What Would Jimmy Do?

Since both the political conventions are over, we can now get back to the thing that’s probably the most troubling to most of us — COVID-19. Although I think I heard it referred to as the “China Virus” more than COVID or Coronavirus in the last week, those are the proper names. Maybe we should define them before going further….

Coronavirus — A family of viruses, seven of which are known to inflect people. They get their name from the crown-like spikes — coronas — that appear on the viruses under a microscope. Coronaviruses can cause the common cold (which can also be caused by other viruses, such as rhinoviruses,) as well as dangerous illnesses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS.) SARS CoV-2, the coronavirus virus first discovered in December 2019, causes the disease now known as COVID-19.

COViD-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) — Just as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19. The symptoms of COVID-19 include cough, fever, and shortness of breath. While the disease appears to cause mild to moderate illness in most people, in others it has caused life-threatening pneumonia and death. Doctors and researchers continue to learn more about the disease, so information about symptoms, prevention, and treatment may change as more data becomes available.

Ok — now that that’s out of the way, back to what I intended to write about today…. I got to thinking about all the times that I’ve read about coronavirus lately that I’ve had to look up terms that I wasn’t familiar with. Coronavirus has not only disrupted our lives, it’s also caused an upheaval in our language. I checked, and sure enough Merriam-Webster has made unscheduled updates to its dictionary. Some of the new words (and terms) include: community spread, contact tracing, coronavirus, COVID-19, index case, index patient, novel coronavirus, patient zero, SARS-CoV-2, self-quarantine, social distancing, and super-spreader. A few days after I checked the update, I found another update adding even more….  acute respiratory stress syndrome (ARDS,) contactless, epidemic curve, forehead thermometer, hydroxychloroquine, immune surveillance, intensivist, physical distancing, pre-symptomatic, remdesivir, and WFH (work from home.) I’m sure that if I checked today, there might be a few more.

I usually make it a point to research words or terms that I’m not familiar with — it seems important to understand these words because they can mean different things… and the differences are important — for instance, isolation and quarantine aren’t the same thing. 

Some of the terms that I’ve come across recently that I didn’t know about or was wrong about their meaning include novel (not previously detected or reported) and fomites (inanimate objects whose surfaces can become contaminated with pathogens when touched by the carrier of an infection — and can transmit the pathogens to those than later touch the surface.)

And then of course some familiar terms like price gouging, profiteering, hunker down and containment have taken on a whole different meaning during this pandemic. Because the terminology is new or constantly being “re-defined” the confusion about the pandemic only gets more confusing.

Anyhow, whether we like it or not, we have to learn a new language — that’s the way it is. During the war, the British came up with an “inspiring phrase,” that was supposed to have the power to steady them through challenging times — keep calm and carry on. Sounds like as good advice as any….
— 30 —

Today is one of those very special days that a lot of people probably don’t know about. Today is Chinese Valentine’s Day. I know you’re excited, but don’t go marking your calendars and look forward to August 25 every year to get romantic in a Chinese restaurant. The date varies — for example, last year August 7 was Chinese Valentine’s Day. In case you’re confused, maybe I should explain….   This Chinese holiday goes by different names, but it was originally known as the Double Seventh Festival (Qixi Festival) and it falls on the 7th day of the 7th Chinese lunar month (this year, that’s today, August 25.) The festival has been celebrated since the Han Dynasty (206 BC — 220 AD.)

Over the years it has been known as the Festival of Seven Daughters, Seventh Sister’s Birthday, Festival of Double Sevens, Night of Sevens, and probably a few other names. 
Today it is popularly called Chinese Valentine’s Day. This romantic holiday evolved from an ancient love story from Chinese folklore. Like any story handed down from generation to generation over thousands of years, there are several versions of the story — here’s one….

The Goddess of Heaven (also know as the Queen of Heaven) had seven beautiful, young daughters. The seven daughters came down to Earth. They decided to bathe in a pristine river, leaving their clothes on the shore. Along came an ox herder named Niu Lang. He took their clothes to see what they would do. The daughters decided that the youngest, and most beautiful, named Zhi Nü should go out of the water and recover their clothes. Because Niu Land saw her naked, they had to get married. They fell madly in love, and shared several years of marital bliss. 
Finally, her mother became irritated by her absence from Heaven, and ordered her to return. Seeing how much Zhi Nü missed her husband, the Jade Emperor of Heaven brought the couple back together. Ultimately, Zhi Nü was allowed to visit her husband, Niu Lang just once a year. The annual reunion occurs on the 7th day of the 7th month of the Lunar calendar.

I guess whether or not a princess from heaven falling in love with an ox herder is more romantic than a little guy shooting arrows at people is personal preference, but they both seem like good occasions to have some Chinese food and drink plum wine.

The traditional ways of celebrating this special day in China, even though they’re pretty much no longer practiced, are interesting:
“Showing skills” was the most popular custom for women during the festival. The longest standing way was to speedily thread a needle under moonlight. Young women also carved exotic flowers, animals and birds — usually on a melon skin.
Worshiping the weaver fairy (the star Vega) involved a table of offerings: tea, wine, fruits, dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, and melon seeds. In the evening young women sat around the table, displaying their needlework, gazing at Vega, and praying for a good husband and a happy life. They played games or read poems until midnight. 
Honoring oxen (in remembrance of the ox herder) — Children picked bunches of wild flowers and hung them on the horns of oxen in honor of the legendary ox. 
People made and ate fried, thin pastries of different shapes, known as “skill fruit.”

Sadly, these traditions are lost to history — today, Chinese Valentine’s Day will be celebrated by giving flowers, chocolates, and other presents to lovers and sweethearts. 
Still seems like a good day for Chinese food and plum wine to me… Happy Chinese Valentine’s Day!!
— 30 —

We’ve been getting a lot of texts from our granddaughter, Emily, lately. It’s probably safe to say that every one of them contains (lots) more than one “emoji.” Emojis are just one of the many things that I really don’t “get.”

You faithful readers may remember that back on November 17, 2015 I was astonished that the Oxford English Dictionary, that chooses a “Word of the Year “ every year, in 2015, chose a Word of the Year that wasn’t even a word. It was an emoji — specifically, a “smily face” with tears. You can check the entry for 11/17/2015 if you’re interested in more details.

But back to Emojis… these symbols originated in Japan in the late 90s. The word emoji means “picture word” in Japanese. It seems like these little digital “pictures” are everywhere — I almost never get a text without an emoji and they’ve started appearing in a lot of e-mails that I receive. 

Emojis have become a part of our lives… while I still don’t understand why, many people believe that emojis are a great way to add personality to text-based conversation. (I’ll admit that it seems that there are more text-based conversations taking place today than face-to-face conversations.) The texting generation thinks everything needs to be conveyed immediately, and sometimes sending one emoji is easier than typing up a response. And with the de-emphasis of writing skills being taught today, a lot of people think nothing is more expressive than an image. 

While poking around on the Internet for information about emojis, I ran across one study that claimed the use of “emoticons” amplify whatever message we’re trying to send. A sad emoticon makes a written message seem sadder — same thing is true for happy emoticons. I do remember in the early days of personal computers, often seeing something like “:-)” fairly often — I guess that would be considered an emoticon, so I suppose emojis are just an “improvement” that has taken advantage of the graphics capabilities of everyone’s computer — and phones. 

So with all this social distancing, probably more people are texting than ever before, and that probably means the use of emojis will continue to increase. I found a listing of the ten most-used emoji on Twitter so far in 2020… and guess what? The Face with Tears of Joy emoji was number one on the list. Sound familiar? Yep that Face with Tears of Joy was the 2015 Oxford dictionary’s Word of the Year. Talk about staying power… since 2015, probably thousand of emojis have been created, but Face with Tears of Joy remains the most frequently used emoji. It beat out the Red Heart and Smiling Face with Heart-eyes, that finished in second and third places.

The top ten list didn’t offer any explanation for the rankings — just that they were the most used. After a little digging, I found that most people use the Face with Tears of Joy emoji to underscore a joke, acknowledge a funny comment, or to soften a sarcastic remark.

A cognitive psychologist, Monica Riordan, indicated that studies suggest that 55% of human communication is through body language — gestures, posture, facial expression — and 38% is conveyed by a speaker’s tone and inflection. These clues vanish in text messaging, so people tend to exaggerate their response. Supposedly, the exaggerated nature of Face with Tears of Joy is what makes it so popular — you’re essentially trying to encode an incredibly complex set of emotional and social cues into a tiny little graphic and then hoping that the other person correctly interprets what you’re trying to convey.

Well, ok. But the confusing thing (to me) is that emojis don’t have a fixed meaning, like (most) words do. But I guess that just like any language, you have to learn to “speak emoji to understand….
— 30 —

Many years ago I did a lot of traveling in Southeast Asia. I think I’ve mentioned before that maybe my favorite place of everywhere I’ve been is Hong Kong. In fact on just about every trip, if it was at all possible, I’d go through Hong Kong and spend as much time there as my schedule allowed. 

