Like many people, I was saddened this week when I heard of the death of entertainment icon Dolly Parton. She was truly a class act whose impact extended beyond music.

Welcome to the 175^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a quote of the week. Along with a tribute to Dolly Parton, this week’s edition looks at the origins of zed and zee, the Royal Mail’s progress electrifying its fleet, and California’s legalization of balcony solar.

On my mind this week: Dolly Parton – A true class act

Like many people, I was saddened this week when I heard of the death of entertainment icon Dolly Parton. The world has definitely lost a bright light with Dolly’s passing.

I’ve never been a big country music fan, but Dolly’s body of work transcended labels. I think that’s why she was loved by so many. As a teenager with aspirations of a business career, I adored her in 9 to 5. Kenny and Dolly’s Once Upon a Christmas album tops the list of my all-time favourite Christmas albums. And her multiple guest appearances on Hannah Montana when my girls were growing up were simply wonderful.

Dolly’s 55 Grammy nominations and 10 wins put her behind only Beyoncé and Taylor Swift in terms of Grammy accolades for female artists. That’s an impressive group of women!

But Dolly was loved for much more than her music.

Her reach extended beyond music

As the tributes poured in this week, it was easy to see why Dolly Parton’s death hit so many. In a world of fake celebrities and overproduced musicians, Dolly always remained truly authentic.

Dolly was a true class act. She came from the humblest of beginnings, growing up poor in a large family in rural Tennessee. And she never ever lost that humility.

She also had a giant heart.

Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, Dolly founded the Imagination Library to promote childhood literacy. The Imagination Library has given away over 300 million books to 3 million children in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.  

RIP Dolly. You and Kenny will be able to make beautiful music together in heaven with all the other great artists who went before you.

In what has been a difficult week for many reasons, local watering hole Ethel’s Lounge summed up my thoughts quite well.

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Three highlights of the week

When life feels too heavy to bear, it’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• Earlier in the week, I had a super productive decluttering session. I tackled the closet in the basement where we keep extra outerwear and sweatshirts and got rid of some things that hadn’t seen the light of day in years. This inspired my husband to sort through his closet and purge a big pile of old clothes.
• On Wednesday, I went out for ice cream sundaes with my sister and a dear friend of ours. Then we went back to our friend’s house for tea, treats, and conversation.
• Friday was the latest instalment in the ABC lunch series with my high school girlfriends. This week’s lunch was brought to us by the letter L. We went to the Lowville Bistro in Lowville where we had lunch on their beautiful patio which is surrounded by mature trees. It felt more like sitting and chatting in a friend’s garden. As always, it was a wonderful lunch and catch up. 

Things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

You say zee, I say zed—but why?

How we pronounce the last letter of the alphabet is one of many things that differentiate Canadians from Americans. But why the difference?

While it might feel British, “zed” originated from Old French zede, from Late Latin zeta, and from Greek zēta. Wanting to assert American independence from Britain in the early 1800s, Noah Webster introduced the “zee” pronunciation along with American spellings of many words.

Interestingly, more Canadians are adopting “zee” as their preferred pronunciation. In the 1970s, 77% of Canadians preferred “zed”. Over the last 50 years, that number has declined to just a little over 50%. That’s odd to me because every Canadian I know says “zed”.

(Source: CBC News)

England’s Royal Mail electrifies its fleet

England’s Royal Mail is well on its way to achieving its target of being net zero by 2040. Since adding its first electric vans in 2017, its fleet of EVs has grown to 9,000. EVs now service close to one-third of the Royal Mail’s delivery routes.

(Source: The Carbon Almanac)

Here in Canada, we have a long way to go for Canada Post to meet its stated target of net zero by 2040. The Canada Post website reported a pilot of 100 EVs (out of a fleet of 14,000) were arriving in 2023. Since then, no updates have been reported.

California legalizes balcony solar

Lawmakers in California have passed a bill to make plug-in balcony solar legal in the state, potentially saving residents $400 a year in electricity costs.

Once enacted, this law will put home solar in the hands of millions of renters and homeowners who can’t install panels on their roofs.

(Source: Canary Media)

Quotes of the week

It feels fitting to turn this over to Dolly this week. It wasn’t possible to choose just one nugget of wisdom, so here are five of my favourite Dolly Parton quotes.

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

If you see someone without a smile today, give ’em yours.

I think everybody should be allowed to be who they are, and to love who they love.

I’ve always tried to never step on anybody to get where I am. I’ve had to walk around a few people, jump over a few of ‘em now and then, but I think you’re a true success when you’ve seen your dreams come true and you can take pride in how you did it, and take pride in and respect and appreciate the people that helped you get there.

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I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.