What Would Jimmy Do?

Well, here it is again… every year I face the same dilemma — how do I wish Claire a Happy Birthday that captures how I really feel about her. You can check this blog every year in June and see that every year I struggle to find appropriate words. Usually after rambling on for a while I come to the same conclusion — there really aren’t any words that do the trick.

So, again, today I’ll struggle to find the best way to wish her a Happy Birthday and tell her that I love her. I suppose I could text her, or even send her an e-mail. But we do live in the same house… maybe I’ll just tell her. 

But today she deserves more than that. I’d really like to be able to express in words how much I admire her. She has a memory like an elephant and is as quick-witted as anyone I’ve ever met. She is the smartest person I know — she can solve any problem. 

Over the years (fortunately) we’ve had a lot more good times than bad but we’ve made it through earthquakes, fires, typhoons, and terrorist attacks to name a few. And now, I guess we can add ‘pandemic’ to the list. 

Every year I find myself more attracted to her — I love everything about her, but again words escape me. A couple of years ago, I concluded that Winnie the Pooh had the right answer when he told Piglet that you don’t spell love — you feel it. You deserve more — but — for lack of better words, Happy Birthday, I love you!
— 30 —

A couple of days ago, I talked about the first “Air Force One.” When I re-read it, I realized that some of it may have been a little misleading and maybe I should clear it up a bit.

I probably shouldn’t have assumed that everyone knew that the term “Air Force One” isn’t tied to any particular aircraft — Air Force One can describe any Air Force aircraft carrying the President. It is a term used to refer to specific planes equipped to transport the Commander-in-Chief. 

Air Force One is the official air traffic control call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. The ‘Air Force One’ call sign was created in 1953, after President Eisenhower’s Lockheed Constellation, named Columbine II, entered the same airspace as an Eastern  Airlines commercial flight using the same flight number.

For completeness, I should have included a few other “facts” while I was on the subject of presidential airplanes. Eisenhower  chalked up another “first” when  he became the first president to use a jet aircraft, when a Boeing 707 was added to the Air Force’s fleet in 1958. President John F. Kennedy, in 1962,  became the first president to fly in a jet specifically built for presidential use — a modified Boeing 707.

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush took possession of the first 747 Air Force One. This airplane is one of the most recognizable symbols of the office of the President. The paint scheme includes the words “United States of America,” the American flag, and Seal of the President of the United States.

The current Air Force One is capable of midair refueling, giving it unlimited range. Its onboard electronics are hardened to protect against an electromagnetic pulse and it’s fully loaded with advanced secure communications equipment. All this allows the aircraft to function as a mobile command center. Inside, there is 4,000 square feet of floor space on three levels — that includes an extensive suite for the President that contains a large office, lavatory and conference room. It also contains a medical suite that can function as an operating room. A doctor is always on board.

A “new” Air Force One is currently under contract… it’ll be hard to improve on the current model, but I’m sure it will be impressive….
— 30 —

I’m not sure I know what constitutes a “well-stocked” medicine cabinet. I assume you’d expect to find some kind of pain pills, or other “medicine,” and probably something for cuts and scrapes, maybe some band-aids, and stuff like that. I guess if it’s got what you need, when you need it — it’s well stocked.

I do know that years ago when I lived in Asia, one thing you could absolutely depend on being in everyone’s “medicine cabinet” was Tiger Oil.

In fact, right now, in our medicine cabinet is a small bottle of Tiger Oil. It’s still in the original packaging and the “instruction” sheet is in the box. This particular bottle was made in Singapore and it must be at least 50 years old — and has never been opened. 

I remember many, many years ago, bringing my parents Tiger Oil from my trips to Asia. I told them that every medicine cabinet should have some Tiger Oil in it. I think they were fascinated by the packaging, but I suspect they never tried the stuff.

I don’t think they make the Tiger Oil that we have anymore. Over the years, the company made inroads in the United States with a product called Tiger Balm. 

Since I have a long relationship with Tiger Oil, I thought it might be interesting to jot down what I know, and what I’ve learned about this concoction that has been a staple of Chinese families’ medicine cabinets for many years, and how people around the world have picked up on it in recent years.

The oil was (and is) quite popular throughout the world’s Chinese communities. The story of Tiger Oil (not originally know by that name) and later Tiger Balm started a few generations ago in the rural Fujian province, in southern China. That’s where Aw Chu Kin, the son of a herbalist was born. In the late 1860s, he left China to join his uncle in Rangoon, Burma. After arriving in Rangoon, he set up an apothecary named Eng Aun tong (the Hall of Eternal Peace.) He had three sons: Aw Boon Leong (“Gentle Dragon”), Aw Boon Haw (“Gentle Tiger”) and AW Boon Par (“Gentle Leopard”.)

