Friday: Hili dialogue

March 9, 2018 • 6:30 am

Is it Friday already? (Remember to turn your clock ahead this weekend if you’re in the U.S.: the time advances an hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday.) Yes, it’s Friday, March 9, 2018, National Crab Day. But this man, who gently removes dust from a tangled-up wolf spider, is no crab: he’s a great person. Many would have just squashed the spider or put it outside with its legs all tangled up. The spider even seems to cooperate. One of the great animal videos of the year so far. (h/t: Julian)

On March 9, 1566, David Rizzio, the secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was murdered in her presence in Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. On this day in 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte married his great love and first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. On March 9, 1946, the Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster took place in Bolton, with 33 people killed and hundreds injured in a human crush as people tried to enter the stadium. Matthew didn’t know about this, though Bolton is near Manchester. Do any readers know about it?  On this day in 1954, CBS broadcast the famous See It Now featuring a report by Edward R. Murrow on Joseph McCarthy. It was this report that began McCarthy’s downfall. Here’s the whole 25-minute report:

On this day in 1959, the Barbie Doll was introduced—at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Finally, on March 9, 2011, the Space Shuttle Discovery made its last landing after 39 flights.

Notables born on this day include Vita Sackville-West (1892), Samuel Barber (1910), George Lincoln Rockwell (1918), Mickey Spillane (also 1918), Yuri Gagarin (1934), Bobby Fischer (1943), Bobby Sands (1954), and Juliette Binoche (1964). Those who died on this day include David Rizzio (1566; stabbed, see above), paleontologist Marry Anning (1847), Menachem Begin (1992), George Burns (1996), and Notorious B.I.G. (1997; shot to death).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili wants her basket back:

Hili: You are eating the nuts very slowly.
A: Does it bother you?
Hili: Yes, I need this basket.
In Polish:
Hili: Bardzo powoli zjadacie te orzechy.
Ja: Przeszkadza ci to?
Hili: Tak, potrzebuję ten koszyk.

In Winnipeg, Gus’s staff ran out of his crunchies and favorite dried shrimp at the same time. Here he is inspecting the shopping to ensure his noms were there. As staff Taskin says, “I think he approves!”

 

Matthew sent some videos, including this father of a victim of the shooting in Florida attacking the NRA. I’m with him!

Have a look at the teeth in this prepared horse skull:

Here we have a Maru wannabee:

I hope you’re not eating breakfast when you look at this one:

Catfish melee!

Kakapos are among my favorite birds; they’re the world’s only flightless parrots. Have a look at their emerald-green chicks:

 

Cat nightmare!

From Grania: a bee collision:

https://twitter.com/Learn_Things/status/971756784871464960

And a mutual cat exorcism:

https://twitter.com/videocats/status/971335191041118208

26 thoughts on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Burndon Park Disaster, 1946:

    “The match, an FA Cup Sixth Round second-leg tie between Bolton and Stoke City, was allowed to continue, with the game ending goalless. The disaster brought about the Moelwyn Hughes report, which recommended more rigorous control of crowd sizes. […] The dead and injured were taken from the railway end terrace, with those who had died lain along the touchline and covered in coats. A little under half an hour after leaving the pitch, the game was restarted, with a new sawdust lined touchline separating the players from the corpses. At the end of the first-half, the players immediately changed ends and started the second half. Stanley Matthews was on the Stoke team, and later said he was sickened that the game was allowed to continue.”

    Why didn’t the players, including Matthews, refuse to carry on? Fear of a riot?

  2. Yes, old tail gunner Joe was a low point in politics of the 50s but he was nothing compared to what we have now. Just yesterday we see a foreign diplomat standing in the driveway at the white house announcing meetings between the dictator and the president. I wonder if the dictator wants to hold these meetings in Florida?

  4. Can someone transcribe what the guy said about the Fantasy Firearm Federation?

  5. One of my greatest sadnesses as a biologist of sorts is that my daughter smashes all spiders. She even freaks out at pix of spiders.

    But as far as the horse teeth, I wonder what the switch is that determines whether teeth keep growing or not? I remember reading somewhere that there are silica inclusions in the stems of plants that wear teeth down in herbivores.

    1. The spider video reminds me of an Instagram post by BadScienceJokes:

      “My wife told me to take a spider out instead of killing it. We went and had drinks. Cool guy, wants to be a web designer.”

  7. It’s amazing to watch the quality and dignity of the reporting on McCarthy. It’s also sad to realize that this kind of reporting is no longer done buy journalists but has been relegated to comedians.

  8. … the famous See It Now featuring a report by Edward R. Murrow on Joseph McCarthy. It was this report that began McCarthy’s downfall.

    I think it’s fair to say that the Murrow report (and the Army-McCarthy hearings beginning the next month) put McCarthy on the final leg of his demise. But where he crossed the line for most Americans — where he touched a third-rail for many — was in his baseless attacks on the American hero George Marshall a couple years earlier. Eisenhower wussed out at the time from defending Marshall (his military mentor) during the ’52 presidential campaign. But that asinine move by McCarthy ensured that Ike, and, behind Ike, mainstream Republicans, wouldn’t toss McCarthy a lifeline when he started drowning in the bullshit lagoon he’d dug for himself.

    1. I always thought Eisenhower handled the McCarthy issue about the same way he acted on civil rights. Missing in action. But then Eisenhower once worked for dugout Douglas Macarthur so he was always the politician.

      1. Yeah, as to both McCarthy and enforcing school desegregation, Ike did the right thing — after exhausting all his other options.

  11. Watching the baby kakapos is the best antidepressant — and with no untoward side effects.

  13. Fascinated by Wolf Spider video. It appeared to begin to understand the assistance and cooperate. I try not to hurt spiders by throwing them outside BUT they are not allowed in the my bedroom. I got roolz.

    1. I’ve been told that the large house spider that inhabits my flat is at the top of a food chain that begins with our shed skin. Can this be true? I’d like to think so.

  14. On the murder of Rizzio, Mary, Queen of Scots’ secretary. The murderer was Lord Bothwell, who was Mary’s lover. As Mary and Rizzio frequently dined alone, Bothwell got jealous and imagined there was something going on between them. So he burst in one night, hoping to catch them at it. There was nothing happening (it’s likely Rizzio was gay), but Bothwell stabbed him to death anway.

    Bothwell should have been charged with treason for wielding a weapon in the presence of the Queen. He was not charged with anything. Not only did he get away with it, but Mary married him shortly afterwards.

  15. In that last tweet, one of the cats is saying, “my mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts.”

    And now, feline Sarek is ready to conduct treaty negotiations with the Legarans.

    1. Mr Gus Frosty Furball Kitty
      Catbridge double first in Nomming & Advanced Quantum Kipping

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