Happiness

There are a lot of jokes about happiness vs. money.  I wondered if there are lots of 'recipes' for happiness.  So I went looking to see who has asked about happiness this way.  I found this article at http://jaredakers.com/recipe-for-happiness/ with its excellent introduction.  "The term “recipe for happiness” is interesting… as if you can put in certain ingredients; throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and out pops happiness. Sort of like those cooking shows we’ve all seen where they put the dish in the oven and pull the finished product out of the one below it. Could finding happiness really be that easy?" 1 cup Inner Peace 1 Cup of Spirituality 1 Cup of a realistic Perspective of Yourself 1 Cup of Gratitude A Sprinkle of Service Work Another Recipe for Happiness 2 heaping cups of patience 1 heart, full of love 2 handfuls of generosity plenty of faith 1 handful of understanding dash of laughter  generous sprinkle of kindness Combine patience, love and generosity with understanding. Add a dash of laughter and sprinkle generously with kindness. Add plenty of faith and mix well. Spread over a period of a lifetime. Serve everyone you meet. Another Recipe for Happiness Simply begin with one large scoop of love for yourself, add in a good measure of acceptance and goodwill, then sprinkle generously with equanimity. Combine all the ingredients and place in your heart until all the ingredients have been completely absorbed, then allow to permanently rest in each breath. The cooking/baking analogy seems to bring light-heartedness to the topic that makes it fun.  Today we see a beautiful bougainvillea arch at Hearst Castle in California.

Which Weather Will It Be?

What about some icebreaker games?  One game is a series of questions and answers and one person picks up a question card and the next person an answer card.  Read aloud.  You can find them at icebreakerideas.com. Here are a few samples: Would you like to be a millionaire? No, once I tried, but it ended up a disaster. Would you like to find yourself in a harem? Being on the verge of despair only. Do you like music? Once, but only in a weak moment. Do you love children? I will answer you in private. Do you often have appointments? Only in the bathroom. Do you smoke? I dream about it after dinner. Here is a sample of the have you ever questions: Have you ever met a celebrity? Have you ever planted a vegetable garden? Have you ever been a car salesperson? Have you ever planned a wedding? Have you ever driven a riding lawn mower? Have you ever participated in a marathon? Have you ever gone mountain climbing? Have you ever had a dog compete in a dog show? Have you ever been somewhere while an earthquake occurred? Have you ever been somewhere while a hurricane occurred? Have you ever been on a college sports team? Have you ever played an instrument? Then there are the would you rather...questions Visit the doctor or the dentist? Eat broccoli or carrots? Be a giant rodent or a tiny elephant? Watch TV or listen to music? Have a beach holiday or a mountain holiday? Be an apple or a banana? Be invisible or be able to read minds? Make headlines for saving somebody’s life or winning a Nobel Prize? Always be cold or always be hot? Not hear or not see? Eliminate hunger and disease or be able to bring lasting world peace? Be stranded on a deserted island alone or with someone you don’t like? See the future or change the past? Our pictures today show what we will see in May in the Niagara orchards.

Winter Flowers

St. Catharines participated in the Women's March on Washington yesterday. The question I searched on today was: how big was this march?  There were estimates of 2 million world-wide. It turns out that the question itself has an interesting story. The estimating of numbers turns out to be contentious: "The National Park Service stopped giving official estimates ever since a dispute about how many attended a Million Man March in 1995. The Park Service was threatened with a lawsuit when they estimated 400,000 showed up to the Million Man March, while organizers believed that one million were there. After that, they stopped publicly releasing estimates. Now, estimates are given by law enforcement officials or federal officials, or organizers." Our weather dominated yesterday. We don't get fog that often so I spent some time driving around and took a few pictures.  It looks like today provides the opportunity as well. I found a picture of a tower in San Francisco where there is a 3-dimensional fog shadow.  "The thin fog was just dense enough to be illuminated by the light that passed through the gaps in a structure or in a tree. As a result, the path of an object shadow through the "fog" appears darkened. In a sense, these shadow lanes are similar to crepuscular rays, which are caused by cloud shadows, but here, they're caused by an object shadows.(The description was provided by Dr. Andy Young.)" Our fog images were taken at Prudhomme's Landing yesterday.  The first looks towards the Lake - the fog obscures everything, giving a bleak sensibility. The second picture looks towards the west. The QEW is on the left and the hotel complex would have been on the right of the picture.  Again, the lights rising above a barren landscape speak of destruction and desolation.  The floral picture is our Winter flower, kale, found yesterday in downtown St. Catharines and elevated to the starry night.

