What Would Jimmy Do?

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, but today is not only Valentine’s Day Eve — it’s also Galentine’s Day. 

It’s one of those made-up holidays that I never knew existed until recently. In fact, I don’t know very much about it…. apparently today is all about celebrating the unique bond women share with their best gal pals. 

As far as I can tell, Galentine’s Day was invented by Leslie Knope, the fictional mayor of a small town on the TV show Parks and Recreation. The part was played by Amy Poehler. I never watched the show, but the holiday started as one of the character’s many mini holidays. But this one took on a life of its own because the message resonated with women in real life.

I should mention that today (February 13th) is also “mistress Day.” This is the day that cheating men traditionally celebrate Valentine’s Day with their mistresses so their wives won’t be suspicious on the actual holiday. 

So, if in these times you need to find more and more reasons to celebrate, here’s a couple you can add to your list.
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Today is the beginning (Chinese lunar New Year Day) of Chinese New Year, 2021 — the year of the Ox. The year of the Ox begins today (February 12) and lasts until January 30, 2022.

The Chinese Zodiac consists of 12 animals and the Ox occupies the second position. (The 12 zodiac animals, in order, are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.)

Even though China has officially moved to the Gregorian calendar, like the rest of the world, the lunar calendar is still really important in China. The Chinese still celebrate all traditional holidays as well as days such as the Winter Solstice. Some people still calculate their birthdays and ages according to the lunar calendar, too. 

The Chinese have a saying that there’s no manners and/or etiquette without wine. Obviously, Chinese people love drinking and they always have wine for every ceremony, festival or important dinner. There’s wine for engagement dinners, weddings, birthdays and, obviously, the Spring Festival. When you’re eating with someone older than you, as is the case with New Year’s dinners, you need to follow strict toasting etiquette rules. They include the order of toasts, seating, and how you hold the glass, etc. 

Your benming year is the year of your zodiac animal — and of the 12 year cycle, it the unluckiest for you. So if you were born in the year of the ox, be aware. There are multiple explanations for this. The Chinese believe that children can easily be taken by demons, and your benming year is your rebirth year. During the year, your weapon of defense is the color red. Just as you can decorate your home in red for protection and fortune, you can also wear red clothing. 

People born in the year of the ox have an honest nature and are known for diligence, dependability, strength and determination. Women oxes are traditional, faithful wives, who attach great importance to their children’s education. Male oxes are strongly patriotic, have ideals and ambitions for life, and attach importance to family and work. People of the ox zodiac sign often enjoy great success. Oxes are weakest in their communication skills. They are not good at communicating with others, and even think it is not worthwhile to exchange ideas with others. They are stubborn and stick to their own ways.

This will be the first year  I can remember that we haven’t “eaten out” on Chinese New Year — but the celebration will still be the same…. Always welcome the new morning with a new spirit, smile on your face, love in your heart and good thoughts in your mind.
Happy (Chinese) New Year!!
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Both faithful readers know that for the past few years I have been on a campaign to do away with Super Bowl parties — I suggested Pro-Bowl parties instead. As a reminder, my proposal for change stated that Super Bowl parties are all about the party — no one goes to a Super Bowl party to watch the Super Bowl. Rather than repeat my superb logic here, you can check the February entries of this blog for the past couple of years for the details. 

This year, I am again petitioning for no Super Bowl parties. In fact, I think people should send out invitations with wording something like…. “You are covidly un-invited to a Super Bowl LV party at my house….” of course, besides my solid logic, there’s another reason not to have a party this year — it’s called COVID. Not quite normal — that’s were things are these days, including the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl LV will be played in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Florida. The stadium has a seating capacity of 65,000. This year, the NFL will mix 30,000 cutouts in with about 20,000 (real people) fans.  

So that means that more people will be watching on TV — even more  so than usual. Every Super Bowl Sunday crowds of people gather around TVs and lay out a spread of junk food. However, gathering indoors for four or five hours with people outside your own “bubble” doesn’t exactly meet the CDC recommendations for social distancing. But I’m not sure Super Bowl partying via Zoom is really going to catch on. 

