What Would Jimmy Do?

Claire often refers to my “selective listening” and I guess to some extent she’s right. I actually do have a hearing problem, so I don’t necessarily hear everything Claire (or anyone else) says. But selective listening is a a trait I have and the fact is if I didn’t invoke it sometimes, I’d be exhausted.

The problem, as I see it, is this:
Claire (and most of her friends) want to know and share everything — every single detail, before, during and after. The reactions, thoughts, emotions, weather at the time, and on and on and on….
I (and most guys I know) want just enough information to move on the next topic. Frivolous information is just noise….

Here’s an example of what I mean….
This is a conversation we had after I helped Fred work on a repair at the church.
Claire: So how’d it go with Fred today?
Me: Fine.
Claire: Did you get it fixed?
Me: Yep.
Claire: Anything exciting happen?
Me. Nope.
Claire: Any good Fred stories?
Me. Nope.

Later in the day I asked Claire a question.
Me: So are you guys still going to get together to sew on Friday?
Claire: Yea, I talked to Pattie and she’ll be working tomorrow and Rosemary wanted to know if she should bring dessert… she had called on her way back from the farm house and mentioned that I would bring the wine and she wanted to know if I had any vegetables… I did, but the last time we forgot about them and I really wonder if I should get something else for Rosemary… I know Pattie likes Raskel Flats but the only thing I got Rosemary was when we went to Route 5 and knew she collected these crystal things because she has them in a cabinet in her living room. I was going to work on some of the thangles, but I think I’ll finish up the pink quilt…. Patty may be helping her friend Susie, so we may start later… I need to go to food lion because I have to make the chicken salad… Anne called, Winfried wants to know if we’d like to go to Kazu’s tonight? You wanna go?
Me: I just asked if you were going to sew.
Claire: I told you.

Now if I actually listened to all the words, my memory would completely overflow. That’s assuming something more serious, like my head exploding, didn’t occur. So you see, it’s really necessary to invoke selective listening sometimes.
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Well, here it is Washington’s Birthday, or as we seem to like to call it now, “President’s Day.” It’s not actually Washington’s Birthday — its just an excuse for a three-day weekend and a chance for retailers to have their “Washington’s Birthday Sales” even though — as I said — it’s not Washington’s Birthday.

George Washington was born on February 11, 1731. But in 1731 Britain and her colonies used the Julian calendar. In 1752, the Gregorian calendar that we use today was adopted. When the new calendar was adopted, we jumped ahead 11 days and made January the first month of the year instead of March and Washington’s Birthday occurred on February 22, 1732.

Washington’s Birthday became an official holiday in 1885 when President Chester Arthur signed a bill making it a federal holiday. That federal holiday was celebrated on February 22 until 1971 when it was moved to the third Monday in February.

In 1968, Congress passed the Monday Holidays Act, moving a lot of holidays around to provide for three day weekends. It moved the official observance of Washington’s Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February. Some people, notably Richard Nixon, wanted to change the name of the holiday as well, to “Presidents’ Day.” Nixon proclaimed Washington’s Birthday as a day to remember all the former presidents. Even then, Nixon probably figured his birthday would never become a national holiday. However, Nixon’s proclamation and other proposals were rejected by Congress and the holiday remains officially Washington’s Birthday.

For once Congress did (almost) the right thing by not changing the name. But even so, the name has become popular and even commonplace — it is generally used on calendars, in all sorts of newspaper and TV ads and even by some government agencies.

Now even if you don’t believe Washington chopped down his father’s cherry tree, Washington was a man among men — without him there very well might not be a United States. It’s hard to believe a three day weekend is more important than formal recognition of the accomplishments of “the father of our country.” Even if it’s not the right day — Happy Birthday George!!
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There’s been a lot in the news lately about the battery problems Boeing is having with the new 787 airplane. Batteries have always been a puzzlement to me. Just look at all the advances in electronics over the past 20 years — but battery technology just seems to poke along. I still get about the same amount of hours of use from my notebook computer that I did with my first one, and that was probably at least 15 years ago — maybe more.

If you wonder why electric cars are still a novelty and why the new ultra-efficient “Dreamliner” isn’t even flying right now, the answer is simple — batteries. There have been lots of attempts to build a better battery: I can think of lead-acid, carbon-zinc, nickel-oxide, nickel-cadmium, alkaline-manganese, zinc-mercuric oxide and of course today’s “sate-of-the-art” lithium ion. Lithium-ion, like most of its predecessors, was touted to be the battery to solve all our problems. Lithium-ion batteries do store more energy at a higher voltage and a lighter weight than other batteries and I guess represent the most recent “big jump” in battery technology. But the fact is that this technology has struggled with a safety problem from the start. Even today, it’s fairly common to hear about lithium-ion cellphone batteries overheating, short-circuiting and exploding. Supposedly, additional safety features were installed on the batteries used in the 787, but the outcome of that seems questionable.

