Marilyn Cornwell Blog

Hopscotch through the Book

2019-06-03T08:25:00.000-04:00

"If, while hopping through the court in either direction, the player steps on a line, misses a square, or loses balance, the turn ends. Players begin their turns where they last left off. The first player to complete one course for every numbered square on the court wins the game." The rules of hopscotch are complicated - it is an ancient game played all over the world.

Today's Hopscotch is interesting. There are many sites that are retrieved with the term hopscotch. At the site HopscotchCanada.com one can find children's activities nearby. - there are lots of STEM Camps - there is a continuing connection to mathematics and thinking skills.

And continuing on this theme - this site:

"Hopscotch is the only activity I can think of where she uses both her left and right brain." —SAYEED (PARENT)

"I am THRILLED that there is a safe, interesting, engaging place for children to learn to code. This app really allows his creativity to shine, and his five year old little sister has become so interested in the app, and doesn't even know what coding is. THANK YOU, and keep up the good work!" — Mom, C. to 10 year old son

These recommendations are not from children with chalk on the sidewalk out front of their homes. This is an app for iPads and iPhones for children ages 7 - 13 to make their own software and then use it (generally as games). All of this is at gethopscotch.com

The intriguing connection of this complex game and mathematics achieved prominence in Hopscotch, a novel by Argentine writer Julio Cortazar, written in 1963.

In it, "Oliveira is a wandering soul, a man obsessed with memory because the only thing that keeps him going is the question of whether or not any path he could have chosen would have led him to the same place. The book is split into 56 regular chapters and 99 “expendable” ones. Readers may read straight through the regular chapters (ignoring the expendable ones) or follow numbers left at the end of each chapter telling the reader which one to read next (eventually taking her through all but one of the chapters). A reading of the book in that way would lead the reader thus: Chapter 73 – 1 – 2 – 116 – 3 – 84 – 4 – 71 – 5 – 81 – 74 – 6 – 7- 8, and so on."

"Throughout its 500+ pages, Cortazar’s work is full of typographical, linguistic, and conceptual experiments that add to the book’s appeal while avoiding the tinge of gimmickry. Take, for instance, chapter 34, written entirely in the following manner:"

"In September of 1880, a few months after the demise of my
And the things she reads, a clumsy novel, in a cheap edition
father, I decided to give up my business activities, transferring
besides, but you wonder how she can get interested in things
them to another house in Jerez whose standing was as solvent
like this."

You can read more about the novel at quarterlyconversation.com HERE.

Here's a common sight in Niagara - shrub Wisteria. This one is on our street.

Yo-yoing and Juggling

2019-06-02T07:28:00.000-04:00

Are yo-yos gone or in steep decline? There is a national yo-yo day in June and I wonder if it will be celebrated. It is an ancient game - the Greeks had yo-yos - a child playing with one is depicted on a terracotta vase. Before the twentieth century, they were referred to as bandalores.

Yo-yos were extremely popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Today there are associations and conventions, so the professionalism is well-developed. The world yo-yo contest will be in Cleveland in August 2019. The competition circuit has 33 countries involved - competitors travel around the world.

What sports are similar to it? Are yo-yo skills like juggling skills? There is an International Jugglers' Association with the IJA Festival coming up at the end of June and the convention will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It started out at an International Brotherhood of Magicians convention in Pittsburgh in 1947.

There are lots of programs to train for yo-yoing and for juggling. But I still wonder how many people are active yo-yoers. On the other hand, juggling has some statistics. One of them is that it is estimated that 21 percent of people can juggle. There is a chart on reddit where someone had fun with estimating how many balls could be juggled by the population:

Balls People
3 200M
4 5M
5 500K
6 50K
7 10K
8 1K
9 200
10 40
11 10
12 2

Busker Festivals have both yo-yoers and jugglers. At last year's Toronto International BuskerFest, they had the Guinness World Record attempt for yo-yoing by Michael Francis. His website doesn't have a further reference that he broke the record, but he has two Guinness world records, including the coin rolling record in 2016.

June is the month of sweet smells. Lily of the Valley, Lilac and Wisteria scents float through the neighbourhood this weekend.

2019-06-01T06:53:00.004-04:00

According to one survey, May is considered the favourite month of the year, October second. June and December that are tied for third. With our cool spring, June will be on top this year for us. So as we launch into our favourite month, I went looking for crazy and strange business, retail and company names. Here are just three:

Analtech
Where it's located: Newark, Delaware
What it does: Manufacturer of thin layer chromatography plates.
How it got its name:Portmanteau of the words "analytical" and "technology."
About: Analtech distributes its products to more than 40 countries and 6 continents.

McJunkin
Where it's located: Charleston, West Virginia
What it does: Manufacturer of pipes and valves.
How it got its name: Jerry McJunkin was the original co-founder of McJunkin Supply Company in 1921.
About:McJunkin Red Man employees around 3450 people and and is #493 on the Fortune 500.

Ass Compact
Where it's located: Germany
What it does: Specialist magazine for Capital and Risk Management
How it got its name: This one is anyone's guess.
The rest of the companies are HERE.

