What Would Jimmy Do?

Tomorrow is the start of the first long weekend of the year. The first Federal holiday after New Year’s Day is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The holiday is observed on the third Monday in January. Much of the time we lived in Virginia, the holiday was known as Lee-Jackson-King Day. Here’s how all that came about, as I understand it.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has been celebrating the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson since 1889 — well actually Lee’s birthday since then; Jackson’s name was added to the holiday in 1904. In 1983 Congress declared a January event to be a national holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Virginia merged the new Federal holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with their holiday — Lee-Jackson Day and observed the day as Lee-Jackson-King Day. So the holiday we celebrate on the third Monday in January was referred to as Lee-Jackson-King Day in Virginia from 1984 to 2000. In 2000, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore proposed splitting  Lee-Jackson-King Day into two separate holidays. Many were of the opinion that a holiday that celebrated both the lives of Confederate generals and a civil rights icon didn’t seem right. Lee-Jackson Day is now celebrated in Virginia on the Friday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Since 2000, some Virginia localities like Richmond, Fairfax, Lynchburg, Norfolk, and others have chosen not to observe Lee-Jackson Day.

So now you know “the rest of the story.” There used to be an old joke that a lot of Virginians thought there really was a person named Lee Jackson King. As I mentioned earlier, when the practice of combining the two holidays began in 1984, a lot of people thought it was strange, if not offensive, to have a single holiday that honored two Confederate generals and one of the greatest American civil rights leaders of the 20th century. I honestly never gave it much thought, but thinking back, if handled correctly, it might have been an opportunity to celebrate both while reflecting on human differences that have always existed and celebrate the fact that some, even if not enough, progress has been made in the civil rights area. Maybe it could have been a day to think about courage and sacrifice and reconciliation.

Obviously the movement to split Lee-Jackson-King Day was based on the idea that Martin Luther King deserves his own day — that combining two Civil War leaders and a civil rights leader is just wrong. I don’t know that I necessarily disagree with that, I just think if the two holidays had remained joined, it could have presented a unique opportunity to talk, learn and think about where we’ve been, where we are and what it means to be an American.
So happy Lee-Jackson Day and happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. They all made sacrifices for our Country and they were all Americans….
— 30 —

Recently a number of conversations with various people have at least touched on the subject of age. It’s always a little disturbing to learn that you are older than someone’s mother or father — especially if you thought that person was close to your age. Anyhow, that got me to thinking about age and aging. Actually, I don’t think about my age until the subject is brought up by someone else. I got to wondering what my age would be if I didn’t know how old I really was. I think I’d pick 33. If you’ve read this blog before, you know I like 33. I admit I can’t do everything I could at 33, but I’d like to think that I still think like I’m 33 (only smarter.)

I guess all my life I’ve picked a number that sounded old. When I was a kid, 20 sounded old to me. But of course as I approached my current “old” number, I picked a new one. When I was 20, 30 sounded old. But as I passed these “old” ages, it never occurred to me that I was now old — or even getting older. Throughout my life, the only age that ever bothered me was 50! I don’t know why, but when I turned 50 I decided that I was — suddenly — old. But after I got past the fact that I was 50 and moved on, none of the other numbers I’ve passed has mattered much to me.
Sixty-five has always been a mile marker – it’s when you’re supposed to retire and bask in the glow of a well-spent life. Sixty-five came and went with barely a notice — just another number.
I’ve decided that a good attitude is to push “old age” out about 10 years older than your present age. I don’t necessarily want to grow up — I think I’ll just stick with aging. I’d write more on this subject, but I’m starting to forget why I started it in the first place….
— 30 —

Well, there’s now less than 9 hours left in 2015. Just like every year of my life, it’s been a good year. Obviously some years are better than others for everyone, but If you’re celebrating, or just “here” and choosing not to celebrate — it’s been a good year.

