People's Choice

When did the idea of "The People's Choice" start?  This is not a topic  - it has no origin date and no serious definition.  At the urban dictionary, we'll find a satirical definition:   "Any group of tossers that self proclaim their greatness by assuming the collective title of "Peoples Choice". Usually participate in QuietThunder, if not it is because they are also known to suffer from permaflop.  Oh man, i would rather sit on the grenade than deal with the "Peoples Choice" It seems to me that there are a few possibilities:  that people's choice awards and ideas come out of the microeconomic theory area of Consumer Choice.  The idea of a People's Choice Award is to give consumers the voting power to decide the # 1, #2, and so on.  The second possibility is having political origins of making decisions/choices through voting. Today we have opportunities to vote for our favourite retail and service organization, usually through media outlets - newspapers and websites.  Up pops the number 1 city and restaurant in the world.  A humorous article says that Wawa's bathrooms were voted number 1 in Pennsylvania and number 2 in the country? I did vote for Longwood Garden's washrooms as the most interesting washrooms in the U.S.  They won (!) Who would guess washrooms would be a subject of people's choice. People's choice awards should also be considered a reaction to awards that are juried and judged by experts and authorities. This is the case of the People's Choice awards where the intent is to "thumb their nose at the Academy" and "The people have spoken and their choice has been heard, and high time too. What we have here is democracy in action, and a poll in which every voter is equal and every ballot counts."  These two quotes are from The Guardian newspaper article by Xan Brooks in 2009. And so we conclude the topic of People's Choice -  very prevalent, but without much analysis.  That would leave an opening for a book or two. We have two abstracts today -the first picture is grunge 'as is' with slight enhancements in Photoshop.  The second picture starts with a grunge image and then is finished with painting in photoshop using French Kiss grunge brushes to create a more interesting composition.

Brand New Today

I found an article on how to use the boolean operators in a Google search.  It is  in this article on 'advanced Google search operators' HERE.  So I tried out the search "brand new *" which is to search for 'brand new .... anything. First, let's start with the meaning of the phrase brand new. I've thought of it as something like 'fresh from the box' and 'never been used or seen before' and 'completely new'. It is the word brand in the expression that caught my attention.    So I went to the Merriam-Webster dictionary and find out that "brand" means:  a charred piece of wood firebrand something (such as lightning) that resembles a firebrand The meaning is 'fresh from the fire'.  So an interesting and curious origin of the phrase. Returning to the search, there are lots of brand new things - homes, songs such as Sting's "Brand New Day", Bob Dylan's "Brand new leopard-skin pillbox hat."  There's a band named Brand New. Disney has a brand new theme park in the works in Tokyo, and there are many new products launched on the market that are 'brand new'. Are there any brand new jokes?  Here are two that claim to be brand new. Father: “Son, you were adopted.” Son: “What?! I knew it! I want to meet my biological parents!” Father: “We are your biological parents. Now pack up, the new ones will pick you up in 20 minutes.” A linguistics professor says during a lecture that, "In English, a double negative forms a positive. But in some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, in no language in the world can a double positive form a negative." But then a voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right." I hope these are 'brand new' train module pictures today!

Wheresomeness

When searching for odd words, such as wheresomeness, one retrieves equally odd results.  Here's a quote from a short poem: "Every morning dawns with an ache, a pang of wheresomeness and shallow water." In terms of definitions, "Ness" is an English suffix  forming abstract nouns denoting quality and state - darkness, goodness, kindness, preparedness. There are places, organizations, people, and myths where "Ness" occurs.  One could be named Ness Ness as it is a given and surname.  And if one were an Irish princess from mythology one could be Ness Ness Ness.   Typically a movie or toy character pops up with names that are unusual.  Ness is a game and a playable character in Super Smash Bros.4.  There's nesstheband and their tag line is "whatever's unclear to you, it's the same for me - ness." And there are many products on Amazon with "Ness" in their names - from Scottish clothing to soup ladles, hats, mirrors, motorcycle handlebars, and cat litter pans.   Today our pictures show the Chrysanthemum display at the Niagara Showcase Greenhouses.  It is a popular festival every year throughout the world.  Longwood Gardens has the thousand flower tree display right now. Japan has Chrysanthemum Day - one of five ancient sacred festivals.  Korea, Germany, China, and more have displays where Chrysanthemums are used in mosaic culture displays. The Niagara Parks display always has a Romantic section with pinks, purples and whites, and a contrasting primary colour display section.