Apr 15 2025 - Guessing Your Weight

 

It used to be that when the Carnival/Circus came to town, there would be someone who would call people up and guess their weight.  Then they would stand on the weight scale and he'd usually be right. If he was wrong, they got a prize.  I remember the carnival came to the parking lot/field of  the Fairview Mall in St. Catharines.  And the picture below, from 1939 is on Welland Avenue at George Street - that's near where Brian's office was in downtown St. Catharines. That article says the Pen Centre and Lincoln Mall parking lots were regular locations.   A novel item in the article was that Mayor Joseph Reid rode the elephants before the 1976 circus.  Got me on that one.  Circuses discontinued  in the 2000s with animal rights concerns. Finally. So we need one of those Carnie guys now to tell us what Donald Trump really weighs.  There's lots of discussion on it - or rather, his height and weight spark debate. This has been under debate for a long time.   Not just the latest medical results. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October 2023 had an opinion.   Asking Schwarzenegger to clarify, Kimmel pressed, “So you think that it’s possible he weighs 215 pounds?”   “Yes, as much as it is possible that there is no climate change,” the former bodybuilder quipped. “And as much as it’s possible that we don’t need to reduce pollution.” “Look, we all know the way he is, and if it makes him feel good to tell everyone he weighs 215, I think everyone laughs about it because he does not look like he weighs 215,” he went on. “He’s a little more like 315.” He's the only one quoted so far.  No one else seems to want to "weigh in." Isn't that interesting, given every carnival came with a person who would guess your weight.  There must be lots of experts out there.  Everything is going quiet on the Trumpian front.

The Himalayan Poppy in a watercolour version.

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Apr 5 2024 - Pickleball - What's in a Name?

 

Pickleball is a recent sport - created in 1965 by Joe Pritchard a U.S. Congressman. It possibly was named after his dog Pickles. Or maybe the dog was named after Pickleball.  Or the game was named after the pickle boat where the crew is made of leftover people from other crews, and pickleball was created from leftover stuff from other sports. But who ever heard of that expression? Supposedly a reporter doing a story on it told the Pritchards that people would remember the game better if it was named after the dog.  So I guess the history of the game came a bit later than the game and covering it in the news.  That's because someone did some fact checking and confirmed that the dog Pickles was born after the game had been named.  The Pritchards have gone on record saying that the dog was in fact named after the game.   But never mind fact, many people seemed to have weighed in over the naming of the game and vote for the dog. There are more "facts" that have been accumulated to strengthen the dog story:   "According to the McCallum family (as well as the Browns (neighbours) – who were also some of the first pickleball players), the new sport was definitely named after the dog. They say they remember the exact night they named it after “Pickles” the dog while sitting in the living room of the Prichard cabin, they even remember cheering with excitement at the revelation of this funny name for their new game."   There are even more possibilities.  The authors of the book on the History of Pickleball went sleuthing and found a third claimant to the name:  "Bill Bell claimed that he had named the game because he enjoyed hitting the ball in a way that would put his opponent in a pickle." Poor Pickleball - the game seems to be about how it got its name.  This is a sign of our times - where opinion is more fun than facts - don't worry about the facts:  "If nothing else, the contradicting stories make for interesting conversation regarding the early history of the sport." Everyone seems to love pickleball - an Olympic sport?  Sports Illustrated concluded the game wouldn't likely get to the Olympics before 2032.     What about this idea as our conclusion on   the story today.

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Aug 27 2022 - Grandma's Cleaning Tricks

 

I don't remember my grandmother being a cleaning expert, giving all kinds of advice on cleaning tricks.  Somehow grandmothers have become the experts of  housekeeping and cleaning.   They start with 'back in the day' and end with 'hacks that still work today'  and pretty well all of them want you to wash walls from the bottom up.  I browsed through them to find some strange ones and here they are: 'I remember watching my grandma pour plenty of dried tea leaves over the entire rug or carpet, then waiting 15 minutes before clearing them away with a vacuum to get rid off all the dust and stale odors." 'Notoriously hard to clean, the inside of bottles can be rinsed out with a mixture of sand and water. After a good shake, the abrasive combination will clean out all those hard to reach corners. Just make sure to rinse out the bottle afterwards and leave it to air dry." "After cleaning windows with your usual cleaning spritzer, or better still, a diluted white vinegar solution, use an old sheet of newspaper to wipe away streaks on the window pane glass. The paper and ink act as a light abrasive when you wipe in a circular motion and the results are flawless." Once you have your house clean with these old-fashioned methods, you can engage in old-fashioned slang sayings such as: That's My Cup Of Tea  "Kick Up Your Heels "I'll Be There With Bells On "I'm Head Over Heels "You Look Happy As A Clam "Pardon My French  "Bring Home The Bacon Next, I went over to Mental Floss for some thoroughly strange old slang sayings: "Happy cabbage" is a sizeable amount of money to be spent on self-satisfying things. You know, like cabbage.  "Pang-Wangle" is to live or go along cheerfully in spite of minor misfortunes, like Mickey Mouse who goes along cheerfully despite having a dog who's a friend and also a dog who's a dog. "In the ketchup" means in the red or operating at a deficit "Whooperups" were, quote, "inferior noisy singers."

As I browsed through these websites with all kinds of "cleaning" content that ranges from stupid to the absurd it made me want to find an image that matched the sentiment. So here it is.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 14 2022 - Finally it is Valentine's Day

 

Is this a confessional day?  I don't think so.  It is a fun day of cards and gift-giving of roses and chocolate.  And possibly more expensive things like diamonds. How did the Romans have people named Lupercalia?  That is the feast's namesake that is identified as the origin. So goats are involved in the history.  This is how the feast was celebrated: A goat and a dog were sacrificed by men on these days and women were whipped with the hides of the sacrificed animals as it was believed that this will make them fertile. Oh dear, that seems a poor beginning to a love festival.  And the name? That came later.  It is after Saint Valentine, a priest who helped Christian couples in getting married, was executed on the 14th of February.  It is also said that while St. Valentine was imprisoned, he took care of the jailor’s blind daughter and even wrote her a card which said ‘from your Valentine’. So confessing one's feelings? I think confessional gets in there because it evolved out of pagan to Roman Catholic traditions.  We need to leap forward to the current day where we chase the cutest, the best, the unique and most romantic Valentine's Day gift.  It is too hard to consider our past social order. Putting it another way, wouldn't you rather click on Valentine's day stuff and see pages of pictures of red hearts?  Well, that's where I am heading. Happy Valentine's Day!

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Feb 23 2021 - Common Myths

 

There are so many myths - 50 easily in many articles.  We will just have to pick our favourites today.  This is an interesting topic as myths are considered to be misconceptions today.  They seem true because they've been repeated so many times and in so many places.  In fact, one would call these false facts. Here are myths that I have just learned are false.  I found them in this article HERE. The odds are always 50-50 in a coin toss A group of Stanford University researchers proved this common misconception wrong in 2007 when they flipped a lotof quarters and found that a coin was more likely to land on the face that it started on. The researchers put your actual odds at closer to 51-49, so pay attention to which side of the coin faces the sky when you make your call! Every living thing dies While yes, most living things do die eventually, there is one species of jellyfish that doesn't technically perish. Known as the Turritopsis dohrnii, this essentially immortal sea creature reverts back into a juvenile state after adulthood—so it can live out yet another life alongside its offspring! The sun is yellow According to the Stanford Solar Center, "it is a common misconception that the sun is yellow or orange or even red." In reality, "the sun is essentially all colors mixed together, which appear to our eyes as white." The reason we see the sun as yellow or orange most of the time is because those colored wavelengths, which are longer, are the only ones that make it to our eyes. The other short-wavelength colors—green, blue, and violet—become scattered by the atmosphere, which is what makes the sky look blue during the day!   In celebration of National Walking the Dog Day, let's walk some elephants dressed as clowns.  You can throw them a biscuit as it is also National and International Dog Biscuit Day. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Melting Chocolate Month

As we navigate February, we bounce between weatherperson's day with cold snaps and snow flurries and chocolate fondue day. Chocolate fondue is a recent offering in the culinary landscape.  Konrad Egli, owner of Chalet Suisse in New York City, created chocolate fondue with chocolate, heavy cream and kirsch.  This was in the early 1960s.  Such a long gap between chocolate and the earliest published cheese fondue recipe which dates to 1699. But it took a while for chocolate to become a dessert - it needed the chemists to get involved.  They transformed it into a sweet, smooth and creamy texture.  That was the mid-1800s. There are many fondue recipes now - chocolate is one of the most beloved foods. It took more invention to make chocolate fountains. They became popular in 1991 when they were displayed at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago.  The chocolate fountain resembled a stepped cone, standing 2–4 feet tall with a crown at the top and stacked tiers over a basin at the bottom. The basin is heated to keep the chocolate in a liquid state so it can be pulled into a center cylinder then vertically transported to the top of the fountain by an Archimedes screw. From there it flows over the tiers creating a chocolate waterfall in which food items like strawberries or marshmallows can be dipped.   It was in 2004 that Hellman began marketing a fountain for personal use.  Chocolate has fluid dynamics that are unusual.  "The gravitational forces are much lower than the viscous forces." A small chocolate fountain needs a lot of vegetable oil and the best chocolate - couverture chocolate - which is high in natural cocoa butter.  Who knows about the tallest chocolate fountain?  Guinness of course!  It is 12.27 meres high, and was recorded in Austria, on April 11 2019.  The picture is HERE. The chocolate fountain is at Pralines World - dedicated to the magic, taste, history, and manufacturing of pralines and chocolate and includes the chocolate academy, a knowledge and learning centre. It is countdown to Valentine's Day - and the theme is the Ringling Circus.

