Showing posts with label pansies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pansies. Show all posts

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Mar 30 2025 - Time for Cleaning Hacks

 

When does Spring Cleaning end? It seems to have no end date.  There seems to be lots to explore this year on the topic.  Maybe it's that AI retrieval on google..

My mind turned to baking soda - how many uses are there for baking soda?  I am prepared for surprise.  There are many and here's the silly one:  minor indirect effects on weight loss.  


"Claims abound that baking soda, when combined with water, apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice, is especially effective at helping you shed excess body fat. However, there’s little science to back this up."

My Guess:  drink a glassful of this quickly and you will throw up everything you ate. Do this after each meal and weight loss will avalanche your way.  I don't think any science is needed here to prove this theory. Will you be alive? That's another probability.

Their Guess:  "Another theory suggests that adding baking soda to your bathwater will help you lose weight by replenishing your levels of magnesium and sulfate — two nutrients touted to boost your metabolism and eliminate toxins. Yet, this theory is not backed up by science either."

So we move on from the silly to the more interesting. Here are the uses of baking soda:

1. mouthwash
2. teeth whitener
3. deodorant
4. fridge odour neutralizer
5. air freshener
6. whitening agent for laundry
7. kitchen cleaner
8. garbage odour eliminator
9. carpet stain remover
10. multipurpose bathroom cleaner
11. pesticide remover for fuit and vegetables
12. silverware polisher
13. scorched pot cleaner
14. oil and grease fire extinguisher
15. homemade weed killer

There are more uses than this - another article outlines it as a face exfoliator, foot soother, splinter remover, itchy skin relief, and so on. There are medicinal benefits of various sorts - in all Dr. Axe's article outlines 34 uses  HERE.  

And when the weather gets warmer, you can wash your car with it.


The pansies are sitting in the greenhouse waiting for warmer weather to come out.  
 
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Saturday, March 30, 2024

March 30 2024 - Famous Easter Joke(s)

 

Are there any famous Easter jokes?  Would it be in the Comedy Hall of Fame? There's a National Comedy Hall of Fame and a Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame.  There are a some jokes, but it isn't a library of the most famous jokes.  These are the two I'll include: 

Seinfeld:  "Proof that we don't understand death is that we give dead people a pillow." 

Bob Newhart: "I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for those who like country music, denigrate means to 'put down."

So back to Easter - historically, Easter was known for a tradition of laughter - risus paschals.  It was a medieval tradition where priests provoked the laughter of their congregations on Easter Day by telling crude jokes, making obscene gestures and putting on slapstick comedic performances.  That was stopped by the Pope in the 1600s.   Who would have guessed that Easter once had a lighter side.  

I  have found the most famous Easter Joke:

Three men died and are at the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter tells them that they can enter the gates if they can answer one simple question.

St. Peter asks the first man, "What is Easter?" He replies, "Oh, that's easy! It's the holiday in November when everyone gets together, eats turkey, and are thankful..."

St. Peter shakes his head, and proceeds to ask the second man the same question, "What is Easter?"  The second one replies, "Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice tree, texchange presents, and celebrate the birth of Jesus."

St. Peter looks at the second man, again shakes his head in disgust, and then peers over his glasses at the third man and asks, "What is Easter?" The third man smiles confidently and looks St. Peter in the eyes, "I know what Easter is. Easter is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus was crucified on a cross and then buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder." St. Peter smiles broadly with delight. 

Then the man continues, "Every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out...and, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter."


here's a nice abstract pansy.
 
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Jan 18 2024 - How Many Trillion?

 

Brian Cox says there are two trillion galaxies in the universe that we can see.  That's a big number.   It seems so interesting to live with large numbers alongside small numbers every day and not think much about it.  

There are bigger numbers - the next one is quadrillion, then quintillion and sextillion  - I copied and pasted theses as I am not sure I can really type that many zeros accurately:

"We call 1,000,000 a million, 1,000,000,000 a billion, 1,000,000,000,000 a trillion, 1,000,000,000,000,000 a quadrillion, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 a quintillion, and 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 a sextillion.

The number 9,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 is 9 sextillion, 600 quintillion."

So while there are bigger numbers, 2 trillion is really big.

What else is there 2 trillion of?  Nerve cells in our brains.  In terms of the number of cells in the human body there are an estimated 100 trillion cells. 

In the human scale of things, it takes 12 days at the rate of one number per second to count out 1 million.  I wonder if that's in the Guinness Book of Records.

Similarly, how might we think of the bigness of numbers.  Here's a picture of what one trillion pennies looks like.

