constant political bickering and non-functioning government… it certainly hasn’t been the best of years, but the worst year ever?

I got to thinking about that…. I’ve been fortunate, in my 80 plus years, I can’t say that I’ve ever had a really bad year. Sure — bad things have happened, loved ones and friends have died, we’ve had some illnesses that were on the serious side, jobs that went bad and things like that. But that’s all part of life. One of my friends said that not counting the pandemic, this year reminded him of 1968. I can see his point — Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, the Vietnam war was raging, police beat protesters at the Democratic National Convention and rebellions erupted in streets all over the country. 

A number of historians claim that the worst year was 536. That year a volcano erupted in Iceland and the sun dimmed for a year and a half, leading to a catastrophic global cold spell. 

So the “worst year” is really objective, and, obviously personal. None of us lived through 536, so we can’t really make a comparison, just like most of us can’t relate to the Spanish flu pandemic or the Great Depression. 

For a lot of us, 2020 has been the worst year ever and, of course, it’s been far worse for some than others, but it’s touched us all. And it probably hasn’t been helped by the media constantly telling us what an awful year it is.

Actually, maybe worst isn’t the right word — maybe a better word would be strange. We’ve never experienced anything like it. But taken one day at a time, most of us can look around and find happiness, satisfaction or enjoyment in this “new normal.” And when we really think about it, maybe it isn’t the worst year of our lives…. 
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Every year around this time, the dictionaries come out with their “Word of the Year.” I’m always interested to see what word gets the honor every year. I remember a couple of years ago, the Word of the Year wasn’t even a “word.” It was an emoji. That just seemed wrong to me, but then I often don’t agree with the choice(s) for the Word of the Year.

This year, for the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary has chosen not to name a word of the year. They stated that 2020 turned out to be a year that cannot be neatly accommodated in one single “word.” This year the Oxford English Dictionary decided to announce its “words of an ‘unprecedented’ year.” Last week, the dictionary said that there were just too many words to sum up the events of 2020. It’s kind of ironic that in a year that left us speechless, the Oxford Dictionary couldn’t come up with a Word of the Year.

However, all is not lost — on Monday, Merriam-Webster did come up with their word of the year — “pandemic.” According to the company, the first big spike for people looking up the word “pandemic” happened on February 3 — the same day that the first COVID-19 patient was released from a Seattle hospital. Searches for the word increased by 1,621% compared to the same time the year before. But the largest spike in searches for the word “pandemic” happened on March 11 when the World Health Organization officially declared “COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.” The increase on that day was 115,806% higher than on the same day in 2019.

I’m not sure that I’d have chosen pandemic for the word of the year, but I guess I have to agree it’s appropriate — from the Greek roots of the word, pan means ‘all’ or ‘every,’ and dēmos means ‘people.’ It’s literal meaning is ‘of all the people,’ The related word epidemic comes from roots that mean ‘on or upon the people.’ The two words are used in ways that overlap, but in general usage a pandemic is an epidemic that has escalated to affect a large area and/or population. 

The Word of the Year usually defines an era, or something that a particular year is known or remembered for…. in 2008 “bailout” was the Word of the Year, in 2016, it was “surreal.” 
So pandemic is probably not a bad choice — I’m not sure I’d have picked it over something like whew, ugh or Yecch.
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Seems like I start all my blogs like this lately…. in 2020 Black Friday will look different. I’ve always been curious about the term “Black Friday,” as a descriptor for the day after Thanksgiving….

A popular myth is that  the term Black Friday stemmed from slavery. It was the day after Thanksgiving when slave traders would sell slaves for a discount to assist plantation owners with more helpers for the upcoming winter (for cutting and stacking firewood, winter proofing, etc.) — hence the name….

Just to set the record straight, before we go any further, the use of “Black Friday” has nothing to do with the selling of slaves, and the term didn’t even originate until nearly a century after the practice of slavery was abolished in the U.S.

The first recorded use of the term Black Friday was applied not to holiday shopping, but to a financial crisis — specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869. Two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to drive the price of gold sky-high and sell it for big profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free-fall and bankrupting millions of people. 

Another story about the Friday after Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”) stores would supposedly earn a profit (“into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted merchandise. It is true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, so this story lends some credibility to the origin of “Black Friday.”

