What Would Jimmy Do?

I heard the phrase, ‘make hay while the sun shines’ yesterday. I hadn’t heard it in a long time. I think its been around forever and it may even be considered a proverb. It probably originated with Medieval English farmers. Before they had machinery, it would take farmers many days to cut, dry and gather hay and since hay can be ruined easily if it gets too wet, the farmers had to take advantage of hot, dry, sunny weather to cut and gather their hay. The phrase generally came to mean take advantage of circumstances before the chance slips away.

Speaking of hay, when I was growing up the farmers around Maysville grew a lot of hay. All the hay was cut and stored for use in rectangular bales. I never saw rolls or “round bales” of hay when I was living in Oklahoma. I helped with the hay baling operation a few times in high school — all the farmers had hay-baling machines that formed, and tied, the hay into those rectangular shapes. I remember that machinery being noisy, hard to maintain and vibrating a lot. The newer machines that roll the hay seem to be a little less complex and more reliable.

The round bales seem to be the choice of most farmers today. The round bales don’t cut the hay as much and therefore reduce waste — fewer cut ends soak up less water. Water can get into a rectangular bale of hay from the top (rain) or from soaking it up from the ground. The round shape reduces the ground exposure — less amount of the hay is sitting in direct contact with the ground. The round shape also allows a lot of the rain to run off instead of soaking in. Round bales are easier to feed out, you can just roll them along and the hay unravels.
So I guess that’s progress — rectangular bales of hay haven’t quite gone the way of the dial telephone or typewriters yet, but take note next time you see one — it might be your last….
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Last Tuesday evening, the President gave the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1790. The State of the Union address is required by the U.S. Constitution. Article II, Section 3 states: The president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” The Constitution doesn’t define “from time to time” but by tradition the president delivers his message once each year. Only two presidents never delivered a State of the Union address — William Henry Harrison and James Garfield. Both died before they had the chance to deliver their messages. The first radio broadcast of the address was in 1923 by President Calvin Coolidge. The first broadcast on television was Harry Truman’s address in 1947.

No matter what your view of the current president may be, the State of the Union address on Tuesday sounded mostly “presidential.” He started his speech by saying, “The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican agenda or a Democrat agenda.” He promised a new era of cooperation. He talked about infrastructure, lowering the cost of health care, protecting patients with preexisting conditions, eliminating HIV, and fighting childhood cancer. He indicated he was the first president to include a plan for nationwide paid family leave in his budget.
Hard to argue with any of that — even though, as far as I know, he hasn’t submitted his budget indicating how seriously any of the issues will be addressed. But it was at least nice to hear the President of the United States, for the most part, actually sound “presidential” for a change.
There were a lot of good lines delivered Tuesday night — of course it’s more important to see what this administration does than to listen to what was said during the State of the Union.
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Yesterday was the start of Chinese New Year — It was also the the beginning of Tet in Vietnam. The Tet holiday (known as Set Nguyen Dan in Vietnam) starts on the beginning of a new year based on the Chinese lunar calendar. In most of Vietnam, Lunar New Year celebrations last at least three days.

Many Americans hadn’t even heard of Tet prior to the Vietnamese War. Tet, the celebration of the lunar new year, is the most important holiday on the Vietnamese calendar. During the earlier years of the War in Vietnam the holiday had been the occasion for an informal truce between South and North Vietnam.

But in early 1968 the North Vietnamese military launched a coordinated offensive of surprise attacks — in the early morning of January 30, 1968, Viet Cong forces attacked 13 cities in central South Vietnam — just as many families began their observances of the lunar new year. The next day, Viet Cong forces struck other targets throughout South Vietnam, including cities, towns, government buildings and U.S. and/or ARVN military bases in more than 120 attacks. The attacks included a bold attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The assault on the Embassy, and its initial success, stunned American and international observers, who saw images of the carnage broadcast “live and in color” on TV. Even though the offensive inflicted heavy Viet Con causalities and it failed to create the intended widespread rebellion among the South Vietnamese, the Tet Offensive proved to be a strategic success for North Vietnam.

Today in Hồ Chí Minh City (previously Saigon) there will be a lot of loud celebrations held to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune for the new year… but it’ll be a lot quieter than it was in 1968.
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Today (February 5th) is the beginning of the Chinese New Year — it is the year of the Pig and is the 4716th Chinese Year. One sixth of the world’s population celebrate it.

Faithful readers of this blog know that this is one of the many holidays we personally celebrate every year. Chinese New Year is the most important annually recurring festival for people of Chinese ancestry all over the world. It has been celebrated for over 1,000 years and the traditions involved are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture.

Chinese New Year is a joyful time for most Chinese, but not for everyone. In China, females are said to be marriageable up to age 30 and males before age 32. For “old” singles, parents are extremely anxious. So New Year’s Eve stress is heightened by embarrassing interrogations by the parents. To solve this problem an interesting solution has appeared — renting a boyfriend or girlfriend for the New Year. There are websites and agents that specialize in this business. To rent a girlfriend/boyfriend costs about 100 yuan ($16) a day.

