What Would Jimmy Do?

When I was a kid growing up in Maysville, anytime the weather was decent, we were outside. We weren’t poor, but I didn’t have a lot of “store-bought” toys — nobody did. So my friends and I made a lot of our “toys,” or various things to play with and/or occupy our time. In the past I’ve mentioned some of the things we made and talked about making things with and for our kids, even though when they were young, there were a lot more “story-bought” toys available.

Today, July 17, is one of those special days that often goes unnoticed — it’s National Walk on stilts Day. Stilts are one of the things we usually made every summer, and of course, the older we got the higher we made the stilts.

I hadn’t thought about stilts for a long time and it’s not a subject that gets much notice today. I suppose kids still walk on stilts, but I don’t remember seeing a kid on stilts in a long, long time. When stilts come to mind, you usually think of a circus — just about every circus has some guy walking on really high stilts. 

I usually think of stilts in terms of “entertainment,” but they are used in many industries, especially the construction industry. Stilts are even used in sheepherding — in France, shepherds used them to watch their flocks from an elevated position. In construction, there is often a need to work at a height above the ground higher than a worker can reach, and where constantly moving a ladder is a pain. A good example of this is the drywall industry — in fact if you check Amazon, you can buy drywall stilts.

So anyhow, when I noticed it was Stilts Day, I thought it might be a good time to talk about something else that was popular in my childhood that’s just about disappeared today….
On the seacoast of southern France, there is a soggy region called Les Landes. As the seasons change, the earth changes from salt marsh to damp plains, most of it isn’t either land or water. For centuries, the people their found their own strange way to live with those conditions — they relied on stilts. Propped up on stilts, shepherds tended their flocks, mail carriers made their rounds, stumping on their stilts. Stiltwalking housewives, chatted in the market in their black clothes, and were said to resemble large ravens perched on dead branches. The children did their chores, went to school, and played sports — all on stilts. The people of this region became the most skillful stiltwalkers in the world. 

Workers in the fruit orchards of California have a saying, “One pair of stilts is worth a dozen ladders.” Stilts are commonly used  to prune and harvest the trees in a handy and efficient manner. 
I mentioned stilts in the circus — one famous circus performer lives in London near Piccadilly Circus, which isn’t a circus, but a busy circular area in the heart of the city. Harry Yelding claims to hold the world’s record for waling on the tables stilts — as a clown, he performs on stilts that measure twenty-two feet from his ankles t the ground. He sometimes strolls through the London streets, window-shopping in third-story windows.
Even though Yelding gets a lot of publicity, his stilts are not the highest — in 2008, Roy Maloy of Australia took 5 steps on stilts 46 ft. high, claiming the unofficial world record. 
Archaeological ruins and texts show that stilt-walking was practiced in ancient Greece as far back as the 6th century BC.

The stilts that I made as a kid, were hand-held stilts — they weren’t tied or strapped to my legs, I just stood on a “step” attached to a pole. But there are other type of stilts….
Peg stilts, also known as Chinese stilts, are often used by professional performers. These stilts strap on at the foot, ankle, and just below the knee. The stilt walker needs to keep moving to keep their balance.
I mentioned earlier drywall stilts — these are designed to allow the stilt walker to walk or stand still.
Spring stilts are spring-loaded stilts that allow the user to run, jump and perform various acrobatics. 
Digitigrade stilts are peg stilts whose line follows the foot and not the shin bone — this allows costumers to mimic some animals.
Articulated stilts are similar to drywall stilts in that they allow the stilt walker to stand in one place without shifting their weight from foot to foot. This are commonly used in theme parks.

So stilts provided me entertainment as a kid, but it was something kids do — as we get older we have to realize that…
Someone said that it is in vain that we get upon stilts, for once on them, it is still with our legs that we must walk. And on the highest throne in the world, we are still sitting on our own ass.
— 30 —

I had my car inspected recently and while I was looking for my proof of insurance card and the receipt that said I’d paid my taxes, I ran across a whole bunch of other stuff — stuff that I have no idea why it hadn’t been thrown out. 

