July 4 2022 - The Longest Weekend

 

There are long weekends and then there are the longest weekends - this past July 1st weekend seemed to go on extra days.  And people are still celebrating today on the Monday.   That's known as a four-day bridge weekend.  In countries where Monday is the first day of the week on the calendar, a long weekend is often known as an oval weekend - you have to draw an oval to reach around the days rather than a circle.   What about next year?  It's on the Saturday - so which day will be the off of work day?   In 2024 it is on Monday and in 2025 on Tuesday.  Those years are simpler and Tuesday would mean a four-day bridge weekend again.   What I've noticed is that in both Canada and the US, the holiday has a number of protests.   In Canada we had the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa on July 1st.  That made non-news, being a heavily policed and ticketed event so was orderly.   There were no updates after the warnings in the early morning of the 1st.   Today is the U.S. holiday and the big protest is over the loss of abortion rights.  This is going to get lots of  coverage.  That is additional to the anti-Black racism and indigenous activities protests on this day every year, so a lot is going on this year.  I wondered how many protests there would be in the U.S.  There were no numbers  or  statistics on the CNN website.  Not very good coverage in my view, and I've started to think that CNN has sort-of articles in order to present the extensive gallery below full of click bait advertisements for Empty Alaska cruise Cabins, Stars you probably didn't know were twins, New seniors apartments coming to Grimsby (looks like Colorado ski lodge houses to me).  I did notice how many of these gallery headlines were travel-related - it is a fever in our consciousness now:  Here are the highlights:   Put your luggage in the hotel bathtub tip  - Snopes says TRUE mostly.  But you won't find out by going through  30 pages  that mention nothing about luggage. Snopes research gives the reason:  bedbugs.  And the technique is for those who are fearful of bedbugs rather than a precaution for all.  You are supposed to search the room for signs of bedbugs and then bring the luggage in if it is all clear.  (Yuk!) And why would we put coins in the bathroom sink?  To stop the sink in order to fill it up to wash clothes.  (Travelling too light? Another Yuk} And then always put a towel under the hotel door.   To keep out noise and light (perhaps a college graduation party hotel). These are like silly jokes that I could never guess the punchline for.   And they are superior to hotel jokes which turn out to be repetitively the same 5  sexist, racist, and lewd jokes.   There should be a joke that starts:  What does Jesus, a photon and an American Indian have in common?  They all show up in horrible hotel jokes.  On to the beauties of summer. These are roses in the Bakker's growing field. This year there is a field  on Seventh Street just south of the QEW exit.   Can you imagine how many plants are growing here?  They will all disappear in the fall -  dug up as bare root plants and off to new gardens in the spring sales.

June 28 - What's in a name - Canada Day

Celebrating Canada Day 2020 is different.  We are allowed to have private fireworks.  How many people can join together to enjoy them?  Not too many. We have our federated nature that creates distinctions for its celebration.  Even Wikipedia says: "There doesn't seem to be a central recipe for how to celebrate it—chalk it up to the nature of the federation." What else does Wikipedia say?  Canada Day is the anniversary of one important national milestone on the way to the country's full independence, namely the joining on July 1, 1867, of the colonies of Canada (Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a wider British federation of four provinces."   I would revise that: in 1867 it became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain and a federation of four provinces.  That word 'dominion' has been strong for a long time.   Canada Day was celebrated as Dominion Day for a long time.  We might remember when Dominion Day became a Canada-wide celebration day - that was Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's doing in 1958.   In 1967 we began giving grants and aid to cities across the country to fund celebrations for the big centenary celebrations.   But it was still Dominion Day.  It took some failed attempts and then a private member's bill in the early 1980s to get the official change to Canada Day.  That seems so unifying.   We do remain a federation with noticeable regional differences, and almost a million First Nations people in 634 communities (who are likely not about to celebrate July 1st). Back to 2020, the celebrations are virtual this year. This is what Ottawatourism says on how to get the most out of your Canada Day 2020, no matter where you are: Celebrate within your social bubble at home and by downloading a free Celebration Kit; Watch the Canada Day Daytime Show (link is external) at 1:00 p.m. and Canada Day Evening Show (link is external) at 8:00 p.m. featuring special guests and Canadian artists; If you’re in Ottawa, consider visiting an outdoor patio (contact venues directly to confirm they’re open on Canada Day), or get out and explore the outdoors on foot or by bike; Enjoy virtual fireworks (link is external) at 10:00 p.m. our picture today shows what is  abundant in Niagara right now.  Roses, roses!  This is the corner of Gregory Road North and the North Service Road in St. Catharines - and one of this year's Bakker's rose growing fields.  Can you imagine living in this house?  The scent would be a life experience - the tourism ads might be:  Come to Niagara for the smell!

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://www.blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

On the Street Where You Live

There seem to be two kinds of ant jokes - those that start with ant, and those that conclude with ant.  How many jokes could there be with words that start with ant? There are almost 5,000 words. In comparison there are only 533 words that end with ant.  These seem to be the funniest jokes. The pavement ants seem to have concluded their nest-cleaning activity as there are little bits of ant rubbish on the driveway.  My street is a very quiet one so I can sweep the grass edging without any worries of any cars - careening or even creeping on my street.   Did you know that the busiest road in the world is Highway 401?  It carries 420,000 vehicles per day.  Remember our Niagara Falls statistics of 13,000,000 million visitors - they might make a contribution to the load. We can find out the busiest intersections in the world.  Here's the list - look how many US intersections there,  and even 2 in Canada.  I can't imagine this is on someone's bucket list - but it has to be with 7.5 billion people and various bucket lists. Place Charles de Gaulle- Paris, France The “Magic Roundabout” - Swindon, UK Nanpu Bridge Interchange - Shanghai, China Porta Maggiore - Rome, Italy Knight St and SE Marine Dr, Vancouver, Canada “The Plough” - Hemel Hempstead, UK The “Beijing Intersection” - Beijing, China Spaghetti Junction - Atlanta, USA Spaghetti Junction - Birmingham, UK Armdale Rotary - Halifax Flamingo Road and Pines Boulevard - Pembroke Pines, US Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar I-95, I-287, NJ 440, and CR 514 Intersection - Edison, US Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange - Los Angeles, USA Kathipara Junction - Chennai, India Times Square - New York, USA Meskel Square - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Ha Noi Intersection- Hanoi, Vietnam Shibuya Crossing - Tokyo, Japan You can see a picture of each intersection HERE. We're in downtown Toronto today for the flags that oversee the clock tower on Queen Street at City Hall.

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

We are berserk about the smallest things:  How to get rid of ants in your driveway. There are dozens of these articles on how to kill this nuisance.  Doesn't it fascinate you to see these mounds of brown and go up it to find out it is a swarm of ants. This happened in the garden a few weeks ago, and I wondered what brown plant that could be. These ants are Pavement Ants. They were studied on the International Space Station in 2014.  Pavement ants have visible grooves on their head and thorax, with a single pair of spines on the thorax alone. They do have stingers. Pavement ants get their name because the often nest under sidewalks, driveways, and building foundations. During the winter, pavement ants may nest inside structures near a heat source. A mound of displaced soil near a paved area is probably a sign of pavement ants. Very often they build their nests along sides of garages and houses, and parts of houses which are constructed on concrete slabs. They may enter homes and businesses through small openings windows and doors, basement walls, or concrete floors. During the winter months, they can be found indoors as they are forced to look for food and water. There are dozens of sites that headline their articles "facts, identification, profile" and conclude with extermination.  The supposed danger is that "they can contaminate human and pet food and can carry germs and disease" - they do come indoors. I don't see any articles about any injuries, illnesses or deaths due to pavement ants. Main.govindicates that the stinger is too weak to damage human skin. So it would seem that this is some socially accepted obsession with neatness on the driveway.  Imagine 19th or early 20th century farm and home owners worrying about ants on the sidewalk or in the drive.  It seems unlikely. So let us conclude with light-heartedness of the last day of school and Ant Jokes, given that's our interest today. Did you hear about the ant that won the Nobel Peace Prize? He was brill-ant.  Where did the ants go on a date? To the school dants. What kind of ants always admit when they’ve done something wrong? Penance.  What is the biggest ant in the world? An elephant. What do you call an ant who skips school? A truant. Where do ants go for a vacation? Frants. What do you get if you cross some ants with some tics? All kinds of antics. What do you call a 100-year old ant? An antique. The countdown to July 1st starts with this picture.

After the Last One

Is there a term for the one after the last one?  

How could there be?  It is the 'last one'. 

The following are the words for Nth last:

1. ultimate — last
2. penultimate — next to last
3. antepenultimate — next to next to last
4. preantepenultimate — next to next to next to last
5. propreantepenultimate — next to next to next to next to last

Now the final one is of dubious pedigree. Another “word” for the fifth from last (also dubious, but older) is suprapreantepenultimate.

So we aren't going to have celebration day after July 1st.  Or we won't consider it an 'ultimate'.  That doesn't stop there being titles such as:  "The Day After the End of the World".  

Our coverage of July 1st  comes from Ruth Moffatt - Rick Blechta leading us in the singing "Oh Canada"

First Day

It's our 150 celebration day in Canada.  The listing of fireworks is so long that it is in alphabetical order - noise started last night at midnight. Here are a few ways to distinguish us: You Might Be Canadian If: Your municipality buys a Zamboni before a bus. You understand the Labatt Blue commercials. You bring a portable TV on a camping trip so that you don't miss Hockey Night. You can repeat the entire Molson's Canadian 'The Rant'. You know all the words to "If I had a million dollars" by The Barenaked Ladies, including the inter-stanza banter between Steven and Ed. You dismiss all beers under 6% as "for children and the elderly." You remember when Alanis Morrissette was "Too Hot To Hold". You watch MuchMusic constantly, in the hopes of occasional fleeting glimpses of The Tragically Hip. You can sing "O' Canada" in French and actually know what the words mean. You think Peter Mansbridge is sexy. You killed your best friend for Another Roadside Attraction tickets. You think Great Big Sea isn't Atlantic-centric enough. You know the names of all the guys in Sloan. You know more than 3 guys named Gordon. source: http://www.jokes4us.com/miscellaneousjokes/worldjokes/canadajokes.html Martin Regg Cohn's article in the Toronto Star seems to sum our our perspective now. "Nothing puts Canada’s tensions in perspective quite like witnessing other people’s conflicts abroad, as I did while at the Toronto Star’s bureau in Jerusalem in the late 1990s." Regg says: "As a country we are far more rounded, grounded and grown-up. We have reinvented multiculturalism, and begun a belated journey of reconciliation ... Canada has always been light on jingoism, chauvinism and patriotism. But do not mistake the muted enthusiasm of today for a lack of idealism about tomorrow ... At 150, Canada is a far better place, in a far better space than ever before..." Happy Canada Day @150!