James Amos

Sometimes Names are Hard

I was listening to John Heim aka Big Mo on the Big Mo Blues Show (radio KCCK 88.3) last night and he was talking about this time of year, calling it “Indian summer.” He second-guessed himself about calling it that and even wondered aloud whether it might be “politically incorrect.” Sometimes names are hard.

All of my life I’ve know that this time of year, which can be pretty warm and dry for autumn, has been called Indian summer.

Honestly, I have never given any thought to the term “Indian summer.” I looked into it and it turns out that the term can be offensive to Native Americans (indigenous peoples). One article pointed out that the American Meteorological Society removed the phrase from its official glossary in October 2020.

That was an eye opener for me. It also jogged my memory. I remember hearing about the name for the opposite time of year in North America when I was working as a land surveyor’s assistant and drafter for consulting engineers when I was a young man. It’s called Blackberry winter. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, it’s the time of year when there is a brief period of cold weather in the late spring about the time blackberries are in bloom.

It turns out there are a few other names for the season in which certain flowers bloom during the cold snap, like Locust winter and Dogwood winter.

Alternative names for Indian summer have been proposed; one of them is simply late summer or “Second summer.”

I guess Second summer is okay, although I wonder if we could come up with something snazzier and analogous to Blackberry winter. There are some flowers that bloom during that time of year. How about?

Marigold summer

Zinnia summer

Sunflower summer

I got these ideas from a web article entitled “Indian Summer Flowers; Summer Season Flowers in India.” I realize the meaning of the word “Indian” in this article refers to the country of India, which highlights another complexity of names. On the other hand, marigolds are the flowers a lot of people plant in their gardens in North America.

I also found a web site which calls the Black-Eyed Susan, “Indian Summer Black Eyed Susan.” This one didn’t connect the flower to India. I guess you couldn’t apply the same rule above to rename it to something like Marigold Summer Black-Eyed Susan—too confusing.

So, just call it a Black-Eyed Susan and leave it at that. Sometimes names are hard—which makes us think a little harder about the names we choose.

Heard it on the Big Mo Blues Show

I heard John Heim aka Big Mo on the blues show tonight on KCCK radio 88.3 and he actually spelled the name of MayRee, the name of the cook who makes that good hand-battered catfish; it’s better because it’s battered and so the legend goes.

I knew a cook a long time ago in Austin, Texas, her name was Miss Mack. She ran the student cafeteria at Huston-Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in Austin, Texas way back in the 1970s. It’s one of the country’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). And it’s one of the oldest.

Some students made fun of Miss Mack’s food. Some were brave enough to eat it. I was one of them, but I did make a Church’s Chicken run occasionally. Church’s Chicken was a fast food joint that got started in San Antonio, Texas in the early 1950s.

I also heard this old number by Eric Clapton, Going Down to the Crossroads.

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Jim and the 3 Ball Flash

Well, just a few days after picking up a kit on how to juggle, complete with 3 juggling balls, I’ve now graduated to the 3 Ball Flash, which I can more or less do consistently—or at least more times than not.

The 3 Ball Flash is to toss and catch 3 balls. You hold two balls in your right hand (or left depending on hand preference) and one ball in your left. You toss one ball in your right hand first over to your left hand. You toss the ball in your left hand over to your right after the first one hits the apex of its arch. Then you toss the second ball in your right hand and catch it in your left so you end up with two balls in your left hand. It’s one, two, three.

If you can do it without dropping balls, the teachers tell you to pat yourself on the back because it’s a big milestone.

You’ll notice in the YouTube video that I make a lot of beginner mistakes. The chief one is that I’m often doing what the author of the juggling manual calls “sprint juggling.” This means that I tend to toss way out in front of me and I end up chasing balls.

There’s this thing called the juggle space in which you’re supposed to toss the balls within a fairly tight space fairly close to your body. The idea is to imagine a sheet of glass in front of you. The bottom two corners are your two hands; the top is in a line just above your head.

When I toss the balls within the frame (which isn’t often!), it’s much easier to toss and catch the balls. What you’ll see me do in the video is the basic 3 Ball Flash, but I sneak in an extra throw or two occasionally—when I feel lucky.

John Heim aka Big Mo a Really Nice Guy

As many of you know, I often listen to ‘da Friday Blues show on KCCK radio broadcast out of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Last Friday, he told listeners his email address and invited fans to get in touch with him. I can’t remember ever hearing any KCCK radio show host make that invitation.

So, I did. I sent him a message last Friday night telling him how much I appreciate his show, the Big Mo Blues Show. It airs fantastic blues music every Friday night starting at 6:00 PM.

John actually got back to me yesterday. We both got a big kick out of the whole thing. I’ve never done anything like cold-calling or emailing a celebrity—because that’s what John is. We shared some memories and really got a charge out of that. He’s a great guy.

And he runs a great show. So, give a listen to John Heim aka Big Mo every Friday night on KCCK 88.3 FM in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. You can listen on internet radio if you’re not in the area.

