Monday: Hili dialogue

December 19, 2016 • 10:44 am

It’s December 19, 2016, with six shopping days left before Christmas and the beginning of Koynezaa. It’s National Hard Candy Day and National Oatmeal Muffin Day, presumably with the latter a palliative for the former.  Otherwise, there are no notable holidays on the planet, save Goa Liberation Day in India.

On this day in 1777, George Washington and his Continental Army established winter quarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. What a tough time the winter must have been for his Army!  In 1972, the Apollo 17 mission, the last manned lunar flight, returned to Earth. And on December 19, 1998, Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representative, the second President so indicted. Can you name the other one?

Notables born on this day include Nobel Laureate Albert Michelson (1892), Jean Genet (1910), Edith Piaf (1915, ♥), Phil Ochs (1940), and Jennifer Beals (1963). Those who died on this day include Emily Brontë (1848), Marcello Mastroianni, (1996), and Hope Lange (1993). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili pretends she’s immune to adulation and flattery, but you know she’s not!:

A: A reader wrote a letter saying that you are the best editor-in-chief in Poland.
Hili: I do not pay attention to flattery.
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In Polish:
Ja: Przyszedł list od czytelnika, który pisze, że jesteś najlepszą naczelną w Polsce.
Hili: Nie zwracam uwagi na pochlebstwa.

And here’s a photo of Harry, one of Matthew Cobb’s three cats (the other two are Ollie and Pepper), celebrating the holidays:

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Here’s Ollie, nestling in tinsel:

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And. . . Gus, who only visits the tree when fresh water is put in the stand (he drinks it, of course):

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15 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Andrew Johnson, I think. (Impeachment)

    I recently read an excellent book on the US Revolutionary War (or, as I saw it referred to at the Royal Naval Museum at Greenwich: “The Colonial Rebellion of 1776-1781”.) Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, by Nathanial Philbrick

    Highly recommended.

    1. I read that book not long ago. Very good and goes into good detail about how Arnold became the traitor he was. A great general on the battle field, maybe the best Washington had and he was treated poorly. Maybe one of Washington’s errors in judgement and action.

  3. I think we have to say attempted Impeachment?
    Johnson came much closer than Clinton. Maybe this next one?? He is off to a blazing start before the start.

    1. No. “Impeachment” refers to the House voting Articles of Impeachment to be tried by the Senate. The word doesn’t apply to being convicted.

    2. Johnson was impeached. An impeachment is akin to an indictment. Once impeached, there is a trial. You are removed from office if you are convicted (not sure if that is the right word). Both Clinton and Johnson were impeached by the House and acquitted in the Senate.

    3. He was impeached towards the end of his term, in March 1868, the Sensate voted narrowly for aquittal, although I’ve read that some additional senators would have voted for aquittal if it had looked like Johnson might be convicted.

  4. Hili appears to have bulked up for winter. Not sure how much is fur and how much is non-fur.

    Richard Nixon was never impeached – resigned before that could happen. Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson was impeached. Missed being convicted by only one vote.

    1. Yes and just to carry this history a bit further…Lincoln’s Sec. of State, who stayed on during the Johnson term, Seward, most likely kept Johnson from “conviction”. Maybe Seward’s other folly?

      1. A fine history of that specific secretary of state is of Ms Stahr’s: Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man and https://smile.amazon.com/Seward-Lincolns-Indispensable-Walter-Stahr/dp/1439121168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482171091&sr=8-1&keywords=seward+walter.

        ‘Twas hard for me as I am The World’s Slowest Reader Who Loves to Read; but others likely will not find it difficult to get through.

        Fascinating he / that era’s history was, Mr Schenck. Actually.

        Blue

        1. Please, no Mr. in me. You are correct, it was a bit lengthy. The kind of book that separates the curious from the history nuts.

  5. Flattery dudn’t work with a lot of us,
    Ms Hili, does it ? ! Purrfect = your facial countenance thereto !

    Noms, on the other hand, O yeah !
    With me, too !

    And you as of thus from @CatTipps, not ?!

    “Long ago exactly one cat died
    from being fed four minutes
    past feeding time; and
    cats have told their children of this
    for 3,000 generations.”

    Blue

  6. After reading you last sentence, I immediately re-read “well” in Ronald Reagan’s voice without consciously choosing to do so.

  7. Goa Liberation Day in India

    Who was Goa liberated from? I guess the Portuguese – they had a colony there from – was it Vasco da Gama?
    From Wikipedia :

    Goa is a former Portuguese province; the Portuguese overseas territory of Portuguese India existed for about 450 years until it was annexed by India in 1961. […] In 1510, the Portuguese defeated the ruling Bijapur sultan Yousuf Adil Shah with the help of a local ally, Timayya. They set up a permanent settlement in Velha Goa. […] After India gained independence from the British in 1947, India requested that Portuguese territories on the Indian subcontinent be ceded to India. Portugal refused to negotiate on the sovereignty of its Indian enclaves. On 19 December 1961, the Indian Army began military operations with Operation Vijay resulting in the annexation of Goa, Daman, and Diu into the Indian union.

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