What Would Jimmy Do?

If you’ve read this blog over the years, you know that there have been several entries about and around the equinoxes. There are a lot of myths and traditions associated with these events and those “turning points” have played significant roles in human culture. If you’re interested, you can check the archives to see some of the myths/traditions I’ve pursued a bit over the years.

As I write this, there is only about ten minutes left in the summer of 2010. Since the autumnal equinox is fast approaching, I thought it might be a good time to visit the subject again. Equinoxes signal the changes in seasons — but so do solstices, so what’s the difference —or — are they pretty much the same and just referred to by different names.
Well, they’re not the same — in fact they’re distinctly different. 

Most people know that the seasons change because the Earth is slightly tilted on its axis as it travels around the Sun. This means that different points on the ground receive more or less sunlight at different times of the year. If the Earth wasn’t tilted, the Sun would always appear to be directly above the Equator and the amount of light any given location received would be fixed — there would be no “seasons.”

But we do have seasons and every year we have two equinoxes and two solstices. So let’s get the differences out of the way…. solstices are the days when the Sun’s path in the sky is the farthest north or south of the Equator. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and the summer solstice is the longest day of the year. Equinoxes are the days when the Sun is exactly above the Equator, which makes daylight and darkness of equal length. As you know, the seasons are reversed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. 

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the vernal (spring) equinox occurs about March 21 — day and night are of equal length and that marks the start of spring.
The autumnal (fall) equinox occurs about September 23 — again, day and night are of equal length and this marks the start of autumn.

The summer solstice occurs on June 20 or 21 — it’s the longest day of the year and marks the start of summer.
The winter solstice occurs on December 21 or 22 — it’s the shortest day of the yea and marks the start of winter. 

So goodbye summer — hello fall, right on schedule. Seems like solstices and equinoxes are about the only things that haven’t changed this year….
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Argh, me hearties! Here be me most favorite holiday again — Talk Like a Pirate Day. Shiver ye timbers and buckle ye swash ‚ me and me wench Claire have been lookin fore t’ it since last year. You can bet we’ll be out with our eyepatches and pulling the usual shenanigans tonight. 

But I thought this year, I’d do something different and use this space to possibly correct some popular misconceptions about real pirates…. but before I get started, I should make a necessary public service announcement — even though this is a day to imitate a pirate, please do not pillage, steal or brawl. Now, let’s talk about real pirates lives….

Pirates didn’t bury their treasure — this is a huge part of the pirate myth. When a voyage was over all the loot would be divided among the crew immediately, and would usually quickly find its way into the pubs and brothels of the port they landed in. A lot of pirates wanted their share of the loot beforehand, and a pirate’s treasure wasn’t always gold or silver — a lot of it was food, lumber, cloth, and animal hides.

The skull and crossbones flag at the top of a pirate ship is called a Jolly Roger. This is one of those things in pirate history that’s gotten lost over the years — no one seems to really know the origin of the name. But there are a few theories…. the use of red flags centuries ago was a commonly used naval warfare signal that no mercy would be given, and anyone captured would be killed immediately. The French called these flags Joli Rogue (“pretty red’) — the theory is that this was then translated into English as Jolly Roger. Another theory is that Jolly Roger derived from “Old Roger,” a term for the Devil. Of course, not every ship used a Jolly Roger flag. Some pirates had their flags specially made by a sail-maker’s widow who took payment in brandy. Blackbeard (supposedly the most feared pirate of all) had his own black flag featuring a skeleton with horns. The skeleton held an hourglass in one hand, and in the other he carried a spear pointing to a heart dripping with three drops of blood.
Even though the Jolly Roger is probably the most famous, and well-known, pirate flag, it was mostly seen in the Caribbean at the time of the Spanish conquest, and was generally used to scare other ships into surrendering without a fight. Often pirate ships just used a plain black flag when sailing between ports.

Each pirate ship had its own set of rules and a code that all pirates on that ship had to agree to. Some of the rules included how the loot would be divided, who had what chores and what was expected of everyone. Surprisingly, one of the most common rules was no fighting onboard. If two pirates had a disagreement they’d have to wait, and fight on land. 

Democracy ruled on pirate ships — every member of a pirate crew had a say in what happened on board the ship. The captain had total control during a battle at sea, but his power was nominal day to day. The quarter-master was top dog in terms of managing the other pirates for most of the time on board pirate ships.

The “official” pirate drink, or at least their drink of choice was Grog. Grog is a mixture of rum, water, lemon juice, and sugar — yum!

You see a lot of pictures of pirates wearing eye patches — they really did wear eye patches. One theory is that they wore the patches to help keep one eye adjusted for “night vision” to see better below deck.

