Jan 20 2025 - Will We Remember Today

 

Today's being treated as a momentous day in the newspaper.  Will it join those days of catastrophic impacts?  These sorts of events compose the club of:  I remember where I was the day that.... John F. Kennedy assassinated Neil Armstrong walks on the moon Chernobyl meltdown The space shuttle Challenger exploded Tiananmen Square massacre Princess Diana killed 9/11 attacks Hurricane Katrina COVID-10 emergency lockdown  Jan 6th Capitol attack There are more events in the typical lists. I wonder how many are on your list. My thought is that for something to be on the list, the test goes something like: where you were, what was the day, year, time of day, how did you find out, and what subsequently occurred.  The answers are specific and exact, not general or vague. Are there any events after the Jan 6th insurrection?  Yes, definitely.  There's the Invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas attack.  It could also be that the 2024 eclipse of the sun is an event that people will specifically remember.   Will today be such a day? Or it may be the day when "the world changed" - something like.  Not immediately catastrophic, but a launch date. I think many of us will tune in to find out how it will unfold.  And what lies ahead after that.  Now we need to develop the criteria for judging the days ahead.   Here is a series of pictures of a tropical geranium (not the pot geranium which is actually Pelargonium, but the perennial) in Longwood Gardens' conservatory.  It seems so remarkable with its fuzzy hair buds and beautifully lined flower.

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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