April 25 2022 - Where are they - the working classes?

 

What a question I have.  Who are the working classes? That's the headline from the National Post - The working classes are a volcano waiting to erupt.  Joel Kotkin is the author.   It must be an opinion piece, because the first sentence goes like this: "Whatever the final outcome, the recent French elections have already revealed the comparative irrelevance of many elite concerns, from genderfluidity and racial injustice to the ever-present ‘climate catastrophe’. Instead, most voters in France and elsewhere are more concerned about soaring energy, food and housing costs." It is a "harsh reality" opinion piece about the declining state of wealth of the middle class.  We would rather look at lucky numbers rather than try to solve the declining opportunity and wealth of the middle class, where college graduates still fail to find decent employment and the service sector has been devastated by the Pandemic.  How silly can lucky numbers be?  Did you know about Jennifer Lopez' lucky number?  It is highlighted in the bottom of the MSN news feed with all those click bait articles.   "She was born on Thursday July 24th 1969, in Bronx, New York, United States. With a Personal Lucky Number 9 Jennifer Lopez has been blessed with a Personal Lucky Number that may be every bit as inherently full of good fortune as a 3. Indeed, it has been argued by some that the 9, being 3 squared is even more powerful than the 3." Why are there subsequent numbers then? Number 8 and Number 2.  And the different numbers come from the same source. Her Personality Number is 8, and Her Life Path Number is 2.  I guess there's some distinction.  There are lots of  articles on her and various lucky numbers.    "The most critical number in Lopez's numerology chart is based on the date of her birth - the moment when the curtain went up in Jennifer Lopez's life." That isn't actually the latest news on J Lo, though.  It is her abs. "Abs are Killer as she rocks a velvet crop top at the iHeart radio music awards." Makes for silly stuff in comparison to the social unrest of the working classes about to explode like a volcano because of their sinking status and wages.  What a mixing of metaphors.  Our picture today? Pretty reflections at Pearl Morissette Restaurant.

Nov 26 2021 - Humans are Square, Nature is ...

 

Are there squares in nature? Not very many. Salt crystals would be the recognizable with the human eye.  Pyrite has amazing cubic crystal shapes that are very visible.  It is an abundant crystal and was produced in Italy in Elba. The Greek called it "fire" or pry.  Was it inspirational? The Egyptians calculated square roots using an inverse proportion method as far back as 1650BC.  Chinese mathematical writings from around 200BC show that square roots were being approximated using an excess and deficiency method.  I assume they were figuring out the volume of a pyramid.  They used a lot of mathematics for calculating distance as well, also for taxes and wages, things often paid in volumes of beer and wheat..  What was the interest in developing squares and square roots?   It is thought that the knowledge of square roots originally came from dividing areas of land into equal parts so that the length of the side of a square became the square root of its area. The Babylonians and Greeks have been credited with the discovery of Heron’s method, the precursor of Newton’s iterative method, although Indian mathematicians are thought to have used a similar system around 800BC. In relation to nature, I wondered what the most common shape might be.  The Hexagon!  A hexagon is the shape that best fills a plane with equal size units and leaves no wasted space. Hexagonal packing also minimizes the perimeter for a given area because of its 120-degree angles. With this structure, the pull of surface tension in each direction is most mechanically stable, which is why even though bees make their honey combs with circular units, the end result when the wax hardens into place is hexagonal.  So it isn't that far off from a square.  Can you imagine our neighbourhoods where we have hexagonal properties forming a community shaped in a hexagon? I found lots on google.   Here's a wonderful joke to conclude: The guru was happily teaching math to the students at his home. He said "5 sides --> pentagon" "6 sides -->hexagon" "8 sides -->octagon" ...then suddenly, the guru got a sudden heart attack, he fell onto the ground making a loud "thud" sound and died on the spot. Hearing the sound, his wife came running from the other room and asked "what happened ?" and the students replied:  "--> gurugon" Today's image is a little fun with Flexifly, the Flaming Pear software that returns square things into naturally shaped things.  The original image was a windshield that was smashed.  If this was an object of nature, I wonder what it might be.