As cool as it may sound, pirates almost never made people walk the plank — most pirates just killed people straightaway. When they did torture prisoners, it was usually through keelhauling (dragging a tied prisoner in the water from the back of the ship. Other popular tortures were marooning a person on a deserted island or lashing with a leather strap.

A lot, if not most, pirates wore earrings. There are a lot of theories about why, but the reason(s) were practical, not for decoration. Some pirates believed that the precious metals in earrings possessed magical healing powers and would improve or cure bad eyesight. Earrings were usually given to young sailors as a symbol of their first crossing of the equator and supposedly, their purpose was to protect the eardrums during battle. Another story is that pirates that fired the ships’ cannons during combat with the enemy, dangled wads of wax from their earrings to use as earplugs. But my favorite theory for earrings is that they covered the cost of burial. Earrings made of silver or gold would be worth enough to pay for a sailor’s funeral if his body washed ashore. Some pirates even engraved the name of their home port on the inside of the earrings so that their bodies could be sent to their families for a proper burial. If a pirate died on a ship, the earrings would help to cover the cost of transporting the body home so that he wouldn’t be buried at sea or on foreign soil.

As swashbuckling as the pirate’s reputations, they were usually more clever than daring. Pirates tried, when possible, to become involved in battle with only one ship at a time. A lot/most valuable ships traveled with protective convoys. The deterrent a convoy provided was usually effective — so much so that smaller un-protected ships would follow in the wake of larger convoys to benefit from the convoys protection.

As strange as it may seem, and even though there were women pirates, pirates were afraid of women. Women were considered very bad luck on board all seafaring vessels as they were thought to bring bad things down on the ship. It’s possible that they just caused fighting amongst the pirates on board. 

And since everyone knows that guacamole (not really guacamole, but avocados) was discovered by pirates, I won’t even address that subject.

So we’ll be headin’ out for our annual rounds tonight, probably into the wee hours, knocking on doors in the neighborhood, yelling “arr scurvy dog, I be needin to sell a pint or two of grog.” That’s always one of the highlights of the day. No matter how you celebrate, Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!!!
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We were watching Jeopardy the other night and there was a question about fishing that I knew the answer to — Claire was amazed that I knew it. I’ve never been a big fan of fishing. Actually, I kind of enjoy fishing, I just don’t like to catch fish. Well I really don’t mind catching fish, I just don’t know what to do with them after they’re caught. I don’t like to clean or cook them. But after all that, I do like to eat fish — just about all kinds.

The first time I ever went fishing was with my granddad — when I was about four or five years old. There weren’t really very many places to fish around Maysville, Oklahoma. There were a few lakes, but they weren’t readily accessible. My grandad took me fishing in the Washita river. My grandad didn’t have a car, so we walked to the river — maybe a two mile walk. A long walk for a little kid, but at 4 or 5, you have no concept of distance. My dad was never a fisherman and thought us going fishing was kind of silly, but it was quality time spent with my granddad. My dad, as a joke, once sent the game warden out to get us because we didn’t have a fishing license. It was a funny idea, but my granddad knew that he was old enough and I was young enough that neither one of us needed a license. 

According to the dictionary, a fish story is an exaggerated or incredible story, so my ‘fish story’ probably doesn’t qualify for a true fish story. When Dave was little, I often read some bedtime stories from a book of Aesop Fables. I’m not sure I remember all the details, but one was about a fisherman that had no luck fishing one day, but caught a very small fish. The fisherman was about to put it in his basket, when the fish said, “Spare me Mr. Fisherman — I’m so small it’s not worth while to take me home. When I get bigger, I’ll make you a much better meal.” But the fisherman put the little fish in his basket, saying, “however small you may be, you are better than nothing at all. 
The moral of the story is a little thing in hand is worth more than a great thing in expectation.

So even though my story about fishing doesn’t really qualify as “fish story,” it’s the only one I have. But everyone should know how to fish… as the old saying goes, give a man a fish and he can eat for a couple of days, but teach him to fish, and he can sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
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Over the years I’ve had a lot of unique, interesting friends. One of those friends was Gerald (Jerry) Siemienkiewicz. You may think, from his last name, that he was a character. To call Jerry a character would be a gross understatement. I’ve never known anyone like him — he was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known, as well as the kindest and most generous. I can’t think of anyone that didn’t like Jerry. He was certainly unique and marched to his own drum, but never to the detriment of anyone. Sadly, Jerry became a ’Silent key’ (a term a communications organization uses for eternal rest) in 1999. 

Stories about Jerry could fill several volumes, but here’s one that I particularly like….
We were in Saigon and most days wound up traveling “up country” to some pretty desolate and deserted, dirty places. Even though he had a maid in Saigon, I’m pretty sure Jerry’s clothes were never ironed and many of them were in need of repair. His shoes were pretty much on their last mile — the soles were coming off and were held on by duct tape. But Jerry, always concerned about others, traded shoes with a beggar on the street. The beggar’s shoes were no more than soles of old flip-flops tied to his feet with string. But Jerry gave him his shoes (such as they were)  and wore the beggar’s shoes. He rode a motorcycle that didn’t have any fenders and almost every shirt he had had a “mud streak” up the back because of the lack of a rear fender. At least two or three days a week we had to go into the embassy…. needless to say, Jerry never went unnoticed. 

