Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts

Saturday, June 10, 2023

June 10 2023 - Identity Clues from Long Ago - A Mystery

 

The subject of the song "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon has its own interesting history.  It was written in 1972.  She said it was about men and not a specific man.

She refused to reveal the identify of the person.  In 1983  she said it was not about Mick Jagger.  That is who people thought it was about.  Previously, she had said James Taylor was definitely not the subject of the song.  She married him after writing the song.

Speculation continued.   I guess it kept good press going in a time before social media.Even as decades passed, this identify curiosity continued. 

In August 2003, Simon agreed to reveal the name of the song's subject to the highest bidder of the Martha's Vineyard Possible Dreams charity auction. With the top bid of $50,000, Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports and a friend of Simon, won the right to know the name of the subject of "You're So Vain". A condition of the prize was that Ebersol not reveal the name. Ebersol said Simon allowed him to divulge a clue about the person's name: "Carly told me that I could offer up to the entire world a clue as to what she'll tell me when we have this night in about two weeks. And the clue is: The letter 'E' is in the person's name."

She has divulged more letter clues - The name has the letters A and E and R.

Well, some has laid claim to this song being about him.  Warren Beatty has:  "Let's be honest. That song was about me."  

In November 2015 she confirmed that the second verse is about Warren Beatty.  Whether he is the subject of verse 1 and 3 remains a question.  Verse 1 seems the key verse to me.

Lyrics
Son of a gun

You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yachtYour hat strategically dipped below one eyeYour scarf it was apricotYou had one eye in the mirror, as you watched yourself gavotteAnd all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partnerThey'd be your partner and

You're so vainYou probably think this song is about you


This picture from a few years ago seems to reflect the sort of mystery in this song.   It seems that the answer behind the door is just a blank wall.  A guarded one, so is it blank? 

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Wednesday, June 7, 2023

June 7 2023 - That's a lot of different sexes

 

LGBTQ2S+  There are so many letters, numbers and symbols to represent sexual orientation.  I realized I didn't know what they all stand for.  

It seems a shock to look something up and find out how extensive the lists really are.  Same-sex love and sexuality existed in ancient civilizations - that would account for L, G, B and T.  Wikipedia has a long list of ancient references and traces the history to current times with same-sex marriage and other topics.

This seems so complicated now that we actually analyze it.  Human same-sex sexual attraction is considered to be an evolutionary paradox.  One supposes that heterosexual men/women produce more children than homosexual men/women, so one would think there would be less sexual orientation complexity today and not more.  

This is considered to be one of those mysteries of life - figuring out the origin of sexual orientation.


Here are the terms currently in use - the full article is HERE

Main Sexual Orientation Terms

Biphobia is an aversion toward bisexuality and bisexual people as a social group or as individuals. People of any sexual orientation can experience such feelings of aversion. Biphobia is a source of discrimination against bisexuals, and may be based on negative bisexual stereotypes or irrational fear.

Bisexual a person who has emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction for people of more than one gender.

Gay or Lesbian is a person who has emotional, romantic or sexual attraction for people of the same sex.

Heterosexism is a behaviour that grants preferential treatment to heterosexual people, reinforces the idea that heterosexuality is somehow better or more “right” than queerness, or ignores/doesn’t address queerness as existing.

Heterosexual is a person who is attracted to someone with the other gender (or, literally, biological sex) than they have; often referred to as “straight”.

Homophobia is fear, anger, intolerance, resentment, or discomfort with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer people, often focused inwardly as one begins to question their own sexuality.

Questioning is the process of exploring one’s own sexual orientation, investigating influences that may come from their family, religious upbringing, and internal motivations.

Sexual orientation is a person’s emotional, romantic and/or sexual attraction to another person(s).

Same Gender Loving (SGL) is a phrase coined by the African American/Black queer communities used as an alternative for “gay” and “lesbian” by people who may see those as terms of the White queer community.


Main Gender Identity Terms

Binary Gender is a traditional and outdated view of gender, limiting possibilities to “man” and “woman”.

Binary Sex is a traditional and outdated view of sex, limiting possibilities to “female” or “male”.

Biological sex is the physical anatomy and gendered hormones one is born with, generally described as male, female, or intersex, and often confused with gender.

Cisgender/Cissexual is a person whose gender identity matches society’s expectations of someone with their physical sex characteristics.

Cis-man is a person who was assigned male at birth who ends up going through life identifying with male pronouns, and as a man.

Cis-woman is a person who was assigned female at birth who ends up going through life identifying with female pronouns, and as a woman.

Cissexism is a harmful belief that being cisgender (i.e. non-trans) is the only acceptable and “natural” form of gender expression.

Gender/Gender Identity is how we perceive our identity as male, female, both, neither, regardless of our physical bodies.

Gender Expression is the external display of gender, through a combination of dress, demeanor, social behavior, and other factors, generally measured on a scale of masculinity and femininity.

Genderqueer/Gender non-conforming is an umbrella term that describes a person whose gender identity does not fit into socially constructed gender norms associated with “male” or “female”. Used by some people to defy gender restrictions and/or to deconstruct gender norms. Gender neutral pronouns include: Ze, Hir, Hirs, They, and Them.

Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is a formal psychiatric diagnosis used by the medical profession to describe transgender people. The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) has replaced GID with “Gender Dysphoria”. The classification of GID and Gender Dysphoria as a psychiatric diagnosis has pathologized transgender people and created much stigma.

Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a person whose physical sex characteristics or chromosomes don’t fit traditional medical definitions of male or female.

Stealth is when a transgender person lives as their self-identified gender without other people knowing that they are/ever were trans (not all trans people identify as trans, which is why some people are stealth).