Cars used to have glove compartments — a little door on the dashboard in front of the passenger seat and that’s where you put stuff, like the owners’ manual. Well, actually, that little compartment still exists — the door is pretty much where it’s alway been, but I’m not sure I’ve ever opened that little door more that once or twice since I’ve owned the car. 

All the cars now have another compartment between the drivers seat and the front passenger seat — that’s where all the stuff goes in my car — not the “glove” compartment. 

While I was looking for my insurance and tax forms, I ran across a roll of quarters — Claire put them there in case we needed them for a parking meter, two cell phone chargers that fit into a cigarette lighter socket — my car doesn’t have a cigarette lighter —  it has a USB outlet for phones, a bag of cough drops, a flashlight, a “wonder tool” that has about a dozen “tools” — kind of like a Swiss Army knife. A pack of Kleenex. Two tire gauges — one analog, one digital. A listing of all the sirius radio channels. A large pack of coupons from Bed, Bath & Beyond — mostly expired, some in 2016. A couple of old Covid masks. A USB charging cable that actually fits my phone, a couple of pieces of paper of unknown origin, an emergency flasher, and a couple of loose coins. There was no owners’ or operators’ manual — that’s the only thing in the glove box on the dash.

I suppose I should probably get in the habit of cleaning out this storage console more regularly — maybe at least every year when I get the car inspected… kind of like changing the batteries in the smoke detectors when you change the clocks for daylight savings time — but at least that happens twice a year, my car only gets inspected once a year. 

I’ve always tried to keep my cars relatively clean and clutter free — even the “glove” compartments and the trunk. But I have to admit that lately I’ve let both of these areas get a little messy. 

It occurs to me that my car has lights and warnings for just about everything — if my seatbelt isn’t fastened, the door or window is open, if I forget to hit the “off” button (it’s a “hybrid”) when I get out, when the car needs maintenance or an oil change. It seems to me it wouldn’t be so hard to add some sort of notification to clean out the glove box periodically…..
— 30 —

One of my grandmothers truly believed that alcohol was totally the “root of all evil.” I alway felt bad for my grandad — he never got to enjoy a cold beer or a glass of wine. My grandad really did like Root Beer — he was a farmer and he worked very hard and a nice cold root beer tasted pretty refreshing after a long day in the fields. But if my grandmother caught him sitting on the porch drinking a root beer she went into the riot mode. We often tried to explain to her that root beer was just a soft drink, like Pepsi, or an orange soda…. but her reply was always, “then why did they choose to call it beer?” Might as well talk to a rock — her mind was made up and nothing ever changed it.

Anyhow, that brings me to today’s subject —Carry Nation. I heard a lot about Carry Nation from discussions between my grandmother and granddad. My grandmother thought she was sent from God, my granddad thought she was a lunatic.
In case you’re interested, here’s the story….

After the Civil War wound down, the temperance movement became more popular. (I looked up temperance — it means what I’d call “moderation.” But the temperance movement considered it to mean “zero tolerance.” I’ve often wondered why their movement used that name…) But back to the story — the believers of “zero tolerance” became organized and adopted the name Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1874. Their motto was something like “Lips that touch liquor, shall never touch mine.” They hung out in schools lecturing children on the joys of water and making them sign the “Pledge.”

The most famous of the WCTU group wasCarry Nation. 
Carry Amelia Moore was born in Kentucky in 1846. As a young woman, she married Charles Gloyd, whose hard-drinking soon killed him and left Nation alone to support their young child. The experience instilled in Nation a lifelong distaste for alcohol. She later married David Nation, who worked as a preacher and lawyer, and they eventually settled in Kansas. After their relocation, she stormed around Kansas, busted into bars swinging her hatchet at the bottles — and the customers. 

I’m not sure there’s any medical proof, but I suspect she didn’t have all her marbles. Carry’s mother was convinced that she was the real Queen of England and that Queen Victoria had usurped her right to the throne. She paraded around in flowing purple robes, conferring knighthoods on the local farmers. 
Carry’s only child was psychotic and confined to a lunatic asylum. Carry herself died in a Kansas hospital of what was described as “nervous trouble.”

But before she died, she swore that God Himself had appeared to her and told her that her mission in life was to stamp out everything alcoholic in the whole country, so she abandoned her husband and daughter and marched forth to do His bidding. When she started, she was armed only with a wagonload of bricks, rocks and chunks of wood. She marched into saloons and threw rocks at the bottles and smashed the furniture with logs. She always got people’s attention — she was almost six feet tall and had a face like a bulldog — when they saw her coming, everyone bolted to safety. Somewhere along the way, she found her trusty companion that became about as famous as she was — the far more efficient hatchet. After she got the hatchet, there was no stopping her. Once you’ve thrown a rock, it stays thrown and you need more rocks, but her hatchet never left her hand.

Carry didn’t just smash the bottles — when she was finished with a saloon, it was rubble. The tables and chairs were in splinters and the floor was covered with whiskey. 
She wrecked havoc in Kansas, but God wasn’t going to be satisfied with Kansas alone, so she moved  on to St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit and Montana — scattering holy destruction all over.

It appears that as long as Carry stuck to midwestern states, she didn’t meet with much opposition. A lot of people thought of her like some kind of a natural disaster, like tornadoes. Some probably even thought she had a point. But when she went east to places like Philadelphia, New York, Atlantic City, etc. people weren’t so forgiving and suggested that what she was doing wasn’t so much a righteous crusade, but more of a destruction of private property. She was tossed into jail over and over — something she was proud of — but she never stayed locked up for long… probably because the authorities didn’t want her hanging around annoying them. Her press coverage fell off, with the exception of the cartoonists, and that ridicule was something she wasn’t prepared for.

Carry Nation died in 1911, never living to see nationwide prohibition in America, which was established with the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution and went into effect on January 16, 1920. (Prohibition, considered a failure, was repealed on December 5, 1933 by the 21st Amendment.)

You can’t deny that Carry Nation was a colorful character in our Nation’s history, but I guess I’d have to side with my grandad’s opinion of her — not my grandmother’s.
— 30 —

Today, July 22, is Pi Approximation Day. Another day dedicated to the mathematical constant pi (∏)

I know there seems to be a lot of pi days — people who write their date in month/date format celebrate Pi Day on March 14 (3/14 or 3-14) because the first three digits of the date correspond to the first three digits of pi — 3.14. Those that live in countries that write their dates in the date/month format celebrate today on 22 July or 22/7, and they often refer to it as casual Pi Day. And then there’s the group that argue for the replacement of Pi with Tau and to celebrate Tau Day on June 28 instead of celebrating Pi Day or Pi Approximation Day. 

But anyhow, no matter if you’re a mathematician or a baker, pi or pie, today is a good day to celebrate. 
In case you’re more of a baker than a math guy, pi denotes the relationship between a circle’s circumference and its diameter and can be expressed by the fraction 22/7 which calculates approximately to 3.14 — thus Pi Approximation Day. 

Pi (∏) is the ratio of any circle — amazingly, for all circles of any size, pi will always be the same. It is an “irrational number,” meaning its exact value is, and will always be, unknown.

If math class didn’t make much sense to you in school, or even why it mattered, pi is the answer. It’s one of the things that links math to real-world uses. Because pi is linked to circles, it’s also linked to cycles and things like calculating waves, ebb and flow, ocean tides, electromagnetic waves, etc. 
So Pi deserves its day, and it also deserves its approximation day.
— 30 — 

I listened to a conversation a while back that I really couldn’t believe was even happening. The subject was distress signals. Specifically — SOS. The two participants that started the discussion disagreed as to what SOS meant… one said it meant “Save Our Ship,” the other was sure it meant “Save our Souls.”

I guess I just pretty much assumed that everyone knew that it doesn’t mean anything. I suppose because it’s made up of three letters, it’s natural to assume SOS is an acronym. However it was never meant to stand for anything. 
In Morse code, SOS is made up of three dots, three dashes, and three more dots (••• – – – •••) 

The Marconi Yearbook of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony, published in 1918, gives an explanation of the meaning, or really the lack of meaning, behind the letter choices: “The signal [SOS] was adopted simply on account of its easy radiation and its unmistakable character ‚ and — it could not be misinterpreted as being a message for anything else. There is no special significance in the letters themselves….”

So SOS was chosen as a distress signal because it was easy to understand in Morse code and not likely to be confused with other signals. It also has the added benefit that it is a series of letters that reads the same backwards and forwards. And — SOS looks the same upside down as it does right side up, making it an ideal series of letters to view from the air if written on a beach or in the snow.

The SOS signal was established as an International Distress Signal on October 3, 1906 by an agreement made between the British Marconi Society and the German Telefunk organization at the Berlin Radio Conference. The signal was formally introduced on July 1, 1908.

The first time the ‘SOS’ signal was used in an emergency was on June 10, 1909 when the Cunard liner SS Slavonia was wrecked off the Azores. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue. 

Prior to the introduction of the ’SOS’ signal, the CQD signal was devised by the Marconi Company and was intended to mean “All Station — Urgent,” but was popularly misinterpreted as “Come Quick — Danger” or “Come Quickly Down.” Even though “SOS” was formally put into use in 1908, it’s adoption by maritime stations was very slow. So slow, in fact that at time of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, her radio operator (Harold Bride) used both the old “CQDistress’ and the then newer SOS signals.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Morse code was the only way ships could communicate with one another while at sea. Wireless operators could send messages from one ship to another using the telegraph and Morse code, and they all used shorthand ways to communicate important messages quickly.

In the early days of telegraphs, each country had its own distress signal. As we discussed, the new international signal, SOS, was agreed to in 1906, with the explanation that it seemed necessary to specify that indications concerning a case of distress should be given by means of conventional signals in order that they be understood by all stations. The problem was that many telegraph operators refused to adopt the new universal signal and stuck with their own signals for several years after SOS was adopted. That all changed with the sinking of the Titanic. 

Because of the advancement in modern telecommunications, SOS and Morse code aren’t used often today. In 2007, the Federal Communications Commission eliminated the requirement that radio operators must know Morse code. The Navy and a few other agencies still use it, but it’s not their primary method of signaling distress anymore.

I guess I should mention that SOS isn’t universally used as a distress signal. For instance, if your pharmacist is filling a prescription from your doctor and the doctor has written s.o.s. or sos, he isn’t warning the pharmacist that you’re in dire trouble. In the medical field, sos is used when writing a prescription by indicating when his patient should take the drug or medication. Usually it means “as required,” or “as needed.” In case you’re interested, it’s derived from the Latin — “Si Opus Sit.”

My intent was to just discuss SOS signals, but one of the most famous SOS signals in history came from the RMS Titanic after it struck an iceberg in the Atlantic that ultimately led to its sinking. The ship struck the iceberg at 11:40 pm on the night of 14 April, 1912 and at around 2:20 am on the morning of 15 April, the Titanic disappeared beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic was the first transatlantic ship to send an SOS signal via radio. 

Lloyd Detmer, who worked as a radio operator on USS Theodore Roosevelt received a strange SOS signal on April 15, 1972. Detmer hears on his headphones, an almost unintelligible voice asking for help for the passengers and crew of the sinking Titanic. When Detmer reported this to his superiors, he was ordered not to respond to the signal because it was believed to be someone’s joke. 

But out of curiosity Detmer searched the military records of SOS signals and he discovered that other radio operator colleagues have received this SOS signal from the Titanic in 1918, 1924, 1930, 1936, 1942, 1948, and so on — every six years. Reading the radiograms of his colleagues he discovered that all of them have heard the voice of the first, and last, captain of the Titanic, Captain Edward Smith, asking for help. When this news became public, people started to ask questions. The mystery grew and many questions are unanswered. Many people believe the wireless telegraph machine on board the Titanic has been broadcasting distress calls. And in 2020, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that a salvage firm can retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph machine that was used to broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic. The judge agreed that the telegraph is historically and culturally important and could soon be lost within the rapidly decaying wreck site. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which represents the public’s interest in the wreck site, fiercely opposes the mission. NOAA argued in court documents that the telegraph is likely surrounded “by the mortal remains of more than 1,500 people,” and should be left alone. The last I had heard, the expedition had been suspended awaiting resolution of some legal battles.

So if the issues are resolved and the telegraph is actually recovered, maybe we’ll have at least a partial answer to this mystery by 2026…
— 30 —

A number of years ago, during my working years, it became necessary for me to spend quite a bit of time in Philadelphia. The trips were usually short — 2 to 3 days at most. Back then it was only about a two to three hour trip so I usually drove. I also usually took a government car rather than drive my own. As you probably know, government cars have US Government license plates — it doesn’t matter what government agency, the plates are all the same — Dept. of Agriculture, FBI, IRS, State Dept,, etc. — doesn’t matter — all the plates are the same. 

Anyhow, most of the trip from Washington to Philadelphia involved traveling on Interstate 95 and portions of I-95 required a toll.
I usually made these trips alone, only occasionally traveling with someone else. Two to three hours in a car alone gets a little boring, so I had this game I used to play. When I pulled up to the toll booth, I paid the toll for the car behind me — I usually did this when there was only one person in the car behind. 

Invariably, I’d get a lot of entertainment out of this “act of kindness.” Usually the car would closely follow me, wondering why someone in a government car would be paying their toll. They would often creep up beside me in the passing land and stare — I would always smile at them and give them a little wave. Then they’d drop back and follow again. I don’t remember anyone ever passing me. 

I told someone that I did this one day and they said it was cruel — I said I thought it was an act of kindness.
— 30 — 

When our daughter was young she had a number of Barbie dolls and I’m pretty sure that all our granddaughters have Barbie dolls. I read somewhere that Barbie is the most popular fashion doll ever produced, and the most diverse fashion doll on the market. Every minute, there are more that 100 dolls sold — that means that 58 million are sold every year. Barbie is sold in 150 countries worldwide. 

Barbie has had more than 200 inspirational careers — including astronaut, firefighter, entrepreneur, journalist, and pilot — just to name a few. 
Barbie traveled into space in 1965 — four years before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. 
In 1992, Barbie ran for president for the first time and has run in every election year since — and — in 2016 she ran with the first all-female ticket.

I guess I thought Barbie was one of those people that just had one name, like Madonna or Cher, but it turns out that Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. Barbie was “invented” by Ruth Handler in 1959 and named her invention after her real daughter, Barbara. Later on, Barbie was given a boyfriend — Ken. You may have guessed, Ken was named after Handler’s son, Kenneth.

Barbie’s official birthday is March 9, 1959 — the day she was introduced to the toy industry during the New York Toy Fair.
Barbie has fictional parents — George (an engineer) and Margaret (a housewife) and they live in a fictional town, Willows — in Wisconsin. Barbie also has three younger siblings — a sister, Skipper and twins, Tutti and Todd.

I guess since Barbie was given a full name and family, it was only proper that her boyfriend Ken should get the same treatment. Barbie met Ken in 1961 — Ken’s full name is Kenneth Carson and his parents are Dr. Carl and Edna Carson. Ken also has a younger brother — Tommy.

Barbie stands 11.5 inches tall and the first Barbie doll sold for $3.00. The first Barbie TV commercial aired during the Mickey Mouse Club in 1959.

The reason I chose to blog about Barbie today is because I read a news article that the manufacturer of Barbie dolls (Mattel) had announced a new ad reflecting an “ongoing brand evolution” to make Barbie a more positive image for young girls. Mattel executives apparently thought that in the past, Barbie was looked upon as a standard for young girls to compare themselves against. The new ad campaign includes a great message for little girls — you can be anything you want to be!

The article went on to explain that Mattel wanted to remind the world what Barbie represents. Founded by a female entrepreneur and mother  in 1959, the Barbie brand has always represented the fact that women have choices. The “ongoing brand evolution” is designed to remind today’s parents that through the power of imagination, Barbie allows girls to explore their limitless potential. 

That seems like an admirable goal, but apparently the company must have been doing something right over the years — Barbie is still a best selling toy…. and she doesn’t have a video screen, or require batteries.
— 30 — 

Today, the 14th of July, France will celebrate Fête Nationale — or better know to the rest of the world as Bastille Day. Bastille Day is celebrated not only in France, but recognized in other countries by French descendants.

