Marilyn's Photos - June 4 2026 - Voting in America

 

One of the significant differences between the U.S. and Canada is that the U.S. is involved in a constant cycle of voting.   And in between that there are changes to how voting is done - the voting districts, voting rules... it seems unending. India turns out to have more frequent elections than the U.S. with the U.S. occurring 2nd on a list of 20 nations covered. I notice this as I receive the New York Times New Summary every day and every day has some kind of election news.  I also realized that there is a leaning in the U.S. towards all kind of voting.   This month's voting  news is the New York Times Magazine votinng on the 30 greatest living songwriters. They took a poll with 25,000 readers responding, with a complicated set-up of experts involved in the nominations. They published the names starting with what looks like an alphabetical order, and then veers off the cliff into a seeming random order.  No listing by vote count. Then the barrage of responses to the list came in. Mostly, it is about who's missing.   As for popular writers, Randy Newman, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, Tom Waits, David Byrne, Madonna, Steely Dan's living partner Donald Fagen, Jimmy Webb, James Taylor, Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith and so on.   No Broadway composers made the list.  And no mention of classical composers like John Williams.  These two categories were not mentioned as part of modern songwriting in the survey. A discussion over the definition of being American. Joni Mitchell and Neil Young are American citizens but not born in the U.S. making that the seeming reason they aren't on the list. That's despite the Times defining American as "those residing in or culturally woven into America's musical fabric."  So Bad Bunny not born in the U.S. was in and Joni Mitchell was out.  And what constitutes America - whether Canada being in North America makes it American so Canadians should have been included. Makes one cringe to realize there are many like Trump who think a country border is an idea.  There was no definition of what is America in the survey.  With all this, you can gossip/fester/mock their choices - such as Carole King ranking above Bob Dylan, followed by Stevie Wonder, then Paul Simon. It can go on a long time and reap a lot of revenue for the Times, making it worth all the effort and cost. So much voting and so much contention over the results - a very American voting story. This is one of those flexify manipulations.  I should go find the original.  I wonder what discordance might be there.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 3 2026 - Elvis vs Marilyn Facts

 

With Goggle's ever-helpful retrieval strategy, I learned a fact about Elvis today that has a very low probability that I would have ever learned.  My quest was to find out similar silly Guinness Records about Elvis compared to Marilyn.  I got side-tracked completely by this first question on the People also ask list: "How long did Elvis go without pooping before he died?"   'Autopsy findings revealed that Elvis Presley suffered from severe chronic constipation and bowel paralysis. According to his personal physician, Dr. George Nichopoulos, parts of the stool found in the King's colon had been accumulating and sitting in his bowel for up to four to five months.  This severe impaction played a critical, and possibly fatal, role in his passing. According to the History Channel, medical experts and historians believe Elvis was straining heavily on the toilet at the time of his death. This intense physical straining causes the Valsalva maneuver—a process that severely compresses the abdominal aorta, restricts blood flow, and can lead to a sudden, fatal heart attack or cardiac arrhythmia." Maybe I am the only one who didn't know this. Instead of finding Guinness records, I see an equally creepy question that Google offers up about Marilyn. Here it is: "Who is buried on top of Marilyn?" The answer:  "Businessman Richard F. Poncher is interred in the crypt directly above Marilyn Monroe at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.  Before his death in 1986, he specifically requested that his body be placed face down so he could be "lying on top" of the actress for eternity."   The article quotes his wife as saying she saw the funeral director carry out his wishes. Look who is next to Marilyn - Hugh Hefner.  Marilyn was on the cover and centrefold for the first Playboy issue, published in 1953.  He purchased the crypt next to her, these words were quoted by the Los Angeles Times: "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up."    This is the Nelles Cemetery just a few streets away.  This particular gravestone is entwined in a Japanese Maple tree.  I followed instructions for transforming it into an infrared style image and these are the results.  It  would have been a perfect resting place for Marilyn.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 2 2026 - 1000 Marilyns

 

More than 1,000 Marilyns gathered in downtown Palm Springs, California.  I would guess that's about a Guinness Record.  Yes. It is the largest gathering of people dressed as Marilyn Monroe.  Previously, it was 254 in Australia.  Notice it was people and not women.  The picture is a tell-all.  I wonder if you might consider these look-alikes? All those white wigs, and all those white dresses. This picture will never die.  It will go on forever. Back then dresses were "frocks."  This one was actually ivory-coloured, considered a silly little dress by the designer, William Travilla.  He didn't consider this dress as one of his great designs. The Hollywood understory of the scene (besides Monroe wearing two pairs of underwear) is that Joe DiMaggio, her husband, disapproved of the scene and that later that night the couple got into an argument...ultimately resulting in their divorce. There were so many people watching the 14 takes, that the noise from the crowd made the footage unusable, and the scene was reshot in the Hollywood studios.  These shots became publicity stills.  Where did that dress go?  Debbie Reynolds purchased it in 1971, planning on a museum. That didn't happen.  The dress was sold in 2011 for somewhere between $4 and $6 million. It is privately held, and has been occasionally loaned out to major institutions for display.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 1 2026 - Everyday Annoyancies

 

Big things and little things make up a person,  a town, a province and a country.  It is the little things that we're looking at today. The most prominent validated study is the Pollara Strategic Insights Rage Index. It tracks macro-environmental irritants. Psychology Today Canada tracks micro-stresses and everyday etiquette is tracked by Ipsos.  Statistics Canada tracks Canadians' overall well-being.   Here's what AI has compiled to let us know about our petty grievances in Canada.  Or maybe it was compiled specifically for "me" as it seems to know that I would travel on the QEW and what I should do to balance these annoyances. Moreover, it felt free to give me advice on how to reduce stress - walk the Grimsby Waterfront Trail.   Rank * The Annoyance Typical Scenario & Frustration 1 Skyrocketing Grocery Prices The ever-present shock at checkout totals for basic items. 2 Unpredictable Weather Changes Getting spring-like weather in March, only to be hit with a massive snowstorm. 3 Tailgating on the QEW Cars riding too close to your bumper while heading through the GTA. 4 Lagging Wi-Fi The dreaded "spinning wheel of doom" during streaming. 5 People Distracted by Devices Folks staring at their phones in the middle of a face-to-face chat. 6 Unwanted Phone Calls Random spam calls or telemarketers. 7 Loud Chewers People loudly chewing or drinking right next to you. 8 Slow Walkers & Mall Blockers Groups walking four abreast, blocking the entire sidewalk or aisle. 9 Leaving Empty Toilet Paper Rolls The frustration of needing the loo and finding just one square. 10 Ignoring Turn Signals Drivers who turn their blinker on but never actually turn. 11 Tipping Culture Creep The increasing pressure to tip for services at counter-service spots. 12 Patio Etiquette Struggles Not being able to find a free table on a sunny afternoon. 13 Left-Lane Hogs Getting stuck behind someone driving slow in the fast lane. 14 Self-Checkouts Acting Up "Unexpected item in the bagging area" loops. 15 Bags/Food That Don't Reseal "Resealable" food packets that split or don't actually seal. 16 Mismatched Food Containers Opening the cupboard to an avalanche of mismatched plastic lids. 17 Loud Cell Phone Speakers People watching videos or on speakerphone in public spaces. 18 Dark Netflix Libraries Finding out our Canadian Netflix options are limited compared to the US. 19 Dull Kitchen Knives Trying to cut a fresh tomato with a dull blade, squishing it into pulp. 20 Kraft Dinner Box Tabs The sheer annoyance of the tab on a Kraft Dinner box refusing to open. *1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 I am perplexed by the loud chewers.  Wouldn't this mean that people eat in public every day?  There's a rabbit hole of medical conditions and disorders - misophonia is the condition of experiencing "severe, uncontrollable anger, anxiety, or disgust from everyday mouth sounds like chewing..." Doesn't it make you wonder what your own sensitivities are and what your list of everyday annoyances would look like.    This is the growing field of Dynamic Daylilies.  Thousands of daylilies in bloom starting in June. I saw a daylily in bloom yesterday, launching the start of the season.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 31 2026 - It's my party and I'll cancel it if I want to

 

We have a national figure - a 79-year-old, who seems to have more in common with a 16-year-old than with us middle Olds.  This is the case when the big party plan doesn't go his way.  The replacement plan?  Taking over as the main headliner of the Biggest American Birthday - now that seems like 16-year-old stuff too. And that is followed by being better than Elvis anyway.  And that is followed by being the "Number One Attraction anywhere in the World".   So the party-pout started when five of the nine headline acts have so far dropped out.  Some say it is about being led to believe the party was one thing and now it is another. Others say their family, friends and the band are at risk due to threats. The acts that are left are Vanilla Ice, Flo Rida, C+C Music Factory and Milli Vanilli. These sound like children's party desserts.  Much talk of Elvis in this party pout.  There have been claims (maybe proclamations) of how similar the two look - here's the picture posted by the Republicans in 2024.   Don't you wonder what Elvis would look like now? He'd be 91 years old.    Here's a screen shot of some projections of Elvis at 90 years old.  I didn't promise it would be pretty. So let's enjoy something benign in our images - sheep.  Maybe not benign as there seem to be a lot of people behaving as sheep these days.

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