Factlet (16)

The Canadian Dollar
   I don't have much time this morning, but I will attempt two things. The first is to provide the image above which will haunt us for a long time. It is from the cover of the Atlantic, which was published during the month of halloween in 2024. 
   The coach arrived in Washington, Canadians are spooked and the loonie is sinking. For some perspective on how low it can go, here is the Factlet:
The Canadian $
Jan. 21, 2002: 61.79 cents
"The dollar fell to its all-time low on Jan. 21, 2002, according to the Bank of Canada, hitting 61.79 cents US. (Over the next several years, the dollar climbed upwards until it reached its all-time high of $1.103 US on Nov. 7, 2007."
This Factlet is a few years old, but the numbers for the low and high Canadian dollars are likely correct.
  As for the word "Factlet", new readers can see the origin of the term in the post that revealed what a Gee-Gee is. The most recent one is about Maurice Maeterlinck, but, after re-reading it, I am not sure what the actual Factlet is. It may be that Maurice wrote The Life of Termites. I was clearer in the one about Balzac, he loved pears. Perhaps a more useful Factlet is #3, which is depressing to read at this time of year since it revealed in 2019 that "90,000 Packages Disappear Daily in N.Y.C." 

Olde Posts Addenda (4)

 More "Breaking News" to add to the older news items already provided in Mulcahy's Miscellany. 

Excessive Drinking - OF WATER!
   Back in 2021 I questioned whether we really needed to carry a large bottle of water with us when we drove to the 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee (see "Hydration: Going Against the Current.") I don't get out much, but apparently students are still putting canteens in their backpacks and carrying large water jugs for the short distance between seminars.
   This was noticed by Frank Bruni who writes for The New York Times. When he was asked to characterize the students at Duke, where he teaches, he offered this description in his weekly newsletter. He makes the point I was trying to make in my hydration post, but he does a better job, which is why he writes for the NYT and I don't. It is really quite good and is found in the Newsletter on Nov.21, 2024:

   "What’s most remarkable about my students isn’t their wokeness or pre-professionalism. It’s their sogginess. They drink water constantly. They carry water everywhere. If the young people who fought in World War II were the Greatest Generation, the young people pursuing their bachelor’s degrees today are the Moistest one. They live on the cusp of some imagined desert, beside an oasis that’s their last call.

Sometimes I glance at the desks in a lecture hall or the big table in a seminar room and think I’m looking at an art exhibit of Exotic Cylinders. There are improbably tall, slender water vessels and squatter, wider ones, though almost all taper at the base, the better to fit into the cup holders of cars and cardio equipment. They are shiny and matte, turquoise and lavender, their provenance imprinted on them in distinctive fonts. Here a Corkcicle or an Owala, there a Stanley or a Yeti.

Those brand names are a clue that part of what I’m seeing is pure commercialism: If you build it, they will fill it with water. Canny entrepreneurs have turned the frumpy canteens of yesteryear, associated with cowboys and mountaineers, into the spiffy fashion statements of today, dangling from student knapsacks and essential for any vigorous Peloton session.

But there’s more to it than that. There are principles, politics: The refillable Hydro Flask or ThermoFlask replaces the disposable plastic receptacle and represents scrupulous stewardship of the environment. There are economics: A beloved, portable vessel with water from a tap obviates an Evian or a Dasani from the convenience store refrigerator case.

And there is self-care, an ineluctable phrase that didn’t exist — or had negligible exposure — when I attended college. My students correctly wager that health-wise, including skin-wise, hydration is best, so lugging around liquid sustenance is a kind of personal optimization. It abets peak performance. Along with a dewy complexion.

I reflect on my desiccated youth — when there were old-style water fountains rather than newfangled water stations, and I had to bend over and slurp up enough to last me several hours — and feel foolish and cheated, the improbable survivor of a parched and primitive time. I now understand why my fellow boomers and I made a mess of the world, and the generations after ours should cut us some slack. We were thirsty."

Excessive Eating - The Obesity Epidemic
  More recently in, "Weighing In" obesity was observed and proof is now offered in: "Three-Quarters of U.S. Adults Are Now Overweight or Obese: A Sweeping New Paper Revels the Dramatic Rise of Obesity Rates Nationwide Since 1990," Nina Agrawal, The New York Times, Nov. 14, 2024. Definitions are offered for the plus-sized people and I will have to check and see if I belong to that growing crowd:The paper defined “overweight” adults as those who were age 25 and over with a body mass index at or over 25, and “obese” adults as those with a B.M.I. at or over 30.
The "sweeping new paper" is found in The Lancet, "National-level and state-level prevalence of overweight and obesity among children, adolescents, and adults in the USA, 1990–2021, and forecasts up to 20," Nov. 14, 2024. "Over the past several decades, the overweight and obesity epidemic in the USA has resulted in a significant health and economic burden. Understanding current trends and future trajectories at both national and state levels is crucial for assessing the success of existing interventions and informing future health policy changes."