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Baker's Dozen Day

Isn't 'baker's dozen' an interesting expression.  Dozen may be one of the earliest primitive groupings.  It is also known as a devil's dozen or long dozen.   The expression came about with baked goods, as a way for bakers to avoid being blamed for shorting their customers.  Bakers had to sell goods by the dozen at a specific weight.  The expression evolved over the centuries to further variations around this intent. While most things aren't sold by the dozen anymore, we still an buy a dozen eggs.  This is common everywhere. They started out being sold by the dozen to match up with the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of measurement.  One egg could be sold for a penny or 12 for a shilling.  This persisted in the American colonies, after the revolution.  And it just stayed after that. What else is in the dozen group? 12 hours on a clock face 12 months in a year 12 signs of the zodiac 12 grades under college level  12 Tribes of Israel 12 Apostles of Jesus Sold by the dozen: roses, donuts, batteries 12 Days of Christmas  12 Olympians 12 Jurors on a jury Our Valentine's pictures today started at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.

Circus Days

It's time for a few jokes to keep us light-hearted.  So in line with our images from the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, here are a few circus jokes.  These come from Enchanted Learning. On the Circus: Which circus performers can see in the dark? (The acro-bats!) Did you hear about the human cannonball? (He got fired!) What happened when the magician got mad? (She pulled her hare out!) What happened when the short fortune-teller who escaped from prison? (She was a small medium at large!)   A few Clown Jokes: What should you do if you're attacked by a group of clowns? (Go for the juggler/jugular!) Why did the clown wear loud socks! (So his feet wouldn't fall asleep!) I'd like to take over the clown's job! (Those are big shoes to fill!) And Elephant Jokes: How do you raise a baby elephant? (With a fork lift!) What do you get when you cross an elephant and a fish? (Swimming trunks!) What time is it when you find an elephant in your car? (Time to get a new car!) How do you know if there's an elephant under your bed? (Your head hits the ceiling!) What time is it when 10 elephants are chasing you? (Ten to one!)

The Birthday Paradox

The Birthday Paradox by Alan Bellows It was my birthday yesterday.  Here are a few highlights from the parade.  In the last picture, you can see the parade is over, and the clowns are resting in the tent. So to entertain you with Birthday trivia, Alan Bellows explains how the 'same birthday' stats work... Alan Bellows writes:  "I have never had a very good relationship with Mathematics. I used to think it was me... I thought that perhaps I was just a bit put off by Math's confident demeanor and superior attitude, and by its tendency to micromanage every tiny detail of my universe. But over time I have come to the realization that I'm not the source of the problem. Math, as it turns out, is out of its bloody mind. Consider the following example: Assuming for a moment that birthdays are evenly distributed throughout the year, if you're sitting in a room with forty people in it, what are the chances that two of those people have the same birthday? For simplicity's sake, we'll ignore leap years. A reasonable, intelligent person might point out that the odds don't reach 100% until there are 366 people in the room (the number of days in a year + 1)... and forty is about 11% of 366... so such a person might conclude that the odds of two people in forty sharing a birthday are about 11%. In reality, due to Math's convoluted reasoning, the odds are about 90%. This phenomenon is known as the Birthday Paradox. If the set of people is increased to sixty, the odds climb to above 99%. This means that with only sixty people in a room, even though there are 365 possible birthdays, it is almost certain that two people have a birthday on the same day. After making these preposterous assertions, Math then goes on to rationalize its claims by recruiting its bastard offspring: numbers and formulas. It's tricky to explain the phenomenon in a way that feels intuitive. You can consider the fact that forty people can be paired up in 780 unique ways, and it follows that there would be a good chance that at least one of those pairs would share a birthday. But that doesn't really satisfy the question for me, it just feels marginally less screwy. So I did something quite out of character: I crunched the numbers. The values rapidly become unmanageable, but the trend is clear: to see the charts - go to http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birthday-paradox/ Only calculating up to eight people, we see that of the three hundred fifteen quintillion possible combinations of birthdays the group has, 7.4% of cases-- or about one in thirteen -- result in two of them having the same birthday. As each person is added, the odds do not increase linearly, but rather they curve upwards rapidly. This trend continues up to around twenty-three people, where the curve hits 50% odds, and the rate of increase starts going down. It practically flattens out when fifty-seven people are considered, and the odds rest at about 99%. Though it may not be intuitive, the numbers follow the pattern quite faithfully." And there's more… So go to the site to see the charts and read the rest.  I liked the section about how the stats of the birthday paradox are used to hack into computers! From:  http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birthday-paradox/