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

The Big Green Egg

This is our Thanksgiving Weekend and the turkey is waiting in the fridge downstairs.  Maybe that's what made me notice the Lakeshore Living ad in my emails.  This store is a luxury patio furniture store nearby with a special sale this weekend on The Big Green Egg. Do you have a Big Green Egg?  Aren't they somehow  magic with the pictures of that huge green egg shape sitting on the patio next to the traditional BBQ?  That seems to be what they think. The website page says: Welcome You've landed where The Big Green Egg is hatched. What is the special moment about The Big Green Egg? It originates 3,000 years ago from a long tradition of wood-fired clay ovens in East Asia.  The round clay ovens are called 'kamado' - meaning oven or hearth.  American soldiers serving in Japan took home their flip flops and their kamado ovens as souvenirs. In 1974, Ed Fisher started Big Green Egg - importing kamado ovens.  But then he went on to develop them further with contemporary knowledge and techniques, such as ceramics specially developed by NASA. The Big Green Egg (BGE) today is a charcoal barbecue specially shaped with doors that contain the heat and control the air flow and updraft.  This means temperatures can be up to 650 degrees celsius. It is green, of course. Everything cooked in a big green egg is extra juicy and and delicious.  So there are articles on chefs who love The Big Green Egg.  There is a culinary partner program that highlights restaurants who feature 'a wide range of EGG menu items'.  It is HERE.  Near us is Mildren's Temple Kitchen in Toronto.  I think their Roast Chicken Biryani picture shows us a big green egg cooked chicken.  I don't find any negative reviews at all:  Here's the typical quote: "I think a more fitting name would be ‘the big golden egg’.  There are dedicated users who support each other with BGE information like: "Tighten the bolts on the stands after the Egg has been used five times" and "If you have a problem with grease sticking the felt shut when it's cold, slip a Weber paraffin charcoal lighter cube in the bottom and wait for the warmth to release the opening. Then change the gaskets." Today's image is one of my digital designs titled The Shape of Colours, and the products one can purchase with the design - Redbubble has added bath mats, shower curtains and coasters. The print is also on Spoonflower, a fabric, wallpaper and house accessories site, so we can have table cloths, placemats and napkins.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com

Simple Shapes

Simple shapes - square, circle, triangle - are with us everywhere. These are the most basic shapes on Earth. The notable books that explored this were Italian artist Bruno Munari's series which started with The Discovery of the Circle. He writes: “The first thing a child draws looks like a circle. People spontaneously arrange themselves in a circle when they need to observe something close up, and this led to the origin of the arena, the circus, and the stock exchange trading posts.” Munari wrote over 60 books and covered the each basic shape in its own book.  For example in Square, he writes: "As tall and as broad as a man with his arms outstretched, the square has always been used, from the oldest writings and rock engravings made by early man, to signify the idea of an enclosure, a house, a village. Enigmatic in its simplicity, in the monotonous repetition of its four sides, its four identical corners, it can generate a whole series of interesting figures". Kurt Vonnegut's rejected master's thesis was a visual presentation titled "The Shapes of Stories".  The article is HERE. Below is Maya Eilam's version of his thesis: We look at the shape of fire today.

Knock Knock History

You can head over to the Joke Encyclopedia at smilespedia.com which has this joke on the front page: He was a mediocre conductor of a mediocre orchestra. He had been having problems with the basses; they were the least professional of his musicians. It was the last performance of the season, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, which required extra effort from the basses at the end. Earlier that evening, he found the basses celebrating one of their birthdays by passing a bottle around. As he was about to cue the basses, he knocked over his music stand. The sheet music scattered. As he stood in front of his orchestra, his worst fear was realized; It was the bottom of the 9th, no score and the basses were loaded. Mental floss.com has documented the history of the Knock Knock joke.  It starts in 1606 with Shakespeare when a porter is awoken out of a drunken stupor by a man knocking at Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's door. Then fast forward to 1929 to Henry Bett's book on games children play and the knock knock joke is described. The first knock knock joke was published in 1934, although it isn't heralded as a funny joke. Knock knock. Who's there? Rufus. Rufus who? Rufus the most important part of your house. In 1936 the Titusville Herald describes how What's this? the parlour game has given way to Knock Knock. On to the 1950's and the knock knock joke was popular around the world.  In France it was Toc-Toc, in Dutch it was Klop-klop.  In Korean and Japanese it was Kon-kon. Here's the example given from the 1950's: Knock, knock! Who's there? Delores. Delores who? Delores my shepherd.

More Marvelling

This is the time of year when we think of leaves.  We don't much think about them in the summer - they're green like most of nature, they're on the trees and plants around us, so are ordinary.  In the Fall, they start their downward journey. We see them underneath our feet on a path, in a stream, bunched in doorways where the wind puts them.  They interrupt our view of normal things. I didn't notice the underside of these coleus leaves until last week, when I took some cuttings to start plants for next year.  The upper-side is deep red-black and a perfect foil for chartreuse in the planter display.  I didn't realize the same drama was on the underside of the leaves themselves.  It is one of those marvels.  Go to Google today to play their 'defeat the ghost game'.   I wonder what they do with the statistics.  Here's a site that shows some of the amazing Google numbers - 2 trillion searches annually seems amazing to me.