Marilyn's Photos - May 18 2025 - Here Comes the King

 

King Charles' visit next week on May 26-27 is being heralded as distinctive and different.  King Charles will deliver the speech from the throne.  The CBC claims the visit is unprecedented for a few reasons: - Charles, personally - the Crown - for the state of affairs in North America.  For the rest of us, we know that Washington will be watching.  I wonder what the worry over "flawless" is?  What are the things that could go wrong that would embolden the Americans? It likely has to do with "words" and "gestures."   Don't we write the Throne Speech and the King reads it?  So then we can ask:  What are the "real" messages that Mark Carney wants to send to the U.S.?  There is expected to be something about the United States in the Throne Speech that "gets picked up" in the White House. And then there is an expectation that governments all around the world will be listening and looking at the language used - word for word.   And after the Throne Speech?  There are comments the King will make outside the throne speech.   Are there now small departments in every nation whose job is to track the coded language of governments and states around the world when dealing with Trump? There's a headline on decoding Mark Carney Face during the discussion in the White House with Trump. Here's a painter's palette from the watercolour class last week.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 16 2025 - Michelin Stars

 

There's big news on the Quebec restaurant scene with 9 Michelin Star awards in Quebec.  Michelin certainly has made a business of judging restaurant quality.  They review 17,000 restaurants annually.  There are 151 three-star restaurants globally.  There are 26 Michelin-starred restaurants in Canada - 25 with one star and one restaurant with two stars.   Michelin ratings started out as a service offered by the tire company in 1889 for car owners in France - a guidebook for hotels.   Independently-reviewed restaurants were added in 1920 and stars emerged in 1926. A 3-star designation is the top level.  Even today, the Michelin Guide supposedly does not make money.  Instead, it is estimated that it "increases tire sales by 3%".  And it sells Michelin Guides - about 250,000 a year. The Guide runs events and licenses the ranking system - e.g. TripAdvisor.  And countries pay for coverage.  That's what I found out when i initially asked Pearl Morisette about "star status" - their answer was they had to pay Michelin to make the trip and do the assessment. No promise of a star for that investment.  Most restaurants have 1 star.  A star adds about 20% more traffic to the restaurant, 2 stars gets 40% more business and 3 stars gets 100% more business.  And how do the restaurants react after getting their star?  The article I read says they increased pricing to signal new status, revamped menu language to more sophisticated terms and ingredients.   Would you like to be a Michelin guide "inspector?" You would eat around 250 anonymous meals a year which Michelin calls a table test.  travel involves 150 nights in hotels, 600 total visits and 1,000 reports.  And then there are the chefs who "walk away" from their stars.  Too much work, tired of making complex multi-course menus, get back to cooking simple dishes, The full article is HERE.  A rust abstract today.

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May 15 2025 - Get the Clean up Crew over here

 

Get in the experts.  Just over two weeks ago a tractor-trailer hauling $800,000 in dimes rolled over in an accident.  Its contents spilled over the highway.  This was northwest of Dallas, Texas.  It was part of a fleet of trucks that moves cargo for the government.  Some cargo. I wondered how you pick up those 8,000,000 dimes.  Were they just loose?  Were they in rolls in boxes?  They definitely came out of the truck loose.  Check out the picture of them everywhere.    So was there now a fleet of people with metal detectors picking up dimes?  There were crews who used shovels, brooms, industrial vacuums, street sweepers, as well as picking them up by hand.  That was 14 hours of closed highway.  I wonder how long the recovery went on for? And what was the truck doing carrying "loose dimes" - doesn't that sound like they were just dumped into the truck?  Seems like that was the case.  I looked up how the Canadian Mint transports coins and I got the answer for the US:   How does the Mint distribute coins? The coins fall through a counting machine before they are dumped into bulk storage bags. All the bags are weighed and then stored until they travel to Federal Reserve Banks for distribution around the country. So we know that's a story rather than a fact.  I wondered how they decided to stop picking up the lost coins?  It is unlikely that they collected all the dimes as it rained earlier in the day with a minor flood in the town. That could become a tourist treasure hunt site.

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May 14 2025 - More "Ocracies"

 

The Globe and Mail had an article that used the term kleptocrat in relation to the U.S. president.  And the New York Times has an article on the Trump's family increased wealth since he's taken office - $3 billion in three months.   The definition of a kleptocrat is a ruler who uses political power to steal his or her country's wealth.  One can also use the spelling kleptocrat and that definition says a government official who is a thief or exploiter.  The synonyms for kleptarchy, kleptocracy, kleptocrat are thiefdom, corruption and graft.  Also a corrupt and dishonest government characterized by greed. So a kleptocracy is where the ruling elite steals national resources.  "Klepto" has a lot of variations, it seems.  If we look at kleptomaniac there are hundreds of synonyms.   Wikipedia tells me that kleptocracy is different from plutocracy - that's rule by the richest.  It is different than oligarchy - that's rule by a small elite.  The defining characteristic of kleptocracy is that corrupt politicians enrich themselves secretly outside the rule of law, through kickbacks, bribes and special favours from lobbyists and corporations.   What is notable here is that everyone knows about this -  the New Republic described the Trump family as becoming $3 billion wealthier in the first three months of the Trump presidency.  And that's just kleptocracy.  What about all the other 'ocracies'? I found an article in the Daily Kos which lists what it terms as Trumpocracy words.  So many variations of ocracy are possible - This is an ambitious article - HERE.  Here's one I've not seen in the news articles so far and this time I am predicting it will turn up: pathocracy - government by people with personality disorders.   More tulips from the TASC Tulip Farm.

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May 13 2025 - :Tulips in Niagara

 

I went to the TASC Tulip Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake yesterday.  It was vast with more than 3 million blooms of 175 varieties on 55 acres.  It is a "farm" rather than a "festival".  Watch where you step in the clay paths as they are bumpy.  Their farm previously was in Fenwick so you can imagine that they are likely doubling the number of visitors being in Niagara-on-the-Lake. There were likely a thousand people there yesterday - and that was on a Monday.   What distinguishes a tourist destination like this is that it is full of families - quite often 3 generations together.  Everyone is smiling. Flower events are perfect for our difficult political and social times.   I'll get to the Seventh and Fourth Avenue field this week - and then the tulips will all be over.  Fleeting, don't you think?

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