A Shining Example

I've been avoiding political commentary lately mostly because I'm tired of the inane ads coming from both sides and the baseless rhetoric from all candidates. I'm at a point where I just want it over with...let the chips fall where they may. But Trump's comment yesterday riled me. I've grown accustomed to his downplaying the Covid virus and saying that we're rounding the corner as we approach one-quarter million people dead, but his reviving an old conspiracy theory (see my post "If you can't back it up don't say it"), with the words he used is way over the line. He said:

 "Our doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid. You know that, right? I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say 'I'm sorry but everybody dies of Covid' ". Trump said that, without citing any evidence at a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan.

He didn't say some doctors or a few doctors, his statement was all inclusive...that all doctors are dishonest. By association that must include nurses, technicians and hospital administrators as co-conspirators, because a doctor couldn't get away with it by him/her self. What an incredibly stupid thing to say! But that's what Trump does...he says stupid things.

If you were a parent and your child came home from school complaining about 'crazy Nancy' or 'flaky Freddy' or 'weird William', and dismissed his/her teacher as an idiot or as a disaster, wouldn't you as a parent step in and discourage such behavior? Right now the child has the President of the United States to point to as a model; as justification for obnoxious and irrational behavior. Trump does that daily. And now he not only ignores and denigrates the advice and opinions of nearly every legitimate medical authority, he calls the doctors crooks. If those actions aren't indicators of his maturity and intelligence levels, than what in the world would be? Look up counterfactual thinking, cognitive dissonance, denialism...Trump could be the poster boy for all of them. 

And yet somewhere around half of the voters in this country will vote for him. That thought alone is enough to blow my mind, but if the unthinkable happens and he is reelected, well, I won't have enough margarita mix on hand deal with it. 

The Revival of an Ancient Ritual

I like raking and burning leaves on a cool fall afternoon. It's good exercise, it's being outdoors, and it doesn't take any brain power which means that the mind is free to roam where it will. It is during such times that I occasionally come up with unusual thoughts that sometimes evolve into strange tales. I wonder if that's how Stephen King gets his weird ideas?...raking leaves. 

Edward Gorey, like King was another figure who took an unconventional view of what we define as the real world and the normalcy of the human condition. Interestingly, what was considered as a weird work by Gorey depicting people in an unusual grouping is a perfect example of today's social distancing. 

Abstract thinkers, when not being called weird are usually regarded as being of the somewhat respectable surrealist genre. I appreciate surrealism and its breaking with convention. Sometimes I think that maybe I'm a closet surrealist. Anyway, what follows is an example of my thought process one afternoon last week while raking leaves. Some of it is true, some is imagination. It doesn't make any difference...it's just a story.

Long, long ago there was and still is a village that at various times has belonged to Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and today Belarus. In the days when it was first forming - this was in the early 1000s it didn't have a name. There were only a handful of families living there, most of them related, and they worked from sun up to sun down tending their meager gardens and gathering whatever wild food nature offered. As time went by the population increased and the Grand Prince of Kiev, Yaroslav the Wise ruling some 360 miles to the east took notice. He concluded that the community should have a name, be fortified to protect against invasion from the south, and pay taxes to the king's coffers. The origin of the name he chose is unknown, but with the stroke of a quill the village of Yaskevichi was created.

Yaskevichi at first had no formal leadership structure, though people usually called on Szymon Filipowicz with their questions or problems (I have traced my ancestors to Yaskevichi in the early 1700s but have been unable to locate records earlier than that time period). In due time Szymon was elected 'burmistrz' (mayor) and did his best to look after the interests of the new village. 

Now, in those days sanitary facilities consisted of heeding nature's call whenever and wherever you were. As the population grew and the village square and streets filled with human droppings this became a problem. Szymon ordered the villagers to go outside of the village to relieve themselves, but this led to arguments about where and how far was out? Szymon's solution was to have a hole dug in one specific location, and decree that all must use it. Immediately there was a problem. People squatting over the hole would sometimes fall in as the earth beneath them crumbled, an event they did not appreciate. 

