Already Thursday? So it is—May 26, 2016, and the rains have begun in Chicago, inundating the succulent plants and cacti that I forgot to bring inside from the lab fire escape. And I have no idea what I’ll write about today.
On this day in history—in 1828—the “feral child” Kaspar Hauser showed up in Nuremberg, a child whose origins were completely unknown and who had a short and unhappy life (read at the link). On May 26, 1896, Nicolas II became Russia’s last Tsar, executed in 1918 along with his entire family by the Bolsheviks.
Photographer Dorothea Lange was born on this day in 1895, jazz musician Miles Davis in 1926, and actress Helena Bonham Carter in 1966. Notables who died on this day include Martin Heidegger in 1976 and filmmaker Sydney Pollack in 2008. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Andrzej pause in the fields for a friendly discussion about evolution:
Hili: Does every butterfly also come from an unbroken line of life for four billions years?A: Of course.Hili: They must work very hard.
In Polish:
Hili: Czy każdy motyl to też nieprzerwana linia życia od czterech miliardów lat?
Ja: Oczywiście.
Hili: Te się muszą napracować.
The last Tsar I suppose (Nicolas II) other than the current one, Putin the first. I was thinking Trump might prefer that title to president if someone would explain it for him. That would be wrong of course, he is more along the lines of those fascists like Mussolini or that other guy. Only took a minority to put them in power.
Coincidence that the establishment of an American hereditary Presidency and the re-establishment of the Russian Tsars comes at about the same time? I don’t know.
It’d be interesting to do a Rip Van Winkle, “Seven Sleepers“, the “People of the Cave“, or Niamh and Oisin (it took me ages to work out how to pronounce “Niamh” when I first met one in the paperwork, but she was chuffed that I got it right when we first spoke).
The Prince of Darkness woulda been 90 today, huh? The greatest musical innovator of his time, at the forefront of every key development in jazz in the middle of the last century — from bebop to cool jazz to hard bop to modal to fusion. Tip o’ the hat, Mr. Davis, to the coolest cat ever. I’ll keep “Birth of the Cool” and “Kind of Blue” and “Bitches Brew” playing all day.
This is a lovely photo of Andrzej and Hili of The Field (a field of poppies, btw).