What Would Jimmy Do?

I’m not sure why, but a few days ago I got an e-mail from someone that lives in our neighborhood. I didn’t recognize the name, so it must have come from one of the newer residents. But for some reason the e-mail was only addressed to 5 or 6 people — all residents of Deerfield Village. Why my name was chosen, I have no idea.

Anyhow, the text started out with “It’s a good thing I’m not calling the shots. The minute Putin sent his military across the Ukrainian border, I would have sent U.S. troops, tanks, jets, submarines, aircraft carriers….” Well, anyhow, you get the idea.

I’ve been a lot of places in the world during some pretty stressful times and I’ve never seen a situation where the solution is to “bomb the s***” out of someone or some place. This type of talk is “bar talk” — something you and your buddy say to each other while having a couple of beers at the bar. 

It seems like in the past few years I’m hearing more and more talk like this and it appears most people in the world (and the United States, especially) are ticked off about something, and often about pretty insignificant stuff. I’m not sure anyone under the age of 50 has ever bothered to read the Constitution and a lot of people seem to have lost sight as to what democracy is all about.
Winston Churchill once said, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
I’m thinking Winston may have been right….
— 30 —

Shortly after we moved to Shepherdstown and had settled on St. Agnes as our church of choice, one Saturday evening we sat down by a distinguished looking gentleman and I asked if this was the “sinners pew.” He smiled and said it was and that we were welcome to sit there. That distinguished gentleman was John King. 

As soon as Mass ended, he said, “it was nice to meet you, but I’ve got to go — my dog is sick.” I didn’t know it at the time, but John was the ultimate dog lover. That became apparent to me shortly after we had met…. one day after church, John had hurried out the door because he had to take care of his dog. His wife, Barbara, played the organ at church and she came by where we were standing and I said, “ so John left you on your own — he must think the dog is more important than you are.” Barbara said that was a much truer statement than I knew. She told me that John thought that if you’re not happy single, you won’t be happy married — that happiness comes from dogs, not relationships. We laughed about that occasionally, but the fact is John really did love dogs.

Over the years we had a number of discussions about whether or not dogs go to heaven. These were serious discussions — it was a very important subject to John. I grew up in Billy Graham country, and I remember that once he was asked if he thought there would be dogs in Heaven. His response was something like, “I think God will have prepared everything for our perfect happiness. If it takes my dog being there (in Heaven,) I believe he’ll be there.” From what I can tell, the Bible doesn’t address the issue —it neither confirms nor denies dogs in Heaven. Probably the best advice is for us to just love our pets and trust God in everything for the future.

But back to John…. there’s an old saying that in life, it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts. When I first heard that, I thought it was probably true — if you knew the right people, they could open doors for you and give you a leg up over your competition, etc. But as I’ve grown older but wiser (at least older) I still believe it’s true, but for different reasons. Who you know refers to people that you play golf with, have a beer with, laugh with, cry with, celebrate with you when you’re happy, console you in times of trouble, make you happy when you’re with them — they’re the people that count — they’re your friends. John was one of those “who’s” in our lives. Friends are like the family you choose and losing a good friend like John is like losing a family member…. leaving us to grieve his passing with the memories he gave, the good that he did and our time together. 
I’ve heard it said that our friends never truly leave us — there are things that death can’t touch.

I never liked the idea of mourning death — I think it’s much better to celebrate the life of the person gone. So today, on this St. Patrick’s Day, my thoughts are simple — John will be missed. His family, friends, Shepherd and St. Agnes have lost a dear friend. Go in peace John, you’ve earned your sleep. And as the Irish might say — until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.
— 30 —

Today is the day they say everyone is Irish — St. Patrick’s Day. If times were normal — meaning pre-pandemic — more than half (52%) of Americans plan some type of celebration on St. Patrick’s Day, and more than 82% of those celebrating will wear green. Billions (that’s a “B”) of dollars are typically spent on clothing, flags, green carnations, dining — and — beer.

