Hogmanay Fire, Williamstown, Fireworks in Alexandria, Ontario, New Year's Eve, 2015

Hogmanay fire at the Glengarry, Nor Westers and Loyalist Museum Williamstown, Ontario

Fireworks during snowstorm at Island Park, Alexandria, Ontario

Happy New Year 2016!

Beaver gnaw marks on tree

Gnawed by a beaver. Probably a white ash. Could be used for food or building.

Winterlude 2001 Ice Sculptures

Ice Sculptures, Winterlude 2001, Confederation Park, Ottawa

Australia sculptures

Boxing kangaroos

Koala Bear

Montreal Jazz Man

I saw this gentleman wearing a jacket studded with musical instruments, funny glasses and headgear at the Montreal Jazz festival some time in the mid to late 80s - he said he wanted to amuse people.

Snow Buntings

Probably won't see them this year, but when the winter's been long they come down from the north and crowd along the roadside eating spilled corn. They make a little blizzard when they fly up when you drive by.

Snow Bunting

Paul Humphrey, Blue Peter, Toronto, December 12, 2015

Paul Humphrey at the Phoenix (wearing green cummerbund), One of the encores was "Santa Claus is coming to town" sung to Depeche Mode's "Never let me down".

Dolphin Drawn in Sand, found on beach

What a turkey really should look like

This is what they are supposed to look like. The ones that are bred for food would pretty much die in a few days in the wild because they are so fat and can't fly - even in captivity they don't live much longer - all the ones that were 'pardoned' by the US presidents don't live much more than a year after their pardons. The Atlantic

MacCulloch Dancers, Cornwall, 1990

MacCulloch Dancers, Glengarry County, Ontario, multicultural festival in Cornwall, 1990

No, no we don't

Set up for Dragon NaturallySpeaking

No, we don't.

Free Listen button on my remote

"FREE LISTEN This button has no function on this model"

But why is it there?? What am I missing??

Frost

frost on trees from last year

Aurora Borealis, c. 2000, south of Ottawa

Greenish aurora on the horizon near Ottawa, c. 2000

Fish Guts

Fish Guts Are Biodegradable Please Give them back to Nature

Pipers and flames under a blood red moon

Fergus Ontario Scottish Festival and Highland Games, 1997, pipe band under red moon

Representatives of clans carry torches to light a common fire for the festival to symbolize their unity

Don't put it in your mouth!

Don't put it in your mouth! Japanese toy package warning label. This is why Kinder Eggs are legal in Japan. And Canada. But not the USA Why?.  I gave Kinder Eggs out for Hallowe'en to the kids at my Japanese language school, and there was not a single blue faced kid in the parking lots, so lessons learned! 

Barn Swallow Nest

Barn swallows in nest

Osaka Castle, 2000

Osaka Castle, March 2000. When I visited it, the posters in the castle never mentioned that this is a reconstruction - it was first built in 1583 but it was largely destroyed during the civil war in the 1860s, was restored, but then heavily bombed because there was a weapons factory beside it on August 14, 1945.

recipes for microdol, cibachrome developers

Some suggestions from Artcraft Chemicals customers, c. 1992

Substitute formula for Microdol-X
Water (125°F) 750 ml
Metol (Elon) 7.5 gms
Sodium Sulfite 100.0 gms
Sodium Metabisulfite 7.5 gm
Water to make 1 liter
Add a pinch of sodium sulfite before
adding the elon. This will prevent the
elon from oxidizing. Use the same time
and temperatures as Microdol-X.

* * * *  * * * *
Cibachrome Print Developer
Metol (elon)
Sodium Sulfite
Hydroquinone
Sodium Carbonate (Mono)
Potassium Bromide
Sodium Thiosulfate (anhy)
Water to make
1.5 gm
23.0 gm
6.0 gm
40 gm
1.0gm
1.8 gm
1000 ml
Note: Use 3 gm if pentahydrate form
Sodium Thiosulfate used.
This developer is meant for single shot
usage in a drum processor. 60-65 ml (2
oz is adequate for an 8 x 10 drum and
120-130 ml (4 oz) for the 11 x 14
cibachrome drum.
Use the above undiluted; quantities can
be doubled or even tripled to make 2
more concentrated stock solution which
must then be diluted before use. Shelf
life is about 5 weeks. Discard if the
developer becomes darkened over time.

