Mar 15 2023 - Bob Hope's Best Oscars

 

was thinking about the Oscars, and really would have liked to see old clips of Bob Hope and Johnny Carson.  Bob Hope is considered the King of the Oscars.  What was it about Bob Hope? "He has hosted 19 times either solo or as a team, even before the Oscars were even broadcast on television. For a long time, it was just assumed that Hope would host, and only if he had conflicts would they ask someone else."    Here are his most-quoted jokes: 1955  "The winners will take home an Oscar. The losers will all be presented with monogramed do-it-yourself suicide kits." 1960 “There’s a lot of pictures half shot. One Western picture is hung up and it’s quite a situation. There’s 150 Indians crouched behind a boulder at Corganville, and no one has told them that John Wayne isn’t coming.” 1968 "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or as they're known at my house, Passover." And at the end in 1968   “I’ve never seen six hours whiz by so fast.” No year given  “I think they ought to give me an Oscar just for attendance, don’t you?” And they did:  Bob Hope received 5 honorary Oscars for his service to the film industry. There's a group on Fine Art America with the theme of tree of trees in black and white.  I turned some of my tree images to black and white so that I could put them in the group.   It reminds me of when television was in black and white.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 22 2022 - Imposters and LookAlikes

 

More on the conspiracy theme.  What is a conspiracy?  A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.  Watergate was a true conspiracy, the moon landing is considered a false one.  There is even a conspiracy theory that the CIA invented the term "conspiracy theory".    Imposter stories seem to now be in the same bucket as conspiracy theories.  I suggest that  it has to do with the emergence of "clones" as imposters.  So deep government cover-ups get involved.  That aspect of conspiracy theories dates to 1967 when it is claimed that the CIA invented the term to disqualify those who questioned the official version of JFK's assassination.  But before imposters became part of conspiracies, what would be our most memorable and favourite  imposter story?   Paul McCartney died in a car accident in 1966 and was replaced by William Shears Campbell (Billy Shears) - a lookalike.  Billy had won a lookalike contest so was the candidate of choice.  And then Ringo Starr made reference to him, so it got developed further.   I found this at another website:  FACT Paul McCartney did have a minor accident on 26th Dec 1965 when he fell off a moped, split his lip and chipped a tooth. Embarrassed by his ‘fat lip’ he began to grow a moustache. Where imposter theories merge with conspiracies?  These relate to "believers" claiming various celebrities are clones.  Megan Fox and Britney Spears are two.  The imposters are believed to be multiple government clones/synthetics. For Megan Fox, the "clones" are called ‘Fegans’.  Every time she looks different – which would be explained by the process of ageing, or the fight against it – it’s a new clone.  Eminem is believed to be one, as is Taylor Swift.  She's considered to be a clone of renowned satanist Zeena LaVey. On to Katy Perry.  The theory goes that she used to be JonBenet Ramsey, the child pageant star who was killed in 1996. “Nobody died, nobody got hurt,” YouTuber Dave J exclaims in the video. “That sacrifice was in name only, and that was to get something, and that something was to become a star. JonBenet became Katy Perry, and that’s a fact.” Lookalikes have been around for a long time as  imposers. We can go to websites and hire them to market our product.  I checked out the video of Albert Einstein on Lookalike-USA and the lookalike appeared in an ad for tires.  Seems pathetic to me, but obviously gets attention.  "We have hundreds of lookalikes, doubles, impersonators, available nation-wide.  Impersonators of Britney Spears, Austin Powers, George W Bush,  Albert Einstein,  Tom Cruise,  Marilyn Monroe,  Elvis, and over 900 more! " From lookalike imposers to clones:  How did this happen?  Here's my theory:  Big events are mysterious, and big people/celebrities are mysterious. Looking for a simple explanation of the mysterious?  Blame something big - the government.  Today's image is created using Flexifly to modify a geometric abstract.  It seemed to be related to the topic.

