Marilyn's Photos - Feb 5 2026 - Top Dog

 

It makes sense to me that Top Dog the expression is thought to originate in the 19th century in dog fighting where the winning dog ends up on top of the losing dog.  It isn’t a great designation to be given, to my mind.  It implies fscrappy fighting, intense fighting and bitter combat.  Supposedly it carries a positive connotation today - that’s according to AI - with the claim that it celebrates success and achievement rather than aggression or violence. I say “claim” with skepticism of AI - it gives no sources for its information.  There’s one place where Top Dog is a wonderful designation - at Westminster Dog Show.  What a beautiful Doberman pinscher Penny is.  She seems as smart as her handler to me.  I think of Westminster as a British name/place.  It turns out the American Kennel Association named the show after a hotel bar where its founders met.  And is it more popular than the British Show - the Crufts Dog Show? I guessed so as I hear about the Westminster Show every year and only now learn about Crufts.  But let’s find out. The Crufts Show is considered the top dog show in size, international scope and status - as it is the world’s largest dog show. The U.S. Show is considered the “premier, elite and historic show in the U.S.”  This sounds like babble-speak to me.  Crufts has the Guinness World Record for the largest dog show - over 24,000 dogs from 44+ countries and 150,000 visitors. It has over 8.7 million TV viewership.  Westminster has 1,200 dogs from the U.S. plus 17 countries with over 2 million viewers.  So I guess the numbers would have Crufts as the Top Dog Show. And could anything top the dog show?  I think so. Remember the coronation?  The Cavaliers were the Dog of the Day. Perhaps this picture of a store front in Santa Fe might describe the mood of both of these Dog Shows.  A Big Grin and fun by all.

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Mairlyn's Photos - Feb 4 2026 - Billy Bob vs Bilbo

 

Billy Bob. This is a common, informal American male name that symbolizes a “good ol’ boy” archetype.   William Robert seems have the opposite effect - stilted, formal and associated with royal and noble lineages - makes one think of Britain. I wondered if Bilbo - the name of the protagonist in The Hobbit - was a shortened version of Bill and Bob (William and Robert).  That isn’t the case.  It is a “fantasy” name. Articles give reference to the Spanish word bilbo which is a type of rapier/sword from Bilbao, and to the Old English word bil means sword or tool. We can go to the source: Tolkien stated the name was of unknown meaning and that these were names based on sound symbolism and invented languages. I looked at a family tree of the Bagginses of Hobbiton and most of the names are fantasy names to me: Berylla, Mungo, Fastolph, Bungo, Belba, Rudigar, Longo, Otho, Lotho, and so on.  There is quite a study of the names in this academic paper HERE.   I include the link as it is so seldom now that I actually retrieve research papers on a topic. The paper is very interesting and explains the aspect of sound symbolism:  “…high front vowels indicating light (gleam, glimmer, glitter) and back vowels indicating darkness (gloom).”  I would expect that there are papers on the Hobit names and what they evoke in sound symbolism. And then we return to Billy Bob. This too seems to have sound symbolism.  The name gives the sense of rustic, unsophisticated, rural, and uneducated. So there we are with Billy Bob Thornton, accomplished actor, singer, songwriter, born William Robert Thornton, and as an actor using a rustic first name(s).  What a different presence would have been given by WIlliam Robert Thornton. But Billy Bob makes more sense when one looks at his biography. His father’s name was Billy Ray, according to Wikipedia, and he grew up in a shack in Arkansas with no electricity or plumbing. Take that along with the characters he has portrayed, and there’s some logic to it. No fantasy name there. I wonder when we will figure out Dolphin language.  There’s a job that would keep AI busy for a while.

