Potpourri

A follow up to my column on Wodens Day

One of my respondents called to my attention that the Germans have a special word for Wodens Day, or Wednesday.

Notice the German "tag" which means "day" as the last part of their weekdays, as in:

Sunday - Sonntag

Monday - Montag

Tuesday - Dienstag

Thursday - Donnerstag --Dunner is the German word for thunder.

Friday - Freitag

Saturday - Samstag

Wednesday is not in the list as it has no "Tag" or day to its word.

The German Wednesday is Mittwoch which translates to "Midweek".

Okay, we still don't know why Wednesday is spelled W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y!

Thanks anyway, Hank

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Restroom Arithmetic

I was recently in a rest stop on I-81 in Virginia, and on the wall above the urinal was a sign that read:

            "This waterless urinal is earth-friendly. By eliminating the need to 

             flush, we save 40,000 gallons of fresh water per year for each urinal.

             Please do not place any cigarettes or other debris in this urinal."

Now that got me to doing the math, because I estimate that the modern urinal uses only about 2 quarts of water per flush.  Therefore, by the estimate shown, the urinal would be flushed 80,000 times per year, or 220 times per day.  And since there were 4 urinals in that particular restroom, that would make 240,000 flushes per year, or 880 flushes per day for all four, and that presupposes that everyone flushes—which they don't—and that nobody uses the sit-down toilet—which they do.

That, my friends, is a whole lot of males visiting one restroom in Virginia. 

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New use for an old word

Another one of my respondents recently emailed me a new word, but it turns out that it is actually an old word that might have new meaning.  The word:

imbricate  \IM-brih-kut\

adjective - lying lapped over each other in a regular order

In its new meaning it is a verb, and the definition, 'lying', is also a verb, and by the mere addition of a comma, we make the definition:

Lying, lapped over each other in a regular pattern.

So what we have here is a shingle-like overlapping of lies to build a strong cover for the original lie.

Hmmm...  does that sound familiar?

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Déjà vu all over again

My wife and I are avid readers and, we read a mystery that included a real-life person, Alan Turing, the father of modern computers, and breaker of the WWII German Enigma code at Bletchley Park, near London. 

A few days after finishing the book, I saw a news article about the royal pardon of Alan Turing for 'gross indecency' in 1952.  In addition to his great contribution to shortening the war, he was gay, and was caught in a compromising situation with another man some 60-odd years ago.  Now, the Queen has pardoned him -- a few years too late, since he poisoned himself shortly after the indiscretion.

It never ceases to amaze me that I see a name or an occurrence twice within a short period.  I had never heard of Alan Turing before I read that book by David Baldacci. Yet, I came across his name twice in less than a week.

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Global Warming Update

I'm certain we've all seen or read about that Russian ship that was stuck in the ice at Antarctica, and the ice breaker that went after it unsuccessfully.  The Russian scientists, who were on a mission to study global warming, or climate change, as it has now morphed into for PC reasons, had to be airlifted by helicopter and the ship is apparently still stuck fast in the polar ice.

You know, I have a theory about that.  We all wondered what happened to all the ice up north in Greenland and Scandinavia and Alaska that scientists keep telling us is "melting away."  Well, I think I now know where it went.  It didn't melt away after all; it just migrated to Antarctica.  It went south for the winter.

Frozen Niagara

I am always pleased to share information and images that depict the natural wonder near my birthplace and original hometown, and this weekend I have the perfect opportunity. 

The polar vortex (never sure whether that deserves capital letters) has created a strange phenomenon that only occurs about once every fifty years.  Niagara falls has frozen. Well, let me qualify that.  The American Falls has partially frozen over, though there is still a good flow of water over the brink.  The Horseshoe Falls, the Canadian part of Niagara, has never (to my knowledge) frozen.

Some of the pictures you will see in the two articles I've linked to are not current.  They are from past freezes the dates of which are somewhat controversial, but thought to be 1911 and 1936. On those occasions, whenever they were, people actually walked out on the brink of the American Falls and also walked across the ice bridge in the lower Niagara River between the United States and Canada.  From the pictures provided, it appears that the lower ice bridge is probably solid enough for a hike across, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I kind of favor the second article on Frozen Niagara, because it shows several of the earlier freezes, plus a stock shot of the American Falls as it looks in the summertime.

One of my earlier columns was on the topic, The Day They Shut the Water Off , and concerned the time in the 1960s, when a coffer dam was built above the American Falls and the water reduced to a trickle.  That was done so that a study could be performed to determine whether the huge boulders below the falls could be cleared.  The study found that the clearing would only speed up erosion of the falls, so no project was ever started.

I trust that you enjoyed the pictures, and if you've never visited Niagara Falls, put it on your bucket list.  It is a wonder well worth seeing, frozen or flowing.  It is better to visit in warm weather, though.

Missing Money

I’m going to start off the new year for you by possibly giving you money you didn’t even know you already owned.  No, it isn’t a magic trick, and there are no gimmicks, no up-front money you have to send me as a “good faith” token.  This is good, clean and clear cash that is just waiting for you to claim it.

Have I teased your brain cells enough by now to intrigue you? 

Okay, let me tell you a short story of how I earned $78.70 for the price of two postage stamps.  That’s all it took to get me money I had apparently abandoned.

Several years ago I was reading one of the Kim Komando online newsletters, and she gave a tip about claiming lost property.  I followed up with a quick look at the website she had linked to the tip, and I found my name and a former address I had lived at among the other hundreds of names.

I got really curious then and, although I had no inkling of any property I had left behind when I moved from that prior address, I composed a letter to the address listed in the website.  There was even a property ID number for me to include in my inquiry.  I put a forty-two-cent stamp on the envelope and mailed off the letter. (Postage was less costly  then, too)

I received a return letter in the mail, and was required to provide a copy of my driver’s license and my Social Security card to claim my property.  There was no indication of what the property was or how much it was worth.  I was really curious, so I complied with the request and mailed in the proof - another $.42 stamp.  That all occurred on September 23, 2008.

Time passed and I nearly forgot all about the letter and the missing property, whatever it was.  Then, several weeks later, I went to the mailbox and retrieved a letter from the Missouri State Treasurer.  Inside was a check for $78.70 and a brief pre-printed memo.  The check stub only had “abandoned fund” as the category for issuance, so I still had no idea when or where I abandoned that money.

I was not about to question any further the source of my good fortune, but I consider myself pretty meticulous about keeping track of my savings, so I was still in a state of shock over the windfall.  In fact, I've never been able to recall how I was entitled to it.

I know, it wasn't the lottery jackpot, or anything huge, but found money is nothing to complain about.

Now, here is all you have to do to see if you might also qualify to claim some lost or abandoned property.  Merely log on to the Internet and go to www.missingmoney.com.  If that seems too difficult, just type the two words "missing money" (minus the quotes) into your favorite search engine and it will lead you to the website.  There is a box near the top where you can type in your first and last names and your current state of residence.  Then move the cursor over to the GO magnifying glass and click on it.

You will get a list of names similar to yours—hopefully with yours among them—and all the states where these individuals have lost property to be claimed.  You can narrow the field by checking the street addresses, also given in most cases, to see if you are one of the claimants.

If your name and a current or former address appear on the listing, click on the name and it will give you some details along with the state where the property is held, a property ID number, and the state contact information for inquiry.  Just follow the directions on the page and send off a letter. 

I know there might be some concern about identity theft when you are required to send your personal identification, but I never had any kind of repercussion from my disclosure, so I believe it is completely safe.  That requirement doesn't occur until after you've sent the letter anyway, so visiting the Missing Money website presents no risk.

If you are male and married, you should also try the name inquiry with your spouse’s former name.  There might be something that she left behind, too.

I hope you are as fortunate as I was and can reclaim something you left behind.  This is one time when I can say and truly mean “Good Luck!”

With Charity for All

I like to end the year on a positive note, and there have been many acts and events this past year that have had positive impact on our lives.  It is tiresome and depressing to see the huge number of negative email messages and news reports that come across the ethernet.  Frankly, many of them are either false, or are questionable in content. That keeps websites like Snopes and TruthorFiction busy, but it also distorts reality.

Here is my candidate for most positive story of 2013.

You may have heard about or read this story already.  It was disclosed last week that a man from Calgary, who won a Canadian lottery prize back in May, and somehow kept it secret for all this time, has decided to donate the entire $40 million prize to charity.

Tom Crist, a 64-year-old retired widower, has set up a trust fund along with his adult children to give away the prize money to various charitable organizations, but most of it is slated for the Canadian Cancer Society and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre.  He has already cut a cheque - Canadians spell funny - for $1.2 million to the latter charity.

Mr. Crist says that he has done quite well for himself and his children in his 44 year working career and he really doesn't need the money. 

Well, I say "Wow" to that!

The reasoning behind the gift is understandable, as well.  Tom lost his wife of 33 years to cancer two years ago after a six year battle with the disease.  What a wonderful gesture he is making to help in finding a cure!

The above story might have been the apex, but in doing the research on it, I found that this isn't the first time a Canadian has donated their winnings to charity.  Three years ago, 84-year-old Allen Large and his wife Violet won a lottery prize of over $11 million.  They promptly gave away their winnings, too.  Afterwards, they both said they never felt so good.

When Mr. Large was interviewed, he said that he and his wife had saved over $2  million for retirement and didn't have any need for the lottery winnings.  They did give $100,000 to each of 12 relatives before they made the charitable donations, but they never spent a penny of it on themselves.

In the same article, it was reported that another generous Canadian, Bob Erb, won $25 million in a 2012 Lotto Max drawing, and has donated over $8 million.  While he didn't give it all away, he has given the maximum he can without hurting his bank balance.

The above stories have me wondering if American lottery winners are as kind and generous with their winnings.  I cannot recall any stories similar to these about our winners, but it is true that we, as a people, are the most generous on earth.

With that in mind, I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year in 2014, and I hope that, if you are fortunate enough to win the lottery, we will see an article about your gift to charity with the proceeds.  In other words, I trust that you are in a position where you don't need to win the lottery to live well and prosper.

Wodens Day

Have you ever wondered why the day we term "Humpday" is spelled Wednesday?  I sure have, and I just recently thought I learned why.  It was so interesting, along with the names of the other six days of the week, that I want to share it with you. 

Now, I cannot claim credit for all this research, because I do have a source and a good one at that; California Technical Institute, (a.k.a. CalTech).  And I could just give you the link to their website and let you look it up for yourself, but I'd rather risk charges of plagiarism and print out the text for you.

I received a message from my nephew, Dan, with the subject line: Wodens Day, and I was at a loss to figure out what that meant, so I asked in my reply.  Here is what I received as his follow up.

Woden was a Germanic god (Saxon, but based on the Norse 'Odin'), from whom the name Wednesday derives...

From the Caltech website:

Origin of the Names of the Days of the Week

• Sunday: Sunnenday (Middle English translation of Greek Hemera heliou): the sun's day,
• Monday: Monan daeg (Anglo Saxon, monan, moon; daeg, Anglo Saxon, day): the moon's day,
• Tuesday: Tiwes daeg (Anglo Saxon Tiw, war god, related to Greek god Zeus): Tiw's day,
• Wednesday: Woensdag (Danish, Woen, Woden, Chief Norse god, Frigga's husband; dag, day): Woden's day,
• Thursday: Thursdaeg (Old English; Thorr, Icelandic, thundergod): Thor's day,
• Friday: Frigedaeg (Anglo Saxon; Frige, Frigga, chief Norse goddess, Woden's wife): Frigga's day,
• Saturday: Saeterdaeg (Anglo Saxon; Saeter, Saturn, Roman god of time): Saturn's day.

(Dan's words) Interestingly, although the names sound entirely different, the gods used on each day correspond to the same roman gods used to name the same days of the week in the Romance Languages, and ALSO correspond to the same 7 moving heavenly bodies known to the Greeks as 'planetas', or 'wanderers' (the Sun and Moon were 2 of the 7 planets because these 7 objects uniquely moved through the fixed stars) - that's why, although your hands have 5 digits, and the natural units with which to count are 5s and 10s, there are 7 days of the week!  In 'calendric' order:  Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn [Uranus and Neptune are too dim to be seen with the unaided eye].

Well, I still don't know why they spell that middle day of the week W-e-d-n-e-s-d-a-y.  Do you?  Does anyone know?

What Happened to Savings Plans?

If you are under forty, you are probably too young to relate to this topic, but you might learn something about why so many in your generation have not saved anything for their retirement.

There is a K-Mart advertisement that runs this time of year on their lay-away plan to pay up-front for gifts for the holidays.  I’ve seen it several times this week. It reminds me of that we used to save up for Christmas gifts.  That is my topic for this week.

We live in a world where credit and debit cards are the norm, and we seem to expect to pay those high rates of interest on credit card balances.  Why else would there be such a hue and cry whenever the credit card companies send the letter advising of the rise in rates?  Why else are there so many people with $30,000 or more in credit card debt, enough to spawn the growth of debt relief businesses?

When I was a youngster, and possibly up until my kids were also teens, the banks used to have two special accounts.  One was the Youth Savings Account.  It was endorsed by the schools and participated in during school hours. 

I don’t recall exactly how we deposited our savings, but I believe it went something like this. We would bring our passbook and our money to school once a week for deposit into our account.  The teacher would collect the money and note the amounts on deposit sheets with our names on them. We would make the entries into our savings account passbook, a good arithmetic practice.  The teacher would pool all the deposits and send them to the office to be sent to the bank with all the other class deposits.

Lots of us kids learned good savings habits and built up substantial accounts.  For some, it was the first link in a lifetime savings account that helped pay for college, that first car, or other young adult needs.

The other account offered by banks was the Christmas Club Account.  That one was open to everyone, and adults commonly had accounts for just that purpose.  If you saved more than needed for your gifts, you merely left a balance and continued into the next year.  Some of those accounts stayed active for years.

Now this might surprise some of you, but we actually paid for our presents as we bought them.  That’s right, we didn’t have to be concerned about those high bills coming in right after the New Year celebration died down.  What a novel idea!

We would be so much better off if we learned good savings habits while in our youth, and if we also learned that purchases, exclusive of homes and autos, should never incur long-term debt.  Credit cards, while useful to avoid carrying cash, encourage wasteful (and hasteful) spending habits.  Try to make it a rule that all credit card purchases are paid off within the 30-day “no interest” period. 

 

Donations That Give 100-percent

'Tis the Season, again, to celebrate our bountiful and beautiful blessings by giving to others less fortunate than ourselves.  I want to make this an annual column in support of charity and good will toward men (and women).  In that spirit, here are some tips on how best to donate.

I guess we’ve all seen the stories that circulate in emails about those huge salaries that directors of the large charitable organizations draw.  Whether or not they are truly that large, there certainly are a lot of expenses involved with charitable organizations that eat up our donations before they ever get to the intended recipients.

If you care to see what percentage of donations get to those in need, charitynavigator.org is one of several online sites that rate them. Another one is the Forbes website, and a third, and possibly the best of the three is Guidestar.org because it actually has its own tips for choosing a charity. 

Here are some neat ways to provide for those in need and feel good about doing it on a personal, hometown level. 

Most department stores have a layaway plan that enables people to pay for Christmas gifts in increments.  However, people who have to purchase in that fashion are likely doing so because they aren’t able to afford payment in a lump sum. 

You can aid those people anonymously on a selective basis to pay off their layaway purchases.  Don’t just blindly pay on someone’s layaway account, but try to do some investigation (perhaps with the department manager) as to what is on layaway and to whom the gifts will go.  Maybe the manager will have some useful input as to the financial situation of some of the people who have gifts on layaway.  In one case cited in an article I read, the person in need was one of the store employees who had recently lost her husband and was providing for several kids.

Of course, there are other ways that you can donate so that some little boy or girl will get a gift.  The best ones I can think of are the United States Marines’ Toys for Tots program and the Angel Tree (Salvation Army) that is usually in the vestibule of Wal-Mart, Kmart or Target stores. And there is always the red kettle and bell ringer of the Salvation Army. Donate to these programs if you want to donate but cannot afford a large amount.

Another way to make your donation count is available at most grocery stores.  The local food banks that feed the homeless and needy have suffered from the economic woes we’ve experienced in recent years. When you check out with your food items, you can also donate in increments to the food banks.  For as little as $5 you can provide a full meal to someone who might otherwise have slipped through the cracks and either isn’t eligible or has not applied for assistance. A lot of our disabled vets are in this category for one reason or another.

If you go to McDonalds and get change for your purchase, put it in the glass box in front of the cash register and it will go to the Ronald McDonald House, another worthy cause. The proceeds are used to give comfort and care to sick children and their families and provide temporary living quarters for those who do not reside in the area where hospital care is given.

Don't forget that all donations to qualified non-profit charitable organizations can be used as deductions from your taxable income if you use Schedule A for itemized deductions. (Get a valid receipt from the organization, if the donation is $250 or over.)  My wife and I do not use Schedule A anymore, so that means we are not able to take advantage of that tax break.  It doesn't make us less willing to give, but it is an incentive for some people.  We've even found a way to bestow the tax break on our children.

I gave each of my adult kids a cash gift on Thanksgiving Day with the suggestion that they pass that gift on to their own favorite charities.  Since both of them do itemize deductions, they will also be able to use the deduction to reduce their taxes for 2013.  Those charitable gifts will give three ways:  1) I know that I've given a significant sum to charity, 2) My children have also donated and, 3) There is a tax break for them on April 15th of 2014.  It is a win-win for all and it is perfectly legal.

Whatever the gift, if you are blessed with some spare cash and want to make a difference, I cannot think of a better way to do it than to use one of these vehicles to donate and get the biggest “bang for the buck.”

And remember that charity doesn’t have to be a Christmastime activity. As the song, The Secret of Christmas concludes, “...it’s not the things you do at Christmas time, but the Christmas things you do all year through.”