Throwing Things Out

 A little while ago, the bundle buggy I've been using for the past eight years finally broke. I was wheeling it back from Food Basics and one of the wheels popped off. At first I thought I could just screw it back on, but it had cracked in an awkward spot. The buggy managed to deliver its final load home, but I've since had to get rid of it.

Using something to its fullest potential, even something like a bundle buggy, almost gives me a sense of peace. Like it fulfilled its purpose, even to the point of carrying out its final voyage and delivering its final load. Thank you, bundle buggy, for carrying my burdens these past eight years.

Another time I've felt this way was when I used to sleep on a couch bed. One day, after taking a nap, I got up and it collapsed behind me. I couldn't be frustrated. After all, it hung on long enough to make sure I got one final nap in.

During a cultural competencies course I took in college, we were taught the Iroquoian concept of the Orenda. To my understanding, this is the idea that everything in this world has an energy and life, both the animate and the inanimate. Not only that, everything has a purpose and desires to fulfill its purpose. The example given in class was that a table was fulfilling its Orenda by holding up a cup and a binder. So, my bundle buggy carrying loads of groceries until it could do so no more, and my couch bed providing me rest until that last nap, were able to fulfil their Orenda.

I got that bundle buggy back when I lived in student housing from a hardware store near my college. It's seen me through four living spaces and was even used to transport many loads of possessions in the gap month when I had the leases for both my old place and this one, to lighten the load of the final move.

I also had to get rid of an old cup recently. It had suns, moons, and stars, all with faces. I brought it with me to college from a set my mom had. This is going to sound a little less sweet, but you could measure the appropriate amount of your adult beverage of choice by filling to different rays of light from the sun displayed on the cup. For liquor, fill to the first spoke of light, for wine, go to the second, for beer, the third. I don't think it was intentionally designed for that purpose, but I figured it out.

It was the last survivor of the set. This past week, I looked at how faded the decals were. You could barely make out the sun, and I made the hard decision to get rid of it. We have a white board over here with a wish list, and I put "fancy cup" on it, even though I don't think I can replace it. I'm just keeping it on there until I can come to terms with the fact I'm not getting another one.

We also got rid of my old deep freeze. I bought it from a woman in my old neighbourhood. It served me well until we moved it over here. It worked at first, but it's temperature dial was stuck and when we tried to adjust it, it died. We kept using it as additional counter space until we recently got a new one. Apparently deep freezers, (as well as printers and breadmakers) all trended during the pandemic, so I felt kind of vulnerable without one.

We put it out to the curb to be taken as bulk pickup on garbage day, but someone took it almost immediately. Those people are going to be real disappointed having gone through the effort to take something so bulky and find it doesn't work, but what do you expect when it's been put out with the garbage?

I recently updated most of my other blogs:

Gryphood (broccoli cheddar soup): Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Panera Copycat) (gryphood.blogspot.com)

Gryphon's Reviews (Kim's Convenience, Korean-Canadian sitcom): Gryphon's Reviews: Kim's Convenience (Sitcom) (gryphonsreviews.blogspot.com)

Gryphon's Gallery (three new paintings): Gryphon's Gallery: Elephant Sunset, Fruit Bowl, Peppers (gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com)

Vaccines and Things

Mom recently got her COVID-19 vaccine and had a fever for a week. I'm still pro-science and pro-vaccine, but seeing how much media is being pushed to emphasize the safety of getting vaccinated, I feel like they weren't completely forthright about the severity of the potential side effects. I can even see why some people are saying that the vaccine gives you the virus. I'm sure it wasn't COVID, but the side effects were similar to the symptoms of the virus and could be misinterpreted as such. I'm already nervous about her getting the second dose, because I hear the second one is harsher than the first and the side effects this time around were already so intense. Oh well, if her sensitivity to the vaccine is this bad, maybe she would be even more sensitive to COVID, so this is still the less dangerous option.

My brother also got his first dose. He'd been wanting one for awhile since he works a front-line job, and he hasn't had any side effects. I think he's the last person in my circle to get the vaccine, but apparently only about 45% of Canadians have received their first dose.  Crazy that over half of Canadians still don't have it, but everyone I know does. I even know some people with both doses. Must just be the circles I run in.

Most of the people I know have gotten the Moderna vaccine, but apparently Pfizer is most common, and we'll be leaning mostly on that going forward. China's developed the Coronavac, I think better known as Sinovac, and Russia's developed Sputnik V. Everybody's disparaging each other's vaccines nowadays, saying that they don't work. I don't know why. I hope that everyone's vaccines work.

Sputnik V has the funniest name though, because "sput" sounds like "spud", which means potato, and it's from Russia, and vodka is made from potatoes. I had a Russian studies class when I was in university too, and learned some classical Russian medical practices, including the use of vodka presses.

Canada is developing its own home-grown vaccine, Medicago, but it's only in phase 2 clinical trials. At the earliest it won't be ready until later this summer, after most people have received their first dose. We're not mixing vaccines at this time, so what's the point?  Apparently we might put it toward countries that are still in need of vaccines, which isn't so bad.

I was disappointed to learn that looking at efficacy rates for vaccines is fairly unreliable. The reason for this is that the way trials are done is by having some number of people take a vaccine, an equal number take a placebo, and then have them integrate into a community that is known to contain the virus. From then on, they keep track of who gets sick and how sick they get. This is how they rate the level of efficacy.

The unknown factor is how much of the virus is present in the community. For example, Pfizer and Moderna have some of the highest efficacy rates, whereas AstraZeneca has been held under scrutiny with a much lower rate. However, Pfizer and Moderna held their clinical trials in a time and place where the rate of COVID was much smaller than when AstraZeneca conducted there's. I'm not saying AstraZeneca is as good as Pfizer or Moderna, but it's not accurate to compare them based on their efficacy rates at face value. Somehow, I thought these clinical trials were being held in a controlled environment, consistent across all vaccine trials. I guess that would ignore a lot of human rights.

India's COVID rates are spiking fiercely nowadays. During the first wave, I speculated how they could be doing as well as they were, considering their high population and population density. Well, it looks like it did get to them eventually. Despite having a comparable number of total cases, their deaths per million rate is still only a fraction of the US or Brazil's, due to the sheer number of people living there.

If anyone's COVID numbers are suspect, it's Tajikistan's. They have the highest number of total cases to have fully recovered. Their trajectory during the first wave was pretty standard, but at one time, their numbers tapered away and just... stopped, and they declared themselves to have eradicated COVID. This is despite the fact that they haven't reported any special measures taken against the virus, and their neighbors all report cases. This goes to show you that, just like vaccine efficacy, COVID tracking by nation can't be taken at face value.

Alberta's COVID rates have become worse than Ontario or Quebec's, who previously had the highest numbers. I've got to be honest, when I imagine Alberta, I picture wide open plains, not necessarily conducive to viral spread. They do have Edmonton though, which is a large urban city.

I recently got some masks from Old Navy and they really are superior to the five-pack Hannes brand I got from Walmart that I've been using. The ear straps are adjustable and generally just gentler than what I've been using. Plus, my Walmart masks were all a solid black, and set against my nearly black beard, so they just made it look like my facial hair was covering my mouth. I have a number of new patterns that show up well against my beard. I bought a pack of warm colours and a pack of cool ones, so I can match to what I'm wearing. I have solids of both warm and cool, as well as plaids. Probably my most fun mask is one with anchors on it, and my tackiest is blue camo.

Masks are now not just utility, but also fashion. I remember taking an uber, and the driver was dressed exceptionally well, but he was wearing a red plaid mask which clashed with the rest of his attire. I noticed.

We finally got through the last bag of oats and capellini pasta (the only pasta left after all the others were panic-bought) that I got while supply shopping during the first wave. We finally got through the rice I had pre-COVID and got into that giant sack of rice I was so proud to get. Obviously I've been eating things other than first wave rations, but still, other than rice, I've run down my initial stock.

Friends of the Forest

Since we talked about memories in my previous post, I thought we could talk a little bit about a childhood memory of mine.

When I was a kid, my favourite show was Friends of the Forest. It aired on YTV and was about the adventures of various woodland creatures. The main characters' name was Rocky, and I could never figure out what animal he was.

It had a little jingle that went, Friends of the forest, there's room for everyone.

As a teenager, with the Internet still somewhat young, I tried to find my old favourite show. While I didn't get exactly what I wanted, I did find this:

A Japanese version of Friends of the Forest!

Turns out, it had been originally created in Japan under the name Rocky Chuck the Mountain Rat (so now I know what animal he was supposed to be, although I don't know what a "mountain rat" is). It was later translated and released in Canada. So technically, I was into anime before it was cool.

I even found an episode of the Japanese version on Youtube. I went as far as to get it transcribed into English by someone I knew who spoke Japanese.

Several years forward, and I've been keeping my eyes on the situation to see if there are any developments. Eventually, I strike gold! A whole library of episodes of the English version is released! Except this is what the title looks like

 Whaaaaat?

And the chorus to the theme song goes

In the greeeen forest, the greeeeen forest

Instead of

Friends of the forest, there's room for everyone

Here's a link to the theme song of Fables of the Green Forest, if you really want to hear it: (455) Fables of the Green Forest Intro (70's) - YouTube

So I have really mixed feelings. On one hand, I have an English translation of my beloved childhood show. On the other hand, it's weird and different. Everything is a little different than I remember, and there's no evidence that the show I remembered ever existed.

Except that, when I asked my brother if he remembered Friends of the Forest, he was able to sing part of the chorus for the theme song.

Anyway, this year I found an article on Lost Media Wiki about the translation I remember.

