Wednesday: Hili Dialogue

October 3, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s Hump Day: Wednesday, October 3, 2018, and National Soft Taco Day.  It’s also Thomas Wolfe‘s birthday (born 1900, died 1938.) Here’s Wednesday on the Cheezburger site’s new calendar: “A typical week through the eyes of a [Pallas] cat“:

World events, births, and deaths were all sparse on this day. According to Wikipedia, it was on October 3, 1283, that “Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, [was]the first nobleman to be executed by hanging, drawing and quartering.” On this day in 1863, President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day, following an earlier declaration by George Washington. On this day in 1929, the “Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes” was renamed “Yugoslavia”. It’s not Yugoslavia any more; I’ll be going to Zagreb, Croatia for eight days in a week to deliver some talks on religion and science.  On October 2, 1952, the UK became the world’s third nuclear power after successfully testing a nuclear weapon on an island off Western Australia. Finally, on this day in 1990, the German Democratic Republic was abolished, with its citizens became members of the Federal Republic of Germany (“West Germany”). That’s why today is also German Unity Day

Notables born on this day include Eleonora Duse (1858), Pierre Bonanrd (1867), Thomas Wolfe (1900; see above), James Herriot (1916), Gore Vidal (1925), Chubby Checker (1941), Lindsey Buckingham (1949, about my age), and Al Sharpton (1954). Here’s a nice Bonnard from 1894, “The White Cat“. It’s a little etiolated:

 

Those who died on this day include Myles Standish (1656), Elias Howe (1867, invented sewing machine), and Janet Leigh (2004).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is doing a mind dump. I was unable to ascertain from Malgorzata what truths Hili doesn’t like:

A: What are you doing?
Hili: I’m defending the truth.
A: Who from?
Hili: Me, because sometimes I want to bite its head off.
In Polish:
Ja: Co robisz?
Hili: Bronię prawdy.
Ja: Przed kim?
Hili: Przed sobą, bo czasem mam ochotę jej łeb odgryźć.

Tweets from Grania; the first two are coffee-related humor, with people getting the wrong names on their cups:

https://twitter.com/_youhadonejob1/status/1046816065077104642

One cat uses another as a cushion:

https://twitter.com/BoringEnormous/status/1046646220700241921

This is the first tweet in a long “fun cats” thread:

Tweets from Matthew. The first one shows a wasp unknown to me; it mimics a plant seed!

Can you spot the caterpillar in the picture below? Such is the wonder of natural selection.

A cryptic plant that imitates rocks to avoid grazing herbivores. I’ve tried to grow these in my office (Lithops), but they’re tricky.

Feline as art critic:

https://twitter.com/BoringEnormous/status/1047003337915346944

And two tweets from Heather Hastie. The first, which she emitted, is of course a satire of The Donald:

And look at this ineffably cute kitten! (Play video.) It has the saddest expression. . .

https://twitter.com/videocats/status/1046699724428861440

11 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili Dialogue”

  2. Yugoslavia — As they used to say in those days: the land of six provinces, five nationalities, four languages, three religions, two alphabets … and one political party.

  3. Bit of history regarding the UK and the bomb. During WWII while Roosevelt was arguing with Churchill on strategy he told Churchill the U.S. would withhold an agreement to share development of the atomic weapon if he did not adhere to the plan for Overlord.
    Ref. Commander In Chief, FDR’s Battle with Churchill, 1943.

  5. Interestingly, that caterpillar is very easy to spot, because the imitation ‘flower’ (?) markings all line up and the eye is very, very good at detecting lines.

    cr

  7. I’d be careful with that Lapidaria plant…it looks a bit like the baby “Audrey II” from “Little Shop of Horrors”.

  9. Re: Starbuck names. My wife Pamela once had her name scrawled on a cup such that when it came time to call her name, the barista asked for “Panda” to come get his/her/its cup of coffee!

  10. wingless wasp that mimics fuzzy creosote seeds

    Nice shot! They don’t stand still!

    We see those, or something that looks like those and acts like other wingless wasps I’ve seen in the Southwest, fairly often near the “Four Corners” area, even though there are no creosote bushes anywhere near. They look like a little cotton puff-ball, ~3/8″ or so, gliding around.

Comments are closed.