Dec 21 2024 - Solstice is the New year end

 

Here's what it is like to open the paper and see the sight of the Globe and Mail's full-spread crossword puzzle.  Five-hundred and ninety seven or so clues.  I then looked at how the numbering works and it starts at the top left and ends at the bottom right.  The numbering conventions right to left.  I can't image describing them given the variations on white and black squares, but after a bit of exploration could follow them.  Not that I am interested in doing the crossword - I felt overwhelmed by the massive number of white and black squares. Do they use AI now to create and manage the numbered clues?

I seem to remember the crossword puzzle for was New Year's and not Christmas. I wonder if my memory is fuzzy. Perhaps it has moved to an earlier slot to keep us busy over Christmas. That seems to be the case for the articles about the Year-end review.  Things like what are your best purchases of 2024?  This will take a while to get through if you tune into the New York Times. It is always on steroids, so they have the lists of these things:  best stuff you did  best in culture best changes to routine  best redicovered time of day  best chair  best compliment  best overheard conversation  best new thing learned about your mom  best bug (what's that about?)  best surprise And we aren't even at winter yet - it begins at 4:31pm today.  Why rush the year-end?  The year is not finished yet - a lot can happen in 11 days. It is as though Christmas has been given up on as part of the year's experience.  Or maybe it is about the media's rush to be first.   There is a category of jokes on the theme of cats and crosswords. Compare that to what comes up for dog crossword puzzle jokes.     These little sparkling droplets remind us why we love lights on Christmas trees at this time of year.

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Dec 21 2023 - Shortest Day is here

 

Dark, darker, darkest.  Tonight at 10:27pm.  How is it the shortest day when the occurrence is marked at night?  Solstice is when the North Pole is tilted furthest away from the Sun.  And that seems to be the precise moment of greatest distance.  So I guess they go backwards and decide it is the shortest day.  Have we always done this as a calculation?  Or maybe there were observations in the past  The shortest amount of daylight doesn't explain why it is so dark in the day?  Typically, the reference to dark days refers to short days.   Our dark December days may be explained by the angle of the earth, but probably it has to do with weather patterns and cloud cover.  January 2023 was the darkest January on record in Southern Ontario. It was an "eastern flow" that caused that situation.  The Great Lakes contribute to the problem - being largely open and unfrozen, the provide moisture to help cloud development.  In comparison, the North Pole hasn't had sunlight or even twilight since early October.  And it will continue until early March. How did we get to deciding that Santa and Superman should have to live in the North Pole? Because we decided that.  It didn't come as some enlightenment from a bolt of starlight in the Heavens.  Is it because they are both faster than the speed of light?  They both wear red, both fly and so both should live in the North Pole.  Could they be one person? One silly Quora entry says that Mrs. Clause made Superman's suit and that it's essential the same design inside out.  Another Reddit entry says how much the person loves how Superman still believes in Santa.  Another entry is Biblically headlined: Superman 1.26: Let It Go.   So here's to the shortest day, it can only get longer from here.

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Dec 22 2022 - The Longest Night Shortest Day

 

This is the year that I realized something about the expression "pagan".   To me it is a religious version of colonialism.  It is  like  "eskimo".  Everyone before the Roman Catholics was considered a pagan.  And here we are just having experienced Winter Solstice. And so our Longest Night of the year is a celebration originating with the pagans.  As compared to what or who?   Wouldn't it originate with any humans who could track the days and nights.  So wouldn't it be the Babylonians?  Yes, The festival began in Babylon with the birth day of the first sun god Tammuz on the ancient winter solstice on December 25th.The article continues: "Pagans still celebrate this original solar deity birth." And then continues with:  "The most important time of celebration for pagans (i.e., earth worshipers) is the Winter Solstice (Yule, Saturnalia or Midwinter). Yule is the northernmost point of their Wheel of the Year, which is a Witch’s Wheel that’s an annual cycle of seasonal festivals that serves to tether people to earth and earthly things."  This comes from sapphirethroneministries.wordpress.com and it is one of many like this.  At the other end of the spectrum, similar to secular Christmas descriptions: "The occasion is marked with sweet and traditional winter solstice rituals—from brewing mulled cider and eating winter solstice foods, to lighting lanterns, reciting winter solstice quotes, striking special yoga moves, and setting intentions for the season ahead." And in between are articles on the winter solstice celebrations that have been traditions for hundreds and thousands of years - the Hopi Indians of Arizona, the Persian festival Yalda, Into Raymi in Peru, and Dong Zhi in China.   So here we are finding our own balance in a diverse world. And the conclusion?  Most of us are just happy the dark days get shorter as the days go by.   Our picture today is the only winter layout I've ever  seen. Today's picture has to be the surprise abstract of the year.  This looks like an ocean beach landscape to me, with the waves on the shore.  The actual object is the entrance sculpture at the Horticulture Garden Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls.  It was a bright sunny day and the sun and clouds were reflecting in the wall.   The second picture shows the wall with the  the Niagara River in the background.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 21 2021 - Short, Shorter and Shortest