We all know that March 17 isn’t St. Patrick’s birthday, it’s the day he died. He was born in 385 AD, but no one knows what day. We also know that he wasn’t born in Ireland. His parents were Romans living in England. We also know that he was never canonized  by the Catholic Church and he never drove all the snakes our of Ireland. 
Construction of New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral was begun in 1858, but construction was halted by the Civil War. The cathedral is located in an area now known as Midtown, but at the time, was far north of most of the population of Manhattan.
New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is the country’s oldest and largest parade — it began 14 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Irish ancestry ranks second to only German among nationalities of Americans with European ancestry. 

So we know a lot about St. Patrick and his day and it does’t bother us at all if everything we’ve heard over the years isn’t exactly true or accurate. Between their blessings, sayings, toasts, and proverbs, the Irish certainly know a thing or two about catchy, humorous, encouraging, and wise statements. Another of my favorites….
Always remember to forget
The things that made you sad.
But never forget to remember
The things that made you glad.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! 
— 30 —

I know — I’ve talked about this before, but it’s kind of becoming a tradition that I discuss the Ides of March every year when it comes around. So you probably won’t be learning anything new — if you want to just skip todays reading, I’ll understand.

On the Roman calendar, the midpoint of every month was known as the ides. So the Ides of March was just a single day on the Roman calendar, and even though “ides” is plural, it denotes only a single day that happens to fall in the middle of the month. Ides were just a name give to a division of the month and every month had its ides. 

But thanks to Shakespeare and his play Julius Caesar, the ides, and specifically, the Ides of March, have become associated with bad luck. The famous words from the play, “beware the ides of March,” never meant that the Ides of March itself was, or is, sinister. The words only referred to a normal day on the Roman calendar.

If you’ve read Julius Caesar, you know that Caesar died because some senators thought he desired too much power and they thought they would save the republic by doing him in. Again, it didn’t exactly work out the way they planned… so I’m not sure about the current cast of politicians, but if you’re not one of them, the ides of March will probably feel like any other day of the month.
— 30 —

Today is one of those confusing days — it’s Pi Day, but it’s not about pies, it’s about the most studied number in mathematics. Even if you’re not aware of it, the number pi is fundamental to our understanding of geometry and is a vital part of architecture and construction of all sorts of things like arches and bridges — even the Pyramids.

Pi Day is celebrated internationally on March 14 and is observed by math enthusiasts and schools all over the world. The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with the staff, and public, marching in circles and then consuming fruit pies. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology often mails its acceptance (and rejection) letters to be delivered to prospective students on Pi Day.

Throughout history, there has been a lot of effort to determine pi more accurately and to understand its nature. Pi’s decimal representation never ends or repeats. Pi is an irrational number, meaning that it cannot be written as the ratio of two integers. It is also a transcendental number, meaning that there is no polynomial with rational coefficients for which pi is a root. The implication is that virtually any string of numbers you can imagine is somewhere in pi. And I guess it’s just inevitable that March 14 is the birthday of the Nobel Prize winning scientist Albert Einstein.

Lots of things can be said about Pi….
The symbol for pi was introduced by William Jones, a Welsh mathematician in 1706.
Since the exact value of pi can never be calculated, we can never find the totally accurate area or circumference of a circle.

Pi is actually a part of Egyptian mythology. People in Egypt believed that the pyramids of Giza were built on the principles of pi. The vertical height of the pyramids have the same relationship with the perimeter of their base as the relationship between a circle’s radius and its circumference. The pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the world.

Pi wasn’t always known as pi. Before the 1700s, people referred to the number we know as pi as “the quantity which when the diameter is multiplied by it, yields the circumference.” Thank goodness someone came up with pi.
Givenchy sells a men’s cologne with the name PI. The company markets the product as capable of enhancing the attractiveness of intelligent and visionary men.
March 14 or 3/14 is celebrated as Pi Day because 3.14 are the first digits of pi.

