It’s already January 3, and I haven’t seen anything different about 2024.
I know there will be a difference at the end of February when we have an extra day, but so far it’s the same old, same old.
Maybe I need to give the new year a bit more time before coming down too hard on it.
I’m just going to have some Random Ramblings this week, starting with a couple of geographic mondegreens.
For those who don’t know, a ‘mondegreen’ is a misheard song lyric. It comes from a American writer, Sylvia Wright, who remembers her mother reading her “The Bonny Earl of Murray.” One of the lines said that after the earl was killed, they “laid him on the green,” which she misheard as “Lady Mondegreen.”
With that in mind, I have had friends who told me of a couple of mondegreens they had committed. One person, listening to Johnny Horton’s “North to Alaska,” misheard “north, the rush is on” as “north, to Russia’s zone,” which almost makes sense.
The other person admitted that for some time they were sure Boney M, in the song “Rivers of Babylon,” were singing “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in Australia” instead of “in a strange land.”
I have discussions sometimes with friends about whether they prefer, if they’re walking in the winter, to having the weather be snowy or cold (nobody wants to walk when it’s snowy AND cold).
My preference is for cold weather. Walking in the fresh snow can be exhausting, making your own trail along the sidewalk or side of the road. Walking in the cold is easier. Just make sure you have enough layers on, and walk a little faster to keep warm.
Of course, so far this ‘winter’ the question has been academic in Prince George, since we haven’t had cold or snow to any real extent.
Having said that, I am now fully prepared for an outpouring of criticism when, in the next week, the temperature drops to minus 30 or we get a foot of snow.
We know we’re going to be going to the polls at least once this year in Prince George. The next provincial election has to be held by October 19. There may be a federal election as well, or it may be almost exactly a year later, since it has to be called by October 20, 2025.
One other election we know will be held in 2024 that will have an affect on B.C. and Canada is the American one in November
Between now and then, there will be all kinds of mudslinging and name-calling south of the border, and very little real campaigning. With any luck, the B.C. election will be the opposite.