Marilyn's Photos - July 24 2025 - Dog's Breakfast

 

A dog's breakfast used to be scraps thrown into a bowl in a heap.  And if something was referred to as a dog's breakfast, it was an insult. Messy or poorly done.   Mirriam Webster's example is "It was a dog's breakfast of a match, and our coach was understandably upset." Millie's breakfast is something pleasant to me - rice, cheese, dental dog crunchies and a spoonful of "turkey stew for sensitive stomachs."  That's a big difference from what we fed our dogs in the 1960s.  Smelly canned dog food and table scraps.  Our dog at the time was partial to dessert scraps.    The science of veterinary nutrition emerged in the late 1800s. It was in the 1890s that dog biscuits and dry kibble came about, and in the 1920s that canned food was available.  In the 1980s nutritional requirements were published for dogs and cats.  That got the pet food producers kick-started and here we are with aisles and aisles of dog and cat food of all sorts. There are vegan products now available and as edible and palatable as animal-based diets for dogs, so they say. Dogs seem more like humans than we imagine.  Here are some things that some dogs like: ice cubes pickles dried bananas raw spinach watermelon Things your dog shouldn't eat?   candy, gum toothpaste - things sweetened with xylitol avocado onions and garlic grapes and raisins persimmons, peaches and plums   And then a cartoon to demonstrate that what dogs chew can be quite different than what dogs eat.

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Marilyn's Photos - July 23 2025 - Knock on Doors

 

I've "knocked" on 5 doors each week to deliver the Trillium Nomination letters.  I have experienced having to "knock" on the doors because there is no doorbell to ring.  And then I've experienced the doorbell with the video and voice connection with the home owner somewhere off site on their smart phone.  In the latter cases, I've not been able to understand anything the person says, it is scratchy noise.  How interesting that we have such different approaches to house security and to welcoming guests.   Mostly you can read lots of creepy stories of what is seen on the doorbell camera - sinister masked figures who might be intruders, dogs stealing packages, bears sniffing, and so on. Most of the reported stories seem made-up - here's the best example: "My little brother is a sleepwalker. We’d gotten an alert and saw that he had snuck out of the house while still asleep. My sister said she heard someone talking just outside the door. I went to look and saw my brother [sitting] on the porch couch apparently having a conversation with our grandpa, despite being alone. She says he was saying, “I love you” and “I’m going to miss you.” My dad got him back inside the house without waking him up, and nobody gave it much thought. Until a couple hours later, when my uncle called telling us my grandpa had passed while asleep. My little brother says he doesn’t remember anything, but we got it on video. We can’t hear what he’s saying too clearly, but he was definitely talking to someone, and he sure as heck said, “I’m going to miss you” at least twice." That one is kind of touching, don't you think?  Better than the scary clown pictures.  The biggest concern is home invasions and burglary.  Should we arm up our doors? Almost 5 million people in Canada have had their homes invaded. Breaking and entering is the most notable crime in Canada. There were 328 incidents reported per 100,000 population.  137,500 burglaries in 2020.   The front door is the most common entry point and midnight is the peak time period. Enough of the front door bell - here's a cute front door in the Buffalo Sumner District. I don't think there was a way of actually getting there.  It was all garden.  Do you open the door to water the plants?

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Marilyn's Photos - July 22 2025 - Go Make a Sandwich

 

The CBC covered misogynist expressions that sexist podcasters are promoting to mostly teenage boys.  I hadn't realized that "Go make me a sandwich" has quite a history.   "Make me a sandwich has been in use since the early 1990s as a catch-all phrase for dismissing women. It is often used in an attempt at humor, taking a dig at women who live outside prescribed gender roles. Make me a sandwich was introduced to a much wider audience during a Saturday Night Live skit from December 16th, 1995. Tim Meadows plays John-John Mackey, a weatherman who tries desperately to sound hip as he announces the weather forecast. Mackey eventually gets confrontational with a stormfront, and demands that it go make him a sandwich." That's from the meme dictionary on dictionary.com in 2018, so you can imagine the traction the phrase has now - there is a blog called Go Make Me A Sandwich which discusses online misogyny and promotes diversity.  Here's another - a facebook page called "I'm the boy.  You're the girl.  Make me a sandwich, or we don't talk today." What about the Youtube channel named  Deformed Lunchbox with the 26.7 million views - Make Me a Sandwich / Horror Short Film - How many sandwiches can Marcy make before going crazy? Wikipedia has a topic called List of Internet phenomena HERE - I scrolled through and did not find the expression - but then there ar hundreds of them.  They are fascinating to read as out of context they seem mostly stupid.  I keep reading another one to find something funny... Here's AI at work on my computer - can you read the sign? I certainly would not have tagged this image with sandwich.

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Marilyn's Photos - July 21 2025 - Credit - Words by

 

Brian Clarke, known as the world's greatest stained glass artist has died.  Not knowing anything about him, I was awestruck by pictures of his work.  One article had the credits at the end as  Credits - Words - Maia Gaffney-Hyde I wonder if Maia is an author, writer, or journalist.  These would be the normal titles for someone writing information, analysis or opinion content with a purpose.  Is the attribution for authorship changing?  Take music as an example.  It used to be lyrics.  Now I see "Music Credit Words" and not lyrics. There are lots of articles with a headline and then photo credit, and then words by. There's no indication of when this started and what has caused the attribution change.  I wonder who might know the answer to this?  Should I contact Maia Gaffney-Hyde herself to find out?  Or should I go back further?  I see an article from 2015 with credit - words by. So do a search for Brian Clarke stained glass artist and click on the images to see these pictures of brilliant colours in glass.  Here's a part of the Bahrain airport installation.

I realize how much I appreciate stained glass as I did a search on my own images, and there are lots of pictures of stained glass.  This one seems to mimic the light effect - a montage of two images. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Marilyn's Photos - July 20 2025 - Musk vs Trump -= Round 2

 

How many rounds will there be in the fight between Trump and Musk?  This seems like Round 2 to me.  But actually the alternate party threat has already been identified in the press as Round 2 -   "the first salvo in the second round of the break-up saga". So let's consider this Round 3. The Round's title in the press is "Trump's Epstein Crisis" Subtitle: The president's former first buddy is doing everything he can to rub salt into Trump's wounds. "Musk asked why “Ghislaine [Maxwell] is in federal prison for a hoax,” proved to be a precursor to a marathon of posts piling pressure on Trump and his administration.  Musk posted about Epstein 13 times in just over an hour on Wednesday afternoon...Musk also targeted Trump directly, referring to his flights on Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express...”  From the sidelines of Canada, I hadn't followed the Epstein case over the years - our own Paul Bernardo case makes us Canadians think twice about reading the stories of sexual abuse.  They make for nightmares and the story was banned from the Canadian press at the time. But this is different.  And why is that? Claiming there is nothing to see seems ludicrous when you "skim" the Wikipedia entry on Epstein, The entry is so long that one just starts to scroll through it.   Over 200 survivors have come forward or sued Epstein, his estate, the federal government and financial institutions to recover money for the victims.  How many haven't come forward? It is estimated that 63% of sexual assaults are unreported. That makes for a lot of offenders off in the wings, with low probabilities of nothing to see. The Wikipedia entry on the listings in the phone book is a who's who of celebrities, politicians and prominent people.  Among them are convicted or accused sex abusers such as Harvey Weinstein. With this many connections of various kinds to important and prominent people, it is normal that we ask which ones were involved with what? If there isn't a figuring out or a "reckoning", this will go on.  And this may go on anyway as there is a question of whether it is a "list" that has to be compiled through investigation. Experts and legal representatives for the survivors conjecture that the list was a mental one rather than written. Wouldn't an investigation possiblt uncover more than just the list of bad sexual predators/actors? it could reveal all kinds of illegal or quasi-legal dealings.  Now I've gotten to thinking there might be a swamp. A cover-up makes sense.   Back to the Musk-Trump battle:  Who would guess that the "Epstein Saga" is Round 3 in the Musk-Trump battle? And where will the Epstein Saga head next?  I think the N.Y. Times will start a full page each week, detailing the saga.  Just like it has a full page summary of Trump's activities.  These are meant for the history books, so time to start keep notes.

