Wild Geese Chasing

Are six geese a-laying different from other geese?  Samantha Johnson says this about geese a-laying. "Geese have a limited laying season - just a few months in the spring, and  most birds lay only about 40 eggs per year".   Suzanne Hugo writes:  "Geese with their exceptional eyesight and wide field of vision, combined with their strident voices, make excellent guards against approaching strangers or predators since outsiders cannot calm them into silence. This was shown in 390 BC, when Rome was attacked by Gallic troops. It was the alertness of the holy geese (Juno's sacred geese) housed in the temple of the city's fort that allowed the defenders to wake in time to resist the attacking enemy. Today, in the high Andes, Southeast Asia and many other places, geese replace guard dogs. In Europe, they are used to guard whiskey warehouses and sensitive military installations (National Research Council, 1991)". And in later times geese were considered holy: "the ancient Celtic people saw the Holy Spirit not as a hovering white dove but as a “wild goose.” The meaning behind this peculiar choice is because they saw how the Holy Spirit has a tendency to disrupt and surprise. The Holy Spirit moves in our lives in an unexpected fashion, similar to the actions of a wild goose". So how does the expression "wild goose chase" come about when geese are so smart? Mentalfloss.com comes to our assistance with its article on the expression here. Where is the reference most famous?  It is in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. "Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose?" The expression has made a great journey from "a pursuit of something as unlikely to be caught as the wild goose" to a futile search, so it seems to me that six geese a-laying is quite an expression in our Christmas song.

The Fourth Day is Blackbird Day

It is time for four calling birds in the Twelve Days of Christmas.  There weren't always 4 calling birds.  The “four calling birds” that we sing about today were, at different times, “four canary birds” and “four mockingbirds,” and before that they show up as “colly birds” or “collie birds,” which is the archaic term for blackbirds.  And blackbird can refer to a crow, raven, grackle, starling or cowbird.   Blackbirds (grackles) are known for their colossal flocks in wintertime.  In December 2011 there was a flock of several million birds in Delaware.  They form a solid black carpet in the sky.  There are several dozen flocks in Delaware.  Some may travel to Chester County, PA or as far as Lancaster before returning to its nightly roost.  A large flock of flying blackbirds is a murmuration. Perhaps I may be able to see them next week when we are in that area visiting Longwood's Christmas Festival. We do experience big flocks in Niagara near the vineyards, particularly when the grapes are awaiting ice wine temperatures.  That's one way to tell the vineyard grapes are intended for ice wine - they  are usually covered in netting.  I was lucky to be driving on Highway 8 two weeks ago and a big flock was congregating.  I was able to pull over and get a few pictures.  This is only a small part of the flock as it was mostly on the other side of the road by then. Our second picture of leaves shows how Japanese Maples are still hanging on to their leaves - mostly are dull brown, this tree out front has a touch of orange against the snow.

The Second Day of Christmas - One Day Only!

This is the second day of Christmastide.  We know that the boxes of Boxing Day originated in the United Kingdom and were given to tradespeople and servants as a monetary acknowledgement at Christmas - they were mentioned as "Christmas boxes" in Samuel Pepys' diary in 1663. References to the "Christmas box" for the poor and needy date back to the Middle Ages.   And even earlier, in the late Roman and early Christian era, metal boxes were placed outside churches at the Feast of Saint Stephen. Today it is as though there is a north pole and a south pole for Boxing Day - the shopping and sports frenzy of the greedy and hedonistic opposing the charities raising money for their causes. So it is no surprise that our charitable organizations have Boxing Day events: Today and every year, you can run for the YMCA in Hamilton.  Race day pickup and registration opens at noon.  Or one can go on a Charity Boxing Day Dip - and then again on New Year's Day for that one.  In Scarborough Harbour there's a raft race. That's Scarborough, U.K. On the hedonistic side, the British press reports record line-ups showing pictures of people leaving shopping malls with their arms full - at 6:00am.  The U.K. article said 90% reductions were the attraction. And for the sports-minded, in Grimsby, U.K.  there's an important announcement that supporters in the Main Stand will be asked to exit the stadium via the Pontoon Stand exit von Boxing Day.  A big sports day there. We didn't ask the question "What do the Chinese do at Christmas?" There are 1.379 billion people in China.  First of all to say "Merry Christmas" the translation turns out to be "Holy-birth happy."  The top three Chinese Christmas songs: We Wish You a Merry Christmas Silent Night Jingle Bells Read the translations at chinahighlights.com - they stray from the originals making them very entertaining.  How they sing them to the melodies with know is a mystery. We see the Niagara Escarpment forest at Campbellville on Christmas Day.  It really was that dark and blue-black.

