What Would Jimmy Do?

Yom Kippur for Hebrew Year 5784 begins tonight (Sunday, 24 September 2023) at sundown and ends at nightfall on Monday, 25 September 2023.

Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) is the day of repentance, the most holy day on the Jewish calendar. Described as a Shabbat shabbaton (Shabbat of solemn rest) in the Torah, Yom Kippur is the culmination of a period of time during the month of Elul in which Jews are required to take stock of their lives, to ask forgiveness from friends and family, and to take steps toward self-improvement for the year to come.

Yom Kippur is observed for a 25-hour period, beginning at sundown, by refraining from work that is prohibited on Shabbat, plus five additional prohibitions — eating or drinking, bathing, anointing the body with oil, wearing leather shoes and sexual relations.
Traditionally, Jews believe that after judging a person for their deeds over the past year, God decides who will be sealed in the Book of Life (to live for another year) and who will die. Others simply use the day as a time to reflect on what they want to do differently this year, and some people wear white on Yom Kippur to symbolize the purity of the day.
To all our Jewish friends, G’mar Hatima Tova — may you be sealed in the Book of Life.
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Yesterday it was summer — today it’s fall. The fall equinox and the first day of autumn arrived this morning at 2:50 A.M. EDT. The autumnal, or fall, equinox is an astronomical event that marks the start of autumn — or “fall.”

During an equinox, the Sun crosses what is called the “celestial equator” — an imaginary extension of the Earth’s equator line into space.The equinox happens at the exact time when the Sun’s center passes through this line.
From this point on days become shorter than nights because the Sun continues to rise later and nightfall arrives earlier — this ends with the winter solstice, when the days start to grow longer again.
The word “equinox” comes from the Latin aequus, meaning “equal,” and nox, meaning “night.” At the time of the equinox, day and night are roughly equal in length.

The full Moon that occurs nearest the autumnal equinox is always called the “Harvest Moon.” Why? Around the fall equinox, the full Moon rises around sunset for several nights in a row, traditionally  providing farmers with just enough extra light to finish their harvest before the killing frosts of fall set in. 
(Bonus information: The Harvest Moon is one of only two Moon names that are astronomical terms and aren’t tied to one specific month. The full Moon nearest to the fall equinox is called the Harvest Moon and can be either the September or October full Moon. The other astronomical Moon name is the Hunter’s Moon — the next full Moon after the Harvest Moon. It can occur in either October or November.)

So — is today really the first day of fall? Based on the astronomical definition of seasons — yes. Astronomical seasons are based on the Sun’s position in the sky. But according to the meteorological definition of seasons that’s based on temperature cycles and the Gregorian calendar, the first day of fall is usually considered to be September 1.

Equinoxes have been important to cultures since ancient times. Seems that people have always tracked the transitions of the Earth’s journey around the sun.
In Mexico, the Mayans built a giant pyramid called Chichen Itza and on the equinoxes, it looks as if a snake made of light slithers down the pyramid’s steps.
In Peru, at Machu Picchu, an ancient stone monument called Intihuatana, that means “Hitching Post of the Sun,” serves as a solar clock to mark the dates of the equinoxes and solstices.
And Stonehenge, in England, was built with the equinoxes and solstices in mind.
I’m always sad to see summer leave, but fall is a pretty good time of the year…..
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The other day we saw a car that that had shiny black wheels and they were trimmed in bright red. Claire said, “those are mighty fancy hubcaps.” Of course people around our age do usually refer to the part of the car’s wheels that you see, as hubcaps — of maybe if you’re a little younger, you call them wheel covers.
But are they called hubcaps or wheel covers? Is there a difference? And do cars today have hubcaps or wheel covers?

The wheels and tires on cars have changed a lot since I was young. I remember that all tires had tubes inside them — that’s the thing that held the air. But then someone came up with the tubeless tire, and there aren’t many, if any, car or truck tires that have tubes…. I think bicycles still have tubes in their tires. Until I was well into adulthood, almost all car tires had “whitewalls.” I remember when you washed the car, you had to do the tires because the whitewall always got dirty — I think SOS pads were the preferred tool for cleaning them.

But anyhow, today most all cars come with what’s called alloy wheels — rarely do we see “wheel covers.” Most wheels still have hubcaps, but they look a little different than what I grew up calling hubcaps.

“Modern” cars, for a long time, used metal wheels — the part without the tires. When steel wheels were the thing, manufacturers used hubcaps to protect them from corrosion. Steel is susceptible to rust, especially when being covered with debris from the road — and salt in the winter. But hubcaps didn’t cover the whole wheel — they were only used to cover the center part — the part that attaches to the wheel hub. That’s the part that contains the bolts that the wheel attaches to. Hubcaps only cover that center area, and the early one were simple and looked like a plate. 
Today’s alloy wheels still cover that area with the bolts but the modern term is center caps — not hubcaps.

Now on to wheel covers — these cover the whole wheel and are usually only used for steel wheels and only serve a cosmetic purpose. Even though they cover the wheel, they don’t really offer much protection from dirt or debris. 

So what’s the point of all this? As usual, there is no point — I just thought it was interesting the way automotive technology — and terms — have evolved over the years. I guess just like everything else, as things change it creates confusion over terminology
But — if you were paying attention as you read, I have now set you straight about hubcaps, wheel covers and wheels.
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Ninety years ago today, our friend Anne was born. 
September 21, 1933 was a Thursday and the 264th day of 1933, there was a new Moon that night and it wasn’t a Leap Year. People born in 1933 are members of the Silent Generation.
The US President was Franklin D. Roosevelt, the UK Prime Minister was Ramsay MacDonald and Pope Pius XI was leading the Catholic Church.

As I’ve mention in the past, Anne has led an exciting life leading up to this milestone and we’ve been fortunate to count her as one of our best friends since we moved to Shepherdstown. 
Anne deserves a medal — a medal of existence that crowns her long-term victory against the cruelty of time and the dangers of this chaotic world.
So Happy 90th Birthday to Anne! May your special day be just as special as you are!!
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This morning while browsing the news on my phone, I ran across an article on the Freemasons….. I thought that might be a good topic for today.

Freemasons — that mysterious secret society that does whatever it does, when those Masons go inside those temples of theirs. Who are these guys and what are they doing in there? Are they really running the world?

Freemason secrets allegedly lurk behind everything from the planning of our nation’s capital to murder. So who are the Freemasons and what do they stand for? As you might imagine, this is one of those subjects that just begs for some of my extensive research….

Freemasons belong to the oldest fraternal organization in the world. The most probable origin of the Freemasons has the organization incorporating in 1475 in Edinburg and consisting of masons (stone workers) and wrights (woodworkers.) Members from other crafts were allowed to join, starting with coopers (barrel makers) in 1489. It’s generally agreed that “modern” Freemasonry began with the creation of the Great Lodge of London in 1717. Over the centuries the organization drifted away from its original trade association and became more of a club for men of various professions and callings even though the Freemasons’ symbols and official gear (including a stonemason’s apron) bring to mind the early days. Supposedly the organization still conveys the early era’s core values, religious tolerance, thirst for knowledge and sociability. 

As for symbols, Freemasons have always communicated using visual symbols drawn from the tools of stonemasonry. The “All-Seeing Eye,” or Eye of Providence has been used by the group to represent the omniscience of God. The most well-known Freemason symbol, “The Square and Compasses,” depicts a builder’s square joined by a compass. The “G” at its center remains subject to dispute — some experts believe the “G” in the symbol’s center represents geometry, a critical field to the first Freemasons. Others believe it represents God, the “Grand Architect of the Universe.” (Another lesser known Masonic symbol is drawn from nature — the beehive. Masons were originally working men who were supposed to be busy as bees. The beehive symbolizes the industriousness of the lodge.)

Historically, the question is not who has been one, but who hasn’t. Freemasons can be found throughout history — George Washington, Benjamin franklin, Franklin Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, Winston Churchill, Davy Crockett, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Henry Ford, Buzz Aldrin, Colonel Harland Sanders (the chicken guy,) William Howard Taft, and Michael Richards, a.k.a. “Kramer” on Seinfeld. So the group may or may not rule the world, but a number of Freemasons have had their hand on the wheel.

But the thing that makes people suspicious about Freemasons isn’t membership rolls, but the rituals that have sprung within the group over the years — the “initiation rites” and ceremonies and various “levels” that Masons can achieve by going through them. These are supposedly secret and paganistic, with one big sticking point being the Mason’s concept of a “Great Architect of the Universe” (God to most of us.) Critics of the Freemasons suggest that the “Great Architect” is not a generalized representation of a higher being, as the Freemasons claim, but a manifestation of Baal, god of Canaanites, i.e., not the same God that people go to church on Sundays to worship. It should be noted that Freemasons roll their eyes at this allegation. Freemasonry isn’t a religion, but all members believe in a Supreme Being — a “Grand Architect of the Universe.” However the Catholic Church first condemned Freemasonry in 1738 over the concern about Masonic temples and the secret rituals performed within them. In the 19th century, the Vatican even called the Masons “the Synagogue of Satin.”

So needless to say, the Freemasons have fueled a great deal of resentment over the years, and at one point even spawned a political party. In 1828, the first third party in the United States — the Anti-Masonic Party — was formed in response to fears that the group was growing too secretive and powerful. The incident that motivated  this movement was the mysterious disappearance of bricklayer William Morgan, who was allegedly preparing a tell-all book about the Freemasons’ secrets and rituals. He was never found, and the rumor was the Freemasons did him in. 

The Anti-Masonic party had some success at the state and local level, and even managed to help former United States President John Quincy Adams get elected to the House of Representatives in 1830. But as a national political party, it was a bust. 

Today, the oldest fraternal organization in the world is still going strong — if they’re sincerely dedicated to taking over the world, it’s been a long fight……
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Well, here be me most favorite holiday again — Talk Like a Pirate Day. Today everyone around here will be calling each other “me hearties,” be donning their finest eye patches and pulling the usual shenanigans that they do every year. Needless to say me and me wench Claire will host our usual Hornpipe ceremony and make our rounds for a pint or two of grog. 

Some of our neighbors still don’t get it and keep asking me why do we need a Talk Like a Pirate Day?
Well…. because we do — I can’t exactly say why, but we do need Talk Like a Pirate Day. A lot of people think that the day romanticizes pirates, but that’s not the case. I’ve said it before — pirates were, and are, bad people. I’m not for one minute suggesting that real, honest-to-goodness pirates in any way, shape of form should be “romanticized.” 

The best thing about Talk Like a Pirate Day is that it’s fun. If you’re new at it, and would like to give it a try, here are the five basic words to master — then you can move on to the “real” pirate talk.
Ahoy! — “Hello!”
Avast! — It can be used in a sense of surprise, like “Check it out,” or “No way!”
Aye! — “Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did”
Aye aye! — “I’ll get right on that sir, as soon as I finish my grog.”
Arr! — This one is often confused with arrrgh — the sound you make when your stump your toe. Arr! can mean “yes,” “I agree,” “I’m enjoying my beer,” “I’m happy,” or lots of other things — lots of possibilities here….

Once you’ve got the basic mastered, you can move on to expanding your pirate vocabulary with terms like Beauty, Bung hole, Bilge rat, Grog. Hornpipe, Lubber and more.
But for all you newbies, just start with adding “me hearties” to the end of any sentence, like “drink up, me hearties,” or “meet me at the pub, me hearty.” Me hearty just means my friends or mates….
So give some of these expressions a whirl today and amaze your friends.
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, me hearties!!!
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They’ve closed a major road going through Harpers Ferry and due to the closure lots of the traffic is re-routing through Shepherdstown. There is no traffic light in Shepherdstown — only a 4-way stop, and traffic is really backing up especially during the morning and evening “rush” hours. Someone mentioned that the 4-way stop should be replaced with a traffic light.

Well….. that got me to thinking about traffic lights. Maysville, Oklahoma, where I grew up didn’t have a traffic light — except for a few months. The traffic light that they installed just had a green light and a red light — no yellow light. But it was only in operation for maybe a couple of months when a big truck hit it and it had to be taken down for repairs — and never got put back up. It was never popular anyway and people thought that the few cars in Maysville could get through the main intersection and not run into each other without a traffic light.

But my wondering about traffic lights was — why did they choose red, green and yellow for the colors, and how did they get everyone to agree to use those colors? I’m pretty sure if traffic lights were being invented today, Congress and the States wouldn’t be able to agree on a common color scheme….

Well, it turns out that when traffic lights first came into being, there was no “standard,” and there were various schemes used to control traffic around the country. The Federal Highway Administration published “The Manual on Consistent Traffic Control Devices” in 1935 to define uniform standards for all road signs, pavement markings and traffic signals — mandating them to all employ red, yellow and green light colors. 

So I guess that’s how consistency was mandated, but what about the colors? I’m not sure but I think science must have played a big part in the color choices….. If you remember, there are seven colors in the light spectrum — and the wavelengths increase from violet, the shortest, to red, the longest. Back in general science classes, we learned that longer wavelengths have shorter frequencies and tend to travel longer distances. When you look at different colors, red has the longest wavelength followed by yellow, and then green. 
So it appears that the colors with the longest wavelengths were chosen for traffic signals because they could be seen at a greater distance.

The three colors of the traffic light were assigned in priority. Red for stop because a driver should be alerted as soon as possible of danger and to come to a stop. Yellow was chosen to warn drivers, and green, for go, maybe because it’s not so urgent for driver to go as it is to stop.
So once again, science comes to the rescue……
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As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of those days that don’t get enough recognition — It’s Constitution Day. I’m not sure our constitution has ever been on shakier ground than it is today. All of us owe more than we can know to the Constitution of the United States. 

On February 29, 1952, Congress designated September 17 as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. The day commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787, and recognizes all American citizens. 

On this date in 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. Thirty nine men signed it, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton. 

The Constitution outlines the powers of Congress, the President and Executive Branch, the Judicial Branch, the relationship between the states, the process of adding amendments, and the oath that representatives must pledge to it. 
There are 27 Amendments to the Constitution — the first ten, the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791. 

The Constitution is a remarkable document — in more ways than one.
The U.S. Constitution has 4,400 words. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world.

There were a lot of sticking points during the Constitutional convention, but the big one led to the Great Compromise — it saved the Constitutional Convention, and probably, the Union. The Great Compromise was authored by Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman and it called for proportional representation in the House and one representative per state in the Senate (that was later changed to two.) The compromise passed 5 to 4, with one state, Massachusetts, “divided.”

The oldest person to sign the Constitution was Benjamin franklin (81,) the youngest was Johnathan Dayton of New Jersey (26.)
The word “democracy” does not appear once in the Constitution 
The only other language used in various parts of the Constitution is Latin.
Four of the signers of the Constitution were born in Ireland.

A proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 16, 1789. The reason for the holiday was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.
Take a minute today to think about the Constitution and what it means to all of us. It was a gift from our forefathers — hopefully we can pass it along to future generation intact. 
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Well, here it is September and time for Oktoberfest to begin. That’s always just seemed wrong to me — Oktoberfest should be in October, not September…. but after all these years, it’s probably not going to change.

The Bavarian Inn, here in Shepherdstown, will hold their annual Oktoberfest on Sunday, but the main, really big one begins today, September 16th at 12 pm and ends on Tuesday, October 3rd. Of course, I’m talking about Oktoberfest in Munich.

I don’t think there’s a bad day to attend Oktoberfest, but if you’ve never been before, you should make an effort to attend either the opening ceremony or the closing ceremony — or better yet, both.
The opening ceremony in the Schottenhamel tent marks the official start of Oktoberfest when the Lord Mayor of Munich taps the first keg and shouts, “O’Zapft Is!” — the Oktoberfest equivalent of a green flag being waved on a racetrack.
The closing ceremony in the Hacker-Pschorr tent is another spectacle to behold. Think about 10,000 of your (new) best friends in one big sing-along. The lights go down, the sparklers are lit — it’s kind of like New Year’s Eve. 
Oktoberfest 2023 will have all the signature events like the costume parade, family day, traditional Bavarian concerts and much more.
So if you haven’t been, should you put Oktoberfest in Germany on your bucket list? 
Abso-freaking-lutely.
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Tomorrow is World Ozone Day. The day is “celebrated” every year and every year there is a specific theme. This year, in 2023, the theme is Montreal Protocol: fixing the ozone layer and reducing climate change. 

The Montreal Protocol, finalized in 1987, is a global agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances (ODS.)  ODS are substances that were commonly used in products such as refrigerators, air conditioners, fire extinguishers, and aerosols. The Montreal Protocol has proven to be innovative and successful, and it is the first treaty to achieve universal ratification by all countries in the world.

In 2016, parties to the Montreal Protocol adopted the Kigali Amendment to phase down production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) worldwide. HFCs are widely used alternatives to ODS such as Hydrochloroflourcarbons (HFCs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs,) which are already controlled under the Protocol.

The latest update from the Scientific Assessment Panel to the Montreal Protocol confirmed that ozone layer recovery is on track and ozone levels are expected to return to 1980 levels by around 2066 over the Antarctic. 

So we’re making progress, but there’s still a long way to go — hopefully, we’ll get the world to cooperate on broader climate change issues……
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