June 21 2022 - William Shakespeare vs The Birds Aren't Real

 

Isn't it a mystery that those who knew Shakespeare the playwright did not mention him in Stratford-upon-Avon.  He was famous in his lifetime. He owned the second largest house in Stratford.  This negative evidence has led to questions of his identity and who the playwright might have actually been.   Of the people he knew well, none have made entries in their diaries and letters connecting William Shakespeare the playwright with William Shakespeare of Stratford.  We have some mysteries in our own lifetime: Who shot JFK and RFK? The mystery of Marilyn Monroe's death. Was Natalie Wood's death an accident or murder? What happened to Amelia Earhart? Where is Jimmy Hoffa? The Black Dahlia's death Kenneth Arnold's Flying Saucers and UFOs And in our lifetime, we have film footage that we are able to look at.  There are witnesses at the scene who have been interviewed.  Sophisticated forensic techniques and investigations have been carried out.   It is not surprising that it is during the 20th century that conspiracy theories have become pervasive - the Moon Landing, the 9/11 conspiracies, Princess Diana's "murder",  Roswell crash and "cover-up", The Satanic Panic, and so on.   Here's the ultimate conspiracy story:  "The Birds Aren't Real": a movement developed by Peter McIndoe, 23, who started it in 2017.  Until a December 2021 interview in the New York Times, McIndoe stayed in-character as a true believer, insisting in media interviews and online that birds aren't real, but rather they are surveillance drones made by the U.S. government. Birds Aren't Real has a staff; it has organized real-life protests; it bought real-life billboards; and it emblazoned vans with their claim. The goal, says McIndoe, is to parody the misinformation that Gen Z finds itself stewing in.   "Birds Aren't Real is not a shallow satire of conspiracies from the outside. It is from the deep inside," he told The New York Times. "A lot of people in our generation feel the lunacy in all this, and Birds Aren't Real has been a way for people to process that.  The experiment revealed that conspiracies sometimes grow by credulity: Local media sometimes reported on Birds Aren't Real as if it was something young people really believed rather than an elaborate joke. Birds Aren't Real organizers hope the joke will become a force for good by exposing all the ways misinformation thrives.  "Yes, we have been intentionally spreading misinformation for the past four years, but it's with a purpose," McIndoe said. "It's about holding up a mirror to America in the internet age." It is officially summer - it happened at 5:14 this morning. Let's celebrate with flowers.

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Aug 22 2021 - Cornflakes Cures

 

I hadn't thought of Corn Flakes as a serious thing.  The Victorian era hit a pinnacle of prudishness. Masturbation was considered a disease - Onanism.  It required physical and mental ailment treatments and cures.  So I went looking for that reference to Corn Flakes and found a mentalfloss.com article.  Here are excerpts: John Harvey Kellogg was a physician who cataloged 39 different symptoms of a person plagued by masturbation, including general infirmity, defective development, mood swings, fickleness, bashfulness, boldness, bad posture, stiff joints, fondness for spicy foods, acne, palpitations, and epilepsy. Kellogg’s solution to all this suffering was a healthy diet. He thought that meat and certain flavorful or seasoned foods increased sexual desire, and that plainer food, especially cereals and nuts, could curb it. While working as the superintendent at Michigan’s Battle Creek Sanitarium, he hit upon a few different healthy eating ideas.  Kellogg developed a few different flaked grain breakfast cereals—including corn flakes—as healthy, ready-to-eat, anti-masturbatory morning meals. He partnered with his brother Will, the sanitarium’s bookkeeper, to make and sell them to the public. Will had less interest in dietary purity and more business sense than his brother, and worried that the products wouldn’t sell as they were. He wanted to add sugar to the flakes to make them more palatable, but John wouldn’t hear of it. Will eventually started selling the cereals through his own business, which became the Kellogg Company; the brothers continued to feud for decades after. Masturbators who enjoy cornflakes can probably attest that the sugar was a good idea, since Kellogg's cereal doesn't really have its intended effect. More happy flowers today.

