Good morning on Saturday, March 4, 2017. It will be chilly in Chicago this week (right now it’s a few degrees below freezing), but the weather will begin warming up in a few days, so I’m going out on a limb to predict that the worst of winter is over. It’s National Poundcake Day, a dessert best eaten with fruit or some wet topping to cut the dryness. It’s also St. Casimir’s Day in Poland and Lithuania, celebrating arts and crafts more than religion.
On this day in 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Lisbon on his ship Niña after discovering “America,” which was actually Cuba and some islands in the Caribbean (he never set foot in what is now mainland America). And on the same day in 1519, the clever but barbaric Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico looking for wealth; he and a few men were about to topple the entire Aztec empire. On March 4, 1797, John Adams was inaugurated as the second President of the US (I can name the first 25 in order), and, in 1837, the city of CHICAGO was incorporated. On this day in 1917, Jeannete Rankin became the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives; she lived until 1973. Finally, in 1980 Robert Mugabe became Zimbabwe’s first black prime minister, and after 37 years the old autocrat is still in power!
Notables born on this day include Antonio Vivaldi (1678), Casimir Pulaski (1745), George Gamow (1904), Miriam Makeba (1932), Rick Perry (1950), and Patsy Kensit (1968). Those who died on this day include Saint Casimir (1484), Nikolai Gogol (1852), mountaineer Willi Unsoeld (1979, member of first American expedition to climb Mt. Everest [1963]; he later died in an avalanche), Richard Manuel of The Band (1986; they’re almost all dead now), John Candy (1994), and Minnie Pearl (1996; St. Peter greeted her with “How-DEE!”). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, today’s Hili dialogue is enigmatic. I told Malgorzata I didn’t understand it, and she replied with this:
Who does? My interpretation: Hili, full of pretenses as she is, found something, most probably a bird, and ate it. But she tried a philosophical approach to Andrzej, one that wouldn’t work if she just said that she ate a bird. But I really don’t know. Andrzej and Monika [a houseguest] went shopping and I can’t ask him.
Make of it what you will:
Hili: Today I met the Conscience of the World.A: And?Hili: I ate it.(Photo: Sarah Lawson)
Hili: Spotkałam dziś Sumienie Świata.
Ja: I co?
Hili: Zjadłam.
(Foto: Sarah Lawson)
Leon: Last night I had to finish a fascinating book.
Finally, the new Bloom County deals with recent political tumult. I don’t know Berk Breathed’s politics, but I have to admit that this is hilarious:
And today’s reading: Heather Hastie’s post “SPLC lies about Maajid Nawaz. Again.” The SPLC is the once-useful Southern Poverty Law Center, which now is going full Regressive Left by listing both Nawaz and Ayaan Hirsi Ali in their “Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.” Watch the SPLC officials dissimulate when asked why these two people were included in the Guide.
“.. discovering “America,” which was actually Cuba and some islands in the Caribbean (he never set foot in what is now mainland America).”
[writes paragraph about Columbus, Vespucci, etc]
[spends 30 minutes reading about Columbus, Vespucci, Columbus Day, land masses,…]
[deletes paragraph]
That Hili is funny. 🙂
Name the first 25 presidents in a row. Now rank them in order of accomplishment. Just kidding but I think one of the things that put a lot of kids off history was having to know the dates or the speeches, the order of things. Have no idea if they still teach it that way but maybe not.
“Robert Mugabe … and after 37 years the old autocrat is still in power!”
Trevor Noah reports someone has a multi-million dollar award for any African leader who steps down when he’s supposed to. This year none of the 50 nations won the award.
The payment is very rarely made.
Sounds a very feline approach to Deep Philosophical Conundra. If it look like a problem, eat it and see if it remains a problem.
Maybe Hili ate Jimminy Cricket?
I have to admit to a grudging respect for Cortés. The conquest of Mexico (I recommend Prescott’s work of that name) is really an amazing story. The tragedy of the whole thing is that Cortés couldn’t have done it without the aid of various Aztec subject states. (After all, he only had 500 men.) That and opening the door to the Church.
4 March is also the birthday of Peter Haycock, lead guitar player and vocalist of the Climax Blues Band. He died on 30 October 2013.
I think it’s about time old Chris was dethroned as the “discoverer of America” .As you say he never set foot on the place, landing instead on Hispanola and decimating the population with disease, as well as the usual conversion to Christianity by fire and sword. Leif Ericsson has a better claim and it’s doubtful he caused the damage that CC did.