Oct 5 2023 - On the Street Where You Live

 

Street Names.  There's no Donut Drive, Roast Beef Boulevard, or Celery Street in Grimsby.  Why is that?  Look further afield and you can find Frying Pan Road in Virginia, Roast Meat Hill Road in Connecticut. And there is a Chicken Dinner Road in Idaho, Puddin' Ridge Road in North Carolina, and Chicken Gristle Road in Texas. What are the conventions for street names?  There are lots of conventions for streets - both the names and the extensions/suffixes such as road, avenue, drive, and so on.   This comes from a U.K. site: "Street names should not be difficult to pronounce or awkward to spell. In general, words of more than three syllables should be avoided as should multiple words." That's good sense, but the choosing of a name?  This goes down a long road of conventions of all sorts.  There are types of commerce:  Cannery Row if you've been to Monterey.  Elm Street - a name for the trees on the street.  There are landmarks on the street - in New York Canal Street was named after the canal that was filled in to build it.  We like famous and important people here in Ontario - Queen Street, King Street, Victoria Street.  We like the province in the street - Ontario Streets are everywhere in Ontario towns.  And then we like first names that are simple:  Albert, Mary, John - simple street names.  Or maybe the names of British historical figures and monarchs.  I remember in Toronto there was an area named after the Greek alphabet - alpha, beta, delta, and so on streets. One can often find streets with number names - Fourth Avenue, Third Street. Streets do get renamed.  Usually there is a political motivation.  We have our own story in Montreal - this comes from Wikipedia: It is seen as a way to rewrite history, even if the original name is not well-liked but nevertheless traditional or convenient. It can be used to erase the presence of a cultural group or previous political regime, whether positive or negative, and to show the supremacy of a new cultural group or political regime. A prime example of this type of name change was the renaming of Montreal's Dorchester Boulevard, the nexus of the financial and business district, named for governor Lord Dorchester, to René Lévesque Boulevard, after a French-language reformist premier of Quebec. City officials rushed the name change, without waiting the required one-year mourning period after Lévesque's death. Many Anglophones were outspoken in their opposition to the name change, and the majority English-speaking city of Westmount retained Dorchester as the name of their portion of the street in protest. Streets seem to have their own life and history.  Some of the weirdest names? This, That and The Other Street in Nova Scotia, Ha-Ha Road in London, Mad Dog Lane, Yorkshire, Boring, Oregon and a lot of scatological names - Yellowsnow Road in Fairbanks, Alaska.  For those who believe, there is Elvis Alive Drive in Las Vegas.  That's fun. Isn't this a wonderful picture of the Prince of Wales Hotel in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  What's the main street named?  Queen Street.

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Sep 10 2023 - People in the Bible

 

It occurred to me that there are a lot of people in the Bible.  How many? There are 2,026 names and nearly 3,400 individuals - from Aaron to Zurishaddai.   There are so many questions about who's there and why.  Here's a question that might interest us all.  Can we verify the people in the Bible actually existed?  There's a researcher who is doing this and has verified 53 people in the Hebrew Bible. Here's an excerpt from the article HERE: "Although the Hebrew Bible names almost 3,000 people, Mykytiuk states that for an overwhelming number of these, it only gives the person’s name and does not supply enough specific information about them to identify them in any other writing. The number of individuals for whom the Bible gives enough information to identify them specifically is far smaller, surely no more than a few hundred, he estimates. With 53 of the people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible now verified through years of research, Mykytiuk will move on to the New Testament, first with a BAR article on 23 verified political figures, then to another one covering about six religious figures. In 2015, he published an article in BAR titled, Did Jesus Exist? Searching for Evidence Beyond the Bible." Notable is that there are so few women in the Bible: another article on the total number of names says that there are 1,700 distinct personal names with 137 of them being women.   If we go to dummies.com, we learn that the Bible has a "cast" of thousands, but some of them play more important roles than others.  They go on to list the 11 important people in the Bible. They start with Adam and Eve, move on to Noah, Abraham, and Moses and conclude with Jesus, Peter and Paul. Those remain familiar names, but there are others that are unusual and strange: Dorcas, Dodo, Gomer, Ishbi-benob, Ham, Ichabod, Mash and Mushi.   Now we know where "Gomer" Pyle came from.

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June 8 2021 - Middle Name X

 

When I worked for Imperial Oil, everyone was deemed to have a middle name.  This was in relation to print-out identification.  The "header" would have the person's name in large letters - first name, middle initial and last name. These big format perforated print-outs would be separated and then sorted alphabetically.   Likely they were concerned about distinguishing between people with the same name. There were two fellows in IT in Imperial with the same name.  And what if one of them didn't have a middle name?  When a person didn't have a middle name, it was designated X.  So whenever I see an X as the middle initial I am intrigued.   Who has a name starting with X?  Lots of people from lots of places do.  The easy one is Xavier.  There's even a variant of this name Xzavier.  Now I consider that strange.   But then there's Xaver - the German form, and Xavior, an English rare form, and Xaviera the feminine form of Xavier.  And the diminutive form?  Xavi- that's Catalan.  There are 21,711 people in the U.S. with the first name Xavier.  It is the 1318th most popular first name.  It is trending towards popularity as shown by babnameshub.com.  There are lots of baby name websites. So back to names starting with X, the list I looked through had 79 names starting with X.  This name has intrigue and mystery to me as the place originals were unknown to me, including Asturian, Hmong, and Galician.   I wonder if there is anywhere that still has a "need" for a designated middle initial.  Certainly the latest addition to the Royal Family has a middle name - Diana.  And the first name?  Lilibet or Lili for short. Lots of history in those names. Lilycrest Gardens this week - it looks wonderful this year.

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May 24 2021 - This, That and the Other - Name that Street

 

Do you notice street names?  One of my favourites is Decimal Place.  But it isn't the silliest street name or the most unusual: In Canada alone, there is This, That and The Other Street in Halifax Nova Scotia.   In Montana, you can drive along Bad Route Road.  In Canyon County Ideaho, there is a Chicken Dinner Road,   Justin Bieber Way in Forney, Texas, was named by a true Belieber. When 11-year-old Caroline Gonzalez won a competition to be mayor of her town for the day, she chose to use her power  and renamed one of the streets after her favourite pop star. There are log of profane names included in the "silly" names covered.  But that seems like a distraction from the truly strong names:  Error Place is in Cincinnati - a staircase going up a hill.   Duh Drive is in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.  Anyhow Lane is in Gansevoort, New York.  Psycho Path was voted the most bizarre street in America - it is in Traverse City, Michgan.   There are many more HERE in the mentalfloss article.   I subsequently found an article with whimsical street names - it is HERE.  They seem a big more appropriate - Gentle Rain Drive, Meditation Lane, Ben Hur Road, East Princess Boulevard, Tall Grass Circle, and so on.  It would be pleasant to arrive home at Daisy Lane. What other updates are there in the unusual names news?  The owners of the hobbit house Airbnb in Bridesville, B.C., announced on Saturday that they'd changed the rental's name from "Hobbitmountain Hole" to "Second Breakfast Hideaway" after they were threatened by Warner Bros. The company told them that the word "Hobbit" was copyrighted and could not be used in the Airbnb's name, according to an Instagram post from Wednesday, May 19.     Here's a street scene in Cuba.  I didn't look at the street names there at all. Just as well as there seems to be double names - original and new street names.  And then there are houses that don't have numbers.

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May 5 2021 - What's in a Name? Sex vs Gender

 

