by Grania
TGIF and all that.
Today has been an interesting day in history. For example, on November 4, 1793 Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 was performed for the first time.
In 1870 James Young Simpson discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform. If you haven’t heard of this Scots obstetrician before, you should take a minute to read up on him: he was a colorful character.
It was also on this day in 1922 that Howard Carter, along with everybody else who was with him, discovered the entrance to the tomb of ill-fated boy-king Tutankhamun.
Today in 1960 Jane Goodall first observed and documented the use of tools by chimpanzees in Tanzania, smashing human hubris that we were unique in the animal kingdom for this skill.
Last but not least, it was today in 2008 when Barack Obama won the Presidency, becoming America’s first Muslim-Kenyan Commander In Chief (just kidding!) Which reminds me – if you are an eligible voter in the US, please do go and vote next week if you haven’t already; and preferably not for the orange enfant terrible.
It is also the birthday of James Honeyman-Scott one of the founders of The Pretenders. Here’s the group performing the singles co-written by him and Chrissie Hynde, Day After Day from 1981.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is about to celebrate Sarah’s birthday (Sarah is an old friend of Andrzej and Malgorzata), trying her paw at drawing. Happy birthday, Sarah!
Hili: It’s Sarah’s birthday today.A: And you want to draw something for her?Hili Not “something” but a cat!
Hili: Dziś urodziny Sary.
Ja: I co, chcesz jej coś narysować?
Hili: Nie “coś”, tylko kota!
Carol sent us a photo of Gus after a good chin-scratching session. Clearly this is the new Zen.
PCC[E] leaves Chicago & the Cubs win…?!
I’ll take symphony No. 41
If you are having that feeling of Anxiety, feeling Nausea and that need to Vomit! It will all be over in 3 more days and the country can go back to doing nothing or the same thing it has done for years. If you are from someplace else, pay no attention to this.
You’re optimistic if you think things will go back to “normal.” Whichever way this turns our, the future looks tumultuouser than usual.
Yes well, you won’t get much optimism from me. Going back to doing nothing or what was going on is not optimism. But you will be able to turn on your television set for 5 minutes without getting 3 political commercials, one more ridiculous than the other. Just think, in about a year or so it will begin all over. Just 4 more years to 2020. Maybe they will find another orange casino failure or worse. The Trump train is just about out of gravy. Hell, maybe the FBI director would care to run?
See the Guardian’s take on the election at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/04/we-need-to-get-back-to-basics-in-this-election-who-is-the-biggest-fascist-hillary-or-donald?
Spoiler: the answer to the question in the title is not “Hillary”.
1783 I think.
Yep.
Cats are Zen masters
I love king Rooten Tooten!!
Ah, he was a midget. Queen Hotsy Totsy towered over him.
Thanks for the tip about James Young Simpson. An interesting character indeed! His parties must have been loads of fun, though you might not remember much of them the day after.
~Rory.
But it was in 1847 he first discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform – 1870 was the year he died.
The Pretenders Day after Day has an odd lilting charm. Especially the line “Way up in the sky” where the “in” drops 3 notes. Clever.
Mozart’s symphony 36 has it’s charms as well. The first movement oscillates between delicate teasing and almost royal pageantry. I sense the personality of a school boy with the mind of a musical monarch.
If you’re not familiar with the story of King Tutankhamun, may I recommend this short documentary by Steve Martin.
(Hopefully I got the html tags right.)
The phrase “orange enfant terrible” made me wonder what more of that would look like in French, and then I realized that French for orange is Orange, but perhaps “enfant terrible aux cheveux orange” will do.
His visage is orange aussi. 🙂
Why are the Pretenders’ lips all pursed? Are they angry, hiding bad teeth, emphasizing high cheek bones…?
The photographer asked them to pretend to hum Yankee Doodle. They want you to take them seriously.