Marilyn's Photos - June 2 2026 - 1000 Marilyns

 

More than 1,000 Marilyns gathered in downtown Palm Springs, California.  I would guess that's about a Guinness Record.  Yes. It is the largest gathering of people dressed as Marilyn Monroe.  Previously, it was 254 in Australia.  Notice it was people and not women.  The picture is a tell-all.  I wonder if you might consider these look-alikes? All those white wigs, and all those white dresses. This picture will never die.  It will go on forever. Back then dresses were "frocks."  This one was actually ivory-coloured, considered a silly little dress by the designer, William Travilla.  He didn't consider this dress as one of his great designs. The Hollywood understory of the scene (besides Monroe wearing two pairs of underwear) is that Joe DiMaggio, her husband, disapproved of the scene and that later that night the couple got into an argument...ultimately resulting in their divorce. There were so many people watching the 14 takes, that the noise from the crowd made the footage unusable, and the scene was reshot in the Hollywood studios.  These shots became publicity stills.  Where did that dress go?  Debbie Reynolds purchased it in 1971, planning on a museum. That didn't happen.  The dress was sold in 2011 for somewhere between $4 and $6 million. It is privately held, and has been occasionally loaned out to major institutions for display.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 1 2026 - Everyday Annoyancies

 

Big things and little things make up a person,  a town, a province and a country.  It is the little things that we're looking at today. The most prominent validated study is the Pollara Strategic Insights Rage Index. It tracks macro-environmental irritants. Psychology Today Canada tracks micro-stresses and everyday etiquette is tracked by Ipsos.  Statistics Canada tracks Canadians' overall well-being.   Here's what AI has compiled to let us know about our petty grievances in Canada.  Or maybe it was compiled specifically for "me" as it seems to know that I would travel on the QEW and what I should do to balance these annoyances. Moreover, it felt free to give me advice on how to reduce stress - walk the Grimsby Waterfront Trail.   Rank * The Annoyance Typical Scenario & Frustration 1 Skyrocketing Grocery Prices The ever-present shock at checkout totals for basic items. 2 Unpredictable Weather Changes Getting spring-like weather in March, only to be hit with a massive snowstorm. 3 Tailgating on the QEW Cars riding too close to your bumper while heading through the GTA. 4 Lagging Wi-Fi The dreaded "spinning wheel of doom" during streaming. 5 People Distracted by Devices Folks staring at their phones in the middle of a face-to-face chat. 6 Unwanted Phone Calls Random spam calls or telemarketers. 7 Loud Chewers People loudly chewing or drinking right next to you. 8 Slow Walkers & Mall Blockers Groups walking four abreast, blocking the entire sidewalk or aisle. 9 Leaving Empty Toilet Paper Rolls The frustration of needing the loo and finding just one square. 10 Ignoring Turn Signals Drivers who turn their blinker on but never actually turn. 11 Tipping Culture Creep The increasing pressure to tip for services at counter-service spots. 12 Patio Etiquette Struggles Not being able to find a free table on a sunny afternoon. 13 Left-Lane Hogs Getting stuck behind someone driving slow in the fast lane. 14 Self-Checkouts Acting Up "Unexpected item in the bagging area" loops. 15 Bags/Food That Don't Reseal "Resealable" food packets that split or don't actually seal. 16 Mismatched Food Containers Opening the cupboard to an avalanche of mismatched plastic lids. 17 Loud Cell Phone Speakers People watching videos or on speakerphone in public spaces. 18 Dark Netflix Libraries Finding out our Canadian Netflix options are limited compared to the US. 19 Dull Kitchen Knives Trying to cut a fresh tomato with a dull blade, squishing it into pulp. 20 Kraft Dinner Box Tabs The sheer annoyance of the tab on a Kraft Dinner box refusing to open. *1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 I am perplexed by the loud chewers.  Wouldn't this mean that people eat in public every day?  There's a rabbit hole of medical conditions and disorders - misophonia is the condition of experiencing "severe, uncontrollable anger, anxiety, or disgust from everyday mouth sounds like chewing..." Doesn't it make you wonder what your own sensitivities are and what your list of everyday annoyances would look like.    This is the growing field of Dynamic Daylilies.  Thousands of daylilies in bloom starting in June. I saw a daylily in bloom yesterday, launching the start of the season.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 31 2026 - It's my party and I'll cancel it if I want to

 

We have a national figure - a 79-year-old, who seems to have more in common with a 16-year-old than with us middle Olds.  This is the case when the big party plan doesn't go his way.  The replacement plan?  Taking over as the main headliner of the Biggest American Birthday - now that seems like 16-year-old stuff too. And that is followed by being better than Elvis anyway.  And that is followed by being the "Number One Attraction anywhere in the World".   So the party-pout started when five of the nine headline acts have so far dropped out.  Some say it is about being led to believe the party was one thing and now it is another. Others say their family, friends and the band are at risk due to threats. The acts that are left are Vanilla Ice, Flo Rida, C+C Music Factory and Milli Vanilli. These sound like children's party desserts.  Much talk of Elvis in this party pout.  There have been claims (maybe proclamations) of how similar the two look - here's the picture posted by the Republicans in 2024.   Don't you wonder what Elvis would look like now? He'd be 91 years old.    Here's a screen shot of some projections of Elvis at 90 years old.  I didn't promise it would be pretty. So let's enjoy something benign in our images - sheep.  Maybe not benign as there seem to be a lot of people behaving as sheep these days.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 30 2026 - Polka Dots in Microtones

 

I saw some polka dot fabric in Michael's last week, and admired the black and white pattern.  Then later in the week I saw a picture of the rock duo from Saguenay, Quebec, Angine de Poitrine.  They are playing in a black and white polka dot scenario - background, clothes, everything wonderfully polka dotted.   The description of the rock duo is more interesting than polka dots, though.  Viral, virtuosic math-rock duo, with complex rhythms, playing on custom microtonal guitars and basses.   Everyone's excited, including the CBC with this video HERE. That's Elamin Abdelmahmoud one of CBC's regular radio shows covering current arts and entertainment.  His name fascinates me every time I hear him say it.  Say that a few times. This is the duo with their promotional image - their name translates roughly to a medical condition with chest pain. And what is it about microtonal guitars?  One article says that microtuning is sometimes used to make specific scales or chords sound more harmonious. Another says that microtonal songs sound unusual, "spicy" or slightly unsettling to the ears.  It is hard to consider this given my decades of the visual experience of the piano and its black and white keys.  Are children receptive to microtonal music?  Very young children have no preconceptions so are happy with everything.  By the age of 4, there is learning and training, so it is said that if microtonal sounds are paired with fun, cartoonish animations or playful games, children will view it as a fun experience.   Cue the polka dots.  The pattern's repeating, balanced circles evoke playfulness and whimsy.  So there we are with the Angine de Poitrine duo who perform in fun, Muppet-like papier-mache masks and polka-dots.  They play daytime, all-ages shows catering to a younger audience and they make fun, growling and rhythmic sounds that kids find highly engaging.   The excited reviewers say it sounds like SpongeBob, that they are completely listenable and impossibly inviting, and someone on YouTube claims to have just turned 70 and these two guys "blew my mind." I seem to make a lot of polka dot pictures - this one was named Half Note Polka Dots.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 29 2026 - Animal Sentience Yes or No

 

Continuing on the theme of being middle old (70 to 80 years old) and what it means in terms of progress:  here's something that is known now.  As a child I thought this was the case: animals possess sentience.  We figured this out through our dogs and cats and birds.  Over the decades the scientific community has also figured this out.  And yes - crabs, lobsters, and fish feel pain, and need to be treated properly.  Surprise!  Throwing lobsters alive into steaming pots does cause an excruciatingly painful death that they fully experience. So here we are this many decades later accepting that mammals and birds have clear emotions, social bonding and complex cognitive behaviours.  It took quite a while, though. Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1872 was a key milestone and that seems like a long time ago to me.  It was in the last 60 years that conclusive research into animal emotions came about. We have progressed in our scientific and behavioural research methods. With the acknowledgement of pain, comes an increase in Veterinarian bills.  We prescribe pain medication for cats and dogs after medical procedures.  What about this information that before the late 1980s - many doctors believed babies could not feel pain or would not remember it.  They performed major surgeries with only muscle relaxants or paralytics instead of true anesthesia.  I can't imagine being a  parent having my baby operated on without anesthesia - some sort of barbaric throw-back in the medical mindset is how I consider this.  It took research in the late 1980s to prove that babies experienced pain, and things changed quickly for human babies.  The veterinary professional began recognizing and treating animals for pain starting in the 1980s.   In this area of sentience, Millie spends an hour or so on Thursday afternoons visiting residents in one of the long-term care homes in the area. Isn't it ironic that dogs don't have human language and visits don't involve conversations, yet  eyes light up when they see Millie each week.     Look at little Millie as a puppy compared to Millie now.

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