The days are Short and the surname Short means exactly that - short in stature.  But the surname Shorter as a name turns out to mean a short-necked person - derived from the Anglo-Saxon word scorkhals meaning a person with a short neck.   There's a crest for the Short Family and it makes sense it is of Anglo-Saxon origin.  It derives from sceort - the Old English word for short.  The first record of the name was Ordic Scott in 1176 in Dorset.   Looking at the surname Short, it is Martin Short, the Canadian actor, who comes to mind.  His family is the Griffin and Quinn families from the Crossmaglen area of County Armagh in Northern Ireland.  His father was an illegal immigrant to the U.S. and made his way to Canada.  That's a very short through-line for heritage. My association of the Shorter name is with the famous Jazz Saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and his surname would be related to the legacy of slavery in the U.S.  A number of his compositions are themed on slavery. He has been called a "Griot"  - a member of a class of travelling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa.   Our shortest day is today - here we are at Winter Solstice - it is coming at 10:58 a.m.  While the full moon reached its peak on Saturday evening, it is very bright this morning, illuminating the back garden as a faint sun might do.  It turns out that we reached and touched The Sun - Our Sun - in 2021.  On April 28, 2021, during its eighth flyby of the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe encountered the specific magnetic and particle conditions at 18.8 solar radii (around 8.1 million miles) above the solar surface that told scientists it had crossed the Alfvén critical surface for the first time and finally entered the solar atmosphere.  It touched "the stuff the sun is made of".   "We can actually see the spacecraft flying through coronal structures that can be observed during a total solar eclipse.” It dipped around 6.5 million miles into the sun's atmosphere, and reached the pseudostreamer - massive structures that rise above the sun's surface and can be seen from Earth during solar eclipses.  The next flyby is January 2022.   In all it will make 24 orbits of the sun over 7 years.  If the Probe stays functional the mission could be extended to 22 years and would capture the entire solar cycle.  This is the cycle that the sun's magnetic field goes through approximately every 11 years.  Something to consider given we live in the Sun's atmosphere.   As for the surname Shortest - I didn't find one yet, only the shortest name - supposedly N.  Yes, a single letter, usually spelled Ehn.  There's a huge list of the shortest surnames HERE.  They are all two letter names.  Here's a train image from one of the Model Railroad Conventions.  Could this be a Winter Solstice layout?  I don't ever recall another winter layout.

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June 21 2021 - Hindustan Times Summer Solstice on International Yoga Day

 

It is International Yoga Day.  Is this the reason that the number 1 hit on first day of summer search is the Hindustan Times? Here's their lead paragraph: "Summer Solstice 2021: On the occasion, Union petroleum and steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he hopes the rising sun would lead to disease-free earth. Last year, the day witnessed an annular solar eclipse, which was visible in many parts of the world including India." But what does it mean: union petroleum and steel minister?  Wikipedia gives me a different title: He is is an Indian politician who is the Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel in the Government of India.  His role is also referenced as the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural gas. That Union word really captures my attention, so a bit more reading is required. I find that the Union Cabinet is one of the federal government executive bodies.  It is "the supreme decision-making body in India".  So Union is explained, and now I know a tiny bit more about India's government structure. But I am drawn into the terminology that governments use to self-describe.  I guess that is a much longer investigation.  And looking at the news today, what could be right up there in importance -  that is, after it being Summer Solstice and International Yoga Day? And even more important than the Coronavirus update?  It is "Who's getting sued:  June 21, 2021 - a listing of filings with the BC Supreme Court.    Searching is a game of Google "Get Lucky." Surprises pop up every time.  Did the BC Supreme Court pay to have its placement this high in the search queue?  These are curious times. We are entering Cherry Season.  I took pictures on Saturday:  look at the number of cherries on these trees.  I wonder why some trees are more ripe than others?  Or are they two different varieties? How many varieties of sour cherries are there? There are Montmorency and Morello sour cherries. These ripen earlier than the  much darker sweet eating cherries.  But there are yellow sweet cherries, too.  To not know the answer, it is clear that I didn't steal any cherries in the making of these pictures.

