The Day Formerly Known As Dominion

Like Prince, our national holiday has a former name, though it wasn’t an esoteric symbol, and we haven’t gone back to the original name and…oh all right, it isn’t anything like Prince and the Artist Formerly Known As! No, really, it’s not. But it did used to be called Dominion Day here. Now it is Canada Day, and we are 141 years old, Canada, not me of course. And Dominion is just a grocery store chain. That doesn’t have a holiday named after it.

I don’t usually post twice a day just now because – well, I’ll tell you why soon enough…But I did want to go ahead today because what do you know, it’s Canada Day up here and we are lighting fireworks and grilling burgers and so on. As opposed, of course, to firing the burgers and grilling the fireworks.

We are not quite as busy as this 1881 cartoon suggests that Canadian holidays are…not quite! In fact things are very quiet around here. The fireworks will be coming later on, at various parks. A few people let them off in the street, though. Where I am from (the US) fireworks are illegal so the sight of a fireworks store never fails to horrify me. I then tell everyone who is around about how in the US they are illegal. Usually my audience has heard this oh so many times before, and I feel a bit like my grandmother who used to tell (far more exciting) stories about her exploits in the 1890s. Only she was in her 80s and the stories were WAY better!

I need some new material I guess! Anyway I wish all my dear Canadian readers a very happy Canada Day, and I’ll be celebrating the 4th of July in a couple of days, of course, along with the Americans. And I’ll try and think of something interesting, too…

I’m going to go for a run, see you tomorrow!

Image from Canadian Illustrated News, Vol. # XXIII, No. # 2, Page # 25. Photo: From Library and Archives Canada.”

Teenage Wastebasket

Believe it or not, this is supposed to be a “teen-age haven” circa 1971 – “an exciting sculptured room based on a play of blues, grey and silver, plus interesting textural contrasts.”

I don’t even know where to begin with this one.  There’s a strange metal contraption next to the white phone, there’s weird silver pods in a vase, a 3D chess set, a silver alien head on the table and a collection of colored eggs. Typical teenage stuff? Maybe on another planet. That must be a family portrait up over the bed thing – Dad just before he colonized the Dweeb Galaxy. Maybe the silver head is a communications device (the fake phone is just there to fool the humanoids).

Those little eggs are some kind of intergalactic experiment, I fear.

Apparently the red and blue clear tables flip over and you can put “teen-age clutter” in them. That also sounds ominous. What kind of clutter would this be? I would just put all that silvery retro bric-a-brac in there with the ultimate aim of throwing it out. “Teenage wastebasket, it’s only a teenage wastebasket…”

What in the world was the designer thinking about? Not teenagers, certainly! Unless they were middle-aged swingers having a second adolescence (preceded by a midlife crisis and followed by a second childhood).

In a continuation of yesterday’s Beatles theme, this reminds me of their pad in the 1965 movie Help!, where John supposedly lives in a carpeted conversation-pit type thing just like the lower part of this weird room. Only it was dark brown, I think.

It also reminds me of the Seinfeld episode (“The Pony Remark” from Season 2) where Kramer wants to build levels in his apartment, all carpeted with pillows and no furniture. But then he doesn’t do it, even though he’s bought all the lumber. Because it really isn’t all that comfortable-sounding, on second thought.

Just like you might want to give this decorating style a second thought or two.