What Would Jimmy Do?

Today, June 6, is “D-Day,” the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy and acknowledged as the greatest amphibious invasion in history. This is one of those days that should commemorate an event that should never be forgotten.

Three years before D-Day — in 1941 — Winston Churchill told Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten to start thinking about an invasion of Europe. Churchill said, “Unless we can go on land and fight Hitler and beat his forces on land, we shall never win this war.” In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with General Dwight Eisenhower and informed him that he would be commanding the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.
All information pertaining to the invasion was marked “Bigot,” a classification higher than “Top Secret.”

The operation generated lots of pretty impressive — some almost unbelievable — stories and statistics….
Eisenhower smoked up to four packs of cigarets (Camels) a day in the months leading up to D-Day.
During the preparation and execution of D-Day, about 17 million maps were drawn up.
The objective of the D-Day operation was to breach the Atlantic Wall, a series of coastal defenses built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 that ran from Norway to the Franco-Spanish border. In early 1944, Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was tasked with strengthening the wall. Over 1.2 million tons of steel and 17 million cubic meters of concrete were used in building the wall’s defenses and included 92 manned radar sites. By the time of the Allied invasion on 6 June, more than 5 million land mines had be laid in northern France. Hitler wanted 15,000 concrete strong points to be manned by 300,000 troops — a task that proved impossible to achieve. 
To be sure his men wouldn’t let out secrets ahead of D-Day, thirty pretty members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, dressed in civilian clothes, were sent into pubs where soldiers were training. They were tasked to do all they could to discover the men’s mission. None of the men gave anything away.
The deception plan to keep the Germans guessing as to when and where the invasion would take place was called “Operation Bodyguard.”
The Allied invasion force sailed to a rendezvous area in the millddli of the English Channel nicknamed “Piccadilly Circus.” From there they sailed to the invasion zones.
About 7,000 vessels of all shapes and sizes were used by the Allies on D-Day, including 139 major warships, 221 smaller combat vessels, more than 1,000 minesweepers and auxiliary vessels, 805 merchant ships, and 300 miscellaneous small craft. Over 4,000 landing craft were used to transport the invasion force onto the beaches of Normandy.
The oldest Allied battleship in action on D-Day was the USS Arkansas — commissioned in 1912.
73,000 US troops and 83,000 British and Canadian troops crossed the English Channel on D-Day.

The weather forecast was so bad that Erwin Rommel, the German commander in Normandy, felt so sure there wouldn’t be an invasion he went home to give his wife a pair of shoes for her 50th birthday. He was in Germany when the news came of the invasion.
Shortly after midnight on June 6, about 24,000 US, British and Canadian airborne troops began landing in France — only one in six Allied paratroopers landed in the correct place. 
Allied aircraft dropped 7.2 million pounds of bombs on D-Day.
The Allies landed on five beaches in Normandy — code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
The first building in France to be liberated during Operation Overload was a cafe next to Pegasus Bridge.
Within 100 days of D-Day, 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tons of equipment and rations had been unloaded in France.
In order to continue supplying fuel to the invasion armies, the so-called “Pipeline Under The Ocean“ (PLUTO) was laid. The pipeline delivered allied fuel directly from England to France. US tanks were consuming an average 8,000 gallons of fuel per week at that time.
Allied casualties on 6 June have been estimated at 10,000 killed, wounded and missing in action: 6,603 Americans, 2,700 British, and 946 Canadians. Total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated to be between 4,000 and 9,000.

All this interesting to read about today, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the significance of D-Day and should remember those responsible for helping to win “the war to end all wars.”
I’ve quoted Stephen Ambrose on D-Day before, but it bears repeating…..
“At the core, the American citizen soldiers knew the difference between right and wrong, and they didn’t want to live in a world in which wrong prevailed. So they fought, and won, and we, all of us, living and yet to be born, must be forever profoundly grateful.”
— 30—

We save a lot of “stuff.” Most of it we’ll never use, but we save it “just in case.” I think Claire is worse about saving stuff than I am, but maybe not….
Anyhow, both of us grew up in households that had to be creative to “make ends meet.” Out parents and grandparents saved, reused, and repurposed lots of stuff….maybe that’s why we still save a lot of stuff. Even now, we save stuff that our kids don’t think twice about tossing.

