Feb 3, 2020

Happy Friday

"The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing." ~ Leo F. Buscaglia

Go ahead, take a risk and be happy, especially on a Happy Friday!

Groundhog Day Origin and Candlemas

On February 2, 1887, Groundhog Day, was celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, it gets scared and runs back into its burrow, predicting six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.

Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting the hedgehog as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State. I am hoping for no shadow.

Super Bowl Name Origin

Very interesting that the Super Bowl name is from former Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, inspired by a popular '70s toy: the Super Ball. For its first three years, the game had been called the world championship. Then Hunt saw his daughter playing with a bouncy ball and asked her what it was called. The rest is Super Bowl history.

Incidentally, the NFL pays no halftime appearance fee. The only thing the organization pays for is the expenses for the band and its entourage. Also, Joe Montana won all four Super Bowls he played in and he never threw a interception in any of them.

About vs. Approximately vs. Around

Will not go into all the other uses for these words, just enough to highlight the difference in use between them.

“About” is a word that means reasonably close to. About means reasonably close to, it is a guess or an estimate. We can use it to talk about quantity. About does not stress the closeness to accuracy that approximately does.

“Around” also means reasonably close to. We also use around in casual informal situations.  We can use around with numbers and quantity as we did with about. We use this for time as we saw with the word, about. So, for time, we can say, “I will be there around 7:00 p.m.” “I will be there around breakfast time.”

The difference between about and around is largely a matter of preference: about is more common in British English and around in American English.

“Approximately” means reasonably close to something else so we use it, again, to make an estimate, to make a guess. However, approximately is usually used in more formal situations. It is more natural to use approximately in formal situations. If you use “approximately” in an informal situation, it might sound strange.

Approximately has fairly limited uses. Around and about, however, have a few other functions to consider. When you are making guesses, when you are making estimates, especially for quantities or time, in most cases, about and around can both be used.

Dolly Parton Facts

On January 17, 2018 it was announced that Dolly holds two spots in the Guinness World Records 2018 edition: One for Most Decades With a Top 20 Hit on the US Hot Country Songs Chart and the other for Most Hits on US Hot Country Songs Chart By a Female Artist with a total of 107.

Silicon vs. Silicone

They are almost spelled the same, but are pronounced different and are two different things.

Silicon is a hard brittle element found in sand and used to make microchips.

Silicone is a rubber-like material or liquid, used in things like cooking utensils, sealants, and breast implants. See what I did there?

Printer Ink Refills

Did you know Costco and Sam's can refill your printer ink cartridges and they cost less than new? These refills come closest to matching original-ink quality, and they are backed by Costco’s and Sam's customer service.  Costco’s ink refills come closest to matching the print quality and staying power of HP’s own ink. Glossy photos displayed almost the same level of contrast. The Costco color inks are less saturated, but fairly accurate compared with other refill inks. When regular cartridges can be filled to XL levels, Costco always does so. In these cases, regular and XL cartridges cost the same to refill. Costco is a bit more expensive than Amazon refills.


Amazon Ikong’s ink performed the best of the bought-on-Amazon options. The print quality was good enough across the board for home use, and nearly up to the standard that Costco’s refills set. Incidentally, the last two times I needed refills and went to Walmart, it was cheaper to buy a new printer, which I did.

Save the Date

If you want to protect the date you wrote or changed documents, or your stories, scripts, ideas, pictures, etc, print a copy and send it to yourself through the mail. When you receive it back, leave the envelope sealed, because the sorting office stamp mark proves the date. You can also send it certified or return receipt to have additional proof. Also handy if you cannot get a witness, or get to the lawyer or business quickly. If it is very sensitive, you can put the sealed envelope in your safe deposit box.


With an email, you can send it to yourself and not open it. The cloud will maintain dates. Do the same with a file attachment for a quick free backup.

Nine Interesting McDonald's Facts

McDonald's originally served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chili with baked beans, and slices of pie.

McDonald’s introduced an official company mascot: Speedee, a burger-faced chef with a bow tie that looked like he was in a perpetual rush. The brothers noted that his round head would make a good base for a lollipop, and decided to hand out Speedee-shaped treats to orphanages and children’s hospitals as a charitable form of advertising. Speedee was retired in 1962.

