The Longest Christmas...

It will be Christmas-time after the weekend for Americans.  We put up the Christmas tree and take it down.  What about people who leave their Christmas trees up all year? What is your reaction to this?  Good Housekeeping Magazine's reaction is to have lots of ideas for what to do with a Christmas tree all year long:  a Valentine's day tree with hearts, a Halloween tree with pumpkins, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, etc. Does the Guinness book of records have a record for the longest standing Christmas tree?  It has many records - for example the oldest Christmas tree - the tiny tree from 1886 Woolworths in Britain that comes out every year. There appears to be only one world record for the longest standing Christmas tree. It is claimed by the World Record Academy. "WAUSAU, WI, USA -- Neil Olson put up his Christmas tree in 1974 when two of his six sons went off to serve in the Vietnam War; he planned to take it down when they were all home for Christmas; that still hasn't happened; five of his sons live in the area, but his eldest son, who was injured in the war, hasn't been able to make it back to Wisconsin for Christmas; the slim spruce covered in tinsel and dusty Christmas decorations has stayed parked in Neil Olson's living room for 40 years now, setting the new world record for ther longest-standing, all-natural Christmas tree, according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/." This doesn't compete with the most reputable source of records -  Guinness.  There is no world record  listed with Guinness for the longest-standing Christmas tree. The results retrieved when searching for "longest" and for "longest standing" are hilarious.  What about the longest Christmas cracker, longest balancing a wreath on his thumb while dressed as Santa Claus, longest time spent inside an inflatable snow globe, longest letter to Santa,  longest wish to Santa, longest Christmas cracker pulling chain, longest Christmas cake, longest choir concert as a Christmas gift, longest Christmas stocking.  And the person who celebrated the longest Christmas day by flying around the world.  Today's picture comes from Salt Spring Island at the ferry dock.  Looking at it, you might think that this is the longest-running hippy town in Canada.

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Eugene and Delilah

The name Eugene and the the field of eugenics trace from the same origin - Greek - to be 'well-born'.  This seems like a vintage name to me. Baby-naming trends remain somewhat stable: Liam and Emma continue to be the most popular names.  Noah, William, James and Oliver and then Olivia, Ava, Isabella and Sophia. But "vintage" names are moving up. Arthur has jumped back into popular names after almost 100 years since it was last listed.  There's Calvin,  Emerson, Amos, Edgar, Chester, Tucker for boys. What about Ada?  It started a comeback in 2018. Then there's Delilah, Ayla, Zoe, Margot and Felicity. Supposedly researchers had found that names influence the choice of profession, where we live, whom we marry, grades achieved, and so on.  The original study took place in 1948 and was widely repeated, always finding that unusual names were more likely to have 'flunked' out of Harvard or to have exhibited signs of psychological neurosis, and so on.   But the link between names and longevity, career choice and success, geographic and marriage preferences, and academic achievement has been questioned and disproven.  What has been proven is that names 'signal' things - like ethnicity, wealth, and country of origin and give a sense of economic status.  And then the receiver treats the person as such.   So the likely question parents should ask is:  What signals does this name send and what does it imply?    That would be useful for parents who name their daughter Delilah. Today's images are of driftwood on the beach in Salt Spring Island.

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A Guinness a Day

Is there a Guinness Record every single day of the year?  Yesterday's record was a man snapping 98 pencils in 60 seconds. The report claims that it is incredible that he's not the first man to attempt the record.  He beat the previous record of 90 pencils. And on Friday the 13th,  a B.C. bookstore in Victoria attempted to set the world record on the tallest book stack.  Did they do it?  No news.  So that would mean it is unlikely.  It is hard to tell - there are so many stacks of book records.  There's even the tallest stack of Guinness World Records books. And how many people were at Port Dover for Friday the 13th? There were only 75,000 people in Port Dover yesterday.  Attendance was 'light'.  The next Friday the 13th is in December, so no records will be broken then. Who was born and died on Friday the 13th?  Arnold Schoenberg, the composer.  He was reported to be terrified of the number all his life. Salt Spring Island is the home of David Wood Salt Spring Island Cheese.  Here are scenes from the farm.

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