Weird St. Patrick's Day Events

St. Patrick's Day has come around again. I like that holiday, and even if I did not have an Irish heritage in my DNA it still would be fun for me. I see the Irish as fun loving people. Does anyone have a prejudice against the Irish? I doubt it.  Who could hate humor, friendliness, and an acceptance of and care-free attitude about daily life. The many Irish jokes, all of which are endearing rather than mean spirited, reflect that.

St. Patrick's Day celebrations sometimes reflect the care-free and fun Irish lifestyle. In my own former home of New Orleans the Irish parades toss vegetables to the spectators. Carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbages are thrown to the crowd so they can use them as ingredients for an Irish stew. If that's not enough, the Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade marchers, dressed in their green outfits and fortified with cups of beer,  give kisses to the crowd (well, the pretty girls get the most kisses) as they gyrate to the Irish music the accompanying bands play during the march. Is that not typically Irish?

But wait! Here are a few other ingenious and fun St. Patty Day traditions from various places on the globe.
- Hot Springs, Arkansas takes pride in hosting the shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade. The route is only about 30 meters long. And among the groups in the parade....Irish Elvis impersonators and a fat middle age group called 'Lards of the Dance'.

- Each year, members of the Shamrock Club in New London, Wisconsin dress up as leprechauns and change highway signs so the town name reads 'New Dublin'. to all those who have ever been in Wisconsin for awhile, changing a city there to an Irish city might seem like a good idea.

- For more than 40 years in Chicago, the Chicago River has been dyed green on St. Patrick's Day (the river is colored by a vegetable dye and it takes several days for the green color to disappear).

- In Banwen, Wales, a history club insists that St. Patrick was in fact Welsh. Yep!  They declare St. Patty to be Welsh, not Irish. (At age 16, historians say that St. Patrick was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland. So on St. Patrick's Day,  Banwen stages a parade that leads to a stone commemorating where the patron saint of Ireland was allegedly born. Up yours Ireland...or something.

-  A Caribbean island, Montserrat, is the only other place outside of Ireland that celebrates St. Patrick’s Day as a national holiday. A small percentage of the Caribbean islands nearly 4,500 people are descended from Irish Catholic settlers, but the Irish immigrants there are regarded as having been indispensable to the island's early development.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and as the Irish say,  may you be in heaven five minutes before the devil knows you died.

Defacing Antiquity

People are odd. Not just me. I am also referring to tourists who do stupid things while visiting scared sites. Take the Roman Colosseum for instance. Two American tourists were arrested the other day for carving their initials into Rome's ancient Colosseum, before posing for a selfie.  Sigh...a selfie is more valuable to society than the Colloseum? Well, in our world of techie addiction it may be to those morons. Anyway, the two women from California, aged 21 and 25, inscribed a "J" and "N" before being caught. Haha Maybe the judge should sentence them to clean all those "Call Mary for a good time" messages that are scrawled on the walls near men's toilets in public bathrooms. take a selfie of that! 

In November 2014, a Russian tourist was fined 20,000 euros and given a four year suspended jail sentence for carving a 10 inch "K" onto the wall of the Colosseum. Three other incidents of vandalism were reported in 2014, of the six million people who visit. It seems small, but such vandalism was far rarer in previous times. And vandalism like that in churches is unheard of. So why do idiots deface sacred shrines? I mean, besides their stupidity as a contributing factor.

Part of it is the me generation thing, that people think they are entitled to please themselves before pleasing society at large.  And there is also a difference in perception between an old ruin and a pristine ancient church or modern museums. Museums are treated like churches, sacred places where there are things of great value. Whereas the Colosseum is an incomplete building which has already been robbed.....so idiots crave their initials and take selfies to show to everyone on Face book. They know not what they do is wrong because the thought of it being so never enters their minds..

Maybe those fools just provided a teaching moment for the other nuts out there. News comes to us that the radical Islamist group ISIS's  is systematically destroying  ancient monuments in Iraqi city Mosul, as well as the archaeological site of Hatra. Hmmmm I wonder if they will post their selfies of their conquests.

At Face book Gender Is Confusing

If you log on to Face book and open an account those profile questions can be tough. It seems that Face book has bought into political correctness to the confusion of us all. There is no more of the ,"Are you male or female" questions there. Instead,  Face book has expanded gender identity from male and female to a list of dozens of options, 58 in all. They include Androgyny, Gender Fluid, Intersex, Neither and Transgender.  People who choose a custom gender can also choose the pronoun they would like to be referred to publicly: he/his, she/her or they/their. Hmmmmm How come there isn't a "whatever"? I am confused.

And if you can't find an identity in one of the 58 Face book says, "Now, if you do not identify with the pre populated list of gender identities, you are able to add your own". Wow! Now  I'm afraid to ask anyone on a date.  Those Face book fellows....gals..or whatever gender they see themselves as won't say how many people choose a gender identity that is not male or female. But researchers say there are many millions of humans who consider themselves transgendered. That is, not a male or female.

But wait! That's not all. Face book users who feel that they do not fit any of the 58 gender identity options offered by the site are now being given a rather big 59th option, "fill in the blank". Yep! A Face book announcement published online tells users that if they do not identify with the list of gender identities offered, they can add their own. I never knew it was so easy to have a sex change.

It's fine by me if a person wants to select an option other than male or female for gender but it does get a bit confusing. It seems the world today is more uncomfortable with conformity than with difference, an indication that humans are nor what they used to be.  That we seek comfort in difference is revealing.  I wonder if it is because we can't adapt, don't want to adapt or just don't know how.

So as not to confuse or insult you in the future,  I suggest that you choose the gender with which you want to be preferred and I will address you that way.

Extremely Old

Can you believe it?  A couple in New York  is imitating Methuselah. Duranord Veillard will turn 108 on Saturday while his wife of 82 years, Jeanne, turns 105 in May. And they are still in great condition, given their years.  The couple plan to celebrate their 85th anniversary in their own home a well-wishers at their home, where they live with a daughter.

Both of them have some visual and hearing problems and needs assistance to walk. But they have full mental facilities and Duranord is said to have a great memory, both short and long term. I doubt they will be able go out dancing for their anniversary, so I have a few suggestions for the husband Duranord to give to wife Jeanne. You know how they have those traditional anniversary gifts, as in silver for the 25th anniversary and Pearl for the 30th year together.  Hmmmm The gift chart recommendations run out before a 82nd year anniversary. So maybe  Duranord should just give Jeanne a set of silver plated Depends diapers.  Haha Well, practicality at that age should be appreciated.

Gold is recommended for the 75th anniversary gift.  But what would 105 year old Jeanne do with anything made of gold? Instead, save some money and give her a gold plated board to which could be posted some appropriate reminders that any 105 year old would love. "My name is Jeanne', might be one. Or perhaps a reminder for her hubby, "Don't forget to zip down before using the toilet."

Maybe the two should take a second honeymoon? No, it might be fruitless. Just getting them in and out of the car to the airport might take longer than the time it takes to reach their 83rd anniversary. Anyway, kidding aside, let's hope that Duranord and Jeanne live another 100 years. They give we mortal humans a bit of inspiration and hope for our own future.

National Pancake Day

 
March 3rd was a sacred day of the likes of me. No, it's not the date of some religious holiday. It was National Pancake Day in the United states. I think we started that one by stealing the idea from International Pancake Day, held in February but long ignored here until the, IHOP, world's largest pancake house chain invented it for pancake lovers in the U.S. That restaurant (there are almost 2000 of them) gives away a free stack of pancakes to anyone who can find the room in the besieged restaurant on the morning of March 3rd. So National Pancake ay exists only because of IHOP marketing. Still, I like it better than Valentine's Day. What male wouldn't.

I eat pancakes often, perhaps once a week and I love any kind of pancake made as long as they are the flour based style we eat most often in the U.S.  Those egg based crepes are not appealing to me, even when stuffed with goodies because the touch, egg texture is not my style. I like a cake texture pancake. There are probably more than 1000 kinds of pancakes to eat. Choosing a pancake is like dating online. You sometimes see something attractive but are repulsed when raking a bite. There is more to a pancake than how it looks.

I want the plain American style pancake, tender and flour laden with the only topping applied to be generous amounts of silky butter. No nuts, potatoes, whipped cream, syrup, veggie or fruit fillings, no  ice cream on top will do.  I think you can tell quite a bit about people by the kind of pancakes they eat or don't eat. So in the spirit of National Pancake Day I shall now play psychologist and give you my personality rankings based on the noble pancake.

1) The crepe eater- Those who like crepes instead of flour based pancakes are too snooty for me. They more often wear Gucci clothes and drive expensive sports cars. The crepe eater is unappreciative of the basic form of a regular pancake. He or she should never be trusted!

2) The savory pancake- People who prefer these are trendy types. They do crazy things like asking for Quinoa in their pancakes. I think they really don't like pancakes at all. So they load them with veggies and "healthy' additives.  Savory pancake eaters are the ones who always seem to forget their wallets when dining out. You'll get stuck paying their check if you even eat breakfast with them.

3) The buckwheat pancake eater-  These people are traditionalists of the first order. They are very conservative and likely eat many plain and simple foods besides the buckwheat pancake. Though delicious to eat, fewer and fewer people eat buckwheat pancakes, most of the buckwheat fans coming from Eastern Europe....particularly from the old Soviet Union. That's why the easiest way to find a communist is to go to a restaurant that serves buckwheat pancakes. When trying to spot them, just look for Alexander Putin look-alikes.

4) The Asian pancake- What is that? I think it is something disguised as a pancake because it is never eaten by itself. Asian style pancakes are imitation pancakes. I am not sure what's inside them, but they do serve their purpose. That is, they are used solely to place other foods inside and have virtually no taste themselves. They are similar to the tortilla, the least important part of the dish. People who prefer Asian pancakes are quiet and isolated from others., just as the Asian pancake is isolated from what is inside it and is used only as funnel to get that other stuff inside the mouth.

5) The German/Austrian pancake-  Beware of those delights, oven baked puffs of tenderness with sautéed or baked fruit toppings. They are too seductive and will invade your stomach with happiness and then conquer it. People who prefer these pancakes are aggressive, invade your space (or country) and frequently click their heels and salute. One must be way when eating with a German/Austrian pancake lover.

6) American style pancakes-  Those pancakes are perfect because the eaters of them are also perfect (like me). No need to write anymore.

Enjoy your pancakes today and choose wisely which to eat....

Words Of The Year

What English words got the most dictionary reference this year?  Oh, of  course, we know all the words and never resort to looking for a meaning or usage in a dictionary (if you believe that, look up the word "gullible").  But for the others, Miriam Webster Dictionary has released it's list of top ten words for 2014. This are words that had the biggest increase of "look-ups' this past year.  The winner....culture. It seems an ordinary word, but then the concept of it has been so distorted by political correctness that it's hard to now define. They googled many culture related terms this year- 'consumer culture', 'rape culture', 'culture of transparency', 'culture of winning',  'test prep culture', 'coffee culture' and more.

That choice by Webster joins Oxford Dictionary choice of  'vape' (see e-cigarette movement) and Dictionary.coms choice of "exposure" (the Ebola scare made many check that one) as words of the year.  In Webster's No. 2 spot is 'nostalgia'. This year was the 50th anniversaries of 1964, a very active one in which  the free speech movement began, the Civil Rights Act was passed, the adored Ford Mustang was first sold, and the British Music Invasion was signified by the Beatles coming to the  U.S. for the first time.

Next on the list are insidious, legacy, feminism and the French phrase 'je ne sais quoi' (some quality that makes a person or thing attractive....I know, I lack that quality).  Rounding out the Top 10 are innovation, surreptitious, autonomy and morbidity. Seems to me that most of these words are a bit down in tone. But then, it hasn't been a fun year for most of us. What most of the top ten show is how transitory the culture is today. and how easily led people are to the same things the culture promotes. I suppose the rapid and easy communication devices today account for much of that.

We are becoming a world that is very homogenized in what we think, how we act, what we are interested in and where we are led.

Odd Study

According to a new study led by Ohio State University Professor Jesse Fox, men who post a lot of selfies to the web tend to exhibit higher levels of narcissism and psychopaths? Did he say "psychopaths"? Even a cell hater like me doesn't claim that selfie fans are psychos.  I have always suspected cell phone addicts were a little nuts, but psychopaths? Anyway, that study also says most of those men (women don't post selfies as often as men, the study was about men) carefully edit their own selfies.  That's more in tune with the narcissist aspect of selfie addicts. I think the professor may be on to something there. 

The study found that men who edited their photos have higher levels of narcissism and what psychologists term "self objectification".  That means they are self absorbed, but we already know that by observing the actions of a cell phone addict. The only good thing, says professor Fox, is that these men are not necessarily psychopaths because psychopaths are impulsive. Impulsive people wouldn't bother waiting to edit their photos. Ergo, those selfie fans are possibly narcissists, but not crazy loons...maybe.

Common sense tells us that people who are obsessed with snapping their own picture of themselves at every opportunity are self centered but, I think this study is carrying their affliction too far, from the harmless "look at me" into some type of deep psychiatric problem. I wonder if the Professor Fox's' of the world are too obsessed with studies of everyday things that need not be studied.  I also am more amused by selfie addicts than threatened by their behavior. They seem to be having fun with an innocuous behavior. Good for them (but please don't show me your selfie posts).

Is not the real reason most people post selfies the attention from posting and not to admire themselves in photos? We all like attention, and for some the selfie is a kind of 5 minutes of fame. It beats robbing a bank or joining Isis.