Nov 22 2024 - SuperAgers on Parade

 

Yesterday's news reported that the projection for 2050 is that more than 80% of Americans will be obese or overweight.  I remember when 80% of Americans were right-weighted.  That's what I call it - right-weighted.  Not below or above. Just average and normal.  That's long-gone now, isn't it?  But will I be here in 25 years to see all that wobbly walking around? Maybe, or maybe not.  There's a two page spread in the Globe and Mail about research on "SuperAgers" - really old people who have very "sharp" brains. They are at least over 80with a brain that has memory performance of a 50 or 60 year old.   I guess the implication is that the rest of us might get to a great old age, and have a brain to match the age. Which doesn't sound good. But then we likely won't have the cognitive skills to worry about obesity.  Once a research topic starts, then it takes off into the realm of self-improvement.  There they are - articles about the "habits of SuperAgers' - as though it is something to be developed. That's that fixation on nurture over nature - we want control of these things. For example, here's what these SuperAgers do: live an active lifestyle, challenge themselves, are social butterflies with strong social connections and lots of social activities.  One article says they talk to their friends a lot.  We seem to never be free of those who want us to "better ourselves"  to become "better selves".  So it used to stop with the "10 things women over 50 should never wear."  They don't bother to tell us over-70 year olds what not to wear very much. We can expectt the articles get more frequent with the 10 things women over 80 should do every day and what not to wear doing them.   Compare that to the real estate section in the Globe with a two page article on a Grimsby Beach Painted Lady for sale at $900,000. It is a wonderful rticlel with beautiful pictures. Wouldn't  that be a SuperAger in the housing category!  The community started in 1859 - one of the Methodist Camps that joined in the Chautauqua community movement in the 1870s.

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Aug 31 2024 - Back to School Advice - Ask Ferris Bueller

 

Ferris Bueller came to my mind last week - he was delivered to us by the CBC quoting his big line of the movie.    "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." I think it might be his only  great line, but then who is the real star of the movie?  The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder and where is it now? There never was a real Ferrari in the movie - the car(s) were replicas.  One resurfaced in 2010, fully repaired and was auctioned in London for $122,000.   I got to thinking more about Ferris' advice.  It may be quite important to students this year - they will have more time to look around with smart phones banned in schools.    We adults seem to respond slowly to life moving pretty fast.  How long has the debate about smartphones as learning disruptors gone on?  I would suggest it is at least in the 10 year range.  Currently over 70 percent of children have smartphones by age 12. We know things start much younger:  I recently saw a 2 year old in a stroller out for a walk watching the smartphone not the scenery.  So Ferris Beuller's Day Off may get a next film.  Supposedly it focuses on the two valets who took the car for a spin.   Reddit has already asked the question:  What would Ferris's day look like in 2024.  Here are some answers: Ferris'd be a whole lot older Ferris’ parents wouldn’t live in the same house Ferris would've been able to submit an excused absence report online, making it uneccessary for him to have to fake his sickness & run from his principal. Cameron would've been diagnosed with some sort of mental health issue, and either be on some type of medication, or in therapy The movie would've ended 20-30 minutes earlier, since half of the plot would've been unnecessary It is time for a holiday weekend.  The thunderstorm is passing over and we'll have a nice afternoon.  Still time for a summer visit to Grimsby Beach.

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Sep 12 2023 - International Students

 

Who has the most international students?  The US - almost 1 million in 2020 - China and India The UK - almost 551,000 in 2020 - China, India and the European Union Australia - 458,000 - China, India and Nepal Canada - 431,000 - India, China and France China - 377,000 from Korea, Thailand and Pakistan Compared to the statistics above, a CBC articles says that there were 800,000 international students in Canada in 2022.   Who in Canada brought in the most international students?  Conestoga College - 21,000 in 2022.  Did you know that 62% of the post-secondary student permit approvals were at the college level - not the University level. What about the universities?  The 2022 #1 rank was University Canada West with 10,110 permits approved, then University of Toronto with 7,050.  And who is University Canada West?  It is a private institution in Vancouver, established in 2004.    This has been in the news in the last few months and weeks - the housing crisis and the problem of international students finding jobs to sustain their stay.   The ever-increasing numbers have happened in order to shore up the revenues of post-secondary education institutions, particularly in Ontario.  Doug Ford reduced tuition fees in 2018 in Ontario.  That's the trigger that prompted the significant increase in international students - institutions had to make up the gap in revenues.  He said it was to "keep more money in the pockets of Ontario students and families".  Instead, it has led to the shift to international students who bring in much higher tuitions - now 3/4 of tuition revenue.  India seems to be supporting our postsecondary institutions. This combines with the cascading effect of lack of student housing and jobs to support so many students.  Is this a Canadian issue?  It seems to be everywhere.  A Guardian article highlighted Canada, and then turned to Scotland with students homeless, Turkey students homeless, and California using offshore barges. UK has the issue. This housing issue has been decades in the making.  "The 2008 financial crisis is widely linked to housing policy failures in North America and Europe."  That's from a 2017 article HEREoutlining the depth and scale of the international housing crisis.   Where is Canada in this?  The Canadian "crisis" can be tracked back to 1987 when the federal government decided it shouldn't be involved in housing, and gave it to the provinces along with the funding.  However, not all the provinces spent the money on housing.   So we'll be seeing a lot more on the international student crisis along with the housing crisis in the coming months.   The "good old days" when Grimsby Beach's Painted Ladies were lake-side cottages.

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Aug 9 2023 - Secrets Resort

 

Who would guess that a search on secrets brings up the Secrets Resort.  Not just the first page, but every page.  Silly me.  "Discover all-inclusive, adults-only Secrets® Resorts & Spas and indulge in an extra measure of romance in exquisite luxury beachfront settings amid the allure of the Caribbean and Mediterranean. Each Secrets resort offers a unique experience for adults looking to escape the everyday and delight in the warm rhythm of an intimate, tropical getaway." Gives me a sense of the sleazy and not the storyline of what's on the website: "Elegantly appointed suites, pristine pools, and beach views provide the ultimate backdrop for unparalleled pampering, romantic rendezvous and lasting memories. Create your latest storyline at Secrets… we’ll never tell."  What will they never tell?  The google lead promotional question continues the game: "What happens at a Secrets resort?" To find out, head over to trip advisor.ca and all the things associated with "secrets resorts" comes to life - that "never tell" phrase implies that secrets is a swingers place to all the people posting on tripadvisor. Here's a post: "It's very entertaining reading all of the posts. All of the names seem similar Secrets, Desires, Temptations, Dreams and we haven't visited any of them. We aren't into the swinging thing, don't care if someone else is, but didn't want to end up at a resort where we were uncomfortable." And so on... you can even get Secrets resorts on eBay - "Countless new and used items."  Maybe artificial intelligence would be a bit useful on google itself so that its search results make sense.  Here we are at the secrets of the sunrise at Grimsby Beach.

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Aug 15 2022 - Shortcomings

 

Is there really an opposite for the word shortcoming, particularly shortcomings.   It seems that the English language has many negative words without a positive counterpart.   If the prefix or suffix is negative, such as 'dis-' or -'less', the word can be called an orphaned negative. There's a long list of them in wikipedia HERE. What about underwhelm and overwhelm - what would it be to be whelmed?   That sounds hilarious, doesn't it?  What a dress she was wearing - I was whelmed by it. On the other hand, there are quite a few "whelmed" headlines on google.   How about nonchalant vs chalant - he carried himself in a most chalant way. Even better are these pairings:  irritate vs ritate and innocuous vs nocuous.  One that I regularly enjoy is inert vs ert.  In Scottish English you might say feckless and feckful.  That's because they both come from the Scottish word 'feck'.  It can mean part, majority or value, worth.  If somebody has feck then they are feckful – efficient, energetic, and powerful.  Equally if they are feckless then they are lacking all those attributes and pretty useless as a result. There are many bloggers who write about the English language.  I quote this one on the topic of words without counterparts: "I could write a story here about a macculate and peccable guy who tried to radiate a sense of ertia and eptitude by being chalant and plussed despite the fact that he was neither kempt nor couth."

Here's one of our prettiest Painted Lady houses in Grimsby Beach.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com

August 18 2021 - World's Silliest Questions

 It popped into my head:  what are the silliest questions we might ask?  We've looked at life's unanswerable questions.  Is there an overlap?  Not according to the Thoughtcatalog.com website.  And typically, the internet portrays questions as "silly" or "crazy" while they often fall into ignorant and stupid.  I expect that the majority likely come from children using the internet as an encyclopedia.  And the minority come from people posing to be stupid so they can ask such outrageous things.  the questions that are circulated come from Yahoo Answers.  Here are a few stand-outs that made me laugh:

• Should I tell my parents I’m adopted?
• Do midgets have night vision?
• If I eat myself will I get twice as big or disappear completely?
• Does it take 18 months for twins to be born? Or 9?
• Do you think NASA invented thunderstorms to cover up the sound of space battles?
• How big is the specific ocean?
• Why are the holes in cats fur always in the right places for their eyes?

The questions I consider non-silly and no laugh happens move over to the list of ignorant and stupid,  Most often grammar and spelling are deficient, punctuation is ever-present, and swear words  limit the content significantly.

There is an entry in Wikipedia about stupid questions.  It begins with Carol Sagan's words: "There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism.  But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question".  

Carl didn't experience the full force of the internet and Yahoo Answers, did he?  He died in 1996. Since then the pile of stupid questions has grown large enough that they've been classified: 

• Those questions that have already been answered, but the asker wasn't listening or paying attention.
• Questions that can be answered on one’s own with complete certainty. After all, information found online or from other sources can be wrong, so it never hurts to check.
• Questions of which the answer should be painfully obvious to any person with a pulse who has lived on this Earth for more than a decade.
• Questions that include ridiculous or hypothetical assumptions.
• Questions asked by someone who already knows the answer but is trolling the person they are asking.
   

So I moved on, and went cherry picking in the list of silly/stupid questions and to find these two and think we might move them to unanswerable /existential questions:

• What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
• If the world is going to end, do you buy, sell, or hold stocks? 

On to our picture of the day: we're again visiting the Grimsby Beach Painted Ladies today.  This is 13 Fair Ave. Here's the story of the area's houses:

In 1846, Methodists gathered on the shore of Lake Ontario on land owned by J.B. Bowslaugh in a ten day temperance rally that evolved into a significant Chautauqua site.   
 
Grimsby Beach continues to echo with the charms of its storied past. In fact, these cottages built for the summer residence of a temperance camp, remain the most prominent connection to the rich history of the area. Now, the intricate fretwork and colors of the cottages inspire a vibrant mood at the beach which is a reminder of the spirit that inhabited the area.

 

Aug 17 2021 - Nostalgic Bobby Darrin

 

PBS is a master of music nostalgia for its fund-raising campaigns.  From 1999 to 2018 they have presented  music nostalgia fund-raisers that were produced by TJ Lubinsky.  There have been over 30 national television specials from PBS.  He must be a busy person.  He's produced lots of shows - The Very Best of the Ed Sullivan Show and even episodes of Dr. Who for the US market.   TJ Lubinsky's facebook page lists all his "former" jobs.  He has a sense of humour, as they include these: Former Waiting Staff and soda jerk at Irv's Flamingo Diner Former Soda jerk at Days Ice Cream & Bon Bons Former I worked counter #2 at The Jetty Joint aka "The Sand Bar" 2nd Ave Stand Last night's show was Folk Rewind.  What stood out? Bobby Darin was included and the clip - either late 1960s or early 1970s in a Las Vegas tuxedo singing his well-known hit "If I were a Carpenter".   He also wrote "Simple Song of Freedom."  Sadly, he died of heart failure at 37 years of age in 1973. What is Bobby Darin's strange fact? "His real mother was Nina Cassotto, the woman he grew up believing was his sister. Nina had gotten pregnant as an unwed teenager, and she and Polly(her mother)  decided that it would be better if Polly assumed the role of mother. While he later learned the truth about his mother, Darin never discovered who his father really was." We've given Olive Oyl the post-card treatment today.  Happy Birthday to Deb Osborne!

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Garrison Keillor, American humorist, is still with us.  While the Prairie Home Companion is no longer on our radio, he's written a memoir as well as The Lake Wobegon Virus where he takes us back to his small prairie town.  You can read the first Chapter HERE.  And he writes every day:  you can sign up for the daily Writer's Almanac HERE.  It describes the Almanac as a uniquely calming combination of history and poetry.   Today's writing includes this quoted poem of the day by William Carlos Williams.  This is Just To Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold Keillor references the parodies of this poem.  The parodies began in the 1960s with Kenneth Koch’s “Variations on William Carlos Williams.”  Here's the first as an example:             I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.             I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do             and its wooden beams were so inviting. . . Over time, the poem became a high school exercise example and students wrote their own versions. It has been taken up by many people and  Here is a New York Magazine article on the poem with examples of recent Twitter parodies. Perhaps we could find the little poem in the Little Library in Grimsby Beach on Betts Ave.

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July 12 2020 - People also ask

What about that box "People Also Ask".  For today's date they asked what day is July 2020.  It got my attention.   Here's an article explaining it: You’ve likely seen the People Also Ask (Related Questions) boxes in SERPs (search engine results page). These accordion-like question and answer boxes are Google’s way of saying, “Hey, you beautiful searcher, you! These questions also relate to your search... maybe you're interested in exploring these too? Kick off your shoes, stay a while!” That article explains how there can be an infinite number of People also asked responses. That article is for technical types.  All the articles are for technical types.  Way to technical and dry for us on a Sunday. Here's the outstanding Google joke of the day: Hello! Is this Gordon's Pizza? Google: No sir, it's Google's Pizza. Did I dial the wrong number? Google: No sir, Google bought the pizza store. Oh, alright - then I’d like to place an order please. Google: Okay sir, do you want the usual? The usual? You know what my usual is? Google: According to the caller ID, the last 15 times you’ve ordered a 12-slice with double-cheese, sausage, and thick crust. Okay - that’s what I want this time too. Google: May I suggest that this time you order an 8-slice with ricotta, arugula, and tomato instead? No, I hate vegetables. Google: But your cholesterol is not good. How do you know? Google: Through the subscriber's guide. We have the results of your blood tests for the last 7 years. Maybe so, but I don’t want the pizza you suggest – I already take medicine for high cholesterol. Google: But you haven’t taken the medicine regularly. 4 months ago you purchased from Drugsale Network a box of only 30 tablets. I bought more from another drugstore. Google: It's not showing on your credit card, sir. I paid in cash. Google: But according to your bank statement, you did not withdraw that much cash. I have another source of cash. Google: This is not showing on your last tax form unless you got it from an undeclared income source. WHAT THE HELL? ENOUGH! I'm sick of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. I'm going to an island without the internet, where there’s no cell phone line, and no one to spy on me ... Google: I understand sir, but you’ll need to renew your passport ... it expired 5 weeks ago. **** Peeeep ****** I have been out first thing in the mornings taking pictures of Grimsby gardens for the Trillium awards.  This is the Ford Cottage in Grimsby Beach - one of my favourites.

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May 7 2020 - Princess cruising

I wondered about the status of the cruise ship industry.  We're starting to imagine the post-pandemic society and in my imagination, cruise vacations are equivalent to the black plague.  But that might not be the case for others. The princess.com website says nothing about COVID-19 - it has lots of deals for Mother's Day and recommendations for vacations.  If you click on  the tiny strip at the top that says travel advisories, it said yesterday that it is extending the pause of global ship operations for the remaining 2020 summer season.  What's the status of cruise ships now?  There's a Wikipedia entry for that.  It says as of May 2nd, there were over 40 cruise ships with confirmed positive cases on board. One cruise ship remains at sea - the Artania, with 8 passengers scheduled to disembark at the end of May.  There are 100,000 crew members on ships with many unable to be repatriated because cruise lines refuse to cover the cost. Yesterday the Ruby Princess arrived in Manila Bay to let 5,000 Filipino crew members get tested before disembarking. There are 16 other cruise ships at anchor there.  In all there are more than 17,000 Filippino workers on ships who have returned home - to quarantine. This is the ship that caused Australia's biggest cluster - a quarter of Australia's 97 deaths can be traced back to the Ruby Princess. Cruise ships are still booking travel and people are still booking their vacations for next year. Supposedly that is because of generous cancelation policies.  I haven't heard any CBC interviews on the cruise ship industry post-pandemic.  CBC did look at air travel yesterday.  It interviewed experts on what air travel will look like in the future.  Expect long and complicated procedures in airports. Perhaps the Economist's pessimistic headline says it:  Imagine the post-pandemic misery of business travel.   I was out photographing orchards yesterday and took this picture of this cute house in Grimsby.  It is at the Lake where the Chautauqua community originated.  The little lanes of colourfully painted houses are known as Grimsby Beach.

