Thursday: Hili dialogue

May 5, 2016 • 6:15 am

It’s May 5, the wind is howling like a freight train outside, and I dread to think what I’ll encounter on the walk to work. What with the ungodly banshee racket, I was awake at 3:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep.

It’s Thursday, May 5, and on this day in 1821, Napoleon died (presumably of stomach cancer, but there are theories that he was poisoned) on the island of St. Helena, one of the most remote places on the planet. In Mexico, of course, it’s the Cinco de Mayo holiday, celebrating a victory of the Mexicans over a much better-equipped French Army in 1863. The battle was in Puebla, a lovely city that I visited a few years back. Happy holiday to my Mexican friends!:

Cinco_de_Mayo,_1901_poster

On this day in 1925, teacher John Scopes was served a warrant in Tennesee for violating the Butler act that prohibited the teaching of human evolution (not “evolution”). The rest is history. And, on May 5, 1981, Provisional IRA fighter Bobby Sands died in Maze Prison after 66 days of a hunger strike.  Notable births on this day include Nellie Bly (1864; read about her asylum exposé) and Tammy Wynette (1942). Those who died on this day include, beside Napoleon and Bobby Sands, Irv Robbins (2008, a man who gave the illusion of choice to millions of Americans).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili manages to pwn Andrzej even while denigrating her own intellectual capacities:

A: What’s going on in a feline head?
Hili: It’s not great philosophy.
P1040110
In Polish:
Ja: co się dzieje w kociej głowie?
Hili: To nie jest wielka filozofia.

12 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Oooh, lovely Hili photo. Is that a flowering quince (Chaenomeles), Malgorzata? My d*g used to love eating the fruits, even delicatley picking them off the branches and minding the thorns. The fermented ones were her favourite. 🙂

    1. Yes, it’s a flowering quince. Perfect for making a kind of jelly which we eat to cold meats. No dog of mine ever wanted to touch this very, very sour fruit, fermented or not!

  2. “Provisional IRA FIGHTER”. Congratulations, you’ve coined a new term.

    What you actually mean is “fascistic terrorist” – since that is exactly what Sands was.

    How, exactly, does planting no warning bombs and cowardly assassinations of unarmed and unsuspecting civilians earn the title ‘fighter’?

    1. The IRA is rightly remembered as a bunch of cowardly murderers in Britain, where they didn’t hesitate to kill innocent civilians, including children, both in Northern Ireland:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day_bombing

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omagh_bombing

      and on the British mainland:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_pub_bombings

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrington_bomb_attacks

      They were no better than al-Qaeda and ISIS.

      1. During my brief period as a stand up comic, I wrote a joke that I was on the Bobby Sands diet program. Unfortunately, no laughter.

  3. It’s nice thay you posted about the true reason for cinco de mayo holliday. Most americans I know think it celebrases mexican independence. I think it has become a bigger celebration in the US, mostly as an excuse to drink mexican beer and eat mexican food. Unfortunately after the Battle of Puebla was won the French did manage to gain control of Mexico and established Maximilan of Austria, a Hapsburg prince, and his wife Charlotte as Emperors of México. Their short lived “reign” is one of the most interesting pasajes in mexican history.

    1. First we came for St. Patrick’s Day. Now we’re coming for YOU…. 🙂

      1. Thanks, Luis.
        I’ve always felt sorry for Maximilian as a victim of big politics.I think he might have fallen in love with Mexico, given the chance. I’m surprised that one of the world great cultures is so constantly not appreciated and left to be a joke.

  4. I’m not too familiar with Mexican history, but I’ve been reading Francis Fukuyama’s, Political Order and Political Decay, which addressed Mexico’s lack of stable strong government and economy. It seems the Spanish conquest left Mexico stratified by an “income gap” with few owners and a vast subculture of minorities based mostly on race. In modern times the effect of colonialism, patronage and clientalism, has lead to weak governments and corruption and widespread distrust of government.

  5. Does it make sense to characterize a particular place (St. Helena’s) as one of the “remotest” spots on the planet? St. Helena may be remote from us, but we’re just as remote from St. Helena.

  6. Quoth Hill, “ow, chuckies, ow. Chuckies. Ow. Where is the site manager ….

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