Aw died in 1908 and  Boon Leong died young — that left the family business to Boon Par and Boon Haw. They worked together using their father’s recipes and adapted them to produce an analgesic balm to treat “what ails you.” When their product was put on the marked in 1924, Boon Haw named it after himself — Tiger Balm.

The product became popular in the world’s Chinese communities. Boon Haw donated money to charities and schools and founded a family of newspapers in Singapore, Malays and Hong Kong. Two of the most famous were the Sing Tao Daily and the Hong Kong Tiger Standard — which today is known simply as The Standard.

He also built mansions in Singapore, Hong Kong and Fujian, a provence on the China Sea. All the locations had joining theme parks known as Tiger Balm Gardens. The Hong Kong park was torn down in 2004. The Singapore park was donated to the city’s government, and it is maintained as a historic site. 

After the Aw brothers died, the Tiger Balm business lost a lot of its popularity. The company went public on the Singapore stock exchange in 1969 but soon after was taken over by British conglomerate Slater Walker, which collapsed in a banking crisis. 

Tiger Balm works by tricking nerve endings with cooling and heating sensations, interrupting other signals from muscle pain or itchy insect bites. It is much stronger than most similar products on the market. Vicks contains 8.6 percent active ingredients: synthetic camphor, eucalyptus oil and menthol. Tiger Balm contains 60 percent, including natural camphor, mint oil, cajuput oil, menthol and clove oil.

Recently, the company tweaked its branding, striking a balance between conserving its heritage and refreshing its image. The proprietary orange color was preserved and also the hexagonal-shaped bottle, both of which were introduced when the product was first launched. The brand’s emblem was given a new look — it was changed from a resting tiger to a leaping tiger. (Our Tiger Oil has the original “resting” tiger emblem.)
Tiger Balm is now available in about 100 countries and trademarked in 145. 

As I mentioned, the Tiger Oil in out medicine cabinet isn’t any longer made. It is basically just a liquid version of Tiger Balm. Pretty much the same stuff can be purchased today as Tiger Balm Liniment. Their advertisements say: “Tiger Balm Liniment’s concentrated formula of natural herbal ingredients quickly provides penetrating heat and offers fast, safe and effective relief for the muscle and joint pain that come from backaches, arthritis, bruises and strains.”
So there you have it — I’m no doctor, but I recommend it — I know I feel better just knowing it’s there in case I need it.
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If you’ve read this blog over the years, you may remember that a few years back Chris asked a couple of questions about Air Force One — the President’s airplane. I think one of the questions concerned the American Flag painted on the tail fin… you can check the archives if you’re interested.

I ran across those entries a few days ago while I was looking for something else and decided that the first Air Force One might be a good topic for today.

Presidents before Dwight D. Eisenhower didn’t have their own airplane — most of them rarely traveled by air. The first Air Force One wasn’t a jet, and it wasn’t even called Air Force One. The airplane was built by Lockheed and was referred to simply as a Lockheed Constellation (technically, it was a Lockheed VC-121 Constellation, but the number nomenclature was rarely used to distinguish its type as many airplane models do today.) 

The Lockheed Constellation was one of the nicest looking and most popular of the airliners built in the 1950s. What turned out to be the President’s plane rolled off the assembly line in Burbank, California on December 22, 1948 — it was purchased by the Air Force. Eisenhower used the aircraft for a trip to Korea shortly after he was elected president in November 1952. Shortly after that trip, the airplane was converted into a VIP transport for him. The outfitting of the airplane was a far cry from the current Air Force One. Instead of all the secure communications capability available today, the Air Force installed a mahogany desk that featured buttons to activate a phone that could connect to landlines at airport terminals.

The Constellation wasn’t large enough to hold the president’s entire staff (plus the press.) The cabin had only 16 seats. The crew was also much larger than today’s crews and consisted of a radio operator, flight engineer, and navigator… plus the pilot and co-pilot.

I mentioned that the first presidential plane wasn’t called Air Force One — it was named Columbine II. I think the name was chosen by Eisenhower — the Columbine is the state flower of Colorado and Eisenhower’s wife (Mamie) was from Colorado, so that may have been the reason for the name. 

Not only was Columbine II the first “Air Force One,” it was the only Air Force One to serve only one president. In November, 1954, President Eisenhower upgrade to a newer model — Lockheed’s Super Constellation. The original Columbine II was transferred to Pan American World Airways for two years before being returned to the Air Force. It served the military until 1968 when it was put into storage at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base in Arizona. It was auctioned to a private owner in 1970. In 2003, the airplane was sent to a boneyard at the Marana Regional Airport near Tucson.
The airplane was recently purchased by a private firm that plans to restore it….
— 30 —

Well, here it is June — in a few weeks, we’ll be half-way to Christmas. Usually around Chinese New Years time, I at least mention the Chinese Zodiac and I’ve noted several times how it plays a more prominent role in the lives of the Asian culture than our zodiac “signs” do in our day to day lives. Nonetheless, it’s kind of a fun topic whether you believe in it or not. According to a study a few years back, the words horoscope and astrology are the two most searched topics on the Internet. 

