July 24 2021 - The 2020 Olympics that occurred in 2021

 

Do you find it strange to see 2020 as the year of the Olympics? How will it be referenced in the future?  Something like: The 2020 Olympics which occurred in 2021? Here's something that is interesting and unusual about the Olympics: "The wood used to make the logo is special. Turns out, during 1964 Olympics, athletes from across the world brought seeds from their countries and the wood is taken from the trees that grew from them. The wood came from 160 pines and spruces grown from seeds that came from Northern Europe, Canada and Ireland. They were constructed in the traditional Japanese woodworking style of Yosegi-Zaiku — a marquetry technique that dates back to Japan’s Edo period and uses different grains, colors and textures of wood to make mosaic designs." Here's a Foxglove today.

Jan 2 2020 - Out with the Old and In with the New

 

“Out with the old, in with the new” means to leave old things or ideas behind and start fresh with new things or ideas. People usually say this at the beginning of a new year or at the beginning of something new.   This answer comes from Quora, the website where top-ranked questions are answered by a "community."  The answers that come from this community range far and wide. I am sorry to have Quora always at the top of the answer stack.  It has figured out that Google is in the business of showing webpages that answer questions.  Quora answers questions in whatever way its "community" feels like.  So the answers can be nonsense, vicious rants, hate speech, vulgarities, unrelated ads, or factual answers.  We have to figure it all out, and Quora is in business by making sure an appropriate "answer" hits the top. I went to Marian Salzman's website HERE for her view on 2021 trends.  What is the New that will be ushered in? Let's start with the headlines of past trends: 2010:  Cellphones are the new transfats 2011 The new social is antisocial 2012 Let's get reality competitive 2013 Small is the new big 2014 Massification of organics 2015 Self everything 2016 Uneasy street 2017 Sleep as a status symbol 2018 Cryptocurrency craze 2019 Reality meets virtuality 2020 Chaos the new normal In the 2021 introduction, Salzman compares Y2K and C-19 and what the threats were/are and our responses to them.  She says our Y2K fears materialized a decade later - in 2020.   She says that we are in a different world in 2020 than we were in 1999: "More divided. More skeptical. Less willing to put aside partisan ideology in service to the greater good. Our calendars have advanced two decades, but society appears to be moving—sometimes at hyperspeed—in the opposite direction." In her annual trends report, Marian explores 11 ideas that will influence life choices and behaviours and ultimately become the next normal. Mostly these ideas feed into new product development, marketing products and investment strategies.  That's what her company does.  She always offers ideas that lead to economic advantage.  However, she includes some that are societal and political - so a broader view is also given.   It is the final sentence of the report that brings attention to this broader view.  What does she end with?  I'll show you.     Our picture of the day is my version of out with the old of 2020. It turns out to be a visual expression of her 2020 trend "Chaos the new normal".     Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 31 2020 - Profanity Comes In as the Year Goes Out

 

This year, like no other, has significance in its ending.  We have a communal hopefulness that the next year will improve.  We hope that there will be no other year like this one. So I predict, given it is the end of the year, and there's a new one ahead, that 2020 will become part of our language as profanity.  A second prediction is that Trump will become also become a profane term.  I think it is going to start quite quickly with: That's a load of 2020!  and  That's a load of Trump! And will continue with What in the 2020...? So I went searching for confirmation of my prediction and find I am a little late - it is already on public billboards big and bold.   I hadn't considered "Shut the 2020 up".   There are a series of 2020 COVID-related messages that are very funny - they are  HERE.     Three Sisters Park is in Illinois and this sign is for hire with personal messages - you can see many more on their facebook site HERE:       And what about Trump as a profane term? This idea hasn't taken off yet.   What has happened, is that the American Future Fund created an ad that displays Trump's public displays of profanity vs public policy.  They feel that he is better at the profanity and so spent six figures on the ad.   It is an aggregation of some of Trump's most notable public displays of profanity.   They include "motherf*****," "a**," "p***y," "d**n," "s***," and "f***."  So maybe the profanity expressions will be: Don't Trump around me Clean up your Trump Flush that Trump Son of a Trump I foresee a whole line of jokes, like the despicable Yo' Mama jokes.  So we might be in for quite a ride.      This flower is Fritillaria meleagris with the common name Checkered Lily.  It is very small, and I have it in the garden.  We could imagine such a flower in Alice in Wonderland's Garden.  There are fantasy hockey, baseball and  basketball rankings, so why not fantasy garden flower rankings.  Looks like the start of the 2021 intentions/resolutions.   Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 30 2020 - Garden Stories of the Year

 

There are lots of 'best of' lists in newspapers this time of year.  It's the end of the year, so looking back, summarizing, choosing the best are the standard activities.   Britain's best garden was declared for 2020 and it is Marie and Tony Newton's garden in Walsall, England.  The story and pictures are HERE.   Retired medical doctor Tony Newton and his wife Marie have nestled 3,000 plants and flowers, including 450 azaleas, 120 Japanese maples and 15 blue star junipers into a one-quarter-acre plot of land.   This aerial view demonstrates the sheer volume of plants in their plot compared to their neighbours.  That's a lot of Japanese Maples that I see.     While this story is excellent, it really can't compete with the next one:  photographer builds adorable tiny log cabins for his backyard to keep mouse families safe from cats.  The story and pictures are HERE.     A meditative moment of koi fish is our image today.   They seem to be floating somewhere - like our hope that 2020 floats away ... far away.  Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 19 2020 - Christmas Tuexdos

 

It is a great picture - wonderful lines and symmetry.  It does look more like a New Year's Eve party portrait, so started me wondering about the choice of tuxedos.   The (tuxedo) dinner jacket is credited as coming to America in 1886 by millionaire James Brown Potter and his wife Cora, who were introduced to the Prince of Wales during a trip to Britain.  Potter wore it to the Autumn Ball of a private country club in Tuxedo Park, New York. There, the American moniker of the suit was popularized.  By the 1930s, black-tie was the de facto evening wear with lulls during the war but popular thereafter. And what about the tuxedo for women? It was Marlene Dietrich. in the 1930s who effectively turned international perceptions and women’s wear in general on their heads by wearing her iconic tuxedos and white double-breasted suits into infamy. Dietrich’s public championing of the pant suit in both her professional and personal life coincided with designer Marcel Rochas creating the first ready-to-wear women’s pant suits. In 1939 Vogue published its first spread featuring women in trousers. By the forties, silver screen powerhouse Katherine Hepburn had joined the fray. With her highly publicized preference for wearing trousers on and off set she helped solidify trousers as part of everyday women’s wardrobes. In 1966 Yves Saint Laurent sealed his icon status with the release of his “Le Smoking” tuxedo. This female tuxedo was so ahead of its time that many hotels and restaurants would not permit women inside while wearing it.   And something worth highlighting:  It wasn't until 1993 that women were allowed to wear trousers on the Senate floor.   So the presidential outfits for Christmas 2020 should give rise to some social analysis.     In line with the red decor here's our winter fruit image from the ice storm a few years ago. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

2020 Vision Jokes

Trump's impeachment trial is beginning and American political behaviour is on display.  It seems that the U.S. is special in its partisanship and belligerence. So I went looking for some jokes to distract me and found an excellent joke for January and 2020: When it gets to January, I’m going to overthrow the Government! It’ll be my new year’s Revolution. There is a promise that this year will be completely filled with vision and optometry jokes.  Here they are: The first thing I’m gonna say on January 1, 2021 is... Hindsight is 2020. Finally got round to booking my laser eye surgery for the 1st January Can't wait to have 2020 vision. My friend asked me where I see myself in the new year. How would I know?  I don't have 2020 vision. So in this year of unlimited vision and optometry jokes, I seem to have reached the end of them on January 22nd.  So we'll carry on with the January theme. I celebrate 4/20 on January 5th... Because I know how to reduce fractions unlike the rest of you. My computer is in for repair needing a hard disk replacement.  So our images are coming from the Mailchimp archives.  This building in disrepair was in Cuba - a stark contrast to all those beautiful beach resorts.

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Jan 11 2020 - This Year has Numbers

2020 is an interesting year in numbers.  I went looking for combinations that will be interesting - like Feb 2nd 2020 will be 02 02 2020 and you could have time in there to be 02:02 02 02 2020 or 20:20 02 02 2020 with the twenty-four hour clock.  These are the weekend repeating dates. Sunday, February 2nd (02/02/2020) Saturday, April 4th (04/04/2020) Saturday, June 6th (06/06/2020) Saturday, August 8th (08/08/2020) Saturday, October 10th (10/10/2020) Saturday, December 12th (12/12/2020) The weekend repeating dates are listed because one seems to retrieve best wedding dates in 2020. The Guardian came to the rescue with this headline: Did you solve it? 2020 in numbers.   The article is here.  I've extracted two of the questions.  To get the answer for 3.1) you will want to visit the link as a few are presented. 2) Imagine 2020 is not a year but a rugby score, as I’ve scrawled below. This score spells out a word. Can you work out which one? Solution Wipe a tear from your eye. The word is ONION. Rotate the score by 90 degrees anticlockwise and you’ll see. The next question: 3.1) Fill in the blanks in the following ‘countdown’ equation so it makes arithmetical sense: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 = 2020 You are allowed to use any of the basic mathematical operations, +, –, x, ÷, and as many brackets as you like. An answer might look something like (10 – 9 + 8) x (7 – 6 – 5)/(4 + 3 + 2 + 1) = 2020, but not this one since the equation is incorrect. To see a lot more in numbers for 2020 by mathematician Inder J. Taneja, go HERE.  The introduction says this short work brings representations of 2020 in different situations.  These representations are of crazy-type, running numbers, single digit, single letter... Then there is a revised version.  It is HERE.  It contains the addition of this:

Jan 4 2020 - More about this year

Yesterday I found a ten year outlook.  Today I found one for 2020. This visual map is a presentation the analysis of the experts' predictions for this year.  The format comes from visualcapitalist.com in the article HERE.  The website presents all of its analysis with visual representations. Isn't the visual presentation appealing?  What does it reveal to put it all in one place? Well, I don't think it is all in one place.  There's no prediction for the U.S. presidential race.  They address this in the commentary - that no one is willing to predict this - but they left it out of the bingo card. That should be the centre square, to my mind.  The second observation is the lack of coverage of Brexit - I am wondering how it can have no impact on the U.S.  And finally, to cover only business and economic trends, as though social forces will not have business or economic influence, is ignoring what has been happening in the last few years. Putting this on a bingo card is worth commenting on as a key message of the analysis.  Bingo is a game a chance:  this is a cliff-hanger year.  Who will be the winner in bingo this year?    We turn to remarkable train layout scenes today - this is the Sundance display when it travelled to the Seattle train convention in 2012.  It now lives in Florida on permanent display.

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Jan 1 2020 - New Day Ahead

All the world's clocks have turned to the new year.  This is the day we greet everyone with special greetings and wishes for a good life in the year ahead. Then we return to our regular daily greetings.  Here are some creative daily greetings I found on a blog, along with the blog's explanations.  Yo! This funny greeting came from 90s hip-hop culture. Today, it is commonly used in America. Are you OK? / Alright mate? It is a British slang version of “Hello. How are you?” If your friend asks you one of these questions, respond “Yeah, fine”. Howdy! This weird greeting is an abbreviation of “How do you do?” widely used in some regions of Canada and America. Sup? / Whazzup? All teenagers know that this greeting is a short version of “What’s up?” When we look ahead to what to expect from 2020, what comes to mind on a leap year is the Olympics.  The Summer Olympics begin on Friday July 24 and complete on Sunday, August 9 in Tokyo. The last time Tokyo had the Olympics was 1964.  What are our pictures today?  We visited the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls yesterday, and found this new sculpture installation.  Metal walls with multi-colour leds shining on them, making rainbow lines.  It is titled Niagara Strait and is by artist Gordon Reeve.  The oak leaf is sitting on lights in the snow.

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