There are many articles on this topic. A picture tour of oddly named business and companies is HERE. This article has Butt Drilling, Wally's Private Parts, Turd Baby, My Dung, Big Dick's Halfway Inn, AssCompact (see above), Glory Hole Center, Anal Jewelry Center, Beaver Cleaners, The Golden Shower Restaurant, and so on.

Huffington Post took on the challenge and found Goin' Postal. It is followed by a restaurant with the name of Sam and Ella's. How about Passmore Gas & Propane?

Even the websites themselves have crazy names - at chive.com they showed these pictures of business names: Mustard's last stand, British Hairways, Lettuce Eat, Juan in a Million, Lord of the Fries, and so on. Another site named Pleated-jeans.com had Jurassic Pork, Surelock Homes, Carl's Pane in the Glass - all as picture stories.

What if you want to create a crazy business name?, I found biznamewiz.com and typed in my name to get over 15,000 whacky combinations such as:

Marilyn Crispy
Cornwell Aristotle
Cornwell Behold
Marilyn Craze
Marilyn Sixth Man

Our pictures today show the interesting flowers of Anthurium, blooming at Longwood Gardens.

Around the World of Last Names

2019-05-30T08:27:00.000-04:00

If you go through the alphabet and come up with a last name for every letter...

You would likely discover your country of origin and ethnicity. The list of common surnames is organized by region - Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania and South America.

And within each category is a listing of the most common names by country. How many people in China have the name Wang/Wong? In 2007 there were 92,881,000. In comparison, there are 2,376,207 people with the surname Smith in the U.S.A. in 2000.

Smith turns out to be the most popular last name in the U.S., Australia, and Great Britain, along with many English-speaking countries. The last name of Wang means "king" in China. That can be traced back to royal families who took the name of Wang when their kingdoms fell under the Qin dynasty. The second most popular name in China is Li, and it means plum, plum tree or minister. It became a popular name as a result of 'gifting' the name Li to trusted allies and warriors. The practice of surname-gifting resulted in nearly 40% of Chinese people having the surnames Wang, Li, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Zhou, and Wu.

I found a visual version of surnames - a map that shows the most common last name in every country. Here it is.

What would you guess about surnames in the Arctic and Antarctica? They are complicated jurisdictions. In the Canadian Arctic, Innuit surnames were ignored with the government using a number system for people. It finally registered surnames starting in the 1960s. I found no listings of common Innuit names.

What about Antarctica? Only 80 people live in Antartica in the winter and 200 in the summer. They live on King Georges Island. How many people have been born there? Wikipedia says at least 11 children have been born in West Antarctica. These children are automatically the same citizens as their parents, accounting for their surnames.

Here are some of the ferns along the living wall at Longwood Gardens.

Pacific Fog and Pizza

2019-05-29T07:09:00.000-04:00

I looked at the water level of Lake Ontario yesterday and it is high this year. The reports are that it is higher than in 2017, which was a record year. That made some of the beaches off-limits along the Niagara shores of Lake Ontario in 2017.

We had mist come in from the escarpment yesterday along with cool temperatures, and one could imagine it was a San Francisco day. It is being repeated this morning. We in Grimsby are getting a small experience of what it is like in San Francisco.

What makes fog a common occurrence along the pacific coastline? The temperature of the Pacific Ocean means there is a lot of evaporated moisture. There is a marine layer of water vapour near the surface and this encounters the colder waters along the coast. The result is fog. There are aerial pictures of fog entering San Francisco through the Golden Gate - a fascinating weather story.

What I notice this morning, beyond the weather, is that one of the headlines is about Pizza Pizza. It changed its original pan recipe after four decades. This was reported by CNN. It has a new cheese blend, new sauce and is baked in a newly engineered pan designed to turn out a crispier crust. Meanwhile, the news at Little Caesars Pizza is that vegan sausage has made its appearance in the Impossible Supreme Pizza. What makes this national news? Maybe this is because 43% of consumers order at pizza at least once a week. And don't forget the keto diet where cauliflower pizza crusts are on the rise. This is also a news item.

Here's the beehive gazebo at Winterthur, with the peonies in the foreground.

Peony Flower Crops

2019-05-28T08:31:00.002-04:00

Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field is at the Houtby Farm, a grower of pussy willows, peonies and gladiolus. This field, below, shows the Styer's Peony Festival At their Chadd's Ford Nursery when we were visiting on Victoria Day weekend. We saw the signs, so followed them to the growing field with thousands of plants and flowers in bloom. The celebration tent is in the top left, so you can see how large the field is. There are over 100 varieties on over 25 acres. Styer's have seven farms, and originated with botanist J. Franklin Styer, a Pennsylvania Quaker. He was a pioneer in hybridizing and propagating peonies. His father is credited with bringing the mushroom industry to Kennett Square, where Longwood is located.

What made me surprised? As a cut flower farm, I could see lots of flowers blooming. I don't get to see that many flowers in the Houtby fields. While one can see some peonies in bloom in the rows, they mostly are picked at the right bud stage, and then placed into cold storage. Peonies last in cold storage until August - they are a prime wedding flower. The Gladiolus crop hardly ever has colour in the field - they are picked as soon as the smallest hint of colour shows.

