Sunday Hili dialogue

August 19, 2018 • 6:30 am

by Grania

Welcome to Sunday, the birthday of Bill Clinton (1946), Coco Chanel (1883), Johnny Nash (1940) and Gene Roddenberry (1921). It’s also the birthday of John Deacon (1951), English bass player and songwriter of Queen which provides an excellent excuse to listen to a few tracks. “You’re my best friend” and “I want to break free” were both penned by Deacon.

Lover Boy is a Mercury composition
In 1612 three women who came to be known as the Samlesbury witches went on trial for child-murder and cannibalism among other things in Lancashire, England. Mercifully, this is a case with a happy ending in as much as the case collapsed when the chief witness was discovered to be lying or  “the perjuring tool of a Catholic priest” as they so quaintly put it. It’s a fascinating case, naked in its obvious roots of greed and propped up by a paranoia of anti-Catholic sentiment.
In 1960 the Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2 launched the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants. I know what you’re thinking, and this time you are wrong. .The spacecraft returned to Earth on 20 August. Wikipedia notes:
“All of the animals were recovered safely, and a year later Strelka had a litter of puppies, one of which was sent to First Lady of the US Jacqueline Kennedy as a goodwill present from the Soviet Union. President Kennedy’s advisers initially opposed taking the dog for fear that the Soviets might have planted microphones in its body to listen in on national defense meetings.”
Over in Poland today, Poland’s most famous cat is taking it easy.
A: Are you hunting?
Hili: No, I’m just observing.
In Polish:
Ja: Polujesz?
Hili: Nie, tylko się przyglądam.
On Twitter this morning:

“It’s been at least a year since I last licked a rock.” Do read this wonderful thread on why geoscientists do what they do.

Baby swans!

The truth revealed

Latin scholars, weep!

Random cat du jour

How to entertain yourself

A rare thing: a tame squirrel. They reportedly do not make for good domesticated pets, this one is a bit of a special circumstance.

Something we missed on Friday.

A lesson, of what I am not sure. But a lesson.

https://twitter.com/CrazyinRussia/status/1030823462787579906

Cat chilling

https://twitter.com/animalsofworlds/status/1030860643010850816

A thread worth reading on mushrooms:

And finally a lovely comparison of pictures of a scene.

 

 

 

 

10 thoughts on “Sunday Hili dialogue”

  1. I am fascinated about the squirrel. Never thought, that a wild animal could be become such intimate a human.

  2. “President Kennedy’s advisers initially opposed taking the dog for fear that the Soviets might have planted microphones in its body to listen in on national defense meetings.”

    … and they had never heard of such a thing as X-rays…

    cr

    1. Talking of Russia and dogs – the lesson from that GIF is that it’s dangerous to smoke in Russia if you have smoke detectors and a d*g…

      cr

    2. President Kennedy’s advisers initially opposed taking the dog for fear that the Soviets might have planted microphones in its body to listen in on national defense meetings.”

      There is a British 1960s comedy film “The Spy With a Cold Nose ”
      Only it is the British Secret Service who send the Russians a dog with a microphone in it’s body .

    1. Did you notice there’s a copy of the ‘photograph’ lying on the ground in the ‘photograph’? It’s in the right foreground behind the road sweeper.

      The ‘photograph’ on the right by Emily Allchurch is a digital collage of 100s of images. Valette likely got the angles & proportions right while Emily did not – she produced her image layout by copying his painting.

      I like her substitution of a hansom cab for a black Hackney cab & how she’s blurred the road sweeper the same as the cellar man.

      Notice that when she photographed Gladstone [right side] her lens was maybe 4′ to 6′ lower than Valette’s eyes were – Vallette was high up standing on something, because his eye level matches Gladstone’s feet. The Albert Memorial arch is narrower than Emily’s rendition because Emily photographed the arch more straight on.

      I believe [from memory] Albert Square has quite a slope which explains the height differences.

Comments are closed.