But it’s still the Super Bowl and there’s bound to be some “firsts” or amazing facts that make it special…
• If the Chiefs win, they will become just the eighth team in NFL history to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
• The Buccaneers have only gone to one Super Bowl before — that was in Super Bowl XXXVII. They defeated the Oakland Raiders 48-21.
• Tom Brady is making his 10th Super Bowl appearance. The first nine were with the Patriots. He already has six Super Bowl rings — if the Buccaneers win, he will become the first player to ever win seven NFL championships.
• If the Chiefs win, Patrick Mahomet will become the youngest QB in NFL history to win multiple Super Bowls.
• Tampa Bay is the first team in NFL history to play a Super Bowl in their own stadium.
• Tom Brady will be making his third Super Bowl start since turning 40 — he’s 43. No other QB has ever made it to the Super Bowl in his 40s.
• If Tampa Bay wins, Brady will become the only QB other than Payton Manning to win a Super Bowl for multiple franchises.
• The NFL will allow 22,000 fans at the stadium for the game — including 7,500 health care workers vaccinated for COVID-19. All of them will receive free tickets from the league.

So last year I mentioned here that in 2021 I was planning on staying home and watching Super Bowl LV between the Redskins Washington Football Team and the Browns. Ok, I lied about the WFT and Browns, but last year at this time, who would have believed that both of them would make the playoffs? I will be staying home this year and the party’s at our house, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be invited.
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In the spirit of getting ready for Chinese New Year, we get to warm up today by celebrating National Chopsticks Day. Today, people worldwide will celebrate these humble and ancient utensils. Chopsticks were developed about 5,000 years ago in China. 

Originally, chopsticks were used by cooks while preparing food — those tools were probably long enough to reach into hot cooking pots. Sometime later, fuels for cooking became scarce in China and food was prepared in smaller pieces reducing the time needed to cook it. Because of the reduction in the size of the food being cooked, the need for sharp eating instruments faded and shorter chopsticks entered the scene. 

Once these handy eating tools found their way to the dinner table, they spread around the world. Today chopsticks may be made from wood, like bamboo or aspen. Some chopsticks are elaborately carved from jade, ivory, or wood and some are ornately painted with miniature scenes. 

My personal chopsticks are made of titanium — so I guess you could say they’re “high tech.” 
But never pass up a good reason to celebrate — especially in February. Happy Chopsticks Day.
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There’s been a lot of news coverage and talk about extremists lately, and with the upcoming impeachment trial, I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more.

Depending on your view, you may believe that liberals are more likely to become extremists — or — you may believe that conservatives are more likely to become extremists. Actually, political alignment doesn’t seem to make any difference in those developing extremists tendencies. 

Events such as those in Charlottesville in 2017 and the incident at the Capitol on January 6 leads us to wonder what we can do to stop the spread of these extremest ideologies. I certainly don’t have the answer to that question…. from what I’ve read, extremists, especially militant extremists, usually have a mindset that includes nastiness, grudges and excuses. Most extremists strongly endorse statements approving violent acts, such as “killing is justified when it is an act of revenge.” Grudges are often a direct reference to our country, such as “the US is degraded by its COVID pandemic, its alcohol and drug addiction, corruption, of lack of dignified values.” Sometimes the grudge is more general, like “evil has been re-incarnated in the rule of multinational companies.” Although excuses can take several forms, a common feature is justification in people’s own minds of the nasty and violent things they tend to condone. 

As I said, I know very little  about this subject, but one thing I’ve noticed — no matter what their political, religious, racial, etc. position, extremists find it much harder to admit they’re wrong — about anything, even when it’s got nothing to do with politics, religion, etc. Even when confronted with new evidence, they are less likely to admit they might be wrong. 

So — it’s my blog and my opinion, but trying to convince extremists is a waste of time. You may be able to brilliantly argue your point, but that’s all you’ll get out of it… a “won” argument, and probably an alienated relationship.
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Well, we made it through January pretty much in one piece — now we need to get through February. Lots of events in February, starting with today — Groundhog Day. This will be our first Groundhog Day of the pandemic. Little did we think last year at this time that Punxsutawney Phil would have to see his shadow virtually in 2021.

February 2 is also Candlemas that commemorates the ritual purification of Mary, 40 days after the birth of her son Jesus. The day also marks the ritual presentation of the baby Jesus to God in the Temple at Jerusalem. Candlemas was formerly known in the Roman Catholic Church as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary — it is now known as the Presentation of the Lord. 

The Dachs were German-speaking immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania. They developed their own take on the legend of Candlemas in the 18th and 19th centuries bringing with them the custom of weather forecasting using a Hedgehog….  giving rise to the problem there are no hedgehogs in Pennsylvania — so, they substituted a groundhog. Candlemas was when the clergy blessed and distributed candles needed for winter. The Dachs came up with the idea of selecting an animal to predict how many candles they would need for the winter. 

The first ever “Groundhog Day” was created by a local newspaper editor, Clymer Freas, around 1886. He convinced a local groundhog hunter and businessman, and all members of his Punxsutawney Groundhog club, that Groundhog Day was a good idea. Together, they all made their way to Gobbler’s Knob where the groundhog would make the final decision on the weather.

February 2 is when we ask are if we are in for six more weeks of winter — of course, only a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil knows the answer. Every year, people flock to Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to await Phi;’s forecast. But — the coronavirus has forced us to change the way we celebrate holidays and Groundhog Day is no exception.
Punxsutawney Phil will still make an appearance this year, but it will be virtual. There will not be any in-person attendance or guests on the grounds because the potential COVID risks are too great. 

Just about all our Christmas decorations have been taken down — that may be good luck or bad luck, depending on how you view February 2. One school of thought is that it’s supposed to be bad luck to leave you Christmas decorations up after Groundhog Day. And — there’s another group that says any Christmas decorations not taken down by Twelfth Night (January 5th) should be left up until Candlemas Day and then taken down. So I’m not sure where we fit into this — but no matter,  today is Phil’s day… even though he’s like most other prophets — he delivers his prediction and then disappears. Happy Groundhog Day!
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Well, here we are into February — the last month of “winter,” at least in my mind. It’s also a month of lots of “activities,” like Valentines Day, Chinese New Year, President’s Day, etc. But before we get started with all those, we shouldn’t forget that it’s also Black History Month. 

When I was growing up in Oklahoma, I was not aware that there was any such thing as Black History Month. In fact, there wasn’t — Black History Month only came into being in 1976 when President Gerald Ford recognized the “celebration” and called on the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” 

The idea for a way to celebrate African American achievements was started in 1915 by prominent African American figures of the day, notably historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson was a Harvard-trained historian and he and his group wanted a way to promote achievements of African Americans. (That group is now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.) In 1926, the group chose the second week in February to celebrate what they called “Negro History Week.” The second week of February was symbolic in that it was the same week of the birthdays of former President Abraham Lincoln and the escaped slave and prominent abolitionist movement activist, Frederick Douglas. Due in part to the civil rights movement, the week evolved into an entire month in the late 1960s.

Every year, some interesting African American facts and stories surface during the month of February keeping the celebration fresh and interesting….
Even though Rosa Parks gets the credit as the first person to refuse to give up their seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, months before Rosa gained publicity, Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl refused to move to the back of the bus. She was arrested and thrown in jail. She (along with four other women) later challenged the segregation law in court, and Browder vs. Gayle became the court case that successfully overturned bus segregation laws in both Montgomery and Alabama. Rosa Parks received the publicity because, apparently, the NAACP thought Rosa made a better icon for the movement than a teenager.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade business  operated from about 1500-1866 and shipped more than 12 million African slaves across the world. Of the 12 million, only 10.7 million survived the trip. Over 400 years, the majority of slaves (4.9 million) were transported to Brazil where they suffered incredibly high mortality rates due to the working conditions. Brazil was also the last country to ban slavery — in 1888. By the time the United States became involved in the slave trade, it had been underway for two hundred years. The majority of the 388,000 slaves arrived in the U.S. between 1700 and 1866. The less than 400,000 number  was much smaller than most Americans realize.

