Apr 3 2024 - It's about "Nary"

 

Today's Globe and Mail, as every day's Globe and Mail, contains a delight and surprise of language.  Mostly, the turns of phrase come from Cathal Kelly in the sports section.  He has won the Stephen Peacock Memorial Medial for Humour and applies his wit every time he writes something. Today's delight doesn't come from Cathal.  It shows up in the Editorial Section.  It is the word "nary". We've likely heard the word "nary" but what about it?  Where is this coming from and isn't it quite flowery and old-fashioned.  Here are two definitions: not one or none at all; used for emphasis not any; no; never a First recorded in 1740–50; variant of ne'er a never a There is lots of "nary" around.  Lots of words end in "nary". Some of the most used positive & impactful words ending in -nary include extraordinary, visionary, culinary, revolutionary, imaginary, discretionary, luminary, stationary, and evolutionary. Most surprisingly there are "Nary Jokes": The cowboy was trying to buy a health insurance policy. The insurance agent was going down the list of standard questions. "Ever have an accident?" "Nope, nary a one." "None? You've never had any accidents." "Nope. Ain't had one. Never." "Well, you said in this form you were bitten by a snake once. Wouldn't you consider that an accident?" "Heck, no. That dang varmint bit me on purpose." What is the difference between a prince, a bald headed man, a monkey and an orphan? The first is an heir apparent, the second has no apparent hair, the third has hairy parent and the last has nary a parent. How do robots say goodbye? They use bye-nary.   the primulas are up in the garden, and the bunnies are having wonderful floral salads of them.

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

April 20 2022 - How many Near-Death experiences?

 

How many near-death experiences do people have?  We think of it being one.  That's not the case.  It seems that people can have multiple experiences. My friend Marina tells me that a doctor in Toronto, Dr. Yvonne Kason is a near-death expert. She is President of Spiritual Awakenings. She says she has had 5 experiences of this type.  She has spent her career on this topic and the broader one known as "spiritually transformative experiences."   Her  book Touched by the Light:  Exploring Spiritually Transformative Experiences explores the shared death/crossing over experience or what Kason coined as the “Death-Watch Experience” (DWE) as early as 1995.  You will find many articles in magazines and newspapers in which she describes her first adult near-death experience.  It is HERE.  It got me wondering about multiple near-death experiences. And what about the "luckiest" man Frane Selak?  Did he have near-death experiences along with his "almost dead" events? After his lucky experience of winning the lottery, he gave the remaining money away. This makes me think he might have had a near-death experience which seems to bring wisdom to the recipient. But all the articles focus on how many accidents he's had and not on his experiences in the accidents.  Along the way, I found a short piece that said Gary Busey, the actor, had a near-death experience after a motorcycle accident. He was on the set of a movie with "heaven" portrayed and demanded that they correct their set design mistakes according to his recall of Heaven.  Another actor on the set had also had a near-death experience and they differed on what Heaven looked like, getting into a fight.  It is described HERE.

Cole's has a primula festival each year - beautiful displays. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Betting on a President

I noticed the spring Iris, Danfordiae is blooming in my garden.  Today our pictures are the Primulas in the Cole's Garden Centre.  They have a polyhouse packed with pansies and primulas, so the scent is divine. And of course, the colour is intensely splendid. A similar intensity surrounds the topic that continues in the news and conversations.  I decided to check out the speculation that Trump will not last out his first term. How would one do this?  By looking at betting sites. Gambling is a topic I have never investigated, so find it interesting. In January 2018, the odds of him being impeached were 4 - 7. The Newsweek article says that oddsmakers at Paddy Power thought in January that it's nearly twice as likely Trump will be impeached as it is that he will serve four hears in office.  The Newsweek article said: "Paddy Power has additional ominous betting odds for the White House. Of the three years Trump has remaining in his presidency, the betting site has impeachment most likely in 2018. The odds that Trump is impeached in 2018 are nearly even at 5-4. For a sitting president, that doesn't paint a particularly rosy picture. The odds get exponentially better for Trump if he emerges from 2018 unscathed, as the site puts the odds at 7-1 that Trump is impeached in 2019 and 50-1 in 2020. " We're not allowed to access the Paddy Power website.  So I found a betting site that covers this in the U.S. It is oddsshark.com. There are odds on the following: exit date complete a full term as POTUS convicted by the senate in his 1st term impeached by the house in hist 1st term resign the presidency in his 1st term There were odds on the duration of Donald Trup's handshake with Vladimir Putin, on whether Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin would hug, on whether Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin would kiss, and then all manner of things that he'll say:  best friends, comey, golden, great job, etc.   For Obama, there were bets in bad taste - assassination was one of these in the headlines.  There are current bets on nuclear war due to North Korea, on the world ending, the next pope, and on and on.   These are at bestcasinosites.net. Betting turns out to be a vastly popular activity and there are many stories of famous, bizarre, and stupid/dumb bets.  So back to our pictures - the Primula Festival in the garden is around the corner.  I hope you enjoy these spring beauties.

Verbing and Nouning

There is the verb 'to noun', so that means there is the word 'nouning'.  I found the term verbal noun - a noun that is morphologically related to a verb and similar to it in meaning - an example is:  Brisk walking is good exercise. I wonder if there is something that can't be 'nouned'.  What isn't a person, place, thing, quality or idea? So back to our lead line today - this is a picture of a primula dell at Winterthur last spring - a small valley, usually among trees.  This one was magnificently planted in candelabra primulas.  One of the benefits of Winterthur is that it is magnificently planted - one of the legacies of Henry Francis du Pont.  May 15th is primula day at Winterthur.  This is the view you would experience.