Saturday: Hili dialogue (in two parts)

November 9, 2013 • 3:49 am
Hili is bad today.
Hili: Jerry and I like this mug very much.

A: Hili! I measured out this milk for pancakes!

Hili: Humanity never ceases to amaze me with their ideas.
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***

 Hili: I will drink it anyway.

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In Polish:

Hili: Jerry i ja bardzo lubimy ten kubek.
Ja: Hili, ja sobie to mleko odmierzyłem do naleśników.
Hili: Ludzkość nie przestaje mnie zdumiewać swoimi pomysłami.

***

Hili: I tak ci to wypiję.

38 thoughts on “Saturday: Hili dialogue (in two parts)”

  1. So, if autophagy is eating yourself (nose picking, fingernail chewing, furball swallowing), what is the word for eating/ drinking from an image of yourself?
    And … if Jeebus had existed, and returned, and took Mass with full-on transubstantiationalism, would that make him a cannibal?
    And for Saturday’s ethics discussion … given that Petri-dish grown meat has got to the size of hamburgers, and is likely to continue improving at a good rate, what would be ethically wrong with eating meat grown from your own muscle stem cells?
    Hili, I’m sure would tuck in. If it tasted good.

      1. Those Romans had a word for everything, didn’t they?
        I’m now wondering what the Latin for having a word for having a word for having a word for everything is? Probably “Meow”.

        1. Greeks not Romans. Here’s a fun fact: esophagus and sarcophagus have the same “phagus”. Can you guess what “phagus” means?

          It comes from ephagon – eat. esophagus is the thing that eats where the sarcophagus is the flesh eater….gross.

          1. “phagus” is a word root that I remember from the “naming of parts” bits of palaeontology ; of or around the mouth and eating, I’d have said, without checking the dictionary. Macrophages and phagocytosis from cellular biology.
            Even without having ever studied either Latin or Greek (OK, I looked at one of Dad’s Latin text books for maybe 20 minutes, and one of my chemistry teacher’s Greek text books one lunch time of extraordinary boredom.), just by using the vocabulary of the sciences, I’ve acquired a lot of “Classical” vocabulary myself.
            When I was making a half-serious atempt at learning Russian, I’d continually turn to the wife (a native Russian speaker) on acquiring a bit of Russian vocab and say “That’s been stolen from the Greek, hasn’t it?”

          2. I always find dental terms amusing. I want to tell my dentist, I’ve studied Latin & Greek so using dental technical terms is not hiding things from me when you talk with each other.

            The one was bruxism which is from Greek & means grinding. He told me I should get a bruxism device. Honestly, why do you have to call it that? Just use the English word! However, it really should be called an anti-bruxism device. I swear my dentist just wants to sound hoity!

          3. I’ve studied Latin & Greek so using dental technical terms is not hiding things from me when you talk with each other.

            I’ve had the same experience : a Russian technician and a Lithuanian technician whose work I was QC-ing were both assuring me in English that it (The Very Expensive Machine That Goes Ping!) was working perfectly, while hissing at each other in Russian (first tech) “Look, it isn’t working. No point in lying, he knows it” ; (senior tech) “Shut up. We’ll get him out of here then make up the numbers ourself.”
            Haven’t seen the “senior tech” since. The first tech, who wanted to admit that “ne rabotet” has been working for us for about 6 years now and is one of our more senior staff. One of my more successful poachings.

    2. It wouldn’t be ethically wrong with eating “self”, but impractical (too many ‘zoonoses’).

      In any case, PZ has made a point here. How is it supposed to work? You need to grow an immune system with the meat, or continue soak it in antibiotics. That the bacteria will evolve around even faster than today.

      Easier to grow cows.

      Conversely, what are the ethics of keeping cows in zoos for perpetuity? Since we have a moral responsibility for the species, and they can’t survive in nature.

      I have no easy answers, but especially the easy answer of growing meat doesn’t seem to work.

      1. BTW if you ever take French, be sure to wait for the inevitable & embarrassed answer when you study the reflexive: je me mange. Someone will say it – it always happens!

        1. (I missed this on my first read through.
          I had a friend whose party trick was to prove that he could … how does the idiom go? “Je me fais un pipe.” ?
          Even if I’ve got the idiom wrong, I’m sure that you can work out what I mean.
          Medical students! You’d like to think that they get better, but I fear that they don’t, really.

      2. You need to grow an immune system with the meat, or continue soak it in antibiotics. That the bacteria will evolve around even faster than today.

        That;s a technological problem of keeping the system clean ; manageable. Hell, we’re of the coast of Africa and we make drinking-quality water on the ship (“2.5Mlb geological hammer,” as I just offended the toolpusher by describing his floating empire) ; I’m sure that sterile technology will develop to fill that need. Also bacterial detection technology to keep the bugs out. Or, possibly better, add your own bugs engineered to perform adequately as an immune system. But that’s basically an engineering problem, not an ethical problem.

        Easier to grow cows.

        Arguable. Also not an ethical issue.

        Conversely, what are the ethics of keeping cows in zoos for perpetuity? Since we have a moral responsibility for the species, and they can’t survive in nature.

        We developed them from wild bovines of some sort (possibly several sorts). Put them in a suitably large wild lot, in groups ; let them acclimatise for a generation, then let them breed. The wolves (*) will provide sufficient culling, and within a few generations (anyone want to hold bets on how many?) we’d have something moderately close to the ancestor species. In far smaller numbers.
        Yes, we bred them. That doesn’t mean that we continue to breed them when there’s no need for them. Not only did buggy whip manufacturers go out of business in the 1910s and ’20s, a lot of horse breeders probably went out of business too.
        (*) I’m interested in the idea of re-introducing the wolf to Britain / Scotland. I think it’s pretty unlikely at the moment for political reasons, and I’m deeply suspicious of Wossname at Alladale and his plans (huge fenced-in enclosure and keep the grockles out!). But that doesn’t mean that I think the idea is impossible or undesirable. And we need something to eat the woolly and antlered plagues so that the forests can re-generate. A multi-century project.
        If I met a friend (I can think of several “likely suspects”) with 4 wolves in the back of his car in a remote glen … I may or may not help him unload them, but I certainly wouldn’t hinder him. Or her.

  4. But wait a minute. I happen to have inside (as it were) information that Hili is lactose intolerant. She has to be careful what she laps up from whatever receptacle.

      1. That may well be what she is given to drink, but this was for pancakes, so does the whole household drinks the same milk for the sake of Hili? We need some expert input here–that is, from Andrzej or Malgorzata.

        1. This was normal milk which Hili loves. She had some trouble with tolerating milk as a kitten and we are still giving it to her very sparingly, but she does get a small bowl of milk every day. When she demands more of this white stuff she gets cream.

    2. Hili tolerates anything, I do not tolerate her diarrhoea, so she is allowed to drink cream, but very rarely ordinary milk.

  6. Hili’s dialogues are a bit like haikus. The first line or two set up the tension, which is resolved by Hili in the last line.

    1. Hili questions life–
      the world as it seems to cats–
      Andrzej sets her straight.

      Hili wonders at
      human oddities–sometimes
      straightens Andrzej out.

    1. There’s a “Floyd on Food” spoof about that – probably several. Only it wasn’t the milk that he was checking for quality.

  8. Nice gater boots! I had a dream of alligators attacking me so I’m glad they are on your boots only.

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