A few days ago I ran across an article that discussed how the month in which a person was born determined that person’s characteristics. For instance, the article concluded that more millionaires were born in the month of September than any other month. I thought that was interesting, but not interesting enough to take time for extensive research on the subject — so it might be true or maybe it’s not.

But because today is the beginning of June and three members of our (immediate) family were born in June, here’s what the report says about them:
“June babies have the best personalities and are the life and soul of the party. They love to make new friends and are extremely outgoing. Those born in June are expert flirts and therefore often have very attractive partners. They are insanely hot. June babies more often than not have an affinity for vinyl so they have massive record collections. They are film connoisseurs and could even become a famous actor/actress one day.”

So there you have it — if you know Claire, David and/or Chassie, draw your own conclusions. I think the part about often having very attractive partners is true, though….
— 30 —

There’s been a lot of talk recently about “re-opening sports.” Many people and organizations have different ideas about how all sports can safely resume. Baseball has proposed having games only in Arizona, with no spectators, and having games in various stadiums around the country, with no spectators, or fans, and having a shortened season with regularly scheduled games and a limited number of fans permitted to attend each game. And probably at least a hundred variations of these guidelines. 

I guess the good news is that for most sports, except maybe basketball and hockey, the games are played outside… I know, before you say it, a lot of football games are now played “indoors.” 

But no matter where the games are played, it seems like social distancing is maybe the major issue. It’ll be hard enough to enforce social distancing with the fans — I don’t know how basketball players can adhere to those guidelines during a game — it probably would cut down on fouls, though. Social distancing by the players in any team sport seems just about impossible to me. Maybe golf would have the best chance of pulling true social distancing off.

Anyhow, a lot of smart people are working on this this all out and each sport is figuring out how they can resume — safely. Seems to me football might be ahead of the other sports in their planning — just about every player on every team already wear face masks, so they’re obviously progressive thinkers….
— 30 —

There’s been a lot in the news lately about the unrest in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has always been just about my most favorite city. So you probably figure that today’s blog is going to be about Hong Kong… well, not exactly. Today’s topic is airports. My first time in Hong Kong was in the 1960s. My first flight into the city was on Cathay Pacific airways. I had dosed off and woke up during the landing — when I looked out the window I was literally eye-to eye with a woman hanging laundry on the balcony of an apartment building. If any of you have landed at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport, you know exactly what I mean — if you haven’t, it’s almost impossible to imagine what it was like. 

I should probably pause here and let you know, or remind you that the Kai Tak airport closed about 20 years ago. Today, Hong Kong’s main airport is generally known simply as Hong Kong International Airport. It was built a distance from downtown on reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok. The airport is also referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport or Chek Lap Kok Airport, to distinguish it from its predecessor, Kai Tak Airport. 

But back to what was my favorite airport in my favorite city. Kai Tak was built in 1925 on reclaimed land in Kowloon Bay, opposite Hong Kong Island. It sat in a bowl, surrounded by mountains and water — later untold number of apartment buildings sprung up around it. In 1958, with demand on the airport increasing, a new runway was built. For those into airplane/airport talk — it was Runway 13/31. The runway jutted out into Victoria Harbor, and it soon earned the nickname “Kai Tak Heart Attack.” 

Kai Tak was probably one of the last major airports where ILS (Instrument Landing Systems) weren’t/couldn’t be used. Pilots had to be trained to to get into and out of the airport and had to rely on basic flying skills — not instruments. Landing on Runway 13/31 meant making  an approach across Victoria Harbor (one of the world’s busiest ports) and densely populated Kowloon. The pilot had to visually find “Checkerboard Hill” (an orange and white painted marker above a park.) Then the pilot had to veer right, making a 47 degree turn at low altitude (and about 200 miles an hour.) This maneuver was made just two miles from the runway — after that, the aircraft flew over/between apartment buildings and busy streets to get to the runway. 

Departures had their own challenges. the runway was short, and once off the ground, the aircraft had to turn sharply to avoid Beacon Hill and Lion Rock, two mountains each about 1600 feet high. 

Landing in Hong Kong was like nothing I’d ever experienced before — and never have since.

While we’re on the subject of airports, on my first flight to La Paz, in Bolivia, the pilot announced that we were starting our ascent to the airport — not descent, but ascent. It turns out that El Alto International Airport is the highest international airport, and the sixth highest commercial airport tin the world. After I thought about this, I looked it up and the airport sits at an altitude of 13, 325 feet. It doesn’t fit into the same category of “favorites” as Hong Kong, but because of its altitude, it falls into one of my “unique” flying experiences.
Just a side note… while checking on the altitude of the airport in La Paz, I discovered that the highest airport in the world is Daocheng Yading Airport, located in China’s Sichuan province — it’s almost three miles above sea level. I’ve never been there, but I expect you have fly up to land there, too.

I’ve heard that much of who we are is where we’ve been —  I think maybe that also applies to how we got there….
— 30 —

Today is Memorial Day — the day that traditionally kicks off the beginning of the summer season. Of course that isn’t what Memorial Day is all about. It’s an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May that honors the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. 

Even though the “holiday” originated in the years following the Civil War, it only became an official federal holiday in 1971.

The Civil War ended in 1865 and claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history… so many that it required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. By the late 1860s, people in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and holding prayer services.

Most people probably know that Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance — “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and who’s bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” Logan called the the occasion Decoration Day, and the date was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle. 

On that first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there. 

Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and by 1890 each state had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.
Confederate Memorial Day is still celebrated in several states and this year it was April 26 in Floriday, April 27 in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi and May 11 in parts of South Carolina.

John Logan selected May 30 as the date for Decoration Day and it continued to be the date the day was observed even after it became to be referred to as Memorial Day. But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May — in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971, and Memorial Day was made an official federal holiday.

You may not know that every year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time. 

Old records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. But Charleston isn’t acknowledged as the official birthplace of Memorial Day. That honor goes to Waterloo, New York. Waterloo first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866. Apparently the New York location was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. 

The first year or so after we moved to Shepherdstown, we were out and drove by the Elmwood cemetery here in Shepherdstown where many Confederate soldiers that were killed in the battle at Antietam, are buried. [Even though there is an Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, no Confederate soldiers were allowed to be buried there — because they fought for the South.] Small Confederate flags had been placed on all those graves here in Shepherdstown. Claire was initially a little shocked, and wondered why they weren’t American flags. The reason is because the Confederate flag is the flag they fought under — and died for. I know that the Confederate flag has caught a lot of flack lately, and rightfully so, but I think in this instance, and on Memorial Day, decorating those graves with the Confederate flag is fitting and proper. Like everything else in this blog, it’s my opinion….

Anyhow, happy Memorial Day to everyone — it’ll probably be a little more subdued this year, but the reason we celebrate it hasn’t changed at all, and this year it just may be more meaningful to everyone…..
— 30 —

I know the month of May is full of special days for our family — there’s at least six family birthdays this month, and probably other family events that I’m not even aware of. But in our house, today, May 22, is known as Anniversary Day. 

Wedding anniversaries have been celebrated for a long time — at least as far back as the Holy Roman Empire when husbands crowned their wives with a silver wreath on their twenty-fifth anniversary and a gold wreath on the fiftieth. Initially, only those two anniversaries were celebrated — the others generally passed unnoticed. During the 19th century it gradually became popular to celebrate other wedding anniversaries, probably because of the growing emphasis on family and home life. 

The most important lesson to be learned from the history of anniversaries is that they started out as a reason to celebrate and relieve the stress of daily life. They are a way to remember and rekindle those feelings that made you decide to get married in the first place.

Kelly and Chris, along with Mike and Sue are celebrating their anniversaries today. I think it’s 16 years for Kelly and Chris… that would make it 21 years for Mike and Sue. 
I’m not really into the Bible, but a short verse in Romans seems to provide some good advice…”Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Happy Anniversary to the Anniversary Day celebrants.
— 30 —

Another relatively slow day around here — this week is mostly rainy, or threatening rain almost every day. The first tropical storm (Arthur) is hanging around off the coast and supplying us with a lot of clouds. So big outdoor projects are on hold for a few days. (Just to put things in perspective, mowing my lawn is a “big outdoor project” for me.)

Anyhow, a lot of us (especially older folks) are still hang around home most of the time, even though I guess technically the “quarantine” has been lifted…
I got to thinking about all the clever remarks I’d heard from people in isolation… some I heard so many times, I’m sick of them, like “I never thought my hands would consume more alcohol than my mouth” or “better 6 feet apart than 6 feet under.” But some I haven’t heard so often and I kind of like them — especially the ones about home-schooling. We don’t have to do that anymore, but I can still identify with what a lot of parents are going through. Here’s a couple I particularly liked:

Home schooling is going well. 2 students suspended for fighting and 1 teacher fired for drinking on the job.
Day 5 of Homeschooling: One of these little monsters called in a bomb threat.
Day 6 of Homeschooling: My child just said, “I hope I don’t have the same teacher next year” … I’m offended.

And even though these aren’t about home-schooling, I Like these too… 
I don’t think anyone expected that when we changed the clocks we’d go from Standard Time to the Twilight Zone.
Went to this restaurant called “The Kitchen.” You have to gather all the ingredients and make your own meal. I have no clue how this place is still in business. 
Well, enough for a rainy day… think I’ll go check out the booze supply.
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