I had a lot of clothes made there and several pairs of shoes. Most shoe factories in Hong Kong also repaired shoes — I know it’s hard to find a shoe repair business around here anymore, I’m not sure about the current situation in Hong Kong. 

Anyhow, One time when I was in Hong Kong, I took a pair of shoes to be repaired to the Chan Foo Shoe Factory and Repair in Kowloon (I’m not sure if that was really the name of the shop, but it was something like that.) I can’t remember why, but for some reason something came up and I had to leave Hong Kong before they were ready. I stuck the repair ticket in my pocket when I dropped off the shoes and didn’t think any more about it. 

A number of years later, we were living in Manila and once again I was going on a trip that I made sure would take me through Hong Kong. Before I left, Claire handed me the shoe repair ticket and said, “this has been in the box on your dresser forever — why don’t you take it and pick up your shoes?” I, in all my wisdom, responded, “it’s been at least four or five years, that place is probably not even there anymore.” Well, Claire insisted that i take it, so I did. 

In Hong Kong, I wasn’t even sure I could find the place, but I did — down a little back street… the Chan Foo Shoe Factory was still there. I went in and gave the the little Chinese man my ticket. He was very polite and asked me to wait while he went into the back. I waited what seemed to be a really long time, before he finally came back and asked when I had left the shoes. I told him about five years ago. He replied, “Ah! Be ready on Friday!”
— 30 —

Our niece, Kylee, just became a genuine, informed, trained, scholarly, intelligent, enlightened, knowledgeable, skilled, proficient, capable, stellar, eruditely, approved, college educated, board-certified, Occupational Therapist, or as we in the know like to say, an “OT.”

I always knew Kylee was smart — when she was little, every time I was around her, she was always asking me to give her a “woid” to spell. She outgrew that pronunciation, but she knew how to spell more words than I knew. So I always assumed she’d become a spelling teacher or something like that.

But I’d say that an occupational therapist is even better.
Kylee graduated from West Virginia University — to become an occupational therapist, she had to earn a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree in occupational therapy.

A couple of people I’ve talked to think that Kylee became a physical therapist…. she didn’t. She became an occupational therapist.
As I understand it, the primary difference is that physical therapy’s main focus is gross motor function, while occupational therapy focuses on how the patient uses fine more and cognitive skills to perform tasks that are meaningful to them. The occupational therapist’s primary goal is to help patients engage in activities in areas such as self-care, homemaking, leisure, play, and socialization. Their treatment may include physical exercise, but may also focus on areas such as problem solving, memory, organization, keeping a routine, social skills, and using community resources. 
I don’t pretend to understand all of this, but it sounds pretty impressive to me. 

The fact is, we’re really proud of Kylee and there’s absolutely no question she’ll be a success. Whatever direction she chooses to go, or what “speciality” she selects, she’ll do great. Because no matter her educational background, she’ll be a success because she’s Kylee. You see, success as a therapist is not found in doing something for the patient, but rather in being something for the patient — I’m pretty sure that’s the way Kylee will operate — congratulations to the newest professional in our family!
— 30 —

When I was growing up, my favorite cookie was two round chocolate wafers with a creamy white filling between them. Yep, that’s right they were Hydrox cookies. I know, you probably thought I was talking about Oreo cookies, but believe it or not, we didn’t have Oreo cookies in Maysville. Hydrox was manufactured by Sunshine Biscuits, a company that made most of the cookies sold in my dad’s and granddad’s stores.

Hydrox cookies were first sold in 1908 and were the inspiration for the Oreo cookie that was introduced in 1912. The Oreo eventually exceeded Hydrox in popularity, which resulted in Hydrox being perceived as an imitator, although it was the original.

The creators of the Hydrox cookie looked to name it something that  conveyed “purity and goodness.” The name they came up with was derived from the elements that constitute water — hydrogen and oxygen.

The origin of the name Oreo is unknown. Some say it was derived from the French word or, meaning gold, others think it’s from a Greek word meaning mountain and some think Oreo was chosen because it is short and easy to pronounce.

I personally favor Hydrox over Oreos, but over the years I’ve chosen Beta over VHS, 8-track over cassettes, WordPerfect over Microsoft Word, I had an Apple Newton and liked the New Coke so I may not be the best person to endorse products. We do have Oreos in our house and I’m sure our grandkids would choose them over Hydrox in a taste test. 