After months of puzzling about the problem, Szymon had an idea. He ordered some village men to dig two smaller holes, and surround each hole with a square of mud bricks. The villagers eventually called this a "two holer", and it solved the problem of falling in but was uncomfortable to sit on. In a stroke of genius Szymon had some men cut boards with oval holes in them to be placed on top of the brick squares. Villagers referred to the boards as 'otwor na odbytnice' (hole for the rectum), a phrase which evolved to today's 'asshole'. The villagers were satisfied, but as a final touch, and at the request of several women asking for privacy, Szymon had wooden walls erected around the two holer and a roof placed above. That structure was forever after called the 'z dala od smierdzacego domu' (stinky house) which became today's 'outhouse'. 

The 'z dala od smierdzacego domu' was low maintenance but periodically the 'otwor na odbytnice' would become raunchy. Eventually someone would shout out, "Let's burn that 'otwor na odbytnice'! Scholars disagree on when and how the burning of the 'otwor na odbytnice' became a ritual, but there is no argument that the burning became a solemn occasion, officiated over by the 'burmistrz' and other authorities. No one has recorded when or why the practice ended.

Last week while I was checking crawl spaces looking for the main water shutoff I came upon an old wooden 'otwor na odbytnice' with a lid. While pondering what to do with it, I recalled the ritual of my ancestors long ago in Yazkevichi, and had an idea. Some evening in the near future, I will start a fire in the backyard firepit. I will assume the role of Szymon Filipowicz as 'burmistrz' and Maribel will be the 'wysoka kaplanka' (high priestess). As I slowly place the 'otwor na odbytnice' into the fire, Maribel will wave cornstalks from her garden (grown from Peruvian seeds which failed to produce corn for the second consecutive year!) over the flames. And as the fire, having done its work begins to fade, we will circle the flames while chanting 'pie jesu domine, dona es requiem' (but not with the self-flagellation of the original ritual) until the 'otwor na odbytnice' is no more. I think that Szymon would be proud. 

Let's Get IT Over With

In 2006, the year I moved to Peru, a presidential election was held. The candidates were Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala. When I'd ask people who their preference was, more often than not I'd get the standard joke, "It's like a choice between AIDS and cancer." That pretty much sums up my opinion regarding our election, and tonight's debate confirmed that. 

The absolute biggest 'piss me off' was Biden's comment that he would, "...lay out a path to citizenship for the eleven million undocumented people in this country." They are undocumented because they are here illegally. They know that and they knew it when they swam the Rio Bravo or however else they snuck over the border. My paternal grandparents were immigrants, and they did it the right way, coming through Ellis Island, as did my maternal great-great grandparents. And they applied for citizenship, and learned the language, and adopted the culture and became Americans. Nobody gave them anything. 

Maribel loves this country. Her biggest wish is to become a citizen. We met the residency requirement last July and filed the application immediately. Three weeks later we received notification that an interview was scheduled for November. Two months later the interview date changed to August, 2021. Now it's changed to November, 2021. We're hopeful that we'll have resolution in 2022. What is it that's blocking her path to citizenship, Mr. Biden? And I doubt that Trump would give a rat's butt if he knew about the situation. During the last four years I kept expecting him to put a hold on all pending citizenship applications and revoke permanent resident status. 

Judging on substance I think Biden probably 'won' the debate. On force of presence and presentation Trump gets the nod. I read an article this morning by a Trump supporter who suggested that we not vote against Trump because of his personality, which the writer basically acknowledged was obnoxious, but instead vote for Trump because of his accomplishments. In the debate I once again heard Trump brag about all the things he has done, but I don't hear the substance behind those claims. He is especially poor at talking in detail about his plans for the next four years. His whole shtick is "Everything's going to be great."

I don't want liberals in the oval office. I absolutely don't want Trump in there either. AIDS or cancer.

 

Who Says They Have To Match?

You're having two couples over for lunch, and then maybe playing a board game...no, forget that, I hate board games, or watching a movie or just talking. It's in the early planning stage that it dawns on you that you only have stuff for four. By stuff I mean placemats, plates, knives forks and spoons, water glasses, coffee cups, and worst of all, wine glasses. Why didn't you think of that when you were furnishing your new home? Maybe it's because there is only the two of you, and you didn't know a soul within 500 miles of your new location and you didn't imagine that you would have friends. So now what?

You've already looked for another four-place silverware setting but can't find one identical or even close to your original purchase. Same goes for the water glasses, dinner plates, and salad dishes. And matching the wine glasses?...forget about it! All your stuff is less that three years old and already the "patterns have been discontinued" and your stuff is obsolete. 