Certain Chinese traditions are always followed for Chinese New Year, but there are also some “don’ts.” Clocks should not be given as presents, because they symbolize that time is running out; avoid the  use of sharp objects, as they might cut off good fortune and don’t wear black or tell ghost stories — that might bring about negative energy. The Year of the Pig is a year of fortune and luck! Happy Chinese New Year.
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We went to a Super Bowl party last night. We had a really good time, as usual. The game, won by the Patriots, generally received fairly poor reviews and it didn’t set any records as being the most watched game or anything like that. But — the fact is, Super Bowl parties aren’t much about the game, anyhow. I’m sure at least some of the people at the party last night don’t even know who won… I have a feeling at least a couple didn’t know who was playing.

If anyone is really interested in watching the game, they don’t go to a Super Bowl party to do it — Super Bowl parties are all about the party, the fact that a football game is being played is just a good excuse to have a party.

Now, that said, here’s my proposal… Next year, there should be no Super Bowl parties. The day of the game, football fans should stay at home and watch the game. Non-fans should do whatever they do on a Sunday.

From now on, let’s have Pro-Bowl parties. Here’s why — nobody watches the Pro-Bowl and certainly no one cares who “wins.” So it’s the perfect time to have a party. Gather all your food and drinks and friends and party away. Of course you must have the TV tuned to the Pro-Bowl, but no one will watch it — just like the Super Bowl, except the game doesn’t matter anyhow. This takes away any guilty feeling during the party, that maybe you should at least check out how the game’s going.
So congratulations to the Patriots, better luck to the Rams next year — if you both make it to the big game again, maybe we’ll actually be watching, not partying….
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Today is Super Bowl LIII – between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. I’m pretty sure this the the first time both teams got to the Super Bowl via overtime wins in the Conference Championship games. This year’s game will be played in Atlanta.

Originally the “Super Bowl” participants were the champions of the NFL (National Football League) and the AFL (American Football League.) When the two leagues merged, they formed the NFC (National Football Conference) and the AFC (American Football Conference) and the game is played each year between the champions of these conferences.
The original Super Bowl was officially called The AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Even though “Super Bowl” has been used unofficially from the beginning, the term wasn’t officially recognized by the league until a few year later — the name first appeared on the cover of the program in 1969 and on the tickets in 1970. The first game was held in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on January 15, 1967 (the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.)

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Super Bowl Sunday is America’s “second-largest food consumption day.” Only Thanksgiving Day beats it.
The team that has lost the most Super Bowls would be…. Denver (lost five.)
The first Super Bowl halftime show consisted of two marching bands, trumpeter Al Hirt, two men in jet packs, and 300 pigeons.
The only player named the game’s MVP, that was on the losing team was Chuck Howley, a linebacker for the Cowboys. (1971 in Super Bowl V — Dallas lost to the Baltimore Colts.)
Roman numerals are used to number the Super Bowl because the football season falls in two calendar years.
The NFC team is designated the “home” team in odd-numbered Super Bowls, The AFC team is the “home” in even-numbered Super Bowls.
There has never been a shutout in the Super Bowl. (The fewest points scored was 3 — by Miami. They lost to Dallas 24-3 in 1972.)
Cleveland is the only current NFL city that has neither hosted a Super Bowl or seen its own team make an appearance in one.
The Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl in 1973. Don Shula (Miami’s coach) was being carried off the field and a fan reached up to shake his hand — and stole his watch.

You my have noticed that the Redskins weren’t mentioned once in this blog — so — I don’t really have a favorite…. may the best team win!
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Well, here it is February and time for Groundhog Day. It always falls on February 2nd and it traditionally marks the midpoint between the winter solstice (in December) and the spring equinox (in March.)

I usually update this blog every year on Groundhog Day and every year it reads just about the same as it did the previous year because — well, it’s Groundhog Day. This day of wonder and curiosity, based on the activities of a groundhog arising out of its winter slumber is celebrated in the United States and Canada.

The first recorded “Groundhog Day” was February 2nd, 1886 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. A local newspaper, The Punxsutawney Spirit, printed the news of the first observance…. “Today is groundhog day, and up to the time of going to press the beast has not seen his shadow.” Of course the beast the paper was referring to was Punxsutawney Phil — a groundhog that resided (and still does) in a knoll called Gobbler’s Knob.

So if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there’ll be six more weeks of winter — if he doesn’t, it’ll be an early Spring. Shepherdstown Jimmy also makes a prediction every February 2 — “there’ll be six more weeks of winter…..”
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When I was a kid, graffiti was found in a lot of places — admittedly, not nearly as many as today. Back then, if you ran across a dirty word, or phrase, the reaction was shock or a giggle (depending on how bad it was.) The graffiti found on bathroom walls was, by and large, pretty clever — not vulgar. One piece of graffiti that popped up just about everywhere was the drawing (at the right) with the words, “Kilroy was here.” Everyone thought it was funny, but no one knew its meaning, if in fact it did mean something.

Even though “Kilroy was here” popped up all over the world, its origin pretty much remained a mystery. A few years ago, I ran across an article that seemingly explained the mystery of Kilroy’s origin. It’s a little long, but it’s interesting…. In 1946, the American Transit Association (ATA) held a radio contest to establish the origin of the phrase. Lots of people obviously claimed to be the originator, but one those was James J. Kilroy, who worked at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts during the war inspecting the work done by others on the tanks and hulls of warships. Here’s his story:

“I started my new job with enthusiasm, carefully surveying every inner bottom and tank before issuing a contract. I was thoroughly upset to find that practically every test leader (the head of a work crew) I met wanted me to go down and look over his job with him, and when I explained  that I had already checked the job and could not spare the time to crawl through one of those tanks again, they  would accuse me of not having looked the job over. I was getting sick of being accused of not looking the jobs over and one day as I came through the manhole of a tank I had just surveyed, I angrily marked, with yellow crayon, on the tank top, where the tester could see it, ‘Kilroy was here.’ The following day, a test gang leader approached me with a grin on his face and said, ‘I see you looked my job over.’ I nodded in agreement.”

Kilroy provided the ATA with corroborating statements from men he worked with at the shipyard, and Kilroy said that he assumed that the shipyard workers who had seen his mark and then joined the military took the phrase with them and began writing it overseas. He won the contest. A lot of things go viral today via social media but maybe not so widespread and long lasting as ‘Kilroy.’

Until James Kilroy won the contest, no one was sure of its origin — or — purpose. It not only mystified, but it alarmed our enemies during World War II. Japanese troops were so mystified by a “Kilroy was here” painted on a bombed out tank on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal that they reported the find to their senior intelligence officers. Some reports indicate that Hitler supposed that Kilroy was some kind of “Super-GI” or spy, and ordered a contingent of men to track down the sneaky American. Of course, he was never found.

So next time you’re reading graffiti on a bathroom wall, no matter how vulgar, enlightening, or clever it may be, just think of Kilroy — he may not be here, but he was….
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It looks like it’s getting to be Girl Scout Cookie time again. I remember when this time of year rolled around our house was filled with boxes and boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. Kelly was very active in Girl Scouts and Claire was a scout leader for a number of years. So our house became the warehouse for cookies for their troop every year.

One year when Kelly must have been about six and Dave was two, they filled their wagon with girl scout cookies and toured the neighborhood selling cookies. They must have been really good salesmen or really cute — I think they sold hundreds of boxes of cookies. In out neighborhood back then, kids were allowed to roam around without adult supervision — a “freedom” than most Girl Scouts don’t enjoy today.

When Claire was putting together the cookbook for our church, I learned that the first girl scout cookies were baked by the girl scouts themselves and sold to raise money for their troops.
Cookie “sales” began in 1917 — a Girl Scout Troop in Oklahoma baked and sold sugar cookies at their high school cafeteria to raise fund for a service project. The idea caught on with other troops and they started baking cookies and selling them door-to-door.

In 1922, a scout leader named Florence E. Neil published a shortbread cookie recipe that eventually evolved into the present day Trefoils. The recipe’s ingredients were very cheap — which meant maximum profits, and soon the Girl Scout’s main source of funds came from cookie sales. In 1935, the Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York was the first local Girl Scout council to license a commercial baker for their cookies. The National Girl Scout Organization licensed commercial bakers nationwide a year later.
Sales were halted during World War II due to shortages of sugar, flour, butter, etc. Girl Scouts sold calendars during the war.
Today, there are two licensed bakers manufacturing Girl Scout cookies — Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers.
So here’s to the Girl Scouts and their cookies. As the Cookie Monster says, “I’d give you a cookie, but I ate it.”
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Yesterday, we celebrated Beer Can Appreciation Day and we noted that the first cans didn’t have pull-tabs, they had to be opened with a can opener — usually called a “Church Key.” Well, of course that got me to thinking, why call such a device a church key?

Let’s think back many years ago…. many of the best brewers were monks. To protect their aging beers in their monasteries, the monks locked them away in lager cellars, for which only the monks had the keys. These keys were often the same keys used to open and close the church…..

The first “openers” weren’t f for cans, but for bottles. Bottle caps (originally referred to as “crown corks”)  were invented in1862, and unlike the twist-off caps today, required a device to pry the cap off the bottle.
The brewing industry seems to have coined the name church key years ago when beer was only dispensed in bottles — most everybody in the brewery carried a bottle opener or “church key.” It was probably referred to as a church key because it looked like the top end of the kind of heavy ornate keys used to lock/unlock church doors. The term was adopted in the industry for all tools used to open beer.

There are other explanations and theories about the name, such as the name being chosen because the key that punctured the can left an opening that resembled the stereotypical gable and roof line of church buildings, but they all seem less plausible than the fact that the first openers resembled a key.

It just may be appropriate that the term church key is associated with beer and religion.  The best brewers were monks and we’ve all heard the expression, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Even Martin Luther, the man behind the Protestant Reformation, pretty much claimed that those who drink beer get to go to Heaven — here’s his quote: “Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!”
Cheers.
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