Marilyn's Photos - Mar 11 2026 - The Scary Side of Being in Airplanes

 

I saw a headline that got my attention and thought about what makes headlines get attention.  This one was about never wearing black socks in an airplane.  The answer?  They are a tripping hazard.  I guess so, given there is no room for legs in front of seats, so all the aisle passengers will have their great big, black-socked feet out in the aisle, causing physical injury to attendants.  I think there might be much scarier things inside an airplane.  The black socks idea, though, got one’s attention so I asked about  “Weird problems inside airplanes.” Aren’t there more thnings than I imagined possible. Here’s the summary: increased flatulence due to pressure changes, unhygienic, rarely cleaned coffee/tea pipes, freezing cold windows, severe odour, unruly passengers and insects in the cabin.  Taste alteration caused by low humidity and low cabin pressure can make food taste bland. Physical fatigue and dehydration can cause dizziness or fatigue. Cabin pressure can cause uncontrollable crying or emotional outbursts.  Do you know that scorpions have been found on board airplanes? This must be a life-time achievement - a support turkey was on a flight. There’s a state called “lizard brain” where passengers exhibit the following:  heightened emotions, “irrational territorialism” and “ambien zombies.”  The last one happens when passengers mix sleeping medication (Ambien) with alcohol and then perform bizarre acts while essentially sleepwalking. With so many things possible, here are the code words that flight attendants use for passenger behaviours and these are only some of them: Gate lice for those crowding the boarding area Philip - for passenger I’d like to punch,  Bob /Betty - best on board for someone pleasant Screamers for unruly travelers Mermaids for those hogging seats Gallery queen/king - a passenger who tries to hang out in the galley area Hot coffee - very attractive passenger Coach roach - someone who tries to sneak into a high-class cabin Deadhead - an airline employee travelling for work Crotch watch - checking passengers have seatbelts fastened Blue juice - airline toilet water So today’s game might be to check off the list every time we spot one of these things in our daily activities.  Isn’t this a lovely Magnolia?  It is Sieboldii, a small-flowered variety that blooms throughout the summer.  This was in the corner house garden in Toronto.

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Marilyn's Photos - Mar 10 2026 - How Old is Superman?

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to make action movies again.  He’s 78.  The news stories say he’s in talks to reprise roles in sequels for Conan the Barbarian, Commando, and Predator.  He emphasizes thta the new roles are “age-appropriate.” Superman, in contrast, has an age that varies significantly depending on the version of the character and the particular movie. He has been portrayed as being between 25 and early 40s.  While he was “created” in 1938 so is 88 years old, he is often portrayed as immortal or aging very slowly - part of his creation story. So it isn’t unusual that the age of an action character has its own life.  It sused to be that an actor would be in their 30s and then moved up to just under 40 by 2015. After 2015, the age has increased to an average age of just over 48. The article says the industry has shifted to favour maturity.  Or maybe we are able to manipulate our appearance to resemble younger people.  Would Schwarzenegger be performing any stunts and fast running?  It made me think of Harrison Ford who was still making Indiana Jones movies in 2023 at over 80 years of age. Compare that to Sean Connery being 69 when he played Ford’s father, and Ford was actually 57 in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  I don’t know of any 100 year-old actor who might be around to play his father now. So doesn’t this point to there being a gerontocracy in action films? AI responds with “yes” and backs that up with the “60 is the New 40” chant.  Think George Clooney. in his 60s looking much younger. Ahh… realize that with sophisticated plastic surgery techniques, 60 does look like 40.  And articles indicate he’s had plenty.  There are many stories of George Clooney pranks.  Here’s one of his lines that goes with today’s topic:  Regarding a potential reunion of the Ocean’s cast, he joked it would “like The Golden Girls.” The Snow Drops are blooming throughout my gardens, along with a few early Crocuses.

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Marilyn's Photos - Mar 8 2026 - Celebrity Ozempic News

 

