What Would Jimmy Do?

I’d like to send out a big ‘Hey, Happy Birthday’ wish to my friend, Abraham Lincoln. Abe, as I like to call him, is probably best known for the penny. The first penny with his picture on it was issued in 1909 and it is the longest used design in American coins. The penny design was changed in 1959, 150 years after Lincoln was born, to include the Lincoln Memorial and Statue on the back, making it the first coin to have a person embossed on both sides of the coin.

The Lincoln penny was introduced 100 years after Abe was born, making this his 203rd birthday. Abe only lived to be, in his terms, two score and sixteen years — he was assassinated when he was 56.

Abe was noted for doing a lot of things, and he did a lot of things he didn’t get much credit for. He created a national banking system with the National Banking Act in 1863, resulting in a standardized currency. He was the first president to be assassinated. His birth mother died from milk sickness. He was the first president to have a beard.

Abe is remembered for some famous quotes from speeches such as the Gettysburg Address and almost everyone has heard “you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time,” but he came up with a lot one-liners, or zingers — one of the main reasons I liked him. For instance, Abe is known for the following observations…

• If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
• Whatever you are, be a good one.
• Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
• When you’ve got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let    him run.

I’m thinking the country could use another Abe right about now… Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln!!!
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I’m not a good speller — never have been. I used to hate that subject in school. Of course I was excited when I saw my first “spell checker” on a computer. I figured my troubles were over.

One thing I learned early on was that the spell checker might give you a word (that was correctly spelled) but it might not be the word that you intended and, worse yet, the word very well might be inappropriate. For that reason I got into the habit of taking an extra step in my writing process by checking the meaning of the word suggested by the spell checker. That system seems to have served me well over the years.

Over the last few years a trend has started that should make me ecstatic, but it hasn’t — in fact I find it a little bit disturbing. With the popularity of “texting” increasing, a lot of what gets written (and read?) isn’t even words. Some (a lot?) people believe that with the new technologies, the way that we write and read is changing, therefore so must spelling. I’ve even read articles that suggest that we do away with spelling rules altogether.

For someone like me, who should at least be a member, if not the president, of the Bad-Spellers Club to become a proponent of good spelling may seem a bit out of character. But let me explain — personally, I like to be able to understand what I read without having to stop and puzzle over ‘creative’ spellings. I’m not exactly sure when this all started, but I began to notice it when texting became popular. It’s not clear to me why the use of digital media changed our writing habits so much. One theory is that we use our computer, phones, etc. to communicate so much and so often, that the “written (typed) word” has become a more casual form of communication — becoming more like speech than letter writing. One school of thought is that standardized spelling is an outdated dogma, and that civilization got along for centuries without spelling rules.

When our kids were growing up they couldn’t understand the need for rules. I tried to explain (probably unsuccessfully) that rules were necessary to prevent confusion, and inefficiency and even chaos. We have a “rule” that in the United States, we must drive on the right-hand side of the road. If everyone ignored that rule, we’d have a lot more accidents than we do now. What if newspapers decided to spell words any way that strikes their fancy? How long do you think it would take to read the newspaper — and, would anyone get the same meaning/message from the story?

I guess I agree that it doesn’t matter how we spell any given word — what matters is that we agree on the spelling. Standards make communication possible — just look at the Internet; it’s based on standards. Out spelling system (and I’ll admit it’s a bit strange) is an agreed to set of rules.

English spelling is a pain to learn — but the fact is, once you master the core vocabulary, as most people do by high school, you’ve pretty much got it made. And there’s always the dictionary. Using the dictionary on a computer, or phone is actually easier than dragging out a book and if you’re writing something important (like this blog) and you want to keep the reader’s trust and care about his experience in reading it, it’s worth the small extra effort.

Again, the argument that “texting” is not really “writing,” but simply an informal means of communicating and that spelling and grammar aren’t really important, doesn’t set well with me. Kids (and probably lots of adults) are texting more than anything else these days — certainly more than they’re writing themes for English class. Constantly spelin like dis 2 say hi translates to becoming a crummy speller. I usually send properly spelled and grammatically correct text messages.

One of the oldest arguments against learning to spell is that spelling needs to be simplified (and made more consistent.) Why does “rough” sound like “ruff” and “tough” sound like “tuff” but “dough” doesn’t sound like “duff?” In some respects, texting seems to be attempting to do just that – simplify spelling. The apostrophe requires an additional step on the iPhone, so text-ers send your or UR instead of you’re. And, in fact, this is rarely mis-understood.

