By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be on the train to Montreal, willing (but not eager) to try my Parisian French. It’s February 28, but tomorrow is Leap Year Day, so it’ll be interesting to learn what happened on February 29, and who was born on a day that automatically divides their age by four. But on February 28, John Wesley chartered the Methodist Church (1784), nylon was invented by Wallace Carothers at DuPont (1935), basketball was televised for the first time (1940), Watson and Crick told their friends that they had discovered the “secret of life” (the structure of DNA, 1953, paper published in Nature on April 2), and Pope Benedict resigned (2013). Notable births on this day include Karl Ernst von Baer (1792), Linus Pauling (1901), John Fahey (1939, my guitar god), and Paul Krugman (1953, younger than I but still with a Nobel Prize). Those who died on this day include Henry James (1916), Paul Harvey (2009), Jane Russell (2011), and Anthony Mason (last year). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili continues to espouse her quasiphilosopher sentiments:
Hili: The pursuit of happiness should not be exhausting.
A: And do you get satisfactory results?
Hili: I’m not complaining at the moment.
Hili: Pogoń za szczęściem nie powinna być wyczerpująca.
Ja: Ale czy masz zadowalające rezultaty?
Hili: Chwilowo nie narzekam.
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And here’s a sleeping Gus, displaying his pink foot and toe pads (and two of his many toys, as he’s extremely spoiled!):
And a catspotting from reader Leon, who notes:
My wife and I were walking around downtown Ft Collins today enjoying the shops and ambiance… and lo and behold… came upon this Coynian moment!
Now I’m not sure exactly why this is a Coyneian moment (note spelling), but so be it:
Cat + Self-portrait in glass reflection = Coyneian
Coynesian, maybe? 😉
‘as he’s extremely spoiled!’
As he should be!
Oops, oops on the spelling…. Whatever the spelling (I do like Coynesian – sounds philosophical) I no longer can see a cat without making a connection to Professor Ceiling Cat. Thanks for posting!!!
Cute shot!
Same dilemma I have–both cats and plants love the window sills…waiting for epic mess to ensue…
Based on one experience long ago, Parisian French works in Montreal. Elsewhere in Canada, not so much.
I love taking the train. I took it from Toronto to Ottawa this year after of course I took a different train to Toronto.
My embarrassing but comical French moment happened it Toronto at the Pompeii exhibit. My friend (bilingual) and me (not too bad with French) noticed that the French translation of the informational signs next to artifacts were very skillfully put together because the French and English were the same length (my friend used to translate medical documents from French into English) but of course we noticed this on the Pompeii sex section where the title read “Les jeux de l’amour. So we kept saying that sentence and ending it with “avec Bonhomme”. It’s a very Canadian joke. You can google “Bonhomme de niege”. So, we heard a French track playing in he bat cave and in the dark started saying “Les jeux de l’amour avec Bonhomme!” only to hear a French family speaking to each other (they must’ve hit a button to hear the French commentary). I said to my friend “and that’s why they hate us.”
Not sure I really get it even after Googling–but I’m really impressed there was a bat cave!