Peace and Plenty

I was born too late to be really crazy about the Beatles. When teenage girls were screaming and fainting over the Fab Four, I was learning to spell my name and tie my shoes. I remember reading about John Lennon and Yoko Ono staging a “bed-in” in Amsterdam and another one later in Montreal. It’s an interesting idea; camping in a hotel room to protest a war. It might be worth trying if the room service was good. What I remember best about Lennon is his music. He wrote many of my favorite Beatles songs: The Long and Winding Road, Let It Be, Penny Lane, Hey Jude, Yesterday, and All You Need is Love. John Lennon was shot thirty years ago today by an obsessed fan who had recently acquired his autograph. I may not have been nuts about the Beatles, but I still felt a sense of loss.

Aloha Star

The USS Utah was a Florida-class battleship launched December 23, 1909. She was the only ship of the US Navy to carry the name Utah. Through most of World War I she was an engineering and gunnery training ship in Chesapeake Bay. In 1941 the USS Utah had been recently refitted and rearmed and was again serving as a training vessel in Pearl Harbor. She was one of the first casualties of the attack on Pearl Harbor; sunk by a torpedo at 8:01 exactly seventy years ago this morning. December 7th, 1941 was a Sunday. Many people think the Japanese chose this particular time and date because the Americans would likely be sleeping in or at least a little less alert. Most of the men onboard the USS Utah escaped with their lives, but six officers and fifty-two crewmen did not. Someday I’d like to take a trip to Honolulu to pay my respects in person.

Mother's Own

Today is my mother’s birthday. I am prodigiously proud of her. She married the man who would become my father, knowing she would eventually be his caregiver and his widow. She helped Daddy earn his PhD while raising toddlers. For years she has served selflessly in many church callings. She found time to earn a college degree and a teaching certificate with teenagers underfoot. She was one of the best elementary school teachers I’ve ever met. Every week she conducts the hymns in her church, she babysits my grandson, and she serves as a hospital volunteer. She patiently encouraged me to take quilting classes with her, in spite of my claims that I’d never be good at “that sort of thing.” She was always supportive of my endeavors, no matter how crazy they were. Thank you, Mother. And happy birthday!

Temperance

The temperance movement in the United States has been around since the mid-1800's. The people promoting it were concerned primarily with the crime and violence that excessive intoxication brings. The Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1919, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, transportation or importation of “intoxicating liquors.” It was a difficult law to enforce. The harder it was for people to get booze, the more they seemed to want it, and the more bootleggers were willing to risk to get it to them. Organized crime made a big profit, and their escalating turf wars actually increased violence in many cities. Prohibition was repealed on December 5, 1933 with the 21st Amendment. Many people today point to the “Noble Experiment” as a grand failure. But it did engender a sort of social reform. Americans do still drink. But drinking to excess is not accepted or tolerated the way it used to be. We have one of the world’s lowest drinking rates, and 37 percent of us don’t drink at all.

Hearth and Home

Sometimes I think we go on vacations so we’ll appreciate our homes more. I know it’s why people go camping. There’s nothing like a night in a tent for making you cherish your own bed. In a few weeks we’ll leave the place we’ve called home for nearly three years. It’ll be at least another two months before our furniture catches up with us and we can settle down again. Today, on Roof Over Your Head Day, I’m thinking of the things I’ll miss most about this house. Like so many English homes, it’s built of stone. That means I can’t make a cell phone call indoors, but it also means it’s quiet in here even when the neighbours set off fireworks. I love my gas stove, stainless steel sink, and marble counters. I’ll really miss the clean, quiet radiators and the on-demand water heater.

Nine-Patch Heart

The University of Utah had been trying to design a permanent artificial heart since 1967. The chief problem was getting blood where it needed to go without crushing the delicate red blood cells and causing life-threatening clots. On December 2, 1982 Dr. William DeVries implanted an artificial heart into Dr. Barney Clark, a retired dentist. Dr. Clark lived 112 days after the procedure, dying on March 23, 1983. The device that kept him alive for one more Christmas, one more New Year’s, and one more Valentine’s Day was named the Jarvik 7 after a student at the University, Dr. Robert Jarvik. What most people don’t know (but I find absolutely fascinating) is that Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger in Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh, also had a hand in this event. A medical student and inventor as well as an entertainer, Winchell designed a seamless ventricle which he patented and later donated to the University of Utah.

Hidden Star

On this day in 1887 Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print. His debut case was called A Study in Scarlet. The story revolves around a man and a girl who are stranded in the western American wilderness. They are rescued by Mormon pioneers who force them to adopt their religion and to marry within the faith. I think it’s sad that an educated and otherwise open-minded man like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle felt comfortable writing about the LDS religion and people when he knew so little about them. If his audience hadn’t been equally ignorant and frightened of the Mormons, he might have been less successful as a writer. And that would have been a pity, because the world might never have known the famous literary detective who taught us, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”