Another story (some say the “real story”) behind Black Friday is that back in the 1950s, police in Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that ensued on the day after Thanksgiving, when hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city in advance of the big Army-Navy football game held on that Saturday every year. Not only would Philly cops not be able to take the day off, but they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic. The bedlam in the stores encouraged shoplifters to make off with merchandise and that added to the law enforcement headache. 

“Black Friday” related to shopping had caught on in Philadelphia by 1961 to the extent that the city’s merchants tried to change it to “Big Friday” to get away from the negative connotations. Finally in the late 1980s retailers found a way to reinvent Black Friday and turn it into something that reflected positively, not negatively, on both the merchants and customers. They basically promoted the “red to black” concept and convinced people that the day after Thanksgiving marked the occasion when stores finally turned a profit. The Black Friday story stuck, and pretty soon the term’s darker roots in Philadelphia were largely forgotten. 

So Black Friday in 2020 will certainly be different — it’s almost completely online, it started earlier and will last longer, the stores were actually closed on Thanksgiving, many/most things will be advertised electronically and stores will experiment with and use new shipping methods. 

Someone once said, “Happiness is not in money, but in shopping.” If you subscribe to that line of thinking, 2020’s Black Friday may work out even better for you…..
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Like just about everything else in 2020, Thanksgiving will be a little (or a lot) different this year. Our holidays have become “traditional” and the fact that they’ll be different this year just makes us more aware of the constant changes in the world. 

Thanksgiving, like all our holidays, has evolved over the years to what we think of today as a “traditional” Thanksgiving. But if you look back in history, Thanksgiving at the turn of the 20th century wasn’t anything like we know today — in fact, it was kind of creepy. In many cities, children and adults would dress up in masks and host costume “crawls.” The tradition of children dressing up as poor people in New York became so popular that Thanksgiving was nicknamed “Ragamuffin Day.” So Thanksgiving back then seemed more like our Halloween does today….

I just read that Macy’s Thanksgiving parade this year will be “different.” It may even be virtual — I’m not sure how that will work, but everything else seems to be becoming virtual, so why not a parade? Anyhow, Macy’s parade has also changed over the years — up until 1932, the balloons from the parade were released into the sky when the parade was over. Macy’s offered a $50 reward to anyone that found a deflated balloon and returned it. It turned out that most of the balloons would burst before they were found….

We’ve heard a lot lately about President Trump’s effort to stimulate the economy despite the pandemic, but even the date we celebrate Thanksgiving has been moved for economic reasons. In 1941 President Roosevelt changed the date of Thanksgiving to be the second-to-last Thursday in November as a way to encourage more holiday shopping to boost the economy. It wasn’t a popular decision for Roosevelt — many people at the time compared him to Hitler….

As far as I know, one thing that won’t change this year is the Thanksgiving football games — few or no fans in the stands, but there will be football. The (professional) Thanksgiving football tradition was started by the Detroit Lions in 1934 as a marketing ploy to get more attendance at the games. The Dallas Cowboys started the same tradition in 1966. So you can always watch the Lions and the Cowboys play football on Thanksgiving…..

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 over a three day harvest festival. The first Thanksgiving sanctioned by the government was declared by the Continental Congress in 1777 but it wasn’t consistently observed until around 1815. It didn’t become a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it on October 3, 1863. The story is that Lincoln was convinced to make it a national holiday by Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote letters advocating for the holiday for 17 years. Sarah Josepha Hale was the woman who wrote “Mary Had A Little Lamb.”…..

The Presidential Pardoning of the turkey was formally started by George H.W. Bush in 1989. Harry Truman is often credited with being the first president to pardon a turkey, but actually he was the first to receive a ceremonial turkey from the National Turkey Federation — he had it for dinner. John F. Kennedy was the first president to let a Thanksgiving turkey go and Richard Nixon sent his turkey to a petting zoo…..

There are at least three towns in the U.S. named Turkey — in Kentucky, North Carolina and Texas. There is a Pilgrim, Michigan, Cranberry, Pennsylvania and Yum Yum, Tennessee……

Turkey wasn’t on the menu at that first Thanksgiving in 1621 — they served venison, goose, duck, oysters, lobster, eel and fish. They probably had pumpkins and cranberries, but no pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce….

Thanksgiving will be smaller and more subdued around here this year, but it’s still a day to give thanks — just like all days. Happy Thanksgiving!!
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