Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Metal Sculptures and Art




























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Monday, September 3, 2018

Quote for the Day



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Readers Write


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Brett’s Monthly revisited:

Email from Brett B (the US one, not the Oz one): 
Too late, I see a problem with dates this month: the 13th is not on a Friday, and Blame Somebody Else Day should have been in April. The other dates seem right. Mea culpa, I should have checked before sending. Looking closer, these two dates apply to Sep of next year.

I get this list from http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/, and have not seen this problem before.
2018 - 2019 Daily Holidays by month. Wacky, Bizarre Days ...
2018 - 2019 Daily Calendar Holidays, Special days by month. Wacky, fun and bizarre days. 
Thanks,  Brett.

I also had not noticed.
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And more:

From an unknown person responding to Brett’s Monthly online:           
Correction to calendar: 6 - Fight Procrastination Day 7 - Fight Procrastination Day (observed) on Brett's Monthly
But this is a spot of humour, right?
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More drought sadness:

An email from David C B in England: 
Reading Harry Lawson's poem Past Caring had me, after drying my tears, looking at the Eric Bogle "Now I'm Easy" and playing the title track which expresses similar sentiments from an old homesteader.  Brough the tears back to my eyes.   What heroes those men and women were and I hope that their part in building the modern nation of Australia is never forgotten. 
Fully agree, David, and thanks for responding.

Hear and see Eric Bogle sing the song, written by him, by clicking on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u61mw3VfS2o

You can hear June Tabor’s version at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAUz8vgbCj0

The lyrics:

For nearly sixty years, I've been a Cockie
Of droughts and fires and floods I've lived through plenty
This country's dust and mud have seen my tears and blood
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

I married a fine girl when I was twenty
But she died in giving birth when she was thirty
No flying doctor then, just a gentle old black 'gin
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

She left me with two sons and a daughter
On a bone-dry farm whose soil cried out for water
So my care was rough and ready, but they grew up fine and steady
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

My daughter married young, and went her own way
My sons lie buried by the Burma Railway
So on this land I've made me home, I've carried on alone
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

City folks these days despise the Cockie
Say with subsidies and dole, we've had it easy
But there's no drought or starving stock on a sewered suburban block
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

For nearly sixty years, I've been a Cockie
Of droughts and fires and floods, I've lived through plenty
This country's dust and mud, have seen my tears and blood
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy
And now I'm easy
_______________________

Btw, for those wondering at the origin of the word “cocky” to denote farmer in Australia and New Zealand, the following will assist: 
cocky A small-scale farmer; (in later use often applied to) a substantial landowner or to the rural interest generally. In Australia there are a number of cockies including cow cockies, cane cockies and wheat cockies. Cocky arose in the 1870s and is an abbreviation of cockatoo farmer. This was then a disparaging term for small-scale farmers, probably because of their habit of using a small area of land for a short time and then moving on, in the perceived manner of cockatoos feeding. 1899 Australian Magazine (Sydney) March: 'Cockie' was a contemptuous title by which the big farmers distinguished themselves from the little. 2006 Stock and Land (Melbourne) 4 May: Removing the stereotypical image of farmers being whinging cockies is also important. 
http://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/andc/meanings-origins/all
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Sunday, September 2, 2018

Quote for the Day


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Father's Day



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It’s Father’s Day in Oz today, unlike a lot of other countries throughout the world which celebrate the day variously in March, April and June.  So to all the Dads, Happy Father’s Day. 

Anna Jarvis was the founder in 1908 of an official Mother’s Day in memory of her own mother, although in later years she was so pissed off at its commercialisation that she declared “ A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”  In 1943, aged 77,  she began organising a petition to rescind Mother's Day but these efforts were halted when she was placed in the Marshall Square Sanitarium in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Ironically, people connected with the floral and greeting card industries paid the bills to keep her in the sanitarium.

Father’s Day was inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day by celebrating fathers and male parenting. Celebrations took place in various towns and communities from 1910 onward but, despite various attempts in the US to formally recognise such a day, that did not happen until much later.  In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honouring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972


Some “I am your father” items . . .













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Saturday, September 1, 2018

Thought for the Day



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Brett's Monthly

It's that time of the month again when Brett provides a list of strange and not-so-strange holidays and celebrations for the coming month.  Thanks, Brett.  His list appears below, click on the daily ones to expand.  And a happy commencement of Spring to readers, or Autumn if you are in the Northern hemisphere.

Month:
  • Baby Safety Month
  • Chicken Month
  • Better Breakfast Month
  • Classical Music Month
  • Fall Hat Month
  • Hispanic Heritage Month
  • Honey Month
  • International Square Dancing Month
  • Little League Month
  • National Blueberry Popsicle Month
  • National Courtesy Month
  • National Piano Month
  • Self Improvement Month
Weekly Events
1 Emma M. Nutt Day, the first woman telephone operator
2 Internaional Bacon Day - Saturday before Labor Day
3 Labor Day First Monday of month
8 National Date Nut Bread Day - or December 22!?
9 Grandparent's Day - first Sunday after Labor Day
9 National Pet Memorial Day -second Sunday in September
9 Rosh Hashanah - begins at sundown, date varies
12 National Video Games Day - also see Video Games Day in July
13 Blame Someone Else Day - first  Friday the 13th of the year.
13 Uncle Sam Day - his image was first used in 1813
15 Felt Hat Day - On this day, men traditionally put away their felt hats.
16 National Women's Friendship Day - third Sunday in September
16 Wife Appreciation Day - third Sunday in September
18 Yom Kippur - begins at sundown
22 Eid-Ul-Adha - date varies
22 International Rabbit Day - Fourth Saturday in September
22 Natinal Hunting and Fishing Day - Fourth Saturday in September
23 Autumn Equinox - Fall begins! - date varies
23 Sukkot - begins at sundown, date varies
28 Ask a Stupid Question Day (one of my favorite days)
28 National Good Neighbor Day - Always September 28, previously the 4th Sunday in month
28 Native American Day - fourth Friday of the month
29 Confucius Day - Try your luck. Get a Fortune Cookie.



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QuickFacts


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The Shoes on the Danube Bank:


About 300 metres from the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest, on the embankment of the Danube River, are sixty pairs of rusted old-fashioned shoes cast out of iron.  They are attached to the stone embankment, the memorial being known as The Shoes on the Danube Bank.  In March 1944, the German Wehrmacht invaded Hungary and installed Ferenc Szálasi and his fascist and violently anti-Semitic Arrow Cross Party into power. During his brief rule, Szálasi's men murdered 10,000–15,000 Jews and plundered Jeiwsh homes and businesses.  Frequently, entire groups were lined up on the banks of the Danube facing the river, ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. Shoes, being a valuable commodity during World War II, were ordered to leave behind so that they could be collected and traded on the black market.  The Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial remembers the 3,500 people, 800 of them Jews, who were shot into the Danube during the time of the Arrow Cross terror.

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EIRE Signs:


 The recent heat wave in the UK generated a wildfire at Bray Head, on the Irish coast, near Dublin, which revealed a World War Two-era landmark that had disappeared under thick undergrowth.  The sign, made by arranging rocks and boulders to spell out the word “EIRE” (pictured above), is one of more than eighty such signs dotted across Ireland’s coast during the Second World War as navigational messages to inform both Allied and German pilots that they were flying over a neutral country.

Another EIRE sign at Malin Head. This sign was later restored.
 ___________________

The Hemline Index:


The Hemline Index is the oft stated proposition that, according to sociologists, the worse the economy, the longer the women's skirts are and the better economy, the shorter the skirt.  In good economies, we get such results as miniskirts (as seen in the 1920s and the 1960s), or in poor economic times, as shown by the 1929 Wall Street Crash, hems can drop almost overnight. Non-peer-reviewed research in 2010 supported the correlation, suggesting that "the economic cycle leads the hemline with about three years".  But is it accurate?

The following is an article from Septenber 25 2016 at: 
https://medium.com/upstartcity/hemline-index-actually-works-just-not-the-way-you-thought-127254594716

Hemline Index Actually Works! Just Not the Way You Thought
Yifan Yu, Business and Economics Reporter @ NYU

The New York Fashion Week recently wrapped up its fall-winter 2016 runway shows. Plenty are talking are about the new fashion trends brought by Fashion Week, but few pay attention to the hemline. It makes sense: we are not in 1920s anymore, no one cares whether the dress is long or short.

It seems like another disproof to the famous “hemline index theory” presented by economist George Taylor in 1926, a theory that draws an anecdotal connection between economic prosperity and shorter skirt lengths. Attention: the economic cycle predicts the hemline, not vice versa.

Believe it or not, the hemline index actually works: it just doesn’t work the way most people think. You can’t blame George Taylor if you fail to predict the economy based on skirt hems, which is not what the hemline index is about in the first place.

In 2010, Marjolein van Baardwijk and Philip Hans Franses conducted a quantitative analysis on monthly hemline data from 1921 to 2009. Their research verified that the economic cycle leads hemline by about three or four years, which proved “the poor economic times make the hemlines to decrease, and that prosperity is correlated with a reduced hemline (more miniskirts).”

That might explain why the great recession of 2008 didn’t stop the trend of shorter skirt immediately. According to an analysis conducted by Business Insider in 2012, New York designers showed shorter skirts and dresses for fall 2012, compared with those they showed for fall 2011. But later on in 2013, the hemline started to plunge and the mid-length skirt became the new hemline. So don’t panic if the fashion industry still shows favor to the ankle length dress, it might just be a slow reaction to the economy’s recovery.

Bernard Baumohl, the chief global economist of the Economic Outlook Group, was not surprised by the correlation between hemlines and the macro-economy. “When the economy goes down, people will have less discretionary income to spend on unnecessary cloth. More women have to go back to work and need to look more professional in the office so they tend to buy dresses with longer hemline,” Baumohl said.

The hemline index has been proven to hold true by research, but Baumohl doesn’t find it as relevant as back in 1920s due to the fact that manufacturing is no longer a big portion of U.S. economy, and designers today generally don’t set standard hemlines anymore. “People keep talking about hemline index because it’s quirky, unorthodox and understandable for ordinary people, which makes it a good choice for pub conversations,” Baumohl said.

There are plenty of other more important and relevant economic indicators to talk about though. “I would recommend real dispensable personal income index, employment indicator and consumer confidence as three leading indicators you can look at,” Baumohl added.

Although the correlation between the economy and the hemline has been verified, it wouldn’t be a great idea to presume the same relationship between the stock market and the hemline.

Michael Sincere, author of the best-selling book All About Market Indicators and a long-term trader, thinks the hemline indicator is a joke. If you want to invest in the fashion industry, he suggests, instead of relying on the hemline index, it’s better to watch shoppers or analyze clothing prices, or just acquire a fashion company’s revenue record.

“I will not base any of my investment decision on hemline index anyway,” Sincere concluded.


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