What Would Jimmy Do?

Well, it’s that time again — are your ready for some football? Tonight is the Hall of Fame game, played annually at the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. This is a kind of a pre-pre-season game that gets everyone in the mood for football every year. This year it’ll be the Cleveland Browns vs. the New York Jets. 

I’m a fairly passionate football fan, although I have to admit I’m not as big a fan as I have been in the past…. for a number of reasons. But I still look forward to football season, even though it’s arrival marks the end of my favorite time of year — summer. 
Where I grew up, almost everyone was a Dallas Cowboys fan. That was my dad’s and my sister’s favorite team — my mother wasn’t a real fan of professional football, but the Cowboys were probably her favorite team, too. For some reason, the Dallas Cowboys just didn’t sit too well with me. I tended to like the Packers, Browns and Raiders the best. 

But after leaving home and spending time in Washington, the Redskins became my team. I’ve stuck with them through thick and thin, and like all the teams, they’ve had an interesting history, some successes, lots of failures and a few “firsts.”
The Washington team (now called the Commanders) had the NFL’s first marching band, first radio network, and first fully televised season. 
The team was founded in 1932 as the “Boston Braves.” In 1933, the team’s name was changed to the “Redskins” and in 1937 the team moved to Washington D.C. The name Redskins stuck until 2020, when it became The Washington Football Team and was re-named the Commanders last year. 

Some of the interesting statistics the team, and its players, has racked up include:
Seasons: 92 (19320 2023)
Winningest Coach: Joe Gibbs (154-94-0)
Super Bowl Titles: 3
Playoff Record: 23-20
Most Career Yards Rushing: John Riggins (7,472)
Most Career Yards Passing: Joe Theismann (25,206)
Most Career Receptions: Art Monk (888)
Most Career Sacks: (97)
Most Career Interceptions: Darrell Green (54)
Most Career Points: Mark Moseley (1,206)
The team won the 1937 and 1942 NFL championship games and Super Bowls XVII, XXII, and XXVI.
In 1962, the team became the final professional American football franchise to integrate. Ron Hatcher of Michigan State became the first black player to sign a contract with the team.
The 1991 Washington Redskins team is considered one of the best teams in NFL history, scoring 485 total points during the regular season and only allowing nine sacks.
So it’s not “Hail to the Redskins” anymore, but It’ll be interesting to see how the “Commanders” develop under the new owner, Josh Harris.
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Last night August’s Full Moon appeared — but wait — this year August gives us two Full Moons. The second one will appear on August 30.
Last evening, the full Sturgeon Moon appeared and there will be a full Blue Moon on August 30 — and — it will be the closest supermoon of the year.

If you’ve been reading this blog during the year, you’re aware that I’ve mentioned that there would be four super moons in a row this year — the one last night was the second in the sequence. 
Superman is kind of a layman’s term for what astronomers call a perigean full Moon, which is when the full Moon occurs very near the exact time when the Moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit.

Near the end of the month, on August 30, a second full Moon — a Blue Moon — will make its appearance. The term Blue Moon is used when we have two full Moons in a single month. The August 30 supermoon will be the closest, biggest and brightest full supermoon of 2023. It will only be 222,043 miles from the Earth. The next time we’ll have a closer full supermoon is November 5, 2025 when the Moon will be 221,817 miles away.

Last night’s Full Moon, by tradition, was called the Sturgeon Moon because the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this part of the summer.
A sturgeon is a fish that looks like it might be a dinosaur if it lived on land. They have often been referred to as “living fossils.” A little extensive research on my part found that today there are about 29 species worldwide — including the lake sturgeon found in the Great Lakes. Over the years they have evolved in size from the size of a bass to as big as a Volkswagen.
Females require about 20 years to start reproducing and they can only reproduce every 4 years. But — they can live up to 150 years.
Lake sturgeons are very rare today due to overfishing, pollution and damage to their habitat.
I guess something like that deserves to have a Moon named after them — so check it out, the Sturgeon Moon will still look full tonight.
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Today, August 1, is Lammas Day. I mention this for two reasons: one — because it’s August 1 and two — I have always been curious about witches. The first time I heard about Lammas Day was some time ago when I was doing some extensive research about witches…. so I thought this might be a good way to kick off August.

Lammas is a pagan holiday and one of eight Wiccan sabbaths during the year. Each sabbath marks a seasonal turning point. This sabbath occurs on August 1, which is about halfway between the summer solstice and the fall equinox. The holiday celebrates the grain harvest. (In more recent times, it’s become a wheat harvest festival — and also become known as Loaf Mass Day.)