This picture was taken over 10 years ago when we visited Ott's Greenhouse in Pennsylvania in the spring.  It makes me wonder how many pansy flowers are in the picture.  What do you think?

Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Aug 24 2021 - Soda Jerk

 Would you want to be a soda jerk or a soda clerk?  The term soda jerk was a pun on soda clerk, the formal job title of the young male drugstore assistants who operated soda fountains. It was inspired by the "jerking" action the server would implement to drive the fountain handle back and forth when adding soda.  That was in the 1030s and 1940s. Here's the article on the "lost lingo of New York City's Soda Jerks HERE.  


It got me thinking about how anyone would want to be called a jerk rather than clerk.  That's because, in contrast, a jerk is defined as a "contemptibly obnoxious person. " That was American slang that started showing up in the 1930s.  It is thought it developed via  "jerkwater' which dates from the 1860s and came to mean an insignificant or hick town.  It evolved to "small-time, second-rate, mediocre" and was abbreviated to jerk, so was the start of "jerk" the obnoxious person.


But what about "jerk chicken"?  Jerk is a style of cooking native to Jamaica, and meat is dry-rubbed or wet marinated with hot spice. That word jerk comes from charqui, a Spanish term for jerked or dried meat.  That's another world altogether and not to be considered with the clerks and jerks above. 

The original word "jerk" means a quick movement, and then the verb "jerk" meant to strike or lash, so that the noun became a stroke or lash.  Both verb and noun are considered echoic - sounding like what it meant.  

But what about the sexual slang aspects of the word? The grammarphobia.com article chronicles the word's sexual slang aspects through a lengthy history. It repeats the American reference to Alexander Portnoy in Philip Roth's novel Portnoy's Complaint, 1968, as the sexual verb was "so beloved of Alexander Portnoy".   So when I looked through a lot of the "lost lingo" terms for types of sundaes, it seemed to me this might have been a part of the underground world of sexual slang.  Being called a soda jerk might have been considered smirky and rebellious.  When I look at the pictures of those teenage boys, this makes perfect sense.

What do you think?



This wonderful painterly background makes this a pleasing floral portrait.
Purchase at:
FAA - marilyncornwellart.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

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

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

And On to Intersex

Have there always been variations of gender in humans?  There are variations in plants and animals.  Most plants are hermaphroditic, with 6% of species having separate males and females.  Clown fish and snails can change sex.  Cardinals and chickens can be half male, half female. Bearded dragons have been found to change their sex while they're in their eggs.  If exposed to warmer temperatures male dragon eggs will become female, even though they genetically remain male. 

The American Psychological Association says: “Transgender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression, or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.”

What would a clown fish or snail tell us when they change sex?  There's our deficiency.  We are unable to learn from other species - we are able to learn about them through scientific observation and experimentation.  And we haven't wanted to know much about this in the past. 

We're in an age when this is now front and centre in our social conversations.  Here's a summarization of the latest iterations of transgender ideology. I found two pictoral representations - the gender bread person and the gender unicorn. Here's the unicorn:
 

 
The Intersex Society of North America has described the types and frequency of intersex birth rates. Their summary statistic says that the total number of people whose bodies differ from standard male or female is one in one hundred births.  You can look at the long list of variations HERE.  

Here's a small extract:  " If you ask experts at medical centers how often a child is born so noticeably atypical in terms of genitalia that a specialist in sex differentiation is called in, the number comes out to about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births. But a lot more people than that are born with subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, some of which won’t show up until later in life".

From the article What is intersex: "Though we speak of intersex as an inborn condition, intersex anatomy doesn’t always show up at birth. Sometimes a person isn’t found to have intersex anatomy until she or he reaches the age of puberty, or finds himself an infertile adult, or dies of old age and is autopsied. Some people live and die with intersex anatomy without anyone (including themselves) ever knowing." This is the article HERE.  The list of topics at the website is fascinating.

What picture of the day do we have?  People tell me spring isn't here yet.  My garden has crocuses, snowdrops, irises and witch hazel blooming - one has to look down to see them.  If one is willing to visit Cole's, my local garden centre, then spring will be obvious - no need to look hard.  

Monday, March 14, 2011

Pansy Hill at Ott's Greenhouse

I saw a little pot of pansies for sale at my local vegetable and fruit store, and was reminded of Ott's Greenhouse, which I visited last year.  It's in Reading Pennsylvania and has a large man-made hill planted in pansies.  There's a stairway and walkway to the top. It's a great adventure for us pansy-lovers.