Like many things, the floral industry is now global. In the past, roses were grown in greenhouses in Niagara as flowers were grown locally, near their markets. Now roses are grown in Ecuador and Colombia. Colombia accounts for almost 60% of all flowers imported to the U.S.A. The Netherlands is losing ground as the centre of production for the European floral market. However, it remains the leader in hybridization and culture, and technology advances come from the Netherlands for the greenhouse growers.

May 26 - Roadmapping

2019-05-26T09:21:00.000-04:00

What do you think of this roadmap of American living? In my work, strategic roadmaps helped organizations transition and transform. This one is a current state map that contrasts the political and social status of the U.S.

There is a wide spectrum of visual representations, aka maps, now. We can go to visual complexity.com and find all kinds of projects. I looked for ones that might reveal things about U.S. politics but didn't see anything that general. What I did find was a diverse collection of visual representations. Every one of these pictures expands and shows the results of analysis through visual representation. You can read about the project and author HERE.

Here is the author's introduction: VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project's main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web. I truly hope this space can inspire, motivate and enlighten any person doing research on this field.

We found these two historic stone buildings in Delaware, near Mount Cuba.

May 25 - Left and Right

2019-05-25T06:35:00.002-04:00

Left and Right have been hijacked in Google and now retrieve left and right wing politics. One has to look for relative direction to find left and right. I repeated the search and there's some 'smarts' in Google that now retrieves both concepts. I knew they were watching me.

So in relation to my question about direction, Wikipedia says that: "In situations where a common frame of reference is needed, it is common to use an egocentric view." I had thought of left and right simply. I find there are many paragraphs in Wikipedia on this.

I was drawn to the paragraph on Geometry of the natural environment:

"The right-hand rule is one common way to relate the three principal directions. For many years a fundamental question in physics was whether a left-hand rule would be equivalent. Many natural structures, including human bodies, follow a certain "handedness", but it was widely assumed that nature did not distinguish the two possibilities. This changed with the discovery of parity violations in particle physics. If a sample of cobalt-60 atoms is magnetized so that they spin counterclockwise around some axis, the beta radiation resulting from their nuclear decay will be preferentially directed opposite that axis. Since counter-clockwise may be defined in terms of up, forward, and right, this experiment unambiguously differentiates left from right using only natural elements: if they were reversed, or the atoms spun clockwise, the radiation would follow the spin axis instead of being opposite to it."

This means there is proof of the right-hand rule in nature. There are human cultures with no words denoting the egocentric directions. We use backwards, forwards, up, down and left, right. They might say "move a bit to the east".

Betterphoto tells me that one of my images won second place in the landscape category. Here it is - a picture from Winterthur a few years ago. No azaleas blooming so beautifully this year.

May 24 - Dog Tails Know

2019-05-24T06:39:00.000-04:00

I am wondering about dog tails, and find these are the four questions that google has showcased:

Do dog tails help them balance?
How do tails help dogs?
Do dogs have feelings in the tails?
Do dogs know they have tails?

These are hilarious questions.

First the final question's answer: Here are a few reasons dogs chase their tails... Oftentimes, dogs will chase their tails because they are a bit bored; it's a way for them to have fun and expend some energy. This is especially true for puppies, who may not even realize that their tail is actually a part of their body, but see it as a toy.

Balance: Some do, some don't. However, while most dogs technically don't need their tails for balance, some rely on them to do their jobs. Working dogs are often bred to use their tails when performing certain tasks, and in some breeds, that means carefully maintaining balance while performing their particular job.

How to tails help dogs? For the most part, canines and felines use their tails to communicate — from the wide, sweeping wag of a happy dog to the quick tail swish of an annoyed cat. In canines, a tail may also serve as a type of rudder to help stabilize dogs in the water.

Here are the other questions from Google. I must make a side-comment on Google's "grammarisms" such as "? ..." Who decided that?

Here are our questions:

Why do dogs lick people? ...
Why is my dog's nose always wet? ...
How much better is a dog's sense of smell than our own? ...
Why do dog feet smell like corn chips? ...
Is my dog's mouth really that clean? ...
Are pit bulls actually dangerous? ...
Do dogs get jealous? ...
Who cleans up after guide dogs?

Our concluding jokes:

Where does a dog get a new tail?
At the retail store

I just watched my dog chase his tail for ten minutes, and I thought to myself: "Wow, dogs are easily entertained." Then I realized: I just watched my dog chase his tail for ten minutes.

Q: How is a dog and a marine biologist alike?
A: One wags a tail and the other tags a whale.

A country road in Delaware.

Feng Shui That

2019-05-23T07:23:00.002-04:00

What about feng shui and house shapes? What is a bagu map? I find out it is the feng shui energy map of your space and that it is one of the Five Arts of Chinese Metaphysics. It discusses architecture in terms of invisible forces that bind the universe, earth, and humanity together, known as qi. It is an ancient tradition.

What about contemporary uses of feng shui?

I found a Forbes article titled "Feng Shui Your Money". It isn't really about feng shui - it is a catchy title.

How about this article: "Should You Feng Shui Your Hair?" - this is also in Forbes. It is about Feng Shui Beauty techniques. A person's energy is analyzed and hair, colour and make-up are customized to reflect it.

And another Forbes article about a lady who sells plants based on feng shui. She has sold over 1500 on the Facebook Marketplace. She imparts feng shui and plant-rearing wisdom to the purchasers.

Forbes has many articles on Feng Shui. Here are a few more titles:

Desk for Success
Attract Clients
Giving Your Car's Feng Shui a Tune-Up
Feng Shui for your portfolio
A Healthy office a healthy mind

Of course, here's the headline that draws attention: Meet Donal Trump's feng shui master - The article is HERE. She did the work in 1995 on the Trump International Hotel and Tower. The common element in all these articles is how someone gained celebrity or wealth through the application of feng shui to their professional area. Most interesting.

Our picture today was taken at the 13th Street Winery in St. Catharines. It is on the garden tour this weekend.

May 22 - Please the Fans Finale

2019-05-22T06:16:00.000-04:00

The Elevator mystery is unsolved after almost 300 episodes, but the ding of its arrival is a completion for the Big Bang Theory. Once that door opened, the series was allowed to complete. I had not realized that the most enduring question is Penny's surname. It remains a mystery. The show seemed to have a traditional set of resolutions, the highlight being Sheldon finding grace.

I saw part of an episode of the Lucy Show a few weeks ago. The finale of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour mirrored their real-life circumstances - Wikipedia says it wasn't intentional. In the show Lucy and Ricky were about to divorce and end the show. Edie Adams was the guest star and chose the song to sing without knowing the plot - "That's All". It is considered prophetic. While the show's finale divorce didn't happen, their real-life divorce was final and they only reconciled many years later.

Viewership of finales is very important. The BBT viewership 'grew' to 23.44 million viewers, up from the 18 million who watched it live. This makes it the most watched non-sports series program of 2018-19. But it falls far short of the most watched television series finales of all time:

M*A*S*H // 1983. 105.9 million viewers
Cheers // 1993. 80.4 million
The Fugitive // 1967. 78 million
Seinfeld // 1998. 76.3 million
Friends // 2004. 52.5
Magnum, P.I. // 1988. 50.7
The Cosby Show // 1992. 44.4
All in the Family // 1979. 40.2
Family ties // 1989. 36.3
Home Improvement //1999. 35.5 million

Can you imagine these numbers? The M*A*S*H episode drew 77% of those watching televisions at the time. Only the 2010's Super Bowl XLIV had 106 million viewers. The Cheers episode was watched by between 80.4 million and 93.5 million, with the rise of cable television.

We look at a Miltonia orchid today. Also known as the Pansy Orchid.

May 17 - Dandelion Futures Up

2019-05-17T06:47:00.000-04:00

We've heard a lot 'about trade with China'. I realize I don't know anything other than the headlines.

In the China news was the death of I M Pei, the designer of the glass pyramid at the Louvre. He was 102 years old. The BBC article shows his most famous work HERE. He was immensely prolific, and known for many works in the US and around the world. While he was a resident of the U.S., China celebrated his legacy there. Some of his work, like the glass pyramid at the Louvre, had negative reactions initially. That was the case of the Bank of China Tower - it is now described as the world's best bank building.

Look at the field of gold in front of the expansive orchards of Cherry Lane on Victoria Street in Vineland. It is one of the few streets that trucks can take to get over the escarpment.

May 16 - If you own a computer then play this game for 1 minute

2019-05-16T07:02:00.000-04:00

Isn't that headline interesting? Could you read the headline without being at a computer. How does owning a computer change whether you should play "the game" or not? I wonder about how that logic motivates people to click the link.

What would we do to improve our logic skills? There are serious websites such as mentalup.com and they have three categories: logical reasoning and planning, spatial perception and logical thinking, and logical and mathematical thinking skills. They are targeted to children to engage in the 'games' to improve their skills. Another site - the one that is the top item on the google list identified ten creative tips, and then shows six. This six seem hilariously illogical - and perhaps an excellent example of how google's focus on revenues have interfered with retrieval results:

Dance Your Heart Out. ...
Work out Your Brain with Logic Puzzles or Games. ...
Get a Good Night's Sleep. ...
Work out to Some Tunes. ...
Keep an “Idea Journal” with You. ...
Participate in Yoga.

The list made me laugh, so I went on to find a logic joke:

Jean-Paul Sartre is sitting at a French cafe, revising his draft of 'Being and Nothingness'.
He says to the waitress, "I'd like a cup of coffee, please, with no cream."
The waitress replies, "I'm sorry, monsieur, but we're out of cream. How about with no milk?"

The joke is followed by a list of Oxymorons. It seems that seeing them together makes them more funny.

Act naturally
Almost exactly
Alone together
Business ethics
Clearly misunderstood
Computer security
Diet ice cream
Exact estimate
Found missing
Genuine imitation
Good grief
New classic

Two images of iconic Niagara - Peninsula Ridge Winery and orchard blossoms.

May 14 - A big amygdala

2019-05-14T08:00:00.002-04:00

Today we continue to look into the rancid yet riveting world of disgustologists. What are they studying? They are studying part of our body - our brain's amygdala. The bigger it is, the more likely a person is to be conservative.

The field has determined that there are 6 categories of disgust:

poor hygiene (snotty tissues, body odour, a dirty apartment bathroom)
animals and pests (cockroaches, rats, infestations)
sexual behaviour (prostitution, promiscuity)
irregular or strange appearances (obesity, disfigured faces, amputated body parts, poverty, wheezy breathing)
lesions or visible signs of infection
rotting or decaying food

They are described in detail in this Popular Science article HERE. The article summarize it in a nutshell: 'that feeling when someone you find sexually revolting offers you a stinky pizza".

In the studies, one of the aspects that is observed is horripilation. That word means the erection of hairs on the skin due to cold, fear, or excitement, "a horripilation of dread tingled down my spine"

Is it all physiology and genes or is there socialization involved? Michael de Barra, the research psychologist who defined these six categories says this: Genes might decide what kills us and what doesn’t, but it’s through our interactions with the environment and with other people that we learn how to calibrate and adjust to our surroundings. So while the six categories might broadly encompass most disgusting things, there will still be intense variability depending on who you’re talking to and what they’re background might be.

Here's a great quote to help us understand why this is so fascinating for scientists: "Disgust is an organ – like an eye or an ear. It has a purpose, it's there for a reason," said self-described "disgustologist" Valerie Curtis. "Just like a leg gets you from A to B, disgust tells you which things you are safe to pick up and which things you shouldn't touch.

And this book: This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behaviour and Shape Society
by Kathleen McAuliffe. Based on a wildly popular Atlantic article, this is an astonishing investigation into the world of microbes, and the myriad ways they control how other creatures — including humans — act, feel, and think. "Our obsession with cleanliness and our experience of disgust are both evolutionary tools for avoiding infection, but they evolved differently for different populations. Political, social, and religious differences among societies may be caused, in part, by the different parasites that prey on us."

So let's take an informal disgustology test? What is the subject of this abstract picture?

It is a close-up of a person's beard. Here he is. What is your reaction?

Got my PHD in Disgustology

2019-05-13T06:45:00.000-04:00

CBC Radio presents such fascinating stories. On Saturday, they related research that show liberal and conservative thinking and emotions are fundamentally different and are wired in the brain. They can predict from people's physical sensitivity to disgust whether they are liberal or conservative. The differences are so pronounced that there are standard traits on each side. This area of research and study is now termed disgustology.

What the Scientific American article says:

"According to the experts who study political leanings, liberals and conservatives do not just see things differently. They are different—in their personalities and even their unconscious reactions to the world around them. For example, in a study published in January, a team led by psychologist Michael Dodd and political scientist John Hibbing of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln found that when viewing a collage of photographs, conservatives' eyes unconsciously lingered 15 percent longer on repellent images, such as car wrecks and excrement—suggesting that conservatives are more attuned than liberals to assessing potential threats."

Conservatives are more fundamentally anxious than liberals. There is a high level of sensitivity for disgust among conservatives. Studies show it extends into taste and smell, what people prefer to eat, how sensitive they are to bitter tastes, and more.

Researchers now have theories of how disgust is associated with views on transgender rights, immigration, and similar topics. "At a deep, symbolic level, some speculate, disgust may be bound up with ideas about “them” versus “us,” about whom we instinctively trust and don’t trust. In short, this research may help illuminate one factor—among many—that underlies why those on the left and the right can so vehemently disagree."

The tweet by right-wing Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro draws on the area of disgust. He tweeted out a short clip of two 'perverts' gallivanting on a balcony at Rio's Carnival...He trolled the Left into defending an act that most people understandably find revolting (peeing on someone).

So here's our train picture of the day demonstrating the disgust factor with a well-known expression that originated in Scotland.

Expressions We Know

2019-05-11T07:04:00.000-04:00

There are expressions that never die out. The top expression at eslbuzz.com is:

1. I'd better get on my horse. This is an expression I've never heard anyone say. So as number 1 in the list, the my 'take-away' is that this is a very old list. These are expressions from my childhood...

2. Break a leg! Good luck! (Usually said to someone who is going to appear in front of an audience.)

3. Dig in! You can start eating your meal.

4. Bite your tongue! Keep quiet!

5. Butt out! Go away and mind your own business!

6. By the skin of my teeth. Only just.

7. Beats me. I don’t know.

8. Drop me a line. Write me (a letter).

What about current jargon? I found a list that looks more current at babble.com by JOHN-ERIK JORDAN

21. What’s up? / Wassup? / ‘sup?

Meaning: “Hello, how are you?”

No matter what you learned in English lessons, do not greet a friend or acquaintance with, “How do you do?” What’s up? or the even more informal ‘sup? mean the same thing without making you sound like you should be doffing a top hat. In more formal situations, it’s better to say, “Nice to meet you” or “Nice to see you.”

The beauty of What’s up? is that it is not really a question in need of an answer. Just like the French “ça va?” you can respond to “What’s up?” with… you guessed it: “What’s up?”!

We know you’re thinking it, so here’s the beer commercial that made the phrase world famous.

20. Awesome!

Meaning: great

In the old days, awesome was a word reserved for the truly powerful, fear-inducing and sublime: the view from a mountaintop, the sea during a storm, the voice of God emanating from a burning bush. You know, massive, awe-inspiring things that “put the fear of God in ya.” But awesome has expanded in the American lexicon to include the less awe-inspiring, like a hit single, a hamburger, some new sneakers… if you’re even just mildly excited about something, it can be awesome:

“I saw the new Star Wars in IMAX over the weekend.”
“Awesome. Did you like it?”
“Oh yeah, it was awesome. Hey, can I get a sip of your iced tea?”
“Sure.”
“Awesome, thanks.”

19. Like

Like can be used as multiple parts of speech (comparing similar things, in similes, a synonym for “enjoy”), but it’s slang usage — introduced into youth culture by “valley girls” in the 1980s — is hard to pin down.

“Oh my god, it was like the worst date I’ve ever been on. Richard was like such a jerk!”

In this example, like could be mistaken for a preposition meaning “similar to,” but it’s actually not! When dropped into sentences in this manner, like is a discourse particle or discourse marker which denotes topic changes, reformulations, discourse planning, stressing, hedging, or back-channeling.

In practical terms, “like” is the word that just falls into the gaps in speech when you might otherwise say “um” or “uhhh.” If you want to hear like in action, there is no better example than Shoshanna from the TV show Girls. She’s like the best!

Important note: Peppering too many likes into conversation can make one sound childish and frivolous — fine for parties but probably not job interviews (but most Americans under the age of 35 say the word more often than they probably realize).

18. I hear you / I hear ya

Meaning: I empathize with your point of view

With only three words you can make it plain that you are really listening to someone and relate to what they are saying:

“I’m kinda sad to be back from vacation. I wish I was still on that sandy tropical beach.”
“I hear ya. After I got back from Acapulco, the view from my apartment depressed me for weeks.”

“Tell me about it,” is the sarcastic alternative, as in “don’t tell me about it because I already know too well!”

17. Oh my God!

This exclamation is not as pious as it sounds. In fact, conservative religious types would probably find it tasteless (not to mention that it breaks the fourth commandment!) and would likely substitute with “Oh, my goodness!” Denizens of the internet probably recognize the version of this phrase that’s become enshrined in meme-dom as “ermahgerd.”

The rest of the countdown is HERE.

Gerry visits the steam tractor museum today. I realize my pictures are from Winter, and may not be as much fun as what he'll experience today. On the other hand, steam is wonderful any time of year.

Archie's Contribution

2019-05-10T07:23:00.002-04:00

We got the social coverage of Archie yesterday. Today we wonder about the financial aspects of the new baby. What does he contribute to the British taxpayer?

Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle get 2.7 million visitors a year. The monarchy's annual contribution to the UK economy is estimated at around 1.8 billion pounds a year, with an additional tourism revenue of 550 million pounds. They work as ambassadors has been estimated to be worth 150 million pounds a year in increased trade.

Then there are the secondary recipients of revenue - all those newspapers who cover royal weddings and royal babies. That is valued at 50 million pounds a year. And the betting - it has been reported that baby-related bets totalled $1.3 million at the bookmaker William Hill.

Forbes reports that the royal infant could boost spending on baby products by about $1.5 billion. There's a lot of merchandise to commemorate the baby's birth. These limited edition items are already sold out. These are just a few of the immediate and clear benefits. There is an expectation of increased tourism numbers this year. And finally, there is the 'feel good' effect at a time of anxiety of Brexit. And how does this contribute? It is expected to boost spending across bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and museums.

So Archie is quite the contributor to the British economy: we are in the era of "Money Reigns". The monarchy will remain popular for quite a while.

Today's picture is an amazing abstract sky picture from a few years ago. It seems like marble to me.

Archie?

2019-05-09T07:32:00.002-04:00

The headline says "The meaning behind the royal baby's name". I hope it has meaning, as it seems a strange and unusual choice. The bookmakers had Alexander, Arthur and Albert. Who would guess that the name Archie is in the top 50 names since 2003. CNN claims that instead of a traditional royal name, they chose a name they loved. So there aren't really any Archies or Harrisons among the names of any British monarchs or their immediate offspring.

So it turns out there is no meaning behind the name. The Royal family succession tree is shown in the articles with its colour coding for royal bloodline, in line to the throne, married and divorced. Archie is seventh in line to the throne, so does not quality immediately for the title of prince. He has the right to use his father's second peerage title, Earl of Dumbarton. When Prince Charles becomes King, Prince Harry's son will automatically become His Royal Highness Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

Rules abound with the royal family - they have had centuries to make rules. Here's the note on the Queen's purse and its social signals:

"The Queen isn't one to be rude, and so her purse is used to send subtle social signals. When she places her clutch on the table at dinner, it means it's time to wrap things up–so consider the bite you're reaching for your last. When she swaps her purse from her left hand to her right, it means she'd like to finish up her conversation."

This little Fritilleria is blooming in the garden now. What a strange and amazing checkerboard flower - I gave it an ornate background to match its mood.