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Dec 21 2020 - A Short Conjunction

 

The Solstice has passed - it happened at 5:02am.  Don't worry - you will be able to experience the shortest day all day long. The big news isn't the Solstice.  The headlines are:  "Will you see the Christmas Star?"  "This refers to the “great conjunction” or “appulse” of Jupiter and Saturn, something that occurs every 20 years, but this year it’s very special. On the evening of Monday, December 21, 2020—the exact date of the December solstice—the two gas giants will align from our point of view on Earth and appear to be just 0.1º from each other."   The last time it did this was the 17th century. Monday is the preferable day to go look to the southwestern skies and possibly see this 45 minutes after sunset.  It occurred in 7 BC and is conjectured to be the inspiration of the Star of Bethlehem.  And what else is there in the astronomical news?  I don't think we could guess this headline: Donald Trump’s Presidency Will End On The Day Of A Comet, A Meteor Shower And A Total Eclipse Of The Sun from Forbes HERE.   That has already occurred on December 14 2020.   This is one of my favourite Christmas landscapes at Longwood. It matches perfectedly for the Winter Solstice. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Login to Christmas

I saw three ships come log-ing in on Christmas Day on Christmas Day. Where did login come from? From ships - it comes from the 'chip log' that was used to record distance travelled at sea, recorded in a ship's log. As part of computers, its humble beginning was to keep a log of users' access to the system.  Today it is the all powerful gatekeeper: the act of logging in to a database, mobile device, or computer, especially a multiuser computer or a remote or networked computer system. a username and password that allows a person to log in to a computer system, network, mobile device, or user account.   Only Dictionary.com covers its problematic word form: "Many who are neither professionals in the computer field nor amateur tech enthusiasts condemn the use of the solid form login as a verb, and with reason. It doesn’t behave like a normal verb. You cannot say you have loginned, and you are never in the process of loginning. Moreover, you cannot even ask someone to login you; you must ask that person to log you in. Clearly, it is the two-word phrase log in that functions fully as an English verb and not the solid form. Normally, we would expect log in, the verb phrase and login, the noun to behave in the same way as similar pairs: blow out/blowout, crack down/crackdown, hang up/hangup, splash down/splashdown, turn off/turnoff,where the two-word phrase is a verb and the one-word form a noun. And yet, this gluing together of terms like login, logon, backup, and setup as verbs is common, especially in writing about computers. Not for everyone, however. Some well-known software companies, for example, carefully maintain the distinction in their programs and documentation." For such a common expression, there aren't very many jokes:   How do trees use twitter? They log in. Why did the tree fall on the computer? It wanted to log in. I tried joining a lumberjack site for some strength tips. I couldn't log in. Today's picture was in the Cuba images - part of a statue and a great image for tomorrow's  Winter Solstice at 11:19p.m. This angle makes the sun look like he is sad with a tear in his eye.  But actually, he has a smile, and knows that the shortest day will be done.

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Dark Days of the Idiot

Whether we express it or just experience it, the days get darker in December.  The Darkest Day is coming soon.  It can happen on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, or 23rd.  This year it is Friday, December 21st, at 22:23 UTC or 5:23 EST. In the next few days, notice how early the sun sets.  Today it will set at 4:43, and the evening darkness starts to descend around 4:00.  The pink colours will peek out between the December clouds over on the escarpment.   Are there some astronomical events to look forward to in 2019?  The top 10 events listed HERE have beautiful pictures with them, so worth the 'hop over'.  To demonstrate what I mean, here is the moon's calendar for 2018.    I would be remiss if I didn't find something interesting about the U.S. senate committee that asked Google's CEO to explain why Donald Trump shows up in 'idiot' searches.  (Do the search - the news story shows up making this a double retrieval now). Here are excerpts from an article in the South China Morning Post - the article is  HERE.   "Google chief executive Sundar Pichai was in for a grilling by Republicans suggesting it was a liberal conspiracy to ridicule Trump as part of what they perceive to be an anti-conservative bias built into the internet giant’s search engine". Pichai explained that it was all about algorithms, and matching queries with billions of indexed pages – every time a keyword was typed in, results would be ranked according to hundreds of factors such as “relevance, freshness, popularity, how other people are using it”.  The article continues with this:  "It seems Mark Twain was not far off the mark when he once wrote: “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.” This 'opinion style' contrasts with the coverage by American news organizations who highlighted Republican senators pointing to a Google conspiracy - that  Google could 'humanly' intervene and that there was a 'man behind the curtain.'  Check out how differently they cover this. Our picture today is an allegory - The darkest day will soon be completed for the year, and light will guide our way to a beautiful garden.

The Sun Will Rise Again

It is only a few days to the Winter Solstice and then the sun will start to rise again. As we approach Christmas, we focus on its traditions instead of the dwindling light.  In Niagara, we have Dutch Bakeries.  This time of year is when Dutch baking reaches its zenith.   Yesterday at the Old Post was a series of almond baked treats.  The bakery rack was set up in the middle of the store, and piled with these.  One of the bakers gave me a tour of what differentiated the many treats. The most frequent Dutch treat that is available all year round is Boterkoek or Dutch Butter Cake.  It comes in a small round just over an inch high and is a dense, slightly raised cake with almond flavouring and garnished with almonds. A flaky puff pastry that encases a soft, flavourful almond paste centre is made for Christmas.  It is a very small roll, so that when cut is the size of a cookie.  This means there is a lot of almond with just enough flaky pastry. There were many Dutch stollen piled high - it is a cake-like fruit bread with yeast.  The Dutch version has almond paste in the middle. And a Christmas bread was out yesterday - - Kerststol.  It is an oval-shaped fruited Christmas bread - and it what is filled with?  Almond paste. The Old Post is no modern bakery.  It has no relationship to Tim Horton and McDonald's monster size muffins or Starbuck cookies the size of plates. What lines the shelves are dozens of old-fashioned treats.  Cookies like we made when we were small - they are small. Scones, pies, squares, breads, tarts are sized for one person to eat - not for a crowd.  The staff range in age from young to older and all enjoy their products and tell you about them. It is a wonderful experience to enter that world each week. Today's sunrise pictures come from St. Augustine, Florida.  I noticed a pair of dolphins in the lower left of the second image, swimming through the golden waters.

Solstice Lights

Decorations get prettier every year - this heritage house on Beamville's Main Street is an example of how wonderful the lights are. We can count on Lifehacker for telling us where to find the best Christmas Lights.  The Places to Visit in Each State for Incredible Christmas Lights showcases a picture of a decorated train and then lists the top 5 places to visit in the U.S. The Canadian search takes us to a Government of Canada website that says the Christmas Lights Across Canada program was launched in 1985 to highlight landmarks and sites along Confederation Boulevard and Parliament Hill, and has a guide to all the capitals to visit. The top display in Canada is listed as Niagara Falls, with Christmas Lights Across Canada (above), and then Toronto's downtown core.

The Solar Day

Solar Day

This was one of the Polar Vortex images from last year.  The temperatures were so low that frost built up in complicated patterns on the conservatory glass.  These pictures were taken at the end of the day when the sun was low over the escarpment and starting to set. 

The image has been processed with a new filter available from Topaz Labs named 'Glow'.  It creates squiggly and electrified lines.  

I hadn't thought of this before - if we lived in the southern hemisphere today will be their summer solstice.  The solstice has a time occurrence - this year 11:03pm UTC when it seems to stand still at the Tropic of Capricorn and then reverses its direction.  

So this picture celebrates the Solar Day and the return of the sun thereafter.