What Would Jimmy Do?

Both of you faithful readers of this blog probably remember that on occasion I’ve mentioned the Oxforts – good friends of ours here in Shepherdstown. Winfried and Anne are from Germany and have lots and lots and lots of great stories. We get together often at each others houses or go out to dinner together. For the past few years from time to time the subject of Feuerzangenbowle comes up. Every year we agree it’s time for us to experience this tradition.
Well, this was the year! Last Sunday, we had dinner at the Oxforts (along with another couple – Fred and Mary Dubay.) And we finally got to participate in the Feuerzangenbowle festivities.

About now, if you haven’t abandoned reading and gone into your extensive research mode, you’re probably wondering what the heck is a Feuerzangenbowle? Well, I’m about to tell you. A Feuerzangenbowle is fun anytime, but it’s often part of a Christmas or New Year’s Eve celebration. It is a traditional German (there’s actually some debate as to whether it was “invented” in Austria or Germany, but that’s not important here) alcoholic drink, but the presentation and festivities are what really make it special.
Basically, what happens is that a rum-soaked sugar cone is set on fire and drips into mulled wine. Feuerzangenbowle translates literally to “fire-tongs punch.”
The mulled wine is prepared in a bowl, sort of like a fondue set, with the bowl suspend over a small burner or candle to keep it warm. A grate (called a Feuerzange) is placed over the bowl and the sugar cone (called the Zuckerhut) is placed on the grate. The sugar cone is a conical lump of sugar about seven inches long. The sugar is soaked with rum and set on fire (you pretty much keep pouring the rum over the cone continuously) and it melts and caramelizes as it drips through the grate and mixes into the wine. The resulting punch is served in mugs – the burner or candle keeps the bowl warm.

Needless to say, we all had a great time watching the sugar burn ( and drinking the punch.)
As I mentioned, the drink(s) were great, but the ceremony was more important – conveying a notion of Gemütlichkeit.
I know, now you’re wondering what that is – it basically means “coziness,” but actually it conveys the notion of belonging, social acceptance, cheerfulness, the absence of anything hectic and the opportunity to spend quality time.

What a great way to kick off the Christmas season….
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Being a Redskins fan, during this time of year, I usually read the sports section a little more thoroughly than at other times of the year. Today I read something that increased my suspicions that sports just aren’t what they used to be. The Washington Post ran a short article on the San Francisco 49ers that proclaimed that their quarterback (Troy Smith) was “at the top of the defensive-adjusted yards above replacement list among quarterbacks with 67 or fewer passes.” I’m not making this up – it seems like it doesn’t matter who wins anymore – it’s all about statistics.
I, for one, think these “statistics” detract from the game rather than enhancing it.

Frankly, I don’t care if one of the Nationals’ pitchers is number one among all pitchers under 22 years of age, as of April 30, that has pitched to more left-handed batters, with a batting average less than .263, when the temperature was greater than 82 degrees on Tuesdays in the month of June when the game was called because of rain than anyone else.
I seem to remember when the term “play ball” meant – well, play ball.
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As some of you know, we continue to subscribe to the Washington Post even though we now live “way out here in (almost Heaven) West Virginia.” Since the election, the Post has been full of articles about the “lame duck” Congress. I know what the (political) term lame duck means – it refers to elected officials that are approaching the end of their tenure, usually due to the fact that they have been voted out of office. Usually a lame duck’s successor has already been elected. Obviously lame ducks tend to have less political power because other elected officials are less inclined to cooperate with them, and of course some just don’t care, because they’re leaving anyway…
I looked up the origin of the term and it had nothing to do with politics – it comes from the London Stock Market and referred to investors who were unable to pay their debts. (In a literal sense, it refers to a duck that is unable to keep up with its flock, making it a target for predators.) It apparently began to be used by politicians in the 19th century – it was mentioned in 1863 in the Congressional Globe (the official record of the U.S. Congress) when it made mention of “… ‘lame ducks’ or broken down politicians.”

Politics, like just about every clique or profession, has its own language and uses terms and phrases that a lot of people don’t understand. I’ve been involved with the government for a lot of years and probably have heard “govermentese” as much as, or more than a lot of people and a lot of the terminology is “funny-sounding.”
Take for instance the term Dark Horse – in the political world, it means a candidate or someone that emerges to prominence, after being previously little known. The term dark horse of course originally came from horse racing – a dark horse was one that wasn’t known to the bookies and was difficult to place bets on…
Then you have Gerrymander – the re-organization of voting districts by the party in power to ensure more votes for their candidates. I happen to remember from History Class (Ms. Brown would be proud) that the term originated in Massachusetts when the Governor (Eldridge Gerry) changed political boundaries and the result resembled a salamander – a Boston newspaper called it not a salamander, but a Gerrymander.
The term Muckraker refers to a journalist that seeks out the scandalous activities of public officials. (I think the term was derived from a character in “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” the Man with the Muck Rake; the character could never look up, only down.)
McCarthism – is the practice of smearing people with baseless accusations. It came into being after Senator Joe McCarthy harmed or destroyed the careers of many prominent Americans by branding them as Communists in the 1950s.
Red Tape refers to government paperwork or procedures that are slow and difficult. The term stems from an 18th century practice in Britain where official papers were bound with a reddish twine.
Filibuster is an attempt by a Senator, or group of Senators to obstruct the passage of a bill by talking continuously.
Pork Barrel is used to describe wasteful and unnecessary projects that politicians secure for their local districts. The phrase originated in the days when salted pork was occasionally handed out to slaves from large barrels. Someone once wrote that the mad rush of politicians to get their district’s share of treasury funds looked like slaves rushing to the pork barrel.

So politics is a funny (and sometimes scary) world, not only because of some of the “funny sounding” terminology, but because political actions have serious and far-reaching implications. Nonetheless, politics create a lot of laughs – often unintentionally. During the last presidential campaign, John McCain misspoke and said, “I will veto every single beer.” Of course he meant to say (I assume) every “bill.”
Every U.S. President is fodder for ridicule – Obama is taking his licks now, just like Bush before him did…

Present day political slogans just don’t seem to have the same ring that they did in the past – I remember “I like Ike,” but to be honest, since I’ve been old enough to pay attention, there aren’t many more that come to mind. Some of the older slogans are more appealing to me – like “Keep Cool With Coolidge” – that’s pretty cool. I particularly liked a couple of the Roosevelt’s slogans – Teddy had one that went like, “You Can’t Beat Somebody With Nobody,” and FDR had one I especially like: “In Hoover We Trusted, Now We are Busted.”

You just can’t get away from politics – whether you know it or not, you “play politics” daily. It’s gotten a bad name (probably deservedly) – I’ve heard it said that politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should be changed regularly and for the same reason.
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A couple of days ago, we were driving somewhere and Claire spotted a billboard, or maybe it was one of those signs outside some church, but anyhow it mentioned one of the Ten Commandments. I think the commandment had to do with stealing, and Claire immediately said that they had the number wrong – the sign said it was the eighth commandment and she was sure that it was the seventh.

Well, I figured it didn’t much matter and that she was probably wrong. Later I looked it up and discovered that she was right – or maybe wrong – depending on WHICH Ten Commandments were being quoted.
Turns out that different religious faiths have different Ten Commandments lists. Of course, some religions don’t believe in the Ten Commandments at all.
I guess I always just assumed that the Ten Commandments were the Ten Commandments… nope, that’s not true.

I always wondered about the “Ten,” if there was some significance to that number. Why isn’t there 12? I could think of a couple more that could easily be added. Or why not just 3? Or 5? Why 10?
Well, of course this all got me to wondering – and I entered into my extensive research mode.

As far as I can determine, the phrase “Ten Commandments” only occurs three time in the entire Bible. (Thank goodness for the ‘search’ feature of computers.) Two of the occurrences are in Deuteronomy (chapters 4 and 10) and indicate that the ten commandments were written on two tablets of stone – but – neither chapter lists the commandments or says what they were. The “lists” of the commandments are given in Exodus 20 and the same list, slightly reworded, is repeated in Deuteronomy 5. However, neither of these lists is referred to as the Ten Commandments. The list in Exodus doesn’t call them anything and the list in Deuteronomy calls them ‘statutes and ordinances’ or ‘statutes and judgements’ depending on which version of the Bible you’re using. If the subject interests you, and you bother to read these sections of the Bible, you’ll notice that the lists don’t add up to ten – in fact, a lot of the items seem to “run together,” making it difficult to come up with a number.The story in Exodus 20 actually picks up in chapter 19 when God arrives in a thunderstorm and Moses goes up Mount Sinai for the first time. God told Moses to keep the rest of the people away, as apparently God wanted to speak with Moses in private.

In chapter 20, God gives a list of edicts and it looks like the first 10 is what is known as the Ten Commandments. The words “thou shalt” or similar phrases occur 19 times in the chapter. I couldn’t find anywhere in Chapter 20 the word ten and the best I can tell, all the “edicts” are not collectively given a name.

If you continue reading Exodus, at least through chapter 32, you’ll find that God continues to issue edicts… about seduction of virgins, stealing sheep, keeping of slaves, stealing of slaves, etc.

In Exodus 24, God says he will give Moses tablets of stone. But Moses doesn’t actually bring the tablets of stone down the mountain until chapter 32. It’s interesting that I couldn’t find anything that actually said what was on the tablets – obviouly everything in chapters 20 through 32 couldn’t be written on them, so apparently only some of God’s edicts could have been on the tablets of stone.

Now it turns out that when Moses comes down from the mountain and sees what the Israelites have been up to while he was up on the mountain, he gets ticked and throws  the tablets down and breaks them. God wasn’t too happy about all that and (in chapter 33) Moses makes friends again with God.

In Chapter 34, Moses made two new tablets of stone, and took them back up Mount Sinai, and God writes on them “the words that were in the first tablets, which thou brakest.” Here is where we are told what is written on the tablets and they are explicitly identified as the Ten Commandments.

When doing my extensive research, most searches pointed me toward Exodus 20. But if you stop reading there, you’d be hard pressed to figure out what the ten commandments were/are…

Before I finally wore out my head, I ventured into the New Testament. From what I can tell, it’s not uncommon for the New Testament and the Old Testament to not be in agreement… but I charged on and found that in Mark 10:19 Jesus is quoted as saying, “Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.” It appears that Mark is now calling the edicts in Exodus 20 commandments and adds one – defraud not – to the mix. To add more to the confusion, Luke 18:20 corrects Mark and drops “defraud not.” And – Matthew 19:18 also drops “defraud not,” but adds “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” that also doesn’t show up in Exodus.

To keep stirring, Matthew 22 talks (with great emphasis of the TWO commandments – neither of which come from Exodus. So, if you go by the New Testament you come up with five plus two to get the Ten Commandments. I should mention that as far as I can tell, there is no list, or mention of the Ten Commandments anywhere in the New Testament.

I hadn’t thought about it much before, but I am beginning to realize that there may be more to the argument of posting the Ten Commandments in and on government buildings than meets the eye.

I’m beginning to think it’s not as black and white as I once thought.

Many of the proponents of posting the Ten Commandments on public buildings claim that they are not promoting a certain religion, but just encouraging morality. The fact is that that argument just doesn’t hold water – it seems like any list that is touting a moral code would stress love and compassion for others – I really don’t see that emphasized.

I’m not sure what I’ve learned from my extensive research, but I guess that if something as simple as the Ten Commandments can get this involved, it’s easier to understand why most wars have been fought over religious disagreements.

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Well, I’m getting ready to “sleep in” in the morning because it’s that time again – time to change the clocks. There will be the usual few days of disorientation as it’ll take a while to remember which clocks we changed and which we didn’t – I usually always find one we missed a week or so later.

The big proponent of Daylight Saving time was Ben Franklin, and he’s often given the credit for coming up with the idea, but a number of people thought of it, so no one really knows whose “idea” it was…
Every fall we “fall back,” or set the clocks back one hour.
One of the first people that suggested the idea had a selfish reason for doing so – George Vernon Hudson worked in the post office in New Zealand and his hobby was collecting bugs. He just wanted more time to pursue his hobby after work. He suggested the clock change to the government, but it took New Zealand thirty-two years to adopt the practice of changing the clocks (in 1927.)

The United States first tried Daylight Saving Time in 1918, but dropped it after two years. DST was optional for each state until 1966, when it became mandatory unless an individual state legally opted out of the system Currently Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that don’t observe DST.
Antarctica has 24 time zones, but has continuous daylight in the summer and continuous dark in the winter, so research stations located there keep the same time as their home countries (to co-ordinate work and shipping schedules and communications.)

Almost everyone has an opinion about DST – some hate it, some love it, most don’t understand it and can never remember which way the clock is supposed to go when. There are controversies as to whether it causes more or less accidents, causes diseases or if it does or doesn’t save energy.
To all those people, I say – it’s only an hour – get over it.
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Pajamas is a funny word – I have a pair with feet and ducks on them and usually refer to them as jammies or PJs. Our friends from Zimbabwe spell the word “pajamas,” and refer to them as sleeping attire. The word pajama was “invented” in the Hindi language (one of the most popular languages in India) by combining the Persian word “pai,” which means leg with another Persian word “jamah,” that means clothing. The Hindi word “paejama” was picked up in the English language in probably the early 19th century and spelled “pajamas,” that finally became pajamas as we’re used to seeing it written.

I don’t think anybody’s sure, but I suspect that the person that should get the credit for making pajamas an icon of American life is Hugh Hefner – I’m pretty sure he hasn’t worn anything else since about 1954.

The original pajamas were loose-fitting trousers worn during the day by workers in India and adopted as sleep ware by European colonialists. Currently pajamas usually mean something that covers the upper body – not just the trousers. The matching jacket or top was probably added when the pajamas were brought back to the chillier climate found in Europe.
Even today, pajamas are only considered sleep ware (except by Hugh Hefner) in the West – in India and the far East (where they originated) they are everyday wear to be worn in the street…

Pajamas took on a new meaning during the Viet Nam War. The Viet Cong (VC) adopted Black PJs as their uniform. During the early 1960s, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) was not clearly involved in the war – the South Vietnamese guerilla/insurgent, known as the Viet Cong (Southern communists living in South Vietnam) was the enemy.  Like any guerilla/insurgent, they supplied themselves, with whatever they could obtain. These VC were normal citizens by day and enemy soldiers by night. Black clothing – both shirt and trousers were commonly worn by many South Vietnamese people. It turns out that after some fire fights and the bodies of some of the VC were searched, they were wearing those black shirts and trousers – which to the normal American male, looked just like pajamas. So, black PJs became our (the Americans) acceptance of the VCs uniform.
One thing I heard (repeatedly) while in Vietnam was that the black PJs made it harder for GI Joe to see at night. Unfortunately, they also had a negative overall impact by making many GIs believe that anyone wearing black PJs was the enemy. That, of course, played right into the hands of the Communists.

So it appears that pajamas, that funny sounding word, has had quite an impact on us all either directly or indirectly. Whether you call them pajamas, jammies, PJs or sleep costumes or had nightmares about black pajamas, or remember sleeping with PJs with feet and bunnies, read Hugh Hefner’s magazine, or envied him or just saw The Pajama Game on broadway, you just can’t get away from them – they truly are an American icon; there’s even an old Groucho Marx joke about pajamas that goes something like, “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know.”

So there you have it, Mike and John – that’s how pajamas came to be…
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