What Would Jimmy Do?

One of my favorite foods is Mongolian BBQ. It’s not something that’s available in our area, and in fact it’s hard to find in most places in the United States. I’ve had it in Hawaii, but it isn’t the same as I’ve had in other places in the world. 

In the mid-1980s, I spent a lot of time in California — mostly northern California. I first ran across Mongolian BBQ in California in the Los Angeles area at a place called Colonel Lee’s Mongolian BBQ. I thought it was just about the best Mongolian BBQ I’d ever had. The guys that I was traveling with thought it was a dump and weren’t nearly as impressed as I was. 

It turns out that Colonel Lee’s was a small chain — only in California as far as I know. Since I was spending a great deal of time in the San Francisco area — mostly Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, I was excited that I found a Colonel Lee’s in that area, located on Castro Street in Mountain View. That location wasn’t very far from were I was working and I think I managed to eat there at least several times a week.

Obviously I got to know the owner and the staff very well and they always made me feel like an honored guest. I often took some of the guys I was working with, but only a couple of the them thought it was as good as I did. More than once, when I had to work late, the restaurant was closed when I got there, but if any of the staff was still there, they always opened the door and usually met me with a Tsingtao (Chinese beer.)

One night a friend/co-worker and myself went there for dinner, but Colonel Lee’s Mongolian BBQ was closed due to a private party having their wedding reception in the restaurant. We looked in and saw the place all re-arranged with all the tables nicely decorated with nice table cloths. The wedding party was sitting at a long table facing the other tables, near the front of the dining room.

We were just about to turn around when the manager came running out… told us how glad he was to see us and to “come on in.” I explained that I thought that if the party had rented the restaurant for the night, it was just for their invited guests. Well, the manager said he was sure they wouldn’t mind and in fact a table was already being set up for us near the back — complete with a white table cloth, flowers and “wedding favors,” and of course a couple of Tsingtao beers. 

We were the only ones in the place not of Asian descent. We got a number of stares, and we just smiled and waved at everyone…. most of them smiled and waved back. 

We had the usual great meal and a number of Tsingtao’s along with a couple of glasses of champagne. As the night progressed we started hitting our glasses with a knife as a way of urging the bride and groom to kiss (a tradition at a lot western weddings…apparently not so much at Asian weddings.) But a lot of the guests picked up on it and were making quite a lot of noise. Finally, the bride announced that “we don’t do that!” Both my friend and I wondered if the groom knew that beforehand….

Mongolian BBQ is still one of my favorite foods and Colonel Lee’s Mongolian BBQ will always be one of my all-time favorite restaurants. There are a number of Mongolian BBQ establishments in California, especially the Los Angles area — But there will never be another Colonel Lee’s.
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Today is Palm Sunday — the Sunday before Easter, and the final day of Lent. The day marks the occasion when Jesus rode on a donkey and entered Jerusalem. The name stems from the fact that people in Jerusalem threw palm leaves on the floor to greet Jesus. It is also sometimes called Branch Sunday or Passion Sunday.

On Palm Sunday, palm leaves are blessed and then collected and burned into ash — to be used on Ash Wednesday the following year.
Palm leaves are considered to be a symbol of goodness and victory. The liturgical color for Palm Sunday is red.

Jesus arriving in Jerusalem on a donkey fulfilled a prophecy from the Old Testament about the Messiah, the savior of Israel. In the times of Jesus, it was common for kings or important people to arrive by a procession riding on a donkey. The donkey is a symbol of peace so riding one showed the person had peaceful intentions. 

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, also known as Passion Week.
Some/many churches celebrate today with reenactments of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Catholic churches bless palm branches with holy water and distribute them to congregants. Various places in the world have their own interesting traditions related to Palm Sunday. In Latvia, Palm Sunday is called “Pussy Willow Sunday” because pussy willows, rather than palms are used and children are traditionally awoken with a swipe of a willow. In the Netherlands, celebrants decorate crosses with candy and bread in the shape of a rooster. In Poland, competitions for the largest or most beautiful palm branches are common.

