Wednesday: Hili dialogue

April 26, 2017 • 6:30 am

Top of the morning to you on April 26, 2017. (Or, as a friend used to say, “Grease the new day!”)  It’s National Pretzel Day, and make mine one of those soft German pretzels sprinkled with coarse salt and daubed with mustard. That and a liter of Löwenbrau. It’s also Hug a Friend Day, but be sure to ask permission first, or you’ll be in big trouble.

On this day in 1564, William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon. Although the date of his birth is unknown, the baptism is recorded:

On April 26. 1933, the Gestapo was established in Germany, and in 1964 the nation of Tanzania was formed when Tanganyika merged with Zanzibar, Finally, on this day in 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in the Soviet Union.

Notables born on this day include John James Audubon (1785), Eugène Delacroix (1798), Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889), I. M. Pei (1917), Carol Burnett (1933), Duane Eddy (1938), and Joan Chen (1961). Those who died on this day include Arnold Sommerfeld (1951), Gypsy Rose Lee (1970), Count Basie (1984), Lucille Ball (1989), and Jayne Meadows (1915). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili quotes some modified scripture while on a walk with Andrzej and Malgorzata:

Hili: And a little cat shall lead them.
Cyrus: But we know the way.
Hili: Lesser mortals need shepherds.
In Polish:
Hili: I kot będzie ich prowadzić.
Cyrus: Przecież my znamy tę drogę.
Hili: Maluczcy potrzebują pasterzy.
Lagniappe: Today’s animated Google Doodle marks the impending demise of the Cassini spacecraft as it begins its dives to Saturn, beaming its last bunch of images (here a selfie) before it’s destroyed in the planet’s atmosphere on September 15 of this year. A bit sad, really.

17 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

  3. *Correction* – Audubon’s birth date is 1785, not 1975 as stated. Wonderful, idiosyncratic bird paintings.

      1. Made another with the year of Jayne Meadows’s death, boss — unless Steve Allen was into some really weird stuff. 🙂

  4. Also birthday of Marcus Aurelius according to the British Museum twi*ter feed, though how the calendars correspond, who knows?!

  5. Curious that National Pretzel Day should be one day after the latest possible day for Easter–pretzels are associated with Lent.

  7. Would rather have Hili for a leader than the one we have. Today it is unknown if he is going to war with N.K. or Canada?

    1. Haha – Trump’s ‘Axis of Evil’ =

      Assad, Kim Jong-un and Justin Trudeau.

  8. L. Wittgenstein can always be relied upon for a merry quip:

    I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.

  9. It’s also Denim Day. It began in Italy(1990s):

    “An 18-year old girl is picked up by her married 45-year old driving instructor for her very first lesson. He takes her to an isolated road, pulls her out of the car, wrestles her…”

    “the case against the driving instructor is overturned, dismissed,…”

    “the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work.”

  10. The Cassini mission is scheduled to end at around 10:45 UTC on September 15, in case you want to mark your calendar. It’s been an amazingly successful mission in the almost 13 years since it entered orbit around Saturn. And let’s not forget the European Space Agency’s Huygens spacecraft which hitched a ride with Cassini and landed on Titan, the largest moon, revealing lakes of methane and boulders of water ice on the surface.

  11. Many years ago, Mad Magazine used a nonsense word: Potrzebie, or something like that. I wonder if it came from the Polish.

  12. Sad?! It’s a bloody triumph for science and international cooperation! Cassini’s mission was supposed to end years ago.

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