McDonald’s hands out more toys than any other business on the planet.

In an effort to curb the frenzied pleas of children for a Happy Meal in order to score the free toy, San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2011 that prohibited the company from peddling the promotion within city limits. To get around the law, the company began charging 10 cents for the toy, skirting around the definition of free.

It is illegal to open a McDonald's or other foreign fast food chain restaurant in Bermuda.

Ronald McDonald is called Donald McDonald ( Donarudo Makudonarudo) in Japan.

Warren Buffett has a card that provides free food at any McDonald’s in his hometown of Omaha.

Bill Gates’ has a card which entitles him to eat free anywhere at any Golden Arches in the world.

Jeff Bezos once worked at McDonald's.


Incidentally, A KFC was opened in Bermuda before the ban and is the only one allowed.

Salt vs. Sodium

Salt and sodium are not exactly the same thing. Salt contains sodium along with another mineral, chloride, and the chemical name for salt is sodium chloride (NaCl).

About 90% of the sodium we consume comes from salt. On food nutrition labels these terms are often used interchangeably even though there is a difference. Sodium is used on the nutrition information panel of labels because it is the sodium portion of the salt that is relevant for health.

Happy Friday

The light at the end of the tunnel is the smile from friends coming to greet you.


If you smile back, you will light up the whole tunnel, especially on a Happy Friday!

Attorney vs. Lawyer

Historically a lawyer is trained in and can advise you on the law and represent your interests. An attorney is licensed to practice law and argue before a court. The terms are synonymous these days, but the licenses still say "attorney".


In the United States, the practice of law is conditioned upon admission to practice of law, and specifically admission to the bar of a particular state or other territorial jurisdiction.

Attorney at Law is only for lawyers that go to court. All attorneys are lawyers, but not all lawyers are attorneys. Many lawyers never go to court.

Legal Counsel is a person employed by an organization/corporation and works in-house. Legal Counsel will only provide legal advice to their employer. A lawyer is employed by a law firm and is engaged by various clients to provide a range of legal services and advice.

Because a lawyer also conducts suits in court proceedings and represents clients in various legal instances, the term has expanded to overlap the definition of attorney.  Technically one can be a lawyer by graduating law school, even though they are not licensed to practice law.

The J.D. stands for Juris Doctor. However, this is not a doctorate. It is a professional degree.
A JD is the minimum educational level for lawyers and without it, they cannot practice. Degree levels, from basic to most advanced, include: Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (L.L.M.), Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.). It is also not a legal degree, so a holder cannot be called lawyer or attorney. A JD is not called doctor, because it is not a terminal degree, there are others above it. A PhD is a terminal degree, meaning there are no higher degrees available.

Impeachment

We see this word every day in the news. Many have a different idea of what it is. The real definition is, "a charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office." It assumes no innocence or guilt, just a charge.
A political trial is held in the Senate that is like, but not the same as a legal trial in court. The Senate has its own rules. The entire Senate becomes 'jurors' and a chief justice from the Supreme Court presides over the proceedings. A two thirds vote from those present on any or all charges is required for conviction.

The outcome for being found guilty is limited to, "Removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust, or Profit under the United States."


Not all criminal conduct is impeachable and not all impeachable conduct is criminal.

False Space Colors

People who have been to space say there is not much to see. You will not find anything colorful even if you used a telescope. Many heavenly bodies emit lights beyond the wavelengths we can see. Those that do not are almost always red and blue, which remain the two most common colors in the universe.

Almost every photo you have seen of space or some other pictures of planets and comets or exploding stars is fake. However, the photos are real; it is the color that is fake.

Cameras aboard spacecraft take images using filters that isolate different wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. Some, like red and blue, capture light the human eye can see. Others like ultraviolet and infrared, capture light it cannot see. All the images arrive to Earth as black-and-white frames, and then are assigned colors digitally and compiled into a composite.

NASA releases images that are 'false color', because it shows something interesting about the atmosphere and allows us see lights that would have been invisible to us. Not many would be interested in space if all they ever saw were black and white or blue and red photos. Incidentally, the sun is pure white. Photographs of the Moon, taken from space show the gray color from the surface of the Moon which is mostly oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium and aluminum.