Where Does Creativity Hide? TED Talk from Amy Tan

 https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_tan_where_does_creativity_hide

Here's Hooting at You: 2024 Owl Cam Highlights

 Here's Hooting at You, Athena!

Owl's well at the Cornell Lab's Great Horned Owl Cam. Take a peek at Athena and her brood of 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKOZvHLeqb0

 

Athena raises a duo of owlets at the Lady Bird Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. 

Snow Day

Yesterday 14 fresh inches of snow dumped on Toronto and lots more elsewhere in Ontario.

Great for kids and teachers who are getting a long weekend anyway. (Thursday was the first Snow Day and they all got Friday off. Today, Monday, is Family Day.)

But not so great for the rest of us. No mail, not much TTC, blocked driveways, and much more inconvenience.

Doug Ford should be ashamed of himself, among other reasons, for calling an unnecessary winter provincial election. 

Which inspired this poem...

Snow, snow, go away

Dougie Ford will cause dismay

'cause his PCs want to stay.

Snow, snow, take a dump

on the head of ______ _____ .     (Hmmm, what three syllables rhyme with "dump"?)

Happy Place Meditation & A Modest Proposal

 I love California.

We've vacationed there maybe 20 times, mostly to get away from Pre-Spring. It has everything: nice people, great weather, great food and wine, wonderful scenery, lots to see and do.

When I do my Happy Place Meditation, there are two California places I visualize.

The first doesn't exist anymore because of redevelopment. Upstart Crow was one of my favourite places to sit with a cup of coffee (and sometimes a piece of chocolate cake) to write.

Upstart Crow Cafe and Bookshop, San Diego

The second one is the view from the parking lot of Coit Tower, overlooking San Francisco Bay. I could see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, and if I moved over a bit I could look down and see cars zigzagging down twisty Lombard Street. If I was lucky, I could see sailboats. Ahh...instant relaxation!

Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay from Coit Tower

WARNING: POLITICAL COMMENT AHEAD

A Modest Proposal

A political leader from the United States has proposed that Canada become the 51st state and is applying economic pressure to get his greedy hands on us. This is absolutely not going to happen, no matter what.

(Also, he's ignoring the fact that we aren't one big clump of people. Ontario is five times the size of Texas. We are 10 provinces plus some territories occupied by Indigenous people. Therefore, we would become at least 10 states with 20 senators--all of whom would dominate the Senate and stop anything he wanted to legislate.)

But I digress.

If there are any changes to be made--not that we need any--here's one I could get behind.

I suggest that California join us as the 11th province.

"Cana-Cali" (or "Cali-Cana"--I'm not picky)

could share our natural resources, energy, and great health care

and we could enjoy its weather, wine, and fresh produce

all tariff-free.

A Reminder About The Continuing Importance of Holocaust Education

 January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Holocaust_Remembrance_Day

There was an article in The Toronto Star about the need to teach teenagers and millennials about the Holocaust. There have been attempts to improve history education over the years. But today's young people still are terribly misinformed.

This article reminded me about an incident that happened to M and me in the mid-80s.

We were invited to the new house of a Gentile couple, friends for many years. It was about a year after their wedding. I'm sure they don't read my blog, so I feel safe in writing about them. 

We had been invited to their wedding. M had been the groom's good friend for 20 years. In fact, M was told he would be the groom's best man--until he was usurped by the groom's brother. Okay, he's family, we thought. We can understand how you have to please family members. M was asked to be an usher instead.

At the receiving line, we felt that the brother was very cool to us.

There had been other hints of this family's antisemitism here and there over the years, mostly from the man's father. Most were addressed to M, but I got to hear some of it, too, at the wedding rehearsal.

After the wedding, we hardly heard from this couple and wondered about it. Until this dinner party at their new house.

Before dinner, the wife asked M about where his family came from.

"My parents escaped from France during World War II when my mother was pregnant with me in 1944. My mother's family was stuck in occupied Romania. My father's entire family all died in Poland during World War II. One of his brothers died while he was in jail."

"In jail? Why? What did he do?"

We looked at each other, shocked at her ignorance. She was totally clueless.  

M had to explain to her what it was like to be Jewish in Europe at that time. 

This couple was the same age as M and had studied World War II history from the same high school textbooks that he did. Both of them were well educated professionals, with masters degrees.

After that experience, we dropped them as friends.

Happy Pre-Spring*!

Other people may call it Winter. However I have renamed the seasons to accommodate my dislike for cold weather and snow and my love for mild temperatures and budding flowers.

Pre-Spring is the season which begins on December 21. Sure, there are some holidays in there. But wouldn't it be easier to go shopping for presents and attend parties when you don't have to worry about falling on a patch of hidden ice?

It is followed by Early Spring, which comprises the days between March 1 and March 20.

Spring, the most glorious season, is next, from March 21 to June 20.   

Summer lasts from June 21 to September 20.

Fall follows, between September 21 to the beginning of Pre-Spring.

Don't mind me. I think I'll look at photos of tulips and remember that today, December 22, is when the days start to get longer.

Strangers and their germs

Strangers and their germs

Exchanging sneezes

Whether day or night

Dangerous breezes

We'll be sharing germs before the night is through.

Wafting through the air

Without a filter

Fills me full of dread

I feel off-kilter

Danger in the air, because you lack a mask.

Covid isn't gone

Though you pretend it

It's been with us all along

You'll just extend it

So please just accept the facts

Little did you know

Virus just a cough away

So please please please just go away, and

Spleenless as I am

I'm not just selfish

Breathing in your air's

Like rotting shellfish

Virus in the air

Will make me tear my hair

Safe is just a mask away

A simple little task away

Virus in the air 

Will make me tear my hair.

Do be do be do...