What Would Jimmy Do?

These are trying times, to say the least. I hope everyone is doing well and practicing all these new rules and regulations that come with completely new terminology, like “social distancing.”

We’re trying to follow the rules and are sticking pretty close to home. What little shopping we’ve done has been for what we need — no hoarding in this household. And we’ve tried to order what we need online when possible. In fact we just received out latest shipment of supplies — they were delivered to our door, so we were in compliance with all the new rules and guidelines.
I hope everyone follows our example. Stay healthy, keep calm and drink up!
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Even though I (and the weather people) have declared it to be spring since the 1st of March, today marks the astronomical first day spring in the Northern Hemisphere. If you’ve followed this blog over the years, you’ve probably heard me talk about how you can stand an egg on it’s end at the time of the equinox, and also that a broom will stand alone, upright all by itself. If you check past years entries, you’ll find that I devoted a fair amount of time to these activities and they’re both “folklore.” Check this blog’s archives for the “proof.”

But today, March 19 is the spring equinox, or if you please, the March equinox or vernal equinox. What makes it special is that this equinox (on March 19) is the earliest spring in the last 124 years. You faithful readers know that something like this can’t go by without some extensive research. 

I remember that not that many years ago, spring began on March 21. So what happened? This gets a little complicated, so be patient — it also involves the calendar. For some reason the calendar keeps coming up in this blog more and more often. 

Back in February, 2000, for the first time in four centuries, there was a February 29 (leap day) in a century year. We all know that years divisible by four are leap years. This year, 2020 is a leap year. But if a year is divisible by 100, it skips being a leap year — so, in 1700, 1800, and 1900 there was no February 29. The way our calendar is set up, most century years skip February 29 — but — if the year is divisible by 400, it will be a leap year and February will have 29 days. So 2000 was a leap year with the added day in February.

Pay close attention now — equinoxes and solstices happen earlier and earlier as each century wears on. Each summer and winter should begin on the 21st of the month, but as every century wears on, the date slips earlier to the 20th and possibly even the 19th, but this “slippage” gets corrected by the omission of the leap day during the next century year, like 1700, 1800 and 1900. Elimination of that day creates a sudden “jump” of one day, with the first day of spring, summer and winter pushed to the 21st again.

If you’re still with me… the year 2000 had a leap day. Because of that “once every four century ’tweak’ equinoxes were prevented from returning to the 21st, so they continue to occur earlier. The equinox slipped from the 21st to the 20th a number of years ago — but now it’s still creeping even earlier and it’s reached the point where the equinox happens on the 19th. 

Now, the good, or bad, news depending on you view, every four years from now on (2024, 2028, 2032, etc.) there will be a brand new “record earliest start to spring. 

It seems like the world has always had problems with calendars and we’ve had a number of calendars and tweaks to calendars over time. This is all just part of the seemingly constant change we live through. So this year we got to celebrate an extra day on February 29, and we get to celebrate the equinox even earlier than usual on the 19th. If you’re into precision, the equinox occurs at 11:50 (ten minutes before midnight) tonight, and that time is EDT. 

So we won’t have the big celebration on the 21st, like in the old days. But if my calculations are correct, the equinox will return to it’s “normal” March 21 in 2103. We just have to wait until we skip the leap year in 2100 to reset everything back “right.” Happy Spring to all!!! 
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If you’re lucky enough to be Irish… you’re lucky enough. I guess that’s especially true today. Today is St. Patrick’s Day, a day to celebrate — yep, Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland credited with converting the nation to Christianity. This day, March 17th, is the observation of the death of St. Patrick.

As is tradition here on “What Would Jimmy Do,” I usually talk about St. Patrick because — well, because it’s St. Patricks Day. I also have a beer — sometimes it’s even a Guinness.
We all know that St. Patrick was not Irish, he was English, and his given name was Maewyn Succat. If his name hadn’t been changed, we’s be celebrating Maewyn Day today. 
St. Patrick’s Day commemorates the arrival of Christianity in Ireland — in the year 432.
St. Patrick was kidnapped when he was 16 years old by a group of Irish raiders that attacked his family’s estate. He was taken to Ireland by his kidnappers and worked there attending sheep before he escaped and became a priest.
Today, people traditionally wear green and eat corned beef and cabbage… even though corned beef isn’t an Irish dish —it’s English.

