Thursday: Hili dialogue

February 14, 2019 • 7:06 am

It’s Thursday already: February 14, 2019, and you know what that means!

h/t: Nilou

 

It’s Valentine’s Day! And here’s my valentine for all the readers:

 

Today’s Google Doodle (click on screenshot) is a lovely animation of animals in love. Be sure to see it:

And of course it’s National Cream-filled Chocolates Day, though that’s not the only kind of candy one gives on this day.

On this day in 1349, many Jews of Strasbourg, numbering several hundred, were burned to death by mobs, with some of the unburnt Jews kicked out of the city. Remember this when you hear about the “one-state solution” in the Middle East. On February 14, 1400, Richard II of England died, probably of starvation, after being deposed and imprisoned by Henry IV.  In 1556, Thomas Cranmer was declared a heretic, and was burned to death that same year.  It was also on that day in 1556 that, far away, Akbar was crowned the third Mughal emperor.  On February 14, 1779, James Cook was killed by native Hawaiians off the Big Island.

On this day in 1849, President James Knox Polk became the first sitting President to be photographed. Here’s an enhanced version of that photo, taken in New York City.

On this day in 1929 in Chicago, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre took place in a garage, with seven people machine-gunned to death, probably on orders of Al Capone.  On February 14, 1945, the fire-bombing of Dresden by British and American planes began, the scene for Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-5. In 1966, Australian currency was decimalized on February 14.

On February 14, 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft took the photo of Earth that became known as the Pale Blue Dot. Here it is; can you spot the Earth?

Finally, it was on this day in 2005 that YouTube was launched by a group of college students; and, as you’ve probably heard if you’ve read the American news, it’s the first anniversary of the deadly Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, in which a gunman, former student Nikolas Cruz, killed 15 and injuried 17. The students who survived, Ceiling Cat bless them, are still fighting for gun control, though nothing has happened at the federal level.

Notables born on this day include, appropriately, Valentine Greatrakes (1628, Irish faith healer), Frank Harris (1855), John Barrymore (1882), Jack Benny (1894), Florence Henderson (1934), Carl Bernstein (1944), Gregory Hines (1946), Renée Fleming (1959), and Meg Tilly (1960).

Those who died on Valentine’s Day include Timur (Tamerlane, 1405), James Cook (1779), William Tecumseh Sherman (1891), David Hilbert (1943), Baby Dodds (1959), Julian Huxley and P. G. Wodehouse (both 1975), James Bond (the ornithologist, 1989), and George Shearing (2011).

Here’s Shearing, whom Jack Kerouac—or rather Neal Cassady (named “Dean Moriarty”—called “Old God Shearing” in the novel On The Road. This is a performance before  “Misty” in 1992. Be sure to watch the last bit:

From the book; one long paragraph about Shearing:

George Shearing, the great jazz pianist, Dean said, was exactly like Roll Greb. Dean and I went to see Shearing at Birdland in the midst of the long, mad weekend. The place was deserted, we were the first customers, ten o’clock. Shearing came out, blind, led by the hand to his keyboard. He was distinguished-looking Englishman with a stiff white collar, slightly beefy, blond, with a delicate English-summer’s-night air about him that came out in the first rippling sweet number he played as the bass-player leaned to him reverently and thrummed the beat. The drummer, Denzil Best, sat motionless except for his wrists snapping the brushes. And Shearing began to rock; a smile broke over his ecstatic face; he began to rock in the piano seat, back and forth, slowly at first, then the beat went up, and he began rocking fast, his left foot jumped up with every beat, his neck began to rock crookedly, he brought his face down to the keys, he pushed his hair back, his combed hair dissolved, he began to sweat. The music I picked up. The bass-player hunched over and socked it in, faster and faster, it seemed faster and faster, that’s all. Shearing began to play his chords; they rolled out of the piano in great rich showers, you’d think the man wouldn’t have time to line them up. They rolled and rolled like the sea. Folks yelled for him to “Go!” Dean was sweating; the swear poured down his collar. “There he is! That’s him! Old God! Old God Shearing! Yes! Yes! Yes!” And Shearing was conscious of the madman behind him, he could hear every one of Dean’s gasps and imprecations, he could sense it though he couldn’t see. “That’s right!” Dean said. “Yes!” Shearing smiled; he rocked. Shearing rose from the piano, dripping with sweat; these were his great 1949 days before he became cool and commercial. When he was gone Dean pointed to the empty piano seat. “God’s empty chair,” he said. On the piano a horn sat; its golden shadow made a strange reflection along the desert caravan painted on the wall behind the drums. God was gone; it was the silence of his departure.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is having delusions of grandeur, but who better than cats to order the Universe (it would be a Hilicentric Universe, of course):

Hili: A huge responsibility is resting on cats.
A: What for?
Hili: For the order in the Universe.
In Polish:
Hili: Na kotach spoczywa ogromna odpowiedzialność.
Ja: Za co?
Hili: Za porządek we wszechświecie.

A cartoon sent by reader Jon:

Sad but true:

Trump and the wall (apparently now he’s going to get a small fence):

It’s a special Valentine’s Day Twitter edition! From reader Nilou, an otter tweet:

From Grania, a medical Valentine:

Another medical-themed Valentine, this time from Jonathan Swift:

Here’s a Valentine poem from the Bodleian Libraries; go see the whole rhyme in successive tweets:

The old ballad “The Water is Wide” has a stanza, “When love is young, then love is fine: just like a flower, when first it’s new. But love grows old, and waxes cold, and fades away, like the morning dew.” To wit:

A nerdy Valentine:

From the National Library of Scotland:

Nobby the Bear gets in on the holiday:

A Valentine’s Day menu from 137 years ago:

Tweets from Matthew, also Valentine-themed. Have a heart!

