Jan 19 2024 - Sweater Weather Food and Fun

 

It is cold and there's snow falling.  There are a lot of recipes and ideas on the internet on what to eat for winter dinners.  I wonder where recipes falls in the list of most popular searches.  Looking at Google's list of most popular topics by category the most of the recipes are non-North American. Here's the list: Recipes 1) पनीर पसंदा (Paneer pasanda) 2) Bolo caseiro (Homemade cake) 3) Tuzlu kurabiye (Salt cookie) 4) Overnight oats 5) zimtschnecken (Cinnamon rolls) 6) Irmik helvası (Semolina halva) 7) панкейки (Pancakes) 8) Baba ganoush 9) Bulgur pilavı (Bulgur rice) 10) Pasta salad I wonder what the common link is in the recipes.  There doesn't look to be any to me - a wide range of topics from all over the world.  Looking through the searches, I am not sure that salt cookie is a food search - it looks more  like a character who is friends with Hero Cookie, Herb Cookie and more.   And how funny is any of the food in the list.  Not very many jokes on paneer, bolo and so on. In comparison, there are thousands of pasta jokes.  You don't even need to leave the search titles - 15 pasta puns that will have you ravelling on the floor. The most popular joke on the Scotsman website is a pasta joke:  "The joke in question, ‘I tried to steal spaghetti from the shop, but the female guard saw me and I couldn’t get pasta’, secured more than half the votes (52 per cent) in a survey of more than 2,000 people. Mark Simmons, who also made the shortlist back in 2017, took more than a third (37 per cent) of the votes thanks to his one liner, ‘Did you know, if you get pregnant in the Amazon, it’s next day delivery?’ The comedian and children’s author, Olaf Falafel, had two lines shortlisted, and came a close third with another culinary-themed joke: ‘My attempts to combine nitrous oxide and Oxo cubes made me a laughing stock.’ In eighth place was his deadpan remark: ‘I spent the whole morning building a time machine, so that’s four hours of my life that I’m definitely getting back.’ Mr Vine, a two-time winner of the award, was shortlisted for ‘I used to live hand to mouth. Do you know what changed my life? Cutlery’. Here's the rest of the list: 4. By my age, my parents had a house and a family, and to be fair to me, so do I, but it is the same house and it is the same family Hannah Fairweather  5. I hate funerals – I’m not a mourning person Will Mars 6. I spent the whole morning building a time machine, so that’s four hours of my life that I’m definitely getting back Olaf Falafel  7. I sent a food parcel to my first wife. FedEx Richard Pulsford  9. Don’t knock threesomes. Having a threesome is like hiring an intern to do all the jobs you hate Sophie Duker  10. I can’t even be bothered to be apathetic these days Will Duggan

This is a motion blur picture at the Niagara Falls Greenhouse - one of those croton plants with brightly coloured leaves.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Aug 21 2023 - A Billion Dollar Workplace

 

What company would you work for to go to a 1 billion dollar office each day?  You'd work for Novartis in Basel, Switzerland.  Or maybe Apple with its $5 (or perhaps 6) billion Cupertino campus, or its Austin campus at $1 billion.  Or Apple in North Carolina, and so on.   Uber, that company that won't pay its driver employees as employees will spend $1 billion for two San Francisco buildings.   Disney cancelled its $1 billion campus in Florida.  It was to serve 2,000 employees.  That doesn't seem like enough employees to spend that much money.  Is that $500,000 per employee?  What would you have wanted if you had the choice? I would have preferred the money.  But then I didn't work for a tech giant, thinking I was changing the world.  And don't forget, no one is asking them what they prefer. Are the employees who work in these opulent palaces the "Princes of Industry"?  Or perhaps Dukes and Earls? Something in the royalty range, at least. It must be.  There must be a pull towards prestige.  Do they make significantly more wages than other people so that they don't have anger over the disparity between their home circumstances and their work environment?  Would that be the big draw - to get people to stay at work because it is a beautiful physical environment, great restaurants and food. Who wants to go home? Do employees value these surroundings as a key benefit?  This article doesn't mention the workplace environment in the top 10 Apple benefits.  They value health and wellness benefits, vacation and time off (the article says between 15 to 20 days per year - Ha ha!), parental leave, commuting, gym credit, stock purchase program, tuition and self improvement, retirement.   That outlier, Uber, has articles on how much its employees hate the corporate culture.  That palace is for the King's Court to revel in rather than for those dukes and earls below- that's the likely story there. And definitely Uber has the medieval sense of peasants out slogging in the fields.  These are some of my questions on the current state of capitalism.  Do we live with a capitalist system that's not much changed since it started?  Is there an uplift in circumstances of enough of the first world's population - to keep us complicit and celebrating capitalism.  Is that the scenario?   The headlines say that sort of thing:  "The magnificent progress achieved by capitalism". Today's image is another in the Leaves Series.