I remember hearing that during the Great Depression, the phrase “use it up, wear it out, make do or do without” was popular. Obviously for good reason back then — and, maybe, not bad advice today.
Some of the things I remember my mom saving to reuse included paper bags, fabric scraps, buttons, string, flour sacks and soap. I remember that my grandmother and granddad, especially, saved just about everything their entire lives — maybe/probably because they lived through the Great Depression. And my grandmother squirreled away money in all sorts of hiding places all over the house — my grandparents didn’t trust banks after the crash in 1929.

I mentioned that my mother (and grandmothers) saved flour sacks. When I was growing up, flour came in cloth bags, or “sacks” a term I heard all through my childhood. They were made of cotton and some even had nice prints and patterns on them, which meant they made excellent fabric to make clothes out of. “Flour sack dresses” were very popular in Oklahoma and I remember my mom making me shirts out of flour sacks. 
No one threw away rubber tires — or inner tubes. When I was little, there was no such thing as a tubeless tire. I’m sure inner tubes for cars or trucks don’t even exist today….except maybe for antique cars. Anyhow, I remember my granddad using old tires to patch soles on worn-out shoes. 

But again, I’ve gotten off track and started down memory lane — that wasn’t my intent when I started. The point I started out to make was that today, we’ve become a throw-away society — people don’t save or re-use, repair or repurpose anything anymore. 
But we still save stuff.  Stuff we probably won’t use, but there’s still something in our past that says we might need it sometime and we can save money by not having to buy it. 
So if you save things, I guess that’s ok….
But don’t save string. If you need string, buy it.
— 30 —

They say that everybody comes from somewhere, but I was wondering how did these somewheres get their names? It looks like countries names are just like our first names that are handed to us without input and inherited, arbitrary, and lately — especially — absurd. Sometimes we get names we don’t want and efforts to change them don’t stick, Same with countries. 

My extensive research on this subject uncovered the fact that the majority of country names fall into just four categories:
a directional description of the country
a feature of the land
a tribal name
an important person (most likely a man)
The way countries get their names is almost never democratic, and very few are rooted in national qualities we like to associate with them, like liberty, strength or justice.

I found an interesting book — the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names, by John Everett-Heath. If you’re interested in this subject, you should take a look at this book. 

Name origins are often (usually) murky and the book warns that “myths and legends may be entertaining, but rarely of value.”
About a third of the world’s countries got their current names from some older group of people. France is named for the Franks, Italy is named for the Vitali tribe, Switzerland for the Schwyz people, and Vietnam means Viet people of the south, to name a few. 

Recently (if you can call maybe the last hundred or so years recent) countries have started to reclaim much older identities — for example, in 1947 the Gold Coast gained independence from the British and was renamed Ghana.

A few countries have names that describe their people’s attributes — Upper Volta, in western Africa, was re-named Burkina faso in 1984, and means “land of honest men” or “land of incorruptible people.”

About a quarter of the world’s country names come from some aspect of the land. An example — Algeria is named after its capital city, Algiers, meaning “the islands.” That name once described the city’s bay, which at one time had tiny islands in it, but today they’ve become connected to the mainland or been destroyed in the development of the harbor. 

Some names about land features come from explorers or outsiders that saw the land through the eyes of “foreigners.”
There is some disagreement about which explorer named Costa Rica (“the rich coast,”) but some think it was Christopher Columbus, who saw indigenous people wearing gold and didn’t realize it was imported.
Singapore means “lion city,” and the lion head is a national symbol. But there aren’t any known lions in Singapore. According to legend the Sumatran prince Sang Nila Utama was hunting in Singapore and came across an animal he thought was a lion, “singa” in Malay, and gave the name Singa Pura to the island he was on.
The United States of America is named for the Italian explorer America Vespucci, who argued that —despite what everyone else thought at the time — the American continent was not part of the Iniies. In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, who literally put America on the map, named the area for “the discoverer Amerigo….as if it were the American land, or America.”

Our countries’ names give us a sense of pride and our leaders use them as emotional triggers in speeches and create slogans around country names (e.g., “make America great again.”)
So I guess what’s in a name is important and everyone should be proud of their country, but someone said that a man’s feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world. Today — that sounds like good advice.
— 30 —

We recently renewed our AARP membership, maybe optimistically, for another three or so years. It’s a worthwhile organization and their publications often have articles of interest to me. Recently there was an article that discussed some things that older people don’t enjoy as much as when they were young. 