But no matter how how you observe it, Palm Sunday is one of the most important days in the Christian calendar. Pope Benedict XVI said that Palm Sunday tells us that… it is the cross that is the true tree of life.
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I like to play golf, although there seems to some disagreement as to what I do on the golf course is really “playing golf.” Nonetheless, I enjoy it and of course what makes it the most enjoyable, is that the group I play with are all really nice guys. 

Over the past couple of years, getting a group together for golf has become more difficult — the golf course that was “our kind of course” closed, Covid made everything more difficult and life just generally got in the way of golf. Everyone in our golf group is “retired,” so you’d think we should be able to play anytime we wanted…. but — that’s just not the case.

When we do get together for golf, after the round, we all sit down and have a couple of beers and talk about whatever is on anyone’s mind — these 19th-hole sessions have provided us all a lot of entertainment, as well as solved some of the world’s most challenging issues. 

Of course we only play golf when the weather is nice, so a few years ago, we started a “Winter Golf” league. Winter golf is just like summer golf except, the weather is too cold to play golf, so we don’t.
We just skip the golf and go right to the 19th-hole session. We rotate it round to everyone’s house and it’s just like golf — without the golf. 
But even winter golf has taken a hit lately — last year we didn’t hold it because of the coronavirus and all the precautions associated with it, like social distancing, etc. And this year, it was cut back from our regular schedule of the past.

But this week we had the “Farewell to Winter Golf” gathering at our house in preparation for summer golf getting underway. This year winter golf took on a different format — wives were included. In the past it was just us grumpy old golfers doing what we always did. The addition of the wives seems to have cleaned up our act a bit and the subjects took on a different flavor, with less complaining and certainly less of a “bar” atmosphere. 

I’m not sure our gathering was technically winter golf as it has been in the past, but it was very enjoyable and the conversation was different and refreshing. Welcoming the ladies certainly added a bit of class — and beauty….
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There’s been a lot of talk about our deteriorating infrastructure lately. Obviously, it’a been neglected over the years and certainly needs to be upgraded and repaired. When a lot of people hear infrastructure, they think of the roads, and specifically the Interstate Highway System. It seems like interstate highways have been around for most of our lives, but the system only came into existence in 1956 as a result of the Federal Highway Act. 
An inter-state highway system was first considered in the 1930s — President Roosevelt expressed interest in such a system as a way of providing jobs.

President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 on June 29, 1956, while he was in the hospital recovering from an illness. Initially, the interstate highway system’s primary purpose was not to enhance casual driving over long distances but to provide for the efficient movement of military vehicles if and when necessary. At the time we were in the midst of the cold war, so that made some amount of sense. The original name was the “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.” In October, 1990, President Bush signed legislation changing it to the “Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”

The longest interstate is I-90 (3,085.3 miles) from Seattle to Boston.
The shortest interstate is I-97 (17.6 miles) from Annapolis to Baltimore.
The state with the most Interstate mileage is Texas with 3,232.04 miles.
The state with the most Interstate routes is New York, with 29 routes.
The Interstate route that crosses the most states is I-95 — it crosses 16 states, from Florida to Maine.
The highest Interstate route number is I-990, north of Buffalo, New York.
The lowest Interstate route number is I-4, across Florida.
The only state without any Interstate routes is Alaska —Hawaii has three Interstates (H-1, H-2, and H-3.) — honestly, I don’t understand why there are interstate highways in Hawaii…..

East-west Interstate route numbers end in an even number — north-south routes end in an odd number.
Three-digit Interstate highway numbers represent beltways or loops, attached to a primary Interstate highway (represented by the last two numbers of the beltway’s number.) For example, Washington D.C.,s beltway is numbered 495, because its parent highway is I-95.
If the first digit of a three-digit Interstate number is odd, it is a spur into a city. If it is even, it goes through or around a city.
There are five state capitals not directly served by the Interstate systems — Juneau, Alaska, Dover, Delaware, Jefferson City, Missouri, Carson City, Nevada, and Pierre, South Dakota.
In modern history, France was the first Western nation to begin building a system of national highways — in 1716.

Something you may have heard, but it’s not true, is that one out of every five miles of the Interstate Highway System must be built straight and flat, so as to be useable by aircraft during times of war. It’s interesting to note that during World War II, the Germans used the Autobahns for just that purpose. 

