What Would Jimmy Do?

Today is Valentine’s Day. There are differing opinions as to who or what we are celebrating on February 14. Before I get too far into this subject it’s worth noting that Valentine’s Day is banned in some countries because it’s deemed to be pagan or not a part of the country’s cultural identity. 

There are several different Saint Valentines. The Catholic church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine, each of who were martyred and honored on February 14th. Most/many historians believe that the holiday was originally created to celebrate one or more of these saints and the romantic association with the day developed later. 

A lot of people believe that Valentine’s Day was created (by the Catholic Church) as a Christian replacement for the pagan festival of Lupercalia. Lupercalia was celebrated in mid-February and was also associated with fertility and love and purification. The festival involved the sacrifice of goats and dogs, as well as the exchange of gifts and love notes between young men and women. So Pope Gelasius declared February 14th as Saint Valentine’s Day to separate the church from Lupercalia.

But today, all across the world, Valentine’s Day is thought of as a time to celebrate what is called love. And it’s a booming multimillion-dollar industry. The greeting card industry sells approximately 190 million cards, it’s the number one holiday for florists, and the candy manufacturers flourish. And restaurants are packed. 
If you follow this blog, you know that we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day on Valentine’s Day. We celebrate the day before or the day after — those days offer a much more relaxed dining experience.

But today love is in the air, as they say… but so are germs. 
Lewis Black said, “What I find most disturbing about Valentine’s Day is, look, I get that you have to have a holiday of love, but in the height of flu season, it makes no sense.”
They also say that love conquers all, so go ahead and celebrate, but be safe — Happy Valentine’s Day.
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First off, congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs for winning Super Bowl LVII. It was a great game — one of those that you hate to see either team lose.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s my gripe of the day. Let’s get this out of the way right now — I’m a curmudgeon and I grumble about lots of things, but one thing that I used to like and don’t anymore, is the singing of the national anthem before the start of sporting events. 

The singing of the national anthem prior to a game like the Super Bowl is a great gesture of patriotism — but why have a pop singer perform it? For some reason, pop singers seem to think they have to perform their own “interpretation” of The Star Spangled Banner, and often times those interpretations make the song unrecognizable. 
All the military bands, and choral groups, perform the song with elegance and simplicity — the way it should always be performed.
I don’t question that pop stars are very accomplished musicians, most with extraordinary talent. But show that musical innovation somewhere else — not singing our national anthem. That song deserves a great deal of respect. 

The national anthem is supposed to arouse our patriotism, stir us from the inside and make us feel the spirit of the nation as a single entity. 
It should be sung in its true spirit and meaning — not as a musical rendition to show off someone’s talent.
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When I was growing up, Lincoln had his very own birthday — nowadays, he’s been kind of pushed aside and his birthday is lumped into President’s Day and has just kind of gotten lost in all the February holidays. (This year they even scheduled the Super Bowl on Abe’s birthday — traditionally, the game has been played on the first Sunday in February, but due to the fact that an extra game was added to the schedule, the Super Bowl was moved back to the second Sunday.) 

But there’s not too much danger that people will forget about Abraham Lincoln. More than 15,000 books have been written about him — not including U.S. history textbooks. He’ll always be remembered for his leadership during the Civil War.

Of course there are lots of “Lincoln things” that don’t make it into textbooks or biographies….
We know that Lincoln was one of the tallest presidents, but his voice seemed inappropriate for his height. Lincoln’e voice has been described as “high-pitched and reedy.” People that heard him speak often described his voice as “unpleasant.” For most people, however, the power of his words usually outweighed unpleasantness in his delivery.

Lincoln was acknowledged as a powerful writer and speaker but he had a weakness in spelling. Interestingly, the word “inaugural” was a problem — he wrote “inaugeral” on his handwritten copy of his second inaugural address. Even though he was president and gave inaugural address, he routinely misspelled “inaugural.” He probably would have loved today’s spell check apps.

