What Would Jimmy Do?

If you’re a long time reader and remember back to last year about this time, I talked about something we always did on Labor Day weekend when I was living at home with my parents. Back in those days, the Jerry Lewis telethon was Labor Day. I think it was really the Muscular Dystrophy telethon, but most people knew it as the Jerry Lewis telethon.

Jerry Lewis was the first host of the telethon, which first aired in 1956as a Thanksgiving Party. That year, he co-hosted the event with Dean Martin – it was held at Carnegie Hall. Lewis later became the organization’s National chairman — for 55 years. The telethon was moved to Labor Day Weekend and it would begin airing on Sunday and would run overnight, ending on Monday (Labor Day.)

Lewis and the Muscular Dystrophy Association cut ties in 2010 and it’s still not clear why the organization dropped him, but his departure was referred to as “sudden.” Lewis was later asked why he left, but he refused to talk about it.
Jerry Lewis hosted his last Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 2010 — Lewis died in 2017.

When the telethon’s last broadcast was announced in 2015, MDA president and CEO Steven Derks noted the move was influenced by “the new realities of television viewing and philanthropic giving.”
There have been several attempts to revive the telethon on local stations and social media, but none have proven very successful.
— 30 —

Today is a particularly special day — for Emily, it’s the big one-two! Every birthday is special and exciting, but being on the edge of tweendom only happens once and that’s a lot to celebrate. Of course, for Kelly and Chris, this is kind of the end of an era — they have about 365 more days before they’re officially the parents of a teenager.

I’m not sure any age is easy, but 12 has got to be a transition age and one of the tougher ones — not quite yet the inevitable moody monster teen, but not a little kid either. Of course, this year, Emily gets the best of both worlds….

Twelve years ago today, I wrote that Emily was no ordinary baby — that proved to be true… she’s growing up to be her own person, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

So Happy Birthday to the best 12-year-old I know. Enjoy your final year of being a kid before you officially become a teenager.
Love you lots!!!
Poppi
— 30 —

I’m continuing my recent tradition of talking about each upcoming month, so today’s blog is about, you guessed it, September.
I’ve mentioned it before, but September was originally the seventh month of the ancient Roman calendar — thus, its name…. Septem, which translates into “the seventh month.” Of course the addition of the month of January and February changed things for all the months. September used to have only 29 days, but thanks to Julius Caesar’s reform of the Roman calendar, it got an extra day.

The Romans usually associated different months with different gods. The month of September is associated with Vulcan, the Roman god of fire — probably because it was a fiery hot month (when it was the seventh month of the year.)
September is the month that fall officially begins — on the September equinox that occurs between the 21st and 23rd of the month. 

A number of significant events occur, or have occurred, in September….. on September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. September 11, 2001 changed all of us — and the world. It’s now know as Patriot’s Day. September 17th has always been an important day, but today it’s more important than ever — it’s Constitution Day. The U.S. Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. And of course, September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day!! September was the month former President Gerald Ford gave a pardon to former President Richard M. Nixon after Watergate. September is the most active month for hurricanes in the Atlantic and, on average, more babies are born in September than any other month.

September begins on the same day of the week of just one other month — December, but the month does not end on the same day of the week as any other month. And it’s the only month with the same number of letters its number and name — September is the ninth month and has nine letters in its name.

September’s full Harvest Moon will reach its peak in the morning hours of September 10 — it will appear just after sunset on Friday (9th) and reach peak illumination at 5:58 A.M. on Saturday (10th.)
The first full Moon that happens nearest to the fall equinox (Sept. 22 or 23) always takes on the name “Harvest Moon. If October’s full Moon happens to occur closer to the equinox than September’s, it takes on the name “Harvest Moon” instead. If that happens, September’s full Moon is referred to as the Corn Moon.

So happy September and all the things it brings — like football, and I can hardly wait for the 19th to “Talk Like A Pirate.”
— 30 —

Well, when you wake up tomorrow, it will no longer be August. 
We’ve made it trough 243 days of 2022 — there are122 left. It’s the 36th week of summer and just 22 days before fall.
Today the sun rose at 6:40 am and it will set at 7:46 pm, making today 13 hours and 5 minutes long. And let us not forget that on this day in 1897, Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope — the first movie projector, and 100 years later in 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris.
As someone once said, may the wind of August lift you up, elevate you and blow you in the right direction.
Goodbye August…..
— 30 —

A few blogs back, I talked about Calvert Liquors and its importance when I first moved to the Washington area. When I first arrived in the area, buying hard liquor in the state of Virginia was complicated and frustrating. It could only be purchased in a state owned “ABC” store. Those stores had a counter across the front, and rows of gray metal shelves filling the remainder of the floor space. You had to ask the person behind the counter to get you what you wanted — no looking to see what they had, or touching the bottles — even if the employees had been friendly (in fairness, a few were) it wasn’t a very peasant shopping experience. And forget about going to a restaurant and having a cocktail before dinner or with your meal.

