Feb 18 2025 - Shakespeare and Snow

 

Did Shakespeare experience snow?  What would he say about the deep chill after the big snow storm? He grew up in the middle of England where there was snow and ice in the winter.   Rain, winds, cold and tempests show up in all his work - Blow, blow thou Winter wind sorts of things. I got to wondering about whether he mentions snow.  So went and checked it out. In winter with warm tears I’ll melt the snow And keep eternal spring-time on thy face. – Titus Andronicus; Act III, scene i For never-resting time leads summer on To hideous winter and confounds him there; Sap cheque’d with frost and lusty leaves quite gone, Beauty o’ersnow’d and bareness every where. – Sonnet 5 Cold snow melts with the sun’s hot beams. – Henry VI, Part 2, 3.1.224   That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow! – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 5.1.63   At Christmas I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled shows, But like of each thing that in season grows. – Love’s Labor’s Lost, 1.1.109 We think of Shakespeare with spring and summer weather - especially with his most famous poem - Sonnet 18 - "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day.?"  There are over seventy references to roses.  Definitely Shakespeare voted for roses over snow.

Isn't this excellent - I found this image of one of the Painted Ladies gardens in Grimsby Beach from a few winters ago.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 5 2023 - World's Rudest Person

 

I expect you think that Donald Trump is the rudest person in the world.  I would expect this as there are so many quotes and videos showing him being rude.  I haven't seen him not rude.  But there are no articles with the headline Donald Trump the rudest person in the world even though there are many articles citing his rude insults.  There is a "rudest person in America"  Wikipedia says it was Edsel Ford Fung. He was known as the "world's rudest, worst, most insulting waiter" in America. As head waiter, Fong greeted visitors with an admonition to "Sit down and shut up!"  He was known for calling patrons "retarded" and "fat", criticizing people's menu choices and then telling them what they should order, slamming food on the table, and complaining about receiving only 15% tips. An imposing man, he was notorious for seating people with strangers, forgetting orders, cursing, spilling soup on customers, hazing newcomers, refusing to provide forks or English menu translations, and busing tables before diners were finished. Fong was made famous by columnist Herb Caen, who often described the misanthropic Fong during his visits to Sam Wo. This is such an interesting story - go check him out HERE.   And the story conclusion?  While he was considered genuinely rude, it turns out he was a performance artist. He made the restaurant famous and a tourist destination spot. So back to Donald Trump.  There are headlines - the 10 most disgusting things Donald Trump has ever said...and then  "here are twenty other disturbing, awful things that Trump has said"... but no headlines on how rude he is.   The only "rude" article retrieved is from the CBC radio show The Conversation -  "Does rudeness have a legitimate place in politics?" It is HERE.  Donald Trump features in the examples of rudeness and its political uses. But then, I am focusing on the smallest of the issues with Donald Trump.  Here's the prognosis on Donald Trump: "But the fact that Trump is a sociopath, a person without a conscience who is incapable of recognizing the inherent worth of other human beings, makes him the enormous danger he is. Trump has the worst of all worlds, one might say, psychotically grandiose and utterly uncaring about the harm he causes others. He is basically psychologically the same as the many infamous, cruel tyrants we know from recent and remote history." The author is Lance Does, former Harvard psychiatrist HERE.   The author concludes that we can expect a police state if Donald Trump is re-elected.   Silly me to focus on rudeness when I could have looked at all these aspects of Trump:  narcissist, a pathological liar, obsessed with violence, sociopath or perhaps a psychopath. Is it that rudeness is one small step in the journey of psychosis?

Let's remember the passing of Summer and the pretty Painted Ladies houses at Grimsby Beach. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Road Signs Ahead

The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals took place in 1968.  There were earlier protocols, but the 20th century was the era of the automobile and signage became critical to safety. While there are alternative and equivalent standards, these signs and legal principals form the basis of traffic law in the majority of places. There are categories of signs and one can look at them in the Wikipedia entry HERE.  We are familiar with all these signs now - part of our every day.  We don't think about them very much. When I exit the highway at Vineland there is a road crew area and lots of road signs seem to live there.  Where are our road signs made? A toronto.com article tells me they are made in Toronto at Kipling and Belfield, near where I used to live.  The Provincial Sign Shop fabricates the signs for highways and roads in the province. They produce 75,000 annually and signs have an average life of 7 - 12 years. Guess where you might go to buy a stop sign?  To ULINE.ca - they sell everything imaginable.  Go online and page through their catalog of stuff.  Always start at ULINE and not Amazon for industrial and business supplies.  Those plastic bags, etc. I also wonder about those tourism signs on the highway.  What if I wanted one of those?  I would apply to CTODS - I would have to fit into their categories of eligible businesses - accommodations,  golf courses, parks, museums, casinos, etc.  - all tourism oriented.  And what is the fee?  I have often wondered this as these are big signs on the highway. The annual fee for two signs on Highway 15 used to be about $300 but in 2019 was expected to rise to $800.  The cost increase is outlined in a CBC story HERE.   It looks like there was a roll-back of the increase that was to take place in 2019.   We conclude with another lake-side cottage garden on the Toronto Islands.  I 'painted' the tool shed door a pale yellow to match the house and garden.

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