The Lincolns left the White House during the summer and lived in a cottage at the Soldier’s Home. The Soldiers’ Home is just three miles from the White House and in the city now, but in Lincoln’s day, it was out in the country. Abe commuted to and from work on horseback — sometimes riding alone. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, reportedly wasn’t happy about that.

Lincoln was invited to the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. But the main speaker was to be Edward Everett — one of the best known and most regarded orators of the day. Lincoln was invited to make “a few appropriate remarks.” Everett spoke for about two hours, and Lincoln spoke for about two minutes….

Here’s a few interesting things about Abe — starting with the fact that he didn’t like being called Abe. He preferred that people call him Abraham.
He loved animals and had a cat named Tabby and a dog named Fido. He liked the cat so much she ate dinner at the White House table.
Lincoln was the first president to be born outside the original 13 colonies.
He never slept in the Lincoln bedroom. 
Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, held séances in the White House.
He lost five separate elections before he became President of the U.S.

So let’s all remember Abraham Lincoln today on his 214th birthday. He’s often quoted, but today, especially, remember that he said, “I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”
Happy Birthday Abe!
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Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday — the game will take place tomorrow at 6:30 (ET) at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, in Glendale, Arizona. This will be Super Bowl number 57 (LVII.)

The “home” team will be the Philadelphia Eagles. The designated home team alternates each bear between the NFC and AFC champions. If it is an odd-numbered Super Bowl, the NFC team is the designated home team. If it is an even-numbered Super Bowl, the AFC is the designated home team.

The Green Bay Packers were the first team to ever win a Super Bowl — in 1967. The Packers won over the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. The MVP of that game was Bart Starr, the Packers quarterback. The game was played was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 

Twelve NFL teams have never won the Super Bowl, and four teams have never even been to the game. The four teams that have never been to the Super Bowl are the Houston Texans, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars and the Cleveland Browns. The other seven teams that been to the game but never won are the Minnesota Vikings (4 appearances,) Buffalo Bills (4,) Atlanta Falcons (2,) Carolina Panthers (2,) Arizona Cardinals (1,) Tennessee Titans (1,) and Los Angeles Chargers (1.)

So who’s won the most Super Bowls? The Pittsburg Steelers and New England Patriots are tied with six championships apiece. Interestingly, The New England Patriots have also lost the most Super Bowls — along with Denver…. they’ve both lost five apiece.

The winning team will receive the Lombardi Trophy — it weighs seven pounds and costs $50,000. 
More than 100 million people worldwide watch the Super Bowl every year. In fact, Super Bowl XLIV, in 2010 unseated M*A*S*H’s series finale as the most-watched show in television history.
So the odds are, you’ll be watching tomorrow night…..
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The last issue of TIME magazine had an interesting article on quantum computers — the acknowledged future of computers. IBM is the recognized leader in the development of these machines and a number of IBM employees were interviewed for input to the article. IBM was once synonymous with computers, but over the years kind of got left behind by companies like Apple and Microsoft. During their interviews, they acknowledged that IBM had fallen behind by not seizing the initiative with cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence and said, “It’s no secret that we let things slip by not jumping on the cloud.”

Of course we often don’t see the future clearly. I remember a famous quote made by Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM in 1943 — “I think there is a world marked for maybe five computers.” 
But Watson wasn’t alone — I dug up a few more quotes from fairly knowledgeable people, not that many years ago:
“But what … is it good for?” Those words were spoken by an engineer at the Advanced Computing System Division of IBM in 1968 (commenting on the microchip.)
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, in 1977, said: “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
From an article in a 1949 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine — “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.”
In 1981, Bill Gates said, “640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
And Steve Jobs wrote about attempts he and Steve Wozniak made to interest Atari and Hewlett-Packard in the personal computer that they created….
“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, and we’ll come to work for you.’ And they said ‘No.’ ‘So then we went to Hewlett-Packard and they said, “Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’”

So I guess even those who should know, don’t always. Someone once said that prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.
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I was cleaning out and rearranging things downstairs a few weeks ago and I ran across some memorabilia that I hadn’t forgotten about, but haven’t thought about for a long time. There’s a story behind them that I can’t tell and even if I could, I wouldn’t be comfortable talking about it. 

Anyhow, the objects were various things like coffee and beer mugs, belt buckles, etc. with the KGB logo or symbol on them. I realize that not everyone is as old as I am, so for the younger readers — KGB stands for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, or Committee for State Security, an organization of the old Soviet Union. The KGB was a military service and it operated under army laws and regulations. It had several main functions: foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, the exposure and investigation of political and economic crimes committed by Soviet citizens, guarding the leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Soviet Government, organization and security of government communications, protecting Soviet borders, and thwarting nationalist, dissident, religious, and anti-Soviet activities. The organization existed form March 13, 1954 to December 3, 1991. When the Soviet Union ceased to exist, so did the KGB.

The Soviet Union’s KGB and the United States’ CIA are intelligence agencies synonymous with the Cold War. They were often viewed as being pitted against one another — each agency sought to protect its status and maintain its dominance in its own sphere of influence. The question of who was better, the KGB or CIA, is difficult, probably impossible, to answer objectively. 

There’s an old expression that you should “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” In some instances, that’s exactly what the two organizations did — and a major reason that I wound up with the memorabilia I mentioned above.
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One of the few magazines we subscribe to, that I actually read, is TIME. In the last issue, there was an article that caught my eye — it was about people that are “overtalkers.”
Often times I think that maybe I talk too much — I always speak up in meetings or when I’m in a group of people and I’m not hesitant to express my opinion. And sometimes later, I think that I should have just kept quite, or that maybe I said too much. 

The TIME article basically indicated that the world is filled with overtalkers and went on to talk about a number of famous people — some that probably talk too much, but many that choose their words carefully and and use pauses at the appropriate place in their conversation.

Not too surprisingly, men claim the title of champions of overtalking. There’s a word to describe problem of overtalking — talkaholism. The term was coined by a pair of communication-studies scholars (Virginia P. Richmond and James C. McCrosky) at West Virginia University to describe a form of extreme overtaking. They described talkaholism as an addiction, and said that while a talkaholic’s gift with words can help them advance in their careers, their inability to rein in their overtalking can lead to personal and professional difficulties. 

So after reading the article, I wondered if maybe I was a talkaholic. The article listed a self-scored questionnaire that supposedly can identify people who suffer from the condition. The article indicated where the test could be found online, so I took the test. (You can find it on the TIME website if you’re interested.)

It turns our that I’m not a talkaholic. The most you can score on the test is 50 and my score was 25. If you score between 30 and 40, you’re a “marginal” talkaholic. 
So when people tell me I talk too much, I can say that maybe I do, but at least I’m not a talkaholic.
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A few days ago the subject was balloons — specifically the Chinese “reconnaissance” balloon that flew over the U.S. recently. I got to thinking that maybe more time should have been spent on the “early” balloons….

It appears that back in the 18th century sometime, some inventors turned their attention to balloons. They began by attaching something heavy to something filled with lighter than normal air — like hot air. The very first balloons were hot air balloons. My extensive research uncovered a story about a Brazilian priest (turned inventor, I guess) that some think may have “invented” the hot air balloon. I mentioned the other day that the first recorded use of reconnaissance balloons was during the French revolutionary wars. Apparently the French were among the first to show an interest in balloons. French brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier experimented with hot air balloons and in the late 1700s were ready to send up passengers — a rooster, a duck, and a sheep. The experiment went well… if you don’t count a minor injury to the rooster when he was kicked by the sheep. After that successful “flight,” the brothers sent up a man in a balloon that was tethered — the balloon was attached to a line that was anchored to the ground. 
Soon afterwards a couple of Frenchmen went aloft in a balloon, cut the line and sailed over Paris at an altitude of about 3,000 feet. They burned wood and straw to maintain a supply of hot air and were aloft for about 25 minutes and covered about five and a half miles. The flight caused quite a stir in Paris and created a frenzy over balloons throughout Europe.

