What Would Jimmy Do?

Our Thanksgiving guests have arrived — Rory and Ellie chose to share a bed. I’m pretty sure this is the quietest our house will be for the next several days.
— 30 —

Starting early this morning and tonight is November’s full Moon. An added bonus is that there was also a near-total eclipse of the Moon. The eclipse was supposed to be visible  from most of North America. 

November’s Moon is often, or usually, referred to as the Beaver Moon — because this is the time of year when beavers begin to take shelter in their lodges, having already laid up sufficient food for the long winter ahead. During the time of the fur trade in North America, it was also the season to trap beavers for their thick, winter-ready pelts. 

For years, the monthly full Moons were given names tied to early Native American, Colonial American, and European folklore. I’ve noticed that some newspapers and Internet stories are referring to this month’s full Moon as a “Blood Moon.” Since (believe it or not) I wasn’t sure what a “Blood Moon” really was, I did some checking — not extensive research, but just checking.

This month’s eclipse is a near-total eclipse — the Moon will be 98% obscured during the eclipse, so technically it won’t be a total lunar eclipse, or a true Blood Moon. A total eclipse of the Moon is often called a “Blood Moon” because the Moon turns reddish when it’s completely submerged in the Earth’s shadow. 

“Blood Moon” is not a technical term used in astronomy. It’s more of a popular phrase, maybe used because it sounds so dramatic. It simply refers to a “total lunar eclipse” — that’s all. 

Actually, a fully-eclipsed Moon really becomes orange or coppery like a penny, not red like blood. So even though we don’t technically get a true Blood Moon, if the clouds got out of the way, it was still be a sight to behold if you got out about two in the morning. 

An while we’re on the subject of the Moon…. the spin time of the Moon on its own axis is identical to the time it takes the Moon to evolve around the Earth, which is why the Moon always keep almost exactly the same face toward us. 

And — if you’d like to know how much you’d weigh on the Moon, just multiply your weight by 0.165. You’d weight about 80 percent less than on Earth.
— 30 —

Love potions have been the stuff of history and legend since ancient times. These elixirs, designed to allure, played a major role in both Greek and Egyptian mythology. The potions have long been credited with having magical influences over the whims and woes of human attraction.

In the second century A.D., Roman writer and philosopher Apuleius allegedly concocted a potion that snagged him a rather wealthy widow. Relatives of the widow brought Apuleius to court, claiming the potion had subverted the woman’s true wishes. Apuleius argued that the potion (supposedly made with shellfish, lobsters, spiced oysters, and cuttlefish) had restored his wife’s vivacity and spirit — and the court ended up ruling in his favor.

Today, if you’re looking for love, most people probably turn to Facebook, but some people do believe that love potions are for real. The ancient Greeks ground up orchid, which they regarded as a powerful aphrodisiac, into a powder and added it to wine. They believed that this concoction could inspire passionate love in whoever consumed it. 

Most people can’t think of love potions without remembering the popular song, “Love Potion No. 9,” that was recorded by The Clovers in 1959 and made popular again in 1963 by The Searchers. 

The song was written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and according to the song, the potion’s ingredients “smelled like turpentine and looked like India Ink.” Doesn’t sound very good, but it apparently helped a guy who was “a flop with chicks” — at least until he “kissed a cop down on 34th and Vine.”

But all serious-ness aside, if you’re really interested in a love potion, in the mid 1990s, Leiber and Stoller (the song writers) and a couple of other people developed a trademarked cologne spray bearing the name of Love Potion No. 9.

According to the label, Love Potion No. 9 is made with water, SD40B alcohol, isopropyl myristate, isopropyl alcohol, and the fragrances of citrus and musk. Sounds like this concoction could really heighten you passion and arousal and make you attractive to the opposite sex. Of course, there is a disclaimer on the bottle….”No guarantee of success is granted or implied.”
— 30 —

A few days ago, I received a really nice gift from a friend. It was a “Golfer’s Hip Flask” — really nice, it came in a leather case that held a divot tool, ball marker and wooden tees. I have never owned a flask before, and while checking on how to clean it properly, I began to run across some interesting things about flasks…. so I just couldn’t resist doing some extensive research on the subject.

