What Would Jimmy Do?

April Fools’ Day — celebrated on April 1 every year — has been celebrated for centuries by different cultures. The exact history of the day is “shrouded in mystery,” but because so many people have embraced April Fools’ Day jokes, the day has had a long life.

Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day began when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. In the Julian calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.”

Other historians have linked April Fools’ Day to festivals such as Hilaria (Latin for joyful,) which was celebrated in ancient Rome at the end of March. It involved people dressing up in disguises and mocking fellow citizens and even magistrates and was said to be inspired by the Egyptian legend of Isis, Osiris and Seth.

Another school of thought is that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox — the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fools people with changing, unpredictable weather.

In modern times, people have gone to great lengths to create elaborate April Fools’ Day hoaxes. Newspapers, radio and TV stations and websites have participated in the April 1 tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims that have fooled their audiences. 

In 1749 London newspapers advertised that in an upcoming show, a man would squeeze his entire body into a wine bottle and then sing while inside it. The ad promised that, “during his stay in the bottle, any person may handle it, and see plainly that it does not exceed a common Tavern Bottle.” The ad promised the show would feature other tricks as well, including communicating with the dead. Legend has it that the ad was the result of a bet between the Duke of Portland and the Earl of Chesterfield. Reportedly, the duke bet that he could advertise something impossible and still “find fools enough in London to fill a playhouse and pay handsomely for the privilege of being there.” And apparently he was right — the night of the show, every seat in the house was filled, but no performer ever showed up. Realizing they had been duped, the audience rioted.

While not exactly an April Fools’ joke, but a prank that I remember from when it happened comes to mind…. in 1959, students in Sãn Paulo, Brazil, who were tired of the city’s overflowing sewers and inflated prices launched a campaign to elect a rhinoceros to the city council — and won. The rhino’s name was Cacareco (Portuguese for “rubbish,”) and she was already a popular figure in Sãn Paulo when the students launched her campaign. The four-year old rhino had moved to the city from Rio de Janeiro when Sãn Paulo’s zoo opened, and was scheduled to return to Rio soon. When the students looked at the 540 candidates vying for Sãn Paulo’s 45 council seats and feared that none of them would address the city’s problems, they decided to make a point by asking people to vote for the popular rhino instead. Cacareco won a city council seat with a whopping 100,000 votes, far more than any other candidate. Of course, she didn’t end up serving on the city council because the election board disqualified her. But she remains one of the most famous protest votes in Brazilian history.

In 1998, in a full-page advertisement in USA Today, Burger King unveiled a new menu item specifically engineered for southpaws — the Left-Handed Whopper. According to the fast food chain, the burger’s condiments were rotated 180 degrees to better suit the 1.4 million lefties who patronized its restaurants. Thousand of customers requested the new burger — believing this whopper about Burger King’s Whopper. 

Apparently Lincoln was right — you can fool some of the people all of the time. Pay attention to what you read and hear today…..
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Today is backup day — a day I originally thought celebrated the fact that you could back-up. What if you had no reverse gear in your car? Or maybe we should be celebrating by walking around backwards or something like that. 

But it’s not one of those frivolous days — turns out this is a very important day. It’s a day set aside every year to to boost awareness for businesses — and individuals — of the importance of regular data backups. Yep, World Backup Day refers to data backups. the goal is to use March 31st as the date each year to reach those who never backed up their data, and even people who might not even know about data backup.
The fact that World Backup Day falls on March 31 is no coincidence. The next day may be about laughs and pranks, but the potential loss of data is no joke. 

I admit I don’t backup our computers as regularly as I should, but I do backup our “important” information regularly. Admittedly, backup for our house is pretty simple — we don’t have a huge amount of data — a lot of “stuff” on our computers isn’t something that would invite a ransomware attack. But nonetheless, I’d hate to lose some of it. 
World Backup Day was designated, in 2011, by Ismail Jadun, a digital strategy and research consultant…. good idea, Ismail.
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Both you faithful readers of this blog know that I often wonder about various things. A couple of months ago, an announcer was interviewing a football player prior to one of the playoff games and the player said, “this is not my first rodeo.” I’d heard the phrase before and I know that “This ain’t my first rodeo” is pretty much telling a person that you’re more prepared for a given situation, and maybe even that it doesn’t offer much of a challenge. 

I did some checking and it appears that the phrase can be traced back to the movie Mommie Dearest, in which a character says, “This ain’t my first time at the rodeo.” But what made me wonder is why the term “rodeo?” Why use rodeo to tell someone that you’r not a novice to a situation, that you have experience or that you are competent? I’d venture to say most people have never even been to a rodeo. Why didn’t the football player just say, “This ain’t my first football game (or playoff game?)” 

I’ve also heard the term, “My last rodeo.” That’s usually used when someone is in the latter stage of their career, or about to finish something. Why not just say “my retirement?”
I remember Hearing Peyton Manning saying something like, “this might be my last rodeo, so it sure has been a pleasure” after he won a Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos. Why didn’t he just say this might be my last game?

Besides not my first rodeo, and my last rodeo, I’ve heard that been to the rodeo, that means something like been exposed to conmen or hucksters, or being experienced. And I’ve often heard the phrase straight out of the shoot, which means something done immediately, or from the beginning. That phrase is taken from the rodeo terminology — a bucking bronco, or bull is kept in a narrow pen, called the chute, until it is released.

Anyhow, my question hasn’t been answered — how did the word rodeo become part of American slang, especially in parts of the US where “rodeo” is almost a foreign term…
Rodeos have been part of cowboy culture in America for centuries — they were very popular where I grew up, but Claire had never been to a rodeo before we were married.

Maybe I’ll just never know….. I’ve heard the phrase that the opera isn’t over ’till the fat lady sings. Where I grew up, it was more like, the rodeo ain’t over till the bull riders ride.
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Tonight should be a sight for sore eyes — weather permitting, of course. Five planets — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars — will all line up near the Moon. 

According to NASA, you should look to the western horizon right after sunset. The planets will stretch from the horizon line to around halfway up the night sky. 
Both Mercury and Jupiter will dip below the horizon by about half an hour after sunset, so the spectacle will only last a short time. 
The five-planet spread can be seen from anywhere on Earth — as long as you have a view to the west, and clear skies. 
Happy planet watching!
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The ninth century Pope John VIII was brilliant, kind, musically talented ….. and female. Well, probably not, but that’s what some historians say — and others think it is pure myth.
The object of this blog is not to tell you what to believe. Here’s the story — it’s up to you to believe…. or not.

The story is about Pope Joan — yep, Joan, not John. According to legend, Pope Joan served as pope during the middle ages.
Although the story of the female pope has several versions, here’s how it usually goes. An English woman named Joan ( or Jeanne) resented the fact that she wasn’t allowed to get an education. At the time, book-learning was thought to be unnecessary, and even harmful, for a woman. So Joan disguised herself as a man — probably a monk — and called herself John English (in some versions of the story, John of Mainz.)

She went to Athens to study, where she impressed everyone with her scholarship.After her studies, she moved to Rome, where she taught science, became a secretary in the Curia (the central administration arm of the Roman Catholic Church,) and eventually was made a cardinal. Once again, her abilities attracted the attention of scholars — and — her conduct was also considered flawless.

So Joan, still in disguise, was elected pope. Over the next two years, five months, and four days, she handled the position very well. But then, she gave herself away — during a solemn procession through the streets of Rome, the pope got down from her horse — and — gave birth to a child, then and there.

Now here’s where the story diverges…. some versions say she died in childbirth or soon afterward. Others say a furious mob tied her to the tail of a horse, dragged her through the city, and finally stoned her to death. And another version has her immediately deposed as pope, but living out a long life, and doing penance — lots of penance. Some versions say her son grew up to be a bishop.

A female pope was first mentioned during the ninth century by a historian called Anatasius the Librarian. Actually, Joan’s name turns up in some early lists of the popes. Several versions of the story were written down by Dominican record keepers during the 13th century. In a report written by Martin of Troppau, a Dominican friar from Poland, in 1265 named names, gave deaths, and placed Joan’s papacy in the 9th century. Since he’d served in the Curia as chaplain to a pope, his story was widely believed. 

So was Joan real? Probably not. Does it matter? Probably not. Maybe the story tells us something important about the attitudes toward sex and gender back in the middle ages.

It’s generally agreed that Joan didn’t exist. According to Vatican records — and there are a lot of them — all the popes are accounted for and there’s no Joan among them. The John VIII that their records list has a very complete biography — he was born in Rome, served as pope from 872 to 882, involved himself heavily in politics, bribed the Saracens to keep them from invading Rome, and was assassinated by his own relatives. A story about him would make a pretty good “pope story” — but I don’t think it could top Joan’s story.
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A few weeks ago, some of us were doing some work at our church and  one of the guys said he had a “gut feeling” about something. I’ve heard the phrases “gut feeling” or “trust your gut” almost my entire life. But thinking back, I’ve rarely been in a situation where I “trusted my gut.” In fact, I’m not sure I know what a gut feeling even feels like.