Balloon mania was on — inventors kept working on balloons. Heated air could get a balloon up, but when the fuel for the fire ran out, the air cooled and the balloon came down — wherever it happened to be. Keeping the fire going in the air was complicated and dangerous. So the inventors began to fill balloons with hydrogen gas. That worked well, but it was very flammable. 

In 1783, Jacques Charles launched a hydrogen filled balloon from the site of what today is the Eiffel Tower and it flew for two hours, covering 27 miles. Among the crowd of onlookers was the American philosopher-statesman — and inventor — Benjamin Franklin. Ben called called the flight “a most beautiful spectacle.” Of course not everyone was impressed or understood what all the fuss was about. Someone asked Franklin what those floating things could possibly be used for. His reply was, “What use is a newborn baby?” 
It turns out that a use was found soon. In 1793 the first airmail letter was sent from London to Paris by balloon — the letter was addressed to B. Franklin.

Another famous American, President Abraham Lincoln, got interested in balloons on June 17, 1861, when he received a telegraph message from high up in the air. A balloon enthusiast named Theodore Lowe had taken several representatives of the American Telegraph Company up over Washington, D.C. in a tethered balloon. They ran a wire down the tether and sent the first air-to- land telegram. It was forwarded to Lincoln.

Later that night, Lowe’s balloon was tethered over the White House while Lincoln asked about military possibilities. Lowe’s conversation with Lincoln very probably led to the use of balloons by the Union troops during the Civil War. Tethered balloons provided a high platform from which to spy on the enemy. An added psychological benefit was that the balloons looked scary lurking above the battle zone. The Confederacy was unsuccessful in trying to shoot down the Union’s balloons, so they decided they needed some of their own.
 (As an added bonus for taking time to read this, here’s some additional information…. the balloons the Confederacy came up with were made of silk — providing a nice elegant Southern touch to the project. In fact, it gave rise to the tale that Southern belles had donated their best dresses to the air-war effort.)

Of course the one problem that plagued the advancing balloon technology was that they couldn’t be steered. They could only go up and down and were at the mercy of the wind as to which direction and how far they moved sideways. Balloon “pilots” were just passengers, so a lot of effort was put into devices to make the balloons go where the pilots wanted. Inventors came up with oars, sails, wings, parachutes and propellers, but nothing worked. One inventor suggested harnessing a team of vultures, but that idea never panned out. Nothing really succeeded until the development of a lightweight gasoline engine. By the beginning of World War I, balloons were using motors, propellers and rudders.
And the rest, as they say, is history……
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Today is National Chopsticks Day – a fun holiday that we usually celebrate. Actually, we often use chopsticks at home — mostly because it’s just a fun thing to do. But today, being National Chopsticks Day, it’s almost mandatory.

Chopsticks were developed about 5,000 years ago in China. There is a famous tale that Confucius advised people not to use knives at the table because knives would remind them of the slaughterhouse. Chinese chopsticks are usually 9 to 10 inches long and rectangular with a blunt end. 

Over a quarter of the world’s population use chopsticks as their primary utensil for eating. However, the first chopsticks were probably used for cooking, stirring the fire, serving or grabbing bits of food, and not as eating utensils.

Chopstick shapes and lengths vary according to region or country. Generally Chinese versions are tapered with blunt ends and Japanese chopsticks are shorter and more pointed.

So put the silverware away today — eat whatever you’re having with chopsticks and have a Happy Chopsticks Day!
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Today, February 5, is the end of the Chinese New Year celebration. Chinese New Year, known as the Spring Festival, typically lasts 15 or 16 days and always ends with the Lantern Festival — that’s today/night. Chinese New Year begins with the first new Moon of the year and ends with the following full Moon

Tonight’s full Moon is commonly known as the Full Snow Moon because February is usually the snowiest month in the United States. Various cultures, of course, had their own names for each month’s moon. The Cherokee tribe called February’s full moon the Bone Moon because by this time of the year, the tribe’s winter food supplies had usually dwindled down to the point where people had to gnaw on bones and cook bone marrow soup in order to survive.

Last evening the Moon was spectacular — I expect nothing less when tonight’s full Moon rises.
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