What Would Jimmy Do?

A few days ago, the subject was witches, so I figure being an equal opportunity blog, we should talk about Vampires today….

In popular legend and lore, Dracula-like vampires are undead villains who live in coffins by day and turn into neck-biting, bloodsucking bats by night. They are pale-faced creatures with protruding incisor teeth who cast no shadows and produce no reflection in mirrors. Worst of all, these agitated souls can only be put to their final rest by driving stakes through their hearts.

Although modern science has silenced the vampire “fears” of the past, people who call themselves vampires do exist. They’re normal(?) seeming people who drink small amounts of blood in an effort to stay healthy. Communities of self-identified vampires can be found on the Internet and in cities and towns around the world. To avoid rekindling vampire superstitions, most modern vampires keep to themselves and typically conduct their ‘feeding” rituals (which include drinking the blood of willing donors) in private.

My extensive research has determined that nearly every culture has its own type of vampire myth and it’s hard to find the exact time the idea of a vampire was created. But it appears that the origin of the modern vampire legend goes back to 15th-century Romania to Viad Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler. Vlad was a killer, but he wasn’t a vampire. However, he did inspire author Bram Stoker to name his now-famous vampire character “Count Dracula” in his book Dracula, in 1897.

Throughout the centuries there have been a number of “vampire scares,” usually or often tied to widespread disease like the European plague or misunderstood physical deformities. People’s belief in vampires helped them define things they didn’t understand and couldn’t explain, like death and disease.

Modern science can explain some of the more prevalent vampire myths… the fear from long ago that the dead could still harm the living was only intensified when dead bodies were exhumed and appeared to have blood coming out of their mouths. Without an understanding of how the body decomposes and what’s know as “purge fluid,” it’s easy to see how people could assume that their loved ones had come back from the dead and were drinking people’s blood. A lot of early skeletons from the Medieval times have been found with bricks or rocks filling their mouths or sickles around their necks — all supposedly to prevent these dead folks from rising up and attacking. 

Some theories suggest that vampires were really just people who suffered from Porphyria, a condition that makes a person sensitive to sunlight. People with this disease must stay indoors because exposure to light can lead to disfiguring blisters — and — daily blood transfusions are sometimes needed as well. 

Vampires seem to be just as popular, or maybe more, as they ever were as time passes. Blue Bloods was a vampire book series — before it was a TV show. Even cereals, like Count Chocula and Franken Berry have cashed in on vampire popularity. Vampires have created a booming tourist industry in places like Romania and Forks, Washington. Even Sesame Street has “The Count.” And how about the TV series like the Munsters and Dark Shadows.

There are a number of people out there who actually consume human and animal blood. A condition of craving blood for energy is real and known as Haematomania. The people drink blood from willing donors — they don’t want to be confused with the scary portrayals of vampires. Supposedly, these “real vampires” are just average people with unusual tastes. Some choose to live in like-minded communities and are fairly private about their taste for blood for fear of being confronted by people with wooden stakes, garlic, silver bullets, or fire. 

So real vampires aren’t the contemptible characters we know from folklore and fiction. They claim to be normal mortals who sleep in beds, wear suits and ties to work and eat cereal for breakfast. I wonder of they prefer Count Chocula…..
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What was the world’s most famous navigational error? I’m not sure, but I think it might have been made by Christopher Columbus. About 529 years ago today, Columbus was trying to reach Asia, when he accidentally discovered the Bahamas. The accidental discovery reshaped the world, kicking off the European colonization of the Americas.

We’ve been celebrating his navigational error ever since. In early colonial America, Christopher Columbus was a symbol of American nationalism. His name was transformed into Columbia and used as a way to differentiate the new world from the old. The District of Columbia, the site of the nation’s capital, is named after the explorer.

When I was young, I remember hearing that Columbus proved that the Earth was round. He supposedly proved it by sailing west from Spain to reach Asia. But actually, the shape of the planet was well-known by Columbus’ time — and had been, for hundreds of years. I read an article some time back that believed that the common myth that Columbus defied the flat-Earth believers to make his voyage, comes from the (inaccurate) 1828 biography “The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus,” written by Washington Irving, the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Columbus’ first voyage was made with three ships — the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. The Santa Maria ran aground and sank during Columbus’ first voyage. The Pinta returned home, but nobody knows what happened to it after that. The Niña continued to sail for years after its most famous voyage, but history lost track of the ship after a 1501 trading voyage.

