Tuesday: Hili dilalogue

June 5, 2018 • 6:30 am

We’re now at Tuesday, June 5, 2018, and I’m feeling like a visit to 47th Street this afternoon to pick up rib tips. I’ve been a good boy eating healthy food since returning from France, so it’s time for a mini-debauch. It’s National Ketchup Day (Heinz is the only decent variety, of course), but ketchup isn’t a food, although Ronald Reagan’s administration considered it a “vegetable” on school lunch menus. It’s also World Day against Speciesism, a day that I heartily approve. Don’t squash insects today! They value their lives, too!

On June 5, 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an anti-slavery tome, began appearing as a serial in the abolitionist newspaper The National Era. It became the best selling novel of the 19th century, and the best selling book after the Bible. On this day in 1893, the sensational trial of Lizzie Borden began in Massachusetts; she was accused of killing her parents with an axe. She was acquitted. On June 5, 1916, the Arab Revolt began against the Ottoman Empire, and of course we know about it through this movie:

On June 5, 1956, Elvis Presley sang “Hound Dog” in public for the first time, on the Milton Berle Show. As Wikipedia notes, he “scandalized the audience with his suggestive hip movements.” See for yourself:

On June 5, 1968, after winning the California Presidential primary, Robert F. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel by the Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy died the next day. Could he have become President? (The alternative was Hubert Humphrey.) We’ll never know.  Sirhan is still in prison at age 74, and his next parole hearing is in 2021.  On this day in 1981, the CDC’s “Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report” noted that five people in Los Angeles were afflicted with a form of pneumonia seen only in immunocompromised people. These were the first recognized cases of AIDS.

Exactly eight years later, “Tank Man” stopped the progress of five Chinese tanks (for half an hour) in Tianamen Square. Remember this? The man remains unknown after nearly thirty years:

Finally, on this day in 2003,  a brutal heat wave in Pakistan and India peaked, reaching temperatures over 50 °C (122 °F). 

Notables born on June 5 include Pancho Villa (1878, assassinated in 1923), John Maynard Keynes (1883), Bill Moyers (1934) and Margaret Drabble (1939). Those who died on this day include Stephen Crane (1900, age 28), Mel Tormé (1999), Ronald Reagan (2004), Ray Bradbury (2012) and Tariq Aziz (2015).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Cyrus are deep into theology:

Hili: Did you ever wonder about the mystery of the Holy Trinity?
Cyrus: No.
Hili: Neither did I.
In Polish:
Hili: Zastanawiałeś się nad misterium trójcy świętej?
Cyrus: Nie.
Hili: Ja też nie.

And up in Winnipeg, Gus is enjoying spending the warm weather in his garden, though he’s bothered by the chickadees. Look at that head!

From Matthew, a solar eclipse passing over Earth:

A dead fish, swimming!

Why, Nature? Sexual selection, of course! But I’m not sure whether this is a vervet monkey.

How did an ancient Egyptian coin get to Australia? See here.

This jumping spider is unusually wary:

https://twitter.com/heteropodapuma/status/1003172758446981120

. . and this insect, an adult, is beyond belief:

Seeds with amazing dispersal ability:

A panoply of ladybird beetles:

Yes, Virginia, there are blue bees.

And a reminder of America’s ludicrous healthcare system:

https://twitter.com/surfbordt/status/1003336040793468930

To close, a cartoon sent by reader Douglas. I didn’t know what “Psych!” means, but he says it means something like “Gotcha!”:

19 thoughts on “Tuesday: Hili dilalogue”

  2. Yes, that’s a vervet monkey, an alpha male of course.
    The only monkeys in Kruger are vervets and chacma baboons. The only other monkey in South Africa is the samango monkey, which occurs in coastal and afro-montane forest.

    Reply

    1. The turquoise balls are stunning. In humans, the condtion called “blue balls” is a malady.

      I looked it up to refresh my recollection, and came across this choice nugget of politically correct speech: “Blue ball, known medically as epididymal hypertension (EH), is a condition that can affect people with male genitals.” “People with male genitals.” I fear that medical terminology is going to undergo a sea change. Will it extend to other attributes as well?

      Reply

  3. Nothing higher than the cat. There is one on the back of my chair right now. I know that chair will be gone soon as I stand up.

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  4. That ‘dead fish swimming’ – it’s actually just acting as an indicator of the motion of the eddies. For the same reason the back of a station wagon / SUV gets covered with mud.

    Or that cyclists can (if they’re stupid enough) ‘slipstream’ vehicles.

    cr

    Reply

    1. Well that clip was from the older days when pop music actually had distinctive catchy tunes and the chords harmonised.

      cr

      Reply

  9. Means “I psyched you out!” It was big a decade or so ago, back when I had teenage sons. Maybe it’s still big; I just don’t have teenagers anymore.

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  10. Re:
    “On June 5, 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an anti-slavery tome, began appearing as a serial in the abolitionist newspaper The National Era. It became the best selling novel of the 19th century, and the best selling book after the Bible.”

    Eventually, Ben-Hur (1880) surpassed “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852) in sales, remaining the best-selling American novel until “Gone with the Wind” [UGH!] until Ben-Hur (the book) again eclipsed GwtW (the book) after the Heston film. Curently, the best-selling American novel is “Catcher in the Rye” (including sales to high school students.)

    I’m told that the 2nd most widely OWNED book of 19th century America was actually the Sears-Roebuck catalog!!

    Reply

  13. Much of the ketchup sold today is primarily high fructose corn syrup. Heinz has a variety called Simply Heinz without the corn syrup.

    I remember watching Elvis on TV that night. My grandmother, who was in the room exclaimed, “That poor boy has St. Vitus Dance.” St. Vitus Dance is a neurological disorder called Sydenham’s chorea.

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  15. Ok ,i won’t squash any insects ,i don’t anyway ,but can’t promise anything regarding spiders .

    Reply

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