Monday: Hili dialogue

January 22, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s one of those days: I’ve got nothing to say. But it’s okay. Good morning! It’s Monday, January 22, 2018, and is pouring down rain (with lightning) in Chicago. My car will get an organic wash. And it’s warm: the temperature is 53° F (12° C). It’s National Southern Food Day, while over in Poland, it’s Grandfather’s Day.

Today’s Google Doodle honors the 120th birthday of director Sergei Eisenstein (died 1948), and is meant to emphasize his penchant for montage. You can see the film moving, and below the Doodle are some of its images. If you’re a film buff, you’ll recognize at least one of them:

 

On this day in 1901, Edward VII became King of England upon the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. Coincidentally with Eisenstein’s birthday, it was on January 22 that the 1905 revolution began in Russia on Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg.  On this day in 1924, Ramsay MacDonald became the UK’s first Labour Prime Minister.  For soccer buffs, it was on this day in 1927 that Teddy Wakelam gave the first live radio commentary of a soccer match anywhere on the planet. The teams: Arsenal FC and Sheffield United, playing at Highbury. On January 22, 1970, the world’s first jumbo jet, the Boeing 747, began regular commercial service for Pan Am airways, flying from JFK in New York to Heathrow in London.  On this day in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the entire U.S. by handing down its decisions in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton.  Finally, it was on January 22, 1984 that the Apple Macintosh personal computer was introduced—in a commercial during the Super Bowl.  I’ve always had Macs and never used anything else.

Notables born on this day include Walter Raleigh (1552), Francis Bacon (1561), John Donne (1573), Captain William Kidd (1645), Sergei Eisenstein (1898; see above), Irving Kristol (1920), Sam Cooke (1931), photographer Peter Beard (1938), and Linda Blair (1959; the “Exorcist” child is now 59!).

Here’s one of Beard’s images from Africa:

Those who expired on this day include Queen Victoria (1901; see above), Lyndon B. Johnson (1973), Craig Claiborne (2000), and Joe Paterno (2012).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is talking evolution!

Cyrus: What did you jump up there for?
Hili: If your ancestors had chosen a different evolutionary path you would be able to do it, too.
In Polish:
Cyrus: I po co tam wskoczyłaś?
Hili: Gdyby twoi przodkowie wybrali inną ścieżkę ewolucyjną też byś tak potrafił.

Here are seven tweets found by Dr. Cobb. The first shows a pretty amazing orchid:

A humpback whale in Edinburgh’s waters!

Cat purloins sock:

The Art of Feline War:

And a series of a photographers’ encounter with a beautiful spotted skunk.

There are four species of skunks in the U.S., the Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis, most common), the Eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), the Hooded skunk (Mephitis macroura), and the Hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus leuconotus). The spotted skunk lives in the eastern part of the U.S. from the Canadian border to Florida. Although I owned a striped skunk as a pet, I’ve never even seen the spotted skunk, which is a gorgeous and aposematic animal—and even does handstands! In this encounter, the photographer escaped being sprayed:

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Here’s the handstand, from a BBC wildlife show (yes, I’ve posted this before):

18 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  2. I flew in and out of London in 1970 but sorry to say it was not Pan Am or a 747. In western Kansas at the moment they are having a blizzard with 9 inches reported in Goodland, Kansas. Thought I would mention it since you surely will not hear about it anywhere else.

  4. This is probably my last post here before being banned for being critical of Hili, but isn’t she being somewhat lax with her terminology? She seems to be implying that some wolf ancestor [i]chose[/i] the path that led to wolves and dogs rather than cats.

      1. Yes. I saw Potemkin about 5 years ago and had completely forgotten that Eisenstein originated the idea.

        1. The vid I posted at #3 above has a collection of the homages famous directors have paid over the years to the “Odessa Steps” sequence of Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, including De Palma’s.

  7. There is also the Western spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis). These were quite common in San Diego CA where I once lived for a time. Got chased out of a parking lot at night by one. Skunk: the size of a small kitten. Me: ~6’3″. I ran.

  9. I love the aposematic skunk — and the fact that I’m always learning new words from this site!

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