ABC Wednesday Archives - Page 44 of 91

K is for Kellogg’s Cereal Bowls

I have NO recollection of ordering these bowls.

This is an odd little story.

Back in early 1980s, my (now) parents-in-law had befriended this older woman named Alice. She became part of their family. I met her a few times; she was a nice lady.

Around 2003, she died, and my parents-in-law were tasked to take her stuff from the trailer in which she lived, plus a storage unit. The items were removed en masse, without looking much at what items were present. They did sorting as time allowed.

Jump to 2014. In the midst of their own move, the in-laws discover this box with Alice’s handwritten note, “A Gift From” my wife. But the box initially had been mailed to ME at my address before we got married, from E.P.I Fulfillment in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Contained therein were four Kellogg’s cereal bowls, the same ones pictured above, with a 1996 copyright date.

I have NO recollection of ordering these bowls. Nor does my spouse remember having given them to Alice. Still, they’ve made their way back to us.

They go for about $20-$45 for the set on eBay, depending on condition, and they appear to be in near-mint condition, so I doubt she ever used them. I’m not inclined to sell them anytime soon.

ABC Wednesday – Round 16

J is for Office JEOPARDY! #3

I’ve been participating in an e-mail version of JEOPARDY!, the TV game show that has been on the air in its current incarnation for over 30 years. Earlier versions makes the run more like four decades.

There has been some interdepartmental game of the TV show Jeopardy going on around here. I was invited to join by this guy, not in my department but in my building, who told the organizer “Alex” that I’m really smart; thanks for the pressure. I wonder if “Alex” knows I was was once on the real JEOPARDY?

Here are some of the rules.
* All the answers and questions come from the Jeopardy Desk calendar of the current date.
* Don’t cheat. NO looking at the desk calendar, NO looking up the answer anywhere (i.e. internet, dictionary, etc), NO discussing or giving it away with anyone.
* The Answer must be in the form of a question or you will lose points
* Only those with positive points can play Final Jeopardy.

I won the first round, and tied for first the last round, so maybe I was feeling a tad cocky. BTW, no real money changes hands.

Today’s Answer is worth $600 and the category is: Theater Lingo
The Jeopardy game answer is: To be “Born in” one of these suitcases means you’re born into an acting family.

My first instinct was to say in a trunk, but I wasn’t sure, so I passed.

Six people got it right, two got it wrong, 11, including me, passed.

What is a trunk?

Nuts, didn’t trust my instincts.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $400 and the category is: Hey, Sailor!
The Jeopardy game answer is: On September 20,1519, this Portuguese navigator headed West on a trip around the world.

Not only did I know this straight off, I knew he didn’t make it, but died in 1521. Talk about your useless trivia.

Who is Ferdinand Magellan?

There’s a five-way tie for 1st place, and I’m in a three-way tie for 7th place.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $1200 and the category is: Hey, Sailor!
The Jeopardy game answer is: He served at the Civil War Battle of New Orleans before becoming a naval hero of the Spanish-American War.

My first guess was David Farragut, who fought in the Gulf of Mexico during the Civil War. Fortunately, I wasn’t confident enough to guess, and a good thing: Farragut died in 1870, long before the 1898 war.

Who is (Admiral) George Dewey?

The leader has $1600, and I’m in a three-way tie for 6th, still with $400.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $600 and the category is: Notable Places
The Jeopardy game answer is: Two battles near this “Springs” city of upstate New York are often called the turning point of the American revolution.

This should have been a gimme for everyone, for this was only 30 miles from here!

What is Saratoga (Springs)?

The leader has $2200, and I’m in a three-way tie for 6th with $1000.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $400 and the category is: Title Role Playing
The Jeopardy game answer is: Dr. Strangelove

I have actually never seen this 1964 film – for shame! – but feel I ought to. Seen a lot of clips, though, and knew right away.

Who is Peter Sellers?

The leader has $2600, and I’m in a two-way tie for 5th with $1400.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $1200 and the category is: Title Role Playing
The Jeopardy game answer is: The Great Gatsby (2013)

Never saw the movie, but I remember reading that one actor had good roles in two films that year, the other being The Wolf of Wall Street, which I ALSO did not see.

Who is Leonardo DiCaprio?

I have $2600, still tied for 4th.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $200 and the category is: Words & Their Meanings
The Jeopardy game answer is: This is the indentation on the bottom of a wine bottle, or a kick on fourth down in football.

That’s AMERICAN football.
I think EVERYONE knew this.

What is a punt?
***

Today’s Answer is worth $600 and the category is: Words & Their Meanings
The Jeopardy game answer is: As well as a summary or account, it can mean an explosive noise, as from a rifle.

I got this straight away.

What is a report?

Leader with $4600; I’m in a three-way tie for 3rd with $3400.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $1200 and the category is: “Aire” Time
The Jeopardy game answer is: The Physiocrats, 18th Century French Economists, were in favor of this, the government staying out of economic affairs.

I wonder if “Alex” penalized for misspelling, since “aire” is in the clue?

The question to Friday’s answer was: What is Laissez-Faire?

A new leader at $4800, and I’m in a tie for 2nd with $4600.

That was the last question before the Final Jeopardy. Based on this category, we wager with the amount of money you have, but we don’t know the question.

The Final Jeopardy Category is: Annual Events

I bet it all, because the person I’m tied with will bet it all, based on previous experience.

The next day:

Your answer to this category is: Forefathers Day, December 21, celebrates the 1620 landing here.

Really? I suspect EVERYONE will get this right.

What is Plymouth Rock?

Sure enough, the winner had $9498, with me tied for second at $9200.
***
From the REAL JEOPARDY!
What’s it like to be one of the Jeopardy! clue writers?

The episode of March 12, 2015 was just awful. And very lonely for one contestant.

ABC Wednesday – Round 16

I is for iatrogenic

Unlike an adverse event, an iatrogenic effect is not always harmful.

Someone sent me this piece from an obituary: “…His demise was probably iatrogenic.” Iatrogenic was not a word I knew.

It means: “induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures: an iatrogenic rash.”

The origin of the word comes from the Greek, iatros, meaning physician, plus the English suffix -genic. The word’s first known use was in 1924.

Some of the causes of iatrogenesis include side effects of a treatment and drug interactions, which may have been unanticipatable.

Also, “unlike an adverse event, an iatrogenic effect is not always harmful. For example, a scar created by surgery is said to be iatrogenic even though it does not represent improper care and may not be troublesome.”

Still, iatrogenic disease is the 3rd most fatal “disease” in the USA, with avoidable errors such as infection, and medication errors as leading causes of mortality.

Related: the dictum “first do no harm” doesn’t exactly come from the Hippocratic Oath, but it does come from the Hippocratic Corpus, at least in essence.
***
Sam Simon has died at the age of 59; it was not iatrogenic. He was the co-creator of the hit animated show, The Simpsons. There’s a lovely article about him in Vanity Fair.

ABC Wednesday – Round 16

H is for Sgt. Henry Johnson

Buried on page 98 of the 697-page H.R.3979, the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, passed in December of 2014, it reads:

(b) HENRY JOHNSON.—
(1) WAIVER OF TIME LIMITATIONS.—Notwithstanding the time limitations specified in section 3744 of title 10, United States Code, or any other time limitation with respect to the awarding of certain medals to persons who served in the Armed Forces, the President may award the Medal of Honor under section 3741 of such title to Henry Johnson for the acts of valor during World War I described in paragraph (2).
(2) ACTS OF VALOR DESCRIBED.—The acts of valor referred to in paragraph (2) are the actions of Henry Johnson while serving as a member of Company C, 369th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, during combat operations against the enemy on the front lines of the Western Front in France on May 15, 1918, during World War I for which he was previously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Henry Johnson is the source of local pride in the Albany area. A major street is named after him in the city.

Here’s just an excerpt of Henry Johnson’s story from Smithsonian:

Henry Johnson, who stood 5-foot-4 and weighed 130 pounds, had enlisted in the all-black 15th New York National Guard Regiment, which was renamed the 369th Infantry Regiment when it shipped out to France. Poorly trained, the unit mostly performed menial labor… until it was lent to the French Fourth Army, which was short on troops. The French, less preoccupied by race than were the Americans, welcomed the men known as the Harlem Hellfighters. The Hellfighters were sent to Outpost 20 on the western edge of the Argonne Forest…and Privates Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts, from Trenton, New Jersey, were given French helmets, French weapons and enough French words to understand commands from their superiors. The two American soldiers were posted on sentry duty on the midnight-to-four a.m. shift… He and Roberts weren’t on duty long when German snipers began firing at them…

By daylight, the carnage was evident: Johnson had killed four Germans and wounded an estimated 10 to 20 more. Even after suffering 21 wounds in hand-to-hand combat, Henry Johnson had prevented the Germans from busting through the French line…

Later the entire French force in Champagne lined up to see the two Americans receive their decorations: the Croix du Guerre, France’s highest military honor. They were the first American privates to receive it. Johnson’s medal included the coveted Gold Palm, for extraordinary valor.

And from the Wikipedia:

Returning home, now Sergeant Johnson participated (with his regiment) in a victory parade on Fifth Avenue in New York City on February 1919. Sergeant Johnson was then paid to take part in a series of lecture tours. He appeared one evening in St. Louis and instead of delivering the expected tale of racial harmony in the trenches, he instead revealed the abuse black soldiers had suffered, such as white soldiers refusing to share trenches with blacks. Soon after this a warrant was issued for Johnson’s arrest for wearing his uniform beyond the prescribed date of his commission and paid lecturing engagements dried up…

Johnson died in New Lenox, Illinois at the Veterans Hospital, on July 5, 1929, penniless, estranged from his wife and family and without official recognition from the U.S. government.

In August 2014, then-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recommended that Henry Johnson finally receive the Medal of Honor. Bills were introduced in both houses of Congress, but the resolution was ultimately included in the omnibus defense bill instead.

ABC Wednesday – Round 16

G is for the Greens

NO ONE left IBM in those days, and certainly not for some likely short-term government job.

I grew up in Binghamton, which is in the Southern Tier section of New York State, not far from the Pennsylvania border. I had, and have, two sisters, Leslie Ellen Green, born about 16.5 months after my birth, and Marcia Elayne Green, born a little more than five years after me.

We grew up with our parents, Leslie Harold Green and Gertrude Elizabeth (nee Williams) Green, at 5 Gaines Street in the city’s First Ward. When I was born, my parents lived upstairs in the two-family dwelling, but soon my parents moved to the first floor, and my paternal grandparents, McKinley Green and Agatha (nee Walker) Green then lived upstairs.

The house was owned by my maternal grandmother, Gertrude (nee Yates) Williams, who lived a half dozen blocks away at 13 Maple Street with her baby sister Adenia (Deana) Yates. Our house was a small place, with a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen, and what was essentially a large hallway.

After Marcia was born, when the girls were destined to get the second bedroom, my father built a couple of walls in the hallway to create a very small bedroom for me. He painted the solar system on my ceiling.

Our mother worked at McLean’s department store downtown, first as an elevator operator, then later in the bookkeeping department. Although we were supposed to attend Oak Street Elementary School, since we went to Grandma Williams’ house for lunch, it was determined that we would instead go to Daniel Dickinson school instead. This, of course, had a profound effect on us in terms of who our childhood friends were, a surprising number of which we still are in touch with.

Our father had several jobs: truck driver, florist, painter (both artistic and sign painting). He had a job working at IBM for about six years. It was at night, and it wasn’t particularly intellectually stimulating, moving inventory on some conveyance.

When Dad quit his job to work for something called Opportunities for Broome, a project funded the US Office of Economic Opportunity, my ninth grade homework teacher, Mr. Joseph, told me that my father was crazy. NO ONE left IBM in those days, and certainly not for some likely short-term government job. Frankly, I thought it was a great decision, and time proved this to be correct.

Grandma Green died in 1964. She was one of my Sunday school teachers, and she taught me how to play the card game Canasta. I taught my Aunt Deana how to play canasta, and we also played 500 rummy and other card games; she died two years after Grandma Green. I played bid whist and pinochle with my parents.

Each of my parents was an only child. This meant that my sisters and I never had uncles, aunts, or first cousins. This makes our tribe rather small these days, with our parents deceased, and each of my sisters and I each having just one child, a daughter.