After prohibition ended, Virginia authorized retail stores to sell beer and wine, but retained direct control over the sale of hard liquor. The General Assembly set up what is today the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Authority and gave it the exclusive right to sell hard liquor directly to the public.

Until restaurants were authorized, in 1968, to sell liquor by the drink (one glass at a time) the only legal hard liquor sales in Virginia were bottles handed by ABC clerks to customers standing on the other side of the counters in state-owned stores. (The one glass at a time rule was interesting — if you were in a restaurant having a drink, and ordered another one, the first drink had to be finished, and the server had to take the first drink off the table before placing the second drink on the table!!) Shortly after the state authorized liquor by the drink, the Virginia Administrative Code limited advertising that used the words Bar Room, Saloon, Speakeasy, and Happy Hour — hoping to minimize the potential for excessive drinking.

Virginia now permits billboard advertising of alcohol, but billboards may not depict persons consuming alcoholic beverages, may not use cartoon characters, nor use persons who have not attained the legal drinking age as models or actors. The billboards may not be placed within 500 feet of a church or synagogue, a public, private, or parochial school, college or university, a public or private playground or similar recreational facility, or residentially zoned property.

The only competition for the sale of bottles of hard liquor in Virginia comes from moonshiners selling untaxed and illegal liquor, often in one-galloon plastic jugs and even the classic Mason jar.

The hours of operation, the brands sold, the price of different products and the locations of ABC stores are determined by the state — not the local authorities.

I mentioned that Virginia only permitted liquor by the drink in food establishments beginning 1968 —this move eliminated the “brown bag” requirement that customers join a private club and bring their own bottle to the restaurant (typically in a brown paper bag) in order to enjoy a drink before a meal.

It’s interesting that in 2020, when Governor Northam issued Executive Order 53 closing all dining and congregation areas in restaurants, dining establishments, food courts, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, tasting rooms, and farmers markets during the COVID-19 pandemic, he declared beer, wine, and liquor stores to be “essential retail businesses” which could stay open.
I think that laws and regulations that regulate liquor must use the same algorithm that airlines use to determine air fares…..
— 30 —

There was an article on the news couple of days ago that mentioned that Hedy Lamar (the movie actress) invented a key part of the technology that makes wifi, GPS and cell phone technology work. Apparently there are a number of inventions that are attributed to people famous or known for other reasons. For instance, the first artificial heart was patented by Paul Winchell, a popular ventriloquist when I was young and recently the voice of Tigger in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh cartoons.
And Zeppo Marx invented the first moist heating pad, a clamp that is still used in the space program and the first wristwatch that could measure a person’s pulse.

And then there was William Marston — to say he had an unconventional life would certainly be an understatement. He had three degrees from Harvard, one a PHD in psychology. 

The Systolic Blood Pressure Test was invented in 1915. The Systolic Blood Pressure Test would be incorporated into the Polygraph Test, the modern version of the “Lie Detector” Test.
Wonder Woman was created in 1941. The fictional heroine debuted in DC Comics.
What do these two things have in common? They were created by the same person — yep, William Marston. 

Marston began work on his Systolic Blood Pressure Test in 1915 while attending Harvard. He became interested in the idea that the difference in a person’s blood pressure might determine their mood when his wife, Elizabeth said “Whenever I get mad or excited, my blood pressure seems to climb.” Marston came up with the Systolic Blood Pressure Test with the hope that the spikes in a person’s blood pressure could deduce whether the person was lying when asked a series of questions. 

Marston did a lot of work with the polygraph, trying to commercialize it. As a result of his work, he became convinced that women were more honest than men and he also thought they could work faster and more accurately at many jobs. That was pretty radical thinking back then.

Not only was Dr. William Marston an internationally famous psychologist, that was obsessed with people’s personalities, and their secrets, he was also a prolific writer of screenplays, novels and articles — and — a consulting psychologist for Universal Pictures. 

In 1940, he was hired by Maxwell Charles Gaines, the founder of All-American Comics that published the popular Superman and Batman comic books at that time. However, the comic books were being criticized for their violence and sexual imagery. Marston was appointed to the editorial board for the comics and he believed the best way to counteract what he called the “blood-curdling masculinity” of the comics world was with a female superhero and he submitted his script for Wonder Woman in February of 1941. Wonder Woman’s signature secret weapon was the “Lasso of Truth” — a golden rope. While bound with it, anyone was compelled to tell the truth and do as she commanded. The lasso worked much better than a polygraph, but it’s pretty clear that Dr. Marston came up with Wonder Woman’s golden lasso because of his work on the polygraph.

So as to not offend any Wonder Woman fans, I should mention that the Lasso of Truth was previously owned by the Greek Goddess Hestia and it is sometimes referred to as the Lasso of Hestia. The lasso itself is approximately twenty feet long — that gives it sufficient range while not compromising the user’s ability to wield it easily. However, its length can be magically extended to allow for extra range. After reading the news today, I think one of these might come in handy today…
— 30 —

Claire heard someone use the word smidgen the other day and remarked that it was a term you don’t hear much anymore. I guess I agree, and in this digital age of exactness, it probably makes sense. It seems like today everyone has to be precise in their measurements — everything from time to various other measurements. Traffic signs even tell you exactly how far you are from some place, and how long before you’ll get there. So with our GPSs telling us exactly how long it will take to get somewhere, it’s no wonder smidgen doesn’t get a lot of use. Smidgen is a little bit of something — hardly precision enough for today’s world. 

Another word you don’t hear used often is skosh — a skosh is a hair less than a smidgen! I can see why that word doesn’t get much use either. Actually, according the dictionary a skosh is a small amount: bit, smidgen.

I don’t know that I ever used smidgen too much, but I used to use the term skosh all the time when in the Far East, especially Japan and Korea.
I did some checking and during the occupation of Japan at the end of World War II, US forces borrowed some vocabulary from the Japanese. One word was sukoshi, meaning “little” or “few.” It was used to describe quantities, time or distances. Apparently the Americans dropped the u and i, yielding skosh.

So even though smidgen and skosh don’t provide the precision we need in today’s world, they’re still fun to say even though a lot of the younger generation don’t know what we’re talking about…..
— 30 —

I am, and always have been, a big fan of trains. Train tracks run right through Shepherdstown and we often get stopped by trains. Some of the trains a pretty long, and sometimes it’s a long wait for them to pass, but this is a minor annoyance compared to a lot of other things that annoy me.
Anyhow, a couple of days ago, we were stopped and when the end of the train went past, I remarked, “well, there’s the end.” Claire said, “and no caboose.” 

Caboose is funny sounding word and when I was growing up, all freight trains had a car at the end of the train called the caboose. When I was little, we used to wait for the caboose at the end of the train to give the crew a wave when they passed by — they always waved back.
For many years, cabooses were a part of every railroad — what happened to all those cabooses?

The caboose was introduced in the 1830s — its earliest beginnings can be traced back to a small railroad in upstate New York and a crewman named Nat Williams that worked on the Auburn and Syracuse railroad. Nat converted a little used boxcar into a small space to store items and keep them organized. Additionally, he took care of the railroad’s paperwork in this car at a makeshift desk, made out of a wooden barrel.

The early cabooses were no more than just flat cars with a cabin built atop them to shelter the crew working the rear of the train. They developed into separate cars with a platform on either end, and a cupola on the top, that acted as a lookout tower for the train crew. The cabooses were fitted with red lights, called markers, to enable the rear of the train to be seen at night. (This led to a common railroad phrase, “bring up the markers” to describe the last car on a train.) 

Cabooses provided the train crew shelter at the rear of the train. The crew could exit the train for switching, inspect the train for problems and to protect the rear of the train when stopped. the conductor kept records and handled business from a table or desk in the caboose. For long trips, the caboose provided minimal living quarters and was frequently personalized and decorated with pictures and posters. 

As the world progressed, many cabooses were phased out from mainline freight trains and the end of train (EOT) device became standard railroad equipment. Also, various technological advancements were introduced including remote switching and defect detectors. So while cabooses worked for the railroads for well over one-hundred years, the new technology provided increased accuracy and significantly decreased operating costs. The EOT performed all the duties of the caboose and didn’t require any additional manpower.

Just about every caboose I remember was painted red — I know that not all were, but  almost all were. Red was chosen to increase visibility. Railroads wanted to paint their cabooses a color that could easily be seen from a distance for safety.

I suppose that I should mention that the word “caboose” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a part of a train that is attached at the back end and is used by people who work on the train.” If you didn’t already know what a caboose was, I’m not sure you could draw much of a mental picture from that description…. so I dug a little deeper than Merriam-Webster and found out that the first “caboose” had nothing to do with railroads. The word first appeared in English in the mid-18th century and meant a small cooking cabin or kitchen on the deck of a merchant sailing ship. It was also used to mean the cast iron cooking stove inside the cabin. The word caboose comes from the Dutch “kabuis” (or Low German “kabuse”) meaning “cabin on a ship’s deck.” The use of caboose to mean a crew car on a train didn’t come along until the mid-19th century.

