Oct 13 2023 - Bakers Dozen Day

 

The tradition of giving an extra item when selling things by the dozen is what is known as the Baker's Dozen.  So why isn't this day Baker's Dozen Day?  Shouldn't one Friday the 13th be reserved for this?  Well, Friday the 13th isn't consistent every year so maybe that's the reason.  The Baker's Dozen was started in the13th century England where bakers skimped on the size of their baked goods. The King made a declaration of the requirement of 13 to make up the gap.  I guess things were sold by weight/size as well as in numbers.  So this would have been the original version of shrinkflation.  But alas!  There is no Baker's Dozen Day celebrated on a Friday the 13trh.   National Donut Day mentions 13 donuts, but no one has taken up the cause of a Baker's Dozen Celebration.   There are lots of references to Baker's Dozen - and there are Bakers Dozen Holiday Festivals - here's one: "For the second consecutive year, The Norris will present a “Baker’s Dozen Holiday Festival,” featuring 13 daily online episodes, starting December 1 and concluding December 13. As established in last year’s inaugural Baker’s Dozen festival, this year’s edition will feature a variety of local singers, instrumentalists, dancers and actors in brief performances of holiday-themed music, dance and spoken word."   Tree roots are the subject of today's picture.  Typically roots at ground level get gnarled like this due to grounds crew lawn mowers and whipper snippers.

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May 13 2022 - PD13 Day

 

The litmus tests are beginning.  How much has COVID changed us?  Which ones of us have changed?  There's a food festival in downtown Hamilton this weekend. And of course, Norfolk County is preparing for large crowds in Port Dover for Friday the 13th.  That's today. Between 35,000 and 45,000 motorcycle enthusiasts attended the unsanctioned event in 2021, much lower than the 100,000 visitors before the COVID-19 pandemic.  So what would be the guess for this year?  I think more than last year, and fewer than 2019 events.  Will it keep its unofficial title of the largest single day gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts in the world? A population of 6,161 has an influx of up to 200,000, depending on the month. And here we are:  an unsanctioned event - remember the motorcycle convoy "Rolling Thunder" was unsanctioned.  Unsanctioned means the event or parade doesn't have a permit.  It seems like a gap in municipal authority that towns and cities don't have actual control of their roads.  Or a gap in municipal leadership where permits are refused.  The headlines are mostly about a Wasaga Beach annual car rally that is unsanctioned.  I found  one analytic paper looking at policy response of local governments to unsanctioned events.  It references Port Dover as PD13. But I guess Port Dover has a sense of which roads to close and how to manage emergency routes. They've done this for a long time for PD13s. The air space will be formally closed but you can imagine the drones that will be up there.  And there is a lot of live streaming so we can watch from home. A live webcam will be on the top of the Pier Lighthouse.  I guess there will be webcams in many places.  Here's one.  Right now the street is empty of motorcycles.  But it is 6:40am. This is Epimedium in the garden.  A tiny spring flower. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

August 14 2021 - Port Dover Under the Weather

 

It was a non-event yesterday in Port Dover for the Friday the 13th motorcycle "rally".  The Norfolk County Mayor had declared it to be a "non-event."  I could see that they prepared for the crowds with portable sanitation booths, and lots of OPP directing traffic.  But there were to be no vendors and other services.  How many people ignored the declaration?  Up to 35,000 bikers came to town.   The town's businesses stayed open, too.   Pre-pandemic participation numbers in the summer top 100,000 people (and bikes).  From the pictures, it looked like there was lots of entertainment on the streets, so a lively time despite the circumstances. The articles don't have much to say in words - the point of the event is captured in pictures of bikes and bikers.   Here's an example: Gary Baker is a regular at Friday the 13th bike rallies in Port Dover. Baker, 72, of Corunna said he comes every year to the get-togethers. Now driving a Harley with a sidecar, Baker said he’s been to 48 Daytona Bike Weeks and 16 motorcycle festivals in Sturgis, South Dakota.  “I’ve been across the country (on my bike),” Baker said. Photograph taken on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press).   And this one: Michael Buchkovsky of Toronto cannot believe his eyes as he asks in delight, “What is it?” as Giuseppe Agrippa of Vaughan rolls up in his custom-built three-cylinder diesel chopper and enthralled the crowd at Port Dover on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press).   Here are combinations of the  abstract Aga Khan sculpture images with Flexifly manipulations.  It seems to me to look like views of the earth from space.

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A Guinness a Day

Is there a Guinness Record every single day of the year?  Yesterday's record was a man snapping 98 pencils in 60 seconds. The report claims that it is incredible that he's not the first man to attempt the record.  He beat the previous record of 90 pencils. And on Friday the 13th,  a B.C. bookstore in Victoria attempted to set the world record on the tallest book stack.  Did they do it?  No news.  So that would mean it is unlikely.  It is hard to tell - there are so many stacks of book records.  There's even the tallest stack of Guinness World Records books. And how many people were at Port Dover for Friday the 13th? There were only 75,000 people in Port Dover yesterday.  Attendance was 'light'.  The next Friday the 13th is in December, so no records will be broken then. Who was born and died on Friday the 13th?  Arnold Schoenberg, the composer.  He was reported to be terrified of the number all his life. Salt Spring Island is the home of David Wood Salt Spring Island Cheese.  Here are scenes from the farm.

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Past Friday the 13th

We consider the "Friday the 13th" combination to be unlucky.  It is the day when motorcycles converge on Port Dover and the date of Goderich's  Harry Potter Festival.   There isn't any online coverage of these events, or of Friday the 13th happenings.   What is readily available is the news in far away countries and I was attracted to zeenew.india.comwith headlines that included: Indian Railways to introduce airline-like food, passengers may have to pay more "In a bid to improve the quality of food served in trains, Indian Railways has decided to change its menu and is planning to copy the menu card of airlines. Read more Passengers should be served vegetarian biryani, rajma chawal, hakka noodles, pulav, and laddo, the committee suggested." Of course, here in Canada (and North America), airline food would be improved by copying railway food.   Today's picture shows another experiment with the Fusion lily and liquid line textures.