I’m still not convinced we need a new set of spelling rules, although I agree maybe the English language doesn’t have too many good ones. Maybe I’ll try doing the blog in “text-ese.”
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I swore I wasn’t going to pay any attention to the presidential election until much closer to November — but — it’s really hard to have an extended conversation with anyone without it at least being mentioned.

Lately every time the presidential race comes up someone invariably asks, “what kind of a name is Mitt?” Or, “Where did he get a name like Mitt?”

So, as a public service, I did some extensive research and came up with the answer. The republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s first name is Willard — Mitt is his middle name. Mitt is a shortened form of Milton, and Willard was given the middle name as a tribute to his father’s cousin, Milton Romney, who happens to be a former quarterback for the Chicago Bears.

My extensive research also turned up the fact that Mitt spelled backwards is Ttim. Now you know…
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Yesterday was Ground Hog Day. When I was growing up in Oklahoma, we called groundhogs Prairie Dogs or Woodchucks. A popular tongue twister when I was young was, “how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” Turns out that woodchucks don’t move timber nearly as well as beavers, but most do chew wood. A wildlife biologist (with probably not enough to do) once measured the inside volume of a typical woodchuck burrow and estimated that, if wood filled the hole instead of dirt, the woodchuck would have chucked about 700 pounds worth. So if it ever comes up in conversation, the answer is – about 700 pounds.

But I digress – getting back to the groundhog, as far as I know it’s the only mammal to have a day named in his honor. Even though it’s not a legal holiday and people don’t exchange presents, or get off work, it’s still pretty cool to have a day named after you.

The “official” groundhog in the United States is “Punxsutawney Phil” who lives in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to legend or folklore, if Phil sees his shadow on February 2nd, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow, there will be an early spring. Since the groundhog’s first prediction in 1887, Phil has seen his shadow 99 times and failed to see it just 16 times. For some reason, nine years are missing in the records.

The official website of Punxsutawney Phil claims that the groundhog has been correct in his forecast 100% of the time. AccuWeather talks about groundhog day and admits Phil is fairly accurate: “Because the year’s coldest quarter, also know as meteorological winter, runs from Dec. 5 to March 5, Phil’s accuracy in predicting a longer winter is about 80%.” StormFax.com indicates that Phil has gotten it right just 39% of the time. But NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center doesn’t think much of Phil. They wrote “… no predictive skill for the groundhog during the most recent years.” Their article concluded: It really isn’t a “bright” idea to take a measure such as a groundhog’s shadow and use it as a predictive meteorological tool for the entire United States. Guess they never watch the local weather forecasters – I figure Phil stacks up pretty good against them….

The Ground Hog’s day tradition comes from German roots. German immigrants brought the tradition with them from Germany. As they settled in Pennsylvania, they began the tradition of using the groundhog to predict the arrival of spring. The tradition is based on Candlemas – the day that is the midpoint between Winter and Spring.

I kind of like Ground Hog Day – the holidays are mostly over and the weather is usually pretty crummy, the groundhog’s forecast is no less reliable than the National Weather Service and it’s fun to say “Punxsutawney.”

Just so you know, the only species that comes close to the deer population here in Deerfield Village is the groundhog – and our official Deerfield Village groundhog (Danny) did not see his shadow yesterday, so you can plan on an early spring.

You can choose to believe or not believe – some of us do, others think it’s like the groundhog’s laundry – Hogwash!!
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Any of you following “The Puppy Files” (Dave and Chassie’s blog about their new puppy) are aware that a couple of entries recently covered — in depth — the subject of poop, from way too much to not enough.

That got me to thinking — poop is, and always has been a funny word; it’s hard to say it without at least smiling. It’s always interesting to learn when, where and how a term originated. However, the first couple of dictionaries I checked didn’t even have an entry for poop.

Finally, through my extensive research, I determined that most dictionaries defined the word as a part of a ship. e.g., “the aftermost and highest deck of a ship, esp, in a sailing ship where it typically forms the roof of a cabin in the stern.” It’s origin was apparently from the Old French word pupe, that is a variant of Latin puppis, meaning stern. Well, I don’t think that was what Dave was referring to in his blog entries.

What Dave was referring to was well, you know… something else.