First off, there are a number of different types of flasks — you probably remember flasks used in your chemistry classes in school and a vacuum bottle is really a kind of flask, but but my flask is a “hip flask,” so that’s where my research was centered. 

Drinking flasks have been around since prehistoric times. They were popular with the Romans, and they have a dark past with the Mafia. In the middle ages, gutted fruit was sometimes used to store alcoholic drinks. During the 18th century, women would take pig’s bladders, fill them with gin and hide them under their petticoats to smuggle them onto British warships.

Flasks have been made from almost every material you can think of, including earthenwares, wood, bronze, pewter, glass, silver, plastic and stainless steel. Today, the primary reason for using plastic is to avoid detection by metal detectors. 

The curved deigns popular today were invented in the 18th century. They were popular with the elite social class of the time. The high quality flasks were made from silver and glass, but cheaper ones were made from pewter. Pewter contains dangerously high levels of lead and unfortunately for some, the metal was leaking into their containers and causing brain damage. You can still buy pewter flasks, but they no longer contain lead. 

So why were hip flasks invented? Basically, to make smuggling alcohol easier. Prohibition radically changed drinking in America and if you wanted a drink, it was best to conceal it. Around1920, the hip flask became popular in the urban gentleman’s collection of accessories — that’s when it gained its name. The word “hipster” was used to identify people that carried hip flasks during Prohibition. A lot of people would conceal their flasks within their boots, which is where the phrase “bootlegger” came from. Early in the Prohibition period, the US government banned the sale of both hip flasks and cocktail shakers.

I guess this maybe falls into the “fun fact” category, but more hip flasks were sold in the first six months of Prohibition than during the entire previous decade. During Prohibition, the hip flask became the ultimate accessory for anyone wanting to stylishly flout the law.

So hip flasks really became popular during, and because of, prohibition — an interesting subject in and of itself….
Alcohol was banned completely in America between 1920 – 1933. This was driven by various religious organizations that thought banning alcohol would reduce crime and violence rates — and — raise religious quality in America. 

The only this is, it didn’t work. Banning alcohol did not go the way the US government had hoped — it led to lost government revenue from the alcohol tax and caused a lot of people to move on to heavier substances instead. Throughout prohibition, alcohol consumption gradually rose back to around the same level as it was before the ban. 

During prohibition, the high demand for alcohol birthed many dangerous gangs and gangsters, including Al Capone, who is (partially) famous for illegally brewing, distilling and distributing beer and liquor. It also led to the creation of speakeasies — illegal bars where people would drink alcohol in secret. 

But I do like my new flask and I’m a person that likes to see the flask half full — hopefully with Jack Daniels.
— 30 —

Today is Veterans Day — a day to honor all those who served in the United States Armed Forces. Memorial Day honors those who died while serving. 

Veterans Day is an annual holiday on November 11 — it’s celebrated on that date or the nearest workday (Monday or Friday) to that date.

Veterans Day is a federal holiday in the United States, but many other countries celebrate the day as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day because November 11 marked the end of World War I. (The World War I armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.)

The National Ceremony is held each year at Arlington National Cemetery, where the President normally gives a speech honoring the veterans.
At 11 am a moment of silence is observed to remember those who served. 

At 11 am on November 11, 1918 the fighting during World War I came to an end with the signing of a temporary peace agreement, or armistice. In 1912, President Wilson announced that November 11th would be called Armistice Day in the United States. In 1938, Armistice Day became a national federal holiday. Congress decided that they wanted to honor the veterans of all wars and changed the day to Veterans Day in 1954. Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of November in 1968, but changed back to November 11th in 1978 by President Gerald Ford.

Every day is a good day to remember, but today, especially, we should remember some of the lyrics from the song, God Bless the USA…. “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.”
This is an important day — we don’t know them all, but we owe them all.
— 30 —

For a number of reasons, I’ve been tracking the development the new space telescope for a few years now. Finally, on October 12, the Webb Telescope arrived in French Guiana via ship. The telescope is the world’s largest space telescope. It is currently scheduled to be launched December 18th on an Ariane 5 rocket.

