Aug 2 2024 - That's Just Weird

 

This is a new oft-repeated phrase.  It is so often repeated that I compare it to when they started keeping tabs and began a formal list of Trump's lies,  false or misleading statements. And you can go to Wikipedia and see them all. Is there a similar site that is now tracking "That's Just Weird" by the Republicans, along with Trump, Vance and Fox News?   I expect it to get into place soon.  It may be harder to fact-check weird things., or maybe not.  Here's one:  A Fox News commentator was reported by the Globe to claim that no man should vote for a woman and when they did, they would transition into a woman.   "And to be a man and then vote for a woman just because she’s a woman is either childish — that person has mommy issues — or they are just trying to be accepted by other women,” Watters said. “I heard the scientists say the other day that when a man votes for a woman, he actually transitions into a woman.” And then could a person "happen to turn a colour"? Donald Trump recently said that Kamala Harris "happened to turn Black" a few years ago.  There are things that aren't fact-checkable, but are odd ideas.  JD Vance says Americans without children should “face the consequences and the reality” and not get “nearly the same voice” in democracy Vance: “Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children.” Here are some quotes of weird things that have been said by Republicans - some can be fact-checked and others would be logic-checked: “Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rainforests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases?” — Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.) "If businesses are forced to pay women the same as male earnings, that means they will have to reduce the pay for the men they employ...simple economics. If that happens, then men will have an even more difficult time earning enough to support their families, which will mean more Mothers will be forced to leave the home (where they may prefer to be) to join the workforce to make up the difference." Utah Republican James C. Green ''The only way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons is to use them.'' —Rush Limbaugh Here's a list highlighting weird things of the past.  This article calls them "craziest Republican quotes of the 21st century" - it seems surreal when one looks through it  I had no idea they have claimed so many illogical and false things for so long.  Here's to whoever starts the "weird" list. Here's a gnarled tree trunk.

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Nov 13 2023 - Weirdest Potato Chips

 

In the Bing News feed - with all its ads and sponsored content is weirdest potato chip flavours.  So I go off to google to look this up. Dill pickle is not weird - it is just more salt and vinegar.  Cinnamon and sugar potato crisps from Pringle - that's weird.  Walkers BBQ pulled pork crisps - again that's more of the same BBQ and pork crisps are well-known in the US. This is now called pulled pork chips.  Maybe because it is in Britan and not the US. Utz put out "The crab chip" - yes that's weird.  They promise Chesapeake Bay crab seasoning. What is that?  "In a small mixing bowl, stir together salt, cayenne, celery seed, paprika, mustard, black pepper, bay leaf, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, and cinnamon until well-combined."  That looks like a combination of BBQ and cinnamon and sugar potato chips.  That's weird. Walkers roast chicken crisps - protein flavoured is the highlight.  I suggest an even more fatty experience - think chicken fat plus frying fat.  It seems that  the flame grilled steak chips would be similar with the added touch of that grilled taste.  Not so weird to me as the intensely sweet and salty. What about Pringles sloppy joe's - wouldn't that be more of a BBQ variation combined with onions and garlic. "A sloppy joe seasoning packet is just a combination of spices like chili powder, paprika, dry mustard, garlic powder, and minced onion." Walkers prawn cocktail - I suggest we go back to the crab chip and we'll see that seasoning repeated here - maybe cocktail sauce has more vinegar.  Head down to Kettle brand maple bacon potato chips.  Now we're onto something that might be considered Canadian.  The chips would go as the first course, followed by bacon maple butter tarts as the dessert.  A full meal.   That one seems to be the ultimate.  The full range of chips is HERE  And what comes to mind is that there wasn't a single sweet potato variation.  Continue the search, and you will find things like dark chocolate sweet potato chips.   Here are sweet potatoes at Vineland Research Station.  This is from a few years ago as they showed off their recent hyrbrids.

Maybe my wreaths are a bit like these strange potato chips.  It is "anything goes"  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Aug 18 2023 - CNE Food

 

When did the CNE become the hot spot for strange food combinations?  This year there's quite a line-up covered extensively by blogTO HERE  "Choose from dill pickle fries, pickle cotton candy, and peanut butter pickle dogs; Fruity Pebble-topped mini pancakes and deep fried cheese curds covered in the cereal; and pink champagne mac and cheese, pink stuffed chimney cones, pink dragon fruit fluffy pancakes, pink pina colada sauce-covered nachos and an extra pink strawberry milkshake full of extravagant fixings. Continuing on the sensational side, there are also Korean fried frog legs, a whopping four-pound taco that is hard to carry with two hands, a burger with watermelon slices for buns, foot-long fries, bacon-wrapped chicken wings, a Krispy Kreme blueberry chicken sandwich, peanut butter jelly corn on the cob and street corn lemonade. The stars of this year's foods will definitely include the deep fried pizza slices from Pizza Pizza, which come in three varieties: classic, buffalo sauce, and hot honey-pickle-creamy garlic-Doritos. Another is the cheeseburger and street corn soft serve cones from So Cute Ice Cream, which is the same company behind the ketchup and mustard-flavoured desserts last year. If you can stomach them, the cheeseburger option comes with a pickle and pretzel in a cheese-coated waffle cone, while the street corn flavour includes lime, cotija cheese and chili seasoning on top." Do you want to see pictures of this weird stuff?  Here's the National Post coverage with pictures HERE.  I didn't find any history of the  CNE's weird food - it doesn't compete with a roller coaster or a ferris wheel, I guess.   Here's another watercolour image - this one of leaf pressings.

