What Would Jimmy Do?

Time sure flies — here it is Battery Day again. One year ago, right here on this blog, a fairly long discussion of batteries ensued. To say the battery has changed our lives would be an understatement. I don’t know where batteries stand on the list of the most important inventions of all time, but I’d guess they are (or should be) near the top.

We often hear about the invention of the wheel being important — and it is, but when you think about it, a lot of wheels today turn via power supplied by a battery. A high percentage of toys with wheels are battery powered, skateboards, hover boards, scooters and even some bicycles run on batteries. The wheels on one of our cars are turned by a battery a good portion of the time — especially at the lower speeds.

Batteries continue to pop up in places and things that we never even knew needed batteries before. For many years I wore a watch… and never had to worry about replacing the battery — because there wasn’t one. Today, finding a watch that doesn’t have a battery is difficult — might even be impossible. At one time, candles were all lit with a match, or some source of fire — today, a lot are battery powered.

Of course, the list could go on and on — batteries are an integral part of our lives. So if some inanimate object deserves its own special day, I suppose it should be the battery…. Happy Battery Day!!
— 30 —

Well, January is in the books, and so far I’m doing good with my new year resolutions — now it’s time to think about another new year — Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that comes between January 21 and February 20. This year, it’s February 16 and is the Year of the Dog. The year will end on February 4, 2019 when the Year of the Pig begins.

The western (or American) Zodiac has 12 “signs,” each covering a specific span of time. The Chinese Zodiac also has 12 “signs,” called blocks or houses – but each one has a time-length of one year instead of about one month for the western Zodiac. Each of the Chinese blocks or “signs” are named after animals. This year, the Year of the Dog, is the 11th animal in the cycle. The next Year of the Dog will be in 2030.

The years are allocated to each animal in a very specific order. According to an ancient Chinese folk story, the Jade Emperor had called 13 animals to a meeting and announced that the years on the calendar would be named according to the order in which they arrived. This led to “The Great Race.” The rat travelled on the back of the ox and leaped from his back to nab first place. The pig stopped for a snack and a nap… and arrived last. A cat was also in the race but drowned during the competition, leaving only 12 animals in the Zodiac.

Dogs symbolize luck to the Chinese. If a stray dog approaches a house, it is said to show that fortune is coming to the family. The animal is incredibly loyal to its owner whether or not the owner is wealthy. Plus, dogs bark to warn people if an intruder is nearby. Centuries ago, the Chinese would predict good or bad luck according to how many times a dog barked.

Lucky numbers for people born in the Year of the Dog are 3, 4, and 9; lucky colors are green, red and purple. Lucky flowers for dog people are the rose, oncidium and cymbidium orchids and their luck directions are east, southeast and south.

People born in the Year of the Dog are characterized as loyal, sociable, courageous, diligent, steady, lively, adaptable and smart. Not afraid of difficulties in day to day life, they have a harmonious dynamic with people in their lives.

I’m not sure how accurately Zodiac signs (western or Chinese) describe the characteristics of people born under their sign. Read the characteristics of people born in the Year of the Dog in the paragraph above — Donald Trump was born in the Year of the Dog… you be the judge. Happy Chinese New Year!!
— 30 —

We spent some time at Dave and Chassie’s a couple of days ago. Rory and Ellie are getting bigger and beginning to act like little people — more aware of their surroundings and they smile and actually laugh out loud.

On the day we were there, Dave picked Locke up from his “school” and as he probably does most days, asked him what he learned in school… Locke’s answer was, “sex.” Dave asked, “sex??” Locke responded, “Yea.” “You learned about sex?” Again, the response was, “yea.” After a minute or so, Dave said, “do you mean the number six?” Locke replied, “yea… and five.”
Probably a few years ago, any dad or mom would just have assumed the conversation was about six — not sex.

I’m not sure what this tells us about modern education, or the modern world we live in… probably nothing, but I thought it was interesting. Being a granddad is a lot easier (and maybe even more fun) than being a dad.
— 30 —

It seems like we’re living in strange times lately… and 2018 is getting off to a pretty good start to being a strange year. We’ve already had a couple of full moons, super moons, blue moons and lunar eclipses, the groundhog predicted six more weeks of winter, the stock market suffered its biggest one day (point) loss in history and the Eagles won the Super Bowl.