Tracking Santa

Did you follow Santa on his journey around the world? NORAD tracks Santa on Christmas Eve. Tracking began by accident in 1955.   Before NORAD was formed, when it was still the Continental Air Defence Command (Conad), a newspaper misprinted a Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement containing the phone number for children to call in to talk to Santa. Instead of reaching Santa, children reached Conad operations in Colorado.  "A colonel by the name of Harry Shoup picked up the phone and assured children who called in that Santa was safe and CONAD, at the time, would be tracking Santa on his progress through North America," she said. The tradition continues and NORAD trackers are finished for this year - he was spotted over the great wall of China, over Christmas Island, Vietnam, India, Afghanistan, Moscow, London, South America, and then Canada and finished in the U.S. There are many articles identifying Santa's workload, speed, and route.  The Atlantic narrows it to "Christian kids" - 526,000,000 of them under the age of 14 in the world.  So he delivers presents to 22 million an hour. That's about 365,000 kids a minute, about 6,100 a second. The dailymail.co.uk also has an article on the science of Santa -  Mr. Claus will eat 150 billion calories in milk and mince pies.  He will need to walk 1.3 billion miles, which is 54,000 times around the circumference of the earth, to work off the extra weight.  More at dailymail.co.uk Enjoy Christmas Day!

The Twelve Days Before

How many days before Christmas are there?  The twelve days of Christmas?  No, not at all.  The twelve days start on December 25th and complete on the feast of the Epiphany, on January 6th. The song that we all know so well is an English Christmas carol, published in 1780.  It has been with us for hundreds of years.  The version we have today comes from the English composer Frederic Austin, in 1909, when he introduced the prolongation of the verse "five gold rings". Go to the wikipedia entry and see the table that shows the differences, variations and developments  over time.  The columns have the source, then the giver, and then 1 to 12 for the 12 days of gifts.  There are many rows with all the changes over time.  For example, it wasn't until 1966 that "My true love sent to me"  became "My true love gave to me". The song is considered to originate from a children's memory and forfeit game.  Each person repeats the gifts and when he/she misses one, he pays a forfeit (a kiss or sweetmeat) for the mistake. Does this song have a secret religious meaning?  History Myths Debunked website says no, and a resounding no.   Are there some notable parodies?  Yes - a long list in the Wikipedia entry. Still featured on the radio today is Irish actor Frank Kelly's recording "Christmas Countdown" in 1982 in which a man named Gobnait O’Lunacy receives 12 different Christmas gifts from a lady named Nuala. As each gift is received, the man gets increasingly upset with the person who sent them.  And did you know this song gave rise to a Christmas Price Index?  It started in 1984.  There is a total of 364 items, assuming they are repeated in full in each round of the song.  The total cost for all goods and services for the 2015 Christmas Price Index is US$34,130.99 or $155,407.18 for all 364 items.  In 1984, the cost was $12,623.10. We see Charles Daley park yesterday - full of snow and tobogganing fun.

A Christmas Surprise Like No Other

Christmas has a tradition of surprise gifts.  The puppy under the Christmas tree is one of the famous stories that I remember - here's the sense of the intention: "There is a special magic in the air as everyone rushes around trying to find the best Christmas gifts to surprise their loved ones with. One of my favorite parts of the season is baking treats and making cards to show our friends how special they are to us. We also love receiving Christmas surprises and treats as they show up at our doorstep from friends and neighbours!" There's a thud on the internet - there are no postings on 'christmas surprise gifts'. What was I thinking of?  The search is 'weirdest Christmas gifts'.  Surprises aren't good enough anymore.  So here they are from huffingtonpost.ca for 2017.  There are far too many to list here so it is definitely worth a visit. A Christmas tree costume - a short version for easy maneuvering A pillow hat - yes it is a pillow on the back of a hat - plain white A Rudolph mankini - yes that's a Red-nosed reindeer bikini that fits over the shoulders  - with the nose you know where Upside-down Christmas Tree - it's on a stand so no problem having to hang it from the ceiling - hark back to the Middle Ages Inflatable humping reindeer - what to say - would you put that out front? And then when the town representatives come around to judge your front lights for the contest... Weed earrings - a baggy hanging from pierced ears, so you can make some brownies Toilet Donald - well that would be Catalonian wouldn't it - the Pooping President in a Manger - give him the traditional red cap to finish it off Zappa costume and box set - save this one for Halloween Trump toaster and impeach jam - the Trump toaster burns the face of The Donald on one side of the bread with "You're Fired!" on the other.  The website sells "Impeach Jam". Praying Mantis Angel - well looks alien and about to explode everything Here's our Christmas Greeting - this is one of Floyd Elzinga's wall sculptures.