Since I’ve given up wishing for a new Ferrari, or even that Segway, I truly do wish for more peace, freedom, understanding and forgiveness for everyone — around the world. I wish 2016 could be a year without wars, misery, injustice and inequality. I wish the new year could arrive and find us all more humane.

Mother Teresa said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” I guess that would work for years, too. 2015 is gone, and 2017 is a year away. So it’s 2016 — Let’s begin.
— 30 —

Well, there’s only a couple of days left in this year, so it’s about time for the annual ritual of making New Year’s Resolutions. Both the faithful readers of this blog, know that I usually make resolutions and like most people, I don’t keep them…. But this year is going to be different.

Before I get too far into this, I’ll pass on a bit of advice to my two faithful readers, who for some reason or another seem to have become infatuated with exercise. Anyhow, here’s my advice — if you’re considering buying any workout equipment, wait until about March and then check the classifieds. You’ll see tons of equipment being sold with the absolutely true claim that it’s “like new” or “used rarely.” You can pick up some good bargains.

But, back to my resolutions for the coming year…
• I will learn to recite the alphabet backwards in less than 10 seconds.
• I will break a record (not sure which one yet, it may be a personal record or maybe even a world record of some sort. I’m very excited about this one.)
• I will make a new friend every month.
• I will do something that I normally do, differently at least once a week. (For instance I usually order an Oreo Blizzard at Dairy Queen — maybe I’ll order an M&M Blizzard instead. I’m also very excited about this one.)
• I will not singlehandedly cause global warming.
• I will try to do something nice for someone every week.
• I also resolve to be less than perfect.
So there you have it — a new year, new beginning and new resolutions.

I mentioned earlier that most people, including me, don’t keep their resolutions. So why bother? Someone said that New Year’s resolutions are a triumph of hope over experience. They are a means of cataloguing personal dissatisfactions and a method of erasing errors of the past year. I guess that’s true — New Year’s resolutions are about hope.

But then again, who says I need to change, anyway? Even though I don’t think so, I may be just perfect the way I am. Maybe all my quirks aren’t things that need to be fixed, but things to be celebrated as unique to my personality and life. Maybe this year I’ll just focus on the things I like about myself and leave this year’s improvement plan for another year. I haven’t decided — check back in March and I’ll let you know which course I chose for 2016.

Happy New Year to all…..
— 30 —

Well, tomorrow, Christmas will be here. I’ve always liked Christmas and the Christmas “season.” Seems like this time every year, people are just a little nicer and most people are generally in a better frame of mind.

I hadn’t thought much about Santa Claus for a number of years, but in the last few, with the arrival of grandkids, he’s come up more often. I know Santa Claus is from the North Pole, but I wonder how he chose a place like that to live? You’d think he’d opt for Miami Beach or someplace warm. And his name — Santa Claus — I wonder if Claus is his last name or middle name? I’ve never known anyone named Santa besides, well, Santa.

Turns out that the legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. He was born and lived a couple of hundred years after the birth of Christ in what is now modern-day Turkey. St. Nicholas was quite a guy and became the patron of lots and lots of groups, ranging from sailors to entire nations.
But he became a legend when he became known as a patron of children and a magical gift bringer. A number of stories detail his devotion to children and his kindness shown by delivering gifts to them.
For hundreds of years St. Nicholas was the unchallenged bringer of gifts and the toast of celebrations centered around St. Nicholas Day, on December 6.

In 1821 an illustrated poem (The Children’s Friend) was instrumental in shaping the modern Santa and associating him with Christmas. The poem took the magical gift-bringing of St. Nicholas, and handed this duty to Santa. The poem indicated that Santa brought gifts to good girls and boys, but he also carried a birch rod for those not so good. The poem’s Santa rode in a thin wagon and was pulled by a single reindeer.
Then in 1822, Clement Clark Moore wrote “The Night Before Christmas” — it went “viral” and the modern Santa was born.

Some people think Santa Clause detracts from the real meaning of Christmas — I don’t agree. Santa Clause isn’t just someone that knows when you’re naughty or nice and brings presents. Santa Clause represents goodness, generosity, kindness and brings along that “Christmas Spirit” we all wish could stick around all year. But it’s good that that spirit gets renewed every year. As I mentioned a little while back when discussing the Polar Express adventure we took with Emily, it’s mostly about believing… and every year about this time we all seem to believe a little more in good and a little less in evil. So thanks, Santa.
Merry Christmas to all.
— 30 —

I’ve been fortunate enough during my working career to be involved in a number of interesting projects. Recently, a movie was released about an incident that occurred in 1960 – the capture of an American pilot, Gary Powers, after he was shot down while “spying” over the Soviet Union. The airplane that Powers was flying was U-2. This is one of the programs I was fortunate enough to have worked on.

From what I can tell, the movie seems to indicate that this was Powers first mission in the U-2. The fact is that it was his 28th mission. When Gary Powers was shot down, the US had been flying U-2 reconnaissance missions over Russia for nearly four years. The Soviets knew these overflights were taking place, but didn’t have the capability to shoot down an airplane flying at 70,000 feet – the altitude that the U-2 operated to take photos. Powers last mission was the first south to north traversal of the Soviet Union — previously, flights into the Soviet mainland generally turned around and went back the way they came.

The U-2c that made the first overflight of the Soviet Union on July 4, 1956 is on display at the Air and Space Museum. The U-2 gave the U.S. a capability to capture high-resolution images of huge plots of land. It proved the “missile gap” and “bomber gap” the U.S. thought heavily favored the Soviet Union was nothing but a myth.
The installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles of Key West, Florida was detected by U-2’s in 1962 and sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Kelly Johnson, Lockheed Aircraft’s chief engineer (and his team) was responsible for designing and building the world’s first dedicated spy plane for the CIA. Amazingly the task was accomplished in a little over eight months.
The U-2 is still flying intelligence-gathering missions today — almost 60 years after its first flight. It has been challenged by satellites, the SR-71 Blackbird and unmanned drones, but the U-2 continues to produce valuable intelligence — flying above 70,000 feet for up to 12 hours at a time.
I’d call this a success story…..
— 30 —

Wow! As always, there’s so much to be thankful for — not just today, but always…
Not to belittle other things, but here’s my Top Ten list for today.

Claire
Kelly
David
Chris
Chassie
Emily
Locke
Claire’s extended family
My extended family
Health
Friends [bonus — if you’re counting]

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!
— 30 —

Last Friday evening we took a trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express. In case neither one of the faithful readers know the story, one Christmas Eve many years ago, a boy went to bed after being told by a friend that Santa didn’t exist. He listened for the bells of Santa’s sleigh, but he heard something different, looked out the window and saw a steam engine parked on the lawn. The conductor invited him to board the Polar Express — a train filled with children on their way to the North Pole. The train took the children to the center of the city where Santa and the elves had gathered for the giving of the first gift of Christmas. The boy was chosen to receive this first gift. Even though he could choose anything in the world, he decided on a simple gift — one silver bell from Santa’s sleigh. Santa cut a bell from a reindeer’s harness and the boy slipped it into his bathrobe pocket just as the clock struck midnight and the reindeer pulled Santa and his sleigh into the sky. When all the children got back on the train, the boy realized the bell had fallen through a hole in his pocket. On Christmas morning, his little sister found a small box with the boy’s name on it among the presents. Inside was the silver bell. The boy and his sister were enchanted by the bell’s beautiful sound, but their parents couldn’t hear it. The boy continued to believe in the spirit of Christmas and was able to hear the ringing of the bell even as an adult.

The book was read during the train trip and when we got to the North pole, Santa boarded the train and talked with everyone — and those that believed, got a silver bell!! Emily seemed to have had a great time, as did all of us.

The story conveys a great message about believing. A friend of ours has a sign that reads, “Everyone should believe in something; I believe I’ll have another beer.”
But whether we realize it or not, we all believe…. I got a silver bell, and I can hear it ring. Before Santa gave it to me, he asked, “Do you believe?” He didn’t ask if I believed in Santa — just, “do you believe?” I answered truthfully — I do believe
… in true love
… that people are in our lives for a reason
… you shouldn’t judge people by their appearance
… that one should never say never
… that life is about choices
… the world is a beautiful place
We all have a list of what we believe in — the list changes over time, but some things on it don’t.
I guess we all need a ride on the Polar Express from time to time to remind us how important it is to believe.
— 30 —

Back around the first part of October, I rambled on here about punctuation and touched a bit on how people no longer use correct punctuation, but don’t even rite or spel very gud… what with the texting and all.

Well, apparently even I didn’t realize the extent of the movement (problem?) — every year the Oxford English Dictionary chooses a Word of the Year. And guess what? This year’s  Word of the Year isn’t even a word!! Both you faithful readers remember that in October, I mentioned something called “emoji.” The Oxford English Dictionary chose the 2015 Word of the Year to be — a “smiley” face with tears — 😢.
Now does that look like a word to you? It doesn’t have any letters! Words are made up of letters! According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the chosen word “best reflects the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.” Good grief!

The term emoji comes from the Japanese e meaning “picture” and mojo meaning “letter” or “character.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Emojis are no longer the preserve of texting teens. Instead, they have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers.”

In some ways I blame Apple for this movement — back in 2011 they added a readily accessible emoji keyboard to iOS 5 for the iPhone. I thought it was silly then and I still do. Emojis look like cartoons of faces, flags, food, symbols, vehicles, , etc, From what I can tell, the intent was to illustrate a point, but now they seem to be used to replace words altogether at least when we communicate with each other electronically.
If you have a smartphone (who doesn’t) emoji are available to you as an optional written language, like English, French or Arabic. On my iPhone, the emoji keyboard is right between the Dutch and Estonian keyboards.  I’ve heard, but am not interested enough to do my normal extensive research, that the entire text of Moby Dick has been translated into emoji.

If communicating (accurately) with each other isn’t hard enough, we’ve now invented a whole new confusing way to “communicate” with each other. We now have a new language or vocabulary to tell people we love them, they’ve made us sad, that we’re laughing or job well done.
I suppose that for the modern world, picking the “Tears of Joy” emoji is a good choice.
We all express our thoughts and feelings in different ways, but today when most people seem to have trouble with face to face or even voice communications, maybe this is the perfect way to send those thoughts/feelings to that special someone and it be understood completely.
— 30 —

Both myself and Claire have been involved with people and projects lately that seems to have elicited a fair amount of criticism (or as we like to say — critique) from both of us. Fortunately, we both have expressed that criticism/critique only to each other — I hope.

Anyhow, that got me to wondering about criticism and critique — what’s the difference in the two, or are they the same? Seems like this just begs for some extensive research so here’s what I found….
The bottom line, it turns out, is there is no difference. The base meaning is to “pass judgement on,” but in reality the usual use of both words has come to mean “pass negative judgement on.”
I was always of the opinion that when something is critiqued, one is expressing s view — by stating what you like, and why as well as what you don’t like, and why. Criticism is just the negatives. When something is criticized, there are no positives — only the “bad” things are mentioned.

During my extensive research, I ran across an article that attempted to explain the difference between the two words. I thought it was pretty good, but probably doesn’t reflect reality in the way both terms are used today….
Criticism finds fault/critique looks at structure
Criticism looks for what’s lacking/critique finds what’s working
Criticism condemns what it doesn’t understand/critique asks for clarification
Criticism is negative/critique is positive
Criticism is vague and general/critique is concrete and specific

It’s too bad these distinctions have sort of morphed into one.
Since criticism is so easy to dish out, we should all learn how to deal with it. Norman Vincent Peal said, “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
I guess it’s true that the only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.
— 30 —