Tomorrow is the day!

HAPPY CANADA DAY 2020

may all of you stay healthy, happy and successful,

all year long and then some more.

Rose is a Rose is a Rose

.... so said Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway?

How did she know?

She was never in our garden!

Big Flower, Little Bug

"Go fly a kite" she said to him.....

so he went and did

Will they never learn English Grammar?

Once again I read in the English language News Paper the below mentioned mistreatment, or let me say "rape" of the English Language.
I addressed this problem in this Blog some time ago, but now I feel compelled to repeat my comments about this simple grammatical issue.

English is not difficult !

Off of.....

It does not exactly drive me crazy, but it causes a slight annoyance when people, who should know better, misuse the English language.

You may read it in Newspaper columns, in Books, and in Magazines. The living shall remain nameless, since I want to spare them this degrading embarrassment.

This is what you may read: “With his right hand he brushed the snow flakes off of her hair.”

or this: “She took the book off of the table.”

If they ever bothered to look up the word “off” in a dictionary, or just go to Google and ask: define:off, they would be able to read : “away from the place in question.”

In other words: “off” already means: away from, so there is no need, in fact it is inaccurate, to add the word “of”.

It would suffice if “he brushed the snow flakes off her hair.” or if she “took the book off the table.

When famous writers, like the late Thomas Wolf, as well as current Journalists, use the words “off of” it does not “drive me off of my mind,” but it gently annoys me.

There is another common, all too common, mistake made in the respective use of the words: “waiting on” and “waiting for”.

Particularly in conversational English, but also in the written form, people will say and write:  "Where were you? We've been waiting on you for hours.”

Of course they have not done such a thing! They have “been waiting for you.

The difference is quite simple to remember:

A waiter stands at the entrance of the restaurant, waiting for his guests.

Once they have arrived, taken their seats, then the waiter can start “waiting on his guests.”

Yeah, I know, why worry about little things like that?

Because it's the English Language which gets maltreated in a way it does not deserve.

That's what annoys

Bertstravels

Champs... All of them...

51 years ago, in 1969, a Soccer Team of players under the age of 16, won the North York, East Division, League Championship.

LONG; LONG LONG AGO:::

Many games of hard work, dedication and the will to win brought these boys to this illustrious point.

I had the unadulterated honor and pleasure of coaching these boys to this final victory over "Lansing SC."

So now, let's hear it for "WILLOWDALE UNITED"

The winners of:

1969 North York, East Division, Bantam Championship!!!

Dale Chihuly

On my annual visits to Toronto

 I again visited the Royal Ontario Museum.

There I lucked into the Exhibition 

of Dale Chihuly, Glass Artist.

The ROM

American Artist Dale Chihuly, born in Tacoma Washington in 1941

has revolutionized the art of glass blowing.

His monumental creations defy the fragility of the material.

Unfortunately I can show you only a few of his brilliant creations.

Once again, compare the size!!

Textiles, designed by Chihuly

Little "knick-knacks" of exquisite beauty.

The "Obir Dripstone Caves."

About 35 km from my home are the "Dripstone Caves" of the Hoch Obir.
Water permeates the many layers of rock and slowly dissolves minute parts of the predominantly Calcium stone.
When the water has reached the ceiling of the caves, which have existed for some 200 millions of years, the calcium is deposited in either Stalactites, (hanging from the ceiling) or Stalagmites (growing from the bottom).
When these caves were discovered by miners working in this area in search for Led, Zinc and Iron, it took only a short time before somebody had the brilliant idea, to make this cave accessible to tourists via ladders and electrical lighting. (In the beginning, visitors' guides carried oil lamps).
A visitor's tour goes over about 1 km underground. The entire explored area extends to over 5 km.
Well, I was there some years ago and took these pictures. (and many more)

The Area just before the entrance to the caves.

This staircase should give you an idea of the size of this cave.

A window is not only to look out of.

Window:

The English word  “Window” has its origin, so the Cambridge Dictionary tells me, in the Old Norse, where it was a “Windauga,” an “eye for the wind.”

Cambridge continues: “It is a space, usually filled with Glass to allow (….....) people inside the building to see out.

Well, They are only half right with this definition, since a Window also allows people to see “in”.

May I present to you, Windows along the Kärntner Straße in Vienna, for example, where you are definitely invited to “see in.”

There is also the window in a church, which is meant to allow only light into the inside and which is almost always used to carry decorative motives.

Stained-Glass Windows  

provide space for decorative motives

And finally, there are windows, 

which invite small boys to throw stones at .

Windows in an abandoned building!

They won't last long.

Small boys will come

Small Boys have come!

A modern "Artist" has found a title:

"Person with long tongue and umbrella."

Just for a Change:

I may have posted those before.

But I like them!

And it's MY BLOG!

Therefore I post what I want!

So there

Y' wanna argue 'bout it?

😕😊

 

This was Las Vegas!

Finally, after all the Mountains and Lakes, 

the Deserts, real and painted, 

the Forests, real and petrified, 

the Rivers, 

we arrived at another miracle. 

This one man-made but also wondrous.

                                    Las Vegas

                                   For three nights we stayed at "Caesar's Palace,"

                                   gambled a little, with a "loss limit" of $200.00

                                                    saw the greatest shows, 

                                                    ate the finest meals and 

                                              tasted some very very good wines.

And, of course, took many many pictures.

So, here are some few of them:

Caesar's Palace

One of my favorite Hotels

The MGM

at the time it boasted 5,500 rooms.

I don't kn ow how many it has today.

The Excalibur

In the background, the Red Rock  Mountain

In the middle of the Desert, water is strictly recycled.

Downtown Las Vegas at night.

There are more Hotels and even more Gambling Halls than one can count.

I don't want to discuss the Morality of this place.

It's just fun to visit once or twice.

Guess who was with me!