What Would Jimmy Do?

Most of my “complaints” on this blog are really more just “comments” on the state of things, but this is truly a complaint, directed to one particular company — FedEx.

Yesterday, a package was scheduled to be delivered to our house that required a signature. Based on past experience, we deliberately stayed home all day — and — carried on as much of our activities as possible very near the front door. After spending the morning sitting by the front door, around 1:15, I went into the kitchen/family room to turn on the TV and change the channel to the PGA golf tournament. My “round trip” took about five or six minutes. When I returned to the front door, there was a small sticker on it from FedEx, saying they were sorry they missed us — they had attempted to deliver our package. 

Here’s the deal — there was no attempt to deliver the package — they only stuck the sticker on the door, and didn’t even bother to fill in any information on the sticker. No knock on the door, no doorbell ringing. Our doorbell button is only about the size of a quarter, so maybe they didn’t see it. Claire, who is very patient, to a point, called FedEX and explained the situation. She was assured that the package would “re-deliverd” by six o’clock that evening. We had dinner plans at 6:30 at a restaurant about 20-25 minutes from our house, so delivery by six would work.
You may have guessed, six o’clock came and no package — called FedEX and were told that there was no record of a call from us — they would attempt to deliver the package again tomorrow.

I realize things like this happen, but this isn’t the first time it’s happened with FedEx, or the second, or the third… it’s their normal operation, at least with us.
If it’s at all possible, we try not to purchase anything from any company if the only way they can deliver it is by FedEx — but, sometimes it’s necessary. 

Right now the sign above is on our front door — it’s 8 ½ x 11 inches. Maybe they’ll at least let us know they’re here…
— 30 —

For the past seventeen years, the 22nd of May has been known as Anniversary Day around here.
With an extended family as large as ours, it’s inevitable that any given day is likely to have more than one family event scheduled.
On May 22, 1999 we attended Mike and Sue’s wedding…. on May 22, 2004, we attended Chris and Kelly’s wedding — and Mike and Sue’s 5th anniversary. 

May 22, 1999 was the 142nd day of the year in 1999, the day of the week was Saturday.
May 22, 2004 was the 143rd day of the year in 2004, the day of the week was Saturday. 
On May 22, 1999, the U.S. President was Bill Clinton, the UK Prime Minister was Tony Blair and Pope John Paul II was leading the Catholic Church.
On May 22, 2004, the U.S. President was George W. Bush, The U.K Prime Minister was Tony Blair and Pope John Paul II was leading the Catholic Church.

On this date in 1999, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling was one of the best selling books and if you were into video games, the most popular were Lego Rock Raiders and Darkstone.
In 2004 on this date, Worse Than Watergate by John W. Dean was one of the best selling books and video gamers were playing Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords or Quiet Weekend in Capri.

Today, May 22, 2022 is the 142nd day of the year and it’s a Sunday.
The U.S. President is Joe Biden, the UK Prime Minister is Boris Johnson and Pope Francis is leading the Catholic Church.
One of the most popular books is Heartstopper, Volume 4 by Alice Osman and Video gamers are playing Elden Ring.
And — Kelly and Chris and Sue and Mike are celebrating their 18th and 23rd anniversaries, respectively.
Happy Anniversary Day!!!
— 30 —

A few blogs back, the subject was the face cards of a deck of playing cards. That got me to thinking…. there is an old recitation “song” that was popular in the fields of both popular and country music when I was younger, called “The Deck of Cards.” 

The song relates the tale of a young American soldier that was arrested and charged with playing cards during a church service. I’m sure the lyrics are available on the Internet, but essentially the soldier’s defense is that explains how the cards relate to his religion — he went through the deck and explained how each card represented something about the bible, e.g. the six reminded him of the six days that God made the heaven and earth, the seven reminds hime that on the seventh day, God rested, etc. Anyhow, a lot things have been written about a deck of playing cards and how the cards relate to our world….
52 cards in a deck represents 52 weeks in a year
The 4 suits represents the 4 seasons
13 cards in each suit represents the 13 weeks in each season
2 red and 2 black suits represent the 4 different solstices
The 12 Royals (face cards) represent the 12 months
And some believe the 4 suits also represent the four natural elements:
Hearts = Water
Clubs = fire
Diamonds = Earth
Spades = Air

These comparisons have been going on for hundreds of years — early writings say that the suits on a deck of cards represent the four major pillars of the economy in the Middle Ages:
Hearts represented the Church, Spades represented the military, Clubs represented agriculture and Diamonds represented the merchant class.