Between 1903 and 1970, all/most pubs in Ireland were closed on St. Patrick’s Day because it was a religious holiday. After 1970, the holiday was reclassified as a national holiday and the Irish started drinking — on St. Patricks Day. I’m not sure how many pubs will be open in Ireland today… this year a lot of St. Patrick festivities — worldwide — like the parades and dying the Chicago River green have been cancelled because of the coronavirus.

But it’s still St. Patrick’s Day, and we can all still be Irish today. They say that finding a four leaf clover on St. Patrick’s Day is especially lucky… we can all use some luck. And maybe we can all become friends — the Irish say a best friend is like a four leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have.
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Well, here it is the ides of March again. If you’ve read this blog over the years, you know that I’ve usually talked about the ides this time of the year. And you’ll remember that the ides, along with kalends, and nones were “markers” on the calendar used express dates in relation to the lunar phase of the month. And you probably also remember that the ides of March wasn’t anything but a date until Shakespeare made it famous in his play about Julius Caesar.

You can check some of the past blog entries if you’re really interested in the details, but which day of the month is the “ides” depends on a complicated formula of calculation that Caesar himself established when he instituted the Julian calendar. Ides of March (and May, July and October) is the fifteenth. That’s not the ides of all months — the ides of January, for example, is the thirteenth. 

I’ve never seen the play Julius Caesar performed, but I did have to read it while in school. The following is from Act 1 of the play:
Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music cry “Caesar!” Speak, Caesar is turn’d to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.
Caesar: What man is that?
Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

This conversation takes place during Lupercalia, an ancient Roman religious holiday. Caesar, the Roman dictator, makes his appearance before the crowd (“press”) in the streets. From out of the crowd, a soothsayer issues his famous warning. 
Now Caesar was a very superstitious man, and wasn’t the sort to take a soothsayer lightly.

Obviously, the importance of the ides of March for Caesar is that it is the day he will be assassinated — by a group of conspirators, including Brutus and Cassius. But despite numerous signs, omens, and warnings, like the soothsayers warning, his wife’s dreams of this murder, etc., Caesar goes out on the ides and gets himself killed. 

Shakespeare based his play on the work Plutarch’s Life of Julius Caesar. In that work, the soothsayer warned Caesar to “take heed of the of the ides of March.” I guess that wasn’t quite dramatic enough for Shakespeare… he changed it to “Beware the ides of March.” 
Luckily he did — can you imagine “take heed of the ides of March” ever taking off??
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OK, we’ve almost made it through the week — on to a happier topic….

Today is Pi Day — a holiday celebrated every year on March 14. If you’ve been using Pi Day as an excuse to eat pie, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re doing it wrong. This special day was founded in 1988 by Physicist Larry Shaw and has become an international holiday celebrated all around the world in countries that follow the month/day date format. The digits in the date, March 14 or 3/14 are the first three digits of ∏ (3.14)
And if you’r really into pi, there are other days during the year that you can celebrate:
March 4 — this day marks the passing of 14% of the 3rd month of the year.
April 5 — by this day, 3.14 months of the year have passed.
November 10 — the 314th day of the year (this would be November 9 in leap years.)
And then there’s alway July 22 — which would be Pi Approximation Day. This date, when written in the day/month format — 22/7 — corresponds to the fraction (22/7) that is used to depict pi.

So let’s talk about Pi….
The symbol for Pi has been in use for over 250 years. The symbol was introduced by Williams Jones, and Anglo-Welsh philologist (someone who studies language) in 1706 and made popular by the mathematician Leonhard Euler.

Pi wasn’t alway known as pi. Before 1706, people referred the number we know as pi as “the quantity which when the diameter is multiplied by it, yields the circumference.” Obviously, people got tired of using that many words whenever they wanted to talk about pi. So good for William Jones for coming to our rescue. 

Some people believe that tau (which amounts to 2∏) is better suited to circle calculations. You can multiply ta with the radius of  circle to to calculate its circumference more intuitively. Tau/4 also represents the angle of a quarter of a circle. And — we can celebrate Tau Day on June 28.