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April 2 2022 - World Light-Hearted Events

 

April Fool's Day is one of the rare light-hearted events in the world each year.  Isn't that a strange thing that we have so few celebrations.   Yesterday's "big prank" in US late night shows:  Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel pull off TV’s greatest April Fool’s Day prank - they swapped places on each other’s late night shows, completely surprising the studio audiences, and people watching at home. Fallon took over Kimmel’s Hollywood show, while Kimmel trekked to New York. That is very funny in the first 5 minutes and then what?  I wonder how the evening went after that.   Better April Fools' Day pranks from this year are described by CNET HERE.  There's one called "Dordle" - the five-letter guess-the-word games times two. Some of these are very fun.  However, it does seemsto me that the British are masters of April Fool's Day pranks.  Their idea is to involve everyone.  Harking back to the BBC harvesting spaghetti prank, here's the "spaghetti" theme joke this year:  "... what’s not to love about Sunday Roast Spaghetti? This was a joke from pasta delivery maestros, but we’re bitterly disappointed it’s not actually real. The fantasy dish promises to blend “the best of British and Italian, in one”. It was said to be made up of “freshly made spaghetti, a whole roast poussin, a Yorkshire pudding base, roast potatoes, greens, baby carrots, all doused in a hearty dose of gravy”. 'Sure, it’s bold, but so is every stroke of genius. We all love a rich, meaty spaghetti, and – let’s face it – everything is better with a dollop of gravy and a Yorkshire. We might not be able to buy this but we’ll certainly be recreating it this weekend." More of this kind of humour and activity would be wonderful, but it is hard to find any more upcoming light-hearted events for 2022.   Maybe we should look to the past for enjoy history's top "light-hearted" moments. There don't seem to be any.  I did find a surprising contribution from Wikipedia's on Cary Grant with this description:  "Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanour, light-hearted..."   Going to the entry to finish that sentence, I am startled by Grant's profile picture - it shows a person who seems to be waiting for you to find out the April Fool's prank he launched on your this year.  What fun - a delightful, light-hearted moment. I continue my April Prank series.  Today the office window blinds are transformed into what looks like little curly dancing paisleys.  Flexifly can definitely be counted on for visual surprises.

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April 1st 2022 - Fooled Me

 

I was trying out more of those Flexifly transformations on my photos.  And got a very strange result on one of theme - It made me think of the expression "You could have fooled me - I would never guess these two pictures are related".   The first picture is a triple in-camera exposure of a power chord against the wall which has shadows of the window blinds.  The second is the transformation in Flexifly - it looks like some ancient cave drawing.  This may be a lame version of April Fool's Day.  And maybe that's a good thing this year.  There are famous April Fool's Day Jokes that have been recorded.  To me the highlight is the spaghetti harvest done by the BBC in 1957 as a news hoax.  Swiss farmers harvested the strands of spaghetti from trees.  The call-ins for how to grow spaghetti got the response:  "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.  Here are the rest from Readers Digest. In France: According to Le Parisien, in 1986, the Eiffel Tower was going to be dismantled and rebuilt inside the new Euro Disney park. In Denmark: In 1965, a Copenhagen newspaper reported that Parliament had passed a law that all dogs be painted white to improve road safety because they could then be seen clearly at night. In Norway: In 1987, after reading that the government was planning to distribute 10,000 litres of wine confiscated from smugglers, hundreds of citizens turned up carrying empty bottles and buckets. In China: Claiming that it would reduce the need for foreign experts, the China Youth Daily joked in 1993 that the government had decided to exempt PhDs from the nation’s one-child-per-family policy. After foreign press picked up the hoax, the government condemned April Fools’ Day as a Western tradition. In Great Britain: In 1980, those serial pranksters at the BBC announced that Big Ben, London’s historic clock tower, would undergo a face-lift and become digital to keep up with the times. Enraged callers flooded the station with complaints. In Canada: In 2008, WestJet airlines advertised its overhead cabin bins as “among the most spacious of any airline” and said it would charge passengers an extra $12 to use these “sleeper cabins.” In Taiwan: In 2009, the Taipei Times claimed that “Taiwan-China relations were dealt a severe setback yesterday when it was found that the Taipei Zoo’s pandas are not what they seem.” The paper reported that the pandas, a gift from the Chinese government, were brown forest bears dyed to resemble pandas. Among the complaints sent to the paper was one from the zoo’s director. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 28 2021 - Santas Existence

 

To be or not to be - that is the question.  Did Shakespeare have to deal with the existence of Santa? Seeing as the story "stretches all the way back to the 3rd century", one might think he too had the dilemma of deciding how to represent Santa to his children.  But I doubt it. I also doubt my parents had a philosophical discussion on Santa's to be or not to be.  Things were simpler then - less sophisticated education, more engagement with pleasure and fun wherever it could be had, particularly the consumerism that got hold of the 20th century. And of course, simpler parenting methods - physical rewards and punishments to train behaviours.  The migration of Santa into naughty vs nice was unlikely to be thought about then.   Think of naughty and nice as a conversation starter for Santa in Malls or at events...who would have considered where this might go?   Think of this:  if the Wright Brothers had foreseen that the airplane would have caused more casualties in war rather than the elimination of war itself, they would not have invented the airplane.  So here we are today- I found this 21st Century example of the Santa to be or not to be question.  This is a Toronto Star article on the philosophical meaning of Santa Claus HERE. "My son had a play date to the zoo in December and his friend’s mother called and said there will be reindeer at the zoo. “Reindeer will prompt a discussion of Santa and since your son doesn’t believe in Santa and my son does I don’t want my son to be skeptical, so I don’t think your son should come along.” I thought, “That is weird,” because she seemed to be sacrificing a relationship with someone who is real, my son Ari, with someone who isn’t real, Santa. Then I began to think: how do I know Santa isn’t real? Just because I haven’t seen him? I haven’t seen that Israeli model Bar Refaeli but I know she exists. And that is the start of a deep dive into an examination of Santa from a philosophical viewpoint.   No worries - he pulls up quickly with this conclusion:  "We need to have things in our lives, certain things. Maybe Santa is one of those ways to teach children about gifts. You tell the kids there is a magical evening when Santa comes down the chimney and it allows them to participate in gift-giving."   Our existential questions in pictoral form today.

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Mar 2 2020 - Paul McCartney Spotted in second class on train

Are there really celebrities who don't spend their money buying dozens of racing cars and other luxury items.  There are lots of sites, such as moneycrashers.com that make these claims about popular stars.  Here are a few:  Kristen Bell As the lead character for Disney’s biggest animated movie all time, “Frozen,” Kristen Bell is sitting pretty as far as picking her next projects. And with an estimated net worth of $16 million, she could wear anything she wants on the red carpet. But Bell is known for her frugal sartorial choices, even rocking a $45 dress from Target at one event. Leonardo DiCaprio You’d expect a millionaire playboy like Leonardo DiCaprio to own the latest and greatest sports cars, but despite his vast $200 million fortune, the actor only has one vehicle: a Toyota Prius. He’s also known for eschewing private jets, choosing to fly commercial instead to both save money and protect the environment from unnecessary emissions. His main pursuit is charitable giving, as he supports a number of environmentalist causes. Paul McCartney As one of the most famous rock stars of all time, Paul McCartney – and his huge net worth of $800 million – stays pretty humble. He’s known for his frugal ways, including making his daughter, Stella, pay her own way for post-secondary school, and even asking guests to pay for their own drinks at a party. For Paul McCarney, there are further reports that these  stories spread by Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd and by his own daughter.  And then in March 2018, this headline hit the Dailymail.com, That must have been fun to experience and report.   EXCLUSIVE - He's got a cheap ticket to ride! Frugal Paul McCartney stuns rail commuters by sitting in SECOND CLASS despite being worth $1billion Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney was spotted sitting in second class on a train The 75-year-old is one of the world's biggest stars with a £780 million fortune He sat deep in thought - and almost unnoticed on the train from London Stunned commuter Oliver Wong was delighted to see the down-to-earth icon  Today we have a collage of abstract images.

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Marilyn's Photo - Feb 29 2020 Leftover Leap Year

The Times of Israel says that it has been 28 years since February 29th fell on Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest).  The writer imagines the Leap Day phenomenon could be food neutral - power ourselves on leftovers.  I wonder about this linkage so go checking on Shabbat in Wikipedia.  I find that Shabbat is very much a day with food traditions and rituals: "Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles and reciting a blessing. Traditionally, three festive meals are eaten: The first one is held on Friday evening, the second is traditionally a lunch meal on Saturday and the third being held later in the afternoon. The evening meal and the early afternoon meal typically begin with a blessing called kiddush and another blessing recited over two loaves of challah. The third meal does not have the Kiddush recited but does have the two loaves. Shabbat is closed Saturday evening with a havdalah blessing." There is such diversity now in everyday living.  Religious rituals are followed by some that are unknown to others.  I hadn't thought about what it means to "cease work", but there are rules on this.  One cannot weave two threads or separate two threads.  No sifting, kneading, or baking.  No plowing sowing or reaping. What about no erasing two or more letters?  That seems bizarre to me. I am fascinated by "the erasing of two or more letters".  There is no breaking the letters when cutting the cake. Not knowing the context of this, I think of birthday cakes with names and happy birthday on them - put the names on with block letters so one can cut the cake (what about candles?  I bet they are a problem).  And what about writing on the side of books and letters on packages?  Again I visualize a cereal box that needs to be opened for breakfast and chaos erupts.  Don't open a book before checking it out. These imaginings are perfect for Leap Day. I have "leaped" out of my first world secular bubble for a little bit.  I will climb back in and continue my own repeated activities of a Saturday. The Mega Squall occurred yesterday - it was north and west of us - so we were spared yesterday - sunshine and cold weather was our fate. Supposedly the snow flurries that didn't arrive yesterday will come for a visit today. Here's an image with the "light beyond" - my version of the mystery of life and the universe.  This one is a hotel window curtain.

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Jan 14 2020 - Now for Stripes

A prison inmate would not be wearing polka dots, regardless of how identifiable they are.  They bring lightness and play to the situation, and prisons are not for play.  Black and white stripes convey the opposite of polka dots.  One article says that the origin of the black-and-white-striped prison uniform goes back to the Auburn prison system that started in New York in the 1820s. The uniforms made prisoners immediately recognizable as criminals, so if a prisoner escaped, the public could easily distinguish them from the non-criminal population. However, Wikipedia says that stripes were used in clothing for negative symbolism starting in Medieval times.  Prisoners, criminals, clowns, prostitutes, hangmen wore black and white striped clothes.  The change came when Queen Victoria dressed her son in a sailor suit and started a positive trend with stripes.  When it comes to clothing, horizontal stripes have their own reputation of making a person look fatter.  Discover magazine tells us that the Helmholtz illusion results in the opposite - adding horizontal stripes to shapes like rectangles makes them look thinner.   I found one striped shirt joke and a perfect prison joke: Why does Waldo wear stripes on his shirt? Because he doesn’t want to be spotted.   Just like dots, there aren't many images in my database tagged with stripes.  This one was created from interesting grunge on King Street West.  It looks more like prison bars than stripes.

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TO LIVE

The skyscape of Toronto has been growing by leaps and bounds for a few years, especially in the Union Station area.  After admiring Douglas Copeland's Dog Fountain, I crossed the street to the Sony Centre where all is completed on the the L Tower by Libeskind. The sign says the Sony Centre, but it looks like it will soon be the Meridian Hall on September 15th.  And the Toronto Centre for the Arts will be renamed Meridian Arts Centre.  The city-run organization which operates the venues will be called TO Live.  Do you remember the original name - the O'Keefe Centre?  That was in 1960, then the Hummingbird Centre in 1996.  So our pictures today are taken in the Sony Centre Plaza designed by Claude Cormier.  The article says it will have a fogging system and grass garden to depict a meadow-like garden.  The grass garden has been planted with barberry. The three sculptures are called "The Dream Ballet" and are by Toronto artist Harley Valentine.   I decided on a black and white rendering over the sand colours of the Sony Centre walls.  It gives it drama.

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Whither the Worms

Spring will happen tomorrow at 5:58pm, and that night there will be a full moon, and it will be a supermoon.  Our chances of a good viewing of March's full moon, called the Full Worm Moon, are considered poor.  Supposedly the name of the Full Worm Moon comes from the ground softening enough for earthworm casts to reappear, inviting robins and birds to feed, a true sign of spring - this from the Old Farmer's Almanac. The first Almanac wouldn't have had this information, it was published in 1792.  That was before earthworms came to North America.   There are only two native worms in Ontario, although there are 19 known species.  That makes 17 varieties of invasive worms. The 'earthworms' we are familiar with arrived from Asia and Europe about two hundred years ago in the ballast of ships.  A square meter of soil can support 2,000 worms.  Studies are finding that they are predators of native seeds. They 'devour' the leaf litter layer much more rapidly than native decomposers.  Our native plants and insects rely on a thick protective layer of decaying leaves.  Here are a few worm jokes: What do you call it when worms take over the world?  Global Worming!  Two silk worms challenged each other in a race It ended in a tie. What's the difference between Donald Trump and a worm? One of them is a slimy, loathsome creature incapable of complex thought, the other one actually shows up when it rains. This Donald Trump joke popped up along the way:   A man died one day and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks?" St. Peter replied, "Those are lie clocks. Everyone on earth has a lie-clock. Every time you lie the hands on the clock will move." "Oh," said the man as he pointed at one of them, "Whose clock is that?" St. Peter replied, "That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie." "That's incredible, " said the man. St. Peter pointed to another clock, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe only told two lies in his entire life." The man was impressed, and then asked, "Where's Donald Trump's clock?" St. Peter said, "His clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."