Grain was, and is, a very important crop for most civilizations. If the grain was left in the fields too long, or if the bread made from the grain wasn’t baked in time, families might have starved.
In early Ireland, it wasn’t good to harvest grain before Lammas. If you did harvest early, that meant that the harvest from the previous year ran out before the next harvest was ready. And that meant that the farmers would have failed in providing for the community. On Lammas, the first sheaves of grain were cut, and by that night, the first loaves of bread for the season would have been baked. 

The word Lammas comes from an Old English phrase that translates to “loaf mass.” In early Christianity, the first loaves of the season were blessed by the church during Mass.
Modern day pagans bake breads and cakes to celebrate the historical grain harvest (and bread making.) Some observers celebrate with a harvest ritual. The ritual typically involves decorating an alter with symbols of the season. Some rituals involve casting a circle, and saying some words that symbolize their thanks to the Earth for the harvest — usually, everyone eats some bread and probably drinks some wine to wash it down.
Like a lot of these type days, there is a lot of traditions and folklore associated with it, like the proverb: “After Lammas Day, corn ripens as much by night as by day.”
Happy Lammas Day.
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Today we kick off the month of August — and today just happens to be an old harvest holiday — Lammas Day. As both readers already know, this year I decided to talk about each upcoming month….

August was named after a major figure of the ancient Roman World — Augustus Caesar. He was the first Roman emperor — even though he never claimed the title of emperor. He was also the grandnephew of Julius Caesar — who named the month of July after himself.
August is the last month of summer and one of the hottest months of the year.It’s also a Civic Holiday in many parts of Canada.
If you were born in August, your sign is either Leo or Virgo.

Besides being the first day of August and Lammas Day, this year it’s also August’s first full Moon — the full Sturgeon Moon will reach peak illumination tonight and it will be one of the four super moons of 2023. But before the month ends, you’ll be able to see another full Moon — on August 30. That Moon will be a Blue Moon — and — it will also be the biggest supermoon of the year. August is also the month of the Perseid meteor shower, that should reach its peak between August 11 and 13.

So we’ve got a busy month ahead of us with St. Lawrence’s Day, Cat Nights, National Aviation Day, St. Bartholomew Day, Women’s Equality Day, World Honeybee Day — and — the end of the Dog Days of Summer.
So stay tuned — we’ll be talking about these things and more during the month.
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Well, here it is the end of July, so I though it might be a good day to talk about patents, since the U.S. Patent Office opened its doors on this date in 1790.
The United States issues patents by the millions and seems like every year they issue more than the previous year. 

The first patent issued — although it wasn’t patent number one, was issued on the Patent Office’s opening day on July 31, 1790. It was issued to Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash, an ingredient used in fertilizer. President George Washington signed the first patent. 

If you were paying attention, even though Samuel Hopkins was issued the first patent, it wasn’t number one. Patent records prior to 1836 were unnumbered and could be accessed only by the name of the patentee and date of the patent. From 1790 to 1836, 9,957 patents were issued without a number. To make matters worse, on December 15th of 1836, most of the patent records were destroyed by a fire. Inventors had to provide proof of their patents, or create new patent documents under oath with their original drawings and specifications. These “restored” patents were given a number that ended with “X.”
U.S. patent No. 1 was issued to John Ruggles for a traction wheel for steam locomotives.
The one millionth patent wasn’t issued until 1911 — to Francis H. Holton, for a tubeless vehicle tire.

The granting of patents was made a function of the Federal Government by Article I, Section 8 of the constitution, that states….”To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries….”

Over the years, the name and agency responsible for issuing patents has changed hands. Since 1925, the responsibility has been under the Department of Commerce. In 1975, the name of the Patent Office was changed to the Patent and Trademark Office.
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Last evening’s news talked about the uncovering of some human remains — the newscasters and police were speculating about who they might belong to. That reminded me that there seems to be a name that comes up just about every time somebody finds human remains — doesn’t matter where — someone always speculates that it might be Jimmy Hoffa. 

On this date (July 30) in 1975, Hoffa, the former Teamsters president, arrived at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan — for a meeting with reputed mob leaders. He was never seen again. 

At the time of the meeting, Hoffa had already stepped down as leader of the Teamsters —his 13-year prison sentence had been commuted by President Richard Nixon in 1971.
Since his disappearance, theories about his final resting place have spread like the Canadian wildfires. Rumors have claimed that whatever’s left of Hoffa is buried under a swimming pool in Michigan, in a swamp in Florida and even beneath the end zone of the old Giants Stadium in New Jersey. 
As of now, no remains have been found.
Seven years after his disappearance, an Oakland County judge declared Hoffa officially dead.
— 30 —

I am by no means a soccer fan, but the other night I watched the Women’s World Cup — that turned out to be an “exciting” one-to-one tie between the United State and the Netherlands. Anyhow, during the game one of the announcers mentioned the term “hat trick.” Needless to say, there was not hat trick in the game I was watching, but I got to thinking about that phrase. 