My persistence finally paid off and I found a reference in a book of word origins (Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English by Eric Partridge) that indicated that “poop” comes from the Middle English word poupen or popen, and it originally meant “fart.” The word was based on the sound of a fart. The term came into use in America with its current meaning around 1900.

So if poop means well, you know… something else, then I wondered why does pooped mean very tired or exhausted, and not that well, you know… something else had happened? Once again my extensive research didn’t turn up much — it may be that it kind of sounds like the sound of an exhausted sigh, but it probably comes from the nautical reference I first ran across; to be pooped means to have waves breaking over the poop, or stern of the boat…

It occurs to me that all this research, while interesting, has wasted a lot of time for not a very good reason — poop is still a funny word, no matter where it comes from and unlike some people, I don’t consider fans of poop to be nincompoops.
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Well, here it is the middle of January already and I’m already behind on my goal of regular updates for this here blog. But as the old saying goes, better late than never – I suppose. 2012 is, of course, a very special year. As we all know, the world will end on December 21st of this year.

So — will it be the end of everything? No one really knows, but one thing is for sure – December 21st of this year is the day time as we know it will end. At least that’s what the Mayas believe. The Maya’s had a rather complicated method of keeping track of time, based on three separate calendars. One of these calendars, and probably the most important, holds the “Long Count,” the period from the beginning until the end of time. On December 21st, 2012. the Long Count expires. Time will be up for the Universe and it will be the end of days.

A lot of people believe that a lot of significant events over the years collate with the Mayan Calendar system, making the 2012 doomsday, arguably, the most scientific end of the world prediction ever.

Whether you believe or not, there’s some interesting things about 12/21/12. On that day, the Sun will move to a unique spot in the sky, and hold still for a while, since it is solstice day. The Sun will sit precisely on the crossing point between the Milky Way and the galactic equinox, forming a perfect alignment with the center of the galaxy. (There are a number of mathematical lines that we use to define coordinates in space: one is the axis of the Milky Way; another is the cosmological ecliptic, the axis along which the constellations travel.)

They Mayas knew a lot about stars and astronomy – they calculated the exact duration of a year to a thousandth of a second – much more precise than anyone did for many thousands of years. They were able to predict every solar and lunar eclipse until this day. They also knew where the galactic equinox and the exact center of the Milky Way crossed; they called this point “the Sacred Tree.”

If a Maya tells you the world will end in 2012, I wouldn’t just brush it off…

Since all the Mayas’ books and most everything else was burned when the Spanish ransacked the land in 16th century, we don’t have any insight into what the Mayas thought might happen when the calendar ends. So what will (or won’t) be on December 22 is pretty much an open question. Since the Mayas had a philosophy of the cosmos that saw the cosmos as the true mother of things and believed that the cosmos is all around us, and within us and that every plant, animal and every man is sheer cosmos, I personally like the theory that December 21st will be the day that the inner cosmos is reconnected to the divine outer cosmos. The Sun will mount its unique position to form a gateway between the Universe and the souls of every living creature on Earth. Our linear concept of time will crumble, and with it, fear and hatred will vanish. It will be purification at it’s very best, when everyone is soaked in cosmic understanding and divine love.

Some doomsayers foresee doom and destruction — December 21st will be the day the Earth is destroyed; some think it will be because of a nuclear war, some say it will be the biblical judgement day and others claim the Universe will just go zzzap! and be gone…

Will it or won’t it — maybe it all depends on your point of view. I read a quote once that said something like what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. Anyhow, keep you eyes and ears open, I’m sure you’ll hear about it in the media – I wonder how they’ll report it? However, I’m becoming a little more skeptical – Claire just bought tuna fish at COSTCO that’s good until 2015…
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As I mentioned earlier, Chris, our niece, was visiting over the weekend. She asked a very interesting question and I didn’t know the answer. I figure I owe it to her to satisfy her curiosity and provide her with accurate, well researched information.

The question was: why is the infantry called the infantry? Is it somehow related to babies?

As I said, I didn’t know the answer, but after my extensive research, here’s what I found out.

The word originated in Latin as ‘infans’ – but the modern derivation is from the Italian word fante, which signifies a follower. In warfare years ago, battles were chiefly fought by cavalry, or horsemen, but they were always followed by a certain number of squires or armed men on foot that marched in the rear, and assisted their leaders.

Infantry has become a common English term to apply to troops or soldiers that operate on foot. The infantry component of the army is the biggest, made up of the most people. Infantrymen are often thought to be like infants in that they don’t reply back or refute orders – they are well trained to not answer back at a superior.