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Feb 20 2020 is 0220 2020

Today is a great date when viewed in numbers.  It isn't as great as February 2, 2020 which is a palindrome day. Considering numbers, I hear people say "do the math", when they are adding two numbers.  This seems odd to me to equate arithmetic and mathematics.   However, it is accepted practice to refer to arithmetic as mathematics in simple conversations.  What is the difference between the two?  I looked for some answers  from the experts that might be interesting: "The most obvious difference is that arithmetic is all about numbers and mathematics is all about theory." "Arithmetic is to mathematics as spelling is to writing." "You can refer to everything at the zoo as an 'animal' because they all belong to the animal kingdom —reptiles, amphibians, even insects and invertebrates," says Dr. Math. "But you couldn't use a more specific word like "mammal" to refer to animals in general." Looking for fun arithmetic jokes is itself not fun:  there is general confusion between arithmetics, mathematics, and numbers.  As the likelihood of finding some funny jokes dwindles, I am drawn to the ridiculous headline at the bottom of the feed:   Baby has never eaten sugar or carbs and the result is incredible We know this is one of those lead-in headlines with some sort of punchline, and we're curious. The original article comes from the dailymail.co.uk in 2015 and has lists of what "Little Grace" of Brisbane, Australia eats in her paleo diet.  There is the claim that the baby never gets sick.  But there is one meal that has to be the punchline to the article.  Why?  Because it supposedly is breakfast: "Eggs fried in coconut oil with roast veggies including sweet potato, carrots, potatoes and steamed broccoli, plus a quarter of an avocado and a small scoop of sauerkraut." Can we imagine a baby eating sauerkraut?  That entertains me for the day. Today's image is an abstract of Grimsby Beach at night - that's the lighthouse light on the horizon.

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From Summer to Winter

The last day of August seems as significant as the last day of the year.  In fact, there is a place on Earth where the temperatures today can be as cold as Christmas right now. Where is it?  Oymyakon, Russia.  I looked it up and today it is actually 19 degrees Celsius.  So where is the coldest place right now? I found a chart of the hottest and coldest.  There is a place in the Antartica that is currently -110.6 degrees Fahrenheit. At the other end of the scale, the hottest place is Basrah-Hussen in Iraq at 119.3 degrees Fahrenheit.  I found these at the eldoradoweather.com site.  Antarctica isn't a place to most of us.  One can only imagine scientists living there.  The only visitors we can imagine are tourists.  That pretty well describes Antarctica.  It doesn't have a spring or fall - just summer and winter. It has no commercial industries, no towns or cities and no permanent residents.  There are numerous scientific bases - 65 in total. You can read about it here in Cool Antarctica.  So whoever is there now may be able to say that summer is turning to winter.   At the opposite end of the weather spectrum, things are quite different.  People live in Basra-Hussen in Iraq.  It is an ancient city.  It is one of the ports from which Sinbad the Sailor journeyed.  During the summer months, it is consistently one of the hottest cities on the planet, where temperatures regularly exceed 50 degrees Celsius or 122 degrees Fahrenheit.  Add to that high humidity sometimes exceeding 90% because of tis proximity to the marshy Persian Gulf.   So I guess heat wins over cold in human habitation. A few pictures from Grimsby Beach's Painted Ladies today.  There's whimsy and fun on the Lake - no worries about the hottest or coldest there.