Google provided the following explanation…. A gut feeling (or intuition) is an immediate physical response you feel that suggests the best decision when presented with two or more choices. Common sensations associated with a gut feeling include a sinking feeling or butterflies in your stomach, sweaty palms, prickling on your neck, goose bumps, muscle tightness or tension, increased heart rate, or an overwhelming sense of calm or clarity. 

In scientific terms, gut feelings come from the enteric nervous system, a web of neurons in the gastrointestinal tract that some neuroscientists call the “second brain.”
I’ve had those feelings, but I never associated them with decision making. I guess I can maybe believe that following your gut or instinct can often direct you down the best path, but I’ve always tried to follow the “do what’s best” path — I’m not sure there’s much difference. I think logic and reason are the two most important things in play to make good decisions, but science suggests that intuition can be a valuable tool in some circumstances. 

From what I’ve read, gut feelings produce some of the same physical sensations as anxiety, so I’m not sure how you tell them apart. And then of course, there’s paranoia…. how do you tell the difference? Gut feelings tend to pass once you make a decision, while anxiety is more than just a passing feeling — it lingers, like maybe you made the wrong decision. And paranoia is an irrational suspicion, not based on fact.

So maybe those gut feelings do mean something, and they can often help you make good decisions — sometimes we can all use a “second brain.”
Someone said that prayer is telephoning to God, and your gut feeling is God telephoning to you. Maybe it’s better to not let that call go to voice mail…..
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Since we’ve been on the subject of bread lately — discussing sandwiches and sliced bread, I should probably re-visit the subject of wrapping or bagging that bread.
Way back on November 18, 2018, this space was filled with a discussion of the Burford Company that’s located just outside my hometown of Maysville, Oklahoma. If you’re interested in the history of the company you can refer back to that 2018 entry. 

The reason I bring it up again is that the great majority of bread wrapping machines are made by the Burford Company. They’ve expanded over the years and now have offices internationally — but their headquarters remain just outside of Maysville. Their invention of the first twist-tie machine for bread wrappers revolutionized the packaging of bread and today they are still the acknowledged innovators and suppliers for the baking industry — around the world.
I’m still proud to say that me, Wiley Post and the Burford Company put Maysville on the map…..
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Yesterday we talked about the “invention” of the sandwich. What could make the sandwich even better? Sliced bread, of course.  
Bread has been being baked in some form for maybe 30,000 years — but sliced bread has only been around since the early 20th century. 

Around 1920 most bread was made in people’s kitchens — at home. But by about 1930, the majority of Americans were eating commercially made bread. Those factory produced loaves were designed to be softer than those made at home, because the bread-buying public had come to equate “squeezable softness” with freshness.
So the timing seemed right for an automatic bread slicing machine — the “softer” loaves had become almost impossible to slice neatly at home.

The first automatically sliced commercial loaves were produced in Chillicothe, Missouri. The machine was invented by Otto Rohwedder — an Iowa-born jeweler that lived in Chillicothe. His bread slicer was put into service at his friend Frank Bench’s Chillicothe Baking Company.

Rohwedder’s contraption received a warm welcome in Missouri — the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune ran an article that noted while some people might find sliced bread “startling,” the typical housewife could expect a thrill of pleasure when she first sees a loaf of this bread with each slice the exact counterpart of its fellows. So neat and precise are the slices, and so definitely better than anyone could possible slice by hand with a bread knife that one realizes instantly that here is a refinement that will receive a hearty and permanent welcome. 
The article also recounted that “considerable research” had gone into determining the right thickness for each slice— slightly less than half an inch.

Sliced bread didn’t take long to become a hit around the United States, even though some bakers claimed it was just a fad.
One of the first major brands to distribute sliced bread was Wonder — it originally appeared in stores in Indianapolis, where it was manufactured by the Taggart Baking Company. (An executive for the company dreamed up the bread’s name after being “filled with wonder” while watching the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Speedway.) The Taggart Company was bought by the Continental Baking Company who sold Wonder bread nationwide.

A note of interest…. during World War II, factory-sliced bread, including Wonder, was briefly banned by the U.S. Government in an effort to conserve resources, such as the paper used to wrap each loaf to help maintain freshness.

We’ve all said, or heard someone say, “the best thing since slice bread.” I guess now would be a good time to explore the origin of that ….
The Chillicothe Baking Company, when advertising it’s sliced bread included the sentence: “The greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.” Subsequent advertising in the baking industry compared their developments to the “invention” of sliced bread.
But some sources say the first use of the idiom was in 1952 when Red Skelton said in an interview, “Don’t worry about television. It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.”
Anyhow, if you use that phrase today, you’re probably dating yourself…..
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Most trivia buffs know that the sandwich was invented by someone called the Earl of Sandwich. Who was this genius? And did he really invent the sandwich? And how do you become an Earl of something like a Club or BLT?

Well, as you might imagine, this is all complicated, but here goes….
Let’s get this our of the way right away — Do we call a sandwich a sandwich because of the 4th Earl of Sandwich? Yes. Was he the first person to come up with the idea? Not by a long shot. The truth is, we don’t know who invented the sandwich, but it has existed in various forms for thousands of years.
[One of the earliest known sandwich-eaters was Hillel the Elder, a rabbi and scholar who was born in Babylon and lived in Jerusalem during the first century B.C.]

Flatbreads have a long history in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. In particular, the idea of rolling bread with a filling is very old in Turkish culture. During the mid-17th century, the 4th Earl of Sandwich traveled to Turkey and other regions in the Ottoman Empire, which may explain where he allegedly got the idea to ask a server to make him a sandwich back in England.

Sandwich is a borough in southeast England. In medieval times, and before, Sandwich was a main port in the county of Kent on the River Stour. Before the river dried up, it was wide and deep enough for big sailing ships. Today those ships have been replaced by smaller craft, but the ancient buildings make Sandwich one of the best preserved medieval towns in England. The name of the town is, most likely, Saxon in origin, and means something like sandy place or the place on the sand. 

But getting back sandwich — the kind we eat. It’s not totally clear why the English politician John Montague, a.k.a. the 4th Earl of Sandwich became the namesake of the food we call a sandwich. I should clarify that hereditary English titles can be confusing. The family of the Earls of Sandwich has no real connection to the town itself — it’s just their title. The 1st Earl, Edward Montagu, originally intended to take the title of the Earl of Portsmouth. So I suppose had he done that, we’d be eating a portsmouth.

Since the 1st Earl decided on the name sandwich, the 4th Earl of Sandwich carried it on — he became a member of the House of Lords, served as Britain’s first Lord of Admiralty (the department of British government that once administered the Royal Navy,) and enjoyed an active social lifestyle. When he wasn’t busy with the affairs of government or his mistress, he loved to spend his time gambling. The story goes that it was during a 24-hour marathon gambling session that the hunger pangs — and world-changing inspiration hit him. Rather than interrupt his gambling, he thought to put some kind of filling between two slices of bread, so he could hold the concoction in one hand and his cards in the other. Some speculate the story may have been a rumor or adverse propaganda put forth by his rivals. But people may have started ordering “the same as Sandwich,” and the name stuck.

The sandwich isn’t the only thing that carried his name — Hawaii was originally knows as the Sandwich Islands. When Captain James Cook landed there, he named them after the 4th Earl, who was his financial sponsor.

Anyhow, after the word sandwich became popular, new words and phrases were needed to describe different types, like Sloppy Joes, Club and of course Peanut Butter and Jelly. The first known recipe for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich appeared in 1901 in The Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science & Domestic Economics.

So today the 4th Earl of Sandwich isn’t much remembered for his service in the House of Lords — but he’s certainly left his mark “in-deli-bly” at places like Subway.
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I’m not a particularly big basketball fan, but every year around this time I become more than just a casual spectator. The NCAA basketball tournament, called “March Madness” always gets my attention. 
The tournament that is in progress now originated in 1939, making it almost as old as I am. But the term didn’t become synonymous with the tournament until much later. 

March Madness was originally a high school basketball tournament in Illinois. The University of Illinois’ Huff Gymnasium drew sellout crowds to the high school tournament which started in 1908 and seemed to get bigger every year. 
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) assistant executive secretary, wrote an essay titled “March Madness” in the Illinois Interscholastic in 1939 to commemorate the tournament. Other publications and news media embraced the term and the tournament continued to thrive in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1973, the IHSA officially started using “March Madness” in its programs and on merchandise. 

In 1982, Brent Musburger used the term “March Madness” when covering the NCAA Tournament for CBS, and it kind of “stuck.” People started using the term to refer to the NCAA Tournament. 
The term “March Madness” was trademarked in 1989 by Charles Besser who worked for Intersport, the company that produced March Madness for TV. For a few years, the NCAA and IHSA both used the phrase “March Madness.” But in 2010 the NCAA paid the IHSA $17.2 million for for exclusive use of the term. 

So every year March Madness pretty much always lives up to its name. If you lose one game then you’re out, so every game has high stakes. The tournament truly captures the spirit of competition, excitement and tradition….
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