Marilyn's Photos - Aug 25 2026 - Ask the young, upwardly mobile professionals at Wirecutte

 

finally thought it was time to find out about "The young, upwardly mobile professionals at Wirecutter."  There is a product review each day in the New York Times referencing Wirecutter.  It turns out the New York Times owns the review service. It does testing and research to recommend the best products.  What might their most famous review be?  It is their guide to the best umbrellas.  And the next is the air purifier - the Coway Airmega Mighty at $319.00 (I assume U.S.).  This is the second most long-running review.  That has been going on for a decade.  The reviews are known for being in-depth, long-form testing guides.  The choices are narrowed to one or two best picks, rather than a list.  The one name we all would recognize in the consumer product review field is Consumer Reports.  This is a non-profit organization, and it buys and tests everything anonymously with its own funds.  It focuses on things like cars, appliances and other physical goods.  Wirecutter earns most of its revenue from affiliate marketing - that means including links to its recommendations. The story goes that the staff who write the reviews are not informed about what the commissions are.  Also these are distinct organizations with a a separation between the news and wirecutter organizations.  That would be needed because of commercial advertisers might want to influence decisions.   There are 3,000 product picks each year, and somehow Wirecutter is famous for its review of this vanilla-looking box - the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier.   Here are two examples of black in nature - leaves of a Calocasia, or black elephant ears and black tomatoes.   Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 24 2026 - Who is the Luckiest of us all?

 

I wonder if there is some sort of tracking of the "luckiest person in the world."  It continues to be Croatian music teacher Frane Selak.  He survived multiple catastrophic near-death experiences and also won a million dollars in a lottery in 2003.  Luckiest is tracked, but second luckiest?  Not so important.  The person that does come up is Tsutomu Yamaguchi.  He is the Japanese engineer who survived the bombing in Hiroshima and then in Nagasaki. He is the official double-survivor.   There's Joan Ginther a former math professor from Texas who won the lottery four times for a total of $20 million. I consider this the only happy luck story. And remember Vesna Vulovic who survived a fall of over 33,000 feet after the plane broke apart mid-air in 1972.  There's no tracking of  "happy story" luckiest person or for the person with the most happy luck.  I guess that would be Joan Ginther.  We focus on people who have survived death as a version of lucky.  An American park ranger who has been struck by lightning seven times, or a Nigerian ship cook who survived for three days in an air pocket 100 feet underwater after his tugboat capsized.  The strangeness of the circumstances compels us to follow these stories.  OK - here is a good story.  Lena Påhlsson: A Swedish woman who lost her wedding ring in her garden, only to find it 16 years later miraculously wrapped around the root of a homegrown carrot.  The definition of luck? Maybe I should have started there -  the Oxford Dictionary says that luck is success or failure brought on by chance, or the force that causes good and bad things to happen to people outside of their own control, skill, or effort.   What about the record for winning the lottery the most times?  Stefan Mandel has 14 documented wins and he uses a mathematical algorithm to buy every possible number combination when jackpots grew larger than the total cost of tickets. That's definitely not about luck... I randomly selected a picture and got this great Painted Lady portrait.  Visit Grimsby Beach! Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 23 2026 - Spritzing to Sprinkles

 

It was spritzing earlier but it has turned to sprinkles and trending to drizzles.  Spritz is not a formal meteorological term, just informal.  Sprinkles is - very light, scattered drops that fall in small amounts.  Moving onto drizzles, they are very tiny, fine water drops smaller than 0.5 mm that seem to float in the air.  I think we're going to miss the floaty stuff, and move on to showers - rain that starts and stops quickly and changes in strength.   There are no forecasts of a downpour - a sudden very heavy rush of water that falls fast.  What we had in Niagara 2 weeks ago is called torrential rain (deluge) and is extreme, heavy rain that can cause floods very quickly. What about the phenomenon known as Virga:  precipitation begins as snow or rain from the base of clouds.  But it passes through a thick layer of warm, dry air, which causes the precipitation to evaporate before it reaches the ground.  It is also called phantom rain or a dry storm.  This is more common in arid western climates.  They look like jellyfish - so the common name is often jellyfish clouds.   It looks like a 9 to 5 day of rain in Grimsby and then all clear.   Here's a happy cloud sky in Niagara around this time of year.  I haven't found any Sunflower fields like this one so far.  They get gobbled up by the great harvesting machines. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 22 2026 - Onwards to Non-consumerism

 

