What Would Jimmy Do?

Today is Rory and Ellie’s birthday. When I talk about them to friends, I alway mention that they are twins. For some reason, twins are just fascinating. I remember when I was a kid I always thought it would be so cool to be a twin.

Before Rory and Ellie were born, I heard a lot about twins — I’m sure some of it was true and some of it wasn’t. I think Dave and Chassie are convinced that Rory and Ellie share a language all their own. Turns out they’re probably right — if you’ve ever seen two young siblings readily conversing in complete gibberish, you likely witnessed idoglossia —an autonomous language often created and shared between twins. According to research published in the journal Institute of General Linguistics, about 40 percent of twins invent their own languages. The researchers believe that super-close siblings (they don’t actually have to be twins, but usually are) sometimes use each other as models for learning vocabulary, applying meanings to sounds — even if those sounds are complete nonsense. Usually their special lingo disappears as their vocabulary expands and by the time they start to school, but not always.

While on the subject, some other interesting things….
• Identical twins have different fingerprints
• Twins start interacting in the womb at 14 weeks
• Identical twins can develop different diseases
• Nigeria has the highest rate of multiple births and the most identical twins
• China has the lowest rate
• Mothers of twins live longer

But today is extra special for Rory and Ellie — and the rest of us. I’ve heard it said, and Dave and Chassie might be able to verify, that “It’s double the giggles, double the grins, and double the trouble if you’re blessed with twins.”

If you think about it lots of good things come in pairs — gloves, shoe laces, eyes, ears, windshield wipers, chopsticks, socks…. but best of all, are twins.

Happy Birthday to Rory and Ellie — double the candles means double the cake! Here’s to another year of great adventures, happy memories and lots of love — I can’t tell you apart, but I love you equally.
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There are special people in our lives that never leave us even after they are gone.
Scott was one of those people…. my first memories of Scott are of a perfect little kid. Of course a lot of little kids seem perfect when you’re not their parents. But even though I wasn’t around him a lot over the years, I never saw a “bad” — or even an unpleasant, side to him. 

Admittedly it was from a distance, but I saw Scott grow up and become, by any standard, successful. He excelled at just about anything he attempted — and anything he did, he did well. His dad, Al, and I used to periodically talk about our kids and Al always said Scott drove him crazy sometimes because everything he did had to be perfect. Al thought he must have taken more after his mom than himself. I don’t know if that’s true, but if you knew Scott, it was obvious he was the product of good parenting.

Scott’s life was way too short — but he made the most of it. I read something once that went something like this….
Life is a song — sing it. Life is a game — play it. Life is a challenge — meet it. Life is a dream — realize it. Life is a sacrifice — offer it. Life is love — enjoy it. 
I know it wasn’t necessarily always easy, but Scott did just that and in the end, it’s not how long life is, but how good it is that matters.

They say that grief is the price we pay for love — today we’re all paying that price, but we can take comfort knowing that although life has to end — love doesn’t. 
Here’s to Scott — a life spent bringing joy, laughter and happiness to others….
— 30 —

The holiday of Thanksgiving has a long and often conflicting story throughout U.S. history, but over the years one thing has remained the same — it’s a season of gratitude. In today’s world, it can be difficult to slow down and take time to feel thankful for what we have. It would do us all good to take a moment and remember the little things in life — and every little thing we’re thankful for. What are some of those things? Everyone will (and should) have their own list, but here’s some things that aren’t “things” to be thankful for:
Friends — strong friendships get us through the hard times and the good times… this would be a good time to reach out to some of those friends and tell them thanks.
Family — It goes without saying that without family, many, or most, of us wouldn’t be where we are today. No matter if you’re single, married with a houseful of children and your relatives live miles away or right next door, today’s a good day to feel grateful to your family and recognize how important they’ve been in your life.
Good Health — health is one of the most important things…. without good health we can’t do much else. We should take a moment to be thankful for the good health we have.
A place to call home — A lot of people around the world don’t have permanent place or home — so if you’ve got a roof over your head, that’s a good thing to be thankful for.
Sense of Safety — People in lots of the world and more and more in the United States, don’t have a sense of safety this Thanksgiving. If you’re fortunate enough to feel safe in the community where you live, be thankful for how fortunate you are not to have to live in fear this Thanksgiving.

