Marilyn's Photos - Jan 26 2026 - There goes the Nexus pass

 

Remember how the song went?   It’s true! It’s true! The crown has made it clear.  The climate must be perfect all the year” This is particularly poignant today - I remember this line: “And there’s a legal limit to the snow here In Camelot.” I saw a Nexus headine and had an “aha” moment. Wasn’t it grand when we could go to the U.S. and back with a special card and just sail through customs.  Like Camelot.  And now? Having to choose M or F for gender is a Canadian Charter issue.  We include X gender on passports, so a clear risk for travellers with Nexus cards. Cards can be immediately revoked for infractions, and now there are restricted renewal options.   Our Federal government, back in September, advised X passport holders that they would be required to select M or F for Nexus renewals.  There are 100,000 people in Canada who identify as non-binary or transgender, .33% of the population.  (In the U.S. it is 1.6% of the population and 5% of 18 to 29 year-olds).  Did you ever have to unravel a knotted rope? It takes a long time.  I just now getting the sense of how many knots there are.  It seems very complicated. And so Camelot plays out with this Reprise: Each evening, from December to December, Before you drift to sleep upon your cot, Think back on all the tales that you remember Of Camelot. Ask ev'ry person if he's heard the story, And tell it strong and clear if he has not, That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory Called Camelot. Camelot! Camelot!  Now say it out with pride and joy! Camelot! Camelot! Where once it never rained till after sundown, By eight a.m. the morning fog had flown. Don't let it be forgot That once there was a spot For one brief shining moment that was known As Camelot. We got snow overnight.  Lots of it.  It is coming down lightly and will taper off. Below?  A lovely Cuba resort scene from quite a while ago.

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Marilyn's Photos - Jan 25 2026 - One for All

 

Our new Community Centre had a opening ceremony and celebration day yesterday and the facilities are open on Monday.  The hockey rink remained while the rest of the building was demolished and rebuilt to today’s standards and types of facilities for a wider set of uses. Its name used to be the Peach King Centre, and now with the addition of a sponsor it is MRPKC - Major Refrigeration Peach King Centre - I’m proposing we call it Mr. Pik.  Other proposed names include “the Fridge.” Probably will remain the Peach King Centre to the public.   Like the Skydome, I expect. The area that will be under intense discussion is the “upgraded” dressing rooms.  What I saw was one big room with a number of small rooms all around it and low lockers in the centre.  The small rooms were specific: change rooms, shower rooms, and washrooms/toilets.  The reason for the approach is being more inclusive.   The reason for the lockers to be low is to have a “line of sight” for safety. That’s disconcerting for half of the population, don’t you think? I had already heard disparaging remarks about this approach.  Checking out the reviews of this kind of set-up proves very interesting.  There are Reddit threads with experiences from Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium and other countries.   I expect this will be a conversation for a long time with no renovations to come.  This appears to be the trend in locker rooms. Unlike the Shaw Festival when it built the new theatre in 1973 and failed to account for the large proportion of women in the audience.  The washrooms had to be enlarged within a few years.  I’ll be at MPK on Monday.  That does depend on the weather which is just about to strike.  Is it freezing rain followed by snow, or snow followed by freezing rain? Here’s a perfect picture for today - the Canadian flag bravely flying in a snow storm, at Charles Daley Park on Lake Ontario. Good metaphor.

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Marilyn's Photos - Jan 24 2026 - The World Map Round

 

