July 4 2023 - Born and Died Same Day

 

How many people are born and die on the same day - their birthday?  These are known as birthday perishers.   Statistically it can be expected that one in every 366 people - around .27% do so.  Another site says that 13.8% of people have died on their birthday between 1969-2008 - that's in the U.S.` Many notable people have died on their birthday.  Here's the list HERE.  Included are Ingrid Bergman and Mike Douglas.  And this interesting note from the website:  " William Shakespeare often appears on lists such as this, but as his birthdate is unrecorded (what is commonly given as his birthdate was extrapolated from the date of his baptism), he cannot be given a definite place on this list. Jewish tradition records that both Moses (tractate Sotah 12b) and King David(Bechor Shor, Shabbat 30b, based on Midrash) died on their birthday according to the Hebrew calendar (7 Adar and 5 Sivan, respectively). Similarly, according to Islamic tradition Prophet Muhammad died on his birthday in the lunar Islamic calendar, 12 Rabi' al-awwal. The eldest to decease on their birth date, so far, is Astrid Zachrison. She was born on 15 May 1895 and died 15 May 2008, aged 113 years. The youngest is Taruni Sachdev born on 14 May 1998 and died on 14 May 2012, aged 14. Also included is Sir James Milne Wilson who achieved the even rarer feat of having died on his Birthday the 29 February during a leap year. The probability of this occurring is even slimmer, at one in 1461, or 0.068%." Another strange aspect of birthdays?  The Birthday Effect.  This is where an individual's likelihood of death appears to increase on or close to their birthday.   I guess it is the 4th of July that made me think off this topic. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 30 2021 - Mallfun or Mallfunction

 

I went to the Mall yesterday.  The one I went to was Mapleview in Burlington.  Whenever we drive by that Mall, I still see the original farm with old-style greenhouses on the vast grounds that are now parking lots.   That would be more than a year and a half since I'd been in a mall or most retail stores.  There are many kinds of places that we haven't been in since March 2019.   Malls and corporate office towers are very similar - shining granite and marble floors and walls in neutral colours.  Everything so clean and entirely impersonal.  The 'death of the shopping mall' has been in progress for years with the drop in revenue continuous.  Before February 2020, the drop in revenue per square foot was 42 per cent.  But then the pandemic came along.  Malls may not be going down yet.   I was there just as it opened at 11:00am and left just before 12:30pm.  It started to fill up as the 12:00 hour approached. The people that were there seemed impatient to get started with normal again.  Both young and old were there. There were quite a few 'super seniors' out for a look-see walk in the stores.  Yes, everyone was out for a stroll in the Mall.  Will this be part of a new normal?  What will the social environment be post-2019 pandemic?  Will Malls remain part of it?  I ask this as it is my generation that experienced the rise of the Malls.  Let's enjoy some of the shopping/mall jokes of the past.     What is cheaper and more effective than a psychiatrist? Going shopping at a mall. I saw a man with one arm shopping at a second hand store. I told him “you’re not going to find what you’re looking for.” An atheist comes into a mall And there is no parking spot, so he says "God, if you give me parking spot, I will convert myself and become Christian". Two minutes later he says "Nevermind I found one" I fell asleep at the mall today... I was counting customers leaving the Apple store There's a lot of fun in playing spin-the-dial on images with Flexifly - our Floyd Elzinga montage image has a few variations today.