Prior to the formal establishment of Thanksgiving in the United States, harvest festivals had been celebrated for centuries by Native Americans, with colonial services dating back to the late 16th century. The autumn feasts celebrated the harvest of crops after a season of bountiful growth. A the story goes, it was in the early 1600s when communities of settlers in both Massachusetts and Virginia held feasts to give thanks for their survival, for the fertility of their fields, and for their faith.

The most widely know early Thanksgiving is that of the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, who shared an autumn harvest feast with the Wampanoag Native Americans in 1621. This feast, which lasted for three days, is considered the “first” Thanksgiving celebration in the colonies.

We hear a lot about the Pilgrims, especially around Thanksgiving. So what happened to the Pilgrims?
A pilgrim is a person who goes on a long journey, often with a religious or moral purpose, and especially to a foreign land. Those arriving in the colonies aboard the Mayflower certainly could be considered pilgrims. Shortly after the Mayflower arrived, the first baby of the new arrivals was born — a boy. His parents (William and Susannah White) named him Peregrine — a word that means traveling from far away and also means pilgrim.

The author of Mourt’s Relation in 1622 refers to the Plymouth Colonists as pilgrims. Governor William Bradford calls the Plymouth settlers pilgrims when he writes about their departure from Leiden, Holland to come to America: “They knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country; and quieted their spirits.” Governor Bradford also wrote a poem in which her refers to himself as a pilgrim.”

By the early 1800s, “pilgrim” became the most popular term applied to all the Mayflower passengers — and even to other people arriving in Plymouth. But the English people who settled Plymouth in the 1620s are generally called the Pilgrims.

After arriving in Plymouth Harbor in December of 1620, the colonist began building their town. Although they occasionally caught glimpses of Native People, it wasn’t until four months after their arrival that the colonists met and communicated with them. In March of 1621, the two groups made a treaty of mutual protection. The treaty had six points, including…. neither party would harm the other. If anything was stolen, it would be returned and the offending person returned to his own people for punishment. Both sides agreed to leave their weapons behind when meeting, and the two groups would serve as allies in times of war. 

Seems like people in 1621 knew more about social interaction than we do today. Maybe today’s a good day to think about that first Thanksgiving and realize how far we have and haven’t come in all these years. 
Happy Thanksgiving!!
— 30 —

As we’ve talked about before, Thanksgiving originally started out as a harvest festival as a way to celebrate and give thanks for a bountiful harvest. Although Thanksgiving is thought of as a truly American holiday, similar celebrations and traditions take place around the world. Although they spring from the same ideas, thanksgiving traditions in various places have their own unique ceremonies and stories and have their own way of showing and giving thanks.

I’ve been fortunate enough to witness some of these — mostly in the Far East,and while they don’t take place on a Thursday in November, they all have the common theme of giving thanks.

I’ve blogged about the Chinese Moon Festival a few times — it’s a descendent from old Chinese customs, but people of modern China use the occasion for gathering around a table, talking, eating and reflecting on the importance of togetherness. 

In Malaysia the Kadazan festival is celebrated in May. Malaysians believe that “without rice there is no life.” The people of Malaysia believe the grain holds the spirit of life and creation. The Kadazan Festival is a day of giving thanks to the Creator who made the people’s most prized staple of life.

Erntedankfest is “Thanksgiving Day” in Germany, held on the first Sunday in October. It’s a religiously dominated celebration where the churches run the show — both Catholics and Protestants celebrate and attend church services for this thanksgiving celebration, centered on giving thanks for the year’s harvest and grain. The celebratory food is much the same as the Thanksgiving Day food consumed in America. 