More Metals  At Costco - Now You Can Also Buy Platinum
   

   Oddly enough, when I complete this post I will likely have spent as much time writing about Costco as shopping there. Although they are getting out of the book business (see:"More Bad News For Books"), you can find on their shelves, gold(see: "Gold At Costco!!) and silver (see: "Hi Ho Silver??) to take to your compound when the apocalypse arrives. You will have food that lasts years if you have also purchased "Readywise, Costco's Emergency Food Kit" (see: "Evidence of End Times at Costco?".)
   "The sales of silver and gold are going well and now Costco is offering bars of platinum. The Costco website lists the item as a one-ounce (roughly 28.3 grams) 999.5 pure platinum bar “with a proof-like finish.”  The bars bear the image of Lady Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck and good fortune – an image also on some of Costco’s gold bars. Customers will need a Costco membership to buy these bars. Unlike most other products available at Costco, however, you can’t buy this one in bulk. There is a limit of one transaction per membership, with a maximum of five units per member. The bars are also non-refundable."
For more see: "Platinum Rush? Costco Is Selling a New Precious Metal in the U.S." Uday, Rana, Global News, Oct. 4, 2024.

BOOZE At Costco For Ontarians
  While platinum is not yet available to us, we can now purchase, beer, wine, champagne and some 'soft' mixed cocktails at Costco, but not the hard stuff. For that, we will still have to go to the LCBO, but it is not yet clear what we do with all of the empty containers. See: "Ontario's 41 Costco Locations Can Sell Alcohol As Of Oct. 31, 2024," CBC News, Oct. 30, 2024. 

Happy Thanksgiving to Those In the U.S. 
   You have a lot to be thankful for - platinum at Costco, for example. Eat that turkey, but begin a diet in the new year.

Back From British Columbia

Reporting In

   I noticed that I have not posted in over ten days so I figured I had better write something before an APB is issued. We were in Vancouver for two weeks visiting family and not much was else was done. That means I have little about which to write and right now I have to rake leaves. So here I will simply report on the weather which is always of interest. 

   On the few trips to various practices, this vehicle was noticed. There may soon be some in London since I have learned that Tesla is coming. On the other hand, maybe not, since I saw this headline: "Insurance Providers in Canada are Refusing to Cover Tesla Cybertrucks, Saying “We Don’t Cover Armored Vehicles.” By the way and to fill this space, I also read this headline which shows there is evidence of Musk in Northern Ontario as well: Ontario launches $100M partnership with Elon Musk’s Starlink."

   After previous trips I have had more to report, so here is some old material if you are interested in British Columbia. It is, by the way, still called that. 
"British Columbia or Sasquatchia? and "The Left Coast."

I noticed other exotic vehicles on our trip in 2018: "Cullinan."

   You have not learned much, but at least this post will push the picture of the scruffy new Vice President farther down the page.

BEARDS (again)

 Scruffy Stubble

While attempting to avoid reading anything about the two most important people of our time (if not of all time), I ran across two pieces concerning beards. You may have noticed we are surrounded by them. Most men either sport one or are raising a crop of facial hair, which, while looking unkempt, appears to be carefully tended. 

Having coincidentally stumbled upon a subject which would offer readers a distraction from anything relating to those two people, I was prepared to go full monty on hirsuteness when I discovered that beards have been fully covered in MM. Back in the spring of 2023 I conducted a poll involving bearded golfers, who probably learned beard growing from hockey players. Of course, much more about hairiness was provided, including a reference to Pogonologia; or, A Philosophical and Historical Essay on Beards, as well as a picture of William Empson’s “neck beard.” (While it is unlikely you missed that good essay, you may have forgotten it, as I did, so here it is, “Beard Poll.” I also have done one about Empson, but it was not about his “neck beard” - “William Empson’s Memory”.) 

Let’s Play “Beaver”

About the two new beard pieces you are probably very curious so I will begin now with the one that is not very new, but shows that beards have always been fashionable – or not. This observation indicates that by the mid-1920s, beards were becoming unpopular and that, before the Internet, people looked at something other than screens when walking.

   “The men usually affected beards, until the sudden craze for ‘Beaver’ made them return to the razor. Two or more people walking down a street would play a twenty-point game of beaver-counting. The first to cry ‘Beaver’ at the sight of a beard won a point, but white beards (known as ‘polar beavers’) and other distinguished sorts had higher values. When the growing scarcity of beards ended the game in 1924 King George, distinguished foreigners, and a few Chelsea pensioners were for some years almost the only bearded men left in Great Britain. Beards came in again, chiefly among the Leftists, in the middle Thirties.” (The Long Week-End: A Social History of Great Britain 1918-1939, by Robert Graves & Alan Hodge. Norton Library, 1963, p.49) Being unshorn became popular again in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but after the hippies, the yuppies wanted to look clean so they could be successful. Although there are now many beards and “Beaver” could be played, we have the Internet. 

Beards Fad or Fetish?

