What Would Jimmy Do?

This time of year you see all the pumpkins for sale and most are priced by the pound… it always reminds me of when our daughter, Kelly, was probably 4 or 5 years old. A friend had taken her to a pumpkin patch or a fall festival or something like that and she came home with a pumpkin that was almost as big as she was. When we asked her where she got it, she said she won it. When asked how, she explained that everyone was supposed to guess how many labels and she guessed the number of labels that was the closest, so she won it.
It took a long time, but we finally figured out that the contest was to guess how much the pumpkin weighed and the person who came the closest got the pumpkin. It turns out that the sign said, “Guess how many lbs. and win the pumpkin.” So Kelly came the closest. We tried to explain that lbs. wasn’t labels, but stood for pounds, but she looked at us like we were really stupid and pretty much told us we didn’t know what we were talking about. How stupid can you be if you think the abbreviation for pound is lb? Of course we gave up trying to convince a 4 or 5 year old, but I always wondered why we abbreviate pound that way.

If you look it up, you’ll find that supposedly lb is actually an abbreviation for the Latin word libra. But the problem with that, in my mind at least, is that libra in Latin originally meant “stone.” If you dig deeper, or as I like to say — do extensive research, lb is an abbreviation of the word libra, which could mean a pound, but libra itself is a shortened term of the full expression, libra pondo, which means “pound weight.” Pondo, by the way, is the origin of the English pound. So it seems to me that they cut off the wrong half of the expression when looking to abbreviate pound.

My extensive research also reminded me that Libra is also an astrological sign — the seventh sign of the zodiac. The name was given to a rather uninspiring constellation, with no particularly bright stars in it. It was thought to represent scales, or a balance, which more accurately describes the Latin term libra. That’s the reason it is often accompanied by the image of a pair of scales.

Another abbreviation of libra (£) is an ornate form of L with a cross-stroke (the way a medieval scribe marked an abbreviation.) This is also the symbol used for the English pound. The link between the the two senses of pound, weight and money, is that in England a thousand years ago a pound in money was equivalent to the value of a pound of silver.
It also occurs to me that we use the symbol “#” on our phones and refer to it as the pound sign or button — of course, we also use it to mean “number.”

Anyhow, I’ve decided that this will just remain a mystery to me… I just don’t get it — I’m with Kelly, it should mean labels. But I guess we’ll continue to buy our pumpkins by the lb.
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Well, here it is Ten-Ten Day again. If you’ve read this blog over the years you know that it’s a day we always celebrate. Last year was a good year because Megan and Mike got married on Ten-Ten Day, but it was kind of a bummer because it’s the first time we didn’t have Chinese food on Ten-Ten Day.
Anyhow, happy anniversary to Mike and Meghan and happy Ten-Ten Day to everyone else.

Ten-Ten Day is mainly celebrated in Taiwan — but also by supporters of the original Republic of China who fled to Hong Kong and lots of Chinatowns in the United States. To back up a bit, at the end of World War II, the government of the Republic of China lost control of mainland China and relocated to Taiwan (in 1949) bringing with them more than one and a half million refugees. Even today, the relocation is still the source of political debate and international struggle across both side of the Taiwan Strait.

Ten-Ten Day is a national holiday (mostly in Taiwan) to commemorate the Chinese Revolution of October 10, 1911. The revolt marked the end of the Ching, or Qing, Dynasty that had been established in 1644 by the Manchus. The revolt led to the founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912.
When the Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949, they established a government for all of China on the island. In fact, from 1949 until 1971, Taiwan was recognized as “China” in the United Nations. Mainland China’s position on Taiwan is that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China and the People’s Republic of China is waiting for reunification of the island and the mainland. Taiwan continues to claim independence as a distinct State.

Since 1971, the United States (along with most other countries) has not recognized Taiwan and Taiwan does not maintain an embassy in the US. The island maintains contact with the United States through two unofficial instrumentalities — American Institues in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office. Taiwan is a member of the International Olympic Committee and sends its own team to the Olympic games, and issues globally recognized passports that allow its citizens to travel internationally. Taiwan continues to lobby for admission into the United Nations, but mainland China opposes admission, continuing to  claim Taiwan as its province.

But no matter — today Taiwanese are celebrating it as Taiwan’s birthday — and we are going to have Chinese food. Happy Birthday Taiwan!
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Ok — enough on this texting topic already. Just a couple more points and I’ll put it to rest.
You know I’m not a big fan of texting, but I’m coming to accept it… that doesn’t mean a lot of things about it don’t still bother me.