A number of years ago, we attended a Bastille Day event At Wolf Trap in Vienna. It was a regular show with a French theme and afterwards, there was a fireworks display. The fireworks were unique in that they mostly were on, or near, the ground — much like fireworks used to be in Colonial America. At Wolf Trap, there was a ravine near the theater and everyone went outside and stood around the ravine and looked down on the fireworks. The fireworks were all red, white and blue and very impressive…. very different than the modern-day aerial fireworks shows.

But back to today — what exactly does Bastille Day celebrate?
In France, no one calls it Bastille Day — in France it’s called Fête Nationale, or “The National Holiday.” Bastille Day is an English term for the day.
It commemorates the storming of the Bastille that took place in 1789. At the time tensions were at an all-time high between the people and royalty and the day they revolted and stormed the bastille is seen as the beginning of the French revolution.

The Bastille was a Royal Fortress Prison and was stormed because it became a symbol of the people’s dislike of the monarchy. It was originally used as a fortress in the Hundred Years War but became a royal prison in 1417. It housed anyone who revolted against the king — that’s why storming it felt like a liberation for the people.

Today there is a large military parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris. The parade was first held in 1880 and it’s not only the oldest, but also the largest regular military parade in Europe. 
Although the first celebration took place a year after the storming of the bastille, it wasn’t until 1880 that a law was passed making Bastile Day a national celebration. 
During the storming of the Bastille, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (“…let them eat cake.”) fled 14 miles outside Paris to Versailles, but it didn’t save them.

One of the largest Bastille Day celebrations in the US is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It lasts four days and features a 43 foot tall replica of the Eiffel Tower. 
So Viva la France ‚ Happy bastille Day — I think I should see if we have a bottle of French wine….
— 30 —

A few days ago the subject here was hats and how people used to wear them all the time , but now — not so much. Today, I thought it might be interesting to think about some of the “famous” hats from over the years.

Throughout history, hats have been used to convey some meaning — a status symbol, political statement, or maybe just a style of dress. In fact, some styles have become popular or recognizable because of one particular individual. 

Abraham Lincoln made the stovepipe popular — and famous. Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall and his stovepipe hat accentuated his height even further. He used to keep papers and speeches tucked inside his hat and work on them at a later time, so his hat wasn’t just his headgear, but a repository for his working papers. Lincoln wore a stovepipe hat to Ford’s Theater on the night of his assassination. The hat was on the floor by his seat during the performance when he was shot. The chair he sat in and the hat were retrieved by the War Department as evidence in the trial of John Wilkes Booth. They were later given to the Smithsonian. 

Winston Churchill was renowned for his hats. Churchill wore a lot of styles of hats, from top hats to bowler hats, but he is most famous for his homburg. The homburg is a felt hat with a curved brim and a dent that runs from front to back, and a grosgrain ribbon that forms a band. The hat was popularized in Britain by Prince Edward VII, who first discovered it on a visit to Bad Homburg in Germany in the 1880s.

Thomas More was Lord High Chancellor of England under Henry VIII and was a prominent Catholic intellectual. However, after refusing to recognize Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England, he sealed his fall from grace and was beheaded for treason in 1535. More was subsequently venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church, and his belongings — including his famous hat —have become saintly relics. His hat was a black velvet Tudor bonnet. At President Obama’s inauguration Justice Antonian Scalia wore a copy of Thomas More’s hat (given to him by the Thomas More Society.) St. Thomas More’s actual hat is on display at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington D.C.

Napoleon always used imagery and clothing to convey power and status. He made the black-felted beaver fur bicorne (two-cornered) hat famous. Traditionally, the bicorne was worn with the corners facing to the front and back, but Napoleon, to make himself distinct on the battlefield, wore the hat sideways so that anyone scanning the crowds instantly knew it was him. 

Coonskin caps are fur hats made from the skin of a raccoon — with the animal’s tail hanging down the back. Native Americans wore the caps, but by the 18th century, frontiersmen wore them as hunting caps. Davy Crockett, once a politician, had returned to Texas and became famous for his activities at the Alamo and made the coonskin cap famous. He was, in fact, wearing a coonskin cap when he was killed at the Alamo.