The Big Apple, 1989

Dionne Quints photo

It's a very sad story - the first quintuplets who survived were taken away from their family and put on exhibit, this photo was probably sold there as a souvenir, and later when they were returned, some of them were sexually abused by their father. Wikipedia Entry

Minami-zu, Oldest Kabuki Theatre in Japan, Kyoto, 2000

Building dates from 1929, but theatre began in 1610.

People Helping People

Just when you thought Hallowe'en was over....

Clown Family, 1990

No, Lipstick wasn't made illegal in 1770

François Boucher,  "Marquise de Pompadour at the Toilet-Table"

1758

Oil on canvas, 81 x 63 cm

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, via Wikimedia Commons

"In 1770, British Parliament banned lipstick, saying it had the power to seduce men in to (sic) marriage, which was classified as witchcraft" - https://www.facebook.com/SteampunkSteampunk, 'history fact of the day' October 27, 2015

First off, any law or proposed laws in the UK parliament have to be published in the London Gazette - https://www.thegazette.co.uk - this can easily be searched to show no such law was ever proposed in parliament.

This myth seems to have originated from a filler piece in a Richmond, Virginia newspaper from 1861 - fillers, as the name implies, were short paragraphs to fill up space in a paper - they were written on the spot if there was a blank space in the layout of the page that needed to be filled, and they tended to be humorous articles that were not meant to be taken seriously:

False pretences.

--A law against obtaining husbands under false pretences, passed by the English Parliament in 1770, enacts--‘"That all women, of whatever age rank, profession or degree, who shall after this act, impose upon, seduce, and betray into matrimony any of his Majesty's subjects, by virtue of scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, iron stays, bolstered hips, or high-heeled shoes, shall incur the penalty of the law now in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanors and the marriage, under such disbursement upon conviction of the offending parties, shall be null and void:"’

The Daily Dispatch: August 27, 1861.

August 27, 1861. Richmond Dispatch

Note the anachronisms - the London Gazette doesn't use the word 'cosmetics' (or 'cosmetic wash' at all) until 1854. There was no law against witchcraft in 1770. The Witchcraft Act of 1735 recognized there was no such thing as witchcraft - it said that people were only pretending when they charged people money for making things like love spells and potions. And there was no 'Parliament of England' in 1770 - it had been merged with the Parliament of Scotland in 1707 to form the Parliament of Great Britain.

Other sightings: In a humor piece from 2005: Pop Goes the Culture
                      In a 2006 student term paper: Reading Our Lips: The History of Lipstick Regulation in Western Seats of Power, by Sarah Schaffer  - Schaffer does admit in a footnote about what she calls "this slightly mysterious 1770 law" that "...a search through statutes passed by the House of Lords in the 1760-1780 timeframe reveals no such cosmetics legislation" - Schaffer cites several academics who take this seriously, like Neville Williams' Powder and paint: a history of the Englishwoman's toilet, Elizabeth I-Elizabeth II, (1957).

Happy Day After Halloween

Happy Halloween

Jill Battson reading from Hard Candy

Jill Battson reading from Hard Candy, Toronto, c. 1998

Blonde Singer, c. 1998

Not sure where I took this!

Oculus Rift

Last month I tried an Oculus Rift headset - it was just like looking at two small cell phone displays a few inches away from your eyes - I can appreciate the tracking and ability to virtually manipulate objects, but I don't think it will ever get over the discomfort and eye strain inherent in trying to focus on objects that are nearby but the brain sees as being far away - it might not be good at all for children whose eyes are still developing.

Role Player, 1998

Actually, it's a pretty darn cool costume - made it herself out of copper rings. Vampire role playing game, January, 1998

Double Rainbow over Toronto, spring, 1998

Brian Greenspan, 1997

Brian Greenspan, 1997, during trial of Steve Murray for the murder of his daughter Mistie.

A Host of Yosts

Elwy Yost, at a Elwy Yost look-a-like contest, Guelph, Ontario, c. 1993

Clownface at KFC, c. 1988, Toronto

Since today is today, Doc Brown's DeLorean

On display at the 2015 International Plowing Match, in Finch, Ontario,

Note the problem with the panel