Father of Six

The Worthington’s of West Centennial.

This photograph of Boomer sitting on our snowmobile sums up how cool it was to go to Winter Park and take a guided, 2 hour ride through trails and trees near the Continental Divide.

We started a new winter tradition two Sundays before Christmas in 2007.

The idea is to have each guest create an open face sandwich and name their tasty and visually appealing food item.

The Smørrebrød (originally smør og brød, meaning “butter and bread”) is a Danish word for the sandwich, and I’ve read that is an art form there.

This year’s guest list included me, Tami, Nana, Brittany, Mark, Danielle, Eric M., Amanda, Howie, Mary Becca, Andrew and Boomer.

Not that we were having a contest, but I decided that the too most “tasty and visually appealing food items” were done by Becca and Brittany.

Becca’s (pictured here) was named “The Chocolate Havarti Beef.” It was made of a slice of buttered and toasted potato bread, ranch dressing, roast beef, Havarti cheese, lettuce, dill pickles, and Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

Brit’s (pictured next) was named the “Silverware Downstairs.” It was made from a slice of buttered and toasted pumpernickel bread, sliced avocado, sliced boiled potato, slice apples, almond slivers, red and orange bell peppers, cucumber, radishes, pepperjack cheese, and Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

On a bitterly cold and snowy night, we all had a creative and tasty time.

This post is prompted by a wonderful Christmas gift given by The Worthington’s (currently) of Lexington.

William the Conqueror (French: Guillaume le Conquérant), was Duke of Normandy from 1035 and King of England from 1066 to his death. William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of (mostly) Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings.

William is often derogatorily referred to as “The Bastard” because of the illegitimacy of his birth. I like to think that persons of Anglo-Saxon descent feel he earned the moniker of “The Bastard” as a result of his illegitimacy in claiming the English throne.

The Domesday Book was the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William (the Conquering Bastard.) The survey was similar to a census by a government of today. While spending Christmas of 1085 in Gloucester, William “had deep speech with his counselors and sent men all over England to each shire … to find out … what or how much each landholder had in land and livestock, and what it was worth.”

This desire to take a census was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of historical yearly writings in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The documents were started late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great (849-889, king of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex.) Multiple manuscript copies were made and distributed to monasteries across England and were independently updated. In one case, the chronicle was still being actively updated in 1154.

Understand that in the 11th century (1000-1099,) the English language we know today wasn’t spoken. The language was Anglo-Saxon, a Germanic dialect, or Old English, an early form of the English language that was spoken and written between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. In either case, the language of 1066 was a West Germanic language, with heavy influence from Old Norse, a member of the related North Germanic group of languages.

The name we have today, Worthington, was first recorded as a village as documented in the Domesday Book (1086) as “Werditone” and probably derives from the family name of “Werden”, or a man called “Weorth”, and is most likely to have been an Anglo Saxon settlement. This village still exists today, in the county of Leicestershire.

By contrast, the next recorded reference is in the county Lancashire. The earliest recorded use of the name “Worthington” in Lancashire was in 1212, where it was found that “WORTHINGTON was held of the lord of Manchester by the service of half a knight’s fee, Thomas de Worthington being the immediate tenant.” I interpret this to mean that a Lord of Manchester had lands in Lancashire, where a certain Thomas, being a knight, paid a tenants fee to make his residence there. Thomas was originally from Worthington.

We’ve already established that some 125 years earlier, the source of our name (Werditone, Leicestershire) was recorded. Secondly, the French usage – “de” to describe that Thomas is from “Worthington” bothers me. Having established my previous Anglo-Saxon heritage prejudice about the French Bastard William should explain my dislike of this “de” usage. During the Middle Ages, when migration for the purpose of job-seeking was becoming more common, people often used their former village name as a means of identification. So if my name was Thomas, and I came from the village of Worthington, I’d introduce myself as Thomas of Worthington. If you used “de” instead, I think you could be accused of being a Francophile.

Finally, what we have as proof is this: The origin of our name is recorded in Leicestershire, which appeared as “Werditone” in the Domesday Book of 1086. In Lancashire, the name is recorded as some form of “Worthinton”, in the Curia Rolls of 1212.

The derivative for both places is the same, that is, from the Old English pre-7th Century byname “Wureth”, or “Weorth,” , both being a derivative of “worth”, meaning enclosure, and the Old English “-tun”, meaning settlement. Since the history our little village in Leicestershire is mostly that of a rural farming community, I like to think that our name really means “farm-in-town.”

The Coat of Arms or Family Crest and Motto associated with the name is a topic for another lecture. I’m relatively satisfied with the particular rendition given here.

Hello everyone.

A quick update.

Thanksgiving was nice. We went to Tim and Jeanne’s and had a wonderful afternoon. We missed Amanda as she was in Nebraska with her boyfriend and his family. (Ugh. Lame Bug-eaters.)

Tami and I are headed to San Jose this afternoon for an organizational off-site at the Seascape Resort in Aptos, California. It’s a nice little perk.

Anyone interested in College Football? If you are, you might know that there is still more controversy with the BCS. The system is flawed, and it seems that every year, yet another problem is uncovered. That is a process that needs an improvement and a mistake proofing focus. At any rate, it has allowed my beloved Oklahoma Sooners to play for the Big 12 Championship (against Booger Daniel and the Missouri Tigers.) BOOMER SOONER!

My new job is everything I expected it to be. I love going to work every day. And I love leading people to do their absolute best.

If I could ever find the time to spend some quality time with my brother Paul, I could not only catch up had have a great conversation about careers, strengths, and friends, but I could really make some much needed enhancements to this blog. (Like a “twitter” widget, for one.) Maybe over the Winter Holidays?

Everyone who reads me on Facebook, I really enjoy the interaction. It is so interesting to be plugged in to this age at what it offers.

I hope to give this blog a renewed energy in the coming weeks, or at least by the first of the new year, so thanks for being patient.