An African festival, Homowo, celebrated in August or September is dedicated to the hopefulness that the crops will be plentiful for the coming year and no one will experience famine. This “Festival of the Yams” is centered around the new yam harvest. The villages rejoice by dancing and singing with animal masks, acknowledging the end of the rainy season and the desire for a fruitful harvest to last well into the new year. 

We may think of Thanksgiving as a uniquely American celebration, but harvest festivals around the world have the common theme of giving thanks for the natural gifts given by nature and the gods. They bring people together, give cultures reason to celebrate, and provide a time for all people to reflect back on the wonderful disposition of their culture’s prosperity for the year….
— 30 —

In keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, I thought today might be a good day to talk about something that probably most of us will taste on what some people refer to as “Turkey Day.”

Turkeys have become synonymous with Thanksgiving. There are a number of wild turkeys where we live and they’ve been here a long time, being native to the Americas.

Benjamin Franklin believed that the turkey would have been a better choice for our national symbol than the bald eagle. Here’s some of his thoughts he wrote in a letter to his daughter:
“For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly… like those among men who live by sharping and robbing… he is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward; the little king-bird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district… For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was secular to ours…”

Ben probably made some good points, but the bald eagle won out as our national symbol and the turkey became “famous” as the Thanksgiving meal. But the turkey is an interesting bird.

Ben indicated in his letter that the turkey was a “true original native of America.” Turkeys did originate in the “New World.” Specifically, wild turkeys are native to Mexico. European explorers brought wild turkeys home with them in the early 1500s. The birds were domesticated in Europe and later brought to North America by English colonists. You may or may not know that domesticated turkeys have white-tipped tails; wild turkeys have dark-tipped tails.

Only male turkeys, or toms, can make a sound known as a “gobble,” and they mostly do it in the spring and fall. It is a mating call and attracts the hens. Wild turkeys gobble when they’re surprised by loud sounds and when they settle in for the night.
The loose red skin attached to the underside of a turkey’s beak is called a wattle. When the male turkey is excited, especially during mating season, the wattle turns a scarlet red. The fleshy flap of skin that hangs over the gobbler’s beak called a snood and also turns bright red when the bird is excited. The wobbly little thing on the turkey’s chest is the turkey’s beard and is made up of keratin bristles. Keratin is the same substance that forms hair and horns on other animals.

The wild turkey is considered a game bird, but is one of the more difficult game birds to hunt. They won’t be flushed out of the brush with a dog. Hunters must try to attract it with different calls. Even with two seasons a year, only one in six hunters will get a wild turkey.

When Europeans first encountered the wild turkey in Mexico, they incorrectly classified the bird as a type of guinea fowl called a turkey fowl. Turkish traders originally sold guinea fowl from Africa to European markets. The country of Turkey has no native turkeys.

A baby turkey is called a poult, chick, or turklette. An adult male turkey is called a tom and a female is a hen.
The domestic tom can weight up to 50 pounds, the domestic hen up to 16 pounds. The wild tom can weigh up to 20 pounds, the wild hen up to 12 pounds.
Wild turkeys can fly (however, they prefer to walk or run.) Domestic turkey are not agile flyers, but the bird will perch in trees to stay safe from predators.
The average life span of a wild turkey is three or four years. They generally feed on seeds, nuts, insects and berries. The average life span of a domestic turkey, from birth to freezer, is 26 weeks. During that period of time, they will eat about 75 pounds of turkey feed.