As I’ve mention in previous posts, in recent years, Pi’s usefulness has been challenged in recent years. A growing number believe that tau (which amounts to 2π) is better suited to circle calculations. For example, you can multiply tau with the radius of a circle to calculate its circumference more intuitively. But Pi is loved by a lot of math enthusiasts and we’ll probably continue to celebrate it. After all, I can’t Imagine you favorite Pizza place having a Pizza Tau Day special instead of a Pizza Pi Day special…. 
— 30 —

It’s that time again — the beginning of daylight saving time. In the United States, daylight saving time lasts for a total of 34 weeks, running from early to mid March to the beginning of November. 
This year, daylight saving time will starts on March 13 — more than a full week before the official start of spring. Daylight saving time will end on November 6.

Under the conditions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Prior to passage of that Energy Policy Act, the clocks had sprung ahead on the first Sunday in April and remained that way until the final Sunday in October. The entire United States observes daylight saving time with the exception of Hawaii and a part of Arizona (Northeast Arizona (Navajo Nation) does not use DST.)

The time shift means we lose an hour of sleep, but we’ll enjoy more evening light for the next eight months.

A lot of people are saying, what if we advanced the clocks this weekend and never had to turn them back? That idea is gaining some traction and a bill has been reintroduced in Congress that would eliminate standard time and keep daylight saving time year-round. 
Florida’s state legislature actually passed its own version of the bill in 2018 — however, individual states aren’t permitted to change their DST schedules without federal approval from the Department of Transportation, which means an act of Congress is required.

The US first introduced daylight saving time in 1918, two years after Germany and other European countries started advancing the clocks to conserve fuel and energy during World War I. Congress abolished the practice after the war and it wasn’t used again nationwide until President Roosevelt introduced year-round DST during World War II from 1942 to 1945.
During the energy crisis in the 1970s, the United States experimented with year-round DST from January 1974 to October 1975. Since then, we’ve switched the clocks back to standard time during the winter months.

Critics of the current DST schedule argue that changing the clocks twice a year disrupts sleep schedules, increases car accidents and the risk of heart attacks, seasonal depression and other health issues. Critics of the current system say using  DST year-round would improve our society’s health, as we wouldn’t have to adjust our clocks and sleep schedules, and more evening light during the winter months would give people extra time to exercise outdoors after work, as well as benefit the economy. 

Of course, making daylight saving time permanent doesn’t actually provide more sunlight. Because of the Earth’s tilt, the sun spends less time above the horizon during the winter and that means we have shorter daylight hours. Year-round DST would only shift daylight from the morning to the evening, meaning the sun would set an hour later than we’re used to from November to March. Naturally, the drawback is that mornings would be noticeably darker from November to March. A lot of parents and teachers oppose the idea of darker winter mornings, saying it could put children’s safety at risk.

So if we keep it like it is some people won’t be happy. If we change to year-round standard time some people won’t be happy. If we change to year-round daylight saving time, some people won’t be happy. I guess it’s true that you can make some of the people happy some of the time, but you can’t make all the people happy all of the time.
— 30 —

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that it’s impossible to read the news on any given day without running across an article about some conspiracy. Personally, I’m becoming skeptical of just about everything.

I really thought we’d put to bed the debate as to whether or not the Earth was round or flat. Some people think it’s round and some people think it’s flat. I’ve even seen some recommendations that we teach both theories in schools and let the kids make their own decision on the shape of the Earth. 

Well, I was just about to throw in the towel, and say, “why not?” Give kids the option — if they’d rather live on a flat Earth than a round Earth, what’s it to me? If they don’t want to venture too far away from home for fear of falling off the edge, I’m ok with them staying put. 

But as a public service, I think I should tell you that there is an organization that makes compelling arguments that the Earth is not round or merely flat. The organization that I’m talking about is The International Square Earth Society. As you may have guessed, this society is convinced it can prove the Earth is square.

Even within the “flat Earth” community, most or many believe believe that the flat Earth has curved edges. Even the founder of the International Flat Earth Society, Charles K. Johnson, made the error of assuming that the Earth was shaped like a circular disk. Of course nothing could be further from the truth according to the Square Earth people.

Much of the Square Earth Society’s reasoning is based on the Biblical facts and they claim that every good Biblical literalist knows all the Scriptural passages which demonstrate that the Earth does not move and that its surface is not curved. The Book of Revelation, chapter 7, verse 1, makes the following unmistakable statement about the shape of the Earth: “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.”

That sure seems to make a good case for the Earth not being round. But the Square Earth Society offers many, many passages in the Bible supporting the argument that the Earth is really square, like: Daniel 4:10-11, Matthew 4:8, Joshua 10:12, Chronicles 16:30. Psalms 93: & 96:10& 104:5, Isaiah 45:18 and (as the society says) the list goes on and on. 

Now — if all those Bible verses aren’t enough to convince you, the Square Earth Society asks you to consider this: (I am not making this up.) 
“Of all the nations on Earth today, God most loves the United States of America. (This is evident from songs like “God Bless America,” and from the fact that Pat Robertson, God’s  chosen spokesman, lives in the U.S.) America’s national pastime is the game of baseball. Baseball is played on a “diamond,” which is perfectly square in shape — and which, I might add, has its corners oriented to point toward the four compass points. God would not have made baseball into the national pastime of His favorite nation if He didn’t have a higher purpose in mind for it. Clearly, His higher purpose is to show us the True shape of the Earth. The Earth must be perfectly square, just like the diamond shaped field in God’s Chosen Sport is square.”

More evidence for the God/Baseball/Square-Earth connection can be found in the shape of the base bags, which are also perfectly square and oriented with their corners facing the same compass points that the diamond as a whole does, and in the fact that baseball’s most sacred ritual is called the World Series. And lest you doubt that Baseball is a divinely inspired game, I remind you that Charley McDowell has noted that the 90-foot distance between home plate and first base, which is just the right distance to make the game exciting, “was a pick from heaven.”

But wait! There’s more….
Take a gander at this passage from First Samuel:
“He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifted up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them”
~ 1 Samuel 2:8

This clearly shows that the Earth rests on an unspecified number of pillars. (A couple of translations of the Old Testament floating around say “foundations” or “fixtures” in place of pillars, but the original Hebrew word that appears here is “Matsuwq,” which literally means a cast metal support, a pillar, or a column.) What the pillars are resting on is unknown. They might not be resting on anything. Perhaps they are being held up by devine grace. Perhaps they are infinitely tall. All we know for sure is that a set of pillars beneath the Earth must exist.
This means that Hell, which is under the Earth, is interrupted by pillars in some places. This may explain how Satan is going to break out of Hell after the thousand years of peace in Revelation…..
Wow! Talk about a compelling argument!

There have been many many attempts to disprove the facts laid out by the Square Earth Society, but they have answers for them all. I don’t have time, or room, here to list them all, but I think it’s worthwhile to show an example of the many futile attempts to discredit this theory. Many people have challenged the theory by asking, “What about Isaiah 40:22?” (Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 22 reads: “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, an its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.”)

The Square Earth Society responded: “Does this mean the Earth is circular? Not at all. If it were circular, Job’s mention of the ends of the Earth would be meaningless. The word translated as “circle” in this verse is the Hebrew “Chuwg,” which can mean circle, but can also mean circuit or compass. When occurring by itself, this word can also mean the vault of the heavens. This verse probably refers to the fact that God sits enthroned above the vault of the heavens, which encompasses the whole Earth. Beside, everyone knows that tents are supposed to be square.”
I just don’t know what to say — the Square Earth Society seems to have the answer to any counter argument presented….
I think I’ve done my duty by bringing this most import subject to your attention….
— 30 —

This month there are two “Phone Days.” Well, actually, only one day, but two separate, but related subjects. March 10 is International Find a Phone Booth Day and National Landline Day. Both events celebrate telephones that are, or soon will become, a “thing of the past.”

Well of course that got me to thinking about telephones.
Today, if we want to talk to someone that isn’t standing right beside us (sometimes even if they are right beside us) we call them on our mobil phone or send them a text. 

When I was young, things didn’t work that way. When I was young, there was a telephone booth on just about every corner. I remember in Maysville, we had a pay phone attached to a pole downtown. these phones looked like big black boxes, with slots at the top for nickels, dimes and quarters. They had a rotary dial and a slot at the bottom where money could be returned to the caller. The phones only accepted coins — you couldn’t use paper money.