You have basically three options; you can uninvite one of the couples (but that would be awkward), you can hurriedly purchase new six or eight place settings of everything (and eat rice with weenies for the next six months to pay for it), or you can, horrors of horrors, seat your guests at the four matched place settings while you and your spouse use the odds and ends pieces we all accumulate over time, knowing that your guests will be on their cell phones even before leaving your driveway, commenting on the "interesting" place settings. 

Or.....or.....you could be bold, adventuresome and creative, daring to flaunt the proper etiquette for place settings that has prevailed since we stopped eating with our fingers. Here's how you do that. Go to local antique shops. What you're looking for are one-of-a-kind vintage pieces of flatware, plates, bowls, water and wine glasses. Vintage pieces have history and souls, your guests will become part of a chain of that history and you can tell them that, plus anything you may know about the individual pieces. And you'll pay a lot less than you would for new stuff. And it will be better quality. Forget placemats, go with the 'repurposed' fad...use appropriately folded pages of yesterday's newspaper. They would come in handy during those lulls in the conversation, and you don't have to wash them afterwards. Think about it. Each guest will be dining with their own place setting unique to them. And there will be no confusion about whose plate is whose when going for seconds, or mixing up silverware, or refiling the wine glasses. And speaking about wine glasses, don't get locked into what Emily Post or the glass manufacturers say is a wine glass. At that antique shop you'll see many one-of-a-kind glasses that will catch your interest. It may be a sherbet glass, a martini glass, a large goblet or a small vase, but if you want to say it's a wine glass, then it's a wine glass. If you have the cojones to do what I'm advising, I guarantee that the cream of society wherever you live will be checking their mailboxes daily hoping for an invitation from your address. Brush up on your guest speaker skills.  

If somehow your guest list expands to say ten or twelve, that's a different deal and I recommend a trip to Dollar General for paper plates and plastic glasses and flatware. On the way home stop at KFC for a couple of buckets of chicken. 

Kind of as an aside and to illustrate that we practice what we preach, below are four matching forks recently purchased at an antique shop. They were laying loose among at least 1500 other forks, knives and spoons in four different boxes. Maribel purchased twenty five pieces in total, being very selective. They are Rogers Brothers silverware and from the stamp on the back we know they were made pre-1892. Each piece has the initial "F" ornately engraved on the bottom front, which we assume to be the family initial and just happens to work for us. A few minutes with silver polish brought them back to near new. The photo doesn't do them justice. They gleam so brilliantly that they almost look white, as quality silver does. The cost?...25 cents each or five for a dollar.

How Chiclayo, Peru is Dealing with Covid 19

Peru's population of 32 million ranks 8th in number of Covid 19 cases with 849,371 total cases, and 33,305 deaths. Chiclayo, located on the Pacific Ocean coast is Peru's fourth largest city with a population of 552,508. It is Maribel's home town and the city where I lived for nine years up to 2017. We still have many friends and family members there so try to keep up with what's happening. 

Maribel's son Brian works full time as a business administrator, and recently started working weekends as well as a census taker. I saw this as an opportunity, if Brian could and would do it, to to find out what Chiclayanos and those in the surrounding villages thought about the virus and how they were handling it. Brian did a good job of interviewing during the census taking, and shared his findings with me.

First, regarding Covid 19, given the responses Brian was given they show that people are people no matter where they live. There is a national mandatory mask mandate, but some follow it while others ignore it. Police are apparently not enforcing the mandate. Public transportation vehicles, combies, vans, taxies and busses are required to have plastic separators, and to disinfect regularly, as shown below. Some are...some aren't

Restaurants also need to follow regulations, including wearing protective gear and regularly cleaning. I noticed that in many of the photos Brian sent, those people dealing with the public wore full face shields and protective suits. I haven't seen that in the states. In the few restaurants we've been to here in Georgia, about half the employees weren't even wearing masks, and in the antique shops almost none of the proprietors. 

Regulators are especially stringent for medical providers. Pictured below is my Chiclayo dentist Amalia on the left and the technician Luz. I'm waiting for a response from Amalia as to how inhibiting it is to work in those spacesuits.

This family and their home are typical of people living in the smaller cities, in this instance Monsefu. It is typical at this time to wear masks in the home, and always when out of doors. Brian is doing the interviewing.  

Street venders will be working rain or shine, Covid or not. And even they are carful about wearing masks and handling food correctly. 

