February is the African-American History Month.

February is the month to celebrate African-American History in the United States. Why don’t we test our knowledge of achievements and historic moments in African-American history?

1. Who was the first African-American to appear on a U.S. postage stamp?

a. Martin Luther King Jr.

b. Jackie Robinson

c. Harriet Tubman

d. Booker T. Washington

 

2. What state was the first to elect a black governor, doing so in 1989?

a. Delaware

b. Mississippi

c. Virginia

d. Washington

 

3. Which of these honors was Martin Luther King Jr. not awarded?

a. Nobel Peace Prize

b. Congressional Gold Medal

c. Presidential Medal of Freedom

d. Freedom Award

 

4. Who was the first African-American head coach in the NFL?

a. Tony Dungy

b. Fritz Pollard

c. Ray Rhodes

d. Art Shell

 

5. True or false: The first president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was white.

a. True    b. False

 

6. Who was the plaintiff in the Supreme Court decision that upheld the legal doctrine of "separate but equal?"

a. Oliver Brown

b. Homer Plessy

c. Dred Scott

d. Theodore S. Wright

 

7. Who was the first African-American to win a gold medal at the Olympics?

William DeHart Hubbard

a.   William DeHart Hubbard

b.   Jesse Owens

c.   George Poage

d.   John Taylor

 

8. In what city did the National Guard try to prevent nine black students from attending a segregated school in 1957?

a. Oxford, Miss.

b. Columbia, S.C.

c. Little Rock, Ark.

d. Tuscaloosa, Ala.

 

9. How many African-Americans have served in the United States Senate since it first convened in 1789?

a. 6     b. 27     c. 81     d. 112

 

10. Juneteenth, which became an official federal holiday in 2021, commemorates this:

a. The emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the U.S.

b. The service of black troops in the U.S. Army during the Civil War.

c. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively ended 'separate but equal' education.

d. The signing into law of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

 

Answer Keys

    1.  d. Booker T. Washington

    2.  c. Virginia

    3.  d. Freedom Award

    4.  b. Fritz Pollard (Head Coach of the Akron Pros in 1921)

    5.  a. True(Moorfield Storey)

    6.  b. Homer Plessy (Plessy v. Ferguson)

    7.  d. John Taylor (1908 Men's Medley Relay)

    8.  c. Little Rock, Ark.

    9.  a. 6

    10.  a. The emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the U.S. The name comes from the June 19, 1865 date when federal troops arrived in Texas after the Civil War and proclaimed that the state's slaves were free.

 

 

(*source from https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/02/07/quiz-celebrating-african-american-history-month and https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-10-2011/black-history-trivia-quiz.html#quest1 )

Time to play the latest Sunday Puzzle from NPR!

Here’s another fun word puzzle to play from NPR this Sunday. I'm going to give you some categories in two words. You name something in each category starting with each initial in the category. Any answer that works is fine.

 

Example: Zoo Animals --> Zebra, Aardvark

1. Greek Letters

2. Roulette Bets

3. Orchard Fruits

4. Ford Models

5. Computer Languages

6. Annual Prizes

7. Salad Ingredients

8. [triple:] Comic Book Heroes

 

Answer Keys

    1.  Gamma, Lambda

    2.  Red, Black

    3.  Orange, Fig

    4.  Fiesta, Model T or Mustang

    5.  C+, Linux

    6.  Academy, Pulitzer

    7.  Spinach, Iceberg lettuce or Italian dressing

    8.  Cat woman (or Captain America) , batman (or black panther), Hulk

Dr. Jedidiah's Diary Episode #80: Gerel, the Light like a Strong Candle in the Wind

Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary

Dr. Jedidiah is a psychiatrist who loves traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures as a single father who lost his perky self for the last decade. During those hard years, he has met hundreds of, thousands of people from various walks of life around all over the world. Meeting new people and listening to their  ones through the formal encounter groups or being truly honest with himself. Here is Dr. Jedidiah’s monologue that has left him with some food for thoughts in life…. or a fodder to justify his own mistakes in the past.

 

Episode #80. Gerel, the Light like a Strong Candle in the Wind

It was around the winter solstice when I met Gerel. I had been working as a volunteer shrink for those with mental illness in collaboration with the local artists in the inner city of South Side of Chicago. Since it had always been my goal in life to reach out to some hidden, marginalized, and ignored group of people in the shadow of our society, the brutally cold winter in bitter neighborhood did not ever seem to deter me from going all out in our project of Saving and Savoring the Neighborhood. My counterpart artist in the project was such a quiet woman named Gerel, which she said referred to “light” in Mongolian.