But today is Pi Day — a day we can all use after the week we’ve had — happy Pi Day.
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Wow! What a week! If you’re reading this blog, that means that so far you’ve made it through a time change, a full moon and a pandemic — congratulations. So here we are ready to tackle, hopefully, our last challenge for the week — Friday the 13th.

For many people, Friday the 13th is thought to be an unlucky day. There really is very little evidence to show that Friday the 13th is unlucky — many studies have shown that the day has little or no effect on events like accidents, hospital visits, and natural disasters.

Not everyone thinks of Friday the 13th as a day of misery. In many Spanish speaking countries and in Greece, Tuesday the 13th is considered unlucky. In Italy, Friday the 17th — not Friday the 13th — is thought to be a day that brings bad luck, In fact, in Italy, the number 13 is thought to be a lucky number. Since 1995, Finland has dedicated one Friday the 13th a year to observe National Accident Day. The day aims to raise awareness about safety — on the roads as well as at home and the workplace.

Not much is known about the origins of this day’s notoriety. Some believe that the superstition or myth  started in the Bible. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and there were 13 guests at the Last Supper the night before His crucifixion. On a Friday the 13th in 1307, a French king gave orders to arrest hundred of Knights Templar. Some think that action attributed to associating the day with misfortune. 

The fear of Friday the 13th is known as friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia. Friggatriskaidekaphobia comes from Frigg, the Norse goddess of wisdom after whom Friday is named and the Greek words triskaideka, meaning 13, and phobia, meaning fear. Paraskevidekatriaphobia is also derived from Greek: paraskeví translates as Friday, and dekatria is anther way of saying 13.

Triskaidekaphobia, or the fear of the number 13, is feared by enough people that many high-rise buildings, hotels and hospitals skip the 13th floor and many airports do not have gates numbered 13. In many places, having 13 people at the dinner table is considered bad luck.

All years will have at least one Friday the 13th. There can never be more than three Friday the 13ths in any given calendar year. The longest time between Friday the 13ths is 14 months. For a month to have a Friday the 13th, it must begin on a Sunday — really!!

So don’t walk under any ladders, don’t break any mirrors, don’t spill any salt and don’t let any black cats cross your path. Happy Friday the 13th!!
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Last evening, the President delivered an Oval Office Address. Traditionally, presidents use this setting as a way to communicate directly with the American people. It’s called an Oval Office Address because it’s made from the Oval Office in the White House. The Oval Office is considered to be one of the most solemn settings that the President uses to announce/address topics of major or urgent interest to the public. Topics typically include some major personnel move, major new policy initiatives, or often to assure the American people during times of a natural emergency.

Oval Office addresses are alway considered major addresses and serve as a direct connection between the public and the President of the United States.

The first Oval Office address was delivered by President Herbert Hoover, concerning peace efforts and arms reduction in the world. Eisenhower announced his decision to send troops to Little Rock to enforce school desecration from the Oval Office. Kennedy talked about and explained the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ronald Reagan grieved with the nation following the Challenger space shuttle disaster.  Last night President Trump addressed the American public concerning the coronavirus.

I haven’t been witness to a lot of the remarks from the Oval Office, but the ones that I’ve watched or heard always at least left me more informed and usually feeling a little better. This morning, I don’t feel informed — or better.
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When I was a kid, when the month of March rolled around, the stores had kites for sale. If I remember, they cost about a dime, with some of the larger “box” kites costing up to a quarter. I don’t remember buying very many kites — we usually just made our own. 

I almost never see kids flying kites anymore. Most kids’ outdoor activities today are organized, like soccer, baseball, etc. I really don’t see a lot of kids outside just “playing” anymore. I think I’ve mentioned before that neither Kelly or David ever showed much interest in kites and I’m pretty sure that none of our grandkids have even been exposed to kite flying. 

I suppose there could be (and maybe is) an entire blog about nothing but kites. But they are interesting — they have a long history and over the years they’ve been used for all sorts of unusual things and contributed to advances and discoveries in a number of fields. And a lot of famous people used kites in their discoveries.

Most people are familiar with the kite experiment performed by Ben Franklin that proved that lightning is electricity. He performed his experiment in 1752 in some amount of secrecy — the only witness to the experiment was his 21 year old son. Franklin waited until there was a storm and then flew his kite made of silk (silk tolerated the rain better than other materials available a the time.) The experiment took a long time — so long that they considered just calling it off. But before they did, Ben noticed some threads of silk tied to the key were standing straight out. He then touched the back of his knuckle to key and felt a shock, thus proving his theory. It’s amazing that Franklin wasn’t killed, as others trying to reproduce the experiment were.

No one really knows who came up with the first kite, but most people agree that the kite originated in China thousands of years ago. Since then, kites have been used to prove all sorts of theories, gather data about the weather, used in military battles and observations, and of course provided just plain fun for generations of kids — and adults.

In 1804 George Cayley developed the concept of heavier-than-air flight — his glider was a modified arch top kite. Kites have been used to pull “horseless carriages.” A kite flown by Homan Walsh ,when he was 10 years old, aided in the construction of a suspension bridge across the Niagara River. The Wright Brothers used kites to test their theories for the first airplane and Marconi used a kite to lift an antenna hight enough to make his radio link between America and Europe work. After the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, kites carried cameras aloft to take pictures to assess the damage.

So kites have been around for thousands of years and and became a part of, and influenced, our lives. Authors and poets used to write about them… its kind of sad that the kite has lost its prominence today. We can learn a lot from kites. In today’s environment, we seem to questioning rules and freedom more than ever. Someone once wrote that kites can’t really fly free — in order to soar high in the sky the string of a kite needs to be anchored. If the string breaks the kite drops back to the ground. The kite’s freedom depends on it not being as free as it thinks it is. Just some food for thought on a windy March day — and, it’s more poetic than “go fly a kite.”
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Some members of our family are absolutely convinced that a full moon alters people’s behavior. They offer up changed behavior of other family members as proof. I don’t know if the moon alters behavior or not — a lot of people have believed it for a lot of years, so there may be something to it. 

The influence of the moon and behavior has been called “The Lunar Effect” or “The Transylvania Effect.” The belief that the full moon causes mental disorders and strange behavior was widespread throughout Europe in the middle ages. The word “lunacy” meaning “insanity” comes from the Latin word for moon. If you’d like to check, you’ll find thousand of studies on the moon and behavior. If you look at them, you’ll notice that the results are inconsistent. Some studies show that a particular behavior will occur more often during the full moon and other studies show no relationship between behavior and the full moon. In my mind this inconsistency alone casts doubts on the theory that the full moon influences behavior — but if you’re someone that believes that it does, adjust accordingly around the full moon every month.

Anyhow, March’s full moon will occur in our area during the afternoon at 1:48 pm — about 13 hours before reaching perigee (the nearest it comes to the Earth during its orbit.) That will create a “supermoon,” a full moon that appears slightly larger than average. Supermoon isn’t a term used by astronomers, so whether a full moon counts as “super” depends of who’s making the call and how much “bigger” the moon appears to that person. A full moon occurs when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun and appears once every 29.53 days. Sometimes there are two full moons in one month. It’s possible to have a month without a full moon, but that doesn’t happen very often and can only happen in the month of February. The last time it happened was in February of 2018. 

We’re still adjusting to the time change and experiencing the full moon tonight… that gives us three days to recover and prepare for Friday the 13th. Hang in there.
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Here it is the beginning of another week… so take a deep breath, and maybe grab a bottle (or two) of wine. This morning at 2 am all the clocks jumped ahead to 3 am (actually we have few that don”t jump ahead, they have to prodded along) so we’ve already lost an hour of sleep. 
To make matters worse, tomorrow night is a a full moon — not only will it be a full moon, it’ll be the Worm Moon, and if that’s not enough, it’ll be a Super Worm Moon.
But wait, there’s more. If you somehow make it through all this until Friday…. you guessed it — it’s Friday the 13th!
So — here’s wishing everyone a good week. Next week we get back to more normal stuff, like St. Patrick’s Day.
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