It appears that as this “new” method of communication increases, it’s become a game of who can use the fewest textual characters possible and traditional voice-based methods of communication are diminishing.
I read that social networking is the world’s most popular online activity. I’d venture to guess that a very high percentage of all teens are members of at least one social network. Obviously the language used to communicate over these networks is significantly different that the language used in formal writing and face-to-face communication — but — I’m thinking, so is social etiquette. People are so entrenched in communication via “technology,” they have developed poor social skills in face-to-face settings. And to make it worse, young people, especially, are taking themselves out of environments that teach them to communicate face-to-face.
Most people of my generation were old enough when they began using mobile devices or the Internet that their social skills were already developed. That’s not the case with young people today.
A couple of days ago I mentioned a study that had determined that most people believed that if you were apologizing for something, it should be done in person, not via a text message. I think that’s true — tapping out “I’m sorry” on a keyboard and hitting “send” doesn’t convey any hurt or sadness that would be communicated through verbal or visual clues. It’s certainly easier for the person apologizing to deliver a difficult or uncomfortable message that way, but it also allows him or her to avoid vital emotions that should accompany the apology

Well anyhow, enough — texting is here to stay and the fact is most younger people don’t ever text me anyway — so it is what it is. Whenever I do get a text, I’ll just continue to wonder if that semi-colon is some kind of flirty wink or just bad punctuation….
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For the past few years, we have participated at our church on occasion by helping the priest distribute Communion. Now that you’ve gasped, and re-read the sentence, we can get on with the subject of this blog. No, it really has nothing to do with the fact that we distribute communion. But what I’ve noticed is that when people approach to receive communion, a very high percentage don’t make eye contact — any eye contact.

Of course this got me to thinking about eye contact and a bit about just eyes. After my usual extensive research on the subject kicked in, I discovered some interesting “facts” about eye contact…
Females look more at people they are talking to than do males.
We increase eye contact when dealing with people we like, admire, or who have power over us.
We judge relationships by the amount of eye contact exchanged — the greater the eye contact, the closer the relationship.
Eye contact produces a powerful, subconscious sense of connection that extends even to drawn or photographed eyes.
We reduce eye contact when we are talking about something shameful or embarrassing, when we are sad or depressed, and when we are accessing internal thoughts or emotions.
We avoid eye contact in elevators, subways, crowded buses or trains (we face the door of the elevator or stare at our phones, because it helps us manage the insecurity of having our personal space invaded)
I read that the biggest body language myth concerning liars is that they avoid eye contact. It’s true that some liars (generally, children) find it difficult to lie while looking directly at you, but many accomplished liars actually overcompensate to “prove” that they are not lying by making too much eye contact and holding it too long.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I think that today a lot (most?) people spend most of their time looking into electronic gadgets and eye to eye contact just makes them uncomfortable.
Anyhow, eyes are a means of communication and they communicate more than you think — a lot of what they communicate you can’t control. You can control you facial expressions, but not your eyes.

While doing my extensive research, I ran across an interesting article that indicated that the color of ones eyes is an important metric in determining character. A deep blue color means that the individual is a highly sexed yet gentle and sensitive being. Light blue eyes indicates a person is likely to enjoy flirting with the opposite sex. Dark green eyes are highly energized and also very inventive – both in practical and personal affairs. Chocolate brown eyes indicate some of the genetic traits of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern races and indicate an extremely passionate character who loves social life and meeting many different people. Grey eyes reveal a high degree of intelligence and imagination but passion may be less pronounced. Black eyes are very rare — they reveal a somewhat strong natured individual that doesn’t always present their case with what you’d call finesse. I guess if people are wearing colored contact lenses, all bets are off.

It’s a shame we don’t make eye contact so much anymore, because eyes are so much a part of our life, and our vocabulary… we hear about the eye of the storm and a bird’s eye view or a gleam in the eye. I used to catch a late flight from California called the red eye to get home, often with bloodshot eyes, to the apple of my eye, Claire. There’s a song called can’t take my eyes off you that probably refers to someone that’s easy on the eye. A roving eye will get you in trouble, especially if you’re in the public eye. I used to think that my parents had eyes in the back of their heads and when I went to school, kids that wore glasses were referred to as four eyes and good looking girls were eye candy.

Buddha has a lot of quotes, but one that seems to fit here is, “He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”
I don’t know about you, but this discussion has been a real eye-opener for me…
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As you probably know, I just celebrated my most major of all holidays — Talk Like a Pirate Day. Another holiday has just passed — National Punctuation Day. If you were reading this blog a year ago, you know that I did celebrate the day — well, actually I just mostly complained about punctuation… or the lack of it, to be specific.
Punctuation Day always comes right after TLAP Day and I’m usually still exhausted from all that celebrating and this year we went out with a friend to celebrate her birthday, so the day got by me again without the attention it probably deserves.