I thought that might be an interesting thing to blog about, but when I started to think about it, I realized that a subject like that might result in a very long blog. But nonetheless, here’s some things that annoy me now that didn’t (at least not as much) when I was much younger…..

Mail — yep, the stuff delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. When I was a kid, living in Maysville Oklahoma, everyone got their mail at the post office, and I think almost everyone in town had a “post office box”  so you didn’t have to go the window and ask if you had any mail. I used to love to get the mail — I remember always stopping after school to see if there was any mail in our box. My parents would often not pick up the mail during the day, knowing that I liked getting it so much. I rarely got anything addressed to me, except when I sent in some box tops from cereal or something like that and the company would send me a very valuable gift — like a whistle or something just as valuable. I remember being excited to see what came in the mail every day. But — not so today. Nothing good ever comes in the mail. We don’t get a lot of mail, but what we do get usually falls in the category of bills, political advertisements, or requests for money from some worthwhile organization. We still get our mail in a “mailbox” but the excitement is gone.
Another thing that really bothers me a lot more than it used to is other drivers. I honestly can’t believe how stupid the average driver today is — they tailgate, drive over the yellow centerline, don’t signal if they’re going to turn, run stop signs/lights, etc. Driving has become more tiring to me, not so much because of my age, but because of the constant monitoring of all the other drivers….
Social media — all of it, although I confess I’ve never checked most of the sites. The first time I ever saw Facebook, I thought is was potentially one of the most dangerous ideas I’d ever heard of. I still believe that — now more than ever. And from what I can tell, that’s one of the “milder” social media platforms. It’s just something that I can’t find anything good about.
I’m not big on shopping — unless it’s someplace like Home Depot, I just want to get in and get out as fast as I can. And I especially hate that stores constantly rearrange their merchandise. If I’m looking for soup, I want the soup to be where it’s always been, not at the front of some isle or somewhere else. I understand the marketing strategy of moving stuff, but I still hate it. 
Something that has fairly recently started to annoy me is Apps. I spend a lot of money for a phone, or a computer and it seems like every time I want to do something, I have to get an APP to do it. I think there’s pretty much an App for everything….. won’t be long before you’ll need a special app to make a phone call.
The news — I get annoyed at the news. Everything is a breaking story — usually about how many people got shot in the last 24 hours. And all the news seems biased today — whatever happened to “just the facts?” Maybe there’s just too much news “overload“ — the evening news used to be 30 minutes, or maybe a hour — now it’s 3 hours… maybe more. And of course, a lot of it is “all about the ratings.”
Waiting — for things or people. I’ve never been particularly patient in this category, but but it seems to annoy me more these days… I seem to wait for everything — car to be serviced, pay for something, wait for a meal to be served in restaurants — I even wait for my computer to do something lots of times.
I don’t like people with no manners and I don’t like the lack of compassion in the world or how my optimism that the world would get better has declined. Seems like we’re going backwards — especially the environment and the rights of just about everyone.
And I guess this list should include — people. I used to be a people person, but people ruined it….
— 30 —

Well, here it is June already — and carrying on this year’s practice of talking a bit about each upcoming month, let’s discuss June.

June’s full Moon will occur in a couple of days (nights) on June 3, reaching peak illumination  at 11:43 p.m. (EDT.) June’s full Moon is known as the Strawberry Moon. It’s also considered both the last full Moon of spring and the first full Moon of summer.

June used to be — maybe still is — the most popular month for weddings. That’s kind of curious because ancient Romans believed that the period between the middle of May and the middle of June was an ill-omened time to marry. As the story goes, the Roman poet Ovid consulted with the high priestess of Jupiter as to when his daughter should marry and was told that she must wait until after the 15th of June. So if you’re planning a wedding during the first part of June and it doesn’t work out, you should have paid attention to this blog.

The Summer Solstice occurs near the end of this month, marking the day with the most hours of daylight — and — the beginning of summer.

The month of June is one of the few, if not the only, month that has a bug named after it — the June bug (sometimes called the June beetle.) They’re only found around May and June in the US.

If you’re into astrology, June has two signs — if you were born on or before June 20th, you’re a Gemini, often characterized as passionate, adaptable, and intelligent. If you were born on the 21st of June or later, you’re a Cancer, considered to possess a depth of emotion and a great sense of loyalty.

