Sunday: Hili dialogue

March 3, 2019 • 6:30 am

Thanks once again to Grania for filling in with the Hili dialogues, which have been a constant and daily fixture for years. If, some day, one doesn’t appear, then you’ll know that we’re both dead.

It’s Sunday, March 3, 2019, and National Cold Cuts Day. (Is there such a thing as warm cuts?) It’s also World Wildlife Day, so be kind to the animals, like this fine specimen of Anas platyrhynchos. 

World Wildlife Day also has a nice Twitter site with plenty of animal photos, like this one:

It was not an eventful day in history. On March 3, 1873, Congress enacted the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail. It was aimed not just at pornography, but at contraceptive devices. The law was repealed in 1957.  Exactly two years later, Bizet’s opera “Carmen” was premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

On March 3, 1913, about 8,000 women, including black women, marched in Washington, D.C.’s first suffrage parade. Helen Keller was among the speakers, and here’s the program:

On this day in 1931, the U.S. adopted the unsingable “Star-Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem. “America the Beautiful” would have been a better choice.  Exactly two decades later, what is sometimes regarded as the first “rock and roll” record, “Rocket 88” was recorded by Ike Turner (Jackie Brenston on vocals and sax) and his band at Sam Phillip’s recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee. As Wikipedia notes, “Ike Turner’s piano intro to the song was later used nearly note-for-note by Little Richard in “Good Golly Miss Molly”. . . Ike Turner was only paid $20 (US$193 in 2018 dollars) for the record. You’ll want to hear it, so here it is:

 

On this day in 1986, the “Australia Act 1986” made Australia “fully independent from the United Kingdom.” Except it isn’t.  Exactly five years later, a video captured the beating of a black man, Rodney King, by Los Angeles Police officers, sparking riots in L.A. and the eventual conviction on federal charges of two of the four accused officers. King was later awarded 3.8 million dollars. You can see a video of the brutal beating, in which King was struck by more than 50 blows from police clubs, here.

Finally, on March 3, 2005, Steve Fossett became the first person to fly an airplane around the world, nonstop and solo, without refueling. His plane, below, was the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, and the flight took 2 days, 19 hours, 1 minute and 46 seconds. Imagine staying awake nearly three days to do this!

Notables born on March 3 include George Pullman (1831), Georg Cantor (1845), Alexander Graham Bell (1847), Charles Ponzi (1882; he devised the eponymous scheme), Cyril Burt (1883), Jean Harlow (1911), Doc Watson (1923), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (1962), and Brian Cox (1968). Please note that I am using the Oxford comma here, as I always do in these lists.

Those who expired on March 3 include Robert Hooke (1703), Oliver Cowdery (1850), Lou Costello (1959), Hergé (1983), Danny Kaye (1987), Sewall Wright (1988), Arthur Murray (1991), Albert Sabin (1993), and Roger Bannister (2018).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili blows off Andrzej:

A: Do you have a moment?
Hili: Not now. I’m thinking.
In Polish:
Ja: Czy masz chwilę czasu?
Hili: Nie teraz, myślę.
Reader Merilee found a photo of an insouciant cat:

Here’s a double pun from Facebook (I might have posted it before, but it’s about flies!):

A tweet from reader Gethyn:

https://twitter.com/MichaelGalanin/status/1101357446986108929

Two tweets from reader Barry. Normally I’d object to the neologistic use of “unit” in this first one, but here it seems appropriate. Be sure to watch all the way to the end.

https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1100872058186027008

Black squirrel fight club in Canada!

https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1100438737073393664

Two tweets from Heather Hastie. The first is a kakaopo chick growing up:

As Heather says, “Clever cat!”

https://twitter.com/StefanodocSM/status/1099607667578949633

Tweets from Grania. The world turned upside down:

https://twitter.com/mitchsunderland/status/1099885125846818816

This isn’t just a kitten: it’s a baby kitten:

https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/952874516094636034

And GOOD GOD!