Sex vs gender.  What if parents start to give their children sex independent first names?  Then the census won't have to ask what sex you were born, and what gender are you now.   How many choices are there? Just starting with the letter A, there are lots off choices.  Addison. Old English, 'Child of Adam' Adrian. A form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus, probably from the ancient river Adria. Aiden. Of Gaelic derivation, meaning 'fire' Ainsley. Scottish origin meaning 'one's own meadow' Alex. From the Greek for 'defender' -  Well, clearly there are lots. Here's an article on the most common unisex names in America.  And Huffington Post has an article on the growing popularity of non-gender names. They say there is an 88 percent rise from 1985 to 2015.  They even have a prediction for the top names in 2028.  I guess this is quite a popular area with lots of experts who do a lot of studying with great organizational names like Nameberry.  Here are their 10 most popular names that are split evenly between boys and girls: Bellamy, Charlie, Dakota, Denver,  Emerson , Finley,  Justice,  River Skyler, Tatum On the rise? Ari, River, Cameron, Sam, Tatum, Corey, Frankie, and Emery.   Less gendered over time?  Alexis, Blake, Casey, Dylan, Marion, Parker, and Spencer. Namebabby must be very busy and profitable.  They have lots of information.  While I didn't start thinking about people's names, I got to thinking about gender in names because of dog names - I meet many dogs with non-gender names.  I always look to jokes to tell me the 'deep truths (or not)' about a subject. I found this one very entertaining. A robber breaks into a house while the residents are away one dark night. Eager to see what he can loot, he quickly starts searching through cupboards and dressers, grabbing valuables with a trained eye. Suddenly, he hears a voice come out of nowhere. “Jesus is watching you.” The criminal jumps, scared the residents are back, and freezes. After a few minutes of silence however, he assumes it was his imagination, and goes back to robbing. A couple minutes pass, before once again, the voice returns. “Jesus is watching you.” Quite confused, the thief searches the house and checks the front door, but nothing pops out as unusual. He finally decides to move rooms, and finds a parrot, but ignores it. Before he can begin to do anything, someone speaks again, “Jesus is watching you.” The robber realized it was the parrot talking! Going to the parrot, he asks it, “Are you the one who’s been talking to me?” The parrot responds, “Yes.” The thief couldn’t believe it. So, he asks another question. “What is your name?” “Ismael.” the parrot replies. The man scoffed. “What type of idiot names a parrot Ismael?” The parrot speaks yet again, “The same type of idiot that names a Rottweiler Jesus.” This is a new variety of Clover.  Isn't that a beautiful leaf!  I don't think it is meant for the 'garden'.  Maybe it is meant to be a specialty lawn.  For now, it will be in a display pot. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 24 2021 - What's in a Dog Name? Lots

 

I wondered about dog names yesterday.  I see the list of names on the wall at Jane Book's dog training school.   I found this introduction to dog names: "If you hear a neighbour talking about Janet across the block sitting on her step with Max or Charlie, you would be well placed to question if Max or Charlie is a child, pet or significant other.  However, if your neighbour said Fido or Rover, you instantly know they are referencing a dog, a cat doesn’t even cross your mind."  The top three dog names are Fido, Spot and Rover.  Historically, I mean. Fido's name came from Abraham Lincoln and means "to trust or confide in" or "faithful" in Latin. Spot comes from a popular book series between the 1930s and 60s - "Dick and Jane - see Spot run." And Rover - it means to wander, so is thought to be a traditional name for a working dog.  Shakespeare referenced Rover in A Winter's Tale.  So what are the top dog names now? Since the turn of the century, names like Max, Charlie, Molly, Lucy, Sam and Abby are increasingly popular.  One article says that Max is considered the most popular dog name anywhere.  How do we know the most popular dog names in 2020? In Australia they are Bella, Luna, Charlie, Lucy, Cooper, Max, Bailey, Daisy.  Australia's database of over 500,000 pets is the largest pet index ever.  It comes from the Pet Sitting community - an organization that arranges pet sitting and home dog boarding.  I checked out the pet sitters, and decided babysitting dogs is expensive. For example Prue A is a reliable, mature and trustworthy dog sitter - available over holiday periods - from $54/night.  There's Rich P. who is a cat carer and his rate is $22/night.  There are 4.8 million dogs in Australia - they have a similar pet ownership rate to the U.S. where 65% of homes have a pet. In comparison there are 9.0 million dogs in the UK.  The pet ownership rate there is 42%. There is a lot of media interest in dogs this year of COVID. There are lots of human interest stories to read.  I checked out  "My quarantine cat hates me".  The cat is Hubert, or "Hubbie" and he turns out to be very shy.  That was in April 2020.  How is Hubert doing now?  No answer at all - I even checked her twitter feed and came up empty.  I can tell you that her twitter entries seem to be full of drivel - nonsense.  It turns out she's an internet reporter so this is her job, so that's what I seem to know about the current state of things.     Shakespeare's words today. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan - 17 2021 - Country Name Mistake? Canada

 