But the punctuation things that annoyed me last year still do this year, so let’s review and expand on them a bit. Again, they pretty much all have to do with “texting.” Most of you, and myself, have been communicating via text for a while now. Even I have to admit it’s quick, convenient, and usually makes some amount of sense.
Often when I see it happening I wonder… is it rude to text with other people around? I guess there’s no yes or no answer to this one — it depends on the situation. Some people believe it’s always rude, inconsiderate and distracting to be on the phone sending text messages when someone else is right in front of you. Sometimes, depending on how it’s handled, the action can send a “you’re not important enough to me” vibe to the other person. A lot of people think a person should give all their attention to whoever they’re physically with and most text can wait.

Last year I indicated that I thought people’s writing skills were going down the toilet as they became proficient at texting. My opinion hasn’t really changed and my thoughts on the subject are that all things being equal, you usually come across better if your writing is well put together. However in non-professional or less formal situations fussing over every last comma, capitalization or punctuation mark may be a bit unnecessary. I’m beginning to agree that as long as the other person can grasp your meaning, it doesn’t matter that you write something like “u” instead of “you.” But — if the message is truly childishly written and incomprehensible, that’s unacceptable and the person should be encouraged to make their writing at least a bit more coherent. I realize that today a lot of people think it’s more important to fire off a message quickly, an the composing perfectly formed sentences isn’t essential.

I don’t like texts that go to a lot people — they all seem to respond, and my phone beeps with every response… I don’t like it when it suddenly gets quite and I look around and see someone (maybe more than one) in the group busy texting… I don’t like it when someone calls, and I can’t answer right then and I immediately get a text that they left me a voice mail… I don’t like it when someone responds to my text with “k” — don’t they have an “o” on their phone or is it too much trouble to punch one more key?

I read something recently that a study had concluded that the use of a period in text messages made the response sound less sincere than those responses with no punctuation. If the response is a handwritten note, people expect to see the period — but not in a text message.
The same study also indicated that if you’re apologizing for something, you should do it face to face, not in a text.

Anyhow, punctuation is important — the exact same sentence with and without a simple comma often has a very different meaning — for example: Let’s eat Grandpa! and Let’s eat, Grandpa!
English professors often ask their classes to punctuate the following sentence: Woman without her man is nothing. Usually half the class punctuates it as: Woman: without her, man is nothing. The other half usually comes up with: Woman, without her man, is nothing.
So those squiggly little marks do change things — maybe punctuation deserves more than just its own day….
— 30 —

As you probably know, I be a big fan of holidays. Me usually has a glass of wine, or other special grog on holidays — so me rarely lets any holiday go by unnoticed. But today be my most favorite of all holidays — Talk Like a Pirate Day!!! Make no mistake, me looks forward to this special day all year long — mine have trouble sleeping the nights leading up to the big day — the excitement be just too great me hearties.

First thin’ in t’ morning’, I go down t’ t’ galley where me scurvy bilge rat wench be preparing’ a proper pirate’s feast complete with a big cup o’ grog. Me wench always enjoys it when she sets me feast in front of me and me say, “well, me hearties, let’s see what crawled out of the bung hole.” Even though me refers to her as me wench, me always greets her with, “C’mere, me beauty.”

So what makes this holiday so special and different than all t’ others? Well, it gives Ye conversation a certain swagger and it usually impresses landlocked lubbers. Just sayin aarrr or weigh anchor or blimey conveys an image o’ swaggerin’ pirateness.
When we show up at ye ole’ neighbors’ house for a grog, him always say that me don’t look like a pirate — that me should have a peg leg or a patch so he’ll know what’s going’ on. Even after me explains that today be talk like a pirate day, not dress like a pirate day, t’ scurvy dog still doesn’t get it.

If ye be interested in talking like a pirate — it can be done with just a few words…
Ahoy! — this one’s very important — means hello.
Avast! — ye can use it to express surprise, use it instead of check it out, or no way! or get out of town!
Aarrrr! — the very best one to know — me uses it all the time. It can mean, that was clever, what you just said or I’m happy, enjoying this cup o’ grog, or yes, I agree, or the Redskins are going to win the Super Bowl, or just about anything else ye want it to mean.
Me mentioned bung hole earlier — booze, among other things, was stored in wooden casks on pirate ships. T’ stopper in the barrel is called t’ bung, and t’ hole be called t’ bung hole.
Shiver me timbers is another phrase me likes to use. It be an expression of surprise — and concern. Pirate ships are wooden and when the wind blows, the timbers rattle. Rattling’ ain’t so bad, but it ’tis the full shiverin’ of the masts or other ship parts, by gale winds or cannon fire, that strikes fear in the heart of a pirate….