The telescope, named the James Webb Space telescope and referred to as the JWST, by astronomers has been in the design state for twenty-six years. Progress on its development has been delayed countless times. 

The new telescope will dwarf the Hubble Space Telescope in size, resolution and the ability to see very faint objects. The Hubble telescope operates primarily in the visible spectrum. The Webb telescope will use cameras and spectrographs tuned to near- and mid-infrared wavelengths. That should allow astronomers to view some of the oldest objects in the cosmos — it will have a sensitivity 1,000 times better than current infrared space telescopes. Scientists believe the new telescope will be able to collect photons that have been journeying toward the earth since a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

Assuming a successful launch, it will take nearly a month to reach its “home” in space. It will then deploy and unfold its many parts in a complex sequence. It will unpack and extend solar arrays, antennas, booms, radiators, mirrors, and the sunshield (which deploys like a layered umbrella.) The telescope will then cool down to temperatures around minus 400º Fahrenheit…. during this time it will be kept facing away from the sun, moon and Earth — to maintain its infrared sensitivity. It’s interesting that the JWST, unlike the Hubble, is not designed to be upgraded.

Right from the start, the scope of the project was underestimated, and it was woefully under budgeted.. The original, 1966, estimates came in at $1 billion to $3.5 billion, and with a projected launch date in 2007. Today’s price tag exceeds $9.3 billion. 

Northrop Grumman is the telescope’s prime contractor. The original contract winner, TRW, was bought by Northrop in 2002. At its peak, as many as 2,000 scientists and technicians were working on JWST, with a total of about 10,000 people involved in its construction over the decades. 

As launch day approaches, astronomers are both excited and nervous. The rocket ride itself won’t be the worst part. About 50 deployments need to occur after launch to set up the system. There are 344 “single-point failures.” These are individual steps that have to work for the mission to be a success. This exceeds the singe-point fails for landing on Mars by a factor of three. 

Probably most of the news about the new telescope you’ve been reading concerns its name. Most people are thrilled about the scientific promise of the new telescope, but some have taken issue with naming it after James Webb, who ran NASA during the key years when it was working to put astronauts on the moon. Those objecting to the name, claim that when Webb was NASA administrator, he went along with government discrimination against gay and lesbian employees in the 1950s and 1960s. 

It’s too bad such a scientific effort has to be clouded by issues that should have long-ago been put rest…..
— 30 —

Today is my favorite grandson’s birthday — Locke is seven years old. They say that grandchildren don’t stay young forever… that’s probably good, because Poppi’s only have so many horsey rides in them. But even so, grandkids grow up too fast.
One suggestion that seems to have merit is that you should never have children, only grandchildren. 

But today is my grandson’s birthday and not to brag, he is the coolest… okay, I’m bragging a little bit, but Happy Birthday to my awesome grandson, Locke!!!

Guy Fawkes was born in 1507 in York, England. He was a member of a prominent Yorkshire family and a convert to Roman Catholicism. Due, at least partially, to his adventurous spirit and his religious zeal, he left Protestant England in 1513 and enlisted in the Spanish army in the Netherlands. 
He won a reputation for great courage and cool determination. 

Due to King James I increasing oppression of Roman Catholics in England, Robert Catesby, with the help of a small band of Catholics instigated a plot — known as the Gunpowder Plot. The objective was to blow up the palace at Westminster during the state opening of Parliament, while James I and his chief ministers were there.

Catesby decided that they needed the help of a military man who would not be as readily recognizable as he or members of his organization were. They dispatched one of their group to the Netherlands to enlist Fawkes. Fawkes, without knowledge of the precise details of the plot, returned to England and joined Catesby’s group.

The plotters rented a cellar extending under the palace, and Fawkes planted 36 (some say fewer, some say more) barrels of gunpowder there and camouflaged them with coals and sticks. But the plot was discovered, and Fawkes was arrested during the night of November 4 – 5 (1605.)

