Feb 26 2025 - Dog vs Cat

 

The Globe and Mail has a 2 page spread on cats and cat cafes.  "Does my cat love me" is noted by Trupanion in one of its articles to be searched between 3,000 and 4,000 times on Google every month.  The article goes on to identify 10 signs your cat loves you.    However, our social  view of cats vs. dogs seems closer to this one below. I found it at dfordog.co.uk blog:    Dog Diary 8:00 am - Dog food! My favourite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favourite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favourite thing! 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favourite thing! 12:00 PM - Lunch! My favourite thing! 1:00 PM - Played in the yard! My favourite thing! 3:00 PM - Wagged my tail! My favourite thing! 5:00 PM - Milk bones! My favourite thing! 7:00 PM - Got to play ball! My favourite thing! 8:00 PM - Watched TV with my people! My favourite thing! 11:00 PM - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing! Cat Diary Day 983 of my captivity My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. B------ds! There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage. Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs. I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe.... for now.

A little cottage garden in Buffalo's Summer District during the Buffalo Garden Walk Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 21 2025 - Hockey Score hits the Happiness Index

 

I was at a Rotary event yesterday evening and it ended before 800pm because of the hockey game.  They were arguing yesterday about booing the national anthems.  And that hockey should or should not have any political expression.  I'd just listened to the CBC commentator express the notion that flags and anthems don't belong in the NHL and are not an appropriate expression.   BUT he said that this is the hockey game of the decade or even the most important hockey game since 1972 with the Canadaa-USSR hockey game.  Because of politics.  For those who are skeptical, here's the visual demonstration online.  "Scores" of news feeds covering the game.  Look at those verbs and how much they reveal about each news agency.       Everyone commented on the change in lyrics by the national anthem singer Chantal Kreviazuk.  Not many news stories included the change.  Rather than sing "true patriot love in all of us command," Kreviazuk changed it to "true patriot love that only us command." CBC made this observation:  "Nobody booed the Canadian anthem when it played the second time after the game, since virtually all of the American fans had left." What does yahoo sports say about all this?  "Since taking office last month, Trump has made repeated comments about turning Canada into the 51st state of the U.S. and has also threatened to hit the country with significant tariffs. Canada has not taken any of that well, and the result has been a hostile response to "The Star-Spangled Banner" any time it's played in a Canadian NHL arena. The matter has taken hold of the country's national pride so much that it elevated the meaning of the 4 Nations Face-Off for many, and the resulting games between the U.S. and Canada were played like an Olympic gold medal match." Our moment of victory.

Isn't this great garden art?  This picture popped up in the database - it was taken at the Buffalo Garden Walk.  This sun looks like (Diefenbaker?) - is he is smirking or making a fart face.  Both fit very well as our response to the hockey game.  Let's hope we have nerves of steel for the ride ahead.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 22 2024 - 51st State

 

It is Christmas and Trump is trolling Canada to become the 51st state.  If you want to give a surprise gift this Christmas check out this: 51st State: Master Set (2016)  Build, deal and raise your state out of the ashes of the apocalypse.  Alternate Names 51 Штат: Полный Набор + 4 more Designer Ignacy Trzewiczek Artist Grzegorz Bobrowski Publisher Portal Games + 2 more The world you know no longer exists. There is no government. No army. No civilization. The United States have collapsed. And now, thirty years after the war started, new powers finally try to take control over the ruined country, try to establish a new order, try to control others and create a new country, a new State: the 51st State. 51st State is a card game in which players control one of the four powers (mutants, traders, New Yorkers and Appalachians) and try to build their very own new country. Players put new locations into the game, they hire leaders, and send people to work in buildings to gain resources and new skills. Every card in 51st State can be put into play in three different ways. You can invade a location to gain many resources once, or you can sign a contract with this location to gain one resource every turn, or you can attach the location to your State so you can use its skill. One card, three possibilities. Lots of decisions and choices that matter. It is unnerving, isn't it?  SO let's go on to Christmas entertainment.  How much did Santa pay for his sleigh? Nothing – it was on the house. A gingerbread man went to the doctor’s complaining of a sore knee. “A sore knee?” the doctor said. “Have you tried icing it?” How did Scrooge win the football game? The Ghost of Christmas passed. What is Santa’s favourite kind of pizza? One that’s deep-pan, crisp and even. The Christmas jumper my kids gave me last year kept picking up static electricity. I took it back and exchanged it for another one – free of charge.

Here's a bit of nostalgia from the Orchard Crescent garden in Toronto - this is the little willow chair in the snowy woods behind the house.

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Dec 20 2024 - Christmas Attire

 

Attire seems the correct word for what is worn for Christmas pictures - matching "oatmeal" sweaters are on the front page of the Globe and Mail's Christmas photos coverage.  Sounds elegant for Christmas attire. Last Saturday, I saw a family - mother, father, and baby -  at the Watering Can in matching pyjama-sort of outfits like this below.  I don't remember if they had reindeer antlers on their heads.  That pyjama/sweat pants look is creepy to me, and got creepier every time I saw them again.