An interesting related fact that I uncovered during my extensive research is that ants are the only other species besides humans to use army formations.

So the answer to the question as to whether the infantry is in someway related to infants is not really, but maybe a little bit because often other army units imply that infantry members have intelligence comparable to infants…
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It was an active weekend around here – Chris and John came in from Cleveland on Friday evening and we wined and dined them at the cafeteria at Shepherd University. It was the annual holiday meal at the university and they had quite the extensive menu – and of course live music…

Chris got to experience a number of culinary delights for the first time, such as pecan pie, funnel sticks and figgy pudding, which dates back to 16th century England.

On Saturday, Chris and Claire went to some kind of craft fair/show and later in the morning we all attended the annual Christmas Parade in Shepherdstown. In the afternoon, the big event was the Candy cane Walk here in Deerfield Village that included a visit from Santa.

On Saturday evening, Dave and Chassie came out and we attended the Antietam Memorial Illumination at the battlefield – a candle lit for each casualty in the one day battle – in excess of 23,000. We had almost a 3 hour wait to get into the battlefield and about an hour to drive through it, but everyone agreed it was probably worth it.

Dave and Chassie spent the night and headed out Sunday morning to pick up the newest member of the family – a new puppy.

All in all, a fun weekend!

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This past weekend was not only the first Sunday of Advent, it was also the introduction of the “new” Mass translation in the Catholic Church – at least the English-speaking Catholic Churches. I think this is the 3d edition of the Mass translated into English and its use is apparently mandatory. I suspect that most Catholics long ago memorized their lines – and even though I’m a relative newbie, I pretty much had mine down…

At my age, my memorization skills are not what they once were – if I’m any where near normal, plenty of people will probably be using the cheat cards in the pews for a long time to come.

Except for the homilies, priests don’t ever call an “audible” during Mass – the same lines are just repeated over and over. There’s a certain amount of comfort in that because no matter where you go to church, you know what to say and do and don’t have to learn a new routine based on the location or personnel involved.

But this weekend, what American English-speaking Catholics knew by heart, changed. Apparently the new language is a more faithful translation of the Latin. Actually, the changes aren’t that big a deal – the words are changed just enough to mess everyone up periodically. To me the changes fall more into the category of tinkering, rather than fixing something that was broken – it would seem the church should have more important things to do than tinker…

The one change that is especially annoying to me is the use of the word consubstantial instead of ‘of one being.’ I didn’t even know what the word meant – had to look it up. Every source that I checked, indicates that they mean the same – so why use the long word – it doesn’t make the meaning any clearer. Maybe it just sounds more like Latin.

Some people are indifferent to the change, some like it, some don’t. I guess I fall into the category of indifferent  There’s always a good number that don’t like change and are not bashful about voicing their displeasure; often times those people just have to voice an opinion because they want to say something and be heard. When a change like this, dictated from the top, comes along – if you don’t like what the church is doing, don’t go – or – find another church. Most people go to church because they have a strong faith in God and their religion.
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The last entry in this blog was titled, End of the Trail — and it was, for the original blog I started back in March of 2007. I decided it was time end it for a number of reasons, not the least of which was it was technically difficult to update and maintain. When it was started, I knew even less about blogging than I do now, if you can believe that.
At any rate, it just seemed a good time to call it quits, step back think about it and start anew using new technology.

Recently, all sorts of things seem to have gotten in the way of my keeping the journal, or blog, up to date. I’ve decided that now that the weather is providing less and less good golf days, it’s time to get back to making “blogging” one of my more active undertakings.
I think that now is a good time for a fresh start, so the old blog (“In My Own Write”) is ended and the second in (perhaps) a series begins with this entry. In keeping with a fresh start, the look of things have been changed, and will probably continue to change until I settle on something I like. The old title is retired; the new handle is WWJD, or “What Would Jimmy Do.” Since I never knew what the theme or purpose of my blog was, it’ll just stay the same. Since WWJD is still in the development stage, if you have any suggestions, I’d like to hear them.

After four years and seven months and 267, give or take a couple, entries, it’s time to move on – it’ll still be a blog because I come closer to knowing what a blog is than a tweet or a woof, Facebook, MySpace, Skype, Bebo or any of those other things that people seem to use to publish every detail of their lives.  In response to the title of this first blog entry, WWJD – I believe I’ll start another blog!
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