A booby poem:

There’s nothing like a good amplexus:

A heart-shaped wood!

Another Valentine from a science geek:

Matthew loves Laurel and Hardy, and here they are (also playing women) in a Valentine’s Day meal:

 

 

47 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

  2. Watch that feeling in the heart. It might be a heart attack. Interesting on the anniversary of the shooting in Florida, the House of Rep. has passed a bill calling for background checks on all gun buys. It is the first gun legislation even attempted since 1993.

  3. Aww, shucks, thanks for the valentine — and for everything you do here. And here’s to Jack Benny, who would have been 39 years old today.

    4. After some googling, I found a photograph (daguerreotype actually) of John Quincy Adams dated 1843. He was old and a former president by then. I’m just amazed there are images from that far back.

      1. Thomas Wedgewood [related to the Darwin dynasty] messed around with primitive photography around 1800, but didn’t figure out how to fix the image. Daguerreotype is around 1820 I think.

        Earlier than that we have the Shroud of Turin of course… 🙂

  5. Thank you for the valentine duck card!

    I didn’t know Shearing was blind. That excerpt has a couple typos I think – “sweat” instead of … “swear” I think? There’s another maybe. I didn’t know Shearing went commercial. But the writing is excellent. The author – Kerouac? – was young at the time? To imagine the youth of today exuberant over chord changes – it is difficult to envision.

  9. My wife is dead. ∴ I hate Valentine’s Day.

    I really resent having all this sappy commercialized sentiment thrust in my face year after year.

  11. That Laurel and Hardy clip was disturbing in so many ways. Who breaks a plate on someone’s chin?

  12. There was a question on Jepoardy about an Irish children’s book author a couple of weeks ago. The first person to ring in answered Jonathan Swift and I couldn’t stop laughing at the thought of it. I mean, I guess Gulliver’s Travels can be considered a children’s book, but the thought of people reading A Modest Proposal and others to their kids as the put them to sleep at night had me in stitches.

  13. Let Matthew know there’s a new biopic out about Laurel and Hardy, Stan & Ollie, featuring a slimmed-down Steve Coogan and a beefed-up John Riley in the title roles. Here’s the trailer.

    I’m going to see it this week; I love Laurel and Hardy, too.

    1. That bleedin trailer reveals the whole plot. Modern trailers are annoying! [but thank you all the same]

  16. When you’ve been married for almost 15yrs & your husband asks about Valentines Day

    Wait another 30 years and then welcome to my world…

    However, I do have bread and butter pudding (food of the non-existent gods) and a good red wine to look forward to in an hour 😀

    1. Bread and butter pudding? Do tell. I’ve never heard of it but if its food of the non-existent gods I’ve got to try it! Do you make it yourself? Can you share the recipe?

      1. In its simplest form it’s sliced white bread, buttered, crusts and all layered in a baking dish with sultanas and or currents and covered with a vanilla custard finished before serving with brown sugar. Oven temperature about 190C for 30 to 45 minutes depending on the quantity of bread and custard.
        It used to be a way of using up the old stale bread leftovers. There are many variations but the simple ones are tasty.

        1. Ah, okay. So basically it is bread pudding with the addition of butter spread on the bread? I can make a pretty mean bread pudding. I’ll have to try buttering the bread. Good butter makes just about anything better.

          2. Not to worry, thank you for taking the time.

            Does this recipe seem authentic?

            Preheat oven to 190 C / Gas mark 5. …
            Mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
            Butter 5 slices of bread, cut in half.
            Layer the bread in the dish adding a handful of sultanas and the sugar mix as you go, covering each slice.
            Mix the milk and eggs together and whisk.
            Pour over the bread and leave to absorb for 10 minutes.

          3. That’s right.
            Add lemon zest if you like.
            Soak dried fruit in brandy or rum overnight if you like.

        2. It’s even better made with brioche.

          Perhaps that’s what Marie Antoinette was referring to. If so, she was guillotined most unjustly.

  17. A Valentine’s Day dinner that I’d turn down: “jowl and spinach,” Queen fritters, and Calf’s head boiled à la financière, and turnips.

  19. The Swift poem reminds me of the “Medical Love Song” by Monty Python. The opening lines are unforgettably romantic: “Inflammation of the foreskin/Reminds me of your smile.”

  21. It’s very interesting to see one of India’s famous soups – Mullagatawny – on a New York menu. Sheesh, didn’t those New Yorkers know anything about cultural appropriation?

    1. Meant to say on a ‘100+ year-old’ New York menu.

      Also, autofill isn’t working this morning.

    2. Mulligatawny is a great example of why cultural appropriation in the food case especially is often silly. It is a food created by Indians to offer food more familiar to British. So who appropriated whom here? Like Charon around Pluto or the other way, the idea of unidirectional cause doesn’t help here. I’m not that fond of the soup, but it seems to be a good example of blending together to create something new and potentially interesting.

  22. If cats ordered the Universe they would push the Big Questions off the table.

    Ceiling Cat must be so annoying for Templeton Money™!

  23. Excellent post!
    About the Google Doodle – I think that of all animal groups, they could choose other than spiders, knowing what some of their females do after copulation.

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