But after becoming the king of cookies, not even Oreo can survive being touched by scandal. I realize that the nation is currently faced with many scandals, but the fiasco I’m about to tell you about threatens our very notion of truth and goodness. Double Stuf Oreos do not contain twice the stuf that are in normal Oreos!! I know this is true — it was on the Internet.

Say what you will about our education system, but a high school math class conducted an experiment and concluded that Double Stuf Oreos contain only 1.86 times more stuf than the original Oreo cookies. As might be expected, Nabisco, the maker of Oreos, said that the cookies do indeed contain twice as much. 

The legal community is offering up as a defense, the fact that a Subway footlong sandwich isn’t really exactly 12 inches. Now here’s the problem with that — the dictionary defines “footlong” as “approximately one foot in length.” The dictionary definition of “double” indicates it’s a mathematical phrase signifying “twice as much.”

So the argument comes down to, “is corporate American knowingly cheating our children?” Actually, not just children — adults like Oreos, too.

You may notice that I haven’t really taken a stand here — I’m still trying to figure out what “stuf” is. I thought it was the white filling between the two chocolate cookies, but stuf isn’t listed in the dictionary and the closest word, stuff, doesn’t describe anything like that white filling…. so maybe if things really get ugly and the big Oreo Fraud trial finally overtakes coronavirus and statue toppling in the news, lawyers will reveal what “Stuf” is. I guess until this is all sorted out, just follow the old advice of “buyer beware.”
— 30 —

Over the course of the history of this blog, the subject has been telephones on a number of occasions. The telephone is an interesting topic, and like a lot (most) things, it’s made tremendous progress, technologically, over the years. It’s hard to remember when a telephone wasn’t taken for granted, but it really hasn’t bee that long ago. 

When we first arrived in Manila, in the Philippines — in 1972, we moved into an apartment in the Carmen-Dewey apartment building on Roxas Boulevard — located right on Manila Bay.

The previous tenants had taken the telephone with them when they moved. Because I traveled a lot, it was important for Claire to have access to a phone — obviously there was no such thing as an “Internet” or cell phone in those days. 

In 1972, a phone was considered a luxury item in Manila. There was a long waiting list of people waiting for phones to be installed. The embassy pulled some strings and it was a only a few days after moving in that the telephone company showed up at our apartment. The previous residents evidently had the phone in the living room — there was a phone “pigtail” about five or six inches long coming out of the baseboard in that room.

Claire told the phone installer that she wanted the phone in the bedroom — with me traveling, the bedroom location just made more sense. Claire went on about her business and left the installer to do his work. Shortly, he announced that the phone was connected and everything worked fine. When she checked, she found the phone had been attached to short piece of wire coming out of the baseboard — about six inches from the wall. It couldn’t even be put on a table, it had to sit on the floor. Claire once again explained that she wanted the phone in the bedroom — on a nightstand next to the bed. The phone installer insisted that it was much better where he had installed it (on the floor in the living room.) 

Well, if you know Claire, there was a long (interesting?) discussion about where the phone should go. The phone installer’s best arguments couldn’t convince Claire that the living room floor location was “better.”

It turned out that the real problem was that the phone company didn’t have any wire. I’ll repeat that — the phone company didn’t have any wire. Claire got in touch with me and I brought a roll of wire from the embassy and the installer gladly installed the phone in the bedroom — on the table. I let the phone guy keep the extra wire and everyone was happy. 

Thinking back over the years, if I made a list of the things I’ve taken for granted, it would be a long list — and include telephone wire.
— 30 —

Forty-nine years ago tonight was pretty special. We were at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. So not to keep you in suspense, it was our first date — we went to Merriweather Post to see Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Initially, the Pavilion was meant to be a summer home for the National Symphony Orchestra, but it soon transformed into a host for popular live event performances by lots of well-known artists.

In 1971, the Nation’s Capital was a city in the throes of tremendous turmoil. The anti-war movement was in full-swing, the Weathermen bombed the Capitol Building and the May Day Protests — a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington in protest of the Vietnam War caused disruptions and garnered a lot of publicity. 

In 1971, the Merriweather Post Pavilion was also concerned with the violence in nearby Washington and the music tinged by the progressive public’s discontent due to the Vietnam War. Until 1971, Columbia’s city manager was Merriweather Post’s overseer and in 1970 stopped the booking of rock music there after a mayhem during a Steppenwolf concert. But in 1971, the Nederlander Organization assumed management duties of the venue and pushed forward a slate of rock events by performers whose shows were not accompanied by a history of violence. Among the groups booked was Blood, Sweat, and Tears on August 13, 1971. 

Columbia, Maryland was only about 30 miles away from the District, but that distance was enough to provide a safe, and at the time, rather spectacular setting for entertainment. 

So here we are, 49 years later and Washington is still a mess, we don’t listen to Blood, Sweat, and Tears much anymore and we haven’t been back to the Merriweather Post Pavilion…. but it’s still been a pretty good 49 years — Cheers to us!
— 30 —

A few weeks ago, the subject of this blog turned to schools — primarily because of the change the coronavirus has had on the education system. That led to me reminiscing about my school days and the mention of a one-room school house in the Story community near Maysville, where a number of my friends attended through the eighth grade.

I thought it might be interesting to take a closer look at our education system over the years. To go way, way back, the earliest humans didn’t need schools to pass along information. Kids were educated on an individual basis within the family unit. But of course, the populations grew and societies were formed. 

When people started living in organized societies, someone figured out that instead of each family being responsible for educating the young, it would be easier and more efficient to have a small group of adults teach a larger group of children — and low and behold, the concept of school was born.

In the beginning, and for a long time, schools weren’t like the schools we have today. The earliest schools usually focused more on teaching skills and passing along religious values, rather than teaching specific “subjects” like schools do today. 

In the US, the first schools began in the 13 original colonies. Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, became the first public school and the oldest existing school in the country. The earliest public schools focused on reading, writing and math, or arithmetic. The New England colonies were first in requiring towns to set up schools. The Massachusetts Bay Colony made basic education a requirement in 1642. Maybe not surprisingly, many of the earliest schools were only for boys. At the time, girls had few, if any, options.

Education became a higher priority after the American Revolution and most of the states began to establish public schools. As we know from today’s news, states rules and regulations aren’t universal or consistent — they weren’t then and never have been… they vary from state to state.

Credit for the modern school system we have today usually goes to Horace Mann, often called the “Father of the Common School Movement.” Mann became Secretary of Education in Massachusetts in 1837 and instituted a system of professional teachers that would teach students an organized curriculum of basic content. 

The success of Mann’s system in Massachusetts was copied and established in other states. More and more states made school attendance mandatory — by 1918, every state required students to complete elementary school. 

Throughout the 20th century, the education system improved by leaps and bounds leading to the advanced systems we enjoyed until 2019. In 2020, the education system (along with almost everything else) changed. The system will, for the foreseeable future, have to be re-invented. We’re currently facing the same problems we had following the American Revolution — education decisions are being left to the individual states with no overall or centralized guidance. Maybe another Horace Mann will come along and set forth a vision that is workable, and acceptable, across the nation.
For now, we have to start where we are, use what we have and do what we can….
— 30 —

Even though we’re still early in August, some leaves are starting to fall and it’s apparent that summer is coming to a close — goodbye summer, hello fall. I was thinking about seasons… most people experience four seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall (or autumn.) Seasons are associated with a particular time of the year. The change of season is primarily due to the change in attitude of the Earth’s axis in relation to the position of the sun at a particular place. 

In temperate latitudes, four seasons are the norm, tropical regions have two seasons — wet and dry. Monsoon areas around the Indian Ocean have mainly three seasons: cold, hot, and rainy (or monsoon.) I’ve lived in places that have four seasons and two seasons, and have visited places with three seasons. I’ve also visited a place that has six seasons. There very well may be other places that have six seasons, but the only place I’ve been that has six is… Bangladesh. Much of the area surrounding Bangladesh experience the three seasons that I mentioned — but for some reason, maybe just cultural tradition, Bangladesh divides these three seasons into six.

The six seasons, and their Bengali names are:
Summer (grisma); monsoon (basra); autumn (sharat); late autumn (hemanta); winter (shit) [maybe not a bad name for that season here in West Virginia] and spring (basanta.) Bangladesh gets about 85% of its year’s total rainfall during monsoon season (mid-June to mid-August.) Winter is the coolest season, but very tolerable — the temperature then averages 52 – 68ªF.

Bangladesh promotes itself as the land of six seasons — in Bengali, “Sadartu.” That certainly helps make it sound unique, but for practical purposes, only three seasons are distinguishable — summer, rainy, and winter. But no matter — regardless of how many seasons, they all pass.
— 30 —