The female staff in Shoppers Drug mart were wearing elf dresses yesterday.They are a retro 50s style, so that must mean this is a trend gaining momentum.  Halloween is very popular, so why not dress up at Christmas given all the opportunities.  The trend is more towards women's vintage 1950s dresses.  If you remember the dresses in the movie White Christmas, that's the look.  Even with white gloves.  Not as many pajama outfits this year.  But maybe families all own the matching pyjamas, so are being pitched something different this year.  As I look through the dozens of pictures, I notice that  the dog dress Christmas Candy costs more than the Elves Blue Reindeer jumpsuit for people.  What do you think of this? Here's a retro style dress with a novel print - white gloves would go with this outfit - I wonder if this is a Christmas Carol.  And we're back to asking why this dress is listed for $34 compared to a dog outfit for $48. Here's a holiday greeting from a few years ago - let's see if this much snow falls today.

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July 24 2024 - Summertime Bucket Lists

 

We'd better get doing things that are memorable in the summer.  Summertime is a time for fun.   So what are some funny things that would be in a person's "bucket list".  Summer has us reconsider all those "serious"  and "self-important" bucket list ideas - you know banzai skydiving, bungee jumping, walk the entire wall of China - well maybe not that one as it would actually take some time to complete and we'd be well past summer.. But what about these? Call someone to tell them you can't talk right now Have an argument with a mannequin at a store Hire two private investigators to investigate each other Only speak in song lyrics for a day Most of theorems on the  list are unpleasant - it is HERE.  That's because it is composed of pranks.  Questionable ones would get a person into various kinds of trouble.  But then summertime is a better time for pranks than winter.  We can cherry pick through the dozens of offerings and make up a summertime list: 50 Easy Things You Can Check Off Your Bucket List Today Birthday Bucket List: 60 Fun Things to Do on Your Birthday! Best Friend Bucket List: 50 Fun Things to Do With Your BFF Fashion Bucket List: 36 Must-Do Goals for Every Lover of Style Weird Food Bucket List: 60 Strange Foods From Around the World At Home Bucket List: 50 Fun Things to Do Without Leaving the House On the other hand, bucket lists have a purpose - they are a code phrase for a plan, a schedule and a set of activities.   "They teach us about ourselves and what is important to us, not what society says should be important to us. The act of creating a bucket list takes us out of our comfort zones and throws us into a realm of possibilities and questions." "A bucket list is an attempt to make life memorable and is consistent with Daniel Kahneman's peak-end theory, which holds that what people remember from hedonic events are their peaks. No peaks - no memories, or at least not very crisp ones." There are reverse bucket lists (looking at what you've already done", the bucket list effect (delaying things till retirement), annual lists vs D lists (before you die).  You can get a bucket list template to get is all done faster.   And then you won't miss out on the key memorable moments of summer.  Here's a hazy summer morning picture - James Park gardens in Toronto from a few years ago. This would be the kind of day where the bucket list wouldn't be considered.

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June 25 2024 - Milionaires at Living

 

We've become so focused on money that when "millions" or "billions" comes up, we can only think of money.  We've traded off living for wealth, which seems a poor decision.  "It is widely reported that, a person at rest takes about 16 breaths per minute. This means we breathe about 960 breaths an hour, 23,040 breaths a day, 8,409,600 a year. The person who lives to 80 will take about 672,768,000 breaths in a lifetime." "Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times." "An average moderately active person takes around 7,500 steps a day. If you maintain that daily average and are fortunate enough to live until the age of 80, you'll have walked approximately 216,262,500 steps in your lifetime."  (That's like walking around the planet four-and-a-half times). "You'll blink about 513 million times, sneeze 70,000 times, laugh out loud 290,000 times, sweat out 74,000 gallons of water, and spend over 27 years of your life sleeping. "You'll spend two-and-a-half years cooking, and over three-and-a-half years eating. You'll eat about 35 tons of food, which is like seven elephants." "Your fingernails will grow a total of nine-and-a-half feet. And you'll grow six-and-a-half feet of nose hair." "You'll personally use 4,239 rolls of toilet paper. That's about 50 a year. And you'll spend one-and-a-half years of your life in the bathroom." We're millionaires and billionaires. Here's the garden on tour day.

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May 11 2024 - There's a New Dr. Who who is one of Them

 

There's a new Dr. Who and they call him They/Them.  That's right, gender neutral or perhaps alien unidentifiable. Then what would make the show have his side-kick be a cute She/Her.  It seems to mock the gender neutral identify and undermine it so that  character can be considered a He/Him.  "Time" will tell how well that goes. "The original run of Doctor Who spanned 1963 to 1989. Since the show was revived in 2005, the Doctor has been played by Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith, in addition to Capaldi and Whittaker. Other stars, such as Karen Gillan and Billie Piper, have made their names on the show as the Doctor's "companion." It makes sense that with the last Doctor being a woman, then next one had to be a "whatever" ir nature a "Who Knows".   Who should play the gender-neutral character?  Hard to know. It seems that television content is a direct reflection on our everyday social mores and thoughts. Even a "television series" about far-distant planets and time travel.  Did television replace religion as the guide for everyday living?  Maybe Roger Silverstone's 1994 book "Television and Everyday Life" has some wisdom on this.   Famous words in a Sydney, AU garden.  Little did Darwin know he words would apply to science fiction television drama.

