What Would Jimmy Do?

I think I’ve mentioned here before that I’m not much of a fan of Facebook. I do have a Facebook page and if you check it you’ll see that it contains my name and not much else… The only reason I have a Facebook account is because just about everyone else in the world does and if I didn’t have it I might miss out on some stuff going on with my kids/grandkids.  I don’t “post” to Facebook. I do, however check it periodically….

Lately, not surprisingly, I’ve noticed that a lot of people can’t post anything without making it political and seem to think that it’s their duty to share every single bit of oversimplified propaganda they come across. As always, this is only my opinion, but I doubt that anyone really logs on to Facebook to see your political views. I don’t remember ever seeing a political post on Facebook that tries to find a common ground. Mostly, it’s just about bashing the “other” side, and pointing out how only retards would believe anything different than their posts. A good many of the things I’ve noticed lately have some form of information that is not only totally skewed, but usually just plain wrong. Obviously these posts are made by people who don’t care to do any fact checking, or research — they just pass along anything that supports their view.

When was the last time you heard people arguing about politics and someone said, “Oh my gosh, you know what? You’re right! You’ve totally convinced me to change my mind!” Oh, let’s see… probably  never! Political discussions with someone who agrees with your point of view evolves into you both just re-iterating the same thing over and over to each other. If you don’t agree, the “discussion” ends up with you both just calling each other ignorant and un-educated. No one is listening — no one is trying to calmly explain their point of view, it’s just a lot of hot air trying to convince the other side that they’re stupid for thinking like they do and believing what they believe.

Debating politics on Facebook is as useless as arguing with a door knob. What people are looking for is validation of their opinion, and if that opinion is challenged then defensiveness and name-calling seem to be in order. If those people really have good intentions and aren’t just talking or cutting and pasting because it’s easy, then they should do something productive like becoming active in the community as a political volunteer or get involved with the party or campaign that hopes to accomplish what they deem as right or correct. Doesn’t make any difference which side of the political spectrum you’re on, arguing on Facebook is pointless and accomplishes nothing.
— 30 —

I’m not sure why, but it seems like I’ve gotten into the habit of updating this blog every year on, or about, my birthday. If you’ve read the entries in the past, you’ve probably figured out that I’m not a big fan of my birthday. If you go back and check, you’ll probably find phrases like, oh God, my birthday is coming up, wait, how old am I?, whoa, that’s kind of old, ugh, I don’t feel any different, at least it’s only one day out of the year, it’s been another year already? Anyhow, you get the idea —it’s just not my favorite day….

So, if it’s not my favorite day, is it really an appropriate occasion to celebrate? Lots of people I know (probably most) look forward to their birthday and wouldn’t think of not celebrating it. I’m thinking, when one gets real old each year, maybe it would be better to stand back and contemplate rather than celebrate. Contemplate means to look thoughtfully for a long time or think profoundly and at length… so you can contemplate about anything, but as you get really old, contemplation on your birthday usually goes along the lines of, has life been kind to me, or have I lived a life full of happiness and achievements? I think it would be interesting to ask a lot of different people, especially older people, what they thought of their lives. I bet that would make a great paper for a high school or college English class…

Every birthday is a reminder of how time has and continues to pass. Time now seems to fly by at a tremendous speed. When I was young, 10 years seemed like so far into the future it was incomprehensible. Now 10 years…. I’ve heard time compared to a roll of toilet paper. When the roll is new, and you start pulling the paper, you will notice the whole roll is moving and the rate of rolling is very slow. When the roll is almost finished, then the rate of rolling is very fast and if you continue to pull, it will stop in no time because there is no toilet paper anymore… same with life.

As the blog faithful know, I’m somewhat fascinated by a lot of Chinese traditions. According to ancient Chinese tradition, only the elders celebrate birthdays. In the traditional Chinese family structure, the patriarch or matriarch was head of the family hierarchy and only they could celebrate their birthdays. And they had good reason to celebrate — to invite guests and relatives to witness the success and harmony of their family unit. So maybe I should celebrate my “old-age” birthdays…

Each day I thank my good fortune for being healthy and still kicking. The two things I’m most thankful for is my good health and my forever tolerant wife. Ok, three things, my kids, oh, four things my grandkids, and my friends… and living in West Virginia… and ok, I’m thankful for everything. I guess I’ve talked myself into this celebration thing…. only it seems wrong only to celebrate a birthday. I think I’ll try to “celebrate” constantly — not just once a year. If you doubt me, check back here next year, maybe I’ll give you a status report.
— 30 —

Of course everyone knows that this month is famous because a few famous and admired people were born in August — such as, Alfred Hitchcock, Andy Warhol, Martin Sheen, Koby Bryant, Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Williamson, Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Brady, Neil Armstrong… anyhow, you get the idea. The world might be very different without these people, so hooray for August.

August was the 6th month in the early Roman calendar and named after Julius Caesar Augustus. In the original Roman calendar, the month of August was called Sextilis because it was the sixth month of the year. (Later, after January and February were added to the calendar, it became the eighth month of the year.) August in the Northern Hemisphere is similar to February in the Southern Hemisphere.

August was the 55th most common name given to a baby boy in Sweden in 2014 and in 2015, August was the only month beginning on a Saturday. And while we’re on a roll, Warren Harding is the only US President to have died in the month of August. Richard Nixon did, however, resign from the Presidency in August.

Hawaii was admitted to the Union as the 50th state in August and women were granted the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in August. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in August and the first atomic bomb was dropped in August. Christopher Columbus set sail on his first voyage across the Atlantic in August and the Lincoln penny was first issued in August.

So let’s hear it for August — look at all the people we wouldn’t have and the things that wouldn’t have happened if there were no August — Hooray for August!!
— 30 —

We went to brunch with all our kids and grandkids this past weekend. We’ve been attempting to do just that since sometime in June. As is often the case, I’m not sure what my point is, but 50 years ago this outing would have been much simpler.

The world today is not conducive to physically connecting people. People today work more, eat McDonald’s hamburgers or whatever they can, when they can, just to get by — all this leads to losing connection to one another in the process. Most people rarely have friends over and fewer and fewer join community or social clubs or civic organizations.

I was just thinking (like I always do) how things have changed since, say, World War II. People were much more civic-minded than the current generation. They joined more, gave more, voted more and trusted more.
I remember growing up….  downtown (such as it was) was where people met and talked. The businessmen all took “coffee breaks” and met at the local cafe mid-morning and usually in the afternoon. They drank their bottomless cups of 5-cent coffee and talked to each other about everything. If you went to the barber shop for a haircut, the place might be full, but probably no one was getting a haircut — it was a place the guys hung out, to discuss politics, the crops, weather, sports or anything else going on in the community or world. One could get nails and wire, kerosene lamps, rope or just about anything else needed at the hardware store, but its real purpose seemed to be a meeting place. Go in the back and there was always a lively discussion of some important topic like who would win the world series or whether or not to put a stop sign on highway 19…. You went to the post office to get your mail, but more importantly to socialize and find out what was going on with your neighbors.

Today, we spend more and more time in our cars. When I was growing up people lived at home and went to work, but they also went to those “other” places. Today, those other places pretty much don’t exist — the post offices, hardware stores, coffee shops, barbershops, even “main streets.” If you don’t have those other places, you don’t get to know the people around you. The sense of community kind of disappears and we fall into the home-to-work and back again routine.
I’ll admit I grew up in a very small town, but I knew everyone in town, and they knew me. Today I really don’t know some of our closest neighbors.

Not that I’m in any position to place “blame,” but I guess I blame social media for redefining our idea of community. There is now a Facebook community and a Twitter community and we have “friends” in these communities, but if you think about it, when we’re around and with people, a lot, if not most, of what we communicate is nonverbal. It’s really hard to truly understand people if you’re not face-to-face. Kids need hands-on learning experiences to understand some things — like how to be gentle with the dog, or be respectful of older people or even how to ride a bicycle. Those things can’t be learned on an iPad.

My parents didn’t even own a key to our house. People trusted other people, even strangers. My guess is that today most people tend to not trust others. I recently read that a fairly high percentage of people don’t have a single close friend, or someone with whom you can discuss “important matters.” It seems that a good portion of the younger population suffer from social isolation. I say “suffer,” but I’m sure the younger generation doesn’t see it that way at all.

Obviously the Internet has changed the world and how we live — we can get most anything from Amazon so we don’t “need” those other places like the hardware store, or bookstore or drug store. Where I grew up in Maysville, we didn’t know each other just because we chose to be friends, we did know each other as friends, but also as customers, and businessmen. We knew each other’s names, not just as “the guy that runs the drugstore.” Even in this important election campaign, we watch candidates on TV or read their “tweets” and maybe even participate in on-line or telephone polls, but if one of the candidates held a rally locally, I’d bet a high percentage of the people wouldn’t even attend.

The line between our online communities and our real life is blurring…maybe that’s a good thing; we use the Internet to invite people to dinner and probably serve something made from an online recipe instead of one of our grandmother’s favorite recipes. There’s probably no reason that we can’t use the modern technology to make it easier to interact with others, by scheduling face-to-face meetings and maybe even identifying common interests and groups we’l like to participate in. It’s something to think about and maybe even discuss. If you’d like talk about it, send me a text….
— 30 —

I was looking for something a few days ago and I ran across a pocket knife that belonged to my dad. I remember that my dad always carried a pocket knife, as did both my granddads. I’m not sure it’s still true but in the past I’d say that almost every man always carried a pocket knife. I’ve carried a pocket knife for about as long as I can remember — still do today. It’s a small one but I’d be lost without it and it gets an amazing amount of use for all sorts of things… some things that I’ve actually used my knife for includes: removing a splinter, removing staples, cutting zip ties, sharpening pencils, separating those “stuck together” legos, stripping wire, opening a bottle of wine, tightening/loosening screws, removing stickers, cutting tape, opening letters, scraping excess glue, making a spot for drilling or cutting — so you get the idea, rarely does a day go by that I don’t use my trusty pocket knife.

There is only one federal knife law — the Switchblade Knife Act of 1958 and it only applies to individuals traveling internationally as well as between the states. All other governing powers for knives are state powers. If you reside in a particular state, the federal law only applies if your are traveling to another state or if your are entering federal property, such as a federal courthouse or military base. It is legal to own any type of knife in both Ohio and West Virginia.

The first folding pocket knife was created in the first century by the Romans. By the late 16th century, pocket knives were very popular, especially in the American colonies. Farmers, lawyers, in fact just all men started to carry them. Pocket knives have been an essential  tool for soldiers throughout American history. George Washington carried one and the U.S. Navy began issuing pocket knives to sailors during the Civil War. During WWI, the pocket knife was standard issue for American GIs.

Recently, like a lot of things, it seems, the changing world has led to knives disappearing from men’s pockets. Increased security at airports and many other buildings has made it increasingly difficult and impractical to carry a pocket knife — no matter how small. Years ago, when Kelly got married, I had to lock my knife in a security locker before we could enter the courthouse in Leesburg, even though my pocket knife was only 2 inches long. Just a sign of the times, I suppose, but so far these minor obstacles have not persuaded me to give up that manly tradition of carrying a pocket knife.
— 30 —

Well, we made it through the Republican convention and the Democratic one is underway.
I intend to give equal time to both the Democrats and Republicans by watching each the same number of hours. As I’ve indicated recently in this blog, they’re just not what they used to be.

I generally don’t talk politics. Politics and religion are personal things and no one should influence your thoughts except yourself and no one should follow any political or religious leader blindly.
This November’s election is a contest between an insider and an outsider. I have no idea how I’ll vote, much less how the election will go. I suspect that a lot of, if not most, people will vote based on how they think the trajectory of their own lives is going. I’m no political analyst, but it seems that each party has fundamentally different views of the way life in the United States has changed. They both (say) they believe the economic system favors powerful interests but they differ on whether life is improving or getting worse for most people. Republicans are more likely to say things are getting worse because every election year the incumbent party argues that things have improved under their watch and the challenging party rallies around a cry for change.

Of course it’s easy to forget this isn’t just a Presidential election — lots of members of congress and local officials will be on the ballot, too. We should all pay attention to who’s running at all levels. Mark Twain said, “No man’s life, liberty or property is safe when the legislature is in session.” That may be truer than you think, so pay attention.

So even though November will be here before you know it, I have a feeling that a lot of us are going to be pretty tired of politics by then….
We’ll see how things go, but I think a “joke” making the rounds unfortunately sums up a lot of people’s thoughts…. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are on a plane. The plane crashed. Who survived? America.
— 30 —

Although I’m not around kids a lot, it seems to me that they all seem to use terms like, “I’m bored” or “this is really boring” a lot. We live in such a plugged in world that if someone, especially a younger someone, isn’t “on-line” they’re bored.

As far as I know, there is no universally accepted definition of boredom. It seems to be a mental state that people find unpleasant — a lack of stimulation that causes them to seek relief.

Today if a child says they’re bored, parents usually sit them in front of the TV or hand them an iPad or some other electronic device. While this may silence the “I’m bored” for a while, I don’t think it has much of a chance to make the child more creative or motivated to interact with the real world. When we’re fortunate enough to keep our grandchildren we almost never turn on the TV and we encourage them to interact with us or others and entertain themselves by some non-electronic activity.
I don’t want this to sound like a sermon, but kids need the freedom to spend some time just thinking. Boredom can be a positive thing — sometimes it forces one to become more creative and motivated… it might actually be good for you.

But anyhow, some things are boring — there’s no getting around that… watching paint dry, waiting for your iPhone to recharge, reading all 72,546 pages of the US Federal Tax Law, watching grass grow, the Kardashians….

And of course everybody knows at least one, maybe more if you’re unlucky — boring person.
Boring people aren’t harmful, but they are rarely very good company in any circumstance or situation. What makes a person boring? I guess that depends on the “borer” and/or the “boree” but generally boring people usually don’t want to try anything new, tell the same stories over and over and are usually self-centered…. Like everything in this blog, the following is only my opinion.
Boring people tend to not expand their personal horizons. They are stuck in their own personal physical boundaries. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that they would connect more with different people and experiences (and maybe ever improve the quality of their lives) by expanding their horizons.
Boring people usually don’t have much of a sense of humor. I don’t know why, but I suspect it may be because they don’t allow themselves to engage in situations where they might experience something fun. It’s pretty much the same old routine, the same old stuff day in and day out.
Boring people rarely see things from someone else’s point of view. Their world begins and ends at their door…
I’ve noticed that boring people never have a real opinion on anything. The events of the world pass them by completely — they appear to have no real passions or loves in their lives.
Boring people complain about their lives. Usually they never, ever stop complaining about their lives and how everything always goes wrong for them. They don’t consider how things might be for other people and how lucky they might actually be — especially compared to others…
Ok, enough of that — even I’m bored talking about being bored and boring people.

Between boring things and boring people, boring things win hands down — boring people are much worse. Almost no thing has to be boring… there really are no uninteresting things, only uninteresting people.
— 30 —

First off, let’s get this straight — I grew up in a much simpler world with a whole different set of problems and many, many fewer problems in general. That said, I can’t compare the political convention starting today in Cleveland to those I remember when I was young.

I remember as a kid, watching demonstrations and speeches during the conventions with the delegates trying to get their candidate nominated. The conventions were where “it happened.” Today, the convention is a business conference, pep rally, social event get-together spectacle. Oh, and by the way, they also designate the party’s pick to hold the nation’s, and possibly the world’s, most powerful office. But the nominee is already picked…. so the activities in Cleveland will be centered around big money, big crowds and possibly big news and/or controversy.

I plan to watch the convention activities on TV, but it will not have the entertainment value and the political significance of those in my youth. Some of the figures I’ve heard are impressive and interesting. Cleveland expects 50,000 visitors during the convention. It will be attended by 2,472 delegates as well as 2,302 alternate delegates. 10,867 people have registered to protest during the convention… 30 groups have obtained permits for marches, rallies and demonstrations. Cleveland received a federal grant of $50 million to offset convention costs. More than 16,000 hotel rooms, 1,100 dorm units and 500 apartments have been contracted for the convention. Fifteen thousand credentialed medial personnel will attend the convention.
So the numbers are impressive and I expect that at least the convention itself will be more entertaining than the the last one in 2012. The only thing I remember about that one was Clint Eastwood talking to an empty stool….
I checked the speaker list this weekend and it occurred to me not only did it seem “different,” it seemed a little weird and by no stretch of the imagination racially and ethnically diverse in nature.
So settle in — let’s all get an insight to what Trump’s America is going to look like….
— 30 —

Faithful followers of this blog have probably figured out by now that my favorite number is 33. Half of my favorite number is 17. Well not exactly, but close. Exactly half is 16 and 1/2, but half of a number is messy and who wants to deal in fractions anyway. So half of my favorite number has to be either 16 or 17 — I choose 17 because I like it better.

Anyhow, today is the 17th of July — and although it doesn’t get the popularity it deserves, it does have its own holiday. Today is Yellow Pig Day. Many people often confuse Yellow Pig Day with National Pig Day. Don’t be one of those — they’re completely different. National Pig Day is always on March 1st. Yellow Pig Day is always on July 17th. National Pig Day recognizes and gives thanks to domesticated pigs. Yellow Pig Day is a mathematician’s holiday celebrating yellow pigs — and — the number 17!!

Today, July 17 is not just another ordinary day, just like a yellow pig is not just another ordinary pig. Yellow Pigs have inspired mathematicians for years. Two Princeton math students, Michael Spivak and David C. Kelley actually invented the yellow pig in the early 1960s while working on an assignment to identify unique properties of the number 17. A yellow pig has 17 eyelashes (eight on one eye and nine on the other,) 17 toes and 17 teeth. One story that I’m not sure is true is that the Princeton students carried out many of their intense mental gymnastics and actually invented the yellow pig after only a few pints at the local pub.

Needless to say, in the years since their invention, Spivak has written a number of mathematics textbooks, where he regularly includes hidden references to yellow pigs, and David Kelly presents an annual mathematics summer school to high school students, where he introduces them to the “Cult of the Yellow Pig.”

So, let’s get back to half my favorite number. Before you read any further, be aware that the fear of the number 17 is called heptadecaphobia.
Now prepare to be amazed….
The mummy of King Tutankhamen was wrapped in 17 sheets.
The Parthenon is 17 columns long
Shakespeare wrote 17 comedies (in the 17th century)
Hamlet reigned for 17 years.
The number 17 is used 13 times in the Bible
The word “seventeen” is used 17 times in the Bible
The Flood started on the 17th. Noah’s Ark landed on Mount Ararat (17,000 feet) on the 17th.
There is a magazine for young girls called Seventeen
The 17th parallel divided North and South Vietnam
17 hostages were killed during the Olympic games in 1972
There are 17 muscles in the tongue
The world record for sitting in ketchup is 17 hours
Beethoven wrote 17 string quartets
I think you’re beginning to see the importance of 17 in our lives. There are even jokes about the number 17, like…. What is alive, green, lives all over the world and has seventeen legs?
Answer: Grass. (I lied about the legs.)

So if after reading this far and you’re still wondering what’s the significance of a yellow pig and the number 17….. well, if you have to ask, you just won’t understand.
— 30 —

Today is the annual family picnic in Cleveland. Since John and Chris started the tradition a few years ago, I think this is the first one we’ve missed. We always have a great time and it’s good to see people that are afraid to make the long trek through the wilderness to visit us here in West Virginia.

This year has been really busy for us and our schedule and the picnic schedule just didn’t work out, but we’re looking forward to next year.

I guess I should mention that with the Republican National Convention starting on Monday, Claire didn’t think Cleveland was big enough for both me and Donald Trump….
— 30 —