Anyhow, even though the system is getting old and needs some updates and repairs, it’s still going strong and it’s use still makes it possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. 
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Playing games with the grandkids is always fun, but a lot of games they’re familiar with, I’ve never heard of — but they’re still fun and maybe more fun as I listen to the grandkid’s explanation of how they’re played.

It’s also fun to teach them about the “old” classic games, like checkers and dominoes. I particularly like dominoes because besides being fun, there’s counting involved. 

The game can be spelled two different ways — dominoes or dominos. In terms of grammar, it is considered correct with or without the ‘e.’ (The plural form of words ending in ‘o’ can be spelled either way, depending on the word. For example, the plural of piano just adds an ’s,’ while the plural of potato adds ‘es.’ The more common plural spelling of domino is dominoes.

To this day, no one really knows how or why the game is called dominoes. Some historians believe it was named after the black hooded accessory worn by priests many years ago. The best story I’ve heard about the name is that dominoes were developed as a game by French monks and named after the first lines of Psalm 110, which in Latin reads Disit Dominos mea (“said my Lord.”)
The oldest known writings regarding the game dates back to the 12th century — Chinese writers of the Yuan Dynasty described it as a gambling game sold by peddlers. They referred to the game as “pupai.”

The modern version of dominoes comes from Europe. It first appeared there in the early 18th century,  The modern European domino sets differ from the Chines sets —the European versions have 28 tiles, whereas the Chinese ones use 32 tiles. Chinese sets were initially designed to represent all the possible “faces” or throws of two 6-sided dice.

The Netherlands has held an annual event since 1986 called Domino Day. It has set records including the longest domino spiral, the highest domino climb, and the largest domino structure.

The game inspired the phrase “domino effect,” in reference to small events compounding to create a catastrophe. Standing the times closely together or their sides and then tapping the first one to cause the second and then the third and eventually all of the times in the line to topple is what is known as “the domino effect.”

The game of dominoes has inspired a popular pizza restaurant to use a domino tile as it logo. Domino’s Pizza was established on December 9, 1960, in Michigan.

The spots on dominoes are known as “pips,” and the game pieces are called “tiles” — but my grandad always called them “bones.”
The game involves matching the game pieces (tiles or “bones”) —each domino has a number of spots, or none at all, at each end of the tile that must be matched with another of the same number of spots. Playing dominoes with our grandkids is a good way to teach and reinforce basic math skills like counting, addition and multiplication. It also helps develop critical thinking, strategic planning and pattern recognition. I’m not sure how much of that me or the grandkids really learn, but we do have fun — and — it is educational. Actually, it’s a lot like life — you gotta play the “bones” you’ve drawn. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got seven doubles in your hand….
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We’ve been to way too many funerals recently. One of the things I’ve always noticed about funeral services is that everyone tends to dress up — even today, when people typically dress more casually when going to the theater or church, taking a trip on an airplane, or other activities that used to require one to “dress up.”

I noticed that at two of the recent funerals we attended, most people were wearing black, or at least dark colored clothing. I guess wearing black is a long standing tradition — at least in the United States. Funerals are typically somber occasions, and wearing black indicates that you’re mourning the loss of someone, and showing a sign of respect for the deceased.
But I’ve attended funerals in other countries and black is certainly not the accepted color of mourning everywhere.

Wearing dark colors for mourning has been associated with death and loss for centuries in most western cultures. But in other parts of the world it’s not black — it may be red, yellow, purple, white, etc. For instance, in China, red symbolizes happiness and is a color that’s strictly forbidden at funerals — but in South Africa, red is a symbol of mourning, representing the bloodshed suffered during the Apartheid era. Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wore red in tribute to Nelson Mandela at his funeral in 2013.

Purple is a color of mourning in many places… In Brazil it can be considered disrespectful and unlucky to wear purple if you are not attending a funeral, because the color has a sacred, devotional meaning to it. And in Thailand, purple defines sorrow, and is reserved for widows to wear while mourning the death of their spouse.

Colors associated with mourning are often driven by religion — It’s interesting that Islamic traditions do not specify a color for mourning. According to a web site I checked, there are no official mourning colors for Muslim people. There is no religious text in the Quran or the Sunnah indicating any particular mourning color, but there is a prohibition of wearing clothes that “contradict grieving.” That means that if a Muslim dies in the United States, most people grieving will wear black. If a Muslim dies in China, the family will not wear red at a funeral because, in China, the color red “contradicts grieving.”

In the Jewish community, color has a symbolic meaning — white is a sign associated with purity, black is the traditional color of mourning. This is according to The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism.

Im many cultures, the color white represents purity, but in some religions, the color white symbolizes additional ideas — white can express the concept of oneness with God or represent eternal life in others. For these reasons, white is also an appropriate color to wear to funerals.

Though there are variations within Hindu traditions, women generally wear white or black.
It is common for Buddhist mourners to wear simple, white clothes.
Red is the color of public mourning in Ghana, but the color is commonly reserved for the immediate family members. Extended family and friends wear black to show support to the immediate family.
White is usually considered the color of mourning in China. I found an article titled “Chinese Death Rituals” that says while white is commonly used, it is dependent upon which dialect group the family belongs to — black is sometimes considered a mourning color in China as well as white.

Who knows how people in the future will express mourning through color? I’ve already noticed some change in how people dress for funerals in our town — their dress has become more casual, and probably a bit more “colorful.” And sometimes it may be the wish of the person who has died for mourners to wear bright colors, or maybe the family  requests you to wear a specific color or ribbon in support of some cause or charity. What if the mourning color is dictated more by religion than culture — will most Hindus continue to wear white to a funeral because it symbolizes purity, or will that practice fall away? I imagine that the “color of mourning,” like other things will change over time. 
But I guess that no matter how people choose to mourn, the important thing is not so much a color but that they want to honor and respect their deceased loved ones.
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March Madness, as usual, has had some pretty exciting games. There’s always a “Cinderella” team — This year it was St. Peter’s, being the first 15th seeded team to make it to the Elite Eight. But after all the smoke has cleared, the Final Four is here — the Final Four is the two games that determine which teams play for the national title.
Until 1978, the “Final Four” was just referred to as the tournament’s semifinal. But after 1978 “Final Four” was used almost exclusively and the NCAA eventually trademarked the term.

The lowest seed to make a Final Four is Number 11 — and five teams have done it. LSU in 1986, George Mason in 2006, VCU in 2011, Loyola Chicago in 2018, and UCLA in 2021. Unfortunately, no Number 11 seed has ever advanced to the championship game.

No matter where the Final Four is played, the hardwood court always comes from the same place. The “Final Floors” are produced by Connor Sports using hardwood sugar maple from northern Michigan. The wood goes to Amasa, Michigan, for the assembly of the floor panels and then to Idaho Falls, Idaho, to be finished. From there, there floors go to the stadium where it takes about five hours to install.

The most appearances by a team without making the Final Four is BYU they’ve only been able to make it as far as the Elite Eight.
Five schools have made it to more than 10 Final Fours — Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, UCLA and North Carolina. This year’s Final Four will features appearances by Kansas, Duke, and North Carolina.
The NCAA Tournament was first broadcasted by NBC in 1969 — CBS brought the rights in 1982 and since then March Madness has evolved into the major TV event it is today.
The 1979 championship game between Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores and Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans still holds the record for television viewership for any college basketball game.

The Final Four was originally hosted in arenas in various cities across the country. The arena that hosted it the most times was Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium — the Final Four was played there nine times (between 1940 and 1964.) In the mid 90s, the Final Four moved to domed stadiums. The stadium hosting the games the most times is the New Orleans’ Superdome, where this year’s games will be played — the sixth time the Final Four has been played in the Superdome. One of four teams will be really happy come Monday night.
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Today’s subject is something I admit I don’t know much about (I know, you’re wondering how this is any different than everything else I write about) — but today is the beginning of Ramadan.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim, Islamic calendar, a religious annual observance and month of fasting that is considered to be one of the five Pillars of Islam.

The Five Pillars of Islam include Sawm – fasting during Ramadan, Hajj – a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life, Zakat – giving to the poor, Salat – five-time daily prayer, facing Mecca, including absolution prior to prayer, and Shalada – declaration of belief in one true God.