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Oct 2 2022 - Lost and Found

 

Did the Oktoberfest post make you wonder about fascinating stories of Lost and Found?  Have you ever lost something valuable and wondered where it got to?  This is what makes some lost and found stories so interesting.  There is a "found" portion to the story.  That's the case with this fly-away parrot. "Darren Chick, a British man living in California, had a lovely little pet parrot named Nigel. Nigel slipped out one day, flew away, and became lost. Somehow he wound up at a garage sale, where he was purchased by a pair of elderly Guatemalan-Americans. They named him Morgan, after the rum (it has a parrot on the label), and taught him some Spanish phrases. Nigel Morgan the rum-loving British expat parrot lived happily with his new family for four years, until he escaped again. This time he was found and taken to a vet, who initially mistook Morgan for her missing parrot. The vet checked the parrot's microchip and determined that it belonged to Chick. Chick wept "tears of joy" after reuniting with Nigel, but was baffled as to how the bird had picked up not only Spanish phrases, but also dog barks, a garbage truck imitation, and the opening bars of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly theme. What the hell kind of adventure had he been on all these years? Chick was about to find out. The granddaughter of "Morgan's" owners saw a newspaper article about Chick and Nigel's unlikely reunion, and emailed the paper explaining that her 86-year-old grandfather had been heartbroken by the bird's escape, especially since Morgan had been a comfort after his wife's death. After hearing this, Chick decided to give the bird back to the man." What an excellent set of headlines for lost items HERE: An Actual Human Skull A Wedding Dress With Matching Shoes Pieces of the World Trade Center A Missile Guidance System A 5.8-Carat Diamond Ring 50 Vacuum-packed Frogs A Headstone ... Already Engraved A Prosthetic Leg A Live Lobster The live lobster is an Uber find.  "Uber has created its Lost and Found Index, a comprehensive list of interesting items riders leave behind when they exit a vehicle. "While many of the lost items are mundane (phones, sunglasses and keys), others leave us begging for the whole story. One rider left behind a life-size cutout of the Will Ferrell character from the Christmas movie "Elf." Another forgot an entire paycheck, while an equally forgetful passenger misplaced their live lobster in the back of a car. Regardless of whether it's a Valium prescription, a hat made out of wood or a bulletproof vest — what's the story there? — Uber reports passengers are most likely to leave behind items on a Saturday night."

This picture was taken at Lost Horizons, a specialized garden nursery near Milton. It too is lost,  but now it has been found under new ownership in a new location in Campbellville. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Aug 1 2022 - Alien Species Far and Wide

 

Invasive species have travelled all over the planet in the form of plants, animals, fish.  The most impactful aliens travelling around are people and that has led to our new awareness of "colonization" behaviours.  But what about between planets - would we have alien species here now? The movies are focused on alien beings from space.  When rocks are brought back from the moon aren't they kept in isolation in case there are alien species that could come with them?  The idea of biological matter proliferating across the cosmos on rocks and ice is known as panspermia and is well studied. "Based on an experiment in 2015 on the International Space Station,  the bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans can survive at least three years in space. Akihiko Yamagishi, a microbiologist at Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences who led the study, says the results also suggest that microbial life could travel between planets unprotected by rock." Scientists think that microbe spores could survive inside rock. That means that life could be transferred between Earth and Mars.  And then what?  They would have to survive re-entry into the other planet. That's likely a problem.   Although years-long trips are theoretically possible, scientists estimate that it can take up to several million years for matter to leave one planet and land on another within the solar system. What was the relevance of the study? “The relevance of this study is less in proving that massapanspermia or panspermia are possible,” says Cabrol. “But to me it shows that we have to be extremely careful with our contamination when we go to Mars.” Here we are again - we're the species everyone has to worry about. The article is HERE.  Here's the back view of Nelles Manor - at the left - and the small additional building straight ahead.  This "back" was originally the front of the house.  And then Main Street was re-routed and the back was now facing the street.  A new porch was put on to match the importance of the structure.  And the pretty-shaped  areas  around the bench are populated with that invasive species periwinkle.

