What Would Jimmy Do?

Today is a day when we should all take a moment and think about our freedoms and how fortunate we are to have them. America has always been the “land of the free,” and a lot of that freedom is because of our Constitution.

Today is Bill of Rights Day. The first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution make up the Bill of Rights — passed by Congress on September 25, 1789. The Constitution was a fledgling document that had barely been tested, when James Madison introduced his proposal for amending it on June 8, 1789. Included in his proposal were several protections states had requested during their conventions to ratify the Constitution. Some members of the House of Representatives resisted any amendment to the Constitution and House members had lots of reasons for delaying review. The House agreed to postpone the debate on Madison’t proposal and took it up again before the whole House on July 21. 

Madison initially proposed 19 amendments. the House whittled it down to 17 before sending it to the Senate. Congress finally sent 12 amendments to the states to ratify. On December 15, 1791, the states ratified 10 of the 12 proposed amendments sent to them — those 10 amendments are referred to as the Bill of Rights. 

There were 14 copies of the Bill of Rights printed — one for each of the 12 states to sign and one for the federal archives. Only 12 copies survive today. The Bill of Rights is displayed in The Rotunda of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared Bill of Rights Day on December 15, 1941, recognizing the history and importance of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution — here’s his proclamation:
“Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate December 15, 1951, as Bill of Rights Day. And I call upon the officials of the Government, and upon the people of the United States, to observe the day by displaying the flag of the United States on public buildings and by meeting together for such prayers and such ceremonies as may seem to the appropriate.”

Today we should be grateful that the framers of the Constitution saw fit to provide a process to amend the document. I’m pretty sure the Bill of Rights could never get through Congress today. We’re lucky — we have the Bill of Rights… what we need today is a Bill of Responsibilities.
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I’ve mentioned in the past that one of our Christmas trees is decorated with, among all the other ornaments, every Official White House Christmas ornament that has been released. Claire, and our Christmas tree, gets a new ornament every year. 

Each year the ornament commemorates a particular president’s time in the White House. This year’s ornament commemorates President Richard Nixon’s time in office and is in the image of a gingerbread White House. 

In 1969, First Lady Pat Nixon started the tradition of an annual gingerbread house on display at the White House. The first gingerbread house was a traditional German style A-frame standing two feet tall and weighing 40 pounds. Years later, White House Chef Roland Messier introduced a gingerbread design that depicted the White House itself — that inspired the design of the Official 2022 White House Ornament. The 2022 ornament is crafted from solid brass in the image of a gingerbread house and features the White House North and South Porticos, adorned with candy canes, mints, gumdrops and swirled accents in white to mimic piped icing. A ribbon hangs below the house, reading “The White House” and “Christmas.”

Of course, Claire likes some year’s ornaments better than others, but this one seems to rank near the top — it’s a great addition to our tree.
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A few days ago, Claire was texting with someone and the person had asked about our Christmas trees, wanting to know if they were real. (She had sent a picture and the person remarked that they really looked “real.”)

Claire wanted to respond that they weren’t real, they were “fake,” but she didn’t want to use the word fake and she asked me how to spell the word that meant fake but was pronounced “foh.” I knew immediately what word she was referring to, but neither of us could remember how to spell it. I looked up fake, hoping to find the word in the synonym list but it wasn’t there. I tried a number of similar words like artificial unreal, etc. — but no luck. 

Claire responded with fake or artificial, or some such term…. it wasn’t until a couple of days later that it came to her how to spell “Faux.”
Just goes to show you that even the sharpest of brains have “senior moments.” 

Faux is a French word that means “fake.” Of course we have perfectly good words like imitation and false, etc. when we want to refer to something as fake — so why use faux at all? Because faux fur, or faux diamonds sounds so much ritzier than fake fur or fake diamonds. Then there’s “faux pas,” which is French for “false step,” or “no-no,” widely used among the witty international set when someone does something “gauche” — French for “clumsy.”
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I heard something the other day that made me think of when I was a kid — boy was I gullible. I guess I wasn’t that much different than other kids…. when we were young, we all believed a lot of crazy things — that’s what kids do, and it’s part of growing up. 
Now that I’m an adult (in years, at least) it’s hard not to laugh at some of the things I actually believed when I was young. 

My mom told me lots of times that if I crossed my eyes long enough, they’d stay that way forever. I suppose that was my mom’s attempt to make me stop crossing my eyes. Whenever I was upset, or crying, or just making a funny face, I’d usually get the same warning from her.

