Marilyn's Photos - Jan 20 2026 - Catch the Falling Chainsaw

 

I saw this expression for the first time yesterday.  It was in the business section of the Globe and Mail.  And the sentence was:  No one wants to catch the falling chainsaw that is the American dollar. "Catching the falling chainsaw" is a metaphor used in financial news to describe the high-risk action of buying an asset (specifically the U.S. dollar in January 2026) that is rapidly declining in value. Look how fast AI got to work to take the quote out of the Globe and Mail.  It doesn’t  want to do any real work, like telling me the actual origin of the phrase.  It is willing to say it started as catching the falling knife and was recorded in literature in 1919, so a common phrase by then.  Where it really originates is lost in the buzz about its relationship to the financial markets and buying and selling strategies. And then the Chainsaw Massacre movie. While looking for the origin of the falling knife, I came upon a website with the origins for many common expressions/idioms.  The site is HERE.  Here’s one I found very amusing. How did sirloin come about as a name for a cut of steak? “Once upon a time, some king came upon an inn and was served beef not quite like he'd ever eaten before. He was also drinking alot with this meal and after a while (being a bit drunk) he pulled out his sword and knighted the meat "Sir Loin."  And so in today's society a good sir loin steak is sold in the fine restaurants only fit for kings! Or...the word smiths feel that it really comes from the word 'surlonge' in French which means beef just above the loin.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be so creative to make up an origin like this! What might falling knife jokes look like?  I found this one: A technical analyst and a fundamental analyst are in the kitchen. The technician knocks a knife off the table, and it lands in the fundamental analyst's foot. The fundamental analyst asks, "Why didn't you catch the knife?" The technician replies, "You know technicians don't catch falling knives!" So the technical analyst replies, "Why didn't you move your foot?" The fundamental analyst answers, "I didn't think it could go that low". This picture comes from a Toronto back lane, and I guess some gasoline had been spilled, making a little rainbow line against the asphalt.

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Marilyn's Photos - Jan 28 2026 - Backpedaling

 

t is a political expression or behaviour. I guess there is so much of it now, that it seems to be getting my attention.  “To retreat from a previously held position, opinion, or commitment.  We can mentally see the origins - to pedal backwards on a bicycle.” The expression came about in the 1880s during the “global bicycle craze.”  It stayed with bicycling until the mid-20th century.   Before that it was “misspeaking.”  And a synonym  is backtracking. There was lots of that in the past, too. And what happened in the 1950s to make this a common behaviour? The marker that is given was U.S. politicians during the 1950s McCarthy era where his accusations “grew more outlandish” and they had to reverse their stances. There was the famous Richard Nixon’s Checkers Speech in 1952 where he backpedaled from a scandal for maintaining a secret political fund. It turns out that McCarthy backpedaled on the anti-communist witch hunts.  Adlai Stevenson backpedaled when it was revealed to have a private expense fund, and George Wallace reversed his position and turned towards a hardline segregationist rhetoric - that’s a strange example to me. There’s an American bias in google retrievals so that’s what comes up in the searches because of our proximity to the U.S. There are unlimited examples in other countries.  It seems odd that Wikipedia doesn’t have an entry for the greatest back[pedals in history.   The jokes are all about sports backpedaling - especially football.  But here are a few lines in the humorous range: I'm not changing my mind; I'm just adjusting my direction I stand by my statement, which is why I’m currently walking away from it My favourite exercise is backpedaling on my promises "Don't look back unless it's hilarious I’m just here to back your bad decisions... then immediately backpedal on them And what about this example? Here’s a collage of a Sea Grape leaf so that it looks like flowing silk.

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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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