The Answer is Spike

I keep finding more jokes.  I've included one that brings a number of jokes together into a  light-hearted narrative.  I do that because I pursued the question of the funniest joke and found the answer.  There are many headlines claiming the top 10, or top 20, or top 50 funniest jokes.  How do I know they are? I track down the answer - there is a person who has investigated the funniest joke.  The Wikipedia entry for the World's funniest joke identifies university researcher, Richard Wiseman's experiment to find the funniest joke.  His website LaughLab was created for people to rate and submit jokes and it now showcases his research, books, tv appearances, etc. Where does the winning joke come from? The winning joke is based on a 1951 Goon Show sketch by Spike Milligan. Wiseman is quoted: "It is very rare to be able to track down the origin of any joke but this is an exception," said Prof Wiseman. "There is some very rare footage from 1951 showing the Goons in their first TV appearance. Just by chance I saw it on a documentary and saw a version of the very same joke." The material would have been written by Spike Milligan and the script reads: Michael Bentine: I just came in and found him lying on the carpet there. Peter Sellers: Oh, is he dead? Bentine: I think so. Sellers: Hadn't you better make sure? Bentine: All right. Just a minute. Sound of two gun shots. Bentine: He's dead. Prof Wiseman contacted Milligan's daughter, Sile, and she is as certain as she can be that he would have written the gag. She said she was "delighted that dad wrote the world's funniest joke". Prof Wiseman said: "I think what is interesting here is that a joke from the 1950s still works, and how it has transformed over time from a cosy sitting room to hunters in New Jersey." He added: "Spike Milligan was clearly into surreal humour. The sort of people who like his stuff will be people with a high tolerance for ambiguity because the sketches don't really have a sense of closure." The winning joke is: Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says, "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence; then a gun shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says, "OK, now what?" If you would like to receive your own 2017 calendar, let me know and I will email it to you directly.

All About Lawyers

There is a general sense that lawyers are less than honest.   I checked out the the lawyer jokes and  found a wealth of cynical humour. For one-liners, these two seem to sum things up: - 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name. - Talk is cheap. Until you hire a lawyer. Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and honest lawyer, and an old drunk were walking along when they simultaneously spotted a hundred-dollar bill laying in the street. Who gets it?         The old drunk, of course, the other three are mythological creatures. Q: How many divorce lawyers does it take to change a lightbulb? A: 3 - one to argue for the rights of the old lightbulb, one to argue for the rights of the new lightbulb, and one to argue for the rights of the light socket A minister and a lawyer arrived at the pearly gates, Saint Peter greeted both of them and gave them their room assignments.         "Pastor, here are the keys to one of our nicest efficiency units. And for you, sir, the keys to our finest penthouse suite."         "This is unfair!" cried the minister.         "Listen," Saint Peter said, "ministers are a dime a dozen up here, but this is the first lawyer we've ever seen." Mark Twain notes... "It is interesting to note that criminals have multiplied of late, and lawyers have also; but I repeat myself." It is amazing how a profession can have such a long and enduring reputation.

What do the Oldest People accomplish?

Do you remember the 96 year old man who ran the marathon to become the oldest person to finish a marathon?  That was in 2015. There are others in that age range who have completed physical activities that most people would not be able to contemplate let alone to complete.   I found list25.com with all the oldest people accomplishments - bungee jumping at 96, visiting the north pole at 89, sail around the world at 77, release a new music album at 92, oldest practicing pediatrician at 103, and oldest doctorate at 97, and so on.  I could not predict this one, though.  It came via a headline in December in the Toronto Star:  Notorious 86-year-old jewel thief strikes again in Atlanta, police say "Doris Payne, who was the subject of a 2013 documentary, faces another shoplifting charge, this time for slipping a $2,000 diamond necklace into her pocket. Payne told the AP she realized a simple distraction could make it easy to slip out with a fancy trinket in hand after a friendly store owner let her try on watches as a child and then forgot she had the jewelry on. Her career was born in her 20s when she got the idea that she could support herself by lifting jewelry." I wonder if she has applied to the Guinness Book of Records to be the oldest practicing thief, 86. Or does the Guinness Book 'recognize' achievers without requiring an application? I was in the Watering Can in St. Catharines this week, and took these photos of calla lilies.

Neologistically Speaking

The software used to send out this photo of the day is Mailchimp.  It has a report that shows the click throughs and 1.5% clicked through to look at the neologisms yesterday.  I have reproduced below the famous Washington Post collection of Neologisms.    The Washington Post Neologism Competition Every year The Washington Post runs an annual competition in which the readers of the newspaper are asked to submit alternative meanings to existing words. The results are often extremely amusing.  1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs. 2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained. 3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. 4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk. 5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent. 6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown. 7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp. 8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash. 9. Flatulance (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller. 10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline. 11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam. 12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists. 13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist. 14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms. 15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there. 16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men. One thinks of Autumn as being finished by Halloween, and that is typically the case.  I took this picture of Charles Daley Park's weeping willow on December 3rd.

Fly the 150th Flag

The celebrations of Canada's 150th birthday have begun.  TIFF Bell Lightbox's series Canada's Top Ten Film Festival gets going this month. and will include a number of classic Canadian titles as part of TIFF’s year-long programme celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday. I checked out the long list at ToDoCanada for January in the GTA area. I hadn't realized that the 150th birthday symbol contest was controversial when it invited students to participate and a 19 year-old student's design was selected. The professional design community wasn't complimentary about the design.  It seems to have morphed into a number of versions by 2017 and the Canada150 site logo below is red and white rather than the multi-colour original.  Here's the official word on the logo: The logo is composed of a series of diamonds, or “celebratory gems”, arranged in the shape of the iconic maple leaf. The four diamonds at the base represent the four original provinces that formed Confederation in 1867: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Additional diamonds extend out from the base to create nine more points—in total representing the 13 provinces and territories. The Canada 150 logo will become an evocative symbol and an enduring reminder of one of Canada’s proudest moments. The maple leaf motif is recognized at home and abroad as distinctively Canadian, and it fosters feelings of pride, unity and celebration. This unique and colourful design is simple enough to be drawn by children, and versatile enough to appear in color variations. The possible uses of the symbol are as unlimited as the spirit and imagination of the Canadian public."

Happy Birthday Year to Canada

Here we are in 2017 and already a leap second was added to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 31st 2016.  The  Earth's slowing rotation needed synchronizing.  A few things we can look forward to in 2017 according to cnn.com are:  Drones delivering food and maintaining inventory in Wal-Mart warehouses; an Italian surgeon planning to do the first head transplant; and milk made without cows.  In terms of anniversaries, it is 20 years since Diana died and a spring exhibition is planned of her most famous outfits. It is the 20th anniversary of the start of the Harry Potter novels.  Not an anniversary, but very notable is that the documents amassed by the JFK Records Act will be revealed to the public in October.  And don't forget that this is Canada's 150th birthday and the celebrations began on December 31st. The Mosaicanada display that was initially proposed for Niagara Falls will be in Ottawa.  These are large-scale sculptures made of plants.  OK the first spoiler alert of 2017 - the Mosaicanada site is French-only as it is actually situated in Gatineau, Quebec.  Today - the portal to the New Year - one of my favourite images, taken at Winterthur. For those with January 1st birthdays, I send out double wishes. And while we celebrate Canada's birthday on July 1st, why not start the celebrating right away!