Good morning on January 26, 2017, and it’s National Peanut Brittle Day. I haven’t had it in years, but when it’s made right, with real butter and fresh peanuts, it’s a toothsome morsel. It’s also Australia Day, the National Holiday of that land.
On January 26, 1861, Louisiana seceded from the Union, part of the run-up to the Civil War. In 1911, Glenn Curtiss successfully flew the first seaplane, and, in 1926, television was first demonstrated successfully. And on this day in 1998,U.S. President Bill Clinton, appearing on television having had “sexual relations” with “that woman”, the woman being former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Notables born on this day include Douglas MacArthur (1880), Bessie Colmean (1892, see below), Maria von Trapp (1905), Paul Newman (1925, in my view one of the handsomest actors ever), Angela Davis (1944), and Ellen DeGeneres (1958). Those who died on this day include Henry Briggs (1630, deviser of base 10 logarithms), Edward Jenner (1823), Abner Doubleday (1893), Nelson Rockefeller (1979), and Hugh Trevor-Roper (2003). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Malgorzata and Andrzej are recovering very slowly from their viruses, with Malgorzata reporting, “Still alive if just barely,” and they’re intrepid enough to have produced another Hili dialogue. In this one the indolent Editor is, as usual, pretending to work:
Hili: Checking is the most difficult part in science and journalism.A: That’s right but why do you say that?Hili: Because I’m checking all the time.
Hili: W nauce i w dziennikarstwie najtrudniejsze jest sprawdzanie.
Ja: To prawda, ale dlaczego to mówisz?
Hili: Bo ja cały czas sprawdzam.
“Henry Briggs (1630, deviser of base 10 logarithms)”
Great to learn of this interesting mathematician
You logged your interest!
Logged for the common interest.
Today’s Radio 4 In Our Time was about parasites – featured Jerry’s mate Steve Jones of UCL
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08bb9cy
Available later as a free podcast…
I’m still trying to figure out how we got from a world in which one President was impeached by Republicans for mutually-consensual hanky-panky to one in which another was elected despite bragging about sexual assault of strangers and being a peeping tom of teenagers.
What’s the message here? Sexual indiscretion is good when the woman (or girl!) doesn’t agree and bad when she does? Or, perhaps, Republican men can do anything they want to females but Democratic men must be monks?
Cheers,
b&
The message here is ‘the ends justifies the means.’ Or perhaps ‘tribal loyalty trumps all.’
I’ve heard them call themselves “one-issue voters” and that issue is who gets to nominate to SCOTUS.
Coleman died because of a lack of federal regulations (I mention that as Trump rolls up his sleeves to get rid of 50% or 70% or, I don’t know, you tell me, how many regulations we can dump). Her mechanic picked up a used airplane that could hardly run. They both died because the plane croaked in mid air. A wrench was found in the engine gears.
Today, mechanics have to be certified, and planes inspected based on FAA rules. Moving a non-airworthy aircraft requires a special permit. Fortunately the fatality rate of airplane crew and passengers has decreased significantly over the years, based on regulations.
Like the comic. I could definitely see a real non-fiction book selling with the title
“THE BLOBFATHERS
The history of single-celled life in Earth’s first billion years.”
Australia Day events run the gamut from quiet reflections of regret at this country’s treatment of its indigenous population through to disgusting orgies of flag-waving self-congratulation. In between there are a lot of picnics involving burnt sausages.
Patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel, I find myself indulging in deliberate non-participation.