Good morning; it’s Tuesday, May 23, 2017, and when most of you are reading this I’ll be flying to DCA, otherwise known as R*agan Airport. It’s National Taffy Day, something I haven’t eaten in years, and also World Turtle Day, sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue. Anybody out there have turtles?
I wrote about the Manchester Arena bombing last night, but haven’t yet read about what’s happened since then. Matthew and family are okay, but the night before, Brian Cox presented a science show before 6,000 people in that very arena, and Matthew was there.
On this day in 1430, Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, leading to her trial for heresy and subsequent burning at the stake; she was only 19 when she died. On May 23, 1533, the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon was annulled, though, unlike some of Henry’s other wives, Catherine wasn’t executed. In 1701, the pirate Captain Kidd was executed, and in 1829 Cyrill Denian was granted a patent on the accordion in Vienna, a patent that many would think was unwise. On this day in 1873, the antecedent of the Mounties—the North-West Mounted Police—was created by the Canadian Parliament. Finally, on May 23, 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and riddled with bullets by The Law in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
Notables born on this day include Carl Linnaeus (1707), Pär Lagerkvist (1891), Artie Shaw (1910), and Nobel-winning geneticist Joshua Lederberg (1925). Shaw was second only to Benny Goodman in his ability make that licorice stick swing; here’s one of my favorites, “Frenesi” (1940), written for the marimba and adopted as a jazz standard. (“Frenesi” means “frenzy” in Spanish.)
Those who died on this day include Kit Carson (1868), Heinrich Himmler (suicide, 1945), Sam Snead (2002) and John Forbes Nash, Jr., a Nobel winner with “a beautiful mind” (2015). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has decided to supervise the garden as well as the Listy website.
Hili: All this is a bit untended lately.A: It’s easier to criticize than to start weeding.
Hili: Trochę to wszystko ostatnio zaniedbane.
Ja: Łatwiej krytykować niż zabrać się za wyrywanie chwastów.
Also on this day in 1785 Ben Franklin announced his discovery of bifocal lenses.
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/bf0036s.jpg
Surely that should be ‘invention’ rather than ‘discovery’ ?
cr
Yes I think so. Although you could make an argument that among the Platonic ideals reside glasses of all types just waiting to be discovered. 😎
“in 1829 Cyrill Denian was granted a patent on the accordion in Vienna, a patent that many would think was unwise.”
Given the musical(?) attributes of the accordion, and the role that patents play in restricting technical developments, many might think the patent was a small mitigating feature that did not go nearly far enough.
cr
I think Pete Fountain might be up there on the list with the Clarinet. Hili will surely confine herself to management only on those projects.
I suppose our individual reactions to the terror yesterday in Manchester depends on who we are but remarks that it is or was far too early to make comments and the first thought from some on the left was the political capital of the left or right is beyond understanding.
The names of the Dead are being released as and when the Families have been informed, we are getting Children as young as 8 years. I believe the Police know the name of the Bomber and a man of 23 has been arrested in connection with it I believe. I would hate it to be someone the Security Forces have on file, it would be unforgivable. As for the despicable bastard who blew himself up, I cannot get my head around how someone would think their so-called God would approve of them killing themselves and innocent children. Yes, and I believe Islam is responsible.
Yes, unless later evidence would somehow prove otherwise, Islamic terrorist must be the conclusion. Additionally, I believe it is reported that ISIS is already claiming credit.
It’s instructed in the Holy Book :
That’s Isaiah, from the Bible. Christian’s book.
Religion – any and all of them – are the enemy. If you just attack just one, then you’ll have the same fight with the next religion. It’s more efficient to take the whole lot of them out at once.
Social media is already awash with Islamic apologetics and accusations of racism if one dare point out that this is yet another case of Islamic terrorism. No surprises there. The far left does love left-splaning to Muslims what they ACTUALLY think and believe. What is surprising, at least to me, was that after reading the statement by our current Idiot-in-Chief, is that I actually, honestly found myself thinking “good grief, this fool makes ol’ W Bush sound down right intellectual”! “Evil Losers”? Really? I accept that Trump is a mental midget, but calling Islamic terrorists names on par with a 5-year old’s best insults…? While we’re at it, the terrorists are also poopy-kaka-doo-doo heads. They probably eat their boogers as well. I never thought I’d miss the “wise words” of George “Who put the DUH in Duhbya” Bush.
Could you post some links to these apologetics? I want to see them.
I’m not on tw*tter anymore, nor have I been on f*cebook in the last three years, but I did a google search for the bombing on my iPhone and scrolled through the twitter messages and quickly found claims about how according to Islam in war you are not supposed to kill old people or women or children, etc., therefor Islam isn’t to blame, posted by a man named Mohammad, of course. “Liberals”are blaming trump because he said he would defeat isis, and others are claiming it’s not Islam that’s the problem, its fundamentalism (ignoring what kind of fundamentalists are committing these acts, of course).
I find Trump to be at least as embarrassing as you seem to and I’ve often commented when others have said that he is smart or clever that no, there is no evidence that he is anything but an idiot. I think mental midget is a very accurate description of him.
BUT! I’ve got no problem at all with anyone calling ISIS and their supporters Losers, even the POTUS. I think it fits very well and is likely to piss such people off more than calling them monsters, just as Trump said.
I still call it “National” — but then I still call JFK “Idlewild” sometimes (even though I flew there just once before the name change, as little kid).
Precedents for reversion: Cape Kennedy re-became Cape Canaveral, and Boulder Dam re-became Hoover Dam.
As much as I like Benny Goodman, I prefer Shaw’s playing. My biggest complaint was that he stopped playing (at least publicly) because of the commercialization of jazz. He was basically stuck because people kept asking him to play Begin the Beguine.
Today we also learned that Roger Moore has died. Not the best Bond perhaps, but certainly the most likable.
As a child I thought that James Bond was serious stuff, something for adults. Great was my disappointment when I was allowed my first Bond movies and found out they were just childish stories….
The books were serious.
The movies started out reasonably serious, with a certain tongue-in-cheek slickness about them.
Then they deteriorated (in the early Roger Moore days) into slapstick farces with stock comedy characters. Then as Roger got more mature the movies improved. But it wasn’t till Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan that they regained their early form.
(All IMO of course).
cr
The Burgundians, whether or not despicable in their treatment of Joan of Arc (yes, I think so, they could have handled it much better -with hindsight, of course), still produce the best wines in the world. At least a positive.
Don’t forget Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1929. It couldn’t have been made without her.