Taking Christmas to the Max

Yesterday we found out about the oldest Christmas trees.  The Guinness Book of Records bears witness to the striving nature of humanity on the delivery of results with creativity and inventiveness. Here are examples for the Christmas tree: The most expensive decorated Christmas tree remains a holiday tree from 2010 - decorated with $11,026,900 worth of jewellery - 181 items in all. The largest artificial Christmas tree was 180.4 feet tall and created in China in 2015.  It was covered in green synthetic foliage and decorated with ornaments and lamps. The largest human Christmas tree was done in Chengannur, India in December 2015.  There were 4,030 people involved in that tree.  This is a record that continues to grow. The largest display of illuminated Christmas Trees was accomplished by Hallmark, USA in Heralds Square, NY, NY where 449 trees were on parade. The most lights on an artificial Christmas tree is a regular record at Universal Studios in Japan in Osaka.  They do this every year, and have beaten their records over six times in the past.   I hadn't thought about other Christmas traditions.  The largest gingerbread house for charity has a new record.  While the size of the structure is the measure, but they also reported the calorie count at 35,823,400 calories. The array of Christmas records can be found here at the Guinness site. Our flower of the day is the Amaryllis - this name comes from the legend of a shy, timid nymph. Amaryllis fell deeply in love with Alteo, a shepherd with Hercules' strength and Apollo's beauty, but her affections were unrequited.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

What is the feast of the seven fishes?  It is Italian and is celebrated as a Christmas Even tradition.  Mario Batali says that it is what Italians do when they say they're fasting.  Course after course of luxurious seafood dishes - often as many as seven, ten or even thirteen.  Some do seven for the sacraments, some do ten for the stations of the cross and then there are the 13 for the apostles and Christ.  Seven is a number well-known in the Bible.  One article says that the number seven occurs more than 700 times in the Bible.  Can you imagine that in every region of Itality - 20 regions - there is a different culinary tradition for Christmas Eve dinner.  So much diversity.  This is an ancient tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve - dating from the Roman Catholic custom of abstinence from meat and dairy products on the eve of some holidays.  The tradition is now considered an Italian-American one with people sitting down to La Vigilia - "The Vigil".  There is a long list of what Central and Norther European Cultures eat for Christmas Eve, with many traditions. This tradition commonly has 12 meatless dishes representing the twelve months of the year. The variety of the dishes is fascinating - some start with sauerkraut soup and finish with poppy seed desserts. Sauerkraut Christmas shows up in a lot of European cultures.  There's Swedish, Slovak, Polish, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, and even a Christmas Kraut with a bit of cinnamon or cloves. Christmas Eve in the U.K.  This is considered a free-for-all without culinary traditions dating from ancient times.  Why is that?  Take the example of Christmas in Scotland - it was banned after the Reformation, and Presbyterian ministers visited their 'flock' to check that they had no festive foods in the house.  Christmas wasn't a public holiday in Scotland until 1958.  So close geographically, but so distant culturally from European customs. This is last Saturday's picture of the ancient apple trees in front of the Daniel Lenko winery in Beamsville.  I finally stopped to get some pictures.  Today, the scene will be the winter orchard with the apples will be covered in soft, fluffy snow.

Christmas Weaths

The wreath has been a sign of honour or victory from Greek times.  Bay Laurel Leaves date from Greek mythology.  Other leaves that made wreaths included oak leaves - symbolizing wisdom, and were associated with Zeus.  We also think of wreaths as arrangements for funerals.   The Etruscan's made wreaths - they were stamped in thin metal and attached to an ornamental band.  They included ivy, oak, olive, myrtle, laurel, wheat and vines. In Christianity, the Christmas wreath was used to symbolize Christ. The circular shape, with no beginning or end, represents eternity or life never ending. The evergreen, most frequently used in making Christmas wreaths, symbolizes growth and everlasting life.  The wreaths were typically decorated with four candles, three on the exterior and one in the middle. The middle candle was lit on Christmas Eve to symbolize the arrival of the Light of the World - Jesus Christ. A tradition began in the early 19th century to lay evergreens shaped into wreaths or crosses on graves to honour the dead. Family members would bring them home to use as part of their Christmas decorations during the holiday season. So there is our wreath tradition.  Our first snow fall was yesterday, and I took pictures of the orchards across from the United Mennonite Home and on John Street.   This summer the Cherry Lane orchards got signs with their orchard names. I've included a picture from the spring - what a contrast with those soft colours in the last image.