So I guess that’s about enough for today…. see? my train of thought does have a caboose.
— 30 —

When I was growing up I alway heard that baseball was our national sport. Thinking back, I think that was probably true. Every fall, the major topic of conversation when any group got together was the World Series… today — not so much. I did some checking, and it turns out that, based on revenue, the top major sports leagues in the US are the National Football league (NFL); Major League Baseball (MLB; the National Basketball Association (NBA); the National Hockey League (NHL); and Major League Soccer (MLS) — in that order. 

But I got to wondering…. what about the states? Sports are an important part of culture in the United States, so I figured since states have state flags, flowers, nicknames, mottos, trees, and some even have state dinosaurs, that the states must all have official sports. But that’s not true — I think every state has a state bird, and even though sports are very popular in the United States, every state doesn’t have an official sport — only about 15 do — and having a state sport is a fairly recent thing.

So as a public service to you faithful blog readers, here’s what my extensive research turned up:
Maryland became the first state to adopt an official state sport in 1962. The sport? Jousting. In 2004, Maryland also adopted lacrosse as its official team sport. The other states that have adopted official sports (all after 1962) are:
Alaska — (Dog) Mushing. 
Michigan — Wakeboarding. (A water sport in which the rider, standing on a wakeboard (short board with foot bindings) is towed behind a motorboat across its wake — a combination of water skiing, snowboarding and surfing.)
Hawaii — Surfing. (Team sport — Outrigger Canoe Paddling.)
New Hampshire — Sking.
Texas — Rodeo
South Dakota — Rodeo
Wyoming — Rodeo
Massachusetts — Basketball (Team sport — Volleyball)
Minnesota — Ice Hockey
Colorado — Pack Burrow Racing
North Carolina — Stock Car racing
Delaware — Bicycling
California  — Surfing
New York — Baseball

Some of these official sports may surprise you — and — the fact that so few states have an official sport is surprising in and of itself. But I think Maryland comes out the winner on this list. Their sport of jousting is unique, and pretty cool. In the movie, Wedding Crashers, there was a line that said, “Crab cakes and football — that’s what Maryland does.” Obviously, they also do jousting.
Jousting tournaments have been held in Maryland since early colonial times, and became increasingly popular during the Civil War. Today, in modern-day tournaments, men (referred to as knights) and women (referred to as maids) are dressed in colorful costumes full of regalia and many of the medieval customs and practices are still utilized. The Maryland State Jousting Championship is held annually.
Good for Maryland. I’m going to push for West Virginia to get a state sport, like huntin, fishin, spittin, or scratchin……
— 30 —

A few days ago, I mentioned Calvert Liquors — a place that that just about everyone in the Washington, D.C. area knew about and frequented many years ago. Almost no one of the younger generation has even heard about it, let alone know anything about it.

Well, actually Calvert Liquors still exists — kind of. Calvert Liquors opened in 1946 on Wisconsin Avenue. The shop was started by Morris and Frances Stirman — they were later joined by their son, Marvin. When Marvin came along, he focused on turning the “liquor store” into a “wine shop.” In fact, it became the number one wine shop south of New York City. He also made Calvert the first wine and liquor store in the country with a full cheese shop inside. 

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Virginia was essentially a “dry” state until the very late 1960s or early 1970s. In those days, if your office was having a party, someone in the office was chosen to make a run to Calvert Liquors for “party supplies.” Over the years, the run across Key Bridge to Calvert became a risky proposition. The police routinely stopped cars crossing the Key Bridge and searched them for “contraband” (booze.) The driver was issued a ticket, but the “contraband” was confiscated. I don’t think anyone ever worried as to whether the ticket was paid or not…. apparently the confiscated goods were payment enough. 

But finally, Virginia moved into the 20th century and let restaurants sell liquor by the drink and modernized their ABC stores and the need to leave the state to buy booze became somewhat less. Usually it was cheaper to buy alcoholic beverages and spirits outside of Virginia, but the convenience of being able to drink locally dramatically cut down the number of people making the booze run over the Key Bridge. 

As the world changed, Calvert Liquors remained in business in Georgetown, but in 1982, it merged with one of its competitors, Woodley Wine & Liquor and opened its doors as Calvert Woodley. The store is located at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Windom. I’m told that some of the original employees at the time of the 1982 merger are still employed there.
I’ve never been there, and I’m sure it’s a very nice store — but it’ll just never have the colorful history of Calvert Liquors….
— 30 —