What Would Jimmy Do?

It’s raining here today — I’m not complaining, it’s rained all around us this year but we have hardly gotten any. So I’m good with a dreary day as long as we get some rain.

That’s a  word that I heard a lot when I was growing up — dreary — pretty much always used to describe the weather. I remember my parents and grandparents using it a lot — if it was a cloudy day, or especially if it was a cloudy and cold day, it was referred to as dreary.
I don’t remember hearing it much in recent years, but Claire used the term the other day and the day was, in fact, overcast.

I did a bit of checking, and I’d say that if you describe something as dreary, you mean that it’s dull and depressing — I suppose that could even be applied to people, although I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it used that way.

If you’re into word origins, I think the term comes from the Old English dreorig, meaning sad or sorrowful. It originally meant cruel, bloody, blood-stained — from droer, meaning gore or blood.

So generally speaking, dreary isn’t a particularly happy word… maybe that’s why it seems to crop up more often these days. But at least it has lost its original sense and the notion of “dripping blood.” So I guess maybe we’re at least moving in the right direction….
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A few days ago Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions. If I remember correctly, when Francis was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he endorsed civil unions for gay couples as an alternative to same-sex marriages. 

I suppose this is a controversial subject for a lot of people, but I’ve never gotten terribly excited about it. The thing that always appeared unfair to me was that if two people are sharing a life together, and they can’t have power of Attorney, in case its needed, for the other person — that just seems wrong. It seems to me that should be their legal right.

Pope Francis said, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”

I’m pretty sure that goes right along with my thinking. I think legal rights are important. As far as “marriage,” that’s something else altogether — it probably becomes more emotional, maybe religious and sometimes just a matter of semantics. If the “union” is legally covered, that’s what’s important — marriage is something to be resolved by the various religions or other such groups. Again, remember what I’ve said here many times — things that I ramble on about are simply my opinions. Agree or disagree, read or don’t read, the choice is yours.

Pope Francis appears to be concerned about of a lot of the right things, like the environment, income inequality, immigration and people the most affected by discrimination. That seems like a good thing to me…..
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I mentioned in this blog a few days ago that my iPhone tracks my steps — it’s been doing it all along and I wasn’t even aware it was happening. So just out of curiosity, I’ve been checking my phone to see if I qualified as a couch potato  or something else.

I mowed our lawn a couple of days ago and while it’s not extremely small, I don’t think it’s extremely large — I figured it was about average.
Anyhow, according to my iPhone (and who can argue with an iPhone) I walked about 5.6 miles while cutting the grass. I’m not sure that’s significant or insignificant, but it was more than I expected. 

I think it might mean that I’m not a couch potato, but maybe I’m not quite ready for American Ninja Warrior….
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Our grandson, Locke, is going to have a birthday soon — coming up on six years old! Claire has inquired as to what he’d like for his birthday, and at the top of the list seems to be a watch. Of course this being 2020 and well into the digital age, he doesn’t want just a regular watch — he wants a “fitbit.” Now before we go any further, let’s get this our of the way — I readily admit that I’m an old fogey and often don’t understand or appreciate modern technology. 

I’m not sure I really know what a fitbit is — I think it does tell the time (among other things) but my major problem is that it displays the time digitally. Both faithful readers know that my first watch was a Mickey Mouse watch, and of course it was analog — not digital. You can check the archives of this site if you’re interested in the details my first watch.

But back to Locke — I have nothing against “fitbit” kinds of “watches.” But — I think everyone should be able to tell time on an analog clock — just like I think everyone should be able to read and write cursive. I may be, but I don’t think so, not the only one with that opinion. 

Most everyone, including kids, love digital tech. I’m sure that Locke can read time on a tablet or maybe even on the microwave oven, but staying focused on a digital interface he misses out on the benefits that come from telling time on an analog watch.

Teachers agree that there are long-term benefits to introducing kids to analog watches early on. I think some of the “advantages” of learning to tell time on an analog watch include:
It instills the concept of the passage of time — numbers changing doesn’t, by itself, convey a progression of time, it’s just numbers changing. I think an analog watch illustrates this better.
Telling time in words is better matched with a dial — if a digital watch says 8:15 pm then it’s not immediately obvious why this is pronounced as “a quarter past.” It’s much more obvious on an analog watch. 
And — kids do need to learn to tell time the traditional way anyway, so there’s no better time than the present, for their first watch. 

So Locke’s parents and me aren’t necessarily on the same page on this. They’re thinking “fitbit,” and I’m thinking it should be a watch with 12 numbers (and 2 or 3 hands) on the face. So we’ll compromise — we’ll get him the “fitbit.”
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I was reading the other day that one of the places, besides crowded bars and restaurants, to stay out of is movie theaters. That got me to thinking about movies when I was growing up. At it’s peak growth, Maysville had two movie theaters (that was before television.) I know both readers of this blog don’t believe there was a time before television — but I’m getting off the subject. 

Something that there were a lot of when I was growing up were Drive-in Theaters. There are a few still left, but if you can find one, it’s the ideal place to go to a movie in the middle of this coronavirus thing. If you’ve never been to a drive-in movie, you park your car facing the big screen and the sound is piped into your car via a speaker.

When I was a kid, drive-ins were very popular. There was one just a few miles from our house and they often had “dollar nights.” That meant that each car was only charged a dollar to get in, no matter how many people were in the car. Normally, there was a charge for each person in the car. 

Once when I was in high school, a friend whose dad was a farmer, borrowed his dad’s truck that he used to haul hay. It was an 18-wheeler with a big flat-bed trailer. We gathered up about 30 or 40 kids (that was just about all the kids in Maysville) on the flat bed and went to the movies. They initially said that dollar night didn’t apply to 18-wheelers with almost fifty people on board, but I guess they thought it was funny, or just plain stupid, and they let us in — and posted a sign that dollar night didn’t apply to 18-wheelers. 

It was a lot of fun, and unfortunately — no, probably fortunately, the kind of fun kids today can’t experience. Imagine a flat bed truck tooling down the highway with thirty or forty kids. There were obviously no seat belts, and not even any sides on the truck. Of course that’s not the only thing we did that is totally unacceptable, or even illegal today…. I remember:
Building my own skateboard with old lumber and old metal roller skates, carrying someone on the handlebars, or the cross bar of a boys bike — no helmets, playing in the street (no supervision,) walking to school or the movies alone, and calling people on the phone asking if “their refrigerator was running,” of if they “had Prince Albert in a can.”

For those of you that don’t understand these things, ask someone that’s “mature,” or do some extensive research on your own. 
But — if there happens to be a drive-in movie theater anywhere near you, and you’ve never been — GO!
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This month is, obviously, October. There are a few traditional things we acknowledge and participate in every October, like Ten-Ten Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, etc. The past two or three years, we’ve also had another activity that we looked forward to — Grandparents Day at Emily’s school. 

While I haven’t heard anything “official,” I’m guessing we won’t be attending Grandparents Day with Emily this year. 

The regular “National Grandparents Day” is celebrated September 8th — I don’t remember hearing much, if anything, about it this year. It’s extremely difficult for grandparents and grandkids to get together on Grandparents Day, or any other day, this year.
In fact, it’s difficult to get together with anyone — just a sign of the times, I guess.
Reminds me of a Carole King song that was popular about the time we got married… I don’t remember all the words, but it went something like:

Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?
It would be so find to see your face at my door
It doesn’t help to know you’re just time away
Long ago I reached for you and there you stood
Holding you again could only do me good
Oh how I wish I could but you’re so far away.

We miss seeing our grandkids, and our friends — they all seem so far away. Maybe not physically, but we’re certainly virtually separated. Sigh….
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For someone who in the past found it necessary to keep up to date on the latest technology, I’ve found myself recently looking up technical terms and acronyms that I have absolutely no idea what they mean.

This last week, I found myself doing “extensive research” on IoT. The acronym means “Internet of Things.” I suppose that in the broadest of terms, it encompasses everything that’s connected to the Internet. My research uncovered (I’m not making this up) smart toasters, rectal thermometers and fitness collars for dogs — things I would call “dumb items” — that are being connected to the web as part of IoT.

Obviously this is the trend — if you make something, be sure it has an Internet connection. I’m not sure yet, but I think my opinion is that just because something can be connected to the Internet, doesn’t mean it should be.

At least theoretically IoT presents an opportunity to be more efficient in how we do things, saving us both time and money. Almost all electronic devices contain one or more sensors. Your iPhone has sensors to detect temperature and other things — I only recently learned that my iPhone had been tracking my steps — that capability is built in and I didn’t even know it was there.
Of course everything that’s connected to the Internet can be hacked, so the security issues that need to be addressed boggle my mind. 

So now that I know what it is, I’m not particularly comfortable having the “things” around me gathering all sorts of data and “sharing” it on the Internet. I’m just not sure our refrigerator needs to have a Facebook account…..
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Today is Columbus Day — a day that marks Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to America. He landed on the island of Guanahani in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. 

It only became a legal holiday in 1971 but before then, many states celebrated Columbus Day on October 12. When it became a legal federal holiday, the celebration was moved to the second Monday in October — this year that just happens to be October 12. 

It was 300 years before the first Columbus Day celebration was held in the United States. That first celebration was organized by The Society of St. Tammany in New York City — on the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ landing.
A hundred years later, in 1892, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation establishing a celebration of Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ landing.
The first state to declare Columbus Day a legal holiday was Colorado in 1907. 
The first federal observance of Columbus Day occurred in 1937 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 
And in 1971, Presidential  Proclamation PL90-363 made Columbus Day a legal federal holiday and set its observance always on the second Monday in October.

Many/most historians agree that Columbus was not the first person, nor the first European, to discover the Americas. It is well known that indigenous people had been living in the Americas centuries before Columbus’ arrival. 

To recognize that fact, many cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, San Francisco, etc, have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Some states including Alaska, Vermont, Oregon and Minnesota also celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day. 

In this day of political correctness, the move towards Indigenous Peoples’ Day attempts to bring awareness to Columbus’ treatment of indigenous people and to celebrate and respect indigenous culture. 

Obviously Columbus left his mark in the new world — the Republic of Columbia in South America and the District of Columbia in the US are named for him, and are numerous towns, streets, rivers and public buildings. 
So whatever you’re celebrating today, it’s a holiday worth pondering — happy Columbus/Indigenous People Day.
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Well, here it is a holiday that we’ve celebrated every year for almost 50 years — Ten-Ten Day. Both the faithful readers of this blog know all about it, but if you’re new, Ten-ten, or Double Ten Day is a real national holiday in Taiwan. Why do we (Jimmy and Claire) celebrate it? 

Actually, it may be one of the most hard-to-understand days to explain to anyone not somewhat versed in Chinese history. 
Ten-Ten Day is observed on October 10 every year….
October 10 is…
Not Taiwan’s birthday.
Not the Republic of China’s birthday.
It’s the Chinese Nationalist Party’s birthday — however, Ten-ten Day is not a celebration of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s birthday. It is the celebration of the start of the Wuchang Uprising, which later led to the Xinhai Revolution. 

The Wuchang uprising marks the start of the end of the Chinese dynasties. The Manchu controlled Qing dynasty became very unpopular and a number of revolutionaries combined for the purpose of overthrowing the Qing dynasty. One of these revolutionaries was Dr. Sun Yet-Sen, who spent most of his time overseas trying to get funding for the uprising. Most of his work was overseas because he was exiled from Ching during a previous Guangzhou uprising in 1895. 

