Sunday: Hili dialogue

August 26, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s Sunday (Ceiling Cat’s Day), August 26, 2018, and National Cherry Popsicle Day. Here are Five Fun Facts about Popsicles from Foodimentary. It was on the Popsicle wrappers that I learned my first big word, “quiescent”, as the wrapper described the Popsicle as a “quiescently frozen confection”.

  1. In 1905 in San Francisco, 11-year-old Frank Epperson was mixing a white powdered flavoring for soda and water out on the porch
  2.  He left it there, with a stirring stick still in it.
  3. That night, temperatures reached a record low, and the next morning, the boy discovered the drink had frozen to the stick, inspiring the idea of a fruit-flavored ‘Popsicle’, a portmanteau of soda pop and icicle.
  4.  Eighteen years later in 1923, Epperson introduced frozen pop on a stick to the public at Neptune Beach, an amusement park in Belmar, New Jersey. Seeing that it was a success, in 1924 Epperson applied for a patent for his “frozen confectionery” which he called “the Epsicle ice pop”.
  5. He renamed it to Popsicle, allegedly at the insistence of his children.

It’s also Women’s Equality Day in the U.S., commemorating the day in 1920 when the Secretary of State certified the adoption, seven days previously, of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting anybody from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex.

Here’s the Tweet of the Day from former CIA director and advisor to Barack Obama, John Brennan (via Heather Hastie):

On August 26, 1542, the conquistador Francisco de Orellana reached the Atlantic Ocean after navigating the Amazon River, the first known traverse of its entire length. On this day in 1883, the volcano Krakatoa began its final eruption, culminating in a Big Blast the next day, killing (with the attendant tsunamis) over 36,000 people. As noted above, it was on this day in 1920 that the 19th Amendment took force, giving American women the right to vote. It took sooooo long! On this day in 1944, after the German garrison had surrendered, Charles de Gaulle entered Paris, pretty much taking credit for the city’s liberation (see the article on de Gaulle by Adam Gopnik in a recent New Yorker).  Speaking of French, it was on August 26, 1977 that the National Assembly of Quebec adopted the Charter of the French Language, making that the official language of the province.  Exactly one year later, John Paul 1 was elected Pope, but held that position for only 33 days, dying suddenly of a heart attack. It was one of the shortest papacies (is that the right word?) in history. Finally, it was on this day that Jaycee Dugard, who had been abducted 18 years earlier, was discovered alive in California. She was only 11 when kidnapped, and bore two daughters during captivity after being repeatedly raped by her captor.

Notables born on this day include Antoine Lavoisier (1743), Lee de Forest (1873), Peggy Guggnheim (1898), jazz singer Jimmy Rushing (1901), Christopher Isherwood (1904), Albert Sabin (1906), Mother Teresa (1910), Ben Bradlee (1921), and Garaldine Ferraro (1935). Those who died on August 26 include Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1723), William James (1910), Lon Chaney (1930) and Charles Lindbergh (1974).

Rushing, a great singer, had his best years with the Basie orchestra; here he is with that group singing the blues-inspired “I left my baby”:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is drinking pure cream! She is so spoiled!

A: Is this what tigers like best?
Hili: I’m not answering stupid questions.

In Polish:

Ja: Czy to jest to, co tygrysy lubią najbardziej?
Hili: Nie odpowiadam na głupie pytania.

Here’s a tweet made by lip-reading Sarah Sanders at a press conference. This is hilarious; don’t miss it.

https://twitter.com/freedom_moates/status/1033022545275092993

A tweet from reader Barry. Watch those boobies dive!

Barry also sent this otter juggling rocks, and added:

Play (fun) leads to and is a form of learning, and learning leads to intelligence and adaptability, which all add up to a potential evolutionary advantage. Human kids play in order to learn all sorts of basic things about the world. Kittens tumble around playing and acting as if hunting. Nature is full of play. But I’ve never seen a non-human juggler before.

Well, here’s one!

https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1032758055719424000

Grania found this cat vs. d*g tweet. Note how thick the d*g is!

Two tweets via Nilou. First, a guy who—like the guy who harassed the bison—should be locked up. The ostrich didn’t kick him hard enough!

https://twitter.com/AwardsDarwin/status/1032584348778807296

How humans learn that they’re not ducks:

https://twitter.com/AwardsDarwin/status/1033072723180834817

From Heather Hastie. The first one is a fricking gem of a cat video. He crashed his bike!!

https://twitter.com/DAILYKlTTEN/status/1032543371854630914

Watch out!

https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/1032584755408187393

Look at the size of this fricking rooster!

https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1032618867544096770

You may have seen these before and wondered what they were:

32 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

    1. Looks good, but it is simpler for him.

      “That stone goes to the otter paw, that stone goes to …”.

  3. I will be VERY disappointed if anyone makes the obvious joke about that enormous rooster. We are better than that here are WEIT.

  4. the steady collapse of a U.S. Presidency

    I learned today that JK Rowling a) is a satirical Trump twitterer and b) exposed Trump as the schoolyard bully his behavioral development stopped at.

    In further news (to me), Trump a) admits to take his legal advice from television shows and b) claims that two of Cohen’s crimes – those that explicitly involves him, of course – that were admitted and accepted as crimes by a court were ‘not crimes’.

    As has been said here before, I don’t even.

