Wednesday: Hili dialogue

May 11, 2016 • 6:15 am

It’s Hump Day (due to decrepitude, this was originally posted as “Tuesday: Hili Dialogue”), and the gray weather and sloppy rain continues in Chicago. Further, the fog in Hyde Park is about the worst I’ve seen in 20 years. Here’s a photo taken from my crib at 5:30 a.m., looking toward the skyline of Chicago. You can’t see even a block ahead, and flights are being canceled at Midway Airport:

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But Philomena is on tonight at 10 pm on BBC2, and at least some of you will be able to watch Cunk on Shakespeare. Don’t miss it, UK readers!

On this day in history, the HMS Beagle was launched in 1820, the ship that would take Darwin around the world a decade later; and you know what happened then. On May 11, 1960, the Mossad captured Adolf Eichmann and brought him to Israel for crimes committed when he was a Nazi. Those born on this day include Irving Berlin (1888), Salvador Dali (1904) and Richard Feynman (1918). Those who died on May 11 include Bob Marley (1981) and Douglas Adams (2001).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is either misunderstanding humans or trying to cadge more free noms:

Hili: Why did you pick these lilies-of-the-valley?
A: They are for Malgorzata.
Hili: She would probably prefer the pâté from my can.
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In Polish:
Hili: Po co zerwałeś te konwalie?
Ja: Dla Małgorzaty.
Hili: Ona pewnie wolałaby taki pasztet z puszki z jedzeniem dla kotów.

And, in a note from the Guinness World Records site, a Siamese cat named Scooter is now officially the World’s Oldest Living Cat. He is 30, and in pretty good nick:

Oldest-cat-Scooter-full_tcm25-428121
Scooter
From the site:
Born March 26, 1986, Scooter lives with his owner Gail Floyd, who was there the day the kitten was born – and he’s been right by her side ever since.
As a kitten, Scooter liked to play in Gail’s hair and even became accustomed to riding on her shoulder, going with her wherever she went. Nowadays, nothing has changed. He wakes Gail up every morning at 6 AM, “talking” and jumping around, and is always waiting by the door when she arrives home from work.

. . . He enjoys getting blow dried after a bath and his favourite snack is chicken – which he’s treated to every other day.

13 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

    1. I can imagine the bombings and martyrdom campaign if Bin Laden had been put on trial – asymmetric warfare plus German rules of war included lots of atrocities but thought in terms of states. Moreover accepted defeat as a state. So long as Mr Laden alive there would have been mass attacks and many thousands killed. That’s just the why of it.

  2. I remember well seeing Eichmann on TV inside a transparent box at his trial in 1960. I was 14 year old and followed the trial quite closely. It certainly raised awareness of what had happened during the war. Eichmann, of course, was hanged in 1961.

    Wiesenthal said: “The world now understands the concept of ‘desk murderer’. We know that one doesn’t need to be fanatical, sadistic, or mentally ill to murder millions; that it is enough to be a loyal follower eager to do one’s duty.” – Wikipedia.

  3. We had the privilege of a Siamese for 17 years by the name of Butterbur. Thirty years seems almost impossible. Our’s was born 10 years before Scooter. Many more.

    1. You will need his email that can be obtained by looking him up on the net.

    2. Also, go to the Research Interests link at the top right of this (or any other) page.

        1. ? “hipster” is a noun that hasn’t penetrated to real English yet. It refers to a type of low-slung trouser, doesn’t it?
          Regardless, I’ve been accused of being an unregenerated superannuated hippie since my late teenage years and see no reason what so ever to change this decade. I just happen to like to take my archaeology programmes in 4-hour chunks on a theme.

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