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May 27 2023 - Listverse

 

Metaverse is a trend in words that have verse in them.  I recently found a site named Listverse.com - it is full of lists. How do you keep someone scrolling through lists?  They have to have interesting topics, and there needs to be variety so that you continue to read through them.  The list of lists itself needs to be interesting.  There are subject areas - movies and tv, weird stuff, our world, travel, history, creepy, technology, humans, crime. In the Weird Stuff area, one list is 10 male leaders who had surprisingly high-pitched voices.  They include George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Here's the entry of Adoph Hitler:   When it comes to “shrill-voiced speakers,” a lot of people’s minds probably wander to Adolph Hitler. Hitler’s speeches were characterized by his shrill, angry, maniacal tone as he sought to rile up the crowds and keep them enthralled in his Nazi ideology. He is basically the embodiment of the “screaming dictator” trope. However, Hitler had a secret. He was very careful about making sure that no one recorded him speaking in his normal voice. Despite this, there exists a single known recording of Hitler speaking in a conversational voice. The recording in question involves Hitler speaking to Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the military leader of Finland, in 1942. The recording was made in secret by a Finnish broadcasting engineer. When Hitler’s guards realized he was being secretly recorded, they surprisingly did not demand the tape be destroyed. They instead demanded it be “hidden away, never to be opened.”  The tape was kept from the public for nearly 15 years but was finally released in 1957. In contrast to his crazed, high-pitched voice when speaking to a crowd, Hitler’s conversational voice is deep, even, and almost smooth. Above, you can hear Adolph Hitler’s normal, rarely-heard speaking voice   Wouldn't they have high-pitched voices on a model railroad?  Everything in scale. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Apr 6 2023 - Really Weird Rocks

 

I checked into the good news network and found an article on weird floating rocks.  I seemed to have lost the original video which was very commercial yet fascinating with its pictures of precariously balanced massive stones. The  one I looked up is the famous Japanese floating rock - it isn't actually floating, but it is an arresting sight.   "The Ishi-no-Hōden is made from tuff and is surrounded on three sides by unprocessed bedrock. With a weight estimated at 500 tons, it measures 6.4 meters wide by 5.7 meters high by 7.2 meters in thickness. In shape, it is carved in the form of two flat rectangular parallelepipeds oriented vertically and sandwiching a small rectangular parallelepiped. One of the sides has a protrusion shaped like the top of a pyramid. The space between the surrounding bedrock and the megalith is wide enough for one adult to pass through, and it is possible to go around (admission fee is required). The monolith is situated in a large depression, which forms a pond at its base. The monolith is carved with a pillar at the center of its base, which is not visible at eye-level, so the monolith appears to be floating above the pond." Here are two of the internet pictures. This is the best-known megalith in Japan although they have numerous strange rock formations above ground and below the sea.   Here's our own experience with the Balancing Rock at Garden of the Gods in Colorado.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 17 2023 - No Covid Pardons

Quite a few Canadian newspapers such as The Globe and Mail and the National Post helped me understand the question: What is a Covid pardon?  It made the headlines yesterday with Alberta's Premier Danielle Smith saying she is no longer pursuing amnesty for COVID-19 health-rule violators because Canada doesn’t work that way. And that she hadn't contacted prosecutors. After being sworn into office she said non-vaccinated people were the most discriminated-against group she's ever seen in her lifetime.  She had to walk that one back - she later said she was misconstrued after receiving much backlash.   For the pardons, she said "my language may have been imprecise."  And then she explained how she didn't call a Crown prosector because she knows she isn't allowed to do that and then corrected it with contacting the attorney general and deputy attorney general. Canadian News media  have given her the process to follow:  If she wants to cancel fines, she would pass legislation, that in a province, the premier doesn't have the power to provide pardons.  It seems strange that the news media is now instructing the provincial premiers on how they get things done.  At the other end of the spectrum, the Toronto Sun had an article about a Kentucky woman who won the lottery after the chose a lottery ticket in a gift swap at her work holiday party.  Her winnings?  $175,000.  The look on her colleagues' faces who didn't choose the ticket?