When it be TLAP Day me take a new name — today me new name be Bubonic Skyler Screed. And just for today, me wench Claire be called Cap’n Lucy Redbeard.
So we’ll be headin’ out for our annual rounds tonight — probably into the wee hours. May even spend a few pieces of eight at our favorite restaurant — Aarrrrby’s.
Til’ next year — Aarrr!!
— 30 —

I’m certainly in no position to refer to anyone as stupid. But I’m also not running for public office — especially not the President of the United States of America. As you’ve gathered from some of my recent entries, I’m not impressed by either major candidate for president, so I think that I owe it to myself to at least learn what I can about the “third party” candidates.
Gary Johnson is running for the U.S. Presidency on the Libertarian Party ticket. As you’ve probably heard, he was asked during an interview what he would do about Aleppo if he were elected president. I’ll spare you all the bumbling — the bottom line was that he had absolutely no idea who, where, or what Aleppo is.
Maybe I shouldn’t be overly critical, but I can’t imagine anyone that’s had the news on in the past year not knowing — even if they weren’t paying attention. Did I mention this guy is running for president?

Most everyone knows that Aleppo is often (wrongly) referred to as the “capital of ISIS.” Aleppo is one of the oldest cities in not only Syria but one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Interestingly (maybe not) I first became aware of the Aleppo when our kids were much younger and we drug them to the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival every year. One year featured exhibits about the Silk Road — because of it’s location, between the eastern Mediterranean coast and the Euphrates Valley, Aleppo was one of the key centers along the Silk Road(s).
Anyhow, I guess I’ll keep looking for someone to vote for that’s better than Popeye — maybe all these candidates should start reading my blog.
— 30 —

I watched the Commander-In-Chief Forum last night. A lot of the news coverage this morning seemed to focus on what a bad job Matt Lauer did as moderator. Maybe they weren’t watching the same forum that I was. I think “bad” pretty much described everyone’s performance — except for the questions asked by the veterans. Too bad none of the answers were as good as the questions.

Over the years I’ve interviewed a few people to fill various positions. The fact is last night was part of a job interview — for kind of an important job, by the way. It occurred to me that if I was in a position to hire someone for the job (and I am, along with all the rest of you) I wouldn’t hire either one. November is still a ways off, and I still have an “open” mind and I’ll be watching things more closely now in the home stretch… So maybe something will happen that I like — right now I’m torn between writing in Ronald McDonald or Popeye.
— 30 —

I often mention “both my faithful readers” in this space. It turns out that both of them live in Cleveland. They both work for the same company, they drive the same kind of cars. They both live in the same neighborhood and both like and own dogs. Talk about a small world — what are the odds?
BUT — if you think that’s amazing and a little creepy, get this — they have the same wedding anniversary!!

Happy 30th Wedding Anniversary to Chris and John. Here’s to many more years of marriage (and reading this blog.)
— 30 —

I’ve mentioned the olympics a few times lately and now that they’ve been over for a while, I thought I’d actually blog about them. I wound up watching more of them that I had anticipated and it was nice the see the US win so many medals.

I read that the US had a record number of LGBT olympians competing, including the first gay married couple. Although I missed it, there was apparently a proposal on the rugby field by Brazilian athlete Isadora Cerullo to her girlfriend, Marjorie Enya. The games also welcomed a team of refugee athletes and during the opening ceremonies I noticed a US athlete wearing a hijab — a first, I think.
One of the more entertaining things was watching Aly Raisman’s parents while she performed her gymnastic routines. The whole experience of watching their daughter apparently was totally nerve-wracking for them. One of the commentators said that the Raismans made an olympic sport out of watching Aly. I heard the parents performance called “adorably nervous.”
Before the games, in a bid to improve communication between taxi driver and tourists, drivers were given free English lessons. The Hey Taxi program was intended to improve the visitor experience. During all the swimming activities, legal requirements dictated that a “life guard” be at the pool — somehow I don’t think he went home at night feeling a sense of accomplishment.

I think it’s great that these athletes are (theoretically, at least) competing for pure love of the sport. Not many people work that hard at anything if there’s no cash reward at the end of the journey. Of course it’s also an opportunity to feel massively inadequate about your sports (or even life) achievements. So that’s it for me and the olympics for a couple of years. I should get started training for the winter olympics… I may have to get a new chair.
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