Spain made Columbus the governor of the island of Hispaniola. He and his brothers, Bartolomeo and Diego, shared the rule of the fledgling Spanish colonists there for seven years — but their rule didn’t go particularly well. The brothers killed and enslaved many of the natives and hanged Spanish colonists who questioned their authority and rule. Columbus and his brothers were arrested and shipped back to Spain.… all were eventually released. 

Spain originally promised Columbus 10% of all the riches found as a result of his discovery, but after his arrest, and his death in 1506, the government failed to honor the agreement. Columbus’ son, Diego, sued — saying his family not only deserved the money, but the right to govern all of America, not just the island Christopher Columbus discovered. This all led to lots of lawsuits over the years, and finally the family was granted lands and titles in Jamaica and Hispaniola and the government made an annual payment of 10,000 ducats to Columbus’ heirs.

Columbus’ burial location is unknown — He was buried and re-buried around the world several times, including Spain and Haiti.

Even though Columbus’ accomplishments have been celebrated for centuries, it didn’t become a federal holiday in the United States until 1934, under President Franklin Roosevelt. The first state to recognize Columbus Day as an official holiday was Colorado in 1905. Even though it’s a federal holiday, some states and cities choose not to formally observe the day — due to Columbus’ checkered past. Columbus, Ohio does not recognize Columbus Day as a city holiday. Many states and cities have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day.

Even though this holiday is one of those that we’ve chosen to celebrate on a Monday (or Friday) due to our obsession with three-day weekends, today is the actual day — you can celebrate it any way you wish…. no matter what you think, Columbus Day/Indigenous People Day should cover most of the bases.
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Both faithful readers know that we celebrate Ten-Ten Day every year. Most of our friends don’t understand why, but they just accept that we celebrate it. (If you don’t know, and want to know why we celebrate it, check past years entries for October 10.) 

Ten-Ten Day, or Double Ten Day is celebrated in Taiwan as a national holiday. But — it may be one of the most hard-to-understand days to explain to anyone not very well-versed in Chinese history. It’s also the one day that provokes the most rage and debate.

Double Ten Day is observed on October 10 every year….
Is October 10 Taiwan’s birthday? No. Republic of China’s birthday? No. Chinese Nationalist Party’s birthday? Yes.

But —Double Ten Day is not a celebration of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s birthday. It is the celebration of the start of the Wuchang Uprising which later led to the Xinhai revolution.
So it’s easy to see why the lack of understanding as to what Ten-Ten Day is all about and exactly what is being celebrated…. and why?

Ten-Ten Day is known as National Day in Taiwan. Usually a country’s “national day” is an opportunity for citizens to remember the past and reflect on the present in order to better chart the future. However, Taiwan’s Double Ten (National Day) celebration isn’t any of these.

The theme of this year’s National Day is “Proud of Taiwan.” The problem is that it has absolutely nothing to do with Taiwan —it commemorates the start of the Wuchang Uprising in China on October 10, 1911. As far as Taiwan history goes, what was happening in 1911? Not the Wuchang Uprising…. in 1911, Taiwan was smack dab in the middle of the Japanese occupation, that lasted from 1895 to 1945.

The Wuchang uprising marks the beginning of the end of the Chinese dynasties in China. While China was going through major changes from dynasty to republic, Taiwan was under the Japanese empire. Around October 10, 1911 a typhoon had just hit Taiwan so most of the news was about restoring the public infrastructure on the island. The effects of the revolution on Taiwan amounted to not much more than an international incident of a trading partner — most people just noticed that the prices for imported goods was rising. 

Thinking about it, tying the birth of a nation (Taiwan) to the Republic of China ignores Taiwan’s indigenous peoples who were already on the island for thousands of years…. this may sound kind of familiar to anyone that knows anything about American (Indian) history.

But nonetheless, today is Ten-Ten Day…. who celebrates it?
Nearly all Taiwanese have the day off from work. In mainland China, today is referred to as the Anniversary of the Wuchang Uprising and memorial celebrations are often held. Hong Kong usually holds small parades and celebrations… and here in Shepherdstown, the Williamson’s celebrate with Chinese food.
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The 19th hole, after our “golfing” outings, usually provides for some interesting conversations/disagreements and sometimes enlightening sessions about all sorts of topics. A couple of times we’ve talked about deception practices used by the military. 

One that almost everyone in the group knew about was the (fictitious) First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG) built up around General George S. Patton in England to mislead the Germans into believing the main Allied invasion of France would take place at the Pas de Calais rather than the beaches of Normandy. An entire fake army group under George Patton was set up, complete with fake airplanes, tanks and cannons. 

So the use of decoy airfields and other “make-believe” facilities during World War II is a reality — not a “legend” as one of our group insisted. During the war, both sides tried to fool each other — there is no doubt that the Germans built wooden airplanes and sometimes complete airfields to keep the allies away from their “real” airfields. They also painted bomb damage on existing airfields to make them look unusable and spare them from further bombing. 

A famous story that has never been completely verified — or — disproved, goes like this….
After Germany occupied Holland, they build an “airfield,” constructed with meticulous care and made almost entirely of wood. There were wood hangers, oil tanks, gun emplacements, trucks, and aircraft. Apparently, the Germans took so long to build their wooden decoy that Allied photo experts had more than enough time to observe and report it. Shortly after the “airfield” was finished, a British RAF plane crossed the English Channel, came in low, circled the field once, and dropped a large wooden bomb.

I first heard the story in a training course when I was in my mid-twenties. It’s never been proven or dis-proven. There’s been a lot of discussion and reasons given as to why it could have happened and why it isn’t likely that it did. One thing is true — high grade inflatable dummy aircraft are still deemed effective today and are being deployed to fool the enemy… this despite today’s excellent quality of satellite reconnaissance photography. I’d be a little more skeptical if I hadn’t been involved in a few projects that are more far-fetched, and funnier, than this one. But no matter what you believe, it’s still a great story.
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A number of years ago, we attended the wedding of a lady that worked in Claire’s office. Unlike most weddings, I was very excited to attend this one, because Claire told me that the lady was a witch (for real) and members of her coven would be at the wedding. 

Needless to say, I was disappointed in the wedding… I would have been ok with a regular boring wedding, but I figured the reception afterwards would at the very least produce some witchcraft like black magic or spells or rituals of some kind — but no, it was pretty much just a regular reception. 
I guess my idea of witches has never been the same since that day. 

Witches got a lot press the last few years — mostly in the form of the “spoiled child” cries of “witch hunt” from our former President. I even read a story recently about a Christian group that was praying to protect Trump from witches.

But if for some reason you may be thinking about becoming a witch, there are a few things you should know about witchcraft before you get too far down that road.

Witchcraft is a pagan religion. Pagan religions worship multiple deities rather than a single god. Paganism is one of the oldest religions and includes all religions that are not Christian, Muslim or Jewish. That means Paganism includes Hindu, buddhist, Taoist, Confucian and American Indian religions as well as all other nature-oriented religions. I found one article that indicated that Paganism accounts for 50 percent of all religions. 

Wicca is a (pagan) religion —popularized by the so-called Father of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, in the mid-1900s. Witches are normally thought of as women, but many Wiccans are men and worship both a god and goddess. 

The word “witch” is a combination of two Old English terms: wicce (“wise one”) and Wicca (“healer”.) In ancient times, witches were admired and respected for their wisdom and ability to heal with herbs. But in the early 1300s, witchcraft was declared heresy — by the Catholic Church. That resulted in a widespread fear of witches and led to the witch hunts that took place between the late 15th and 18th centuries. 

In 2011 a British census found that 11,766 people identified themselves as Wiccan and 1.276 described themselves as practicing witchcraft.

In the late 1960s, a number of women’s activist groups named themselves using the acronym WITCH. There were many variations of the acronym, such as “Women Inspired to Tell their Collective History” and “Women Incensed at Telephone Company Harassment.” These “witches” used their platform to fight for women’s rights. 

Today, more than one million Americans identify as Wiccans — a religion whose practitioners often identify as “witches,” and  claim to be a nature-based, peaceful, spiritual practice that has nothing to do with Satanism. According to some things that I’ve read, being a witch has become more mainstream, and in some circles, fashionable. 

So it turns out that you can’t become a witch by being mean, wearing black or riding a broomstick — it just doesn’t work that way.
Wicca, one of the major religions practicing witchcraft, is about the mind, body, and spirit, along with a code of ethics and a few principles that some witches share. Respect the earth, live in harmony with the seasons, find your own purpose, and create your own path. Poof! You’re a witch.
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After I first met Claire and we were going out, she often used a term that I wasn’t familiar with and really didn’t know what it meant. I hadn’t thought about it for a long time and a few days ago she used it again — the first time I remember her saying it in many years. The term or phrase is “How ‘bout them apples?” 

“How ‘bout them apples?” is an idiom — seems like I’ve talked about idioms quite a bit over the course of writing this blog, but I find them interesting because they’re often used in American lingo. And — they don’t make any sense to non-English speaking people…. the words or sentence can’t be taken literally — you can’t deduce the meaning from the words alone.

My extensive research on this particular idiom revealed a couple of things:
1. The phrase is often used as a way to mock or tease someone after gaining some kind of victory over them. It’s similar to the expression “stick that in your pipe and smoke it!”
2. The saying is also used after someone receives surprising information.
I think the latter is the way Claire uses it. 

The phrase became kind of famous in the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting. The movie stars Matt Damon who plays the character Will Hunting, a mathematical genius working as a school janitor. At one point in the movie he gets into a verbal fight with a rival who was trying to impress a girl. After the exchange, Will Hunting gets the girl’s phone number, and then later, in order to taunt his rival over the argument he walks up to him and initiates the following conversation:
Hunting: “Do you like apples?”
Rival: “Yeah.”
Hunting pulls out a piece of paper with the girl’s number written on it and shows it to him.
Hunting: “Well, I got her number. How do you like them apples?”

Of course, the idiom didn’t come from this movie. The popular belief is that it originated during World War I. During the period 1915 to 1917, the United Kingdom’s Royal Ordinance Factory created a 1 inch medium trench mortar. The bomb was a sphere attached to a 22-inch bomb shaft and resembled a candy apple — it was given the name “toffee apple.” The bomb was used by Allied troops, and when firing these mortars at the enemy lines, they would taunt with “How do you like them apples?” 

Some credence is landed to the theory in the 1959 movie Rio Bravo. One of the film’s characters fired a mortar at the enemy, exclaiming “How do you like them apples/“

Like most of these things, no one is quite sure of the origin — I found one source that claims the expression dates back to at least the year 1895, claiming it appeared in the Bryan, Texas newspaper The Eagle, September 26, 1895: “Bryan is the best cotton market in this section of the state and has received more cotton than any other town in this section. How do you like them apples?”

So now I know that the phrase wasn’t original with Claire — how ‘bout them apples? 
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Our family knows that it would probably be fairly easy to fill volumes of books with “Bobbie stories.” Bobbie the Nun is probably one of the most unique characters you’ll ever meet. 
While we were driving in heavy traffic a few days ago, I thought about a typical Bobbie story….

Every time we took Bobbie anywhere she always began the trip with a quick “destination prayer.” Actually I don’t know if that’s what it was called, but she always said a quick prayer that we got to our destination safely. And she always ended the prayer with…. “and please protect us from all the crazies.”
Finally, one day I said to Bobbie, “Gee, Bobbie, calling people crazies doesn’t seem like a very christian thing to do.”
After that, she always ended the prayer with “…. and please protect us from all the irresponsible drivers.”
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Today is the first day of October — the 274th day of 2021 and the 39th Friday of 2021.
If people still kept calendars (Like my grandparents did) you’d be able to use this year’s calendar again in 2027…. all the days/dates will be the same.

This month’s name comes from the Latin octo, “eight,” because this was the eighth month of the early Roman calendar. When the Romans converted to a 12-month calendar, the name October stuck despite the fact that it’s now the 10th month.
October’s full moon, known as the Hunter;s Moon, will be visible on Wednesday, October 20. 

With the autumnal equinox in late September, foliage season has officially begun. Leaves change colors mainly due light, or the lack of it — not autumn’s chilly weather. Traditionally, trees with a lot of direct sunlight will produce red leaves, while other trees may turn yellow, orange, or grown.

The 12th of October in 1492 was a bit day for America — in case you don’t remember, that was the day Christopher Columbus arrived.
In German and Dutch, October is called “October,” in Italian it’s “Ottobre,” in Turkish it’s “Oketopa.” and Koreans call it “Siweol.”
People born in October are thought to be very smart and are usually high achievers.

October and January always start on the same day of the week in ordinary years — in leap years, October doesn’t start on the same day of the week as any other month. October and February also always end on the same week day.
The Statue of Liberty arrived in the United States, from France, in October of 1886.
More Presidents of the United States were born in October than any other month.

To us in the Northern Hemisphere, October is a fall month, but in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s a spring month. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, October is the same as April is for us.

So it’s a busy month coming up — even before Ten-Ten Day and Halloween. We better get started — Happy October.
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In a normal year, Oktoberfest would be winding down just about now, but even with the 2021 Oktoberfest cancelled, we’ve still got today — National Drink Beer Day. 

Beer continues to be the world’s most popular adult beverage. I think most beers fall into either the lager or ale categories — I personally prefer the lagers. New breweries are opening around here, and most places, all the time. The so-called “craft beer” industry just seems to keep growing. The beer connoisseurs today drink something drastically different from their grandfather’s beers.

Historians point to beer as a ceremonial drink over 5,000 years ago because papyrus scrolls have been discovered documenting early beer recipes. But the Mesopotamians may have actually been the first to develop beer over 10,000 years ago…. before recorded history.

Today, in some European cities like Prague, ordering beer in a restaurant is cheaper than ordering water. I’ve read that upon arrival in the new world, brewing beer was one of the first things on the Pilgrims’ to-do list.

So, today — National Drink Beer Day — drink responsibly, but have a good time. My friend, Winfried, used to say, “everybody should believe in something — I believe I’ll have another beer.” 
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Today, September 28 is Confucius’s birthday. Historians believe he was born in 551 BC and was 73 years old when he died in 479. Confucius is China’s most famous philosopher and is a popular Chinese figure today. He was a philosopher whose teachings remain influential today as the basis of Confucianism, one of the oldest and largest religions in China and around the world.

His name “Confucius” is a Latin derivation from “Kong Fuzi.” his Chinese Name. He was born in the district of Zou, now known as the Qufu City in China. Every year in his hometown of Qufu City, there is the Qufu International Confucius Culture Festival. The celebration includes a worshiping ceremony and performances at both the Temple of Confucius and the Cemetery of Confucius — performances consist of ancient music and dancing.

In imperial China, in order to be an official scholar, people had to learn the Confucian classic texts called the Five Classics. According t tradition, the Five Classics were penned by Confucius. Modern scholars, however, doubt that any of the material can really be ascribed to Confucius himself.

The 6 arts that Confucius taught in school were Archery, Arithmetic, Calligraphy, Charioteering, Music and Ritual. 
Aside from being a scholar, Confucius was also an educator and a politician.
China understood ‘Confucianism’ as a philosophical-political movement.
The People’s Republic of China’s Cultural revolution repressed Confucianism in China after the 1900s, saying that it hindered modernization in the country.

I think last year I had indicated I wasn’t sure why September 28 was chosen to celebrate Confucius Day… the date is, according to historians, Confucius’s birthday. The day is also observed as Teacher’s Day in China and Taiwan. In Chinese history, Confucius symbolizes the philosophy of educating all without discrimination. He never refused a student because of their class, requiring only that his students possess a desire to learn.
Seems like pretty good reason to have day named in his honor to me….
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