Tweets from Matthew. For the first one, here’s the etymology from Wikipedia:

The word “raccoon” was adopted into English from the native Powhatan term, as used in the Colony of Virginia. It was recorded on John Smith’s list of Powhatan words as aroughcun, and on that of William Strachey as arathkone. It has also been identified as a reflex of a Proto-Algonquian root *ahrah-koon-em, meaning “[the] one who rubs, scrubs and scratches with its hands”.

When I started reading this tweet I thought it was serious, but it terned out to be what we in the trade call a “groaner”:

What nice (and skillful) people!

https://twitter.com/IBPLC2017/status/1101871309603196928

 

22 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Sad to say the chap with the nail and a hammer was relatively well off when he conducted his transurethral autocystolithopaxy. The traditional method of lithotomy was to raise the supine patient’s legs (we still use the term ‘lithotomy position’) and take a transperineal approach (’tain’t nice, as it were) to the bladder with a sharp knife, reach in and hook out stones with a finger. The wound was left open to heal by granulation, and the survival rate was low. If you survived, the risk of urinary fistula was very high, and of course you were doomed if the knife nicked the rectum on the way in. Such a dangerous procedure was known even in ancient Greece, and Hippocrates included a line against it in his oath – “I will not cut for the stone…” Obviously no anæsthetic for any of this, but the condition brought such misery that sufferers volunteered. Famously Samuel Pepys hosted a celebration of thanks each year on the anniversary of his surgery.

    1. I have always grateful to have been born after the development of good anesthesia. As a matter of fact, I’ve had perhaps a couple of dozen procedures, starting from a tonsillectomy at age 5, through surgeries for an injured ankle, numerous dental procedures, to colonoscopies in later life. Probably most people of my age have as well. Every time, I thank my anesthesiologist.

      1. Yeah, the pain of ‘stones’ is such that poking a nail up yer dick is nothing by comparison.

        (I’ve only ever had a mild attack, never want to have a worse one).

        But massive thanks to anaesthesia (I had a heart valve repair which – seriously – worried me less than going to the dentist. It wasn’t actually enjoyable but none of it was painful and the enforced stay in bed was quite pleasantly relaxing).

        Incidentally, I asked the cardiologist how they stop the heart (because obviously they can’t operate if it’s jumping around) and he said “We poison it”. Has a way with words, my cardiologist 😉

        cr

        1. I hope I never experience the pain of ‘stones’. You have a droll cardiologist. All cardiologists should be.

          1. A female insurance agent once was taking down my medical history when I mentioned that I’ve had kidney stones. She asked if I needed surgery, and I said no, I passed them. “Oh,” she said matter-of-factly,”so you know what it’s like to give birth.”

          2. Actually, I was just now thinking of the comparison between childbirth and “stones”. After having taken the Lamaze birthing course with my wife, and her delivering, I find my guess would be that “stones” are worse.

  2. “National Cold Cuts Day”

    Hey, a little gabagool on a Sunday afternoon sounds good to me.

    1. You know that word, “gabagool,” has more than one meaning.

      By the way, some time back, you asked about Michael Mewshaw’s “Sympathy for the Devil: Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal.” It’s is a great read, and Mewshaw, like Vidal, has quite a way with words and turns of phrase. I got it from the library but am going to buy a copy because it’s something that I’ll read more than once and many things therein are worth remembering for many reasons.

  3. Yes, our national anthem is horrible, but so is ‘Murca the Beeyootiful. (Gawd shat all over theeeee!) so, what with the mentions of Ike and Little Richard, I thought why not change it to either Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode or better yet, Link Wray’s Rumble.

    1. Be glad that you don’t have to sing the British national anthem, which is a dire piece of royalist toadying set to a funeral dirge. Thankfully, it is rarely sung in public these days.

      1. As an Englishman it has always bothered me that them Frencies have a more inspiring National anthem than GB .

        1. It seems to be common that countries national anthems are often dirges, and far less inspiring than their ‘popular’ national songs, if I can put it that way.