If a non-Muslim meets a Muslim during the month of Ramadan, the appropriate greeting for good wishes is “Ramadan Mubarak” which means “Have a blessed Ramadan.”

Ramadan falls on the ninth .lunar month in the Islamic Calendar. The lunar calendar means the start of each month is based on various factors, such as the sighting of the moon, so like all Islamic months, the beginning of Ramadan can move as many as 11 or 12 days each year. 

During Ramadan, Muslims are encouraged to read the Quran and in some countries it is a crime to ignore Ramadan and break the fast.
Throughout Ramadan, people fasting are expected to abstain from food, drinks and other pleasures from dawn to dusk. Participants are supposed to focus their mind on prayer, purity, spirituality and charity. Fasting is a reminder of the importance of self-control and the suffering of the poor. Ramadan fasting rules help to cleanse your body and mind. 

At the end of Ramadan there is a large festival called Eid ul Fitr to celebrate the end of the fast. Eid ul Fitr is celebrated by wearing one’s best clothes, giving gifts, having a large meal, and spending time with one’s family. Muslims also use this time to ask for forgiveness for sins and to praise Allah (God.)
So the month of Ramadan is a blessing. A time to reflect on cleansing, prayer, religion, and remembrance of those around us —  Ramadan Mubarak.
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Today is April Fool’s Day, also sometimes called All Fools’ Day. As I’ve mentions in previous April 1st blogs, even though its been commemorated for centuries by a multitude of cultures in various locations, its precise origin is actually unknown.

The first recorded mention of the day as being special was in the Nun’s Priest Tales in 1392 by Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of The Canterbury Tales. In the tale, a vain cockerel is tricked by a wily fox, very much like in an Aesops’ fable. Written in old English, the line says, “Syn March was gon.” This can be translated as “since March was gone.” The sentence led historians to believe that a special occasion occurs on April 1st, in which others can be tricked.
Some historians have linked April Fools’ Day to festivals such as Hilaria (Latin for joyful,) which was celebrated in ancient Rome at the end of March by followers of the cult of Cybele. It involved people dressing up in disguises and mocking fellow citizens and even magistrates and was said to be inspired by the Egyptian legend of Isis, Osiris and Seth.
There’s also a theory that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Norther Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather. 

But this isn’t what I intended to write about today — I’ve decided that this blog has for too long been about nothing. It just rambles on about insignificant things, so I’m going to change the format to a more formal, meaningful dialog about things that are important and make a sincere effort to do my part to make this a truly better world. 
Is this an April Fool’s joke? Check this blog the next few days for the answer to that….
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Today is the last day of March and an important day for all of us. It’s World Backup Day. It really would be nice if we could back the world up to a time when it seemed to be a kinder, more peaceful place — but — given that we can’t do that, we can at least take steps to protect our information.

Today’s blog can be considered a public service announcement — to remind you to backup all the data on your electronic devices. This is one of those things you should practice at least weekly, if not daily. 
A lot of people only go to church on Easter, and maybe Christmas — that’s better than not at all but…. same with backing up your data — if you only do it on World Backup Day, that’s better than not at all, but…

Before computers, there was no need for a World Backup Day, although it was still important to keep track of important papers and information — by keeping valuable documents in a safe deposit box, or maybe a fireproof safe. Those things worked until the computer came of age and we suddenly became overwhelmed with data.
The real need/problem started with the disk drive, capable of storing lots and lots of information. Then, if that wasn’t enough, along came “cloud storage.” Naturally, loss of huge amounts of data can be devastating — and finally Ismail Jadun, who was a student at the time, created World Backup day, mostly as a joke. But it became legitimate and it’s no joke.
Back up and keep at least one extra copy of your data on a separate storage device, or even in the cloud will protect you in case your original copy becomes destroyed or damaged or for some other reason is inaccessible.

Another threat —ransomware — has become a bigger problem recently and a backup, or multiple backups can be a way to protect against losing access to data from such malware.
However you do it, be sure to back up your dat regularly, and in more than one place. 
Maybe it’s appropriate that March 31 was chosen as backup day because if people lose their data, by accident or some other means, it’ll make them a real April Fool.
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