The month of June is unique in that it begins on a different day than every other month of the year. I checked a number of calendars and that seems to be true. As to why this is, I think it’s complicated….
So this month is full of lots of holidays and events that we’ll be talking about the next few weeks.
Welcome, June!!
— 30 —

On this day after Memorial Day, I was thinking about our last winter golf session. We always cover a number of subjects and one that seems to come up often in these sessions is “wars.” Of course there’s always been a war to talk about — the world has never been completely at “peace.”
But one “war” we all remembered wasn’t a war — it was a conflict, or maybe a police action or something else. It was the first war that couldn’t be called a war because Congress never declared it to be one. 

But what I wanted to talk about today is that during our discussion we remembered that some of the terms and phrases we use today actually originated during the Korean “war.”
The term “bamboo curtain” was coined by Time magazine — it referred to the barrier of mistrust between China and its allies on one hand and the noncommunist nations of Asia and the West on the other. The bamboo curtain was equivalent to the iron curtain between the Soviets and the West.

When Communist North Korea attacked Haesong, South Korea, in 1950, the United Nations demanded the attackers withdraw completely. When that demand was ignored, the Security Council decided to send in the troops. The problem was that the U.N. didn’t have a police force as such, but they recommended that member nations take action, and 30 of them agreed to do so. President Harry S. Truman called out U.S. air and sea forces. The President was acting without a vote of Congress because he was responding to a security measure recommended by the U.N. At a press conference, a reporter asked the president if the war could be called a police action under the United Nation’s supervision, and Truman agreed that it could. 

Someone mentioned that the term “to bug out” originated during the Korean conflict and no one disagreed, but later I checked, and it actually originated during World War II, but it was popular during the Korean War and it’s meaning changed a bit — it didn’t just mean a retreat or withdrawal, but a fast pulling out, to avoid being killed or captured. Since the war, it’s been used more loosely for any rapid departure.

Airstrike became popular in Korea — this was the first war in which jet fighter were widely used and that gave rise to the term airstrikes for attacks on enemy positions.
This was also the first war that helicopters saw a lot of action — they were nicknamed choppers, probably from the “chop-chop” noise made by helicopter rotors.

An interesting term that most of us hadn’t thought of was “buy the farm.” Since Korea was partially an air war, it required training flights — those were generally carried out in American rural areas. When an air force training flight crashed on a farm, the farmer could sue the government for damages sufficient to pay off his mortgage and therefore buy the farm outright. Since the pilot in these crashes usually died, he “bought the farm” with his life.

Even though aircraft were used extensively, Korea was primarily a ground war. When General MacArthur’s headquarters sent a dispatch to the Twenty-fourth Regiment to ask if they had contact with the enemy, they responded, “We is eyeball to eyeball.” The message was widely quoted, and later it was used with reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis — when the cold war threatened to become a hot one.

During the conflict, some four hundred thousand casualties were inflicted on U.S. troops. Treating casualties was the job of the mobile army surgical hospital, M.A.S.H. — a new term at the time that inspired a motion picture and television series of the same name.

The sick and wounded that were taken prisoner by the Chinese were subjected to brainwashing to indoctrinate them with Communist beliefs. The technique involved both physical and mental torture to break down a soldier’s loyalties and family ties. The word itself is a translation from a Chinese term for “thought reform.” The term is used today to mean changing someone’s outlook or opinions, usually by underhanded means. 

While we were on the subject, someone mentioned that General Douglas MacArthur had been “fired” during the Korean conflict — and that led to his famous “old soldiers never die, they just fade away” statement. Most people can sympathize with MacArthur’s plight….. The U.N. instructed its forces to only expel the aggressors and to do nothing more. Supplies were flowing to the communists from Manchuria, behind the Chinese border, but the U.N. troops were not permitted to bomb enemy bases, airstrips, or supply centers because it might provoke an all-out war with the Soviet Union. Commander-in-chief MacArthur voiced his frustration loudly and publicly. In response, President Truman replaced him with General Matthew B. Ridgway — in effect ending MacArthur’s military career. In a farewell speech to Congress, the general quoted a barracks song about old soldiers like himself.
The Korean War, or conflict, was the first war the U.S. fought with such constraints assigned by another party. It added a few new phrases to our language, but it took the lives of nearly 4 million Korean people — 10% of the population at the time, while the Chinese suffered about 1 million casualties.
Nearly 55,000 Americans died in the conflict.
— 30 —

Every year at this time, Americans are called to pause to remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to this country in wars both at home and abroad. People tend to think of the Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial start of summer or the weekend of the Indianapolis 500, but we should never let these events and activities overshadow the the real meaning — and significance — of the holiday.

I realize that if you read this blog, every year, this Memorial Day entry sounds the same, but I think it’s important to stop and think about the importance of today, probably one of the most somber days on any of our calendars….

In the years following the Civil War, Americans across the country were still mourning the deaths of more than 600,000 men who died during four long years of war. All across the country, in both the North and the South, veterans would decorate their comrades’ graves with flowers. 
On May 5, 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, John Logan, a veteran of the war and head of the Union veterans organization — the Grand Army of the Republic — established Decoration Day to be recognized on May 30. On that date, people on both sides of the war would be encouraged to place flowers on the graves of their relatives, friends or comrades who fell during the war. He supposedly picked May 30 because the flowers would be in full bloom during that time. So on May 30, 1868, the first official National Decoration Day ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery, where the Grand Army of the Republic placed flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers buried there. General Ulysses S. Grant presided over the ceremony. 

World War I was responsible for establishing many American traditions like Veterans Day and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. But it also changed how Decoration Day became to be known as Memorial Day. Decoration Day only recognized fallen soldiers of the Civil War until World War I. After World War I, the tradition of Decoration Day evolved from remembering only the fallen of the Civil War to remembering all soldiers who died during the country’s wars at home and abroad. 

Memorial Day has its own unique flag etiquette — at sunrise, anyone flying a flag should raise the flag briskly to full-staff then slowly lower the flag to half-staff. This is to honor the men and women who have fallen in the line of duty. At noon, the flag should be briskly raised to full-staff. This is to salute all of those who have served.

At 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, Americans are asked to pause for one minute to pay tribute to America’s fallen soldiers. This practice was instituted by the passage of the National Moment of Remembrance Act in 2000. The National Moment of Remembrance program was established to remind Americans of the sacrifices made by members of the Armed Forces as well as others who have died as a result of service to the United States.
I think we can all spare a minute today….. have a nice Memorial Day.
— 30 —

We went “shopping” a few days ago. I needed a couple of things that I use up and have to replenish from time to time — I was looking for furnace filters, some sandpaper and a particular type of finish I use for my woodworking projects from time to time. All pretty standard items. Well, we must have driven about 30 miles and visited 4 different stores to get those three items. It’s bad enough that all of them cost at least twice what they did the last time I bought them, but the fact that the stores just didn’t have them made it even worse. I decided that I really don’t like shopping.

Of course, if you read this blog, you know that I’ve been labeled a curmudgeon, and there’s a lot of thing I don’t like….
I don’t like people that cut grass and blow it into the street. 
And here’s some more things I don’t like:
Hot-air hand dryers in public restrooms
Carts in stores with wobbly wheels
People that take up two parking spaces with one car
Spaces that are too small on forms where I’m supposed to put my signature
Telephone answering messages that are too long or too cute
The middle seat on airplanes
People who stand too close to my face when they’re talking to me
Personalized license plates with the owner’s nickname on them
Phone calls and mail that announce I’m the potential winner of a million-dollar sweepstakes
Religious quacks on TV thinking up new ways to take money from ignorant viewers
Waiting in line

Well, you get the idea…. seems like I don’t like much of anything anymore. Maybe next time I go “shopping” I’ll be able to just go into the store, pick up the item and buy it. Then I’ll write a blog about all the stuff i do like….
— 30 —

Claire has a brother that believes the Moon affects the body even down to specifically what body parts are affected during various phases of the Moon and the Moon sign. Of course, he’s not alone — a lot of people believe the Moon has a significant influence on human behavior.

There is a profession called Medical Astrology — apparently part of a larger category of celestial science that studies how the influences of constellations, zodiac signs and the planets affect body parts.

According to “medical Astrologists” the Planetary positions at your birth indicate the nature of the disease(s) you will suffer from and when and how they will affect you. I would assume that they also recommend how we can best alleviate them.
Seven planets (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn) possess control over the different organs of the human body and their peculiarities. Each planet also rules certain anatomical structures and certain diseases.

So how about the Moon — my extensive research uncovered the following:
Moon is the feminine planet which is cold, moist, phlegmatic, watery and nocturnal. The Moon rules over the zodiac sign Cancer. The organs of the human body governed by the Moon are breast, saliva, womb, water, blood and lymphatic and glandular system. The anatomical structures governed by the Moon are Pericardium, veins, lymphatic vessels, intestinal functions, eyes, alimentary canal and membrane. The diseases related to the Moon are genital and urinary derangement, testicles, wind and colic, bronchial catarrh, dropsy, tumors, insanity and defective eyesight.
So there you have it — even though I don’t know what all those parts of the body are, they are majorly influenced by the Moon. 

But it seems more complicated than that — depending on the Moon Phase and the Moon Sign, certain organs are more sensitive at certain times and any surgical operations involving those particular organs should be undertaken with care, or better yet, postponed.

To get you through the rest of the month, here’s some valuable Moon information:
Tonight, May 26, the Moon Sign is Leo and the Moon Phase is Waxing Crescent
Tomorrow night, May 27, the Moon Sign is Virgo and it’s the First Quarter Moon Phase
The Moon Sign continues in Leo May 28 and 29 and the Moon Phase is Waxing Gibbous
May closes out the last two days with Libra as the Moon Sign and the Moon Phase is Waxing Gibbous

There is no absolute proof that the Moon affects human mental and physical health. But most “experts” hedge their bet by saying something like, “we can be confident that the Moon does not have a noticeable impact on most people’s lives most of the time, but we cannot rule out the possibility of its role among various environmental factors that might affect our sleep, moods and vitality.”
So like a lot of things, believe what you want — just keep the Moon in mind if you find yourself needing a good excuse sometime….
— 30 —

Today’s question is who invented wine? Even employing my extensive research techniques, I couldn’t come up with a definite answer — but whoever is responsible deserves some kind of award. Wine has certainly become a part of lives. One of our friends gave us a coaster that reads, “A dinner without Wine is like a day without sunshine.”

Today — May 25th — is National Wine Day, at least in the United States. But a word of warning…. don’t confuse today with National Drink Wine Day — that’s celebrated on February 18th. Totally different than today. 

My extensive research didn’t turn up any historically significant reason for today — but don’t let something like that stop you from celebrating. 
Years ago, Gallo Wines did a lot of TV advertising and their ads featured the Gallo brothers, Ernest and Julio. The commercials always ended with Julio (or maybe Ernest) saying, “I like talking about wine, but I’d rather be drinking it.” Actually, I prefer drinking it too, but what the heck, let’s talk about wine…..

Wine is (maybe) about 8,000 years old. Most historians tend to agree that wine was discovered by accident. That’s probably why it is thought to come from the gods — it’s a natural product since it doesn’t have to be manipulated in the same way as beer or whiskey. Most any grape that falls from vines can eventually become wine — maybe not 90 points, but wine, nonetheless.

Wine production and wine trade were an important part of life and commerce in the Mediterranean by about 3100 BC. Back then wine wasn’t considered a drink for the masses —only royals and those in the Church drank wine when it first started to be produced (remember, it was considered a gift from the gods.) Everyone else was relegated to drinking beer.

My ER (extensive research) found that the first known wine bottle dates back to 325 AD. It was found in 1867 near a vineyard in Speyer, Germany. Today, a standard wine bottle holds 750 ml and most jurisdictions in the U.S. impose a tax by the gallon. Kentucky has the highest wine excise tax rate at $3.18 per gallon, followed by Alaska ($2.50,) Florida ($2.25,) Iowa ($1.75,) and New Mexico ($1.70.) The five states with the lowest wine excise rates are Louisiana ($0.11,) California ($0.20,) Texas ($0.20,) Wisconsin ($0.25,) and Kansas and New York (tied at $0.30.)

The growth of the wine industry exploded in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. One reason was health related — in 1400, due to the Black Plague, which claimed more that half of Europe’s population, wine was considered safer to drink than water…. Claire still believes that today. (Don’t laugh — Claire may be on to something.) The famous scientist Louis Pasteur who studied micro-organisms and their effect of foods and beverages, seemed to confirm Claire’s theory, saying, “Wine can be considered with good reason as the most healthful and hygienic of all beverages.”

I mentioned that historians believe wine was discovered by accident. Obviously, a lot of “stories” go along with that theory, but my favorite is that a Persian princess who had fallen out of favor with the king decided to end it all by eating a jar of spoiled grapes. Instead of dying, she suddenly felt a lot better. The king liked her new happy attitude so much that he brought her back into his good graces. So today is a day of celebration of wine…. after signing the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers toasted each other with glasses of Madeira — let’s keep their tradition going — Happy National Wine Day!!
— 30 —