So the turkey has become an integral part of Thanksgiving. I remember when I was small, never having turkey except on Thanksgiving (and maybe Christmas.) But the turkey, like most “institutions” has tended to expand. Not long a go I heard a comedian talking about turkeys — I thought he was funny and was somewhat right on target….
If you stand in the meat section at the grocery long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There’s turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Someone needs to tell the turkey, “Man, just be yourself.”
— 30 —

Since it’s approaching Thanksgiving, I was reminded of a conversation we had, I think, a couple of years ago. Claire was discussing what to have for Thanksgiving dinner and I mentioned liking sweet potatoes like her sister, Terry, made. She thought that was a good idea and she said she thought we should have mashed potatoes and yams. 

I remembered that my grandparents always referred to sweet potatoes as “yams,” and I wondered why. I know that in the South, a popular dish is candied yams — I never heard it called candied sweet potatoes.

Well, naturally, this issue called for some of my extensive research. Turns out that this time my extensive research got a lot more involved that I had originally intended. But it was new information to me — here’s what I found:
Sweet potato varieties come in different colors — orange, white, yellow or (sometimes) purple. I alway thought sweet potatoes were orange. It turns our that the orange sweet potato is a recent thing. Until the 1930s sweet potatoes were only white or yellow. Then in the 30s, the orange sweet potato was cultivated and it was larger, sweeter, more moist, and fleshier compared to the smaller, yellowish, and drier-fleshed varieties… someone had come up with a superior sweet potato. To differentiate the orange sweet potato from the white and yellow ones, it was called a “yam” because it looked similar to an African vegetable with that name. Today, the name yam has stuck as an interchangeable term for orange sweet potatoes in the US.

Here’s some extensive research information I don’t really understand, but it seems important (and interesting) so I’ll pass it along.
Yams are big edible “tubers” that are categorized as monocots (plants having one embryonic seed leaf) and belong to the genus Dioscorea.
Sweet potatoes are edible “roots” that are categorized as dicots (plants having two embryonic seed leaves) and are from the Convolvulaceae or morning glory family.
Yams grow in tropical and subtropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa and the Caribbean.
Sweet potatoes are native to the Americas, growing best in both tropical and warm temperate regions.  
Yams can reach two to three feet long and some can weigh as much as 80 pounds.
Sweet potatoes are generally about 5 inches long and weigh about 4.5 ounces. They always taper at the end and have thin skin.

So back to the question, why do people call sweet potatoes yams? Basically to differentiate the orange sweet potato from the white and yellow ones. Today, the name “yam” has stuck as an interchangeable term for orange sweet potatoes. Whatever you call it, the odds are very high that you are buying a sweet potato in your grocery store.

My extensive research also discovered that the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires labels with the term “yam” to be accompanied by the term “sweet potato.” And — the preferred wording from the sweet potato commission(s) is “sweetpotato” (one word.) Apparently the reasoning is that it’s a unique crop, not a potato that happens to be sweet — sweet potatoes aren’t related to potatoes.
So there you have it — seems like this time my extensive research got to the “root” of all the confusion.
— 30 —

I talked a little about the Bible a few blogs back and about how it can be misinterpreted and some people tend to use the Bible to prove, or dis-prove, just about anything.

But without trying to interpret each and very verse, the Bible is interesting in and of itself.
I think I mentioned that the Bible is the bestselling book in the world, but Ironically I guess, it’s also the most stolen book in the world. Bibles are regularly taken from hotels, hospitals, bookstores and lots of other places — I guess one of the Ten Commandments that says, “thou shalt not steal,” doesn’t apply to Bibles.

While there is some disagreement, most biblical scholars agree that it took about 1,500 years to write the Bible. The Bible has about 40 authors that wrote different sections and it was written on three continents — Asia, Europe and Africa, and — in three different languages. The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, while the New Testament was written in Greek — the language of scholarship at the time. (Aramaic was the common “international language” of the time and most like the language that Jesus spoke.)

It was about 400 years before the New Testament was written after the completion of the Old Testament — these years are known as the “silent years.”

On average, the Bible is over 600,000 words long. Different versions or translations of the Bible are even longer — the King James Bible is 783,137 words. And the Bible has over 1,000 chapters — 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New Testament. It’s interesting that both the longest and shortest chapters in the Bible are in Psalms — Psalms 117 is the shortest and Psalms 119 is the longest. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35 and consists of only two words: “Jesus wept.”

The Geneva Bible, produced in 1557 in Geneva, Switzerland, was the first version of the Bible to be translated from both Hebrew and Greek, as well as the first to be printed on a printing press. At the time, Queen Mary I of England was persecuting Protestants, even having them burned at the stake. In response, many Protestant leaders, like John Calvin, fled to Geneva. The Geneva Bible was very influential in the 16th century and was one of the books taken to America on the Mayflower in 1620.

Believe it or not, there is a “Sinner’s Bible.” We all know that the Bible states, “thou shall not commit adultery.” However a Bible printed in 1631 contains a typo and actually states “thou shalt commit adultery.” This Bible has become known as the “Sinner’s Bible,” and today a few copies of this rare Bible are still floating around.

There is one more fairly famous Bible that contains a typo — in a 1611 edition of the King James Bible, a typo is found in the Book of Ruth 3:15, which reads: “She went into the city.” This verse refers to God, so it is essentially describing God as a woman. Not surprisingly, this Bible is known as the “She Bible,” and only a very few of these Bibles remain. 

The Bible in its entirety has been translated into 704 languages and at least some portion has been translated into over 3,000 languages. And, there are numerous versions of the Bible. With so many versions and translations, things were bound to get lost in translation at some point. So I suppose it’ll continue to be the book to quote when you want to prove, or dis-prove your argument.
— 30 —

When I started yesterday’s blog, I seem to have gotten off-track a bit. I had originally intended to talk a little about some Thanksgiving trivia or as I like to refer to it, “statistics” I ran across the other day. Here’s some I found interesting — maybe you will, too.

The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers.
The most hated Thanksgiving dis is tofu.
The first Thanksgiving lasted three days.
More people travel to Orlando, Florida than anywhere else on Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is America’s second favorite holiday (after Christmas and before Halloween.)
Minnesota raises the most turkeys in the U.S.
Red wine is the most popular Thanksgiving alcoholic drink.
More than four-fifths of Americans prefer the leftovers to the Thanksgiving meal.
“Jingle Bells” was originally a Thanksgiving song.
Americans eat 704 million pounds of turkey every Thanksgiving.
The Butterball hotline answers 100,000 turkey-related questions every year.
Frozen had the biggest Thanksgiving opening of any movie.
Native Americans had many uses for the cranberry — not only did they eat cranberries fresh and use them as an ingredient in other foods, they also used cranberries to heal wounds and dye fabrics.
The first national Thanksgiving was declared by George Washington.

Feel free to use these as conversation starters around the Thanksgiving table — my compliments.
— 30 —

Well, Thanksgiving is less than a week away and I was thinking about my Thanksgivings over the years. I’ve spent Thanksgiving in a lot of different places and with a lot of different people. Thanksgiving, like all holidays, has its own set of traditions like the turkey, watching football and Macy’s parade — but a lot of traditions have disappeared over the years….

A lot of people still send Christmas cards and of course kids (especially) trade Valentine’s cards, but around the turn of the 20th century, people also used to send Thanksgiving cards, that had illustrations of pumpkins, turkeys, pilgrims, etc. — the verses conveyed seasonal sentiments of thanks.

When I was little, there was always a kids’ table at Thanksgiving — it seemed like a tradition to separate the kids and adults during dinner. That doesn’t seem to be the case today — the entire family usually sits together around the table, regardless of age.

It hasn’t been that many years ago when you sat down for dinner on special occasions, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, there were usually place cards on the table. Most people don’t use place cards anymore. That was one of the more formal Thanksgiving traditions that hasn’t stood the test of time.