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I saw dill pickle cucumbers at one of the vegetable and fruit stands on the weekend.   We mostly pickle vegetables - and really, cucumbers for dill and sweet pickles in North America.  But there is a long list of fruits and vegetables that are pickled in every country. I decided, though, that most people don't have my fascination for pickles, chutneys, relishes and salsas.   What did I decide we are all interested in?  The recent story of the lobster diver in Cape Cod having a Jonah experience - that is compelling.   I find out that a Jonah experience is considered only possible with a sperm whale as it is the only whale that can possibly swallow a human.  The Cape Cod story involved a humpback whale, which cannot swallow a human.  The only other story of this sort was that of James Bartley (1870-1909) being swallowed by a whale near the Falklands - and was in its stomach for 3 days.  However, while this story has been much repeated, it was never proven. Moreover,  the wife of the ship's captain who travelled on the ship at that time said it was false.  Our recent story was verified by Michael Packard's partner: "A commercial lobster diver says he escaped relatively unscathed after nearly being swallowed by a humpback whale, in a biblical-sounding encounter that whale experts describe as rare but plausible.  Michael Packard, 56, said in local interviews and on social media that he was diving off the coast of Provincetown, Mass., on Friday morning when the whale suddenly scooped him up. "I was in his closed mouth for about 30 to 40 seconds before he rose to the surface and spit me out," Packard later wrote on Facebook. "I am very bruised up but have no broken bones." More about the story HERE. And if whales don't swallow people, and people don't survive being swallowed by whales, what is the Biblical story of Jonah, really?  Check out the Wikipedia entry - everyone weighed in on Jonah and the symbolism of his 'giant fish' adventure. A Daylily flower is particularly beautiful because of its little slippers. They are bluish-brown so I"ve given them some colour treatment to make them such a shiny blue colour.   Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Apr 6 2020 - James Bond Girls

Bond girls conform to a fairly well-defined standard of beauty. They possess splendid figures and tend to dress in a slightly masculine, assertive fashion, wear little jewellery—and that in a masculine cut—wide leather belts, and square-toed leather shoes. (There is some variation in dress, though: Bond girls have made their initial appearances in evening wear, in bra and panties and, on occasion, naked.) Nearly all of them are white; they often sport light though noticeable suntans (although a few, such as Solitaire, Tatiana Romanova, and Pussy Galore, are not only tanless but remarkably pale), and they generally use little or no makeup and no nail polish, also wearing their nails short... The best-known characteristic of Bond girls apart from their uniform beauty is their pattern of sexually suggestive names, such as Pussy Galore. Names with less obvious meanings are sometimes explained in the novels. While Solitaire's real name is Simone Latrelle, she is known as Solitaire because she excludes men from her life... Most Bond girls are apparently (and sometimes expressly) sexually experienced by the time they meet Bond. Quite often those previous experiences have not been positive, and many Bond girls have had sexual violence inflicted on them in the past which has caused them to feel alienated from all men—until Bond comes along...   The inspiration for all of Fleming's Bond girls may be his onetime lover Muriel Wright, who according to The Times: has a claim to be the fons et origo of the species: pliant and undemanding, beautiful but innocent, outdoorsy, physically tough, implicitly vulnerable and uncomplaining, and then tragically dead, before or soon after marriage. Wright was 26 and "exceptionally beautiful" when she and Fleming met in 1935. A talented rider,  skier, and polo player, Wright was independently wealthy and a model. She was devoted to Fleming, despite his repeated unfaithfulness. She died in an air raid in 1944, devastating Fleming, who called Wright "too good to be true". Queen Anne's Lace - one of our wild summer flowers - is native to Afghanistan.