Today, November 5 is observed in Britain as Guy Fawkes Day — also called Bonfire Night — to commemorate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Today Guy Fawkes Day is a time to get together with friends and family, set off fireworks, light bonfires, attend parades and burn effigies of Fawkes. Children traditionally wheeled around their effigies demanding a “penny for the Guy.” That’s led some to compare the Guy Fawkes celebration to our Halloween tradition of trick or treating.

Fireworks, a major component of most Guy Fawkes Day celebrations, represent the explosives that were never used by the plotters. Guards perform an annual search of the Parliament building to check for arsonists — although today the search is ceremonial.
All in all, sounds like a fun day — Happy Guy Fawkes Day.
— 30 —

Congratulations to the Braves — this year’s World Series champions. Even though the World Series doesn’t get the attention it did when I was growing up, it’s still a fall classic and it really is America’s national sport. Pretty much every country has a “national sport” of some kind. I’ve been to a lot of sporting events around the world that aren’t popular (or even legal) in the United States, like the bullfights in Spain or the cock fighting in Mexico. But one of the most bazar sports that I’m aware of is buzkashi — the national sport of Afghanistan. 

I never attended a buzkashi “match,” but I’ve been near when it was played…. it draws a huge crowd of passionate fans, and involves big money — at least by afghan standards.

In addition to the interesting choice of a ball — the carcass of a goat, decapitated, de-hoofed and soaked overnight in cold water to make it stiff — the players are mounted on horseback and wear traditional Uzbek garb (turbans, robes, and scarves around their waists.)

The playbook isn’t complicated… only a minimally regimented strategy that requires, or more correctly, encourages, no-hold-barred violence. The referees carry rifles in case things really get out of hand. The playing field has no set boundaries and spectators are in constant danger of being trampled. 

The objective of the game is to gain possession of the goat and carry it to a designated goal The winning players cook and eat the carcass.

The name buzkashi translates to “goat pulling” or “goat dragging.” It probably originated with nomadic Turkic peoples that moved west from China and Mongolia from the 10th to the 15th centuries. Today, it is played mainly in Afghanistan. 

The game has two basic forms — modern and traditional. The modern version is played with teams of 10 to 12 riders. The traditional form has no formal teams — it’s every man for himself. 

Both forms of the game are played in an implicitly political context. The competitions are often sponsored by khans (“traditional elites”) who gain or lose status on the success of the events. Their purpose is to demonstrate, and thus enhance, their capability to control events in the country’s ever-shifting power structure. 

From what I’ve read, originally, buzkashi was training in preparation for war…. and apparently the games today look like a time capsule from the days of Genghis Khan, when battle exercises were disguised as sport. If it sounds like this game would appeal to you, you’ll probably have to go to Afghanistan — I’m pretty sure it won’t be an Olympic sport anytime soon.
— 30 —

Today is election day in Virginia and a few other states…. we’ve all heard that voting is our civic duty. But do we really take that seriously? I’ve mentioned before that I’ve lived in places where elections were not fair or there were no elections. I think if everyone had those experiences we wouldn’t have such a lackadaisical attitude about voting.

I think voting is more important today than anytime in my adult life. I truly don’t understand why people would not vote. One reason I hear often is that people don’t believe their vote counts — no matter if you vote, there is corruption and nothing will change. OK — let’s say you don’t vote on voting day. Voter turnout is low, which invariably favors the incumbents — the very people you’re not happy with. You’re unhappy, you didn’t vote, and they get re-elected. The bottom line is that the candidates that you believe could have best represented you don’t get into office — and you are still discouraged with the government. If you continue to do this, how do you expect things to bet better? There are three words you hear every election year and they say it all: Your. Vote. Counts.

Every adult citizen of the United States should exercise their right to vote in every election. People have died to establish this right — to be heard and have a say in electing the best administration for future generations. 

People that don’t vote but complain about how the government is run are hypocrites. You have to earn your right to complain. Go vote — what do you have to lose?
— 30 —