Let’s look at things differently.  Which map gives us a better sense of the world’s roundness.  Since we are in the Northern Hemisphere, we’ll start with the North Pole.    It is hard to even find Denmark compared to Greenland.  And isn’t it difficult to get an orientation?  We think of the world as a vertical North American image - more like the one below.  Aren’t we always in the centre of the world picture! What I notice is how close-by all the countries are.  And 4 million people live in the Arctic Region - that’s the dotted blue line.  Of those only 400,000 - 500,000 people are Indigenous.  And then look at the map as a shipping route with China involved.  That’s the third map.   What a surprise to have to be looking at the world globe from other people’s perspectives.  It is true isn’t it.  We see a flat map with us far away from the Russians and Chinese.  Oh well.  Today’s perspective on the world map: “So I put a giant map of the world up on the wall and gave my wife a dart. I told her wherever it lands is where we go on holiday. I guess we're spending three weeks behind the fridge. Here’s one of my images my iMAC retrieved with the input of the word “map.” It looks like a map, doesn’t it? I don’t think I’ve ever keyworded an image I’ve created with “map.”  I expect there’s AI lurking and working in my computer that I haven’t yet accessed to deactivate. I may have thought I turned off all the Apple Intelligence that I could, but I notice that there are settings in Siri I hadn’t thought of.  Here is the AppleSpeak for the benefits: “These features are designed to enhance productivity, writing, and photo management, with a focus on on-device processing and privacy. “ This map looks like the continents are rejoining together.

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Marilyn's Photos - Jan 23 2026 - Humans Love a Storm

 

It is national news in the U.S. with its broad sweep across the country.  It is being called a “generational” storm by CBC. It is a “stretched polar vortex” and has an “atmospheric river” of moisture.  It is like a buffet of weather.  It has everything -  snow, and ice and sleet.   The PBS article has some numbers:  the number of snowplows owned by the city of Jackson, Mississippi - 0.  The 4 U.S. hub airports in the path of the storm. There are 12 beet juice-dispensing trucks in Chicago - the natural sugars of beet juice lower the freezing point of water, allowing salt mixtures to work at lower temperatures and prevent refreezing. There were lots of numbers in the article.  The number that got my attention? It is expected to have a windchill value of 50 below zero in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota. Did you know that Ontario is experiencing a salt shortage?  It started to hit the news a week ago.   It has been caused by an early winter and more extreme weather.   And how will we do here in the Golden Horseshoe? The Weather Channel says that the northern edge of that “monster” U.S. storm will “graze” southern Ontario on Sunday.  We get Lake effects, so that be a “wish” to only have a grazing effect given the prediction: “Depending on how the winds align over Lake Ontario, these snow squalls could target Toronto and surrounding areas for several hours before the main event.” What did Richard III say when the snowstorm stranded him several miles from his campsite? Now is the winter of our distant tent. This is from a few ears ago - these are the outdoor benches at the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls. I predict they will look like this on Sunday.

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Marilyn's Photos - Jan 22 2026 - Middle Poer

 

It was just yesterday that I paid attention to “middle power.” That’s what Mark Carney says we are in Canada. Wikipedia tells me that it is a state that is not a superpower or a great power, but still exerts influence and plays a significant role in international relations.  We’ve regularly heard about superpowers  - the U.S., Russia and China. Now I see that the U.S. has been assigned the distinction of  hyperpower,.  It is also still listed as a superpower in first position.  China is 2, Russia is 3, UK is 4 and German 5.   What is a hyperpower?  A state that dominates all other states in every key sphere of activity - military, economic, technological and cultural influence. No significant international action can be taken without considering its position.   So what will us middle powers do now that the hyperpower has gone rogue? It looks like we have to do a lot of things, not just a few.   The Carnegie Institute put out an article on January 20th - the same day as Carney’s speech - on what middle powers should do.  What caught my attention is that a middle power should have the orientation towards the collective good rather than only operating on self-interests. That’s a difficult position in this time when populations see their politicians as being responsible for making things individually better for them.  We sure hope that Mark Carney can lead the effort needed for Canada.  The Carnegie article HERE concludes with a sobering set of concerns, steps forward that are needed, and a faint sense of optimism that the UN Charter will hold.   For now, analysis like this from the Carnegie Endowment is safe - the institution is privately funded so won’t be defunded.  That doesn’t exclude being silenced through active investigations and legal actions.  But we can conclude with that famous Carnegie name with its famous Carnegie joke: Pedestrian:  How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Musician;  Practice, practice, practice. And this variation from Demetri Martin:  I wish I lived next to Carnegie Hall.  Then, if someone asked me how to get to my house, I would say “Practice, practice, practice, and then take a left” Isn’t this a cute house?  It is on Murray Street in Grimsby and seems like a perfect 1930s-1950s house to give us a sense of how great the times gone by were.

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