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May 7 2022 - Exploding Toilets

 

This is a repeating headline on the Weather Network now.  Exploding toilet due to lightning.  That does sound funny.  It gets your attention.  Looking into it, this happened in 2019, so it isn't news but it still is intriguing.   The headline "Lightning strikes toilet exploding"  brings up a lot of news videos from August 6 2019.  What different approaches they each have.  CNN covers the story.  Another station makes you wait through the Disney, etc stories to get to the exploding toilet at the end, and the CBS video has an ad that goes for 3 and a half minutes before the exploded toilet is shown. What about this station - here's their visual coverage - a wall of toilet behind the reporter.  Now that's impact.

Exploding toilets haven't been on my horizon and that's the reason it seems to intriguing.   Q What causes a toilet to explode without lightning? A A buildup of pressure in the toilet system can cause them to explode, lifting the tank, shattering the tank, and spraying shards that can lacerate people and damage property, the CPSC said. Q Can a toilet explode in a fire?  A Unless you put gunpowder in the bowl and ignite it, it's virtually impossible for a residential toilet to explode. As a German teenager did, spray air freshener into the bowl and light a lighter. Here's a counter-view - this extensive article from gizmodo has examples of exploding toilets without causes like lightning.  Here's one of the examples: A Japanese company offered free repairs on electric bidets that were bursting into flames in 2007, and an apparent sewer explosion blew up another toilet in the Netherlands in 1996.  The article goes on to outline one urban legend where the wife puts a flammable substance into the toilet, and her husband accidentally ignites it by smoking.  That dates back to the 40s. No one has repeated it scientifically. We're in prime plant buying time here in Niagara.  While May 24th is the "golden date" for frost-free nights in the Golden Horseshoe, that is a rule of thumb - could it be an urban myth?   In Niagara we are frost-free at night a week or two earlier, so we are out there purchasing.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 7 2022 - Proven Winners Plants

 

With the extraordinary temperatures yesterday, the Snowdrops in the sunny areas were blooming.  It got me wondering how much the plant prices will have risen this year.  I am prepared for big price hikes after talking to Dave at Cole's last autumn.  He said it was going to be a shock for people.    I thought I'd find out more about Proven Winners.  In their background section, I find out that Sobkowich Greenhouse is one of the two original licensees in Canada.  Sobkowich Greenhouse is on Maple Street in Grimsby.  I take pictures of the big display every year for the Trilliums competition. The Proven Winners sales are over a "half-billion dollars" annually.  They have plant combination systems, are colour oriented, and give great names to their new introductions.  And they love introductions - every year something newly hybridized is introduced.   Something that has changed over the decades is that everything they produce is protected by patents so no propagating their material. The plant growing part has also transformed over the decades.  When you walk into a propagating or growing greenhouse, it is like a science lab - cement floors, plants on trays rotating in a ferris wheel to get the sun, and drip systems little tubes are hanging from the ceiling.  Even when you look at the "soil" the plants are growing in, that isn't soil and is often hydroponic too.   And then there are little robots that place pot plants with exact spacing so as not to waste a centimetre. There are lots of beautiful new and familiar plants to look forward to this year and it is just a few weeks away.

Here are the Sobkowich Greenhouses during the Trillium Competition.    Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com

Aug 20 2021 - Where did Doo-Wop come from?

 

Doo-wop is such a great expression.  I had to look for more on the topic after all the shows TJ Lubinsky has done on Doo-wop for PBS.  As usual, Wikipedia is a handy source of information: "Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated among African-American youth in the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington DC, and Los Angeles.  It features vocal group harmony that carries an engaging melodic line to a simple beat with little or no instrumentation. Lyrics are simple, usually about love, sung by a lead vocal over background vocals, and often featuring, in the bridge, a melodramatically heartfelt recitative addressed to the beloved. Harmonic singing of nonsense syllables (such as “doo-wop”) is a common characteristic of these songs. Gaining popularity in the 1950s, doo-wop was "artistically and commercially viable" until the early 1960s, but continued to influence performers in other genres." And the name itself?  Though the name was attributed to radio disc jockey Gus Gossert, he did not accept credit, stating that "doo-wop" was already in use in California to categorize the music. The term "doo-wop" itself did not appear in print until 1961.  It was just in the air and in the lyrics of the time.  From nonsensical to a style and genre that influenced all American music to come.  Here's the Doo-wop joke I found: And our photos today?  This was the display at Watering Can the last time I was there a few weeks ago.  I looked at the ceiling and wondered if Photoshop could replace the sky for the airplane picture.  And there it is!

