What Would Jimmy Do?

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.
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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….
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My dad, and my granddads always wore hats — I don’t think they hardly ever left the house without their hats. In fact most men wore hats when I was a kid. And the women almost alway wore some kind of hat for any kind of dress-up occasion, like going to church.
When you look at old photos, or even watch old movies, most of the people are wearing hats, especially the men. 

Today, you rarely see anyone wearing a hat — what changed? If you look through history books, it seems like hats have been around forever. I guess that makes sense if you think about it — it’s only natural that the first thing you shield from the elements or falling objects is your head. 

I suppose there are other reasons, besides protection, that people wear hats — a fashion statement, to show association with a group, or maybe to show social status or class. Old pictures and movies seem to show upper class people wearing top hats and the lower classes wearing flat caps.

There has been all sorts of types or styles of hats that have been popular over the years, but why have they all mostly disappeared?

I obviously don’t know why people don’t wear hats like they used to — maybe its because things just change over time. But I’d guess it has something to do with the weather and better heating and air conditioning in our homes and offices. I’m sure one reason everyone had a hat was to keep their head warm. Today, if it’s cold out, you leave your heated office and go to your heated car, drive home and go into your heated house. For those few minutes (or seconds) you’re outside, most people don’t go to the trouble of wearing overcoats, gloves, and hats. Most people just kind of dress for room temperature, because they spend so little time out in the elements.

Another reason is probably what I mentioned before — the notion of social class. Years ago, social class was very important and people were expected to know their place. I’ve heard that maybe one of the good things about the World Wars was that they brought the social classes a bit closer and the focus shifted more to the individual rather than on their class. That’s probably when people’s dress as part of a distinct group stated to change.

Another reason, I think, is the modern cars. I remember in the mid to late 1950s cars coming out with smaller wheels and designs that made them lower (and supposedly “sleeker”) and I remember that my parents got one of the newer models and my dad took off his hat when he got in because the top of the car was so low, his hat wouldn’t fit. 

So as I said, I really have no idea why hats aren’t popular, but it seems that, in general, clothing has become more casual over time and society seems to have accepted it — looking “respectable” was apparently more important in the past. I was looking at some old World Series pictures not long ago and it looks like every man in the stands was wearing suit and tie — and there were lots of hats. I’m trying to remember if I ever attended a baseball game and saw someone wearing a suit.

There’s an old saying, “Home is where you hang your hat.” Someone also said, A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.
Maybe that’s where all the hats have gone….
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When you get old, you remember a lot of things that some younger people don’t — or have never even heard of. 
I threw out a really old electrical tool that no longer worked a few days ago. I noticed by the tag on it that it was designed for 110 volt, 60 cycle operation. Our daughter, who has a degree in electrical engineering, never used “cycle” in her courses — she used “hertz.”

When I went to school, cycle was the term used for the unit of frequency. I never heard the term hertz associated with frequency until I was a senior in college. Frequency was described as cycles per second. That term came from the fact that sound waves have a frequency measurable in their number of oscillations, or “cycles” per second. 

In 1960, the International System of Units was organized at the General Conference on Weights and Measures (GCPM) and officially changed “cycles per second” to “hertz.” I first read about this change in a Hewlett-Packard Journal I received in the mail. When I told people about the change they didn’t believe it and pretty much just wrote it off as another “Jimmy-ism.”
It took awhile, but cycles per second was largely replaced by hertz by the 1970s. So where did the name hertz come from?

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a German physicist who was the first person to irrefutable prove the existence of electromagnetic waves —the foundation of understanding the behavior of light and all things wireless. Hertz’s greatest accomplishment was proving Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism. Maxwell’s theory predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves, that electromagnetic waves move at the speed of light, and light itself was just such a wave.

Hertz’s work and experiments showed that light and “Maxwell waves” are both forms of electromagnetic radiation obeying James Clerk Maxwell’s equations. And he is the man whose peers honored him by attaching his name to the unit of frequency. Now all us old guys have to remember that a cycle per second is one hertz.
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This is a bit of a sad day around here — the last part of June and first part of July every year we get to enjoy the sight of the porta-potty when we go out our front door. But today, the porta-potty is gone… we’ll have to wait for next year and anticipate its annual arrival.

I might add that this year is the shortest amount of time we’ve had to enjoy it  — it was only here less than ten days. We can only hope for more next year. 
Now we’ll have to be content to just see green grass and trees when we go out…. sigh.
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“Independence now and forever!” That statement is attributed to Daniel Webster, and today we celebrate that Independence. It’s been challenged over the years — both externally and internally.  The American flag is the symbol of our freedom, national pride and history, and today is one of those days, especially, that we should display that symbol.