I am catching up.  Today, it is adding a new term to my News Subject Index.  There is a category of news stories I haven’t looked at much - yes it is Celebrity Ozempic News.  I should have realized with the statistics saying how many millions are on Ozempic - 3 million in Canada - and how many more will be when it is covered by provincial health plans.   There’s more things to cure besides weight loss and diabetes for the GLP-1 drug. So Oprah Winfrey made the Ozempic headlines at the Paris Fashion Show this last week. There have been photos and stories on her Ozempic use since 2023.  This week she looked particularly wonderful and the press paid attention with a good-news story.   Such an important celebrity - likely the most influential, wealthy, and impactful media figures in the world.  The richest Black woman in the world. So that means a lot of experts and medical professionals are there to be quoted about Oprah’s weigh-loss. The scientists get their names in the news with a quote or two.  Media and public commentators weigh in with comments on “too thin” or “her honesty.” Most celebrities don’t seem to have opinioned on Oprah’s status - they “disclose” their own use of Ozempic.   Joan Collins, over ninety, in comparison, is making her own news on body image.  She has criticism on Ozempic and its “effects.”  But mostly, she’s had a perfect figure her entire life - and there are dozens of articles and pictures of her at 92 with headlines like “stuns in white swim suit.”  She’s been posing in swim suits for as long as she’s been a celebrity so you can doom scroll pictures of her in swim suits.  How many?  AI always gets hedgy over this - it doesn’t want to do any real work of counting.  It says there are hundreds of professionally archived images, so multiple thousands is likely.  Do you notice that this isn’t a 92 year-old face in this picture?  I don’t know what is she actually wearing. She seems to be the cover-up Queen.  When it comes to Ozempic, what I notice in these articles is the language used.  There are such phrases as “admission to using” and  “admitted”, “disclosed”, and “confessed.”  Doesn’t this reveal our societal perspective around weight and weight-loss.   So here we are - well into the 21st century and it turns out that weight-loss drugs and artificial intelligence are the transformers of our lives. Isn’t this such a hopeful image - Sweet Cicely in the early morning garden.

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Marilyn's Photos - Mar 7 2026 - Stumped Again

 

There’s new news and there’s old news.  The definition says that new news comes from digital and social media with instant, interactive and personalized updates.  Old news comes from legacy media like TV and print and provides in-depth, curated, and highly credible reporting, though it operates on a slower, one-way and more repetitive model.  I would suggest that definition is an “old definition.”  I bet we could find old and new definitions these days.  It is that so many  things that show up in news feeds as new news turn out to be old news - stories with dates from a few years ago that are resurfaced with new headlines to make them seem like current news.  This is probably to address that other definition of old news -  information that is already known and no longer interesting, and becoming more prevalent.  It could also be that there is old news that gets better with age.  I thought this might have to do with the headlines of the stories.  I came upon these Canadian headlines and didn’t care how new or old they are.  These seemed humorously Canadian: “Goat ‘arrested’ after walking into Saskatchewan Tim Hortons, refusing to leave: ‘He was very unhappy’” “Saskatchewan RCMP head to ‘frosh’ party, bring chips, salsa” “Three men sentenced for $18-million Quebec maple syrup heist” “The most Canadian car thief ever returns stolen vehicle with full tank of gas” “Have a good day: B.C. man politely asks family of bears to leave his yard” “Snow go: Canadian winter festival cancelled because of snow” “Sask. ranchers stunned as beaver herds 150 cattle” “Canadians slowly but surely dropping the famous ‘eh’ from their speech, linguist says” “Hockey game breaks out after massive pileup on Quebec highway” The Robins and the Red-Winged Blackbirds are back.  I wonder who these bird houses are for with their tiny little holes. Could wrens fit in?  We have some very noisy wrens who have started their spring songs.

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Marilyn's Photos - Mar 6 2026 - Victoria's Blossom Count

 

There is spring somewhere on the planet - probably all the time.  The fact that Victoria - on the other side of Canada will have more than 44 billion blooms counted by March 12th seems amazing compared to the view out my window.  Yes, the Snowdrops are starting to bloom in my garden.  the Witch hazel bush has little yellow flowers.  So  the Snowdrops would make my personal garden’s flower count around 100 blooms right now.  Isn’t that paltry in comparison to the winning class last year?  Margaret Jenkins Elementary School counted 11 billion blooms, with one classroom doing most of the counting to win the Bloomingest Classroom.  I didn’t know we had that kind of attention span anymore.  It gives one hope for our future.   The current count right now is over 31 million.  Here’s something new this year:  the counting guidelines: “To manage the massive numbers (tens of billions), organizers provide a guide for counting: small tree: 250,000 medium tree: 500,000 large tree: 750,000 smaller heather bush: 500 medium heather ushers: 1,000 large heather bush: 2,000” And here’s a post from the Greater Victoria Flower Count 2 years ago: Flower Fun Fact: Did you know there are three different blooming, pink trees in Victoria?  Plum blossoms, peach blossoms, and cherry blossoms all bloom in Greater Victoria, and generally in that order. Here are some ways you can tell them apart:   Cherry blossoms bloom downward, and have a notch at the tip of their petals.  Plum blossoms have round petals, and only one flower per node. They are also the most fragrant.  Peach blossoms produce two flowers per node, and are the only ones to produce leaves at the same time as blooms. Isn’t that so much more fun and interesting than regular news.  I am getting ahead of myself, though. We will have to wait more than a month for this show, but when it comes it is splendid!

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