Eventually many provinces ceded from the Qing Dynasty and Sun returned to China and was elected the first president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912. The end of the Qing Dynasty was finalized with the last emperor Puyi abdicating his throne on February 12, 1912. 

For more than 30 years, the Nationalist Chinese steadily lost ground to the communist forces of Mao Zedong. On December 8, 1949 Chinese Nationalist leaders departed for the island of Taiwan, where they established their new capital. Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek left for the island the next day marking the beginning of the “two Chinas,” leaving mainland China under communist control. This also was effectively the end of the long struggle between Chinese Nationalist forces and communist leader Mao Zedong. For the United States, this posed a troubling diplomatic problem, and President Truman’s recognition of the Nationalist government on Taiwan infuriated Mao, ending any possibility for diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. 

The United States continued its support of Taiwan, while Mao’s government continued to rail against the Nationalist retime. By the early 70s, U.S. policymakers were looking to open economic relations with China and also hoping to use China as balance agains Soviet power. That led to a closer relationship with communist China and in 1979 the U.S. officially recognized the People’s Republic of China. 

Today is a big holiday in Taiwan — nearly all Taiwanese get the day off from work on Ten Ten Day. In mainland China, Ten-Ten Day is referred to as the Anniversary of the Wuchang Uprising, and various memorial celebrations are held. 

The reason we celebrate Ten-Ten Day is because in 1972, we lived in an apartment building next door to the Taiwan Embassy in the Philippines. They had a very big party on Ten-Ten Day. It looked like fun, so every year we celebrate Ten-Ten Day — and we have Chinese food. 
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Well, Halloween is on the horizon and apparently there won’t be any ‘Trick or Treating’ in Shepherdstown in 2020. Of course, everything is screwed up, different, or just plain canceled this year. 

Anyhow, that got me to thinking about Halloween and trick or treating… It seems like for a lot of years, trick or treat has only meant “treat.” Whatever happened to the “trick” part? When I was a kid, the idea was that when you said, “trick or treat” the person was supposed to give you a treat, or you’d play a trick on them. 

I don’t think my kids, and certainly not my grandkids, ever thought of ‘trick or treat’ in those terms. I remember Halloween being a day (mostly night) to “play tricks.” It was kind of like the one day (or night) in the year when it was ok to get into some mischief. In fact, we were probably masterminds of mischief. 

Admittedly, some of our “tricks” got a little out of hand on occasion but I don’t remember anyone ever getting hurt or causing any serious damage. One of the most popular “must do” Halloween tricks was to turn over people’s outhouses — I don’t think any of them were anchored to the ground and they were easy to just push over. It was certainly annoying, but they were pretty easy to sit back up and if your outhouse didn’t get turned over, you were surprised and probably wondered, “why not?” I remember some of the more common pranks that were pulled almost every Halloween included, tying doorknobs together or to something to keep the door from opening, soaping car (and downtown store) windows, taking rocking chairs from front porches and putting them on the roof, and letting pigs or chickens out of their pens, or stringing toilet paper over someone’s lawn and trees, and maybe occasionally letting the air out of tires.

When I grew up, obviously I lived in a small community and essentially knew everyone in town. Often, it was the local grouch, or two, who was the brunt of most of the kids Halloween mischief. Usually, the kids would cause trouble and the adults would just smile guiltily to themselves, and were probably mostly amused by the shenanigans. 

But the world has changed from when I was a kid — more and more people moved into crowded urban centers, full of big city problems like poverty, segregation and unemployment…. and pranking took on a new edge, becoming more destructive and moe related to vandalism. 

As homeowners grew less patient, the risks for pranksters grew to include arrest or in some instances, even being shot. Communities initiated curfews, age limits for trick-or-treating, and intensified police patrols. 

I guess today “tricks” still happen, but not regularly as I remember. The average child collecting candy on Halloween night doesn’t understand the meaning of the phrase “ trick or treat” anymore. I guess that’s not a bad thing — it’s probably a good thing.
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