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April 16 2024 - Clone Me to Do my Job

 

That's the headline - "People making digital clones of themselves to do their work."   That's what they report about Deepak Chopra.  The clone can mimic thoughts and speech.  “The clone will learn how they think about the world,” Delphi co-founder and CEO Dara Ladjevardian told the Daily Mail this week. “We have a readiness score to show how ‘ready’ a clone is in representing that person. They can also upload their voice, so the clone learns how they speak as well.” There's a monthly fee between $29 to $399 a month.  This is already at work in Japan.  It is promoted for coaches and experts.  What about what it says for bosses - who can share his personality, thoughts, management, philosophy and other topics that are normally difficult for employees to ask questions about or communicate with ordinary workers".   I guess so, if you insist. Here's the promotional sell: 'If you ask a relationship coach to describe a happy relationship, they will tell you their strong opinions. These opinions are why their audience follows them."  I was hoping I can clone me to listen to people who bhave like bosses and other "experts" so that I don't have to be there in person and be polite. Ha ha on me. This garden statue seems to be on theme.

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Mar 25 2024 - Puddings are Past Tense

 

Pudding comes to mind ia something in a little Jello box in the supermarket.  You would open the envelope and little crystals would come out to be mixed with milk.  And a magical instant pudding was the result.  There were flavours like chocolate, butterscotch, strawberry and vanilla.  Then there were home-made puddings from tapioca and rice but there was magic in the little Jello boxes. I see these various puddings are now referred to as "retro desserts".  Good point - they were popular in the early 20th century and at their height 1950s and 1960s.  They were advertised as a boon to the busy mother.   These don't seem to be related to puddings of the past. Ancient puddings were of two types: meat-based or sweet puddings of flour, nuts and sugar - think Christmas pudding - almost a cake.  Puddings have a long tradition in many countries.   The picture below shows the place of puddings within Sweet Royalty.  Doesn't Christmas pudding look like a king@ So it seems to me that it is in the 20th century where the food giants put the name pudding to little boxes of crystals that made gummy goo.  And then restaurants and diners with the glass-door fridges could display them. I remember that our mothers could let us girls make puddings as there wasn't much that could go wrong.  Packaged puddings are still on the shelf.  They came to my attention during COVID as I stood in the pudding aisle in a long line waiting to cash out.  There are a lot of flavours and boxes, but they have declined:   "Jello is high in sugar and low in fibre and protein and an unhealthy food choice."  I do think it is just the packages that changed and one can buy the little pudding cups in the refrigerated section now.   Isn't this a pretty scene - Filoli - one of those grand American heritage homes and gardens.  it is south of San Francisco.

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Feb 14 2024 - Maestro

 

Remember when a women couldn't be an actor?  It had to be actress.  But then a female doctor isn't a doctress - it is doctor.  So many variations in English. Looking at the headline today, Seiji Ozawa's obituary gives him the job title of Maestro.  Isn't that so compelling - it is almost majestic.  Maestro refers to both men and women.  If you got more than one Maestro together, they would be called Maestri.  Isn't that rather similar to a flock of birds or to goose and geese.   To be a Maestro, one's job would be either a composer, orchestra director or opera singer.  Also a great violinist.  Another definition from Wikipedia:  "respected composers, performers, impresarios, musicologists, and music teachers."  As well, there are positions in the orchestra that include Maestro in the name.  But don't think it is all about music.You can be a barista maestro or work for Maestro software, and there are hundreds of jobs listed under maestro in canada.  Maestro sounds just too good to leave it to the classical music field.

Isn't this a cute little garden shed.  It is part of the Painted Ladies Series, though this one was found in Florida and not in Grimsby Beach. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 19 2023 - Everything Chocolate

 

What is the movie where everything is made of chocolate?  It is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - the 2005 version directed by Tim Burton.  The latest version has real chocolate - so won't that river be  chocolate? f And everything is edible, so they say, in this version compared to earlier versions.  But I read that it isn't a chocolate river this time.  It seems to be a scenic blue-and-white candy river where a chocolate boat floats on top.  We will have to find out for ourselves.   Do you want to know the names of the candies in the original movie?  They are HERE.  The article capitalizes every single letter of every chocolate/candy name: SQUELCHY SNORTER (1971) GOO-FILLED GOURD KICKED BY MIKE TEAVEE (2005) CHOCOLATE BIRD HATCHING FROM AN EGG IN GRANDPA JOE’S MOUTH (2005) HAIR TOFFEE (2005) HOVER CHOC (2023) PRINCE PONDICHERRY’S CHOCOLATE CASTLE (2005) HAIR REPAIR ECLAIR (2023) WONKA WHIPPLE-SCRUMPTIOUS FUDGEMALLOW DELIGHT (2005) There's a lot to a Wonka Chocolate Factory.

The old versions versus the new - everything is edible in the new version.  The Niagara Parks winter garden, or perhaps the winter blizzard garden. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca