Marilyn's Photos - June 29 2025 - Off the Beaten Path

 

Don't we all want to be off the beaten path these days?  Somewhere not known by others. Wouldn't that be "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  That poem seems to be speaking to a desire to be off the beaten track, too.  And thinking it may be written later in life as he refers to a yellow wood of autumn:   I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Or maybe not.  He wrote the poem at age 44 and died at 88.  At the half-point.     He died in 1963, before John F. Kennedy himself died - at age 46 in November that year. John F. Kennedy led the tribe for Frost's funeral.  At Kennedy's inauguration, Frost had read  one of his poems as part of the ceremony.  This scene was described in a New York Times article from 1963: "Invited to write a poem for the occasion, he rose to read it. But the blur of the sun and the edge of the wind hampered him; his brief plight was so moving that a photograph of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson watching him won a prize because of the deep apprehension in their faces. But Frost was not daunted. Aware of the problem, he simple put aside the new poem and recited from memory an old favorite, "The Gift Outright," dating to the nineteen-thirties. It fit the circumstances as snugly as a glove. Later he took the unread "new" poem, which had been called "The Preface," expanded it from 42 to 77 lines; retitled it "For John F. Kennedy: His Inaugural" -- and presented it to the President in March, 1962."  I can't find the photo referred to.  The retrievals don't seem to respond.  But I came upon the Life article with pictures of the inauguration.  My goodness, that was Camelot! Here it is.

Here are our beaten paths - the Echinacea wWalk in the Rose Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens.  The second is the Jordan valley path up to Cave Springs in the winter.  Here are our beaten paths - the Echinacea wWalk in the Rose Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens.  The second is the Jordan valley path up to Cave Springs in the winter.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 28 2025 - Portage and Main sees the light of day

 

I've somehow thought that Portage and Main might be the centre point of Canada.  In fact, it is called the crossroads of Canada and it is close to the longitudinal centre of Canada.  So forcing pedestrians to cross the heart of Canada in complicated underground tunnels is a nasty metaphor.  It isn't the one AI says - "can be viewed as a metaphor for prioritizing vehicle traffic and economic development over pedestrian accessibility and the vibrancy of urban spaces."  That's actually what happened in 1979 and the impacts can be measured over the decades.    How did it come about?  "Trizec promised to build two office towers and a hotel on the southwest corner of Portage and Main, along with an underground retail space that would double as a heated, sheltered crossing for pedestrians, saving them from Winnipeg's winter winds." So aren't we back to one of my themes - "Money is the root"  - everything can be traced as coming from money and going to money.   How do I conclude this?  It is the explanation of the reopening of Portage and Main.  The report was that it would cost a whopping $73 million to bring it up to current safety standards and maintain it.  Add to that four to five years of traffic delays.  Removing barricades and redesigning crossings and curbings, and then install lights - that was in the $20 to $50 million range.  So we who use our feet have a $ value in Winnipeg.   I return to the metaphor of Portage and Main as the centre, or heart, of Canada.  The intersection became the centre of plebiscites,  mayoral platforms and continuing political debate. So much activity seems to indicate there is "Canadian identity" at stake here.  And so the battle has been won -  the heart of Canada will again see the light officially on July 1st 2025 at 10:30am when the pedestrian signals start. There have to be jokes about this most famous intersection:  I tried to make a joke about Portage and Main, but it was too congested. Why was the map of Winnipeg always getting lost? It never had a proper *Portage* through the city. Why did the pigeon get a job at Portage and Main? He heard it was the crossroads of opportunity. I tried to make a joke about Portage and Main, but it was too *crossing*.

This is Martagon lily time -lots of little fairy flowers on a long stem - so a pretty show in the garden.  I remember a grower showing me pictures of his Martagons in his Winnipeg garden - they were 3 to 4 times the height of my lilies - probably more than 30 flowers on a stem six feet high.  I wonder if that makes Winnipeg a destination town.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 27 2025 - Fake News - What Didn't Happen this week?

 

It was one of those "fake news" stories - Grandmother Eaten by Crocodiles - it got me thinking on whether there is a tracking of fake news every week, not just Snoops checking on fake news stories. Newsweek has a Fake News page.  Its latest story is April 29 2025 on Trump releasing a list of debunked "hoaxes" created by news and media outlets.  That wasn't what I was getting at, was it?    I did find a site that provides fact checking.  It is Media Bias Fact Check. "Media Bias Fact Check selects and publishes fact checks from around the world. We only utilize fact-checkers who are either a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) or have been verified as credible by MBFC. Further, we review each fact check for accuracy before publishing. We fact-check the fact-checkers and let you know their bias.When appropriate, we explain the rating and/or offer our own rating if we disagree with the fact-checker. (D. Van Zandt)" Claim Codes: Red = Fact Check on a Right Claim, Blue = Fact Check on a Left Claim, Black = Not Political/Conspiracy/Pseudoscience/Other Fact Checker bias rating Codes: Red = Right-Leaning, Green = Least Biased, Blue = Left-Leaning, Black = Unrated by MBFC This isn't the fake news headline content that got me thinking.  "Grandmother eaten by crocodile."   And being a Canadian checking facts based on right-leaning, left-leaning seems problematic - wouldn't one need a factual way of deciding left vs right. What is clear is that this would be tedious work checking the headlines and news stories.  It brings home how much misleading information is published all the time.  And that is in addition to all those grandmother eaten by crocodile stories that have a shelf life of a decade or more so far. So instead we can detour to those headlines that have gone sideways with wrong meanings.  Here are a few: Iraqi Head Seeks Arms Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Ax Farmer Bill Dies in House British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands Teacher Strikes Idle Kids Miners Refuse to Work after Death Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant War Dims Hope for Peace If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft Kids Make Nutritious Snacks Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead Isn't that so much more satisfying?

This pretty view is at Biltmore Estate - America's largest house.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 26 2025 - Harvard North Arrives

 

At the breakfast table a few weeks ago, I proposed that Harvard could move north to Canada and set up in conjunction with the University of Toronto - the most likely ally.  There doesn't seem to be a requirement that an educational institution be one nationality or another.   There would be various things to work out - there are jurisdictional differences in what constitutes various degrees.  Take the sticky situation of qualifying as a doctor in one country and trying to practice in another.  Engineers and architects have this dilemma as well.  One jurisdiction hcan have more stringent qualifications for graduation than another.  Particularly where the degree translates into a professional career that can impact lives in various ways.  Today's Globe and Mail has the front page headline of Harvard and the University of Toronto coming to an agreement for students to be able to finish their degrees at the University of Toronto.  This is for the Kennedy School of Government Affairs. It is the international student community that is at risk.   The Munk School has published a welcome to second year students to continue their program should they be unable to remain or re-enter the U.S. due to visa restrictions.  The announcement is HERE.  Isn't it ironic that it is the school educating people in Global Affairs & Public Policy that wants to make sure students can complete their education to graduate and make contributions in the field of government and public policy.

This must have been a black and white assignment at Ryerson when I took photography courses.  These are two pictures from the U of T campus.

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Marilyn's photos - June 25 2025 - Is this heart attack season?

 

That's my question from the numerous headlines offering heart attack symptom advice.  Myheart.net says "No" - heart attack season is winter. They are least likely to occur in summer. And the most likely time of winter is over the Christmas and new years period.   And the day of the week?  Monday.  That's the case for various heart diseases and problems.  In the Middle East, it is Fridays and in Japan it is the weekend.  And the most likely time of day?  It is the mornings, and within the first few hours of waking.   So the worst scenario would be "a winter Monday morning in the setting of a natural disaster acting as a trigger" So we're home-free, aren't we?  It seems not so - the heat dome is dissipating slowly.  While the temperatures are going into the high 20s today, they will feel like the mid-30s.   And heat is a contributor to heart attacks. One article says that "experiments have discovered that for every increase in temperature of 1°C (1.8°F), the chances of a heart attack raise by about 2-4%. Every day, throughout lengthy heat waves, this danger adds up..."   There aren't that many terms related to heat in the weather dictionary - heat index, humid, heat wave, heat stress, and heat dome. There is a wet-bulb temperature - the combination of heat, humidity, wind strength, sunlight angle and cloudiness. To quantify this, scientists turn to the “wet-bulb temperature,” which is based on a reading taken using a thermometer wrapped in a damp cloth. So much for summer heart attacks.  What was the winning bid for the piano on which Freddie Mercury composed Bohemian Rhapsody?  Sotheby's auction says it was £1.74m.  That was in 2023.

Here's my summertime heat dome abstract.

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