What Would Jimmy Do?

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.
— 30 —

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.
— 30 —

For some reason one of those pop-up “notifications” came up on my phone this morning, and it was “this day in history.” Usually I just swipe these things aside, but I happened to look at it and it said that on this date in 1909, the world’s first international overseas airplane flight was achieved by Louis Bleriot. 

Well, believe it or not, I knew that Louis was the one that made the first international overseas airplane flight — I didn’t remember the date, but I had read about it a few years ago.
I suppose I remembered it because it was kind of a cool story. If I recall the story correctly, Louis Bleriot was a French aviator and the flight was made in a small monoplane. The story goes that after he asked, “Where is England?” he took off from France and landed in England, near Dover. Upon his arrival, he was greeted by British police. 

Actually what made Bleriot famous was that this was the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier than air aircraft. (It was a 22-mile flight that took 36 minutes and 30 seconds.)
He went on to become the founder of a successful aircraft manufacturing company. In 1936, the Louis  Bleriot medal was established by the Federation Aeronautique International and is awarded for speed, altitude and distance records for light aircraft.

After celebrating Pi Approximation Day a couple of days ago, it’s appropriate that we have a day to wash down all that “Pi.” Well, today’s the day — National Tequila Day. Mexicans like to celebrate National Tequila Day — but — so do a lot of other people , all around the world. No matter that tequila can only be made in a few regions of Mexico, its day can (and really should be) celebrated by  just about everyone.

Humans have been making something like tequila for at least a couple of thousand years. As early as 150 B.C., a predecessor of tequila, called “pulque” was thought to have been made by civilizations predating the ancient Aztecs. 

Tequila is made from the agave plant. Like wine, the type of soil the plant is grown in can impact the taste of the final product. But, unlike wine or other drinks made from fruit, once the agave plant is used to make tequila, it’s finished — it can’t be reused.
To qualify as “tequila,” at least 51% of the product must be derived from the blue agave plant that is prevalent in Mexico. A lot tequila today is made from 100% blue agave. These tequilas are typically higher quality and cost more than the mixed versions.

Tequila is like some other alcoholic beverages, like champagne, cognac, bourbon, etc., in that it can only be called tequila if it is made in a certain place — in the case of tequila, this place is Mexico.
In 2018, National Tequila Day was officially recognized by the Mexican government.
Regular agave and blue agave plants have different flavors. Standard agave is used in sweeteners, but not in tequila.
Tequila can be used to create small, artificial diamonds — which are often used in the electronics industry.
More than 300 million agave plants are grown and harvested each year to produce tequila throughout Mexico.
So an alcoholic beverage that’s this interesting and tastes this good in a margarita certainly deserves its own day — Happy National Tequila Day.
— 30 —

The British Open was on television this morning and the announcers referred several times to it being a links course. 
I’m pretty sure I’ve never played on a true links course. I’ve played on a few courses that claim to be links, call themselves “links-style,” or even have the word links in their name. 

The term links derives from the Old English word hlinc, meaning rising ground or ridge and refers to sandy areas along a coast. True link courses are mostly found in Scotland, Ireland and England. The course must be along the coast with sandy soil underneath. 

Links golf is where the game was founded — the sandy soil was perfect for the game and not much good for anything else. The land wasn’t of any use for agriculture, so some other use needed to be found for it. The sandy soil drains well, keeping the ground firm — which is good for a golf course. 

If you’ve watched the Open, you can see the course has plenty of dunes and pretty much no trees, and the bunkers are pot bunkers, not the larger, sprawling “American” style bunkers. And this morning’s round made it apparent, maybe because of the lack of trees and being by the water, wind plays a big factor on these courses. 
I read somewhere that some golf course designers are starting to try to replicate some of the features on their newer courses on land that, technically, doesn’t meet the definition of links.
— 30 —

Pretty much every year around this time, if you open this blog, the subject will be pi (∏.) I mention Pi every year because it’s important — it’s one of the things that links math to real-world uses. Lots of real-world phenomena can be calculated using pi — the the shape of rivers, the circumference of the sun, the spiral of DNA, the pupil of the eye… and so on. 

In case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know, Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter — for any circle, no matter what size. Pi is an irrational number, meaning its exact value is, and always will be, completely unknown. Scientist have calculated Pi to billions of digits, but no recognizable pattern ever emerges. These calculations could go on to infinity and we’d still have no idea what digit might come up next. 

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 every year because the value of Pi is 3.14. However, Pi Approximation Day is celebrated every year on 22 July. The fraction 22/7 is an approximate value of Pi and the reason that this is the day for celebration — the numerator 22 represents the date, while the denominator seven represents the month.
The first calculation of pi was carried out by one of the acknowledged greatest mathematicians of his time, Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 B.C.)

Although March 14 really got these “Pi Days” going, today is more appropriately named…if you plug the numbers into your calculator, you’ll notice that 22 divided by ∏ provides an infinite number (until you run out of digits on your calculator.) That’s why Pi is regarded as an approximation and that’s the rationale for today. Celebrate approximately appropriately.
— 30 —

A few days ago I mentioned that I had used an idiom — “you got your ears lowered” — when a friend of mine had gotten a haircut. Well, of course, that got me to thinking…. a lot of expressions that we use involve the word ear or ears.
An expression our friend Anne uses a lot is “play it on the ear.”
Of course, I’ve always heard it as “play it by ear,”  but it means to respond to circumstances, not having a fixed plan. 

Anyhow if you stop to think about it, we use a lot of ear “idioms,” like: lend an ear, in one ear and out the other, out of earshot, keep your ear to the ground, all ears, fall on deaf ears, grinning from ear to ear, and music to you ears, 
Sometimes, you give someone an earful, and are careful what you say because the walls have ears. 
And if you’re too young to recognize or remember some of these expressions, maybe you’re still wet behind the ears…..
— 30 —

I’ve blogged about this several times before, but it’s the anniversary of one of the biggest events that has ever occurred during the month of July….
I won’t go into the details again, but on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.

On July 20, 1969, pretty much the whole world watched on television as Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the Moon. As he stepped onto the Moon’s surface, he said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” — inadvertently omitting as “a” before “man” that slightly changed the meaning.
But what the heck, I guess we can forgive Neil for being a little excited and making a small mistake….
— 30 —