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April 20 2021 - Sports headlines

 

Somewhere in the history of sports writing came this question:  "Do you ever wonder why a grammatically correct sentence you’ve written just lies there like a dead fish?" And the answer to this worry was the hundreds of sports verbs.  To be fair, describing 'actions' in an interesting way takes some creativity.   There is a universal love and appreciation of sports.  It has been magnified in the 20th century with newspaper, radio and television.   I am biased and had thought it is about keeping the reader's/viewer's attention to the written words or the replay. Something that's already happened seems a bit like getting leftovers for dinner, so how to make leftovers appealing?. I thought I would find dozens of articles on the funniest sports writing - the most extreme verbs and sentences, etc.  This is because there are numerous articles on the sports verb. There are hundreds of words full of activity and action awaiting the writer and announcer. But actually finding them proved elusive.  A article says that the worst column written about sports ever published was by celebrated N.Y. Times writer, David Brooks on Jeremy Lin.  But it isn't bad writing.  A sports writer apologizes for "worst piece of sports journalism ever" - he used a framing device of a real person who had been  abducted and held captive for 18 years to review sports activities in the 18 year period that the person missed.  That might be tops on horrible mistakes. There's lots on the best in sports, the greatest sports moments - are the 200, 51 or 21?  Are you ready for the greatest sports headlines ever?  Most are unrepeatably bad taste and sexist - sex-oriented puns on player surnames.  Think "balls" and you can imagine the treasure trove.  So they might in fact be the "worst". My conclusion for the day:  Oh well, that was worth a try.  Here's the miniature world of alpine rock garden displays.     Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April 5 2021 - Earth Month

 

This is Earth Month.   I found this extract at a site celebrating Earth Month/Day: Healthy ecosystems don’t grow like we plant. Typically, plants don’t naturally grow in straight lines and they are not isolated from other species. A happy garden or farm has variety, and that variety accomplishes a lot for both the land and the grower. In addition to supporting soil health and biodiversity, plants support one another. Companion planting simply recognizes those relationships and takes advantage of harmonious relationships between plants. from trees.org HERE Then I find out there is a Universe Day and it is April 10, 2021.  "Announcing the 13th annual Universe Day! Universe Day is an annual birthday for the Universe event on April 10, 2021." Every year on the second Saturday of April Universe Day is celebrated. It celebrates the official birthday of the Universe and our participation in the greatest transformational evolutionary adventure in human history.  The website isHERE universespirit.org

Yesterday's egg is joined by leaves today - another version out of Flexify.

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Feb 16 2021 - How Do Plants...

 

How do plants know when to bloom?  Why do some bloom early in the spring and others late in the fall?   Have some snow drops in the greenhouse and I wonder why they aren't blooming.  They were potted up from the garden at Christmas and now there's more light and they are early bloomers.   This article from Washington University HERE says:  Scientists believe they’ve pinpointed the last crucial piece of the 80-year-old puzzle of how plants “know” when to flower. "Determining the proper time to flower, important if a plant is to reproduce successfully, involves a sequence of molecular events, a plant’s circadian clock and sunlight. At specific times of year, flowering plants produce a protein known as Flowering Locus T in their leaves that induces flowering. Once this protein is made, it travels from the leaves to the shoot apex, a part of the plant where cells are undifferentiated, meaning they can either become leaves or flowers. At the shoot apex, this protein starts the molecular changes that send cells on the path to becoming flowers."   And so there are Clematis blooming in the greenhouse, but now Snow Drops.  On the other hand, when I look up "first signs of flowering stage" the articles and mages that are retrieved are all about Cannabis!  That's it's own story. Here's a beautiful blooming view- Toronto's Guild of All Arts in Scarborough. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca