Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

August 14, 2017 • 6:30 am

Here we are at Monday again: August 14, 2017, and it’s one week till the big solar eclipse. It won’t be total in Chicago (though it will  be downstate), but it’ll be pretty good, and I hope it’s not cloudy that day. If you live in the U.S. and want to see how the eclipse will look from where you live, go here.  Here’s what the near-totality will look like in Chicago (it also gives time lapse views, so you can know when to start looking):

August 14 is National Creamsicle Day, a favorite treat of my youth (it’s a bar of vanilla ice on a stick, but covered by what seems to be orange sherbet). I don’t know if they even make them any more, but given that they’re still the subject of a holiday, I expect they do. It’s also Independence Day in Pakistan, celebrating the Partition that occurred on midnight of that day (the midnight spanning the 14th and 15th).

On this day in 1935,  Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, a blatant act of socialism (which some seem to forget), creating a government pension for all people who had worked. On August 14, 1945, Japan accepted the allied terms of surrender (it was August 15 in Japan), and the formal surrender took place September 2 on the U.S. battleship Missouri. Here’s a photo of the formal surrender:

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on board USS Missouri as General Richard K. Sutherland watches, September 2, 1945

Exactly two years later, Pakistan became independent from the British Empire. On August 14, 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show opened in London, starting the longest run of any motion picture in history. In 1980, Lech Wałęsa led the famous strike at the shipyards in Gdańsk, Poland—a place I’ll visit on my trip in September (the city, not the shipyards).

Notables born on this day include John Galsworthy (1867), Lina Wertmüller (1928), David Crosby (1941), Steve Martin (1945), Gary Larson (1950), Emannuelle Béart (1963), Halle Berry (1966), and Tim Tebow (1987). Those who died on this day include William Randolph Hearst (1951) and Bertolt Brecht (1956). All biologists (and many others) love Larson’s cartoons, and it’s very sad that he hung up his pen. Here’s one of my favorites; feel free to insert yours below (you can see many cat cartoons here):

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili senses the onset of winter, a season she hates:

Hili: I can imagine that.
A: What can you imagine?
Hili: Winter and snow.
A: But you prefer summer.
Hili: Yes, imagination spoils all pleasure.
In Polish:
Hili; Mogę to sobie wyobrazić.
Ja: Co takiego?
Hili: Zimę i śnieg.
Ja: Ale ty wolisz lato.
Hili: Tak, wyobraźnia psuje całą przyjemność.
In southern Poland, Leon and his staff returned to the same place in the mountains that they hiked last winter. But now there is no snow, and Leon kvetches:
Leon: How many changes there have been here!

Yesterday it was hot in Winnipeg, and Gus was snoozing outdoors in the heat:

Finally, Matthew Cobb sent a tw**t showing a video of a rare but beautiful leucistic (not albino) moose in Sweden. I hope the hunters leave it alone!

22 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)”

  1. Outstanding cat photos today. VJ day, but isn’t it ironic that the surrender was done on a battleship, made obsolete by the Pearl Harbor attack 4 years earlier.

          1. I sure was — sorry for the time lost and money spent to see that turkey. One of my best friends, who in his early 60s should be old enough to have better taste, wanted to see it and I went along.

  3. In the Seventies, when I first started seeing foreign movies with some regularity, Lina Wertmüller was one of the most popular directors at the local art house — Seven Beauties, Swept Away, and The Seduction of Mimi, are her films I remember best. I don’t recall seeing any new releases from her in the last 20 years, and wasn’t even sure she was still alive until checking after seeing her name in the birthday list. She did some great stuff in her day.

  5. Manual for cleaning of your toilet:

    1. Open the lid of the toilet and fill a cup 1/8 with pet shampoo.

    2. Take your cat and hold her in your arms caressing her, while slowly moving in the direction of the bathroom.

    3. Choose a suitable moment for throwing your cat into the toilet bowl and quickly close the lid. Potentially you might have to stand on the lid.

    4. The cat now will start the cleaning process automatically and produce enough foam herself. Do not get irritated by any loud sounds coming out of the toilet – your cat is actually enjoying herself!

    5. Now flush the toilet a few times to start the „power wash cycle“, and to start the following rinse.

    6. In case you are standing on the toilet lid, please ask another family member to open the front door of the house. Ensure that nobody is situated between the toilet and the front door.

    7. Now open the toilet lid keeping a safe distance. Due to the high speed of your cat, her fur will be blow-dried automatically in the generated draught.

    8. Both, toilet and cat are now clean again.

    Kind regards,

    Your dog.

  6. At my old zip code the Eclipse will be total. New one, just south of the total eclipse.

  7. The moose is incredible. It almost doesn’t look real. At first glance, it looks like white chocolate. So beautiful.

  8. The eclipse will not, of course, be total where I am. It never is. Still I wanted to photograph it, but I don’t have a proper solar filter, and so I won’t. In any event, I noticed that the moon had a particularly interesting terminator this morning, so I recorded a short clip.

    GH3, G Vario 100-300 lens.

      1. Oh, wait. You thought Vauxhall. Oh dear me no. Since 2001 it’s been Tranquility Base.

  10. White moose. Hmm. Watch out for Don Jr. The wanker probably has daddy’s approval to sit on a Black Hawk and mow you down.

  11. I also loved creamsicles as a kid. The good news is that they are still available, but the only stores that seem to carry them are Wal Marts.

    I hope to see the total eclipse. Driving north to Fort Collins, CO which was as close as I could get with an affordable hotel room. Plan to get up early and drive to somewhere along the line of totality. If we don’t make it, that will be fine as this trip will let us visit with some old friends we have not seen in years.

  12. I hope the hunters leave it alone!

    The good news is it seems like hunters (and wolves) cannot keep up with the non-albino population at least. I read this morning that there is a scattered 100ish in a wide area.

    On the other hand that video became a web phenomena, and now tourists are running all over the locale of the filmed one.

    1. The non-albino white population, that is.

      By the way, I have to assume it is a typical recessive allele.

  13. i look forward to the effects of the eclipse – it’ll be decent here in southern CT, all the birds will settle in for the night with their night calls and then do their morning calls a few minutes later.

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