Sunday, February 14, 2010

Margin Notes: Winter, Phrases, Generations


Late afternoon shadows helped maintain the thin snow pack in the Lambton Woods of Toronto, Ontario on 11-February-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Snow flurries came down for most of the day on Wednesday, so I thought I'd go out and take some legitimate snow shots on Thursday. Nature was still laughing at me, as most snow cover had sublimed or melted before I went out to take photographs; the only passable winter scene I could find was in the Lambton Woods, which had been mostly shaded. It's cold, but not white, this winter in Toronto.

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While taking walks lately, I've noted that even postings outside restaurants looking for waiters now universally say "Experience Required" without exception. There is no such thing as a entry-level job in the current economy.

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US President Barack Obama continues to mention the economy in virtually all of his weekly radio and YouTube addresses. I'm surprised that conservatives haven't jumped on him for how he ends those addresses. The boilerplate "thank you and God bless America" has been replaced with a simple "thanks." For that matter, the progressives don't seem to have noticed, either.

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Words and phrasing can be interesting. My US tax forms arrived with a label stating "International Surface Airlift." Surface Airlift? This seems like an oxymoron, though perhaps it designates that trans-oceanic shipments are "lifted" by air over the ocean rather than going on a ship, but are otherwise moved on the ground.

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Another phrase I found entertaining recently was the latest title for an automatic software update--"iLife Support". I guess it's not enough to have life support anymore, we need to have iLife Support to keep our digital lives going.

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I guess I must be in the iLife generation, since when I heard "Behind Blue Eyes" performed for the Superbowl (in news coverage), I was somewhat surprised that it was a song from The Who. I was only familiar with the 2003 Limp Bizkit version, which I had known was a remake, but I had never investigated what was being re-made. Somehow, I suspect promoters wanted The Who to play that Pete Townshend song precisely because it had been widely covered and would be known to younger audiences.

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