It’s Monday, May 23, and in Chicago rain is in the offing much of the week. On Friday through Sunday I’ll be at the annual meetings of the American Humanists here in town, so I’ll see you there if you’re going. On May 23, 1873, the Canadian government established the “North-West Mounted Polices” the precursors of the RCMP—the Mounties! And on this day in 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police in Louisiana and riddled with bullets, so they count as “deaths on this day.”
Those born on this day include Carl Linnaeus, Swedish biologist and Giver of Names (1707), clarinetist Artie Shaw (1910), microbiologist and Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg (1925), and singer Rosemary Clooney (1928). Those who died on this day include playwright Henrik Ibsen (1906), plutocrat John D. Rockefeller (died 1937 at 98), and mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr., who died on this day last year.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej and Hili are discussing one of Carl Zimmer’s articles on mice (it talks about how Peromyscus leucopus has evolutionarily adapted to life in urban environments):
A: Did you read about the evolution of city and country mice?Hili: Yes, of course. But what about mice living at the outskirts of a small town?
Ja: Czytałaś o ewolucji myszy miejskich i wiejskich?
Hili: Oczywiście, ale co z tymi, które mieszkają na skraju małego miasteczka?
And out in Winnipeg, Gus, serene and confident (but leashed), surveys his fiefdom. . .
I can confirm that it is indeed Monday.
Microbiology never gets no respect around here.
Okay, I gave it some respect (microbiologist is more accurate anyway).