    The second piece is a current one and it shows that the pressure to be bearded is intense and the fad a global one. The young man featured in this article flew to Turkey to get a beard transplant. Since you may not believe me, here is the information directly from the source:

“French Man Dies by Suicide After Failed Beard Transplant by 'estate agent’,” National Post, Oct. 28, 2024.
“A French student died by suicide after receiving a failed beard transplant in Istanbul from someone allegedly pretending to be a surgeon.

“In March 2024, 24-year-old Mathieu Vigier Latour travelled to Istanbul for a beard transplant. He was studying business in Paris at the time.

According to the Daily Mail, the cost of the transplant was around $1,950, only a fifth of the price it would be if getting the procedure done in France….

The plan was to remove 4,000 hair grafts from the back of his head and move them to his face. Jacques said the surgery caused his son's hair to grow and be shaped unnaturally…

After the procedure, Latour's beard was reportedly oddly shaped and grew at an unnatural angle, like a "hedgehog."....

He said Latour was suffering both mentally and physically.

"He was in pain, suffered from burns, and he couldn't sleep," he said in French.

The family tried to find a qualified expert in France to help correct the failed transplant. After being unsuccessful, they found Dr. Jean Devroye, a hair transplant specialist based in Belgium.

Devroye examined Latour and found that 1,000 out of the 4,000 hair grafts that were removed from his scalp would not grow back. He also concluded that Latour would have permanent scarring….

My advice here is that, unless you are from the very large cohort of males who are required by some higher authority to have a beard, you should avoid getting a beard transplant, at least one done in Turkey.

Photo Credit It is extremely difficult to avoid articles about one of the most important people in the world and that is why I noticed the picture of his underling which is featured above. He may have grown that bit of stubble because of the social pressure or to honour his Appalachian ancestors who couldn’t afford razors. (The photograph by Mark Peterson is found in the New Yorker.) Mr. Vance will be the first VP with facial hair since Charles Curtis who had only a moustache. Benjamin Harrison was the last fully bearded president. The stance which the new president may adopt regarding facial hair appears to have changed and will likely do so again since he is consistent when it comes to stance changing. The other most important person in the world appears to approve of beards because she is dating a guy who has one. Sources: You now know about Charles Curtis because of the following article. The cleverness of the title reveals why it is hidden behind a paywall. One should have to pay for such things: “Hair Apparent: J.D. Vance Could Bring Beards Back to the White House,” Will Pavia, The Times, July 18, 2024. More proof of the ubiquitousness of beards is found not just on faces but also in the many articles about them: “Women in India Protest Against Men Having Beards - To Stop Chafing,” Sophie Thompson, Independent Online, Oct. 21, 2024. For an increasing number of young men arriving on this continent it appears that beards are mandatory. They would not be welcome in Turkmenistan: “The Country Where Beards Are Forbidden For People Under 40 Years of Age and Only White Cars Can Be Driven,” CE Noticias Financieras, Sept. 20, 2024. “In addition, men under the age of 40 are not allowed to grow beards, a measure that seeks to homogenize the image of citizens and prevent what the government considers "personal carelessness". These rules reflect the authoritarian control in the country, where individual freedoms are limited by rules that often seem incomprehensible from the outside.”

Biking About (No.4)

    

    Back in November 2023, I put away my bike and the odometer displayed the number 6009. Although the weather is nice now, I probably will not be riding it again this year. We leave for Vancouver today for two weeks and it is likely I will be shovelling rather than biking when I return. 
   I took this picture yesterday and it looks like I pedalled just over 1400K during our brief summer period. It appears that I did about the same distance last year. I probably could have gone farther if I had one of those fancy Spandex biking outfits. 
   The main purpose of this post is that it provides me with a record of my summer cycling accomplishments and it gives you something to read which doesn't involve the American election.
   For more fascinating details see: "Biking About (No.3) and this one. To see if biking affects your sex life read, "Biking About." It had no affect on mine. 

The Cundill History Prize Winner

Kathleen DuVal    

   An election was held south of our border and you may need a distraction from it. I have been busy and the weather nice so the only thing I will offer quickly is an update to the Cundill post immediately below this one.
   The winner of the approximately $100,000 (CDN) is the American historian Kathleen DuVal and her book is: Native Nations: A Millenium in North America (the London Public Libraries have copies, but they are all out as I write.) She is also the author of, Independence Lost and The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent and teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 
   For more about the Cundill see my post below. The winning announcement is available at the Cundill website at McGill. The folks in the History Department at UNC are happy as you will see here. 
  Among the news announcements see: "Kathleen DuVal Wins $75k Cundill History Prize, by Melina Spanoudi, The Bookseller, Oct. 31, 2024. 

"The winning book is the culmination of a 25-year project, in which DuVal shows how, before colonisation, Indigenous peoples adapted to climate change and instability. The author refutes that the arrival of Europeans led to the end of Indigenous civilisations in North America, demonstrating the relationships that developed between nations.
Lisa Shapiro, dean of the faculty of the Arts at McGill, added: “DuVal’s winning book truly embodies the Cundill History Prize’s aims. It is not only an outstanding achievement in historical scholarship, but it also engages the reader and dramatically reorients our perspectives on North America. It demonstrates the real significance of history writing.”