Some historians believe that the real “Lone Ranger” was inspired by an African American man named Bass Reeves. Reeves was born a slave but escaped and headed west during the Civil War and lived in what was then known as Indian Territory. He eventually became a Deputy U.S. Marshal, was a master of disguise, an expert marksman, had a Native American companion, and rode a silver horse. In the 19th century, many enslaved Blacks fled to the Wild West hoping for freedom and wages. African Americans made up at least a quarter of the legendary cowboys who lived dangerous lives facing rattlesnakes, weather and outlaws while they slept under the stars and drove cattle herds to market. There was little formal segregation in frontier towns, but Black cowboys were often expected to do more of the work and the roughest jobs compared to their white counterparts. It is thought that the term “cowboy” originated as a derogatory term used to describe Black “cowhands.”

The cartoon character Betty Boop was inspired by a Black jazz singer in Harlem. Created by cartoonist Max Fletcher in 1930, the caricature of the jazz age flapper is considered the first and most famous sex symbol in animation. Betty Boop was best known for her revealing dress, curvaceous figure, and signature vocals. While there has been controversy over the years, the inspiration has been traced back to Esther Jones who was known as “Baby Esther” and performed regularly in the Cotton Club during the 1920s.

During the coming month, I’m sure we’ll discover many more “neglected accomplishments.” Of course, Black history is more than a month and we can learn history anytime — some of those “lesser known” moments and facts are often the most interesting — and important.
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The word vaccination has appeared in the news multiple times every day for quite some time now. Most of us have been inoculated against various diseases starting when we were very young and we still get periodic inoculations or vaccines to prevent various illnesses. Of course a lot, if not most, people are waiting for the COVID vaccine right now. 

I got to wondering…. what was the first “vaccine” and who came up with the idea? Like most things, if you really did into it, the subject gets complicated…. immunization (the act of making someone immune to infection) dates back hundreds of years. Buddhist monks drank snake venom to develop immunity to snake bites and variolation (smearing of a skin tear with cowpox to create an immunity to smallpox) was practiced in 17th century China. But from what I can tell, the practice of vaccinating people against infection began in 1796 by Edward Jenner. He inoculated a 13 year old boy  with cowpox (vaccinia virus) and demonstrated immunity to smallpox. The first smallpox vaccine was developed in 1798.

One of the most interesting stories I uncovered during my extensive research was about a slave named Onesimus.
In 1706 a prominent Puritan minister, Cotton Mather, received a gift from his congregation — a slave from West Africa. Mather gave his slave the name Onesimus, after a Biblical slave whose name meant “useful.” Mather was a powerful figure in the Salem Witch Trials. He believed that slave owners had a duty to convert slaves to Christianity, and to educate them. 

In 1721, Smallpox broke out in Massachusetts and was spreading rapidly. The first victims, passengers on a ship from the Caribbean, were shut up in a house identified only by a red flag that read “God have mercy on this house.” As the sickness swept through the city of Boston, killing hundreds, at a time before modern medical treatment or much of an understanding of infectious disease, Onesimus, owned by Mather, suggested a potential way to keep people from getting sick. Onesimus told Mather about the centuries old tradition of inoculation practiced in Africa. By extracting the pus from an infected person and scratching it into the skin of an uninfected person, you could deliberately introduce smallpox to the healthy individual making them immune. Even though the “operation” was considered extremely dangerous at the time, Cotton Mather convinced Dr. Zabdiel Boylston to experiment with the procedure and over 240 people were inoculated. The process was opposed politically, religiously and medically in the United States and abroad. Public reaction to the experiment put Mather and Boylston’s lives in danger, despite records indicating that only 2% of patients requesting inoculation died… compared to the 15% of people not inoculated who contracted smallpox.

The smallpox epidemic wiped out 844 people in Boston — over 14 percent of the population, but it helped set the stage for vaccination. Edward Jenner developed an effective vaccine using cowpox to provoke smallpox immunity in 1796. It isn’t clear whether Onesimus lived to see the success of the technique he introduced to Mather. Not is much in known of his later life except that he partially purchased his freedom, giving money to Mather to purchase another slave. But what is known is that the knowledge he passed on saved hundreds of lives — and led to the eventual eradication of smallpox. Hopefully, we’re on the same path today with COVID…..
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When out kids were young, they both liked a book called “The Digging-est Dog.” I remember reading that book many, many, many times. I’m not sure why, but I thought about the book the other day when I saw a dog digging, 

Well, that got me to thinking… why do dogs dig? Why do dogs bury their bones? Of all the dogs I had when growing up and as an adult, some of them were “diggers,” and others not so much. I’ve mentioned before that when I was a kid, I had a pet crow. Crows apparently are natural thieves — they take things, especially shiny things. I think some dogs also have a bit of that thief instinct — we’ve had some dogs that would  “steal” things and hide them. Sometimes they were shiny things, like a watch and sometimes things that the dog seemed to know were “valuable” to you, like shoes or the TV remote. 

But why do they do that? Probably dogs started burying their bones, or food to keep it from other dogs, or just to save it for later. So maybe it”s just the survival instinct left over from their ancestors. Or maybe dogs have a natural instinct to keep valuable things safe and protected.

It’s interesting that dogs seem to always remember where they buried their bones. I think a dog’s keen sense of smell often helps him locate his stash, and I’ve noticed some dogs just like to dig up their bones from time to time and re-bury them. I guess they want to make sure their booty is still there. 

Another thing I’ve noticed is that some dogs like to bury their bones in private. I remember we had a dog once that if you caught him burying his bone, he would dig it up and take it somewhere else.

I did a little checking on this subject and the short answer as to why they bury things is because it used to be necessary for their survival. Seems reasonable, but I was hoping for a more interesting conclusion to my search. 

So trying to figure out dogs is just as hard as trying to figure out some people. But being a dog in most households doesn’t seem like such a bad life. Although, as one of my favorite dogs, Snoopy, once said, “Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement.”
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January 2021 is kind of like leap year — it doesn’t have an extra day, but it has a special day. Every four years on January 20, it’s Inauguration Day. Inauguration Day 2021 (on Wednesday) will mark the 59th Presidential Inauguration in American history. The tradition of inaugurating a new president began on April 30, 1789 when George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president.

The Constitution originally fixed March 4 as Inauguration Day but it was moved to January 20, with the Oath of Office administered at noon, with the ratification of the 20th amendment in 1933. The reasons given for the date change include the unpredictability of March weather, improved roads, and the desire to reduce the time the previous president remains in office as a “lame duck.”
The first president to be inaugurated on January 20 was Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1937, when he took office for the second of his four terms.

Six times the death or resignation of a president required his successor to be sworn in immediately, so the oaths were administered as quickly as possible. Presidents William Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, and Gerald Ford had no “formal” inauguration Days.

The word “inauguration” means “beginning,” and comes from the ancient practice of augury, which means predicting the future. The day marks the start of a president’s term in office.

The Presidential inauguration takes place in Washington, D.C., on the western side of the U.S. Capitol Building. It has been conducted there since 1801, when Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated. The first Inauguration Day took place in New York City (which was serving as the U.S. capital.) The inaugurals of John Adams and Thomas Jeffersons second term occurred in Philadelphia.

The most important thing that happens on Inauguration Day — and the only event required by the U.S. Constitution — is the swearing in of the new president at noon. 
The exact words of the Oath of Office are: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United. States.”

The Oath of Office is usually administered by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court — a practice since 1797. The only woman to administer the Oath was Federal District Court Judge Sarah T. Hughes. She was the closest Federal judge to the site of the swearing in of Lyndon B. Johnson on Air Force One that was parked at Love Field in Dallas. This happened shortly after Kennedy’s assassination. 

Presidents usually take the Oath of Office with their left hand on a Bible, but that is not required by the Constitution. Franklin Pierce and John Quincy Adams swore their oaths on law books. Lyndon Johnson used a Catholic missal found on the airplane in Dallas. Theodore Roosevelt didn’t use any book. Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush, and Barack Obama used more than one Bible. So far, all presidents except Franklin Pierce have chosen to “swear” rather than “Affirm” when taking the oath.

The Inaugural Address is a speech given by the recently inaugurated president — until 1897, the address was given before the newly elected president took the Oath of Office. But William McKinley waited until after he was sworn in to deliver his speech, and all the presidents since then have done the same.
Taxpayers pay only for the swearing-in ceremony — the cost of all that follows is funded by private donars.

Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021 on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. This year, the in-person gathering will have limited capacity and COVI-19 safety protocols. A lot of the normal inauguration activities will be “virtual.”

So let’s hope that on Wednesday the White House begins the return to “normal” — as well as Washington, the country… and the the world.
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