On November 16, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt was photographed while on an inspection visit to the Panama Canal excavation. The picture showed Roosevelt at the controls of a steam-shovel and sporting a light straw hat with a black band. The newspapers called it Roosevelt’s “Panama” hat. The style that is now known as a Panama hat is actually traditionally made in Ecuador. The toquilla palm plant is used to weave it. These type of hats have been woven in Ecuador since the time of the Incas, but during the 1850s, many people travelled through Panama up to the United States for the gold rush, and Ecuadorian hat-sellers exported their wares to sell in Panama. The hats became even more popular during the building of the Panama Canal. The hats were popular because they shielded the workers faces from the sun. So because of Theodore Roosevelt, the Ecuadorian sombreros de papa toquilla forever became the Panama hat.

They say that clothes make the man, but in some cases, the man makes the hat. And those hats are famous because of these men… Napoleon used the bicorne to bring attention to himself on the battlefield, Lincoln wore the stovepipe hat to keep his speeches and add to his tall, powerful image and the homburg will always be associated with Winston Churchill and the values he stood for. Over the years hats have been more than a clothing accessory or a fashion statement — some were used to send certain messages… I guess that’s the power of a good hat.
— 30 —

There are a number of things that I’ve wondered about off and on for many years. A lot of these have been mentioned on this blog. If you go back several years, you’ll probably find an entry about the same thing that I’ve decided to puzzle over today. 

I’m talking about those two holes in all (or most) of the electrical plugs in your house. I’ve always wondered what they were for — it must take some effort to make the holes, so they must have some specific purpose, right?

The number one reason I’ve been given over a lot of years is that they enable the outlet to get a better grip on the plug. I’ve been told that if you look inside an electrical outlet, you’d see that the contact wipers used to transfer electricity to the plug have little “bumps” on them and that these round bits fit snugly into the holes in the plug so the plug won’t fall out of the outlet. Well, I can’t speak for all electrical outlets, but I’ve taken many apart and none of them have little “bumps” that fit into the holes of the electrical plug. 

Every time this particular puzzlement of mine pops up, I get about as far as the old “grip” theory and don’t get much further until my mind wanters off to another subject. But today, I thought I’d dig a little deeper….
The first electrical plug in the United States was patented on June 17, 1913 by Harvey Hubbell. Turns out that Hubbell’s design had no holes. His design had little semi-circle indents on both sides of the plug’s prongs. These indents, according to the patent were designed to hook the plug to the socket and prevent it from falling out.

According to my extensive research, a lot of people tried to modify Hubbell’s design and make it their own. “Inventors” came up with plugs with square holes and round holes, but none of them copied Hubbell’s semi-circular indents for fear of being sued for patent infringement. But Hubbell sued them anyway — he lost the case, but all the publicity created a movement that determined, because electricity was becoming so wide-spread, there needed to be a single, universal (standardized) plug in the U.S.

So when all the dust settled, all the designs, including Hubbell’s, converged and resulted in electrical plugs sporting holes in the middle of the prongs and not Hubbell’s semi-circular indents on the sides.

So why are the holes there? In my limited experiment of taking apart electrical outlets, none of them contained anything special to take advantage of an electrical plug’s design, and I couldn’t find anything that fit into the holes of the plug. 

Besides the “grip” theory, there are a lot of myths about the “holes.” One such theory is that sometimes manufacturers have important messages they want to convey to their customers about their electrical device and they put that message on a tag that’s attached with a tie-wrap through the holes in the prongs. When you cut or undo that tie, that serves as an acknowledgement that you’ve read the “terms and conditions.” Slipping a zip tie or other material through the holes is also a way to ensure the equipment isn’t being used.

Another theory is that the holes ultimately save the manufacturers money — if you’re mass producing thousands of those little prongs, there’s a lot of metal that comes from those little punch-outs. That metal can be melted down and used to make more plugs….

So — my answer is that those holes do nothing. Maybe people are just so use to seeing the holes, they’d be upset if the plugs didn’t have them. I guess until someone comes up with an explanation that satisfies me, I’ll just continue to ponder….
— 30 —