 

 

Albeit she was silent most of the time of our preps and discussions for helping out the needy folks in the ghetto, her paintings and graffiti exhibited inside our temporary clinic were telling how deeply she was involved in this project. Every single piece of her painting depicts this city as a nightmare of small people shedding dark colored tears to be shown through the big or small crevice in the walls of huge skyscrapers. I could hear and see Gerel shouting for help and begging for love even in her abstract artworks. Each time we met up, she would only say a few words, if any. “We should be their elytra. The vulnerable and displaced people from their home need some protection.” I thought over and again what she meant to say and came to realize that we could start small by becoming the needy folks’ protective covers through our own presence to raise and be their voice even in that so-called grand scheme of their city’s gentrification, which would make it clearly displayed between the two strikingly different worlds of the haves and the have-nots.

 

Gerel’s paintings and graffiti showed the day-to-day microaggression that befell the existing neighborhood in that poverty-stricken area and emphasized their pain inside with the big Tsunami of city developing going at full throttle. Beside one of Gerel’s artwork was placed a short piece of poem written by a mother under depression that I’d counseled for half a year there.

 

Until the Day Comes

by Ginger Brown

 

My baby doesn’t cry

‘cause I always hush her.

One day I came to learn

my baby never asked me why.

I looked at my little girl and said I was proud of her

waiting for her to say a word in return.

But I saw her eyes not shiny but dry;

 ‘Who killed my baby?” I yelled in anger,

Finding myself against the grim look of cold wall so stern.

Stop looking at me awry;

I pray the day will occur

When my baby in me is finally seen for you to discern.

 

 

  

Expressions

    1.  in collaboration with…: to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor        

    2.  inner city: the area near the center of a city, especially when associated with social and economic problems

    3.   to deter somebody from doing something: to turn aside, discourage, or prevent from acting   

    4.  to go all out: to make every possible effort

    5.  elytra: plural form of elytron, which is one of the pair of hardened forewings of certain insects, as beetles, forming a protective covering for the posterior or flight wings.

    6.  in the grand scheme of something: in the overall/ larger scheme of things

    7.   gentrification: a process in which a poor area (as of a city) experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses and which often results in an increase in property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents

    8.  the haves and the have-nots: people who are rich and the ones who have little money and few possessions

    9.   microaggression: a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority)

   10. to befall somebody: to happen to somebody

   11. at full throttle: at full speed

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

In the throes of die-hard pandemic, we all need to savor and feel sweetness in life. Today, let us fill in the given to complete each and every Ice Cream flavor!

    1.  A___ m___nd   ___udge (2 words)

 

    2.  Butter Br___ ___ ckle (2 words)

 

    3.  Butter ____ ecan (2 words)

 

    4.  Cho___ ___ ___ ate Sun___ ___y (2 words)

 

    5.  C___ ___ f___ e (1 word)

 

    6.  ___ ___ tton  C___ ___ndy (2 words)

 

    7.  Cookies N C___ ___ ___ m (2 words)

 

    8.  M ___ ___ ___ e  T___ ___ cks (2 words)

 

    9.  Pu___p ___ in (1 word)

 

   10. Sp___ ___o___i (1word)

 

   11. So___ ___ et (1 word)

 

   12. St___ ___ wb___rry (1word)

 

   13.   ___ anil___a (1 word)

 

   14. M ___ ___t Chip (2 words)

   

   15.  Bl___ ___ k Ch___r___y (2 words)

 

   16. Ma___ ___d___mia Nuts (2 words)

 

 

Answer Keys

    1.  Almond Fudge

    2.  Butter Brickle

    3.  Butter Pecan

    4.  Chocolate Sunday

    5.  Coffee

    6.  Cotton Candy

    7.  Cookies N Cream

    8.  Moose Tracks

    9.  Pumpkin

   10. Spumoni

   11.  Sorbet

   12. Strawberry

   13. Vanilla

   14. Mint Chip

   15.  Black Cherry 

   16. Macadamia Nuts

Time to play the Sunday Puzzle from NPR! Rearrange each word with the letter C in the middle!

Today's puzzle is called "Middle C" — as in a midpoint on a piano. I'll give you a four-letter word. You rearrange the letters and put a C in the middle to make a common five-letter word.

 Example: OVAL --> VOCAL

 

1. SOUL

 

2. FATE

 

3. LUNE

 

4. BONA

 

5. RUIN

 

6. ROAM

 

7. LOAF

 

8. [two answers:] RULE

 

Answer Keys

    1.  locus

    2.  facet

    3.  uncle

    4.  bacon

    5.  incur

    6.  macro

    7.  local

    8.  ulcer or lucre

Dr. Jedidiah's Diary Episode# 79. Rana, the Moonwalk Dancer that MJ Should Have Met

 Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary

Dr. Jedidiah is a psychiatrist who loves traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures as a single father who lost his perky self for the last decade. During those hard years, he has met hundreds of, thousands of people from various walks of life around all over the world. Meeting new people and listening to their  ones through the formal encounter groups or being truly honest with himself. Here is Dr. Jedidiah’s monologue that has left him with some food for thoughts in life…. or a fodder to justify his own mistakes in the past.

Episode 79. Rana, the Moonwalk Dancer that MJ Should Have Met 

My son looked a bit flabbergasted and seemed to find it hard to hold his giggle back when he heard me saying to friend Rana that she was so charming. Well, actually I didn’t mean it when I said that to her. I thought she might need some therapy if she had been getting around wearing such thick makeup and chintzy leather jacket that must have been found in a salvation army store. When she left, my son asked me if I really thought she looked pretty, and I gave him the “I-just-said-it-to-be-polite” kind of look and said that I hoped to see her dancing the MJ’s signature Moonwalk move. It didn’t take so long before I was lucky to have a chance to rethink about that interesting girl. At my son’s school talent show, I found myself awestruck by her skookum performance of MJ’s Moonwalk dance and couldn’t help but join all other parents, teachers, and students for shouting out her name “Rana! Rana!” as if I were cantillating words from the Bible when she was done with her show. She rocked the school auditorium just like the real MJ did at the show for celebrating the 25th anniversary of Motown back in 1983. Rana’s Moonwalk moves were just out of this world!

Rana was raised by a single mom who was always struggling to make ends meet and hustling night and day from the first work place to the second and the third. So had been Rana as well. She worked at a local dance studio as a part-time cashier at week nights and sold donuts and cookies at school cafeteria during her lunch hour. My son was close to Rana and her mom, so whenever they had some financial problems, I had been of small help for her family. Each time my son brought them a bunch of edible gifts, Rana’s mother deeply appreciate what they were given for free. My son said to me one day “Dad, I wish Rana would feel a bit closer to us, but it looks like she’s not interested in me or quite appreciative of your kindness. Have we been making a mistake or happening to make them feel too small?” Well, I somewhat agreed to what he said, but still wanted to share what we had with Rana and her hardworking mom so that Rana would be reaching her goal with fewer problems or worries about tomorrow. I wanted Rana to be more confident with her dance moves at every audition even in such a shabby knockoff leather jacket. She was too young to wintle over and give up her dreams even before the time had come for her to show what she’d been honing and perfecting all by herself in the corner of her cramped house. 

The Christmas eve was very cold that year. My son and I were more nervous and stoked than Rana that night at the Showtime at the Apollo in Harlem. My son and I kept our fingers crossed, hoping that Rana would never going to be dragged off stage by the heartless Sandman. Contrary to our mind-boggling concerns, Rana flaunted her MJ’s Moonwalk moves so smoothly with flying colors! When her performance was over, the entire audience sprang out of their seats, giving Rana a tremendously huge round of applause and yelled “Sandman! Do not even think about coming on stage!” My son zoomed in on Rana’s flushed cheeks with his camera and said “Dad, look how far she is from me now! Am I still wondering around her orbit?” I smiled at my son and told him that he and Rana are at the point of Perilune by now. I might have sound so weird to my son, but I could tell he was totally moonstruck. 

* Listen to Dr. J's favorite song sung by Christopher Cross "Arthur's Theme":

https://youtu.be/qqGWOxu_H4I uploaded by ok4602002 

 Expressions 

1. flabbergasted: greatly surprised

2. chintzy: cheap or flimsy

3. skookum: strong and impressive

4. to cantillate: to chant or intone (a passage of religious text

5.. to rock (the house): to cause ean audience to be very enthusiastic about a performance

6. out of this world: extremely enjoyable and impressive

7. to hustle: to work very hard

8. knockoff:  a copy or imitation, especially of an expensive or designer product

9. to wintle: to stagger/ to tumble over/ to reel

10. to be stoked (about…): to be very excited about something

11. Sandman (at the Showtime at the Apollo): Sandman was a legend of the Apollo Theater, chasing the bad acts off the stage after crowds boo'ed their performance

12. To flaunt: to display (something) ostentatiously, especially in order to provoke envy or admiration or to show defiance

13. Perilune: the point in the path of a body orbiting the moon that is nearest to the center of the moon

14. moonstruck: unable to think or act normally, especially because of being in love

The first Word Puzzle from NPR!!

Time to enjoy the new year’s first batch of word puzzle from NPR! I'm going to give you two words. Drop one letter in each of them to leave two new words that are in the same category of things.

Ex. DRILL STAGE --> dill & sage (both herbs)

picture source:  https://www.teacherswithapps.com/app_reviews-niki-words/

   

    1.   MARKS VENUES

 

.   2.   BRED VIOLENT

 

    3.   SCORN BERET

 

    4.   PREACH BANDANA

 

    5.   BLUSH CHARTER

 

    6.   CINDER LARGER

 

 

Answer Keys

    1.  Mars & Venus (category: planet

    2.  Red & Violet (category: color)

    3.  Corn and Beet (category: vegetable)

    4.  Peach & Banana (category: fruit)

    5.  Bush & Carter (category: former US president)

    6.  Cider & Lager (category: alcoholic beverage)

Dr. Jedidiah's Diary Episode #78: My long-lost love about to be rekindled

Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary

Dr. Jedidiah is a psychiatrist who loves traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures as a single father who lost his perky self for the last decade. During those hard years, he has met hundreds of, thousands of people from various walks of life around all over the world. Meeting new people and listening to their stories outside his office have given him different feelings from the ones through the formal encounter groups or being truly honest with himself. Here is Dr. Jedidiah’s monologue that has left him with some food for thoughts in life…. or a fodder to justify his own mistakes in the past.

 

Episode #78. My long-lost love about to be rekindled 

That was the first time I saw Alicia gussied up from head to toe. She looked like a princess that stepped out of a fairy tale, waving her hands back to hundreds of people in line to see her and sing a paean to her blinding beauty. Her charming smile was such a perfect finishing touch to Alicia’s dolled-up style. She looked at me and said “I’d like to forget about my interminable suffering at home tonight. Do I look ready to enjoy the party?” Of course, she did. Actually, I was more excited than she was like a little kid cavorting and doing the angel dance in the first snow in the midst of long hiemal boredom. Although I knew she was wearing a home-made dress which was patched up with some ragged cloth thrown away in the back of the salvation army store, my eyes were glued to her shiny look. My love for her was billowing like a cloud!   

 

She was my high school sweetheart long time ago when the soft and mellow feelings of my teen years would become inspissated by our friendship. Alicia was always a smarty student who would head up assignments or projects at school and never cared about the new fashion style in the mall or any new release movies in the theatre. The only place she’d spend hours in town was the corner book store where she was able to make money as a part-time clerk and read as many books as she wanted at the same time. Over the weekend, she worked as a volunteer in the salvation army store where I willingly applied for the available volunteer spot to be with Alicia. Quite often times, she found a warm sweater or a nice pair of blue denim pants for her ailing brother and jobless mother in the dusty piles of donated clothes. Then she’d say to herself “Devil’s own luck!”, giving me a mischievous grin. I loved the way she led her life as a good high schooler, but I would see deep sorrow or frustration in her eyes now and then.

 

In every class we took together at school, she was the one with the most critical and challenging questions for teachers or important points to discuss with classmates. However, outside of classrooms, she became a girl with few words though. I wished to share her burden in any ways I could even though we were both high school kids, but Alicia would push me away by saying “You are more like my brother than my real one. Thanks, dude. But you don’t understand my situation. I need to study hard and get admitted into a top tier college, not just for myself, ….but for the sake of the future of my thoughtless mother and poor younger brother as well. I don’t have time to think about my own joy and fun. Don’t wanna encumber your mind with worries about me. You know what I mean…” I felt bad, seeing her sigh wistfully from time to time. Asking her out for a snack or even for a study meet-up after school was not thinkable.

 

Ten years had passed since we graduated from high school, and I happened to hear about Alicia from our mutual friend Ted in our high school reunion. “I saw Alicia in New York last Summer. My wife and I went to see a Broadway play, and I dropped the pamphlet when I saw Alicia on the first page. She became a musical director. Such a bookworm who never seemed to enjoy a tune or dance back in high school became a musical director!!! Can you believe it?!!” Doubting my own ears, I found myself hurrying out the party. I became the excited high school kid again who was in love with a quiet, nerdy girl head over hills on that prom night. I said to myself with her contact numbers in my hand, ‘Devil’s own luck! Hey, Alicia, I don’t wanna encumber you with my own troubles, but….now it’s your turn to help me end this interminable hardship and loneliness in life!’

 

Expressions

1.  to be gussied up: to be dressed up/ to be embellished

    2.  a paean (to …): a song of praise

    3.   to get dolled up: make oneself attractive with makeup and fancy or stylish clothes She got (all) dolled up for the party.

    4.  interminable: never-ending

    5.  to cavort: to jump or dance around excitedly

    6.  hiemal: of/related to winter

    7.  to inspissate…: to thicken/ congeal

    8.  to head up …: to lead…

    9.  devil’s own luck: extremely good luck

   10. to encumber someone with something: to weigh someone down with physical/ physiological burden

   11. wistfully: with a feeling of vague or regretful longing