When I was a little kid, I think I believed that stepping on a crack could literally break my mother’s back. I’m not sure what this rhyme was based on, but I remember consciously avoiding cracks in the sidewalk.

I remember when we went somewhere at night, looking out the back window of the car seeing the moon, and it seemed to be following us — I always wondered how the moon knew when we were going someplace and it never occurred to me that the moon was “following” anyone else. I thought it was just following out car….

When our son David was very small, a clip of an old TV show — American Bandstand, or something like that came on TV and of course it was in black & white, not color. Claire made some remark like, “well that was us.” David’s eyes got really big and he said “you guys were black and white?” It was really funny at the time, but when you think about it, all the old pictures we have of older people like grandparents or great-grandparents, are black and white photos. I guess the only logical assumption for a kid is that these people lived in a world that was completely black and white.

Television didn’t come into being until I was about 8 or 9 years old, but as I’ve mentioned before, we had the first television in Maysville and almost immediately after we got it, my mother started telling me that if I sat too close to the screen, it would ruin my eyes. Even though I was maybe old enough to know better, I believed it. I suspect that parents probably still tell their kids the same thing today.

When I was little, the street in front of our house wasn’t paved and when it rained it had a lot of “mud holes” with standing water that attracted toads/frogs. Of course, being a little kid, I used to catch them — I’m not sure what I did with them but it’s one of the things little kids do. Anyhow, my grandmother was adamant that if you touched a toad, you’d get warts. I don’t know of anyone that ever developed warts from an exposure to toads. Once again, I at least partially bought into this.

When I was a kid I was told to never swallow chewing gum. I think my mom told me that if I swallowed gum, it would stay in my body for seven years — or at least for a long time. Another fallacy I bought into — I never swallowed my gum. Actually I don’t swallow gum even today.

Something that was drilled into me when I was young and I still hear today is that reading in dim light will damage your eyes. I even catch myself asking Claire sometime if she need more light. Of course this isn’t true, but it’s another bit of mis-information I grew up believing for some amount of time.

I was never a big fan of carrots, but my mother swore that if I ate them, my eyesight would improve. When I was little I was convinced that I’d go blind or at least have to wear “coke-bottle” glasses because I didn’t like carrots.
Actually, there’s a story behind how the rumor of carrots improving eyesight got started, and it;s pretty interesting:
It all began during World War II…. Royal Air Force fighter ace John Cunningham became the first person to shoot down an enemy plane (using automatic targeting) in the dead of night. British officials credited the pilot’s success to eating carrots in order to fool the Germans.

Well since I’ve already gotten off the subject a bit, this seems like a good place to stop. I think the bottom line is that kids are suckers — I mean that in a good way. At least most of them grow out of it….
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A couple of nights ago, Claire was talking or texting to one of her brothers and he asked if she’d seen the full moon — we didn’t see it here because of the cloud cover. But last night we had a good view of the moon when it came up by looking out our kitchen window. The moon still looked “full” but of course it wasn’t. 

Claire asked if the moon was waxing or waning — a question that periodically comes up in our house.  It’s one of those questions a lot of people can’t keep straight…. kind of like do you feed a cold and starve a fever, or do you feed a fever and starve a cold?

Anyhow, as a public service — here’s how to tell the difference between waxing and waning:
A waxing moon is a moon that gets more sunlight on it as the days go by — it’s after we experience a new moon up to a full moon. A waning moon is after the full moon and will remain waning until the next new moon.

A quick way to tell if a moon is in the waxing or waning phase is to look at the moon and see which side the shadow is on. If the shadow is on the right, like it is right now, the moon is in a waning phase. If the shadow is on the left, then the moon is in the waxing phase and heading towards a full moon. If you’re into memory “crutches,” think of the rhyme bright and right — if the moon is bright on the right, it is waxing. 

As an added bonus for checking in today, you may have heard the term gibbous applied to the moon. If you hear or read about a gibbous moon waxing or waning, it means that the observable illuminated part of the moon is greater than a semicircle and less than a circle.
It’s supposed to be clear here tonight, so maybe we can go out and see the gibbous waning moon….
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A few nights ago we had our first eggnog of the season. Although I’m pretty sure it’s available at other times, stores usually prominently display it and we usually only have it during the holidays, and probably more around Christmas time than Thanksgiving.

Over the years I’ve mixed eggnog with bourbon, brandy, rum and various other spirits. This year I chose rum…. for no particular reason, but I remember reading about the Jamestown settlers making eggnog and using rum. I think the settlers in Jamestown probably created the first American batch of eggnog, although I’m not sure how closely it resembled the concoction we make or buy in a store today. 