Now if all that’s not enough, here it is Valentine’s Day — but — it’s not only Valentine’s Day, it’s also Ash Wednesday. This is the first time that Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday have fallen on the same day since 1945. Ash Wednesday can fall as early as February 4 or as late as March 10 and begins the fasting season of 40 days of Lent. Liturgical fasting during Lent emphasizes eating plainer food and refraining from “pleasurable foods,” such as meat, dairy and eggs. Valentine’s Day, although originally a Christian feast day is now a secular occasion pretty much set aside for lovers. Many, many people choose Valentine’s Day to dine out with a romantic dinner. If Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday coincide, it creates a problem. The Catholic Church is recommending people celebrate Valentine’s Day a day early this year — on what’s known as “Fat Tuesday.” In our household, we solved the problem years ago — all the restaurants became so crowded on Valentine’s Day, that we have, for many years, celebrated Valentine’s Day either before or after the 14th of February.

But 2018 isn’t done with messing with us… Ash Wednesday kicks off Lent, leaning up to — Easter! In 2018, Easter falls on April 1. April 1 is famously known as April Fools Day when, supposedly, the world at large play pranks on each other. Just like Ash Wednesday, Christians will have to do a little multi-tasking — like maybe a few pranks during the Easter egg hunt….
So far, 2018 seems to be doing a job of confusing holidays… I guess if it doesn’t mess up Talk Like A Pirate Day, I’ll be okay with it.
— 30 —

Tomorrow is February 12 — Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. There will be a few local celebrations in some states and a ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. I believe there is also a ceremony at Lincoln’s birthplace in Kentucky.

The third Monday in February is the date designated for the federal Washington’s Birthday holiday under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971. Technically, the federal President’s Day commemorates George Washington’s birthday. (There is no national holiday called “President’s Day.” Maybe this is a good subject for another blog…)

Most people believe that President’s Day celebrates both Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays — that’s really not true…. somewhere along the way, Lincoln got cheated out of his birthday celebration. After Lincoln’t death, there were efforts to get his birthday recognized as a holiday, but there has never been a federal Lincoln birthday holiday.

In 1940, 24 states and the District of Columbia observed Lincoln’s birthday. In 1990, Lincoln’t birthday was observed as a paid holiday in 10 states. After the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed and states moved toward celebrating the federal Washington birthday as President’s Day, there are only a few states that honor Lincoln directly (Illinois, Connecticut, Missouri and New York.) A number of states, including California and New Jersey, phased out the Lincoln holiday, mostly as cost-cutting measures.

There have been several attempts in Congress to get Lincoln his own national holiday, but none has succeeded.
It’s interesting to note that Indiana (and New Mexico) celebrate Lincoln’s birthday on the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday.) Why? President Lincoln, in 1863, issued the proclamation that officially set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving.

So even though it’s not a national holiday, or even recognized in most places, I think Lincoln deserves his own birthday celebration. Happy Birthday Abe!!
— 30 —

I hate February. But, that said, I do feel a little bad for it. Even though lots of things happen in February, like Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, Chinese New Year (usually) and most often the Super Bowl — it still is the one month that just doesn’t seem to “fit in.”

It not only is the shortest month in the calendar, it’s also the only month to be affected by leap years. That means it gets and extra day every four years, and even with that extra day, it’s still the shortest month.

In some ways, I guess February is lucky to be here at all…originally the month of February never even existed. The old Roman calendar only had 10 months in a year. It seems like the Romans (like me) didn’t like the cold winter period so they just left it blank — and nameless. Eventually, the Roman calendar was revised to 12 lunar cycles and January and February were added to the existing 10 months.

Of course the calendar we use today is loosely based on the old Roman calendar and there are a lot of myths and legends surrounding how we got to where we are today. One “February” legend says that Romulus, the first king of Rome, devised a 10-month lunar calendar that began at the spring equinox (in March) and ended in December. Supposedly this explains the names of October (Oct=8) and December (Dec=10.) After December there weren’t any “official” months, probably because winter was considered “un-important” as to the harvesting of crops.

The second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, decided to make the calendar more accurate by syncing it up with the actual lunar year. So Numa added two months, January and February, after December to account for the extension of days to the existing calendar. Both January and February were given 28 days each. However, even numbers were considered bad luck at the time, so this didn’t sit well with Numa. He added a day to January but left February with 28 days. I guess Numa was okay with February staying at 28 days and “unlucky.” Maybe because the Romans honored the dead and performed rites of purification in February. The word februare means to purify.

Finally, around 45 B.C., Julius Caesar commissioned an expert to make a sun-based calendar, just like the Egyptian one. Caesar added an extra 10 days to the calendar and an extra day in February every four years, making the year average out to be 365.25 days.

So, for whatever reason, February just has never got the respect that maybe it deserves. I feel a little bad because it gets the short end of things, but I still don’t like it… maybe if it came along between May and June, I’d change my mind.
— 30 —

Well, we made it through January — that’s the good news. The bad news is that January is followed by February. I’m really looking forward to spring, or at least warmer weather. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day… every year I usually write about Groundhog Day and every year I write about the same stuff — because, well, that’s what happens on Groundhog Day.

As just about everyone knows, if a groundhog sees his shadow tomorrow, there will be six more weeks of winter, if he doesn’t see his shadow, we’ll have an early spring. Of course these rules don’t apply to just any groundhog — only to Punxsutawney Phil. He’s the only authorized true weather forecasting groundhog. No matter what other groundhogs may tell you, they are impostors.

Punxsutawney Phil has been making weather predictions for more than 131 years, so that makes him pretty old (and probably pretty wise.) If you’ve read this blog every year, you know that Punxsutawney Phil was named after King Phillip — before getting that name, he was called Br’er Groundhog.

So in anticipation of tomorrow, I predict that Phil will see his shadow and we’ll have six more weeks of winter… and I also predict if he doesn’t see his shadow, we’ll still have six more weeks of winter.
— 30 —

As (both) my faithful readers know, I tend to celebrate a lot of holidays — some are well known and others… not so much. Today, January 17th, while not really a holiday, is nevertheless a special day. It’s officially (I’m not making this up) “Ditch New Year Resolutions Day.” I usually just take note of it every year, but don’t really celebrate it, because once I make a New Year Resolution, I stick to it — I don’t always accomplish it, but I stick with it and even admit to failure at the end of the year.

But — I think this is a necessary day because for many people new year resolutions are hanging heavily over their heads. Their resolutions have become a burden, and by now they may be thinking they weren’t such a good idea after all.
It makes sense that if there’s a day to celebrate the new year and to make resolutions, then there should be a day to ditch those resolutions. That’s the reason for today.

If you, unlike me, haven’t accomplished, broken, or given up on your New Year Resolutions, today is your chance to get out from under them.
So…. to all of you who over-indulged and made resolutions, you couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t keep…. Happy Ditch New Year Resolutions Day!!
— 30 —

A couple of days ago, was the anniversary of a fairly significant “event” in the United States. On January 14, 1943, the Pentagon was officially dedicated and “opened for business.” The building’s first employees actually moved in on April 30, 1942 — before the building was completed.

Construction on the Pentagon began on September 11, 1941. Exactly 60 years later, to the day, a hijacked plane struck the building, killing 189 people and damaging roughly one-third of the structure.

The Pentagon is located in Virginia — on a plot of land known as Arlington Farm; that land was once part of the grand estate of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Even today, the Pentagon ranks among the largest office buildings in the world. It took 410,000 cubic yard of concrete to construct — that concrete was made from 700,000 tons of sand dredged from the Potomac River.
The original cost of construction was estimated to be $35 million. The actual cost was about $75 million.

The Pentagon continues to be a symbol of America’s military strength — so Happy 75th Anniversary to the Pentagon!!!
— 30 —

According to the news this morning, South Africa is planning to formally protest President Trump’s (reported) remarks referring to El Salvador, Haiti and some African nations in a derogatory manner. South Africa’s government is expected to issue a diplomatic protest to the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria. A number of lawmakers, both republicans and democrats, have criticized Trump’s comments, some accusing him of racism.

Well, that got me to wondering about racism. We hear the term all the time and I suspect that it’s used often when what’s being described or discussed actually isn’t racism. My extensive research on the subject started with the dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster, racism is: 1) a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race; 2) racial prejudice or discrimination.

Actually, reading the definition didn’t help me much, but I think 2) in the definition above comes closer to what we usually think of as racism. If you talk to most people, they’ll say, “I’m not racist,” or “there’s not a racist bone in my body.”

I think a lot of people, including myself, equate racism to hate. The dictionary definition above mentions racial prejudice — prejudice is defined a preconceived  opinion that isn’t based on reason or actual experience… so basically that implies that one feels superior to another without any test results or logical reason to demonstrate that anyone is superior to anyone else — it really doesn’t have anything to do with “dislike.”

Hate, on the other hand, is…. well, just hate. If you hate someone because of their race, that probably makes you a racist. If you hate people in general, because of other reasons, you’re probably not a racist — you just don’t like people.

The further I get into this topic, I’m more and more convinced that there’s nothing simple about it; it’s a very complex subject. “Racism” has been around for a long, long time and probably won’t go away any time soon. Racism is bad — hate is worse. Maybe we should concentrate more effort toward getting rid of hate… and maybe the race issue would fade away. When you stop to think about it, there really is only one race — the human race….
— 30 —