You had to know everyone’s telephone number, or look it up in a phone book. There was usually a big phone book hanging by a chain on the pay phone — they were usually torn and dirty because they were used by everyone.

If you didn’t have money, you could “call collect.” You’d place a call through the operator who, in turn, asked the person on the receiving end whether he or she would accept the charge. A lot of people used the “call collect” method of letting someone know they’d arrived at their destination. If that was the plan, the collect call would be rejected — it was a good way to indicate that someone had arrived safely without the cost of a call.

When I was a kid I remember going from pay phone to pay phone to see if someone had left money in the coin return slot.
Of course today, telephone booths and pay phones are quickly fading away. I’ve been told there are several phone booths in our area, but I don’t remember seeing them. For me, telephone booths are one of the things that bring back memories. If I could find one, and I had the room, I’d like to have one in my office. 

But as long as pay phones and telephones still exist and for those of us who still have land line phones at home — it’s a day to celebrate.
— 30 —

Back in the early 70s we were living in Manila in the Philippines. We lived in an apartment Building downtown — right on Manila Bay and from our balcony we could see what looked like a very nice motel, pretty much right out behind our apartment building. It always looked like it was well maintained and the grass and trees were always cut and trimmed. It was laid out in a “U” and all the rooms were located above a covered area where the cars could be parked. It seemed like there were always cars there so it appeared to be doing a good business.

A friend of ours was stationed at Clark Air Force Base, about 50 miles from Manila, but the road between Manila and Clark wasn’t the best and the trip often took several hours. Our friend was going on a trip to a neighboring country to install some equipment and his flight was out of Manila International Airport early one morning. Since it was an early morning flight I told him he should come down the day before and stay with us and I could take him to the airport to catch his flight. He thought staying in Manila overnight was a good idea, but he said he didn’t want to stay with anyone — he’d just stay in a hotel. 

I suggested if he didn’t stay with us he stay at the nice little motel very near out apartment and then I could just pick him up in the morning and take him to the airport. He thought that was a pretty good idea and he came to Manila the day before his flight. That afternoon, I drove him over to the motel so he could check in and then we were going to go out to dinner that night. We drove to the motel and went into the office — the clerk was very friendly and asked how he could help us. Our friend said that he need a room. The hotel clerk asked for how long and our friend said, “just one night.” The hotel clerk’s eyes grew wide and he asked, “ALL night?” 
Our friend stayed in our extra bedroom that night. Things are not always what they seem…..
— 30 —

When I turned on the news this morning, I expected hear the latest updates on Ukraine, but the story was the trucks coming to Washington. Most of us have been focused on Ukraine lately, but apparently there’s another war — right here in our own backyard. The news station interviewed someone by the name of Bob Bolus (from Pennsylvania, I think) — He said, “We’re going to put a stranglehold on D.C. They don’t have enough cops, enough people to stop us. We’re going to shut the Beltway down.” 

Of course, the first thing that came to my mind is that the Beltway is pretty much “shut down” every day — during rush hour. But what I really wondered, was, what is this group fighting for? I gather it’s a continuation of the “protest” in Canada. If I understood correctly, the Canadians started out angry about mask and vaccine mandates. Then they began talking about a wealth gap, government overreach, Confederates, Nazis, and then Trump 2024 flags popped up.

But back to Bob Bolus — he said he’s mad at Nancy Pilosi’s Gestapo and that wacko mayor of D.C. His people are unified, invincible, standing up fighting. Even after his explanation, the details of what they’re fighting for, escapes me.

Later in the newscast, another trucker, Brian Brase said, “A lot of people have asked why we’re doing this — what’s the reason behind it. People want a defined, clear answer. They think it’s one thing. The truth is, it’s about my children. It’s about my future grandchildren. It’s about our families. It’s about our country. It’s about letting our government know that you work for us.” 
Well, after listening to Bolus’s reasons, Brian’s explanation certainly cleared it up for me….

The list of things that are concerning to me and I’m paying attention to is pretty long — but here we are spending resources, money and energy on these convoys….. because their “grievances” and non-specific demands haven’t been met? 
— 30 —