I did the Up Against the Wall Series during COVID and it seems relevant here.  What about the picture below?  The blue door propped against the wall so there's nowhere to get to and no way to get inside but the door came from somewhere and seems sufficiently important to be guarded.      Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos - July 18 2025 - Cutting Corners

 

I was reading the architecture section of the Globe and Mail this morning and it referred to corners in a residence, and I thought about the expression "to cut corners" - that wouldn't work in a building would it?   The expression likely originated in carriage driving and in hunting. That was in the 1800s. Shortcuts across corners is the simplest version.  And now it just means to take shortcuts to save time, effort, resources.  It can be positive or negative - cutting corners can mean doing incomplete work or something so poorly that it causes serious consequences or disaster.   Some lame jokes: I got a job at a circle making factory! Sadly, I was fired today because I was cutting corners The lady in the drive through at Wendy's asked if she could get a round burger patty and she got the answer.... "No sorry. We don't cut corners here" Did you hear The Pentagon was actually supposed to be an octagon? but they hired a government contractor that cut corners

It is the Annual Lily Show this weekend.  Here's a picture from a few years ago - lots of stems lined up on display at the Royal Botanical Gardens.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Marilyn's Photos - July 17 2025 - Whilst

 

What do you think of the word "whilst"?  Or do you think about it?  Cathal Kelly started his column with this word today.  That's in the Sports section.  It is about The Open.  It isn't about the British Open.  Or The British Open.  It is about The Open.  So much said with upper case and no adjectives - the point of his article.  Whilst is getting hard to find in the search engine controlled by Google's AI, so I went onto Duck A Go Go even though it also has an AI search component that prefaces all retrievals with its "answer."   The story goes that while and whilst mean the same when we use them as conjunctions. They both mean ‘during the time that something else happens’, or ‘in contrast with something else’.  And the obvious: While is much more common than whilst, and whilst sounds more formal: From writing explained.org: Whilst is an old word. It originates from Middle English, and like many words from this era, was first used in the 14th century. Whilst is common in formal British English, but in American English, you rarely see this word, even in the most formal occasion. Whilst and while are two spellings of the same word, which can be used as a conjunction or an adverb. It means at the same time or whereas. The article by Cathal Kelly in today's globe is:  "At The British Open, establishing linguistic supremacy is the name of the game." I sought out more quotes from Kelly, as he is very humorous in his sports writing. I found this one from his book:  “(Umbert Eco) told a story about his library, which contained ten thousand volumes. (Someone) asked if he’d read all of them... « Of course I haven’t read them all. If I had, why would I keep them? » That line hit me like a lighting bolt. That was the purpose of life. Not accumulating knowledge, or rounding out an area of expertise or building a collection. But recognizing that for some people who come to it early and without being forced, LIFE IS A LONG SEARCH FOR THE NEXT GREAT BOOK.” ― Cathal Kelly, Boy Wonders: A memoir

Model layouts and contest entries from narrow gauge conventions past. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos - July 16 2025 - 1 in 8 billion obituary

 

How many people have run a marathon at 100?  We think we know the answer - Fauja Singh- he ran a full marathon in 2011 at the age of 100 in Toronto.  Because his age could not be verified, he isn't listed in the Guinness Book of Records. He is in the news, having died.  Not of old age, but of being hit by a car in India.  His reported age was 114.  While his passport says he was born in 1911, the Indian government says there were no birth certificates in 1911. The Guinness record says:  "The oldest man to complete a 26-mile marathon was Greek runner Dimitrion Yordanidis, in Athens, Greece on 10 October 1976. At age 98, he finished in 7 hr 33 min. His name has also been transliterated as Dimitris Iordanidis." There is one website with a list of oldest marathoners, and they seem to have run their marathons in the two thousand and teens.  None are listed after 2020.   Singh's age is near the top of the oldest people still alive - you can find the list of oldest people with 50 of them coming in at between 115 years and 112 years.   If you are my age consider this:  it would mean there are 50 more years to live to get to that age.  It isn't a pleasant thought to me.  What do you think? CBC's coverage was very touching as CBC sports commentators had met Fauja Singh when he was in the Toronto Marathon and kept the marathon open to accommodate him finishing (at that age).   The story of his running is well-known:  He began running to recover from the tragic death of his son who was decapitated by a piece of corrugated metal blown by the wind.  Singh was with his son and witnessed this. "From a tragedy has come a lot of success and happiness," Singh is quoted as saying.

This popped up in my search of my pictures for something that was tagged as "old" and found this - does anyone know who the comedian is and what age is he now?

So instead of something old, I've found something irritating. This is a very irritating lily to  growers.  It has a disorder called fasciation that causes all of these blossoms to form a dense cluster at the top.  It can't be made to do this - it isn't genetic.  Too bad, as it would be a bridal bouquet a thousand times over each year.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca