May 12 2023 - Mother's Day Weekend

 

We're coming up to Mother's Day weekend.  I think of this as the start of spring ending.  Victoria Day for me is the start of summer.  Somehow milestone days signal the season rather than science.  There are Mother's Jokes that come out for Mother's Day. Q: Why is a computer so smart?  A: It listens to its motherboard. Q: What did the mother rope say to her child?   A: “Don’t be knotty.” Q: What did the digital clock say to its mother?  A: “Look, Ma! No hands! Q: What do you call a small mother? / A: A Minimum But where are the Mother's Day jokes?   Q: Why was the house so neat on Mother’s Day? A: Because Mom spent all day Saturday cleaning it Q: What did the kittens give their mom for Mother’s Day? A: A subscription to Good Mousekeeping. What about the Guinness Book of Records.  What do they consider the record mother?  It is the person who gave birth to the most children.  And who is it?  Barbara Stratzmann (c. 1448 – 1503) of Bönnigheim, Germany, gave birth to 53 children (38 sons and 15 daughters) in a total of 29 births by 1498. She had one set of septuplets, one set of sextuplets, four sets of triplets and five sets of twins. I wasn't really thinking of that as a Mother's Day record.  Wouldn't we really want records about Mother's Day?  There are just a few retrieved - it is hard to retrieve on one's topic these days.  Here are two that are on topic: On May 11, 2012, Pete Moyer and 72 members of Zion Lutheran Church became the largest group, according to RecordSetter.com, to sing "Happy Mother's Day," a little known and rarely sung holiday ditty.   More than 18-thousand sticky notes were left by students and adults around Jordan on Mother’s Day, breaking a Guinness World Record. Thousands of jordanians came together to celebrate the holiday, which falls on March 21st in the arab world.Participants broke a Guinness World Record of the largest sticky notes poster full of messages of love to mothers.The notes were collected on a large poster, which was put on display for the Guinness World Records judge to assess.  That was in 2019.   A Mother's Day Card today. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 19 2023 - Ice Shelfs and Whirlpools

 

There's an ice shelf forming in Lake Erie - it has made the U.S. national news.  It got me thinking about whirlpools.  The most dangerous is in Japan in the Naruto Straits.  The second is Niagara's, the third is Skookumchuck Narrows, at the entrance of the Sechelt Inlet in B.C..  The fourth is Old Sow in New Brunswick. It is the largest in the world.  Aren't we full of whirlpools here in Canada!  There are videos of Steve Fisher kayaking into whirlpools.  Bye bye if he did that in Niagara.   Whirlpools are phenomena that form when water moving in two different directions comes into contact with each other and interact in an unusual way. They can't continue to travel at the same speed and direction through each other, so they are forced to turn and swirl around each other.  Depending on the volume of water and force of colliding waters, whirlpools can appear in different sizes. Some whirlpools form and disappear over a short period of time, while some water systems keep whirlpools for centuries, according to the Niagra Parks website. The larger and more dangerous whirlpools are called maelstroms. These hold the power to fatally engulf anyone who comes too close. The Niagara Falls River has all classes of rapids - from I to VI along its route.  I couldn't find a visual depiction of the Whirlpool geological formation, but here is one of the Falls.  I am stunned by the depth of the Niagara River at the Falls - 185 feet.   Here's the official story:  "The huge volume of water rushing from the Falls is crushed into the narrow Great Gorge, creating the Whirlpool Rapids that stretch for 1.6 km (1 mi). The water surface here drops 15 m (50 ft) and the rushing waters can reach speeds as high as 9 mps (30 fps). The Whirlpool is a basin 518 m (1,700 ft) long by 365 m (1,200 ft) wide with depths up to 38 m (125 ft).  This is the elbow, where the river makes a sharp right-angled turn. In the Whirlpool, you can see the "reversal phenomenon". When the Niagara River is at full flow, the waters travel over the rapids and enter the pool, then travel counterclockwise around the pool past the natural outlet.   Pressure builds up when the water tries to cut across itself to reach the outlet and this pressure forces the water under the incoming stream. The swirling waters create a vortex, or whirlpool. Then the waters continue their journey to Lake Ontario. If the water flow is low (water is diverted for hydroelectric purposes after 10pm each night) the reversal does not take place; the water merely moves clockwise through the pool and passes to the outlet. Below the Whirlpool is another set of rapids, which drops approximately 12 m (40 ft)." And the ice shelf in Fort Erie? Lots of slushy waves hitting an ice shelf forming on the shore.  Looks like whipping cream.  There was an earlier on at the end of December with icicles hanging from the beachfront houses. Today's picture is a Spring flower - an abstract of a grape hyacinth.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Apr 14 2022 - Lucky so and so

 