Apparently Fables of the Green Forest was aired in the late 70s and into the 80s. Friends of the Forest was the second translation to be aired, with an entirely new voice cast, music, and altered storylines.

For example, in Fables, they made Peter Cottontail the main character and renamed Rocky as Johnny. So much disrespect to the Japanese source material, Rocky Chuck the Mountain Rat.

No home videos of Friends of the Forest are known to exist, and nothing has surfaced online.

This is all bittersweet. On the one hand, I now have evidence that my childhood memory was real, but on the other, I've confirmed there is no evidence that it exists in any current form. The sound of the theme song is in my head, but that's the only way that it's still alive.

What really burns me up is that we had stacks of home-recorded VHS tapes because it was my favourite show. But we lost all of them over a couple of moves. If I still had those, I would be the only one in the world to have copies of Friends of the Forest. I would have uploaded them to the Internet, and that would be my contribution to society. Oh well.

The Mandela Effect

Have you ever heard of the Mandela Effect?

This phenomenon is named for the legacy of the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. 

However, while everyone remembers this as his contribution to history, a sizeable number of people remember him dying in prison before claiming his title as President. This presents the obvious question: How could someone who died in prison, later become the President of South Africa?

Well, people have theories, and they're not what you might assume.

The Mandela Effect is the idea that multiple dimensions exist, and sometimes merge. So, when you remember something that doesn't quite match what history claims, it's not because of your faulty memory: it's because you existed in a dimension where your memory was true, and then you were integrated into a dimension that doesn't quite match what you remember.

Despite the Mandela Effect being named after the former South African President's legacy, it's best known for the namesake of the Berenstain Bears book series.

Look closely at the name of that book series. Is it spelled correctly, or do you remember it as "The Berenstein Bears"?

If you remember an "e" instead of an "a", you might just be from a different dimension, according to The Mandela Effect.

Not going to lie, when I first ran across this, it felt a little unsettling. I, like many others, knew them as the Berensteins. However, I don't place much faith in human memory or perception, and after puzzling over it for a bit, I was able to rationalize the phenomenon and come up with an argument for my belonging in this dimension, even if I remember an "e".

Most people in North America are familiar with the sound "stein" attached to surnames. "Stain" is less common. When people read, they often use mental shortcuts, such as noting the first and last letter, looking at the length of the word and assuming what it is based on past familiarity. It's a way to speed up our reading, and it's why typos so often go overlooked. With this in mind, it's easy to mistake the abnormal "a" with the familiar "e", especially since it doesn't change the length of the word. It's also often written in cursive which makes it a little less easy to read if you're not used to it. Also, there have been instances of packaging that used the "e" by mistake. So all this contributes to the common misunderstanding of this beloved children's book series.

Another example of The Mandela Effect is Darth Vader of Star Wars' iconic phrase, "Luke, I am your father."

He never said this.

What he actually said is, "No, I am your father."

This one didn't phase me much. The former sounds better in isolation, and the latter makes more sense in context. If repeated in isolation, the phrase that sounds better that way is how it will be remembered.

There are lots of these. Remember when Hannibal Lecter said "Hello Clarice" in Silence of the Lambs? Yeah, never happened. Remember the Monopoly Man's signature monocle? He's never had one.

So in general, I feel above this idea that if you misremember something it's because you're from a different dimension. Have some humility, human memory is fickle.

Until recently. I discovered an example of The Mandela Effect that shakes me to my core.

The Fruit of the Loom logo

*Shudder*

I hate to be the one to inform you, but this classic underwear logo does not, nor has it ever, existed in the fashion depicted above.

This is the current logo.

No cornucopia.

It's not a recent, simplified design either. While the logo has been modified a number of times, there is no evidence to suggest that a cornucopia has ever been featured in the design.

However, many people have distinct memories of learning what a cornucopia is from asking their parents when they saw the logo. Unlike other examples, where a memory was replaced by something more familiar, people learned about something unfamiliar with this memory.

There is a design that was used for a time, where brown leaves backed the fruit, and some people say this design is what people remember, and replace the leaves with a cornucopia. But this doesn't make sense to me, because leaves are far more familiar to most people than cornucopias.

Also, this chart has been used to see if people are consistent in selecting the same logo from their memories:

People consistently choose the first one, which implies a shared memory. The counterpoint to this is that it's the most appealing, which causes people to choose it.

Of course it's the most appealing. Because a panel of experts designed it to be appealing. Because it existed.

While people remember the visual the same, different people have different vocabularies for it. Some people remember it as a cornucopia, but others know it as the horn of plenty, or more simply, the horn. So the subjective parts of memory that would vary between families does change person by person, but everyone remembers the same visual.

I distinctly remember the cornucopia, and everything about how people remember it makes it seem legit, unlike the cases of the Berenstain Bears and Darth Vader.

And yet, there is no concrete evidence to suggest the cornucopia ever existed. In fact, there is only evidence that it didn't.

I definitely come from the cornucopia dimension.