I wonder what the list of things too expensive to buy is going to be.  Will we retaliate product to product?  OK, I don't need any hockey sticks, and we've already done without U.S. alcohol.   According to the CBC the next in line is the electronics sector. I guess we would suffer if we decide to retaliate there.  Us older people have been through harsh consumer times in the 1970s inflation era when if you wanted to buy something there was urgency to do it quickly before the next shipment of whatever it was came in with a whopping price increase.  That was a long time ago, and I wonder how many will remember the experience.  Could this harsh time be like the 1930s Depression era?  That isn't the prediction so far.   So what things should we stock up on before the tariff tsunami hits?  The list of things that will receive the new U.S. tariffs has been  thoroughly analyzed in the build-up to the deadline.  The general consensus is that this is a strange list of things.  There are three main themes:  motor vehicles, dairy and alcohol.   Probably don't worry about the organization of the lists, worry about the $28 billion worth of goods that the 50% applies to  5% of Canada's exports to the U.S.  In the tit for tat world, will we see tariffs on the following? The dairy proclamation/order: Milk and cream Whey and milk protein concentrates, including casein Bones and horn-cones Lactose, glucose, fructose and blended syrups Sugars, cane molasses Non-alcoholic beer Essential oils of peppermint The alcohol proclamation/order: Beer, wine, liquor, cider and other fermented beverages Essential oils of grapefruit Densified wood blocks, plates, strips Some wooden tableware Wood marquetry and inlaid wood, wooden articles of furniture Skewers and ice cream sticks, as well as bamboo products Basketwork and other articles Grease-proof paper Ice hockey and field hockey equipment, other than balls and skates The motor vehicles and broad proclamation/order: Natural honey Down feathers Tortoise shell, whalebone, horns, antlers and other animal parts Tulips and other dormant flower buds, live orchids and mushroom spawn, tubers, mosses and lichen Vegetable, tree and shrub seeds A range of other vegetation and parts Perfumes containing alcohol and plant parts used in perfume Various essential oils Makeup preparations Doughs and other bakers’ mixes Bitters Synthetic paints and varnishes, printer inks Cements Candles Various fatty acids Vinyl floor tiles Non-plastic office supplies Plastic furniture fittings Household and toilet articles, tableware, kitchenware Dog leashes and saddles Luggage and other cases, such as for musical instruments Various fibreboard, laminate and plywood sheets Various paper, wallpaper, binders, paper pulp products Silk, yarn, carpet and other various textiles T-shirts, sweaters, trousers, dresses, gloves, coats and other clothing items of various materials Wigs, false beards, eyebrows of synthetic textile materials Glass packing materials Non-industrial diamonds, not set Various gold, silver and imitation jewelry A range of power tools and equipment Armoured safes, locks and lockboxes Brewery machinery Refrigerating or freezing furniture and equipment Vacuums Smartphones and other recording devices Devices containing semiconductors for data transmission and storage Cameras and projectors Radar equipment and antennae, optical fibre cables Motorcycles fitted with an engine capacity of 800 cc or greater Floating docks, vessels and rafts Furniture seats and parts made of wood, plastic and metal with a range of outlined uses and exemptions Chandeliers and lamps Toys, puzzles and models Video game consoles Christmas and other festival decorations Ice skates, golf and gym equipment Swimming pools, wading pools and parts Fishing rods and parts Paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures of various ages Postage stamps and other collectors’ pieces Antiques of an age exceeding 100 years but not exceeding 250 years This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2026. The Canadian Press Isn't that such a list!  There has been much analysis on what it all is about. One thing that won't likely happen is a retaliation of the sorts of accusations and false claims that have become part orf U.S. rhetoric. We should brace for an escalation - maybe that is the tsunami to prepare for.   Here's a water bog planting of carnivorous pitcher plants at Laura Grant's garden. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 20 2026 - Surprise Me Travel

 

Did you know that there's a travel site that takes you on a surprise vacation? The site is srprs.me   We'll take you wherever you're meant to go Stop control-freaking your trip. Just sit back, relax and let us arrange everything. Select a specific theme or put together your own city break. Only accommodations rated 8 or higher will make the final and, of course, you’ll fly with a safe airline. Take the leap and discover your mystery holiday to destination unknown! FLIGHT TRIPROAD TRIPROCKET TRIP Here's the rocket trip option: THIS IS GOING TO BE A PHENOMENAL RIDE We cannot wait for the day that we'll take you on a srprs.trip to space. We have our top engineers working day and night on the srprs.rocket and we have already successfully sent a pork sausage into the stratosphere. So we feel we're getting close. So leave us your email address and we'll keep you updated on our progress, and maybe chuck in some special editions trips and special offers too. Here's another option:  Bucket List - you share your bucket list, we'll make sure you can cross a city off.  From 360 pounds. (We're in the U.K.) How many people have taken srprs trips?  It says the number is over 120,000 people. The global surprise trip planning market reached $1.42 billion U.S. in 2024.   Isn't it so interesting.  At one end of the spectrum is the control approach with a bucket list where things must get checked off regularly. At the other end is the spontaneous and surprising with little control.  We're at the end of August, so if a vacation is on your horizon, you might consider the surprise approach. What about this approach?  Go to Sugar Beach in Toronto and spin the dial.  What if you get Big Brother is watching you. Then you are already there. Sit down and have an espresso. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com