Good morning ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, and all the ships at sea. It’s Thursday, September 7, 2017, and, depressingly another cold and drizzly day in Dobrzyn. If the sun shines in Poland in September, you couldn’t prove it by me. But Hurricane Irma is causing much worse, with reports of devastation in the Caribbean, including the nearly complete destruction of Barbuda. It may go on to cause big damage in Florida.
The cherry supply here has run low and so, to conserve the fruit for pies during my final week (starting this Saturday), Malgorzata is making a plum pie today. The good news is that it’s National Beer Lover’s Day, which I’ll celebrate with a cold Zubr (or another brand, as we’re going to market today). The Foodimentary announcement of that holiday says this:
Germany serves beer ice cream in popsicle form. Its alcoholic content is less than that found in “classic” beer.
It’s hard to verify the existence of beer ice cream; this page says it exists and a photo is below.
And yes, there are beer popsicles:
It’s also National Salami Day and National Acorn Squash Day (who thought up that latter holiday?). In Australia it’s National Threatened Species Day, but too late for the thylacine.
On this day in 1822, Prince Dom Pedro declared Brazil independent from Portugal, and it’s celebrated as Independence Day in Brazil. On this day in 1857, xenophobic Mormons, fearful for their theocracy, teamed up with Paiute Indians to slaughter over 120 members of a wagon train (including women and children) crossing through Utah on their way California. If you don’t know about the five-day Mountain Meadows Massacre, read at the link. On this day in 1911, the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested and jailed on suspicion of having stolen the Mona Lisa from the Louvre; Pablo Picasso was also questioned in the theft. Neither was guilty: after two years the painting was recovered and is now back in Paris.
On this day in 1940 the Blitz began, with Luftwaffe bombers attacking London for 56 out of the next 57 nights. And on this day in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the USSR’s General Secretary of the Communist Party, celebrating by buying new shoes.
Notables born on this day include Elizabeth I of England (1533), Grandma Moses (1860; died 1961), Elinor Wylie (1885), Elia Kazan (1909), Sonny Rollins (1930), Buddy Holly (1936), Susan Blakely (1948) and Chrissie Hynde (1951). Those who died on this day include John Shakespeare, William’s dad (1601), Sidney Lanier (1881), Karen Blixen (Isak Dinisen; 1962), Keith Moon (1978) and Warren Zevon (2003).
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and I are collaborating:
Jerry: Where are you going?Hili: I’m going to check the endnotes.
Jerry: Gdzie idziesz?
Hili: Idę sprawdzić przypisy.
Out in Winnipeg, Gus is enjoying the weather before the killing Arctic blizzards set in. Staff Taskin reports:
Here are a few Gus pics for you. The first is Gus digging up the grass. This has been a favourite activity of late and you can see how seriously he takes it. The second picture, he has dirt all over his head. I don’t know what he was doing that resulted in this. The third is a very satisfied looking Gus.
A tweet provided by reader Rose (I’m told that Gus acts this way):
https://twitter.com/videocats/status/903555584276000770
Heather Hastie has a daily compendium of many “Top Tweets“, so I’m stealing two from her:
#IJustCantStop loving you pic.twitter.com/IoDeeXD2Mp
— ♥ Lisa ♥ (@Lisaley) September 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/904203557175517184
Speaking of beer ice cream, reminds me that the marine biologist character, “Doc,” in Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, during one his trips up and down the California coast to collect specimens, gives in to a longstanding curiosity and has the bartender at a diner fix him a beer milkshake. Said it wasn’t half-bad, either.
Good to see you chilling in Dobrzyn once more. 🙂
You’re just a “comrades and friends” away from the “full Hitchens” salutation.
It may be too late for the thylacine, but apparently not for the gastric brooding frog http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/15/resurrecting-the-extinct-frog-with-a-stomach-for-a-womb/.
I’d wish it so, but I am sceptical. In amphibians, the embryo can develop to midblastula stage without a working genome, and I think this is what they have obtained.
Please give Hili lots of hugs and kisses from your readers who are cat lovers. We really enjoy seeing her every day–and also the occasional photos of her staff, Leon, and his staff.
“Good morning ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, and all the ships at sea.”
Channelling Walter Winchell AND Smilin’ Ed McConnell or Uncle Don simultaneously???
And that gif shows why I don’t change my sheets more often.
At an exalted [Somebody or other] Memorial Lecture at Rutgers long ago, of the sort where the speaker would typically begin by addressing any university dignitaries perhaps by name and then on down, David Baltimore began, simply, “Fellow Students”. There was a silence. And then he continued, saying, “And I say that because we are all students…”
So John Shakepeare (William’s dad) died on this day in 1601.
Whatever happened to the word ‘father’? It used to be that ‘Dad’ was how you addressed your own father.
Now people people talk about Hitler’s dad, Jeffrey Dahmer’s dad etc as if we (or they) are on intimate terms with these people!
(Yes yes I know language is always changing…..
Oops! I should have read this before emailing you that video 😂
Local New Zealand Brewery Speights has an ‘Old Dark Gourmet Ice Cream’.
Never heard the part about Nikki buying a new pair of shoes. Perhaps before the decision he figured he’d either become Premiere or a corpse, and if the latter, why waste money on shoes. Besides, with old shoes and B, the better the chance of being buried with them on.