Rattlesnake Point

2019-05-08T07:05:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is Astronomy Night at Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area. Rattlesnake Point got its name from the snake-like path cut by the glaciers along the edges of the Niagara Escarpment. There are ten kilometres of cliff edge and forest trails that connect the Bruce Trail with Crawford Lake. It is not named for the Massasauga Rattlesnake.

And then I wondered about Massasauga vs Mississauga so turned to Wikipedia for guidance:

"The Native American word, "massasauga", means "great river-mouth" in the Ojibwe language and was probably given to describe grasslands surrounding the river deltas in Ojibwe country."

"The mississauga are a sub tribe of the Anishinaabe-speaking First Nations people located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are closely related to the Ojibwe. The name "Mississauga" comes from the Anishinaabe word Misi-zaagiing, meaning "[Those at the] Great River-mouth." It is closely related to the Ojibwe word Misswezahging, which means ‘a river with many outlets.’ Alternate spellings of the name are Mississaga, Massassauga and Missisauga, plural forms of these three, and "Mississauga Indians".

Wikipedia says at the conclusion of Mississauga that the legacy is:

The city of Mississauga is named after them (the Mississauga tribe).
The Western and Eastern massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus) are named after them.
Fort Mississauga in Niagara-on-the-Lake was named after them.

As we approach summer, we're coming up to more War of 1812 events: Nelles Manor, the Grimsby Museum and Coronation Park will be the sites of the celebration of the 205th Anniversary of the Engagement of the Forty. It took us 200 years to put the fun into our history. Below is one of the reenactments of 2012 in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Richest Sports Gambler

2019-05-07T08:15:00.002-04:00

Yesterday on JazzFM, Brad Barker and Bryan Snelson were discussing the world's richest sports gambler. They were referring to James Holzhauer - the record-breaking "Jeopardy' champion. He is on a 21 day winning streak, the second longest in history. His story is here in business insider. I think his winning streak is with Jeopardy. He wins an average of $73,867 a game, according to the Boston Globe. He is also a sports gambler, so that was what got Brad and Bryan's interest.

There are a few famous sports gamblers of all time. Billy Walters is considered the # 1 gambler. This information comes from bestcasinosites.net:

Billy Walters: "With a father professional poker player and an uncle professional gambler, it was no surprise that Billy made his first bet at the age of nine...According to reports, he makes about $15 million a year, and has made as much as $2 million in a day. His net worth is estimated at $200 million. And that’s not hard to believe, considering he makes really, really high bets – as high as $3,5 million. Well, technically not exactly he because for years he’s been using other people to place bets for him since not only is he not welcome in Vegas anymore, but most bookmakers will also refuse to take his bets.And while you may think he’d try to make these “beards” as inconspicuous as possible, he actually has Hollywood celebrities like Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher running his errands."

Alan Woods: "The godfather of horse racing software, Alan Woods was born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia, in 1945. In his early gambling career, he used math to count cards at blackjack tables until moving to Hong Kong in the 1980s. There, he teamed up with Bill Benter forming a syndicate that became the most successful in the history of the horse racing industry. The pair developed a software that took into account factors like the formulaic consideration of track, form, weather and more. After the partners separated in 1987, Woods moved on to Manila to a continuing success, teaming up with Zeljko Ranogajec. As a true mathematician, Woods is said to have viewed horse racing as “nothing more than a mathematical equation to be solved”. At the time of his death in 2008, Woods was regarded as one of the biggest and best gamblers in the world and was estimated to have amassed a fortune of AU$670 million."

Can you imagine being a math genius and instead of pursuing the great mathematics questions of our time, you figure out how to make a lot of money? That's what makes us curious about their childhoods.

BBQ Tidal Wave

2019-05-06T08:14:00.000-04:00

The first BBQ event is here. It begins the tidal wave of BBQ events for the summer.

The first rib and craft beer fest in Toronto will be at Yonge and Dundas Square from Thursday May 16th to May 19th. This event will feature the best rib teams in Canada. There's a Canadian BBQ Society and its events take place from February 2019 with the Challenge Igloo BBQ in Quebec. The Canadian Stake Championship happened on Saturday in Langley B.C. There are Certified BBQ Judge Classes happening next weekend in Edmonton. We get one of their events in August when Niagara Falls has the Summer Daze BBQ Classic.

The Ontario Champion last year was Team Eatapedia. Pitmaster was John Thomson. Their website www.eatapedia.com - has recipes for grilled lime chicken breasts, rosemary-rubbed porch chops - well lots of meats and sauces and seasonings.

What will happen on the plant-based front this year? Does everything BBQ'd have to be meat? Our local Sobey's had plant-based burgers in the meat section last week, with a promo sign outside of the store so I'm thinking BBQ season may be ready.

Food and Wine Magazine had a review of plant-based burgers in its April issue. Their winner is Impossible Burger 2.0. They compare the flavour to beef, whether it is juicy, density like beef, etc.

"This gluten-free burger has 19 grams of protein, and the new recipe uses soy protein, coconut oil, methylcellulose (a plant-based culinary binder), and sunflower oil.

Really succulent and umami-y. Almost identical to beef.”

Burger King has the biggest news: it is testing Impossible Whoppers and supposedly employees can't tell the difference.

Here are some views of the Ottawa Layout.

Super School Ahead

2019-05-05T07:40:00.002-04:00

There will be a new super-high school built just across from Peninsula Ridge Winery. Three high schools will become surplus properties - in Smithville, Beamsville and Grimsby.

The first right of refusal goes to publicly funded school boards, followed by the lower tier municipality, upper tier municipality and then finally private developers. Every time I exit the Canadian Tire plaza and see the Grimsby Secondary School at the end of the street under the escarpment, I wonder how tall a condo development might be built there. We are under pressure of the Ontario government's intensification plan. This is contentious in a small town that wants to stay small and not grow tall.

In Beamsville's case the main portion of the school school has been designated as a heritage building, so is protected from demolition. But don't think that will invalidate development. The news article quotes a town councillor: "All of a sudden we find ourselves with 13 acres of prime land." What they mean is prime real estate for which they receive no property taxes.

There's a sign on Highway 8 at the location of the new super school, which is slated to open in September 2020. the location straddles the Grimsby and Beamsville borders, and is the location of the Beamsville Brick Factory, founded in 1875. What is located below will be interesting.

The blossoms have started to show. We've had very cool, misty weather, and they typically come out with the warmth. So a burst will likely take place in the next few days. The weeping cherry on Niagara Street in St. Catharines seems to always be early.

May the 4th be with you!

2019-05-04T06:43:00.000-04:00

In 1977 Star Wars was released to very receptive audiences. Line-ups were the norm in Toronto. But then, back then, line-ups was normal in Toronto for most movies, and even in winter. It was a movie-going town with lots of great venues with big screens and great sound. Maybe that's how the TIFF festival got to Toronto - knowing the audiences were already there.

There are many articles - 20 facts, 30 facts, and so on - things you didn't know about Star Wars. These seem to be tidbits for diehard fans.

So I have turned to finding jokes, and Reader's Digest supplied some puns:

Q: Which program do Jedi use to open PDF files?
A: Adobe Wan Kenobi

Q: Which website did Chewbacca get arrested for creating?
A: Wookieleaks

Q: Why did Anakin Skywalker cross the road?
A: To get to the Dark Side.

Q: Why is Yoda such a good gardener?
A: Because he has a green thumb.

Q: How do you get down from a bantha?
A: You don’t. You get down from a goose.

Luke and Obi-Wan walk into a Chinese restaurant. Ten minutes into the meal, Luke’s still having trouble with the chopsticks, dropping food everywhere. Obi-Wan finally snaps, “Use the forks, Luke.”

The Star Wars text crawl walks into a bar.
“Get outta my pub!” the bartender yells. “We don’t serve your type here.”

These are the gerberas from the greenhouse tour a few weeks ago. I am so taken by their complex centres with tiny pistols and petals looking like confetti.

2019-05-03T08:08:00.000-04:00

I had thought the latest royal baby was expected at the end of April. Today, at the beginning of May, the stories are still flowing but there's nothing from London yet. Today's news says that they will not be publishing pictures of the newborn on the day of the birth, that they will celebrate privately as a new family.

Harry's itinerary is being scrutinized to figure out the expected date. The article says he is to make a 'surprise' two-day visit to Holland next week. I expect that actual surprise would be if he cancels at the last minute.

There are so many questions for a royal birth: where will the family live, will they have a nanny, who will be the godparents, what title will the new royal baby have, where does it fall in the line of succession, and the key question what will it be called and will it be a boy or girl.

I can't imagine being a Royal family reporter. Looking for something new to say every day when there isn't any progress. But then, they self-select for the work. The articles about royal reporters talk about them being 'friendly-ish' with the royal members. That likely is the big draw - to be in the centre of the action - even if the action is quotes and gossip. And of course, the scandal stories that are so sought after. There's an article on thetalko.com with 16 scandalous pictures the Royal family tried to bury - what a strange work life that would be.

I received a finalist and a second place finish in this month's Better photo contest. Here's the second place finish image.

A Z Generation

2019-05-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

Shalini Shankar was on CBC yesterday being interviewed about her book which studied Generation Z children involved in spelling bee competitions.

“Bee kids are the bellwethers of Gen Z kids,” Shankar said, according to a news release. “Gen Z kids are learning to thrive in a highly competitive world, with great access to the internet and digital tools, and higher expectations of professionalism at a much younger age.”

In doing her research, Shankar discovered that South Asian-American parents, in particular, have enrolled their children in the spelling bee. Balu Natarajan (Weinberg ’92, ’96 MD, ’99 GME), who won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1985, was the first child of immigrants to win, according to the release. The last 11 trophies have gone to Indian-American winners.

And a few days before that I heard an interview on the winning strategies of Brad Rutter, Jeopardy Champion. The story was how future contestants were training based on his style to become better at the game. The buzzer seems to be the number 1 item - being able to hit the buzzer really fast. Another was his aggressiveness that scares competitors. He seems very willing to talk about his approach and strategies. The spelling bee group keeps their methods proprietary.

Look at this field of buttercups in Strassburg, PA. Fresh buttercups in the field can cause blistering of the mouth or skin, so are rarely eaten by animals in the field. It makes me wonder if this horse is digging deeper and finding some simple grass.