The luckiest person in the world is commonly reported to be Frane Selak (1929 - 2016) from Croatia.  Not all of his seven survivals from brushes with death are verifiable.  A train, a car and a plane crash.  In the plane crash he was blown out of a malfunctioning plane door and landed in a stack of hay. What about when he was trying to teach his youngest son how to hold a gun.  He shot himself - in the testicles.  They didn't survive, but he did. He did have a lucky lottery moment - the moment that I am interested in: "In 2003, two days after his 73rd birthday, Frane Selak won a staggering $1.1 million in the Croatian National Lottery! While he bought two houses and a boat with it, Frane also used the money to buy a small chapel to thank the Lord for all of his fortune. After $1.1 million and the 7 near-death experiences, he better be thankful." All that survival from horrible events seems miraculous to me rather than lucky.  My sense of luck is the lottery kind of luck. That seems to attract us the most.  Here's the lucky lottery winner: "Did you know that the chance of you winning a lottery is 1 in 200 million? In fact, you are more likely to die getting struck by an asteroid than win a lottery. How would you explain Joan R. Ginther’s situation then? She won a lottery not once, but an unimaginable 4 times! Her life changed when she first won a cool $5.4 million, only to win $2 million more 10 years later. It doesn’t end there. 2 years later she won $3 million, and a staggering $10 million in 2008! " And a joke on the topic.  The lucky number 5 I was walking down the street a few days ago I happened upon my good friend Tim. I waved him over and told him I had the craziest dream the other night.  Tim listened as I told him that the dream consisted of just one thing. A huge, bright, number -5-. It was made of gold and shined like the sun. Tim's eyebrows went up with curiosity. I continued to tell him that the first thing I did that day was to look up the local horse racing track contenders.  Tim raised an eyebrow. I told him that the number 5 contender in the 5th race was named "The Fifth Element." Tim started grinning. Then I told him of what I did to make sure I get my luck working in my favor.  I ate 5 bowls of cereal for breakfast and drank 5 cups of orange juice  I went for a 5 mile jog to feel good.  I spent 5 minutes in the shower washing off.  I dressed in the 5th shirt I found.  I sat in my car for 5 minutes before beginning to drive, then I drove to the racetrack and parked in the 5th stall in the 5th row.  I entered through the 5th admissions gate and bought 5 programs.  I went to the 5th betting window and bet $555 on the 5th horse in the 5th race.  I went and sat in the 5th row of the bleachers making sure there were 5 people sitting on both sides of me.  I settled in and waited for the race to start.  "Well," said Tim. "Did your horse win??!?"  I frowned at Tim and said, "Stupid horse came in 5th."

_______________________________________________________________ Today's image is the Muscari flowers in motion blur. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 6 2021 - Herd Immunity

 

Whenever I hear the expression "herd immunity",  I think of cows, sheep, buffalo, and deer.  I wonder if it is a small herd or bid herd.  And then I start to consider whether they are free range on a farm or while, like buffalo and deer.  I don't think that's where the mind is supposed to go with the expression.   It is also known as 'population immunity'.  But we don't hear that expression - the more common one is herd immunity. It definitely is more noticeable.  It turns out the expression did start with cattle and sheep.  They were having epidemics of spontaneous miscarriages in the early 1900s.  Farmers were destroying or selling affected cows, but veterinarians warned this was the wrong approach.  That was in 1916 in the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association where "herd immunity" was envisioned.  Adoph Eichhorn wrote in 1916 that herd immunity could be achieved.   Sheldon Dudley wrote on the topic in 1923 and his writing is the most extensive on what herd immunity means to humans:  “I will now consider the community, or the herd… Nations may be divided into urban or rural herds. Or we can contrast the shoregoing herd with the sailor herd, or herds dwelling in hospitals can be compared with those who live in mental hospitals.” The Lancet observes:  "Dudley's glide from animal to human drew on established British traditions of animal symbolism. As historian Harriet Ritvo argues in The Animal Estate, animals have long served in England as figures for representing national types, lineages, and identities. When Dudley, as surgeon, researcher, and medical administrator, wrote of the “English herd”, he tacitly invoked his own role in a project of national stewardship." And so “herd immunity” became a fixture of epidemiology by the 1930s.  Where does that lead us today?  We become familiar with the work and words of 100 years ago.  With such a long history, are there any jokes or stories that I have missed? I found this amusing headline:  William Shakespeare Received a COVID Vaccine and Everyone’s Got Jokes: ‘The Taming of the Flu’ - it turns out that the second person in Britain to receive the vaccination was named William Shakespeare.  That got my attention after considering names yesterday.  Can you imagine the reactions and remarks all through his life?  I didn't find any jokes about herd immunity.  I guess it has made it to popular culture just recently as the retrievals are memes.  Memes are meant to be a 'bit of humour'.  The Memes on herd immunity and vaccinations seem to have bypassed humour, and moved on to opinions.    Cute little Muscari (spellcheck wants it to be Mascara0  or Grape Hyacinths in the front garden this week.  Spring's colours are so delightful. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Spring Awakenings!

I see flowers everywhere I go and thought I'd give you 2 great examples.

On Saturday I was on Bloor Street West shopping.  I caught this Ranunculus out behind a fruit and vegetable store before they took the rack to the front for sales.

Then on Sunday I was in Plantworld.  It is a wonderful garden centre and nursery in my neighbourhood.  It's grown over the 25 years I've lived here in the Kingsway/Sunnylea area.  I  got this beautiful little Grape Hyacinth (Muscari) in the lovely afternoon light.