Half gone?

Today is June 30th, so the year is half gone, right?

Wrong.

Let me explain. While it is true that six months have passed and six more remain, the year is not half gone.

In the first six months of non-leap years, there are 181 days (31+28+31+30+31+30) and in leap years there are 182 days (31+29+31+30+31+30). The last six months in every year contain 184 days (31+31+30+31+30+31). Using simple math, the midpoint of a non-leap year occurs at 182.5 days (365 divided by 2) and the midpoint of a leap year occurs after 183 days (366 divided by 2).

So now you know, based on simple math, that the midpoint of a non-leap year (2022, 2023) actually occurs at 12 noon on July 2nd, not on June 30th. And the midpoint of a leap year (2024) occurs at 12 midnight as July 2nd ends and July 3rd begins.

Do not begin your midpoint-of-the-year celebration too early. Today is too soon. Tomorrow is too soon. Begin promptly at noon on July 2nd. And if your neighbors complain about the fireworks and the loud music and the street dancing and the parade and tell you that you are celebrating too early, just tell them that the Fourth of July is not what you are celebrating, that that will come in due time. They will look confused, but it cannot be helped. If you are not in the United States, they probably won't think of the Fourth of July at all; they'll just wonder what in the world you are doing.

If we think of our journey through the year in terms of geometry, as a gradual ascending and a gradual descending like two sides of a long triangle, here is a poem by Sara Teasdale that is apropos, especially if you are female and have ever worn a floor-length dress. If you are male and have ever worn a floor-length dress, I don't want to know about it. Everyone, male or female, should be able to appreciate the poem's imagery as it applies to our journey through the year.

THE LONG HILL
by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

I must have passed the crest a while ago
And now I am going down--
Strange to have crossed the crest and not to know,
But the brambles were always catching the hem of my gown.

All the morning I thought how proud I should be
To stand there straight as a queen,
Wrapped in the wind and the sun with the world under me--
But the air was dull, there was little I could have seen.

It was nearly level along the beaten track
And the brambles caught in my gown--
But it’s no use now to think of turning back,
The rest of the way will be only going down.

Sunlight, sunlight in my soul today

Today, as most of you know, is what is called the "summer solstice" in the northern hemisphere (Nota bene. it is not called that in the southern hemisphere), popularly known as the longest day of the year (shortest day in the aforementioned southern hemisphere).

Just how many hours of daylight one experiences depends on one's latitude. The equator is at 0° and the North Pole (the geographic one, not the magnetic one) is at 90°N latitude. Today in Canton, Georgia (34.2368°N), where I live, the sun rose at 6:26 a.m. and set at 8:52 p.m., a period of 14 hours, 26 minutes. Allowing for some pre-sunrise "dawn's early light" and some post-sunset twilight at dusk, we had about 15 hours of daylght on the longest day of the year. This is three hours more (12+3=15) than on the equinoxes in March and September when everyone in the world gets 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness, so it follows as the night the day (see what I did there?) that on the winter solstice at my latitude there will be about nine hours of daylight (12-3=9).

Yorkshire Pudding reported on his blog that Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom (53.3811°N) where he lives had only about three hours of complete darkness and that he loves this time of year (24-3=21 hours of daylight). North of the Arctic Circle (66.30°N) the sun did not set at all today. Conversely, six months from now, at the winter solstice, the sun will not rise anywhere above the Arctic Circle.

The difference between the geographic North Pole's latitude (90°N) and the Arctic Circle's latitude (66.30°:N) is the number of degrees that the earth is tilted from vertical, or as we all surely learned back in our school days, "approximately 23-and-a-half degrees".

NEWS FLASH FOR SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE READERS! If you change Arctic to Antarctic and all the norths and degrees N to souths and degrees S, this post will work pretty well for you (with only a couple of minor inaccuracies) on the orher solstice in December, provided that you also change Canton to Sydney or Cape Town, and Sheffield to Tierra del Fuego.

I love it when a post can have an extended life!

Everything happens for a reason

Things come to me out of the blue in the middle of the night. I awake to popular songs of days gone by playing in my head, poems I had to memorize in school, complete hymns (sometimes several verses worth), Bible passages,

Here are some examples:

A few nights ago I awoke to all nine Beatitudes from the fifth chapter of the Gospel According To Matthew in my head that I had to learn when I was 14. Another night I found myself remembering Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Not just "Fourscore and seven years ago", the whole thing. Another night I couldn't get Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Anabel Lee" out of my brain. Last week I knew all the words of the song "P.S., I Love You" that I probably haven't heard since Gisele Mackenzie sang it on Your Hit Parade back in the fifties. It's uncanny. Two nights ago it was a hymn that I sang in the Methodist church as a child and teenager that hadn't crossed my mind in 60 years:

Just when I need Him, Jesus is near,
Just when I falter, just when I fear;
Ready to help me, ready to cheer,
Just when I need Him most,

Refrain:
Just when I need Him most,
Just when I need Him most,
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer,
Just when I need Him most.

Just when I need Hin, He is my all.
Answering when upon Him I call;
Tenderly watching lest I should fall,
Just when I need Him most.

In the morning, I checked hymnary.org and discovered that what had come trippingly to my tongue turned out to be verses 1 and 4 of a hymn written in 1907. I didn't recogniize verses 2 and 3 at all, but then our little church often left verses out in the interest of time.

I am just as apt to remember an old cheer from high school football games:

Beat me, Daddy, eight to the bar,
Mansfield Tigers going mighty far;
Swing me, sugar, with a boogie beat,
We're the team that can't be beat!

or

Orange crush, lemon ice!
Hit 'em once, hit 'em twice,
Hit 'em high, hit'em low.
Come on, Tigers, let's go!

I'm not bragging, I'm sort of complaining, but only sort of. I'm walking the fine line between having a cross to bear and not looking a gift horse in the mouth. The other side of the coin is I often can't remember what we ate for dinner yesterday. I do think everything happens for a reason.

It's difficult to explain. If David Barlow of Tooele/Manti/Ephraim, Utah a.k.a. Putz were still around, he would understand completely.

I miss him.

If I start naming people I miss, we could be here all day.

Windfall

Today I received a check in the mail along with the following letter:

To: [Me]

From: AT&T MOBILITY WIRELESS DATA SERVICES

Subj: AT&T MOBILITY WIRELESS DATA SERVICES SALES TAX LITIGATION SETTLEMENT

This payment represents your (pro-rata) settlement amount resulting from the resolution of the AT&T MOBILITY WIRELESS SERVICES SALES TAX LITIGATION. If you paid taxes, fees or surcharges ("Internal Taxes") to AT&T Mobility LLC ("AT&T Mobility") on internet access through certain services including iPhone data plans, Blackberry data plans, other smart phone data plans, laptop connect cards and pay-per-use data services on bills issued from November 1, 2005 up to and including September 7, 2010, you are deemed eligible to receive this amount from the class action settlement. The funds contained in the check are a refund of your taxes that were covered by the settlement. This settlement is final. Depositing this check does not obligate you to any future product or service and you will not receive any additional correspondence relating to this settlement. If you have questions about the check or the settlement, please visit [web address] for more information. You may also write a letter to the Settlement Administrator at [address].

And right there, below the perforated line, was a check made out to me for the following amount:


The sum of $****Zero Dollars AND Three Cents****
$****0.03****

I used to opine, or maybe I was prophesying, that when my ship came in, there would probably be a dock strike. Well, I was wrong. There wasn't a dock strike. I just don't know where I'm going to spend it all.

But wasn't it sweet of them to give me permission to write them a letter?

A shout-out to Francis Scott Key

We are having a heat wave in this part of the world just now. Yesterday our high temperature was 95°F (35°C) but it felt worse than that. Our heat index (which has something to do with humidity, and we are nothing if not very humid) was between 100° and 105°F (37° to 40°C). These conditions are expected to last at least another week. We may all be fried before it is over.

As a Christian evangelist might say, "And it's going to get a lot hotter if you don't start living right."

In case you don't get the connection, the Christian evangelist would be referring to the fires of Hell.

When I was a kid growing up in Texas, we had such a long hot dry spell that the Baptists were sprinkling and the Methodists were using a damp cloth. One time I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking.

I'm kidding. Yuk it up, folks, these are the jokes.

Yesterday was Flag Day in the United States and I had intended to publish all four verses of our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, instead of the more traditional story of General George Washington asking Betsy Ross in 1777 to make the first American flag in Philadelphia. Operating under the theory that it is better late than never, I will do it now.

Here is the complete version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" showing spelling and punctuation from Francis Scott Key's 1814 manuscript in the Maryland Historical Society collection.

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

There. I did it and I'm glad. Another unbelievably esoteric post straight from my brain to you. And I never once mentioned (until now) the War Of 1812.

A beautiful absolutely marvelous word

But first, did you know that each and every day 21,500,000 people in this world celebrate birthdays? It's true. The population of the world is estimated to have been 7,868,000,000 as of January 1, 2022, and there are 365.25 days in a year. Do the math.

The same article told me that the world had grown by 74,000,000 people since the preceding January 1st, and that every single second 4.3 people are born and 2.0 people die.

I do hope someone out there finds such data interesting.

Stated differently, if the population of the world is A, the number of days in a year is B, and the number of people celebrating birthdays each day is C, the formula for determining C is C = A over (divided by) B. Just remember, when it comes to numerators and denominators, there is a fine line between them.

Well, enough of that. Onward and upward.

Way back in 1969, during the first season of the children's television series Sesame Street, Big Bird saw a sign containing the whole alphabet and said, "Boy, look at that beautiful absolutely marvelous word". He tried to pronounce it as one word and it came out (this is an approximation) "Abka-def-ghi-jekyl-min-op-quer-stuv-wik-siz". Then he launched into what became an iconic song sung several times over the years:

ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ
It's the most remarkable word I've ever seen
ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ
I wish I knew exactly what I mean
It starts out like an "A" word, as anyone can see
But somewhere in the middle it gets awful "QR" to me
ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ
If I ever find out just what this word can mean
I'll be the smartest bird the world has ever seen!

What can that strange looking word possibly mean?
Funny word

It might be kind of an elephant
Or a funny kind of kazoo
Or strange, exotic turtle
You never see in a zoo
Or maybe a kind of a doggie
Or particular shade of blue
Or maybe a pretty flower

Nah, not with a name like that, uh-uh

ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ
It's the most remarkable word I've ever seen
ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ
I wish I knew exactly what I mean
It starts out like an "A" word as anyone can see
But somewhere in the middle it gets awful "QR" to me
ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ
If I ever find out just what this word can mean
I'll be the smartest bird the world has ever seen!

Whenever I think of that song, I do not think of Big Bird. I think of Mr. Snuffleupagus, who actually fits the bill as "kind of an elephant".

I also think of four places in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Christian New Testament. In chapter 1, verse 8, and chapter 21, verse 6, we read "I [the Lord] am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." In chapter 1, verse 11, and chapter 22, verse 13, we read "I [the Lord] am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last."

As you probably know, the New Testament was written in Greek nearly 2,000 years ago. In the Greek alphabet the first letter is called Alpha and the last letter is called Omega. To my way of thinking, the Lord is not only Alpha and Omega (the first and last, the beginning and the end, the A and Z, as it were) but also all the letters in-between, everything that is needed to describe anything, the Greek version of Big Bird's absolutely beautiful marvelous word.

Here's the Greek alphabet:

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to step into your Big Bird costume (you know you want to) and devise a pronounceable word out of the Greek alphabet and report back here with the result. I'll even start you off:

Abga-dez-huh-thikl-minx-op-... and you take it from there.

The same person who wrote Revelation also wrote in another place, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God....and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Words are important. Use them wisely.

An interesting article

Ignorance is not a pejorative, it merely reflects a lack of information and can be dispelled through education. Stupidity, on the other hand, lasts forever. As Forrest Gump once said, stupid is as stupid does. Stupidity is the scourge of the human race. If someone wants to know who said that, tell them I did.

I recommend for your reading entertainment and edification the following article by Corinne Purtill that was published in Quartz:

"The Five Universal Laws Of Human Stupidity"

Since it is June and it's hot and the humidity is rising, and the cloying fragrance of gardenias hangs heavy over our garden, and even though 78 years ago today Allied forces established a foothold on the beaches of Normandy, I shall end this post without further ado.

Until next time, I remain
Yr obdt svt and peripatetic observer

The ever-vigilant Rhymeswithplague

>