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Marilyn's Photos - Feb 3 2026 - Go-Bag

 

I don’t think that Wilie has a go-bag.  He’s going back to sleep for a few weeks until '“early Spring” pops up.  Phil, on the other hand, says winter is staying longer.  I saw the phrase go-bag this morning in the New York Times and had to look it up.  That would be because the effects of 911 in the U.S. were profound and there was a rush to get disaster preparedness kits for the next terrorist attack.  The U.S. remains traumatized 25 years later and a go-bag became normalized and part of everyday life. The survival kit originated as the “grab bag” and “bug-out bag” used in U.S. military and survivalist contexts.  FEMA, the American Red Cross and local fire departments promoted the phrase to get individuals to prepare for disasters and terrorist attacks.  So it is 25 years later - it isn’t terrorists invading the U.S. but floods, snowstorms and fires that will cause the terror.  Who would guess the terror lies “within.”  Go-bags have been around so long now that there are quite a few jokes: -My go-bag is so organized, it has a separate compartment for my existential dread. I finally created a “go-bag.”  It’s just a bag with a big bag of chips and a note that says “good luck.” And here’s the AI-inspired introduction to the jokes: Packing for the apocalypse (or just a really bad Tuesday) is stressful, so here are a few jokes to carry along with your dehydrated beef jerky. This picture is the result from yesterday’s Monday morning watercolour class.  The background is created with salt on watercolour. I am sure you will see a few more of these pictures - salt on coloured water is magic. I then scanned the picture so I could complete the black floral foreground in Photoshop.  Photoshop is very forgiving - you can erase things with the stroke of a “control x”.  You can imagine that watercolours don’t work that way. Next week, I take up the challenge of completing the actual watercolour picture - this time with watercolour paint.

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Marilyn's PHotos - Feb 2 2026 - Groundhog Day

 

How does Phil “seeing” his shadow work?  If it is cloudy today, no shadow will appear, so by default spring arrives sooner.  We don’t really need Phil if the sun doesn’t come out today. Then the “see shadow” scenario is based on whether he looks around.   How do we know he has looked around and has a shadow encounter?  Then the story goes that when he doesn’t see his shadow, he stays outside.  For how long? What does he do? No answers there.  It made me think of “walk into a bar” jokes, as somehow Phil might appreciate a notable conclusion to his dutiful day. It seems odd that we are excited about Phil in Canada. This forecast doesn’t hold much risk or reward for us. Six more weeks means spring comes mid-March.  That seems fine. We’ve been known to get snow into April.  The two standouts are: 20 cm in 2016 and 25 cm in 1979 - for the month of April. Last year had its own record - more snow in April than in March.    So Groundhog Day is something to distract us for a few minutes. And how would Phil’s day conclude if he was in a “walk into a bar” joke. Here’s one that references the movie:   “Was it the day before or the day before that that a groundhog walked into a bar and said…” More walk into a Bar hokes are HERE with all kinds of them - enough for everyone. “Two friends are walking their dogs together. One has a big black lab, while the other has a minuscule chihuahua. They pass a bar and the lab owner says, "Let's get a beer." The chihuahua walker complains, "That would be great, but we can't take our dogs in there." The first responds, "Watch me." The lab owner strolls in with her dog and orders a beer. The bartender tells her, "Sorry, you can't bring your dog in here." "He's my seeing eye dog," the woman replies feigning offense. The bartender quickly apologizes and serves her the beer. The other woman follows, her chihuahua in tow, and orders a beer as well. Again the bartender says there are no dogs allowed in the bar. "He's my seeing eye dog," the woman replies. "Yeah, right,” the bartender says, “A chihuahua? Give me a break." Without missing a beat, the woman replies, "They gave me a chihuahua?” February is an excellent month to celebrate roses.

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Marilyn's Photos - Feb 1 2026 - Escape to Alcatraz

 

There’s a recent story of a coyote who swam across the San Francisco Bay to Alcatraz.  That’s about a mile of swimming in cold water.  This is the first time anyone has seen this happen.  The swim was captured on video and scientists are monitoring the animal now.  There is no fresh water on the island, but lots of birds - it is a bird sanctuary and a national park so there is also public access to the park which raises concerns about “Floyd” as he’s been named.  They will decide whether he should stay or be relocated.  I hope they don’t make him swim back to San Francisco. We are a bit berserk about coyotes so we don’t need to go far to find a coyote joke. Foxes and coyotes are quite different.  Foxes are known to be curious and friendly. This picture is from 2023 when we had six fox puppies on Lynnwood and Sunnylea (our street).  They would come over and call Baxter our cat out to play. Here’s a picture of 5 of them at the intersection of Lynnwood and Sunnylea. They look like they are just “fooling around.”

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