Surrounded by Water Sort Of

Niagara isn't really a peninsula.  Even though we call it that.  One article says it is  an isthmus - a relatively narrow tract of land joining two larger pieces of land - that is, connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. Our two expanses of water are two of the Great Lakes - Erie and Ontario.  The Niagara River is the separator in the east, and the peninsula somehow 'ends' at Hamilton - there's no definitive 'join' place.   A peninsula is a piece of land that is almost surrounded by water or projecting into a body of water.  So Niagara isn't a peninsula. References to the isthmus of Niagara are considered rare.  I found a wonderful scholarly article titled "When the Mountain Became the Escarpment" on the history.  It says that prior to the 1820's there was no peninsula as such - it was not recognized as a geographical feature.  There are many references to Niagara, Niagara District, Niagara Falls, etc, but no references about the Niagara Peninsula.  While the Niagara River created a political peninsula in addition to a geographical one, it wasn't until the Welland Canal in 1827 that the Niagara Peninsula became known as an entity in its own right.  The Niagara Escarpment - a term we take for granted - came about in the 1840's.  Previously it was called a mountain, ridge or slope.  Escarpment as a geological term - a mountain on one side - came into use then. It is interesting that the Niagara River flows north - Oscar Wilde had words on this: “Endless water falling the wrong way,” sniffed Oscar Wilde when he visited in late winter of 1882. The legendary Irish wit is also said to have claimed that the legendary honeymoon destination “must be a bride’s second-greatest disappointment.” Our pictures today show the November orchards of the lower Niagara Escarpment.

Grammarians at Play

Because of his name, Santa can join the grammar joke club: What do you call Santa's little helpers? Subordinate clauses! Here are the Grammar Walks into a Bar Jokes A pun, a play on words, and a limerick walk into a bar. No joke. Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They Drink. They Leave A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves. A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave. A question mark walks into a bar? Two quotation marks "walk into" a bar. A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking a drink. The bar was walked into by the passive voice. The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar. It was tense. A synoynm ambles into a pub. A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink. A hyperbole totally ripped into this bar and destroyed everything. A run on sentence walks into a bar it is thirsty. Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapsed to the bar floor. A group of homophones wok inn two a bar.  Our pictures today show our visit to rainy Chama to see the trains in the yard.

The Twoth of December is here

he oddest prime number is the number two.  It is the smallest and first prime number and the only even prime number.  There is a real word "twoth."  When I typed in the subject line, I understood completely why we don't say oneth and twoth.   Considering the number two, there are many variations of jokes and references: Two cats called ‘1,2,3’ & ‘un,deux,trois’ had a swimming race across the channel. 1,2,3 cat won because un, deux, trois cat sank! Q. What is the explanation of this puzzle: 2 + 2 = Fish, 3 + 3 = 8, 7 + 7 = Triangle? A.  X (Normal) + X (Mirror Image) = Answer So 2 + Mirror Image of 2 will look like a fish, 3 + Mirror Image of 3 will look like a 8, 7 + Mirror Image of 7 will look like a Triangle How did 2+2=5 come about? 2+2=5 comes from the book "1984", where the Government had so deeply trained society to instantly, without thought, accept any official statement as true and instantly erase the past (2+2=4). Harkens to the Marxist belief that the State is the ultimate truth and individuals with an alternate "truth" are dissidents. Some employers and leaders also fall into this belief that reality is nothing but paradigms despite empiric facts offered by "not a team player" people.  2 + 2 = 5 because that is the party line. Our pictures come from December archives - our first picture was taken last year at this time in Charles Daley Park.  There will be more Poinsettia pictures to come as we look forward to beautiful Poinsettia displays in our public greenhouses.

Cyberisms

How did Cyber Monday get its name? It got it recently - November 28 2005 at Shop.org, coined by Ellen Davis and Scott Silverman to get people to shop online.  This is recent - think about Black Friday. Supposedly the term's origin is an early 17th century phrase and was school slang for "Friday on which an examination is held".  I don't see that repeated anywhere but the Google definition. Black Friday in the U.S. was first seen as the term used for the financial crisis of the U.S. gold market in 1869.  It was due to a gold buying/selling scheme. The original shopping Black Friday was theme given to mayhem in Philadelphia in the 1950's when shoppers flooded into the city in advance of the big Army-Navy football game on the Saturday. The myth of retailers going 'into the black' on the day after Thanksgiving started in the 1960s.  It is considered inaccurate but is 'officially sanctioned'  as it is a positive story. The going from red into the black is positive compared to other Black Friday origins which have a negative connotation. There's more about this at snopes.com. Today we're looking the macro images of the boats stored on shore in the parking lot at Port Dalhousie.  These are bits of wear and tear from the many layers of paint.  The lines that follow the textures are created with the Flaming Pear India Ink filter.