Sex (biological sex) is a label we are given to describe our physical bodies and reproductive abilities. Characteristics of the body used to determine sex may include genitals, gonads, hormones, chromosomes, and secondary sex characteristics.

Trans is an umbrella term for a person whose gender identity does not match society’s expectations of someone with their physical sex characteristics.

Trans Man is a female-to-male trans person (a person who was assigned the female sex at birth, but identifies as male).

Trans Woman is a male-to-female trans person (a person who was assigned the male sex at birth, but identifies as female).

Transsexual is an older term that originated in the medical and psychological communities. Still preferred by some people who have permanently changed – or seek to change – their bodies through medical interventions (including but not limited to hormones and/or surgeries). Unlike transgender,transsexual is not an umbrella term. Many transgender people do not identify as transsexual and prefer the word transgender. It is best to ask which term an individual prefers. If preferred, use as an adjective: transsexual woman or transsexual man.

Two-Spirit is a cultural identity used by some indigenous people who have both masculine and feminine spirits.

Transphobia is an irrational fear and/or hatred and/or intolerance of people who are trans, perceived to be trans, or who cross societal gender norms.

Transition is the process trans people go through to overcome physical, legal, and social barriers so they can express their self-identified gender.

Third Gender (1) a person who does not identify with the traditional genders of “man” or “woman,” but identifies with another gender; (2) the gender category available in societies that recognize three or more genders.

Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Please note that transgendered is not acceptable term to use as it implies that something happened to the person to make them transgender.


 

Here's a  trick of the eye - with the infinity pool that overlooks Lake Ontario /the Niagara River in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  There is no mystery here once you walk closer.

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Friday, January 27, 2023

Jan 27 2023 - The Frog Princess

 

The Frog Princess is a fairy tale that has multiple versions with various origins. It is classified as type 402, the animal bride, in the Aarne–Thompson index.  

Another tale of this type is the Norwegian Doll i' the Grass. Russian variants include the Frog Princess or Tsarevna Frog (Царевна ЛягушкаTsarevna Lyagushka) and also Vasilisa the Wise.

The Frog Princess is a Slavic folktale focusing on the importance of recognizing someone’s inner beauty, regardless of their outward appearance, as well as the possibility of redemption after failure. The tale has many variants and appears in Czech, Hungarian, Italian, and Russian folk works as well as many others.

The Frog Princess, named Vasilisa the Wise, is a beautiful, intelligent, friendly, skilled young woman, who was forced to spend three years in a frog's skin for disobeying Koschei.  The Frog Princess sheds her skin, and the prince then burns it, to her dismay.  

She sat down on a bench, sorely grieved, and said to Prince Ivan, "Ah, Prince Ivan, what have you done? Had you but waited three more days I would have been yours forever.
 

Trekking far and wide to find her, the Prince meets an old man.  "Take this ball of yarn and follow it without fear wherever it rolls."  

It rolls on and on with many adventures. And of course, the Prince is reunited with his beautiful Vasilisa the Wise and they live in peace and happiness to a ripe old age.

aka HAPPILY EVERY AFTER.  

 

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Friday, July 6, 2018

Shrouded in Mystery

What about the world news headlines today - so many aimed at pulling you in.  They certainly get my attention:

Cheetah Approaches Man Sleeping
New Zealand PM has beef with the Impossible Burger
Hunted for their body parts and stigmatized:  Malawi's...
After Man Saves Bear's Drowning Cub...
A piece of chewing gum, a bottle of water and new...

Of course there are more lurid ones and more urgent headlines - particularly about the Thailand boys trapped in the cave.

I had found was an article about Scotland's 5,000-year-old carved stone balls shrouded in mystery on the CNN site.

CNN's articles are 'sensational' - like the headlines above.  It is as though the stones were found yesterday.  Their articles typically are missing in background and context.  And then there are other aspects that fall short, but not to worry as there are reputable sources to go to.  I credit CNN with alerting me to this most interesting mystery.

So off I went to Wikipedia to read an organized article on them.  It is HERE.

These stones have been found over time.  By the late 1970's a total of 387 had been recorded.  The majority were found in the north-east in Aberdeenshire. By 2015 a total of over 425 were recorded.  There's a collection of 30 carved balls in the British Museum's collection.  They are generally the size of tennis balls or oranges. They have knobs in varying numbers and ornamentation.  


The mystery of their function is what drew me in.  Could they be used as weapons, with fishing nets, as oracles, working on hides, megalith construction aids, or evidence of the knowledge of the five Platonic solids.  The most elaborate one is from Towie in Aberdeenshire, likely 3200 - 2500BC.  It is typically in the pictures that accompany their story.  There is no conclusion to what their purpose is.  Just the wonderful mystery...

We visit the Grimsby Market today and pictured here is John, of Park Road Bread. He is among the artisan bread makers specializing in sourdough.  John makes a chocolate sourdough bread and a chocolate sourdough cake.  Sourdough remains magical and mysterious.   We know its function, unlike our Scottish Stones.  And we know that scientists have tried to 'solve the mystery of San Francisco sourdough.'  Two scientists are known for their landmark exploration of this wonderful living organism.  If you love sourdough, read the discovermagazine article HERE
 

Monday, October 22, 2012

The Garden Traveller: Exploring Public Gardens

I am preparing a new garden presentation for garden clubs and horticultural associations.  You can see from the title that it's going to be a bonanza of some great public gardens, and on a theme that is interesting and wonderful.  Everyone wants their own garden to have magic and mystery, and when we visit public gardens, that's one of the prime experiences we are after.  So I'll start to keep you posted on this theme.