I suppose there’s enough interesting facts about playing card to fill a book — I’m sure someone has written a book like that, but since this is just a blog, here’s a couple that I discovered while doing extensive research on the subject….
The King of Hearts is the only king without a mustache — and — pictures of early English playing cards shows the King of Hearts wielding an axe. But due to poor copying by blockmakers the axe lost its head over the years and the shaft was turned into a sword that appears to be driven into the king’s head, and earned him the nickname of “Suicide King.”

During World War II, specially-constructed decks of cards were sent to American soldiers who were being held in German prison camps. The United States Playing Card Company collaborated with the government to produce these cards. Once they became wet, they peeled apart. Inside, the prisoners found parts of maps that would lead them to freedom.

Today, Bicycle Cards are the most widely recognized decks of cards in the world and their recognizable design we just take for granted, but the evolution of a modern deck of 52 cards is a process that took place over hundreds of years.

The earliest confirmed record of playing cards was found in a manuscript written by a German monk named Johannes in 1377. Johannes was living in a Swiss monastery and wrote about the development of playing cards and the variety of card games they could be used for.So like most things, something as simple as a deck of cards has a unique, fascinating history….
— 30 —

Some friends of ours live next to a property owned by the Willard family — of the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. The other day while watching the news, there was a segment on lobbyists and the conversation got around to the term “lobbyist” originating in the Willard Hotel. Claire said that the term’s origin was a well known fact…. well, the “fact” is that I’d never heard it before. But without giving it much thought, it seemed to make some amount of sense to me.
But — I thought maybe I should do a little extensive research and check it out.

The term “lobbyist” in common political speak is someone who solicits the attention of an elected official or government agency in the hope of receiving preferential treatment in legislation, or regulations.

Anyhow, I found plenty of material to support what Claire said — the most popular story is that President Ulysses S. Grant would frequent the Willard Hotel to enjoy brandy and a cigar, and while he was there, he’d be hounded by petitioners asking for legislative favors or jobs. It is said that President Grant coined the term by referring to the petitioners as “those damn lobbyists.” The story has been told and published by the Washington Post, the American Society of News Editors, and most often by the Public Relations Director of the Willard Hotel. 

It is kind of a fun story and I’m sure it’s done a lot to increase visitors and revenue for the Willard Hotel. But — the story isn’t really true. President Grand did visit the Willard Hotel and enjoyed his brandy and a cigar, but he did not coin the term “lobbyist.”

The term “to lobby” first appeared in print in the United States in the 1830s. President Grant was in office from 1869-1877.
The term is believed to have originated in the British Parliament and referred to the lobbies outside the chambers where a lot of wheeling and dealing took place. “Lobbyist” was in common use in Britain in the 1840s. The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that the term was used as early as 1640 in England to describe the lobbies that were open to constituents to interact with their representatives. 

Once again, extensive research ruins a really good story. But that’s one of the good things about history — it’s full of so many stories to tell, some of which take on a life of their own, even if the facts don’t necessarily back them up.
— 30 —

This was dance weekend for us. Turns out that all our granddaughters are turning into dancing machines. Emily has been at it for a few years now, and Ellie and Rory just started fairly recently, but they seem to be coming along.

I didn’t get a picture of both Rory and Ellie, but they were dressed exactly alike, and the look exactly alike. So the picture is of Ellie, or maybe Rory… I suppose I could have just printed it twice and not said anything — probably no one would know…. except Locke.
— 30 —

A number of members of our family are convinced that a full Moon affects people’s behavior. I have to admit that over the years, I’ve witnessed some strange behaviors during full Moons — probably too many to be coincidental, so maybe there’s something to it….

Anyhow, this month’s full Moon is special in a few ways — it reaches its peak illumination early tomorrow morning at 12:15 a.m., May 16. So tonight, weather permitting, you should get a really good view. 

This will be the first supermoon of the year — there will be three more in 2022. A supermoon is defined as any full Moon that occurs when the Moon is at least 90% of perigee (the point in the Moon’s orbit that is closest to Earth.)
And — May’s full Moon coincides with a total lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth comes directly between the Moon and the Sun, which results in the Earth casting its shadow on the Moon. During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon is fully obscured by Earth’s shadow, giving the Moon a reddish hue. This phenomenon is where the term “blood moon” comes from.
Depending on the weather, we should be able to see the eclipse here in Shepherdstown. The maximum, or peak, eclipse should occur at 12:11 a.m.

Full Moons are often given names and these names come from (usually) Native American, Colonial American, and European sources. Traditionally, each full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred, not just to the full Moon..
This month’s name is the Flower Moon. The name has been attributed to Algonquin peoples and the name isn’t particularly surprising given that flowers spring forth in abundance this month….

The name “moon” is derived from the Latin word luna and it’s the Earth’s only permanent natural satellite, and it is in synchronous rotation with the Earth — that’s the reason we can only see one side of the Moon. Even though the Moon appears white, it’s just reflecting the light from the sun…. its surface is actually dark.

So the Moon is really pretty cool — on nice rights, it’s always fascinating to watch the Moon — it’s always gong through various phases — just like we all do….
— 30 —

We had a discussion during our last “winter golf” session that always amazes me. A lot of people that I know are not aware that brooms (before plastic came along) were made from corn — specifically, broomcorn. (You can read about broomcorn in a number of places in this blog — search the archives if you’re interested.) Anyhow, explaining broomcorn to people always produces an interesting dialogue.

But “regular” corn is a pretty interesting subject, too. For instance, did you know that corn always has an even number of rows on each ear? Here’s the “scientific” explanation as to why…. An ear of corn is actually an inflorescence (the complete flower head of a plant) that produces nearly 1,000 female flowers. These flowers, or potential kernels, are arranged in an even number of rows (usually from 8 to about 22 rows.) The number of rows is always an even number because corn spikelets are borne in pairs, and each spikelet produces two florets: one fertile and one sterile. Stress at a particular stage in development could theoretically produce an ear with an odd number of rows, but if you look under a microscope, you’ll probably find an unseen row that failed to develop fully. 
The average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows.

Many years ago, finding odd-rowed ears of corn was sometimes used to make impossible-to-come-true promises. For instance, slaves might be told that they could have their freedom if they could find an ear of corn with an odd number of rows. 

There’s a story told of a slave who, on being promised his freedom if he could find an ear of corn having an odd number of rows or kernels, went into the corn field and carefully opened the husks on a number of ears and deftly cut out a row kernels from each, closing up the husks over the ears again. The corn grew and ripened, closing up in its growth the vacant spaces, and when it was gathered he found an ear with an odd number of rows, and presented it and claimed his promised freedom.

If you’re ever in South Dakota, you should stop by Mitchell, South Dakota — home of the world’s only Corn Palace. It was built 1892 to display the products of the harvest of South Dakota’s farmers — in murals on the outside of the building. The murals are made from thousands of bushels of corn and other gains and grasses such as wild oats, rye, straw, and wheat. Each year the corn decorations are completely stripped down and entirely new murals are created. 

Corn is the 3rd most important crop of the world measured by production volume, behind wheat and rice. In terms of acreage planted, it is second only to wheat. 
Corn is used in the production of alcohol, and distilled spirits, corn syrup, sugar, cornstarch, synthetic fibers such as nylon, certain plastics, in the manufacture of wood resin, lubricating oils and synthetic rubber, as an abrasive, corn cob pipes, corn oil, margarine, saccharine, paints, soaps, linoleum and gasohol. It’s an ingredient in more than 3,500 grocery products.

So if you’re not like me, growing up thinking corn was just something brooms were made of, you realize the importance of corn in our lives…. it was discovered by Indians, is distributed by farmers, distilled by moonshiners, and dispensed by comedians.
— 30 —

We live in an area with a lot of mountains and the roads are mostly two-lanes and have a lot of curves. As you might expect, a lot of the speed limits in our area are less than 55 mph. I’ve noticed lately, that a lot of people are driving quite a bit faster than the posted limits. Also a lot of people don’t seem to know that the yellow line down the middle of the road is not meant to be driven on, but to help you stay on your side of the road… but don’t get me started on that irritation.

Anyhow, whether you appreciate them or hate them, speed limits are important and their intent is to make the roads safer for everyone.

I grew up in Oklahoma and (at the time) it was mostly “open spaces” and the roads were straight and people drove fast. Also, there weren’t that many cars on the road in those days. But since the early days of cars, there has been a debate about freedom versus regulation in regards to speed limits. Some states, like Montana and Nevada, have historically opposed restrictive speed limit laws and imposed minimal fines for noncompliance. 