Special meals on holidays like Thanksgiving, used to call for using the family’s finest china and silverware. But today, no one wants to spend a day polishing those special knives, forks and spoons that were too good to be put into the dishwasher and that were probably inherited from the grandparents. Most families just stick with the everyday dishes and silverware on Turkey Day.

I remember a lot of families made it an annual tradition to retell the story of the first Thanksgiving before starting to eat. Today everyone around the table can just access the history of Thanksgiving on their phones…. and people do use their phones during the Thanksgiving meal — but I’m pretty sure they’re not reading about the first Thanksgiving.

One activity that I remember well is the wishbone tradition. This tradition is much older than even I am — in Ancient Roman times, chicken bones embodied good luck. So, when two people pulled apart a wishbone, the person left with the larger piece was, in theory, rewarded with good luck or granted a wish. Breaking of the wishbone was something I always looked forward to. But today, you hardly ever even hear it mentioned. Probably because the wishbone has to dry out before it will break — that means waiting…. patiently. That doomed the wishbone ritual for today’s culture of instant gratification.
I guess that’s the thing with traditions — they usually adapt to the times, morph into something different, or fade away entirely.
— 30 —

This may come as a surprise to you, but no, Christoper Columbus did not discover America. There were already 50 million indigenous peoples living in the area of land Mr. Columbus claimed to “discover.”

I know this is a busy month and lots of activities bid for our attention, but the month of November is Native American Heritage Month — giving Americans time to consider the important contributions of Indigenous Peoples, honor their histories, and advocate for solutions to the struggles they still face today.

Native Americans have been confronted with discrimination and hardship since European settlers first stepped foot on their land, and have suffered injustice in many ways since.

‘Indigenous” means the original inhabitants who first occupied a land or region, so the Indigenous peoples of America has the same meaning as Native Americans.
The indigenous people of North America spoke a huge number of spoken languages prior to colonization — somewhere between 300 and 500. However, many of these languages have disappeared as a result of assimilation policies by the government. In 1868, President Ulysses S. Grant declared, “In the difference of language today lies two-thirds of our trouble… their barbarous dialect should be blotted out and the English language substituted.”

Beginning in the 1800s, Native Americans were displaced from their communities and moved onto reserves, and children were taken to Indian boarding schools and educated in English. It wasn’t until 1972, when Congress passed the Indian Education Act, that Native American tribes were permitted to teach their own languages. In 2013, there were 169 Native languages spoken in the United States and many of them had very small numbers of speakers. In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Language Act, which provides support for Native American language preservation and revitalization. It’s estimated that all but two Native American languages are in danger of disappearing altogether by 2050.

Prior to colonization, Native American languages were orally transmitted. After the arrival of Europeans, several tribes began to adopt writing systems. Sequoyah, a member of the Cherokee Nation, spent 12 years developing a writing system so that his people could learn to read and write in their language — he completed his 86-character “a;phablet” in 1821. 

On February 21, 1828, the first edition of the Cherokee Phoenix was published in the Cherokee capital of New Echota, Georgia. It was the first bilingual newspaper in the United States — printed in both English and Cherokee.

It wasn’t until 1924 that all Native Americans were granted citizenship, when Congress enacted the Indian Citizenship Act. At that time most Native American were able to vote, but many laws at the state-level prevented voting rights for all — it took over 40 years for all 50 states to allow Native Americans to vote.

The very first American Indian Day in a state was held in New York and took place on the second Saturday in May in 1916. The first year of dedicating November as National American Indian Heritage Month was in 1990 ± proclaimed by President H.W. Bush. The name was changed under President Obama, in 2009, to National Native American Heritage Month.

The United States of America was founded on the idea that all of us are created equal and deserve equal treatment, opportunity and dignity. Unfortunately, we have fallen short many times. That equality has often been denied to Native Americans who have lived on this land since time immemorial.
Maybe the Native Americans figured us out years ago…. A Sauk Indian from Oklahoma, Black Hawk, said, “How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.”
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