When I was growing up in Oklahoma, most people around Maysville had never even heard of soccer and I’d heard the term hockey, but there were no hockey games played anywhere near were I grew up. I was an adult when I first heard the term “hat trick” — and I always associated it with hockey. I was told that the feat of scoring three goals in a hockey game was known as a hat trick…. it didn’t make much sense to me, but I really didn’t understand hockey, so I just accepted it. 

But I thought today was as good as any to explore a little further.
Here is the “true story” from the Hockey Hall of Fame as to the origin of the phrase hat trick:
When Chicago Blackhawks winger Alex Kaleta visited Sammy Taft’s Toronto haberdashery in January, 1946 before a game with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he fell in love with a fedora. But Kaleta — who had just returned to playing professional hockey after serving in the Canadian military during World War II — didn’t have enough money to buy the hat. So Taft cut him a deal: If Kaleta could score three goals against the Maple Leafs at the game that night, he’d give him the hat for free. (Turns out that Kaleta scored four goals that night — Chicago lost to Toronto 6-5 — but he got a free hat.)
So that’s the Hockey Hall of Fame’s story, and as far as I know, they’re sticking to it….

But apparently, the term “hat trick” actually originated in British cricket. A bowler who retired three batsman with three consecutive balls was entitled to a new hat at the expense of the club to commemorate this feat. Eventually, the phrase was applied to a single player scoring three goals in any goal sport and later to three victories or successes in sports as different as horse racing and golf. The phrase finally broadened to include a string of three important successes or achievements in any field. 
If I have three glasses of wine with dinner, I usually refer to that as a hat trick….
— 30 —

One of the lead stories in the news yesterday was that Florida school boards had voted to re-define the way slavery was looked upon, by both blacks and whites, in their new texts. There continues to be a controversy as to whether to tell the “real story” of slavery in the United States. 
I suppose it probably is the same in a lot of other countries.

It’s acknowledged that the United States was one of the last nations to abolish slavery — but — it wasn’t the last — even in the Americas. That distinction goes to Brazil, in 1888.
It’s generally accepted that the last nation to abolish slavery was Mauritania, a country in west Africa, in 1981.

Today human trafficking for labor, and other activities, continues to affect millions of adults and children — even though it’s “illegal” worldwide — and against international law. 
I’m not sure teaching our kids that there were some benefits for the enslaved from the practice is beneficial to anyone…..
The fact is that slavery existed — and was not, in any way, a good thing. We may choose to look the other way, but we shouldn’t say we didn’t know.
— 30 — 

The calendars on our computers list various holidays. This week, one of the holidays was Ashura. Ashura is a holy day for Muslims, observed on the 9th and 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. This year, it begins on the evening of Thursday, July 27 through Friday, July 28th.

Ashura is marked by Muslims with a voluntary day of fasting which commemorates the day Noah left the Ark, and the day Moses was saved from the Egyptians by God. But for Shia Muslims it is a major religious commemoration of the martyrdom at Karbala of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. 

So to all our Islamic friends, on this day of Muharram, may Allah bless you and always show you the right path. May your faith in Allah always bring you peace and prosperity — have a blessed Muharram.
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A lot of you aren’t old enough to remember Cuba before Fidel Castro came into power, but on this date in 1953 it was the beginning of the end for Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. 
July 26, 1953 marked the beginning of  Fidel Castro’s revolutionary “26th of July Movement.”

The name originates from a coup plot that involved attacking the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 1953. The attack failed, but had the effect of catapulting Castro into the leadership role of the anti-Batista movement.

Fidel Castro was arrested as a result of the coup attempt and during his trial, he gave an impassioned speech in which he proclaimed, “History will absolve me!” After being released from jail, Fidel and his brother Raul met with a group in Mexico and renewed efforts to overthrow Batista. Several attempts at the revolution failed, but the Twenty-Sixth of July Movement gained support, capitalizing on discontent among peasants and the increasingly brutal nature of Batista’s repression, and waged a successful guerrilla war. By 1958, the guerrillas expanded their operations to include economic warfare, burning sugar cane fields, attacking tobacco factories, oil refineries and railroads. 

Batista fled Havan for the Dominican Republic on New Year’s Eve, 1958. The Twenty-Sixth of July Movement overtook the capital on January 1, 1959.
Although he once declared that Cuba would never again be ruled by a dictator, Castro’s government became a Communist dictatorship.
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