Now to be fair, when I said I still get about the same amount of use out of my current notebook and the first one I owned, you have to remember that the current notebook consumes considerably more power and the notebook and battery is much lighter and smaller — so batteries have improved, not just in size and weight, but in cost and energy density. I realize that technologies don’t develop at the same rate, its just that with the tremendous demand for battery power, the battery industry is surprisingly slow moving.

In my working days, we spent a lot of time, money and effort to develop fuel cells. Even today, every time the topic of energy-dense storage comes up, people think of fuel cells. They certainly seemed promising at one time and do even today — I still think they’re the technology of the future — maybe they always will be.

I guess this entry wouldn’t be complete without some extensive research. I poked around a bit and discovered that the first batteries may have been developed over 2000 years ago. Some relics belonging to the Parthian Empire were uncovered near the city of Baghdad in 1936. The Parthians were the dominating force in the area between 190 BC and 224 AD. Among the relics found was a clay jar sealed with pitch at its top opening. An iron rod protruded from the center, surrounded by a cylindrical tube made of a copper sheet. Later test of replicas of the jar, when filled with an acidic liquid such as vinegar, showed it could have produced between 1.5 and 2 volts between the iron and copper. I wondered what they would have used a battery for — my extensive research didn’t turn up the discovery of any flashlights or transistor radios… The theory that I like best is that the “battery” may have been used to electroplate gold onto silver artifacts.

The battery industry needs to find the “next big thing.” Unfortunately, from what I can tell, no one knows what that big thing will be yet, or when it will come. But I have faith — I don’t think you’ll be hearing battery engineers saying, “I canna do it, cap’n!”

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If you’ve been watching the news, listening to the radio, reading newspapers, checking the Internet or just talking to people, you’re probably aware that a meteorite struck Russia this morning and caused a bit of damage — from the sonic boom it created — and also excited a few people.

It’s interesting that people were prepared for a near-miss “fly-by” of another asteroid today. Just to set your mind at ease, the asteroid 2012 DA14 has already passed as close to Earth as it’s going to get and is moving away from Earth now. That asteroid was (is) a 150-foot rock. It was the closest known flyby for an asteroid of its size — it passed within 17,000 miles of Earth. That’s closer than the satellites that bring us Dish and Direct TV.

I’ve heard several terms used to describe what happened earlier today. As I understand it, asteroids — like the fly-by today are small solar system bodies that orbit the Sun. They are similar to comets but don’t have a visible coma (“tail”) like a comet has. A meteoroid is an even smaller piece of debris or a particle that goes around the Sun. A meteor is the light phenomenon we wee when a meteoroid burns up as it flies through the atmosphere (we often call these shooting stars.) A meteorite is a meteoroid that survives its fall through the atmosphere and lands on Earth.

I read that today’s meteorite probably weighed about 10 metric tons and may have been made of iron. It entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart somewhere between 19 and 31 miles above the ground. The energy released when it entered the atmosphere was equivalent to a few kilotons — the power of a small atomic explosion.

In order for a meteorite to reach the Earth’s surface, it has to be just the right size. Meteors that are too small will disintegrate in the atmosphere before ever reaching the surface. Meteors that are too big tend to explode before reaching the Earth’s surface.

Well anyhow, it’s been an interesting day — all this stuff falling from the sky. I would imagine the Congressional investigation should start early next week.
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Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. In the past I’ve often discussed how teachers receive more valentines than anyone else, how roses are the favorite gift and how chocolate became a food for lovers and things like that. I’ve even mentioned that no one really knows how the February 14 celebration got to where it is today.

I think it’s generally acknowledged that there was more than one St. Valentine. The one thing known for certain is that a man named Valentinus was martyred on February 14, late in the third century A.D. But if you start looking for details, it seems that legend supersedes fact.

The Catholic Church officially recognizes a St. Valentine that is known to have been a real person who died somewhere around 270 A.D. His true identity was questioned early on, however, by Pope Gelasius I who referred to the martyr and his acts as “being known only to God.” Anyhow, enough confusion exists about him that the Catholic Church discontinued liturgical veneration of him in 1969. His name does remain on the church’s list of officially recognized saints though.

As I mentioned, there were a number of St. Valentines through the years — even a Pope Valentine that served only 40 days somewhere around 827 A.D.

From what I can tell, saints are expected to keep busy in the afterlife. Some of their duties include interceding in earthly affairs and entertaining petitions from living souls. St. Valentine seems to have plenty to do with a lot of wide-ranging spiritual responsibilities. Not only do people call on him to watch over the lives of lovers, but for interventions regarding beekeeping, epilepsy, the plague, fainting and traveling. Of course, he’s also the patron saint of engaged couples and happy marriages.