This is a close-up of another plant in the Niagara Falls conservatory.  Maybe it is called Tortoise Plant. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Dec 31 2022 - Weird Snow Right Here

 

There's weird snow.  And some of it is right here.  These are things like snow rollers, frost flowers, pancake ice, rabbit ice, penitentes, needle ice, and brinicles.   There are Ontario pictures of ice volcanoes, snow towers,  snow balls , ice caves, crop circles, light pillars, ice pancakes, and so on in the Narcity article HERE.  The article on Treehugger.com describes how they are formed.   There's even better formations from recent storms.  Look at the pictures below.  These came from a lake-front cottage in Dunnville, on Lake Erie in January 2022.  These are formations around Jack's neighbours lamp posts.    For traditional ice formations, the Bored Panda article has beautiful photos of snow formations is HERE.   This next picture comes from that article. I haven't found where this one is located.  So far, the pictures are from Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and Lake Michigan.   Our recent storm has resulted in Port Stanley making the news with winter sculptures on the pier.   That was only 3 days ago.  Those pictures are HERE on the CBC website.  And Crystal Beach, just a half hour drive away also made the CBC news with its lakefront homes encased in ice from the same storm.   That picture story is HERE.  These are the Crystal Beach lakefront houses.  They look like they've been painted with Benjamin Moore's Ice Formations 873. And our picture today shows graceful Japanese Forest Grass. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 22 2022 - Funny ha ha vs Funny weird

 

I decided to look for a funny story.  This is in response to the many bad stories that flood the news. I found out how much was written about the Republican snowflake slur.  More recently, you can read all kinds of analysis about "Let's go, Branden".  It was a former police officer, Jared Schmeck, who insulted Joe Biden on December 26th on a livestream telephone call with the offending catchphrase  "Let's go, Brandon."  I find out this is a far-right code phrase for " Fuck Joe Biden."  It is being perpetrated everywhere as a subversive media campaign.  It is being discussed now as seditious rather than insulting.  You can read about the origins from CNN HERE along with CNN opinion, or a less opinionated but equally critical expose HERE.  There is a humorous moment in all of this:  CNN referred to Trump supporters as Trumpanzees. So let's make it intentional to find funny news every few days.   I have to be more careful - funny can go two ways.  This is a weird funny story, but fascinating nonetheless. A woman who lost part of her tongue after a battle with cancer had a new one made out of part of her leg - only for it to start growing hair.  "They usually take skin from your forearm, but I’m only five foot two, so I didn’t have enough skin on my forearm to replace what I was having removed."   Cameron has learned to use her new tongue properly, although speaking, eating and even tasting are completely different.  She said: "I had to teach myself how to speak again after the radiation therapy which was a really bizarre feeling.  I can only taste on the right side of my tongue which is the real side, and only chew on the right side because the left is attached to my gums.  My manners are terrible because food sometimes just falls out my mouth, and when food gets stuck underneath my tongue it feels like having a small rock in your shoe." We would never guess all the  after-effects of skin graft surgery. This is a topic all its own.   Here are two pictures from the great train ride on the Rio Grande 215.

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Speaking Naturally

"Are you one of the 6,000 people in the world who speaks Chalcatongo Mixtec? Congratulations! You speak the world’s weirdest language. That’s what Tyler Schnoebelen and the researchers at Idibon, a natural language processing company, found when they statistically compared 239 languages to see how like or unlike they were to one another." That's from an article HERE - it describes the findings of the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) ... "a large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials (such as reference grammars) by a team of 55 authors. WALS Online is a publication of the  Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.  Can you imagine ranking all the languages to decide which are the most 'difficult'.  WALS evaluates 2,676 languages in terms of 192 linguistic features. We are fascinated by the most weird.  There are languages that are the "least weird"- these include Cantonese, Hungarian, Chamorro, and Imbabura Quechua. And where does English stand in terms of weird?  It is ranked 33 out of 239 languages, so is determined by WALS to be weird, with more than 80% of its features being uncommon in other languages.  That explains the hundreds and hundreds of great grammar jokes.  But I've chosen just one: An MIT linguistics professor was lecturing his class the other day. "In English," he said, "a double negative forms a positive. However, in some languages, such as Russian, a double negative remains a negative. But there isn't a single language, not one, in which a double positive can express a negative." A voice from the back of the room said, "Yeah, right."  Today we have railroad pictures from the Hickory convention. I like the first picture showing the scale of the Sundance layout.

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News of the Weird

There is a News of The Weird.  Here are two recent stories:  You’re Screwed If you’ve experienced one (or more) flat tires in Sherburne County, Minn., over the last few weeks, News of the Weird is now able to tell you why. Jeffrey Caouette, 63, of Elk River admitted to authorities in late August that he had purchased 55 pounds of sheetrock screws (that’s more than 12,000 screws) and scattered them on local roads to “slow down” a person he believed was in a relationship with his ex-girlfriend. Specifically, KSTP reported, he put the screws on the road where he believed the man lived and on the roads between that house and the ex-girlfriend’s house, among others. The arrest complaint notes that Big Lake police have received more than 100 reports of damage from the screws, including to three of their own vehicles. Caouette was charged with first-degree property damage.  Eye of the Beholder In downtown Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, someone left a plate of macaroni and cheese, complete with fork, sitting atop a steel road barrier on Tuesday, Aug. 27, which caught the interest of a Reddit poster. No one knew where it came from or if someone would be back to retrieve it, but a day later, an anonymous citizen made it into an art installation, reported CTV News, by adding a museum-like tag beside it: Abandoned Snack (2019)—macaroni and sundried tomato on ceramic—Unknown Artist, reads the placard. Today we get a mid-shot of the Arbutus tree and its peeling bark.

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