Many of the financial functions we do here are through the internet or at the point of purchase, but in Peru many of those functions are forced through a bank. One of my biggest headaches in Chiclayo was having to go to a bank, where there are always long lines to pay utility bills and other transactions. 

Social distancing has made that problem even larger. The people below are waiting for their turn to enter the bank. That line (cola in Spanish) could wind around and extend for several blocks.

Brian summarized what was told him by saying that many people are being extremely cautious about the virus, though some are disregarding it. He noted that Peruvians are aware that there have been Covid 19 parties in the USA, and said that some in Lima also have parties.

Chiclayanos in general feel that President Martin Vizcarra is doing a good job in dealing with the virus, though cries of corruption are often heard from the opposing political parties. Surprisingly to me, the Chiclayanos Brian spoke with did not have personal views on Donald Trump or the election. Most said they were not informed enough to have an opinion, but some commented that they thought he is a racist, and a few said when he was quarantined in the White House he deserved it. 

Peru's borders are still closed. Rumor has it that they will open up for international travel in December. Maribel and me are eager to see our family again...it's been three years for me, but even if the border opens it will again be a decision just like here as to how much risk we're willing to take.

A Toast to C. C.

Maribel and me drank a toast to C C last night. He wasn't here and we don't know much about him, but from information we do have we can make some reasonable assumptions, to the point that we feel comfortable lifting our wine goblets in his honor. But before getting into that let me take this back to where the toast really had its beginning.

In 1841 in Hartford, Connecticut brothers William, Asa and Simon Rogers were starting out as silversmiths. There was nothing to set them apart from the many other silversmiths working in New England until 1847, when they perfected the silver plating process. Their business grew rapidly and they started stamping their products with the Rogers & Bros trademark. For whatever reasons the brothers sold their business to the Meriden Britannia Company in 1862. Meriden continued the Rogers line of silverware after moving the business to Meriden, Connecticut, and they continued to use the Rogers trademark.

I am assuming that the number 2225 1/2 is a mold or style number but have been unable thus far to confirm that. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Meriden either sold the business or simply changed their name, I don't know which, but in 1898 they became the International Silver Company, which continues today and continues to produce under the Rogers name. Okay, enough history. Where does C C fit into the story? 

Fast-forward to a day last week at the Relics LLC antique shop in Cleveland, Tennessee where, in a corner on a table among other items was the three-piece tankard set seen below. All three pieces bare the ornate monogram C C. On the tankard below the monogram is engraved the date 1880. Each piece has the trade mark stamp and number shown above.

Now, about those 'reasonable assumptions' I referred to earlier regarding C C. At first we thought that he lived in or near the state of Connecticut because of the proximity to the manufacturing site, but have since learned that Meriden Britannia had sales offices in London, Hamilton Ontario, San Francisco, Chicago and New York, so we can't even say for certain that he lived in the United States. We say 'he' because women had little stature in those days and probably would not be the recipient of such an expensive set. By the way, it is probable that the set consisted of more pieces than these three. We don't believe that C C would order the set for himself, so we're assuming it was a gift. A birthday gift is possible, but it could also have something to do with the Civil War. The war had been over for only fifteen years when C C received his gift, so it's possible that he fought in the war or had some other association with it. Lastly, we're assuming that he was of at least middle age; at least in his forties, which would put his birth year around 1840. It doesn't seem likely that an unmarried young man would receive such a gift; more likely an older head of a household. And lastly, we assume that he was successful in whatever his occupation was. So putting all those assumptions together; a successful middle-aged family man probably living in a larger USA city, right or wrong we have a generic image of C C and his family, possibly resembling this 1880s family. 

It was a unusual, almost surreal feeling, drinking that first sip of wine from the same goblets that he and his family drank from one hundred forty years ago. 

On a practical note, the pieces are obviously badly tarnished. On the bottom of the tankard I used MAAS metal paste polish, a product I've had good success with in the past, as an experiment to see if it would improve the appearance. To my surprise it completely removed the tarnish in the small test area. It is literally going to take months to polish all three pieces, especially getting into all the nooks and crannies on the tankard but we're determined to do it. The finished pieces would make an attractive display if we can find someplace to put them, and we think that C C would be proud.

