Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

September 24, 2018 • 7:15 am

It’s the first Monday in fall: September 24, 2018. It’s also National Cherries Jubilee Day, but I cannot speak of this comestible since I’ve never had it. In South Africa it’s Heritage Day. I overslept today, which is good as I needed the sleep. This explains why the Hili dialogue is 45 minutes late.

News of the Day: According to the New Yorker, there’s been a second accusation of sexual misconduct by Brett Kavanaugh. Here’s part of the report, which notes that it took six days of memory-trawling and consultation with an attorney to bring it to the woman’s memory:

The woman at the center of the story, Deborah Ramirez, who is fifty-three, attended Yale with Kavanaugh, where she studied sociology and psychology. Later, she spent years working for an organization that supports victims of domestic violence. The New Yorker contacted Ramirez after learning of her possible involvement in an incident involving Kavanaugh. The allegation was conveyed to Democratic senators by a civil-rights lawyer. For Ramirez, the sudden attention has been unwelcome, and prompted difficult choices. She was at first hesitant to speak publicly, partly because her memories contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident. In her initial conversations with The New Yorker, she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty. After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections to say that she remembers Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away. Ramirez is now calling for the F.B.I. to investigate Kavanaugh’s role in the incident. “I would think an F.B.I. investigation would be warranted,” she said.

If you want to read more about the the Kavanaugh case, Heather Hastie has an incisive analysis at her site, concluding that he should not be confirmed.

On this day in 1789, Congress passed the Judiciary Act, creating not only the federal judiciary system and the office of the U.S. Attorney General, but also ordering the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. 101 years latter, the Mormon church officially renounced polygamy, though of course scattered sects continue to practice it. On September 24 , 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt created the first National Monument in the U.S.: Devils Tower in Wyoming.  Here’s the Tower:

On this day in 1929, pilot Jimmy Doolittle made the first complete plane flight without any windows, showing that a complete instrument-controlled flight was possible.

This is one I didn’t know about. On September 24, 1950, the Chinchaga fire in western Canada became the largest recorded fire in North American history. Its smoke was visible all the way to Europe.  On this day in 1957, President Eisenhower sent U.S. troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, protecting black students in the “Little Rock Nine” who had enrolled in Central High School. Finally, on September 24, 1975, climbers Doug Scott and Dougal Haston became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest by climbing a face rather than a ridge; this was on the British Southwest Face Expedition that climbed the face shown below by the the route shown below that. (Two other men summited two days later.) This is the face you see when you climb the nearby hill Kala Pattar rather than visiting base camp (I’ve done it twice):

Notables born on September 24 include Horace Walpole (1717), John Marshall (1755), Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893), F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896), Howard Florey (1898; Nobel Laureate), Severo Ochoa (1905; also a Nobelist), Fats Navarro (1923) and Jim Henson (1936). Those who died on this day include Paracelsus (1541), Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel; 1991), mountaineer Barry Bishop (1994), Françoise Sagab (2004) and Buckwheat Zydeco (2016).

Here’s the Lemon singing “See That My Grave is Kept Clean”:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili saw a saw:

Hili:What are you going to saw?
A: Wood for the fireplace for winter.
Hili: I delegate such work to others.
In Polish:
Hili: Co będziesz piłował?
Ja: Drewno do kominka na zimę.
Hili: Ja takie rzeczy zlecam innym.
Nearby, in his future home (basement and foundations now poured, wooden house stored for future erection), Leon is a bit chilly:

Leon: I’m going to check where the sun is hiding.

Here’s a tweet in which a pair of Aussies claim to be the reincarnations of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene:

Tweets from Matthew; the first is a nice poem. (Remember “Shake and shake the ketchup bottle. . . “?)

https://twitter.com/brian_bilston/status/1043764363943968768?s=11

Moths mimicking toxic beetles, complete with aposematic coloration:

And a bad pun for a Monday morning:

Nothng goes to waste in Nature. I wonder why the bird tolerates it, though.

Some nice illusions. I like how the vertical bars make an animal drawing become an animation:

https://twitter.com/ZonePhysics/status/1043543080442454016

Read Bloom’s paper for yourself at the link:

We all feel like this sometimes:

https://twitter.com/BoringEnormous/status/1043847548962787333

From reader Barry—a Drama D*g:

https://twitter.com/BoringEnormous/status/1043914373591379969

And a really chill cat:

https://twitter.com/DAILYKlTTEN/status/1043365854572765185

 

44 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)”

  2. Heather has the story covered like a blanket.

    Seeing the little chainsaw with Hili reminds me of my Grandfather’s favorite saying, and he meant it. Chop your own wood and you’ll get warm twice.

  3. Thank you for Blind Lemon’s “See That My Grave is Kept Clean”. I only know it from Bob Dylan’s first(1962)album.

    1. I recognize the principle of de gustibus, and unfortunately, I can’t get behind Lou Reed’s version of this song. I find the guitar work interesting in itself, but I’m partial to the traditional, country blues styling of the song — Blind Lemon, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and such.

      But Lou Reed has never been my cup of tea. In truth, his solo work drives me up the wall (second only to Tom Waits) and I fail to understand his popularity. However, I’d take his version over the painful, tortured delivery of Diamanda Galas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU7B6V7ucp4, which would drive me to an early grave if I were compelled to listen to it and watch her exquisitely tortured moues. I find it extraordinary in its execrability (if there is such a word.

      1. I just looked at DG’s Wiki and found this: “Galas has been described as ‘capable of the most unnerving vocal terror’.” That says it all.