One day, our boss called Jerry in and told him that he could never ask for a better employee, but the fact that he was representing the U.S. Government in a foreign country, even if a war was going on, he should look more professional — especially when he had work in the embassy.
 Jerry looked at him, and said that he was absolutely correct — he had just never given it much thought, but he should look more professional, and he assured our boss that he’d make an effort to present a more professional appearance. 

The next day, Jerry arrived at the embassy — his clothes still looked like he’d slept in them, he still wore the beggar’s “shoes,” still badly needed a haircut, and still had the mud streak up his back. But — he had a slide rule in his shirt pocket.
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I was reading earlier today and and ran across this quote: “You are not what you think you are, you are not what others think you are but you are what you think others think you are.” I thought it was interesting and later I thought about it again. I guest it’s all a matter of perception — a kind of imbalance of what is and what we think it is. Who I think I am may not agree with what those around me see. There’s a lot of me’s… the me that Claire sees, the me that my kids see, the me that my relatives see, the me that acquaintances see, that strangers see, and so on. 

I guess I have too much time on my hands lately, but that got me to thinking about perception…. reading and watching the news, I’ve concluded that people choose what they want to see because it’s easier to see what they want. After a couple of weeks of watching the political conventions, and listening to a lot of different people speak, I’d say that many people (maybe most of us) often think we are better at something than we are. 

There is something called the Dunning Kruger effect. It states that the more incompetent people are, the less they are aware of their incompetence. The effect is named after David Dunning of the University of Michigan and Justin Kruger of New York University. During their research, Dunning and Kruger gave their test subjects a series of cognitive tasks and asked them to estimate how well they did. Most of the participants guessed their performance more or less realistically and a few people underestimated themselves. But the quarter of people that scored worst on the tests, wildly exaggerated their cognitive abilities. I’d say that an embellished self-image isn’t a bad thing, it’s probably a good thing. But to carry it to the extreme isn’t just enhancing self-image, it becomes self-deception. 

From what I’ve read and remember from a couple of psychology courses in school, the tendency for self -deception stems from a desire to impress others. To appear convincing, we must convince ourselves of our capabilities and truthfulness. Most successful manipulators are usually “quite full of themselves.”

I suppose my mind went down this track recently because the speeches I listened to during the political conventions didn’t contain a lot of substance — most were just perceptions — of the speaker or their party. So it seems like what’s becoming more important is perception. Even if someone takes the initiative to attempt to make people understand an issue, don’t expect them to simply compromise their views or bias. It’s easier to frame the world in a simplified perception — it takes more effort to not only acknowledge complexities, but to accept them. 

Back to the quote I started with… there’s the me I think I am, there’s the many versions of me those around me think I am, and there’s the me I think others think I am. I guess that’s true of all of us, but once again I think Dr. Seuss got it right when he said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
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Today is the anniversary of one of those times that we can all remember exactly what we were doing 19 years ago — the September 11 attacks, or 9/11 attacks, are forever etched in our memories. 

None of us need to be reminded, but on September 11, 2001, a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks were committed by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Queda, resulting in the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in U.S. history.
 Some 2,750 people were killed in New York, 184 at the pentagon and 40 in Pennsylvania. All 19 terrorists died. More than 400 New York police officers and firefighters were killed.

The ceremony at ground zero will still take place today but added safety measures are in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year there will be no live reading of the names of those killed in the attacks — recorded readings of the names, made by 9/11 family members, will be used. 

Since 2002, the “Tribute in Light” has marked the attacks on the twin towers — initially that display had been cancelled. On a clear night the lights can be seen from 60 miles away. It takes a team of about 40, who must work closely together, more than a week to set up the machinery to project the lights. It was thought that the health risk during the pandemic was too great for such a large crew. Apparently those concerns have been resolved and the Tribute in Light will will return tonight.

America’s response to 9/11 was swift and positive — if there was a negative aspect, it was that once again America, the superpower, overreached its power and authority. That type of response used to be called leadership. Today, the nation’s “response” to another crisis (CoViD-19) has gone the other way, with America making no effort at leadership at all. 

