I am off today for Singapore: 4.5 hour flight to San Francisco, five-hour layover, and then a 17 hour flight to Singapore, arriving at 6:30 a.m.! Oy! But I have TSA Pre-Check which should prevent me being groped.
Most of the following post (save the Gus photo) was written by Grania, who will be your host during my absence in Asia. As I said, I’ll try to post as often as I can, for the food is abundant and delicious where I’m headed. I’ll hand you over to Grania now. . . .
Good morning!
Today is the anniversary of Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona back in 1881 when characters such as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday walked into legend, albeit one that is not without controversy.
The next event was no less controversial; in 1984 Baby Fae Beauclair received a baboon heart transplant in an ultimately failed attempt to save her life. Paul Simon referenced the case in his song Boy in the Bubble.
It’s the birthday of Hillary Rodham Clinton born in Chicago this day in 1947. It is also international Intersex Awareness Day, a day aimed at increasing awareness about unnecessary surgical procedures, as well as lifting the taboo and secrecy surrounding those who are born intersex.
[JAC: Hili was out in the rain the other day and returned home complely sodden. Andrzej had to dry her off with a towel.]
Hili: It’s a dog’s life – now cats get wet out of doors.
A: You didn’t have to go to the forest.
Hili: I had to, I’m the conscious factor of natural selection.
In Polish:
Hili: Pieskie życie, koty na dworze mokną.
Ja: Nie musiałaś chodzić do lasu.
Hili: Musiałam, jestem świadomym czynnikiem doboru naturalnego.
And out in Winnipeg, where winter has temporarily withdrawn to allow a brief return of fall, Gus watches the leaves fall:
And if you get a lot of leaves, eventually you have to do something with them. I just chop them up and let the wind do the rest. It is a very dirty job and I am sure Gus does not care.
All the leaves are brown, & the sky is gray…
I’d go for a walk but honestly I’m too lazy.
That song was written in the building I currently live in. It’s one of our claims to fame.
Gus looks so glorious among the leaves, I’m looking forward to seeing him in the snow. Being white.
Have a safe journey! That seventeen hour flight is something I can’t begin to imagine. But I’m looking forward to your food photos 🙂
Happy birthday, Hillary!! Your birthday present will come in the late hours of November 8 care of Donald Trump!!
I’m glad Jerry mentioned Hillary’s birthday. I don’t imagine that news other than Fox will mention it on the air. It reminds voters how old she is, even though Trump is older.
Regarding the baboon heart implant, this was performed by Dr Leonard L Bailey from Loma Linda UMC. Wikipedia notes:
When asked why he had picked a baboon over a primate more closely related to humans in evolution, he replied, “I don’t believe in evolution.”
Honestly, where do you get those people? Do they grow from ignorance trees?
I was also impressed by this.
And that appalling fact to this day makes Bailey’s name appear as a “biologist” who denies evolution. (This is doubly crazy, but nobody said that creationist writers are intellectually honest.)
That’s just infuriating! I suppose it’s been discussed a lot about whether a closer primate might have been more successful?
& sub
Be sure you wear some flowers in your hair.
I’m still sticking by the Earp’s version of the gunfight. Had it been an assassination on their part they never would have let Ike Clanton go unharmed.
Funny you should mention the Boy In The Bubble. Two days ago I was trying to get my six month old daughter to sleep and she was overtired and crying and crying, just inconsolable. I had Ladysmith Black Mombazo playing, because that usually calms her down and gets her to sleep. When Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes came on, she began to smile and laugh at me singing along. So then I switched and just put on the Graceland album and three or four songs in she fell happily to sleep. I should’ve gone straight to St. Judy’s Comet, but I didn’t think of it at the time.
Someone left the cat out in the rain!
Gus’s staff may only be able to see leaves, but from the look on his (her? it’s?) face, from Gus’s superior inferior viewpoint there is something edible, and probably feathered, in view.