No record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to a poem (“Parliament of Foules”) written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1375. The poem links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day — an association that didn’t exist until after his poem was published. The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate. It just may be that Chaucer invented Valentine’s Day as we know it — or, maybe he invented Hallmark.
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Well, here it is the day before Ash Wednesday and people are celebrating Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday or whatever other name the day gets “in your neck of the woods.” Here in West Virginia, we picked up a new name for the day — a term neither of had ever heard of before moving here — Fastnacht Day.

Apparently fastnachts were traditionally made by Pennsylvania Dutch housewives on Fat Tuesday. It seems the tradition started because they wanted to use up all the fat, such as lard, sugar and butter they had on hand before Lent.

Fastnachts are usually square or diamond-shaped, but sometimes they are in the shape of a triangle, or even round. The “traditional” way to eat a fastnacht is to cut it in half and spread it with molasses.

Fastnacht is a German word meaning before the fast. And its become a new-found tradition in the Williamson house….
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I’ve been reading a lot about the Boy Scouts recently. A couple of days ago there was an article about the Southern Baptist Convention and their claim that it would be a “catastrophe” to lift the gay ban on Boy Scouts. Actually, the article was an interview with Richard Land, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. Mr. Land made an interesting statement: “The Scouts have said for themselves for over a hundred years that traditional morality is at the core value of scouting — teaching them to be morally straight. And now they are going to make it a local option under pressure from corporations and from some Scout groups. A core value is not a local option. When a core value becomes a local option it’s just a preference, and preferences are normally not protected by the First Amendment.”

Of course the article went on and Mr. Land expressed his opinion(s) at length. I have no intention of judging — the Scouts, the Southern Baptist Convention, Mr. Land or anyone else. I did find the article interesting and the phrase that particularly caught my eye was, “traditional morality.”

I got to thinking about “traditional morality” and wondered if I knew what it was or is… and I decided I probably don’t. Usually when people talk about traditional values or traditional morality, they’re really talking about the values or morality that they believe in or accept.

There are many morals and values in the world and of course since they aren’t all the same, people judge each other’s values and make judgements and disagree even to the point of going to war over some morality or value issue.

Today, when morality is discussed, it seems to come down “traditional morality” vs. “modern morality.” I’ve heard it said that traditional morality is character based and modern morality is action based.

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist that wrote quite a bit about ethics that included some thoughts on morality. He believed that to become a morally developed person, you had to develop virtues (courage, compassion, honesty, fortitude, etc.) by habitually behaving in accordance with those virtues. Once you got into the habit of behaving like a good person, it would start to affect your soul, making you a good person inside as well as outside. Once you accomplished that, you would naturally know what the right thing to do is. I guess that would fall into character based morality or traditional morality. The modern school of thought seems to be to come up with set of rules that set a standard for deciding what the right thing is. The problem with that is the rules are defined by people pushing their values or morality.

In my mind, the bottom line is that there is no justification for more or less virtue, more or less integrity or more or less personal responsibility. Everyone, the world over, knows what is right and what is wrong. Mark Twain once said, “Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.” But my favorite “morality” quote comes from Henry David Thoreau: “Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.”
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Well, here it is February — not one of my favorite months. Weather is blah, and there aren’t even any good holidays to cheer things up. There’s of course Valentine’s Day, but lately it’s become a real hassle to go out on Valentine’s Day — even here in Shepherdstown. We usually go out the day before or the day after and just pretend it’s Valentine’s Day. The other holidays are pretty ho-hum: Lame Duck Day, Kite Flying Day, Reading in the Bathtub Day, Organ Donor Day, Get a New Name Day, Do a Grouch a Favor Day, and of course the Random Acts of Kindness Day. Now honestly, do you see anything to get excited about in that list?

Of course this year Chinese New Year falls in February (it always occurs in January or February.) This year because it falls on a Sunday, it will be celebrated both on Sunday and Monday. The year of the Snake begins on February 10, 2013 and ends on January 30, 2014. Since the Chinese New Year is based on the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the years aren’t 365 days — or any set length. The Chinese New Year celebration takes place over two weeks. The Lantern Festival (Chap Goh Mei) on the fifteenth day brings an end to the New Year season. In China, cities have spectacular lantern displays and it’s an important time for families to gather and end the Chinese New Year celebrations with a big meal and more fireworks.

Since I started out talking about February — and most people usually associate Valentine’s Day with February, and then I got off on Chinese New Year, I suppose I should mention Chinese Valentine’s Day. Probably a lot of people don’t know about Chinese Valentine’s Day, but they have one and it’s a lot easier to get reservations in a restaurant than on the one we celebrate this month. This year, Chinese Valentine’s Day falls on August 13 — which just happens to be my Dad’s birthday and the date that myself and Claire went on our first official date. Chinese Valentine’s Day is also called the Festival of the Double Sevens or the Seven Sisters Festival. The date of Chinese Valentine’s Day is the seventh day of the seventh Chinese lunar month — so again, it’s not the same date every year.