    1. One of the most effective and concise anti-Trump tweets I’ve seen was JK Rowling posting a video of Trump barging the Montenegrin leader aside at a summit, and accompanying it with the words “you tiny, tiny, tiny little man”.
      She’s very good. I like her a lot, although I’m not much of a Harry Potter fan.

      1. That video of Trump pushing aside the Montenegrin PM is so telling, not just the act itself, but also his body language. It’s a classic. I bookmarked the video when I first saw it. It was so telling. It’s worth another look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iimj0j4NYME.

        Can someone explain why it’s “Montenegrin” and not “Montenegran”?

        2. I don’t know why it’s Montenegrin either. I typed Montenegran first off, but the red underline told me off so I googled it.

        3. Montenegro is Italian.The Italian word for someone from there is “Montenegrino/a”.Dropping the final,gender-indicating vowel is a common way of anglicising nouns borrowed from Latin languages.

  5. Re those shock waves, the most striking ones I have seen were those put up by Thrust SSC in Black Rock Desert, visible in the dust.

    This video is interesting:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1Qv2xq6eA0
    There’s a beautiful mirage effect that makes the car appear to be flying.

    At 40 seconds in there’s a still from above showing the shock wave in the dust. It always seems intuitively wrong to me that the shock wave extends straight out each side of the car. I instinctively think the wave should be swept back the way bow waves of a boat are. It isn’t till one carefully considers how a wave front travelling at the same speed as the car would propagate, that the picture seems credible.

    And at 43 seconds there’s a still that shows the shock waves above the car as sharp-edged lines in clear air.

    cr

  6. I thought the Sarah Sanders lip-sync video was mildly amusing.

    It’s interesting that the people who linked to it on Twitter all seem to be Trump supporters. Presumably they like the fact that it makes Sanders seem like a dominant winner, and the press a bunch of whining morons. Personally I prefer the lip-sync videos that are absurd and silly rather than partisan.

  7. I might believe the Popsicle story … except it is set in San Fransisco. A sugary water mixture will freeze but only at significantly below freezing temperatures (think minus 5-10 Celsius which translates to -23 to -14 Fahrenheit). San Fransisco has a reputation for being cold … during the day time (as the fog blocks the sun) but that same fog and the temperature moderation from the bay and ocean (on three sides) keeps SF nighttime temps quite moderate.

    1. There’s something wrong with your temperature ranges, Steve. −5°C to −10°C translates to +23°F to +14°F. To this Ottawa boy, that’s not “significantly below freezing” but a mild winter day!

      Assuming your source for the freezing point of sugar water was expressed correctly in Celsius, I did a quick Google search and discovered in the Wikipedia entry for SF that the record low temperature was −3°C, set in December 1932. So I think your conclusion was sound, despite the conversion gaff.

      1. He lived out at Oakland, Calif which had a lowest recorded of −4.3 °C in 1990 – there doesn’t seem to have been unusual weather in 1905 in Calif. I think the story unlikely unless there’s some wind chill effect that can draw heat away from the cup.

  8. http://www.blueshoenashville.com/suffragehistory.html and
    why my favored one for roses: yellow.

    Out on an upper ledge all night long a 24 – year – old son of a mother, Ms Phoebe Burn, who told him
    to do The Right Thing but, by his doing so,
    outraged all of those other legislators who
    did .not. wanna hear or see what:
    he, Mr Harry Burn, had done: he had listened
    to a woman.

    Who had told her son thus, “A mama would .not.
    want something bad for her child. She would not. I know a mama would only want for her child
    to have happen what is a good thing.”

    My USA flag flies at .full. mast:
    … … Haaaappy, Happy Women’s Equality Day, All.

    Blue

    1. ” When tempers had cooled, Burn was asked to
      explain the red rose on his lapel and his
      “yellow-rose” vote. He responded that while
      it was true he was wearing a red rose, what
      people couldn’t see was that his breast
      pocket contained a telegram from his mother
      in East Tennessee. She urged him to do the
      right thing and vote in favor of the
      amendment. Governor A. H. Roberts signed the
      bill on August 24, 1920 and two days later,
      the Nineteenth Amendment became national law. ”

      ” … … two days later ” = today.

      Blue

      1. Yes it be .that., Ms Haniver. Finally.

        And B R A V A to Ms Burn of east Tennessee who
        herself could not vote / had not rights
        … … but her kiddo did have rights. And could.

        Not unlike, still, much of the World’s populations.

        S T I L L.

        WHAT c e n t u r y IS This One anyhow ?!

        Blue

        1. It should be difficult to not concur with
          Mr Ken Burns ( w an S ), documentarian, who s
          states that nothing … … no event
          including not even its wars of then … …
          within the 20th Century impacted .more
          people. than this one yellow – rose vote.

          Blue

  11. Juggling otter is best otter! That gave me a big smile, but then I read the comments. Only two threads in, somebody says, “My spirit animal.” The only reply: “not unless you’re a member of an indigenous nation, no it damn well isn’t.” Of course that was going to happen. Sigh.

    Ah, I just looked at the profile of the person who replied. “#fibro #rheum #BLM : reconnecting (cottfn) living in tla’amin territory : white-coded : two-spirit : they/them/their : TIP JAR http://paypal.me/nimakokaaz“

    1. .That one. is, Taz, just darling !
      Very many, many a kiddo’s loveliest present
      any Winter Solstice morning !

      Blue

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