Former Secretary of State, John Kerry said, “Remember the hours after September 11 when we came together as one! It was the worst day we have ever seen, but it brought out the best in all of us.” Wouldn’t it be great if this September 12 could bring out the best in all of us….
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Our grandkids started the new school year this week — well, at least virtually. Kids, like a lot of people, have taken up residence in virtual worlds lately. Although virtual wasn’t a foreign word to me, since the virus outbreak, it is now appearing as a prefix to almost anything you can think of to describe a previous physical activity now being delivered by “electronic” means. Much, or most, of this virtuality has been because of the technical tools available. Zoom is another word that has taken on new meaning… now most people think of Zoom as the online meeting tool that people rely on for “virtual” meetings. 

And of course, the popularity of Zoom has spawned another brand new word — Zoombombing, which is the practice of people hacking into online Zoom meetings to disrupt them. 

I was reminded by the start of schools how the word virtual is being used “virtually” everywhere and that was what I intended to comment on today. But since we’re on the subject of new words, a new one (to me) popped up just the other day. Actually, I’m kind of fond of it — the word is Covidiot. It’s a new term used to describe anyone doing stupid things during the current pandemic, whether it’s stockpiling toilet paper or ignoring official guidance over how to behave to avoid spreading the disease. 

So speaking for one of us that have taken up residence in a virtual world, I’m looking forward to all the new words that’ll appear when we get back in the real world. I hope our grandkids get all virtual A’s in school this year.
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For more than 125 years, Americans have celebrated Labor Day on the first Monday of September. It always signaled the unofficial end of summer, the dreaded return to school for kids, a time for great retail sales and initiation of the debate on whether or not you can wear white afterwards.
Well of course this year, Labor Day, like just about everything else will be a little different. 

The origins of Labor Day have been somewhat lost over time. Historians credit Peter J. McGuire, co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, as the first to propose a holiday celebrating workers. If you’re interested in some extensive research on the subject, you’ll find plenty of people that don’t believe it was McGuire — so do your research and take your pick. The story that I’m sticking with for today is that McGuire brought up the idea in an 1882 meeting of the New York Central Labor Union, saying workers should lead a parade to “publicly show the strength and spirit de corps of the trade and labor organizations.”

It’s a fact that the first U.S. Labor Day was celebrated in 1882 — on Tuesday, September 5. The celebration was planned by the New York City Central Labor Union. The Labor Day “parade” consisted of about 10,000 workers that took unpaid leave and marched from City Hall past Union Square uptown to 42nd street, and ended in Wendel’s Elm Par at 92nd street and 9th Avenue for an organized picnic, complete with speeches and a concert. There is still (until this year) an annual Labor Day parade in New York City.

So what are we celebrating? The contributions and achievements of millions of men and women who are in the U.S. workforce. That seems like a good reason for a cold beer or glass of wine.
Happy Labor Day.
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Ten years ago today, this blog’s entry read in part “…. Emily weighed seven pounds (exactly) and was 21 inches long. If you divide 7 into 21 you get 3 which just happens to be the date she was born (and my favorite number.) If you’re one of those people that think numbers mean something (or even if you’re not) I think the meaning here is pretty clear — this is no ordinary baby ……”

You don’t have to be a real stable genius to figure out that today is our first grandchild’s birthday. From the very first time I saw her, I predicted great things from her… and once again, I was right. When Emily graduated from kindergarten, she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up — her response was “a hula hoop dancer.” That was a pretty lofty goal, but I think she’s already exceeded it.

We don’t see her as much as we once did, but growing up means a lot of other interests and activities that take a lot of time. We still miss her sleep-overs but life goes on and Emily seems to be off to a good start. She’s adapted to this new “virtual world” probably better than most and next week will again be working from home when the new school years starts.

As I mentioned in my first blog about her, I figured that the numbers 7, 21 and 3 foretold good fortune for her — but today, we add another number. Not that she hasn’t always been, but today it becomes official — she’s a “Perfect Ten!”
Happy Birthday, Emily!!!
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Well, here we are in September — summer is in the rear view mirror, here comes fall. Of course everything’s different this year, but usually September is a pretty busy month — start of school, football season, lots of crops are being harvested and people are beginning to think about preparing for winter. Seems like a lot of significant events take place in September, too.

I’m not sure why I thought of this, but in September, 1972 I spent a good part of the month in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was there that I learned about the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. There was a movie made about that, called One Day in September — I noticed it was playing on one of the TV channels recently.

But anyhow, September’s name comes from the Latin word septem, meaning “seven.” As has been discussed here before, September was the seventh month of the early Roman calendar.

In Old England, September was called Harvest Month. And we’ll have a lot to celebrate this month — Labor Day, Patriot Day (in honor and remembrance of those who died in the September 11 attacks in 2001,) Grandparents Day and Constitution Day, not to mention Talk Like a Pirate Day. But we can’t forget the Autumn Equinox, Yom Kippur and Michaelmas. 

So, hopefully we’ve got a good month ahead… September is the only month with the same number of letters as the number of the month — it’s the ninth month and has nine letters. That must mean something….
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