And if you like Big Mo’s show, let him know, bigmo@kcck.org.

Learning to Juggle!

I’m learning to juggle—sort of. I bought a kit for juggling at Barnes and Noble the other day. It came with a manual, Learning to Juggle, and 3 juggling balls. The manual is published by Sterling Innovation in New York. So far, I can sort of juggle 2 balls. I don’t know when or if I’ll ever learn how to juggle 3 balls.

It was tough to find any juggling balls in stores. Some experts on YouTube recommended starting off juggling socks or hacky sack balls. The trouble with rolled up socks is that every time I threw and caught them, they tended to change shape just from my grabbing them. They quickly got flattened.

I couldn’t find any hacky sack balls except at Scheels. They were selling single hacky sack balls for $8 a ball.

I actually got started by trying to juggle with dryer balls. They were bouncy and could smart when they hit my hand—or my head.

Juggling is a great workout when you’re just learning because you spend so much time running after dropped balls. One expert suggests juggling over a bed or couch because they don’t drop so far. That sort of works.

It’s fun and absorbing. You can learn a lot about it from YouTube videos. It takes a lot of practice, although the author of the juggling manual says some people pick it up in a half-hour.

That’s funny, just about all I pick up most of the time are the balls I drop.

Part of my motivation to learn juggling is to also build on my one leg balance skill. For the last couple of months or so since my “Balancing Act” post, I’ve been working on my ankle wobble. I can now stand on either leg for 60 seconds.

I can barely “juggle” on one leg. I have a long way to go.

Time to Remove the Worm Gear Clamp

The critter cam didn’t capture any activity last night. So, I did the next thing—I removed the worm gear clamp from the grate. It has been undisturbed for over a week now. The last event was on October 8,2022, when the big rocks on top of the grate were shoved around.

It’s getting pretty cold. It’s in the mid-twenties this morning. Maybe that’s inhibiting whatever’s out there. I didn’t see any poop, but Sena saw a pile yesterday which looked pretty much the same as the first one. It was in about the same location. This is likely from a dog.

Let’s see what happens.

Me and the Deer Caught in the Critter Cam Lights

I reset the mode of our critter cam to shoot both pictures and videos yesterday. One viewer suggested I walk around our yard as a check to see how this works. I did get up and traipse around this chilly morning shortly after 6:00 AM, took pictures of bright objects in the night sky (funny how celestial bodies can induce a sense of lost time…), and listened to an owl hoot and a dog bark.

The drain tile grate was still undisturbed. It was dark but I didn’t step in any poop; I checked my shoes. The specimen I shoveled up the other day was probably just dog poop.

Also, we caught some deer trotting through the yard as well. The video and pictures look pretty good. You can see the garden grasses blowing in what was probably a 14 mph wind out of the northwest.

That’s more like it. I set it for video mode only and we’ll see what happens tonight. You may want to turn up the volume on your audio speakers to hear the sounds in the video below.

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Attack of the Giant Fried Rubber Chicken Livers!

Have you ever wondered if anyone ever made a movie about an attack on planet earth by fried rubber chicken livers? Boy, am I glad I’m not the only one. I suppose I could check the MeTV channel to see if any such film was ever aired by Svengoolie.

What do you mean you never heard of Svengoolie?

I used to watch Svengoolie a long time ago. It’s this guy called Svengoolie, played by Rich Koz, who hosts really awful horror movies. I could watch them for about 10 minutes before I had to switch to something which wouldn’t bore me or make me gag—which I realize often can’t be done nowadays.

Svengoolie would make corny jokes and get rubber chickens thrown at him. That was actually the best part of the show.

Part of what made me think about this was reminiscing about the early 1970s when I lived at the YMCA and worked for a consulting engineer company called WHKS & Co.

You got a single sleeping room at the YMCA and there was no kitchen. Frankly, it was for old guys who had no place else to go and for young guys trying to find out how to go somewhere else.

I ate in cafes a lot. I also picked up a lot of Kentucky Fried Chicken take out. I realize it’s called KFC nowadays. But back in the 1970s you could openly buy a box of fried chicken livers as a side dish at KFC. I think I began eating them because they’re actually a pretty healthy food item if you prepare them right. You could get a generous serving of them. They were occasionally a little tough to chew—a little on the rubbery side.

You can’t get any franchise owners to admit they sell them now. You’ll see web articles that mention you can still get them at what they call certain “regional” stores. You can also maybe still get KFC chicken gizzards. Neither is on any official menu.

The connection here is fried tough chicken livers and bad old horror movies hosted by Svengoolie who makes corny jokes and dodges rubber chickens. I can easily imagine somebody making a throwback classic B Horror movie called “Attack of the Giant Fried Rubber Chicken Livers.”

Wouldn’t that be great?

Try watching Svengoolie sometime. You might not like the movie, but you’ll get a big kick out of Svengoolie.