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Knock-Knock

I noticed yesterday that there were lots of kinds of jokes. The joke cycle is a collection of jokes about a single target or situation.  It has a consistent narrative structure and type of humour.  Here are a few we know: elephant light bulb knock-knock chicken The list in Wikipedia is only a subset of all the cycles.  If one goes to the entry for Russian jokes, one finds a series of Russian cycle jokes there. The Wikipedia entry gives you a sense of how extensively humour has been applied to all kinds of circumstances, and how classification systems have been developed to organize jokes, to describe them and to understand them better. I hadn't heard of the 'two cow jokes' - political satire around the 1940s Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbour. Communism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government then gives you some milk. Fascism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government then sells you some milk. Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Nazism: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you. Another cycle that I found interesting is the Manta joke.  These are German jokes about a male driver of an Opel Manta - who is an aggressive driver, dull, lower class, macho, and infatuated with both his car and his blonde hairdresser girlfriend. There were two successful movies based on this premise.  Here is an example What does a Manta driver say after crashing into a tree? – Komisch--hab doch gehupt! ("Odd. I did honk!") This field is extensive - can you get a PhD in jokes?  With that question, one retrieves s long list of PhD jokes - demonstrating it is a joke cycle.  With an improvement in terminology one can retrieve various thesis topics for PhDs. Our floral image of the day - the stake says "Sweet Spirit".

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Diamond Time

Michael's sent me its first Fall Decor email.  We did not get out of the first week of August for the Back to School and Fall promotions. For some reason I wondered about the biggest diamond and what it is. The biggest diamond in the world is the Cullinan diamond - it is 3,106 carats and 1.3 pounds.  It was found in 1905 in the Premier Mine (now Cullinan Diamond Mine) in Pretoria South Africa by Thomas Evan Powell.  Today it is located in London and is on the head of England's royal Sceptre.  It is in the picture of Queen Elizabeth at her coronation.  You saw that a few days ago. This largest diamond became nine major stones and 96 smaller diamonds that were cut from it.  The Lesser Star of Africa is known as Cullinan II is part of the British crown jewels' Imperial State Crown.  These precious stones live in the Tower of London.  You can find out about Cullinan Mine diamonds - there are eight legends - HERE.  One of those stones is the Taylor-Burton Diamond given by Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor for her 40th birthday. The top 10 diamonds in the world are listed in this article HERE. The Cullinan shows up as number 3 worth 337 million euros.  At position 2 is The Sancy - considered priceless in that the diamond is so rare and expensive that an exact value is not known, and finally Koh-i-Noor - the finest white diamond discovered in 1294.  It means "mountain of light" in Persian and was 'confiscated' by the British East India Company and now the property of the British Crown.  The possible value is over 1 billion euro - that's almost 1.5 billion Canadian dollars. De Beers began a marketing campaign in 1938 that caused the diamond engagement ring craze. So diamonds have been popular ever since. The most diamonds set into one ring?  It would be 7,777 in India on May 7, 2019. It is the "Lotus Ring".  How about the biggest bling ever:  a $500,000 watch with 15,000 diamonds.  That's another Guinness record. In 2018, a Coca-Cola bottle-shaped handbag was covered with 9,888 diamonds.  It has the record for most diamonds set on a handbag.  And there is a Gibson guitar with 11,441 diamonds.  There are pages and pages of diamond jokes.  Here's an excellent example: A lady enters a jeweller's and says "You sold my husband a diamond ring yesterday but it's the wrong size". "No problem madam, we can adjust the finger size easily". "Oh, you don't understand, you sold him a one carat size, and I take a five carat size".

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Ermine for Sure

I had a dream last night and in it Queen Elizabeth II appeared in her Royal Robes.  In particular, I wondered about ermine and its white coat. Ermines are a type of weasel with white fur and a black-tipped tail - that's their winter coat.  The black-tipped tail takes on great meaning in heraldry. The Queen's coronation robes featured precious materials including: silk, mantua, satin, damask, sarsnet, cloth-of-gold and ermine. Needlework is of the finest detail.  An encyclopaedic knowledge of the symbolism and history of previous coronations ensures that the coronation robe embraces modernity whilst paying respectful homage to centuries of tradition. This comes from the website that supplies these special robes to Sovereigns, Peers, and others since 1689.   Ede & Ravenscroft says the tradition has barely changed in 1,000 years.  "Ede & Ravenscroft is proud to hold all three Royal Warrants, an honour shared by only a small number of other companies.  We are currently appointed as robe makers and tailors to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and robe makers for both His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales." Isn't this the most beautiful photo from their website?   And what transpires from all this pomp and circumstance?  It becomes the source of satire with Blackadder and his Ermine coat in the episode "Dish and Dishonesty". Here's the summary:  "Blackadder purchases an expensive robe which he believes to be made of ermine fur. Then, however, he discovers a feline's collar decorating the coat which is inscribed with the words "If found, please return to Emma Hamilton, Marine Parade, Portsmouth".  Infuriated, Blackadder announces that he is going to a costume party dressed as "Lady Hamilton's pussy!" Our flower of the day is Echinacea, with the common name Coneflower.  This one was at Cole's Garden Centre.

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Enery The VIII

What inspired Herman's Hermits in the 1960's to sing "I am Henry the VIII, I am" on the Ed Sullivan Show? This is a 1910 British music hall song. There is an original recording of the music hall star Harry Champion singing it in 1911.  It is a delightful celebration of the British character - history, satire, and fun combined.  What inspired them was the pop hit that British star Joe Brown had in 1961.  They followed in 1965.  The song got Herman's Hermits to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  Who did they knock from number one?  "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones.   Isn't that a telling statement of the diversity of popular music in the 1960's. There are numerous versions of the spelling - Henery, Henry, Enery, etc. and there are more verses than this.  Herman's Hermits are known for the one verse version. 'm 'Enery the Eighth, I am, 'Enery the Eighth I am, I am! I got married to the widow next door, She's been married seven times before And every one was an 'Enery She wouldn't have a Willie nor a Sam I'm her eighth old man named 'Enery 'Enery the Eighth, I am! The British music hall performers produced thousands of songs.  Between 1900 and 1910 a single publishing company, Francis, Day and Hunter, published between forty and fifty British music hall songs each month. Most of them were comic in nature - the notables are at Wikipedia HERE. I remember that the tradition was taken up by the Goon Show with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe developing titles such as "I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas" "Tales of Men's Shirts" and on on. So our picture today is a good distraction.  There's nothing like a bit of Lilycrest Garden's lily images on a snow day. The snow came to Grimsby in the evening yesterday. It 'skirted' around us during the day and bestowed a snowfall record on Toronto.  It closed down Toronto and surrounding areas. The weather network this morning says that the overachieving snowfall is not giving up just yet.

Submitted for your approval - June is a Summer Month

June is astrologically in spring, and meteorologically in summer.  Perhaps gardeners are in the meteorological camp.  It is hard for me to consider the current garden a spring one.  Peonies, irises and lilacs all say summer to me.  The early roses are blooming.  Wisteria, laburnum, the Carolina Silverbell have finished.  This morning, I found some blossoms on my tiny Styrax - also known as Japanese Snowbell tree. I got to smell the sweet scent that they are known for. For those who watched television in the 1950's, there was a wonderful expression in Rod Serling's series The Twilight Zone.  It was: "Submitted for Your Approval".  I find out that it was only heard in three episodes.  It is a phrase that most of us associate with the series. This phrase came to my mind as I looked at my Finalist image of a tulip in the Betterphoto's April contest.   For me, a tulip embodies spring.  Having tulips in the garden in June seems out of synch with the season we're in - meteorologically early summer.  The phrase "submitted for your approval" came to mind.  It is an invitation to consider that we've arrived into summer.

Winter's Retreat to Lilycrest Gardens

Winter's cold winds are gusting across the Grimsby landscape so it is a good time to retreat to the landscape of summer's beautiful Lilies.  These are in Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field, in St. Catharines on Fifth Street, close to the QEW.