As I noted earlier, this is the Chinese Year of the Snake. If you believe in Chinese astrology, you may hear it referred to as the year of the Water Snake, or Black Snake or even Black Water Snake.

Since we’re on the subject, Claire was born in the Year of the Dog and I was born in the Year of the Tiger. According to Chinese astrology, we are “compatible.” That, of course, is good to know. I know you’re interested, so I checked what the Chinese 2013 year has in store for us — here’s what the Snake is offering up this year:

“In 2013, the Dog will enjoy success and considerable progress on all fronts. However, she must make time to enjoy her friends, family and leisure pursuits in order to benefit from all that the Year of the Snake has to offer her.”
and for me….
“Most Tigers will find the Year of the Snake very pleasant, but with a slower pace that may frustrate some. They would do well to make the most of this, enjoying pastimes, travel and taking time to stop and smell the roses along the way.”

Sounds like the Year of the Snake is the Year of Me for both of us. Happy New Year — and Valentine’s Day.
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The other evening I was thumbing through one of Claire’s magazines (Real Simple) and there was a short article entitled, “What is the greatest compliment you’ve ever received?” The entire article consisted of several readers sharing the praise they had received that made the most lasting impact on them.

You may be surprised to learn that over the years I’ve received a few compliments. Not a lot, but a few. Thinking back over the years, it’s hard to remember much about them — some I can remember the subject, some the place, some why I was involved in the first place, but I don’t actually remember the compliment.

Except for one — During the Vietnam War I was pretty heavily involved with the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam.) Our objective was to establish a country-wide VHF radio network. My counterpart with the ARVN was Col. Lung (really) and we worked together almost daily for more than two years.

When I left Viet Nam, I was given a compliment by Col. Lung — and I remember that compliment because it was written down (actually it was given to me on a plaque.) The inscription reads as follows: “Thank you for doing you know what, for you know who, you know where.” There obviously were very good reasons that the what, who and where couldn’t be filled in at the time.

Actually, that’s one of the nicest, and most unique compliments I’ve ever received — maybe I should send it in to the magazine…..
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I’ve been reading about Boeing and the problems with the new 787 recently and I got to thinking about airplanes and stuff. I’ve always been a fan of airplanes and until fairly recently was involved with the aerospace industry in various ways.

When we were living in the Philippines, we lived in the same apartment building with the Simpsons — Hugh and Genny. Hugh worked in the same office as I did and was the Chief Operations Officer. He was a really interesting guy to talk to, and I especially enjoyed some of his stories because he worked for a number of years for Pan American Airways. He did a lot of really cool things.

I remember him telling a story of being associated with a flight that made history in 1943. I’m not sure of the actual date of the flight, but it occurred in January, 1943. Here’s the story as I remember it. The Casablanca Conference was a meeting between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in — guess where? Casablanca, Morocco!! Duh!!

Anyhow, the conference itself is certainly historical, but what caught my attention as Hugh was telling the story was that the President traveled to the conference via a Boeing 314 “flying boat.” It was the first time a sitting U.S. President had flown in an airplane.

Apparently the crew was kept in the dark until the President arrived — they only knew that the passenger was a VIP. The trip began at the Pan American Airways base in Miami. The President, his top advisor and several military leaders on one airplane — another “flying boat” carried the Presidential staff.

But my favorite Hugh story was about the first commercial round-the-world flight. The year was 1947 and Pan Am had just acquired new airplanes — Lockeed Constellations. To show off the capability of their new fleet, Pan Am planned to inaugurate round-the-world flight service in June of that year. Juan Trippe of Pan Am had a political agenda, and to further that agenda as well as drum up publicity for the company, he arranged a gala ceremonial trip round-the-world before the official inauguration of the service to the public. The passengers were all VIPs of some sort, many of them journalists from various newspapers and publications. The Cleveland Plain Dealer had a representative on board. A few government representatives also made the trip. The plane chosen for the trip was one of the new Constellations, the “Clipper America.”

The trip took 13 days. Here’s the Itinerary (I had to look this up)….
Depart La Guardia Airport, New York
Gander, Newfoundland
Shannon, Ireland
London, England
Istanbul, Turkey
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Karachi, Pakistan
Calcutta, India
Bangkok, Thailand
Manila, Philippines
Shanghai, China
Tokyo, Japan
Guan
Wake Island
Midway Island
Honolulu, HI
San Francisco, CA
Chicago, IL
Arrive La Guardia Airport, New York

What made this an even cooler story is that Hugh Simpson was the First Radio Operator on that flight. He had all the trinkets to prove it.

I’m guessing that Hugh would probably scoff at the battery problems at Boeing….
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