I wonder how country names come about?  That's easy to find out.  This answer was at Kwintessential.co.uk A listing of countries is HERE.   "Most of the time, a country got its English name like this: settlers or traders arrive and either name it after the tribe they encounter or use the name the tribe already have for it. If the new visitors have conquest on their minds, they’ll name a newly discovered land after their leader, the local geography or something reminiscent of their own land. Some are named for people – some are even named by mistake. St Lucia This is one of the only examples of a country named after a woman – St Lucy. Columbus named several of the Caribbean islands he found after saints he was fond of. St Kitts is named for Saint Christopher, his own namesake. Canada “Kanata” means village. It was mistakenly assumed to be the name of the country by 16th century explorer Jacques Cartier, when he encountered the native people. There’s a fascinating trend in country names – countries are almost always named after one of four things: a directional description of the country, a feature of the land, a tribe name or an important person, usually male." And then there's Canada - the mistake!   Here is yesterday's progress on the multiple exposure technique.  What is the field of white sticks?  These are stakes for keeping small trees straight in a nursery crop field.  The ones in the picture are oak trees and are near Brian's Lilycrest Gardens field where Bakker's has a lot of growing fields.. These fields change often -  the rose crop goes to the nursery trade for sale at the end of the first year.  It seems like oak trees might take a bit longer than roses - we'll find out.  Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 17 2020 Headline Decisions

 

We think of headlines as something on the front pages of newspapers, but they also are names of hair design salons.  Hair salons seem to excel at naming themselves: By the Blade Crisp Edge Flo Cutters Hair 'n the Hood Hair Rap II Rap Unzel. Ready to Dye Snip Dogg These come from Ballatory.com where they list 220 clever names for hair salons.  Organized by categories such as:  Shakespeare inspired - "All the World's a Salon" Old English-Style:  "Off with their hair" Movie-themed: Barbarella, Director's Cut, Hair and Back Again Song titles or lyrics:  Comb Together, Hairbreak Hotel Religious-related:  Angel's touch, Anointed hands, Hair Mary Children's salons:  Hair Castle, Cut and Play Hair Puns:  Get the Hair Outta Here, Hair Play, Neither Here nor Hair There is advice for overused names: Cutting Crew Hair Dot Com Headlines Mane Attraction That's a lot of creativity for just one service industry. We had a fly-over of the Lancaster at 11:00 am on Remembrance Day.  I ran out with the camera and got a picture of it.  It flies right over the house.  I guess it seems to fly right over all the houses in our area - given how narrow the land is between the escarpment and the Lake.  I expect that Grimsby has the narrowest point.

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June 1 2020 - Name that Joke

Here we are in June - the wedding month.  As I look out, there are three shrubs blooming white - the largest is the Bridalwreath Spirea, named appropriately. But I was actually thinking about how we turn names intojokes and how amusing they can be, so I went and found a few.  What do you call a man with no shins? Neil. What do you call a woman with a frog on her head? Lilly. What do you call a man with no arms and no legs on your front door step? Matt What do you call someone hanging on a wall? Art. What do you call someone under a pile of leaves? Russell. What do you call a girl with one leg short than the other? Eileen What do you call a guy who falls overboard and can't swim? Bob. What do you call a man on the barbershop floor? Harry. What do you call a man with a car on his head? Jack. What do you call a scientist that makes up everything? Adam (atom). What do you call an American drawing? Yankee Doodle. What do you call a lady in a Roman dress? Sara-toga. Rosewood Winery is the location of our pictures today. This is the comparison between yesterday's view and the winter storm view on December 1st.  I got to stopping because there is a wisteria in full bloom at the water's edge.  The Lake view was extensive and the Toronto skyline easily seen.

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April14 2020 - What's in a Name?

There are people who see things in very funny ways.  Here's an example that popped up last week when the bad dog jokes popped up.  Perhaps there was a google humour day in the searching and retrieval algorithm. It makes me wonder about first names and surnames.  We think of surnames as coming about in England.  They were adopted between the 11th and 16th centuries. The aristocracy started the consistent use of surnames. The Domesday Book in 1086 is the marker for the introduction of family names.  That was so they could tax everyone, and know that everyone had been taxed. But much earlier, the Romans had personal and family naming conventions - both a personal name and regular surname. Well, quite complicated, with the tradition evolving over centuries.  But it broke down following the collapse of imperial authority in the west.   Today, we engage in names as a social convention and personality statement. Websites have recommendations for turning surnames into first names.  A great example is Beyoncé:  "The singer's full name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter. Her mother, Tina Knowles, chose the name because of her own French maiden name, Beyince."  I put that in quotes, because I wonder if her mother had spelling issues. Johnny Depp?  This is more traditional:  Depp is a surname of South German origin, from a nickname for a 'maladroit' person, or according other sources a comedian.  Ellen Page's surname is traditional - status name for a young servant, Middle English and Old French. And 50 cent? This is the personality statement name:  Curtis James Jackson III adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"; Jackson chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was."   It is a Cumbers and Toltec day - these are from our visit to Colorado in 2017.

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