UPDATE - the day after. This tankard set has got me acting like a kid at Christmas. I was so happy with the success of my polishing test that I couldn't wait to begin on one of the goblets. There are some spots that no matter how hard I rubbed or how many times I tried, the tarnish will not give way. But the spots aren't that big and the overall appearance is much more than I'd hoped for. 

It does take effort...a lot of elbow grease, polish and time. I'll work on the other goblet next, because I am not looking forward to tackling that tankard. But the good thing is that every little bit of progress results in a brilliant shine that spurs me on.

How Do Beliefs Form, and Why Do They Affect Our Behavior?

The title of this post came indirectly from the varying viewpoints regarding who won the first presidential debate. Specifically, how can people of equal education and intelligence arrive at polar opposite conclusions? How can a Trump supporter say that it is unquestionably obvious that Trump was the clear winner, while Biden supporters tout that it is as plain as the nose on your face that Biden triumphed? And from several articles and commentaries I've read there is a third group who feels that nobody won and the country lost. How can people who watched that debate arrive at such vastly different opinions? To me the only explanation is that the decision/conclusion as to who won wasn't made during or after the debate. We see what we want to see, and what we want to see was decided years ago through an evolutionary process that I believe works like this: impression leads to belief leads to value leads to attitude leads to behavior. Let me try to explain.

Impressions aren't based on much of anything and because of that are often proven wrong and discarded. It is when future events seem to confirm an impression that the impression becomes a belief. 

A belief is an idea that a person holds as being true. That doesn't mean that the belief is true. A person can base a belief on certainty (fact), probability (likely to be true) or faith (what someone wants to believe). Beliefs can come from mentors (including parents, relatives, friends, teachers, etc.), religious faith, education, experience and culture. Beliefs can change over time, depending on how open a person is to new information. I think that generally speaking, the older we get the more difficult it is to accept or even listen to anything that challenges our beliefs.

A long standing belief becomes a value. Our values determine what is important to us, and guide us in the decisions we make. Our beliefs and values determine who we are and how we view ourselves. But because values are based on beliefs that may or may not be true, it's possible and even probable that we may not be the same person tomorrow that we are today, but again, that change is dependent on our willingness to consider ideas/information that may be contrary to our values. 

Values and beliefs determine how we see ourselves, but also how others view us through our attitude and behavior. Our attitude determines how we view a circumstance, situation or person. Our behavior is how we physically act toward that circumstance, situation or person.

So based upon my humble theory, those who say that Trump or Biden won the first debate didn't make that decision during or immediately after the debate. Their decision was made years ago by the people and influences that formed their beliefs and values, and how their resultant attitude viewed the event. Those are the factors that make us predictable...predisposed to think and act in a prescribed manner toward a situation or person. A die-hard political party member will vote for their candidate in 2024, 2028, 2032 and onward no matter who he/she is or what the candidate espouses. 

Okay, so all of the above is my explanation as to why two people of equal intelligence can hold contrary viewpoints, but that leads to another question that I don't have an answer for. Does having opposing opinions preclude two people from maintaining old friendships or establishing new ones?

I could but won't site examples, including some of my own, of friendships that have become strained or have even ended over opinions of Trump and Covid 19. I don't understand why. To me a friendship is based on many factors, both tangible and intangible. A true friendship should be able to withstand and even grow from differences of opinion. I've commented several times about my old hunting camp days and I need to go back to it again to illustrate my thinking.

There were six men in our camp. Two were atheists, the others theists. Two were politically liberal (a different two) and the others conservative. Sometimes we would discuss these differences and how we arrived at them. Discussed is the key word. We never argued about them...never tried to impose our beliefs on each other. There wasn't right or wrong, true or false, good or bad. Just different opinions. Those friendships and respect for each other remained strong. 

To further illustrate what I'm getting at, for the moment let's assume that I am one of those "two people of equal intelligence" I've referred to, and you the reader are the other one. You are a Trump supporter, I'm not. Let's talk about it over coffee and a hamburger. I'd be interested in hearing how you came to hold your belief. And if you'd care to hear it I will explain my anti-Trump reasoning to you. After we've talked that subject through let's have a beer in my backyard and talk about that new rod and reel combo you bought.

Or, if you don't like that scenario, we could emulate our respective presidential candidates and attack each other...shouting, name calling, maligning family members, lying, and distorting and ridiculing each other's opinions, followed by vowing never to speak to each other again. But if we're going to go that route, we should probably first redefine the terms intelligence and maturity.