As to why it’s become a “holiday drink” over the years goes back to the early days of eggnog, when spices were a luxury — they were most likely to be used around special occasions like winter holidays, baked into main dishes and desserts and added to drinks. The winter months also provided natural refrigeration for eggnog. The alcohol prevented the spread of bacteria, the cold air helped the milk and cream stay cool and, over time, eggnog became a regular element of the holiday season. 
So I guess we’ve now officially kicked off the holiday season here in out house….
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Today, December 7, is the 81st anniversary of “a date that will live in infamy.”

On early Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, the sudden news reports of an attack by a foreign power stunned Americans just as much, if not more, than it did on 9/11. It was one of the most violent attacks ever against U.S. forces — the Japanese air raid, which came with no declaration of war, destroyed four battleships and damaged four more in Pearl Harbor in just two hours. 

Among the American armed forces, there were a total of 2,335 killed, including 2,008 navy personnel, 109 marines, and 218 army. 68 civilians also lost their lives, making the total facilities 2,403 people. 
On December 7, 1941 the US was suddenly and without warning thrust into World War II.

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day was declared in 1944 by the United States Congress. It is observed on December 7 to honor the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is not a federal holiday, so schools, government offices and businesses don’t close but many organizations recognize the historical day and mark the occasion. The flag of the U.S. is traditionally flown at half-mast in honor of those who were killed or injured during the attack.

Today is one of those days that we should “never forget.” Take some time today to remember those who lost their lives and impact the attack had on our nation. 
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Today, December 6, is St. Nicholas Day. Growing up, I never knew much about St. Nicholas Day — I never heard it mentioned by my parents, and obviously, it was never “celebrated.” When Claire was growing up, her family always celebrated the day. I think we tried it a few times with out kids, but it really never became a “tradition.”

So, as you may have guessed, today’s topic is Saint Nicholas Day. St Nicholas was a bishop who was known for his good deeds, especially for the needy and children. He regularly gave generously and anonymously. Nicholas was officially recognized as a saint in the 800s and in the 1200s Catholics in France began celebrating Bishop Nicholas Day — on December 6.

In the 3rd century, in the village of Patara in Turkey (part of Greece in those days,) a wealthy couple gave birth to a boy they named Nicholas. Tragically, while Nicholas was young, an epidemic took the lives of both of his parents. Having been raised a Christian, he dedicated his life to service, sold all of his belongings, and used his inheritance to help the poor and infirm. Eventually, Nicholas became a bishop, and his reputation for helping children, sailors, and other people in need spread far and wide. For this, the Roman emperor Diocletian persecuted and imprisoned him (and other religious men) — but only until the Romans realized that they had so filled their prisons with clergy that they had no place to put the thieves and murderers. So the Romans let the religious men go free. Upon his release, Nicholas continued his charity work until he died on December 6, 343 A.D. It was said that a liquid that formed in his grave had healing powers. This and other legends about Nicholas fostered devotion to him and inspired traditions still practiced today.

The most common way to celebrate St. Nicholas Day is to leave shoes out for St. Nicholas to place small gifts in — socks work, too. Traditionally, the gifts are simply small candies or coins — small items that bring joy to children. The candy cane is also a symbol of St. Nicholas, representing his staff. A traditional treat on St. Nicholas Day is Spicy Sinterklaas Cake, known as Speculaas. These are spicy, ginger cookies, often baked in a mold the shape of St. Nicholas. Some traditions equate St. Nicholas with Sant Claus, which means that St. Nicholas comes on the night of December 24 — not December 5.

So is St. Nicholas really Santa Claus? Some people say yes, others disagree…. but there are a few legends of St. Nicholas that relate to the story of Santa Claus — some about gift-giving and some about children.

In one tale, a poor man had three daughters and no dowry for any of them, thus eliminating their chance at marriage and risking their being sold into slavery. Mysteriously, as each girl came of marriageable age, a bag of gold was lobbed through a window and landed in a sock or shoe near the hearth. The unknown gift-giver was presumed to have been Nicholas, and the situation inspired the placement by the fireplace of stockings or shoes, into which gifts were placed.

Another legend, from long after Nicholas’s passing says in his home village, during a celebration on the anniversary of Nicholas’s death, a young boy was kidnapped to become a slave to a neighboring region’s emir. The family grieved for a year, and on the anniversary of the boy’s disappearance, they refused to leave their home. Good thing — as the story goes, Nicholas appeared, spirited the boy away from his captors, and deposited him in his house, along with the gold cup from which he was serving the emir still in his hand. 

Today, St. Nicholas is venerated as the patron not only of children but also of sailors, captives, travelers, marriageable maidens, laborers — even thieves and murderers. 
Happy St. Nicholas Day.
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Every year about this time, various dictionaries come up with a “Word of the Year.” Sometimes it’s a completely new word, sometimes it’s a word made up of a combination of other words, sometimes it’s just a new use of an existing word, sometimes it’s more than one word, and sometimes its isn’t a word at all — think emoji.

I checked a few days ago and the Oxford Dictionary hadn’t yet chosen their Word of the Year for 2022. They had it narrowed down to three choices: metaverse, #IStandWith, and Goblin mode. So we’ll stand by anxiously awaiting Oxford’s choice.

But Merriam-Webster has chosen it’s Word of the year. Their choice for 2022 is gaslighting. I looked up gaslighting in an old hard-copy dictionary (we really do still have one) and the definition read as follows: manipulate (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity.
I guess today, in this age of misinformation, fake news, conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls, etc, gaslighting is an appropriate choice for Word of the Year. 

The origin of the term gaslighting was apparently from the title of a 1938 play, and the movie based on that play. The plot involves a man attempting to make his wife believe that she is going insane. His mysterious activities in the attic cause the house’s gas lights to dim, but he insists to his wife that the lights are not dimming and that she can’t trust her own perceptions.

In recent years, the term gaslighting has changed a little, into something simpler and broader — “the act of grossly misleading someone, especially for a personal advantage.” So in today’s world, the word falls into the same category as deception and manipulation, like fake news.
Especially in the political world, the idea of a deliberate conspiracy to mislead has made gaslighting useful in describing lies that are part of a larger plan.

I think now would be a good time to register my vote for Word of the Year…. it’s a term and practice that is particularly disturbing to me. My choice — deepfake. Deepfake is an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said. This is especially dangerous, because it offers visual and/or sound (incorrect) evidence to support a conspiracy, etc. Lots and lots of people already believe what they read without checking — probably even more people will believe what they see and hear. Just my thought….

Anyhow, Merriam-Webster points out that the English language has lots of ways to say “lie” — words like falsehood and untruth, deceitfulness, prevarication, dissemble and fib. During the Cold War, disinformation became popular.

Recently, with the enormous increase in communication channels and technologies that can be used to mislead, gaslighting has become the favored word for the perception of deception — so gaslighting it is — the Word of the Year.
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I know you’ve all been waiting, and it’s again that time of year when I report back to you on how I did with this year’s New Year Resolutions. You’re probably aware that in the past couple of years, I cut back on the number of resolutions I make. I’ve shortened my yearly list and made each resolution more realistic, with a better chance of success. I plan to go with that plan again this year. 
But, as promised, here’ s how I did with my resolutions for 2022….here’s last year’s list.

· Even though in the past, I’ve resolved to be nicer to people, this year I resolve to be extra nice to people that do exactly what I want.
+ I did pretty good on this one. I think, in general, that I was nicer this year… but in fairness, some people that I could have been extra nice to, didn’t do anywhere near what I wanted — something beyond my control.

· Although I don’t read, or understand, “Tweets,” and in the past I’ve resolved (unsuccessfully) to do one, this year I resolve to write one.
+ Well, I’m kind of proud to say that I still haven’t “tweeted,” and in all honesty I didn’t even write one this year. Seems like the whole year I kept hearing about the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter. And since it’s happened, I won’t be tweeting anytime soon — like ever. Musk buying Twitter was beyond my control and the reason I couldn’t complete this resolution

· Last year I resolved to become really good at procrastination — I think I’ll be able to accomplish that this year — or maybe next year.
+ I think I did really good with this one, I have a pretty long list of things I didn’t accomplish this year, so I pushed them into 2023. I guess I’d have to give myself a “job well-done” for this resolution.

· I resolve to be more optimistic in 2022 — I will always look at my wine glass as half-full, not half empty.
+ Once again, I think I did good — my optimism has increased. We increased our deliveries of wine and I now see my glass as not only half-full, but refillable.

So all-in-all I’d say I did pretty good with my resolutions for this year. Now during the next couple of weeks, I’ll put together my list for 2023…. seems like the older I get the harder it is to come up with resolutions that will make me an even better person. But keep checking this blog to see how I’ll strive to be better next year.
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