Today, like every year, we celebrate America’s birthday on July 4th. Well, that’s not completely accurate — one year we celebrated Independence Day on July 5h — the holiday fell on a Sunday in 1779, so the country celebrated on July 5th instead. And of course we’ve all heard that even though the Declaration of Independence was dated July 4, congress actually voted for independence from Great Britain two days prior on July 2, 1776. And — it wasn’t signed by everyone until a month later on August 2, 1776. John Adams was one who thought Independence Day was celebrated on the wrong day. He wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, about how memorable Independence Day would be in American history — in his letter, he said the day should be celebrated with parades, bonfires and fireworks, but he only referred to Independence Day as July 2nd. In fact, he turned down invitations to 4th of July celebrations in protest.

Thomas Jefferson is generally given credit as the author of the Declaration of Independence. He was the main author, but there were four others on the drafting committee — Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Robert Livingston.

John Hancock was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence. He was likely first because he was the President of Congress at the time. He signed in large handwriting and at the center of the document. His bold signature is where we get the phrase “put your John Hancock” when referring to signing your name.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first newspaper to print the Declaration — it came out in the newspaper on July 6, 1776 for everyone to see, after a local printer named John Dunlap produced copies of the declaration’s manuscript.

Three US Presidents that signed the Declaration of Independence died on July 4 — John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence. James Monroe died five years later on July 4, 1831.

The first 4th of July fireworks show took place in Philadelphia in 1777 — the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
In 1778, U.S. soldiers got a special 4th of July treat — George Washington allowed the troops a double ration of rum.
The Liberty Bell rings 13 times every Independence Day to honor the 13 original states — dependents of people who signed the Declaration of Independence tap the bell at 2 p.m. eastern time every 4th of July.

Before the Civil War, it was seen as unpatriotic if you kept your business open on Independence Day. Since then, restaurants and stores started having 4th of July sales….
Calvin Coolidge was the only president born on the 4th of July.
The 4th of July didn’t become a federal holiday until 1870.
The Constitution was signed in September of 1787, a little over 11 years after the Declaration of Independence — both were signed in Philadelphia.

Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence believed that a new Constitution should be written every 19 years. He wrote a letter to James Madison, asking if “One generation of men has the right to bind another,” saying that otherwise “the lands would belong to the dead, and not to the living, which would be the reverse of our principle.” I guess I’m thankful that didn’t happen…. I can’t imagine what the United States would look like today if it had.

But today is a day to celebrate — what’s the best kind of tea to drink of July 4th? Liber-tea!
Happy Independence Day!!!
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Over the years, I’ve blogged a number of times about telephones. Recently, I’ve mentioned that we are way overdue to get new iPhones. Usually I look forward to the newest gadgets, but this time I’m not looking forward to new phones — they’ll basically work like our present phones, but some things will have changed and it’ll take some adjustment on my part to get comfortable with the new phone.

I guess that’s always been the case with new technology and telephones especially have gone through tremendous changes through the years.
At one point in time, you had to remember (or look-up) phone numbers. Today, all your contacts are stored in your phone and you rarely have to type in a new number.

The first telephone was installed in the U.S. Capitol building in 1880 — situated in the lobby of the House of Representatives. By the 1890s telephones became standard equipment in the Capitol. In those days, a Congressman just had to pick up the phone and he would be connected with an operator who would place the call for him.

This all worked well until 1930 when new-fangled manual-dial phones were installed in Congressional offices. This was just too much and in the spring of 1930, the Senate considered the following resolution:

“Whereas dial telephones are more difficult to operate than are manual telephones, and Whereas Senators are required, since the installation of dial phones in the Capitol, to perform the duties of telephone operators in order to enjoy the benefits of telephone service; and Whereas dial telephones have failed to expedite telephone service; Therefore be it resolved that the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate is authorized and directed to order the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. to replace with manual phones within 30 days after the adoption of this resolution, all dial telephones in the Senate wing of the United States Capitol and in the Senate office building.”

The resolution, sponsored by Virginia’s Carter Glass, passed without objection when first considered on May 22, 1930. Arizona’s Henry Ashurst praised the sponsor for his restrained language. The Congressional Record would not be mailable, he said, “If it contained in print what Senators think of the dial telephone system.”

One day before the scheduled removal of all dial phones, Maryland Senator Millard Tydings offered a resolution to give senators a choice because some of the younger senators actually preferred the dial phones. Finally, technology came to the rescue —although the telephone company had pressed for the installation of an all-dial system, it said it could provide the Senate with phones that worked both ways. Senator Glass, the original sponsor of the resolution spoke just before the the Senate agreed to the compromise plan, “Mr. President, so long as I am not pestered with the dial and may have the manual telephone, while those who want to be pestered with [the dial] may have it, all right.” 

This just goes to show you what the world’s greatest deliberative body can accomplish when they set their minds to it.
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Well, here it is July already — a month filled with celebrations…. not only the 4th of July in the United States, but today (July 1) Canada celebrates their independence from the British empire with Canada Day. France celebrates Bastille Day on July 14th and many other countries like Algeria, Argentina and Belgium celebrate their nationhood this month. 

If these patriotic celebration aren’t enough, July 2nd is World UFO Day, July 6th is International Kissing Day and July 24th is National Tequila Day.

On July 20th of 1969 I was in Saigon and remember watching Neil Armstrong become the first human to set foot on the moon. I watched it on a very small black and white TV in a bar on Tu-Do Street. (I blogged about that experience a few years ago — you can check the archives, if you’re interested.) 

Tomorrow, July 2nd is the exact middle of the year — seems like that should be some kind of a holiday, but I guess it might bump World UFO Day our of the spotlight.

July is usually the hottest month of the year — the hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States was in Greenland Ranch, California — 134º on July 10th, 1913.

In case you’re interested in even more “July events,” the first ever rabies vaccine was administered by Louis Pasteur on July 6th, 1885 and the first atomic bomb was detonated in New Mexico on July 16th, 1945. The first ever international phone call was made on July 1, 1881. The call originated in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and was received in Maine in the United States.
And for junk food fans, July is National Ice Cream Month, National Chocolate Month, National French Fry Month and National Hot Dog Month.
Seven (7) US Presidents have passed away in July — the most of any month. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the 2nd and 3rd US Presidents, died on the same day — July 4th, 1826. 

July 4th is aphelion — the time/point when the Earth is the farthest it will get from the Sun for the entire year… specifically, it’ll be 94,509,598 miles away from the Sun.
They say that if ant hills are high in July, the coming winter will be hard. 

So we’re off to a busy month — maybe it won’t be as eventful as 1969, but I think we can all reflect on that memorable year and and hope that Neil Armstrong’s words can someday be true… “Here men from the plant Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.”
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Some of our relatives (Mike and Sue) recently got into archery. When I was a kid, we didn’t call it archery, we called it playing with bows and arrows. But I figured that if we get together in the future, I should be able to hold my own with them if the subject of archery comes up. So — I did a bit of extensive research and found some terms that I figured I might need to impress them….
Archer’s Paradox refers to the physics of archery, specifically when the arrow is released. It is the effect of how the arrow bends slightly around the bow when it leaves it.
Lincoln Logs is a way of referring to the arrows of larger than needed diameter shot by archers hoping that they might sneak into a higher scoring area of a target, just by hitting its line. 
If you look closely at some targets, there is a small x dead center of the target. When your arrow hits that little x dead center, it’s called a spider. (?????)
A tomato is an arrow that hits in the red area of an archery target.
When you draw back your bow and your arrow releases sooner than you intended, it’s referred to as shooting with too much pinky.
When an archer is shooting a bow with a draw weight that’s way too heave for them, it causes them to shake and struggle — that earns the term “struggle stick.”
A term we hear around here often, starting around Thanksgiving is Hog — a term in hunting that refers to a large or trophy size deer.
And my favorite archery term is a Robin Hood — that’s when your arrow hits another arrow so perfectly that it splits the arrow that was already shot into the target.

While on the subject of archery, besides Robin Hood, my favorite archery hero is William tell — Switzerland’s national hero, revered for his gallant acts leading to Swill liberation. Over the years, his legend has grown and William Tell has become a universal symbol for Swiss’ freedom struggle.

Over 150 years after the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy the first references to William Tell can be found in Swiss writings. In Chronicon Helveticum, in 1550, historian Aegidius Tschudi provided the first detailed account of Tell’s heroism and his role in Swiss independence, including the story of him shooting an apple off his son’s head. Tschudi’s account became the definitive source of the legend for many artistic retellings over the following centuries. 
Around the world William Tell came to represent rebellion against tyranny and even inspired some would-be assassins. John Wilkes Booth claimed Tell was his inspiration for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. 

William Tell’s legacy is seeped in so much legend it it difficult to separate fact from fiction. He is so integral to Swiss nationalism that most Swiss people believe he did exist. Monuments to William Tell stand proudly throughout Switzerland.
But — there is no concrete historical evidence that William Tell actually lived. 
The story of a marksman shooting an apple off a loved one’s head is nothing new — it appears in many other nation’s folklore including Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Persia and England. In fact, a very similar story came out of Denmark in the 12th century — a skilled hunter called Toko is forced to shoot an apple off his son’s head then escapes imprisonment to kill the tyrant, just like William tell.

Maybe the question of whether a man named William Tell actually lived 700 years ago is like the question of whether a masked Lone Ranger actually roamed the Old West righting wrongs. It’s impossible to prove that William Tell existed, but it’s equally impossible to prove that he didn’t. But it doesn’t really matter — even today, anyone that takes a stand against thugs and wrong doing can be sure that the spirit of William Tell stands with them.
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Faithful readers of this blog know that every 4th of July is especially festive around here. Not only is it America’s birthday and party time, but we are treated to about two weeks of a wonderful view of a Porta-Potty when we step out our front door. 
There’s always a big 4th of July party just across the street and the guests use the Porta-Potty.
We always look forward to this spectacular view — if we ever sell our house, I’m sure this will be a big selling point. 
I know you all anxiously await my blog every year announcing the Porta-Potty arrival, so now, knowing it has arrived, you can get on with your holiday planning.
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