      2. Here’s Pop Staples with a couple of his daughters taking the song up & away in a Chicago electric delta blues idiom [it’s Pops on the electric geeeeetar]: https://youtu.be/TLmwMPc1Ufg

        Isn’t that electric reverb absolutely beautiful? Doncha want to stomp your feets & dance? That’s Blind Lemon Jefferson improved in my book – his finger picking is somewhat pedestrian here & he hasn’t got the bass string humming as it should.

        I think [& it is only my thinking as far as I know] Lou Reed was after that effect PLUS he had his guitar set up through a magic box to hark back to a John Cale violin. The Reed version is brimming with empty, crackling space. Man. For me it’s a controlled version of VU’s 1968 Sister Ray – one of the most important blasts of noise of the Twentieth Century! I don’t care for post-VU Lou Reed much on record, but he could paint really engrossing sound picture bombs live sometimes & that’s what this is.

        I know DG’s caterwauling from her work with the great John Paul Jones – JPJ should not have got off at THAT station! DG & Yoko Ono are in some sort of degenerate competition I reckon – no winners & the audience suffers.

        1. Pop Staples’ version is extremely powerful, that reverb is great and the fingerpicking deficiencies are overshadowed by the reverb which, dare I say, is haunting.

        1. Love the guitar work on “Sweet Jane” as well as on “See that My Grave is Kept Clean.” As for the song as a whole, I think that if I listened to “Sweet Jane” quite a few times, I’d come not just to tolerate it but actually like it, as was the case with “Walk on the Wild Side,” which I came not just to like but really like after repeated listening. I listened to it repeatedly precisely because I couldn’t understand why it was considered such an iconic song sung by such an iconic singer, when to me it was a flat nothing of a song, delivered in a flat, tuneless way, aptly described by the critic Robert Christgau as belonging to Lou Reed’s “‘New York conversation’ phase–those casual, tuneless, bitchy/ironic/tender monologues endemic to Manhattan.” I admit, I just didn’t get it, and it took a while.

          That said, when I first heard Blind Lemon and Lightin’ Hopkins, I didn’t like that music, either. But I made myself listen, because I knew there was something going on there that I didn’t get but wanted to. I could say the same for Grand Opera and Peking Opera. All three of which I couldn’t live without.

        1. I have long recognized that my musical tastes are not shared by all but it doesn’t reduce the pleasure I get from indulging them. I can even see why some would not appreciate Lou Reed. Even I don’t like some of the songs on his “Berlin” album.

          1. I’m not a huge fan of his solo endeavors, but Velvet Underground’s Loaded is one of the best records from the 70’s imho.

          2. My musical tastes are also not shared by all, but many think very highly of Lou Reed; and I am learning.

            As I noted above, my musical tastes tend, in one aspect, toward Peking Opera, which sounds absolutely discordant and even weird to many, if not most Westerners, perhaps most non-Chinese. I’ve come to love it, especially when the males sing in falsetto. Few people I know share my enthusiasm.

      2. Interesting chap – him & his missus. Though I did wonder at times if he tried too hard at being at the edge – I detected a pipe & slippers temperament behind the louche leather & shades.

  5. Who knew The Risen Lord and Mary Mags would come back lookin’ like a couple “Up With People” singers?

    1. The woman who thinks she’s Mary is fascinating. “I wanted any other answer. I shopped for answers, I searched…I looked at, you know, is it possible I have a mental illness? Is it possible that, somehow, I created this experience ‘cuz I have a deep underlying desire to be special or have attention? I really looked at that and I think that was fairly easy to resolve because I was pretty much hiding from everyone and hiding this experience from everyone for a number of years after we met.”

      She’s very articulate, and the rationalization of her belief is really fascinating. It’s not what we imagine when we think of loonies in an institution claiming to be Napoleon.

    3. A nice* comparison Ken. The Up With People cult was funded by big, big biz to counter the hippy thing, the cure much worse than the supposed disease – sort of like Agent Orange in pressed flares & maniacal grins.

      * Original meaning of the word

  7. O ! THESE tweets of .specifically. HIS,
    Mr Bronks’ … … again, are
    just too, too .p r e c i o u s. this morning !

    This wonky week’s beginning, I adore all of
    ’em, especially his first bird and its theory
    of gravity – ‘experiments’ and
    that little kiddo “playing” basketball in his
    driveway ! SO true … … both !

    http://www.twitter.com/BoringEnormous

    Blue

        1. Yes indeed, a good little meme. Staying away from people is so often [& wrongly] portrayed as a negative – we can learn so much from cats on the importance of cosy, dark private naps & selfish, self-indulgent leisure.

  8. Deputy AG Rosenstein has been summonsed to the White House. Trump’s people are probably going to try to convince him to resign, so Trump can make an appointment pursuant to the Vacancies Reform Act without senate confirmation. If it comes to that, I think Rosenstein will stick to his guns and make Trump fire him.

    1. Why “summonsed” rather than plain old “summoned”? “Summonsed” feels awkward to this Brit – is “summonsed” a legal term & “summoned” is not perhaps?

        1. Fretting? Are there signs of anxiety in my lexicographical query? 🙂 Both words are real in the US language & Ken isn’t typo prone – I betcha he meant the word as spelled.

  9. The black cat is way too busy having a staredown with lying-down cat, to bother with a mere Roomba. It’s not like a Roomba is a real vacuum cleaner, which would be a whole nother story.

  10. The original Native American name for Devils Tower means “Bear Lodge”. Reportedly it was misunderstood by an interpreter, who thought it translated as “Bad God Tower”.

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    Re, Bloom paper. I’m pretty convinced that religion modifies folk’s sense of morality, but in no was creates it. There’s a clear natural basis for ethics, generated by empathy and the need to maintain society.

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