Connecticut was the first state to pass a speed limit law — in 1901. That law limited the legal speed of motor vehicles to 12 mph in cities and 15 mph on country roads. But speed was a concern even before the invention of motorized vehicles. The colony of New Amsterdam (now New York) issued a law in 1652 stating that wagons, carts and sleighs cannot be run, rode or driven at a gallop. Violators of that law faced a penalty that started at two pounds Flemish — about $150 by today’s standards.

New York City introduced the world’s first comprehensive traffic code in 1903. But the adoption of speed regulations, and other traffic codes, was a slow and uneven process across the nation. As late as 1930, a dozen states had no speed limit and 28 states didn’t even require a driver’s license to operate a motor vehicle. 

Rising fuel prices contributed to the lowering of speed limits in some states in the early 1970s and in 1974, President Richard Nixon signed a national speed limit of 55 mph into law. These reduced speed limits led to a reduction in the nation’s traffic fatality rate.
Concerns about fuel availability and cost subsided after a while and in 1987 Congress allowed states to increase speed limits on rural Interstates to 65 mph. The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 repealed the maximum speed limit. That returned control of setting speed limits to the states. Since then, 35 states have increased their limits to 70 mph or higher. Today there is only one country in the world which has no speed limits at all — the Isle of Man. Between 1995 and 1999 Montana had a “reasonable and prudent” speed limit which was non-numerical.

So like it or not, speed limits are here to stay, and none of them are going to please everyone. Some are advocates of the “speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that’s what gets you” school of thought….
— 30 —

If you’re not good at Roman Numerals, the title of this blog is the 9th of May, 1976 — the day our baby daughter was born. It was a Sunday, in fact it was Mother’s Day. 

If we had saved the calendar from the year Kelly was born, we’d be able to use it again, but not until 2032. The 1976 and 2032 calendars would be exactly the same — well, that’s not totally true, some days like Easter and other irregular holidays that are based on a lunisolar calendar, wouldn’t match up.

I tried to figure out how old Kelly would be in dog years, but even though I always thought one dog year equaled 7 human years, my extensive research found out it was more complicated than that… dogs age differently depending on breed and size — you you have to pick a specific dog or breed. If you pick a Swedish Vallhund (say his name is Sampson,) he would be 220 dog years old. When Kelly reached the age of 6, Sampson would have been 42 dog years old From that point forward a medium-sized dog like Sampson will age 4.5 dog years for every human year.

Kelly’s birthday numbers 5, 9, and 1976 makes her Life Path number 1. It represents initiative, potential and singularity. She is a born leader, and insists on her right to make up her own mind — and — demands freedom of thought and action. 
Who wouldn’t be proud of a daughter like that?
Happy Birthday Kelly!!
— 30 —

Today is Mother’s Day — a day that gives people a special opportunity to show their gratitude to the moms, grandmas, stepmoms, aunts, and other maternal figures in their lives. Mother’s Day is always the second Sunday in May — this year, that’s May 8.

The average age for first time mothers has gone up over the past 20 years… in 2000, the average age was 24.9 years, in 2020 it was 27.1 years old.

Mother’s Day always falls on a Sunday, and attending church is a popular activity among families. A recent poll asking pastors about the highest attended Sundays at their churches throughout the year, Mother’s Day ranked third behind Easter and Christmas.

Today has always been a day to take mom out to dinner — even during the pandemic. In 2020, consumer spending at restaurants increased 103 percent on Mother’s Day Sunday (compared to the average daily revenue throughout the pandemic. 

Some data indicates that the Greeks and Romans celebrated Mother’s day by honoring goddess Cybele, personifying Mother Earth (Gaia) and the goddess of fertility, and Rhea, mother of the gods.

The idea of Mother’s Day first surfaced in the United States after the Civil War and was suggested by social activist Julia Ward Howe. However, her vision was a Mother’s Day for Peace — where women would protest against war. 

The current version of Mother’s Day was started by Anna Jarvis in the early 1900s. Jarvis persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to declare that the second Sunday of every May would be Mother’s Day. But less than 10 years after she fought so hard to make it happen, Anna Jarvis despised the holiday and spoke out vehemently about the commercialization of Mother’s Day, and called for its demise. She was actually arrested during one of her protests in 1948.

They say a woman’s work is never done — that’s especially true for moms… it’s a 24/7, 365-day commitment and according to research, stay-at-home-moms should earn $162,581 a year.

So the old adage that “life doesn’t come with a manual; it comes with a mother,” is probably true and we should thank her every day, but maybe especially today — Happy Mother’s Day.
— 30 —