          US: Star Spangled Banner loses to America the Beautiful
          Australia: Advance Australia Fair loses to Waltzing Matilda
          Germany used to have a really good one, Deutschland Uber Alles
          Britain: God Save the Queen loses to Land of Hope and Glory. But far more beautiful is Holst’s ‘Thaxted’, aka ‘Jupiter’, regrettably usually sung with the dreadful lyrics of ‘I Vow to Thee My Country’, but in my view good music trumps crappy lyrics every time.
          New Zealand: G*d Defend New Zealand is an awful dirge. Just once it sounded listenable, in 1988 when TVNZ jazzed it up for their nightly closing credits, which brought screams of outraged protest from the usual quarters.
          Here it is, if anyone’s curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-r_PutRulM

          Incidentally, the sure way to turn *any* anthem into a dreadful and embarrassing dirge, is to have it sung a capella and slightly off tune by some poor sucker in a stadium before some sports event. No tune can survive that.

          cr

      2. True. And I’m far from a Royalist, so I wouldn’t be singing anyway. Perhaps a change to ( I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by the Stones or Strawberry Fields by the Beatles. Or there’s always God Save the Queen…

    2. “On this day in 1931, the U.S. adopted the unsingable “Star-Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem. “America the Beautiful” would have been a better choice.”

      I firmly agree with Jerry on this one, both on the dreariness of SSB and on America the Beautiful as a preferred alternative. (This is such an unusual occurrence I keep wondering if I’ve misread something)

      I can’t help noticing that America the Beautiful credits G*d for creating the country, which is doubtless why it’s so full of Xtians 😉

      But a good tune trumps crappy lyrics every time.

      cr

    3. I’m in favor of “An American Trilogy” becoming the national anthem. It’s a combination of “Dixie,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and the slave spiritual “All My Trials.” The song was devised by Mickey Newbury and popularized by Elvis Presley in the ’70s. Here’s a video of the latter performing it:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gyvTV5OJ5E

  4. I don’t think he had kidney stones ,i think he was a perv .
    Anyhow just ordered a secondhand copy of the good Doctors book .I can’t afford to buy new books ,i am poor ,my butler is poor ,my maid is poor and so is my gardener .

  5. Re: the Rocket 88 video, what exactly was the point of the young lady getting dressed and how did she refer to the song?

    1. The “young lady” is Bettie Page sir! Her first public [in men’s magazines] pin ups appeared in 1951 – the year that Rocket 88 was published & that’s the connection – to evoke the era. That bit of 8mm or 16mm film is likely nearer to the mid-50’s

  6. For those curious – the enormous rabbit in the one video above is the aptly named breed called the Continental Giant. It’s one that was became semi-popular about 20 years ago.
    The Continental Giants can weigh up to 35 pounds (16 kilos), though sometimes they can be bigger. For reference, a standard sized domestic rabbit is about 6-12 pounds.
    I’d love to have one of the Giants, but they eat an enormous amount of food. All they seem to do is eat and sleep, though they seem pretty affectionate.
    The little girl in the video has it made.

  7. “Leave no tern unstoned” was the (unofficial) motto of C.S. “Buzz” Holling’s ecology group at UBC in the 1970s.

  8. In the 19th century, a man drove a nail through his penis & then [reduced much of the audience to wincing inarticulation] #TheButcheringArt

    There was a hilarious reworking of the horrors of pre-anaesthetic surgery in the (much maligned) BBC’s archives from a couple of years ago. https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/quacks
    It had me rolling in the aisles, helpless with mirth, when it was on a year and a bit ago, and also quite often squirming with discomfort. One episode had exactly these techniques of described in considerable detail.
    I do hope they’re going to commission another series, but for sure it is worth seeing if it makes it to the rest of the world’s screens. It might be a bit too strong for some people though. Like good cheese. Or some of those Scandinavian “rotten fish” delicacies. With Durian.
    What does Wiki say? No indication of rumours of another series (boo!), and the episode in question is

    Episode 4: The Indian Mesmerist (9-5-2017): Robert invents a device to remove William’s bladder stones. Caroline hires a charlatan Indian hypnotist to treat Robert’s nightmares and insomnia.

    On the subject of exquisite tortures, the idea of strapping a certain “Deepity Salesman” into a Clockwork Orange-style viewing chair and exposing him to the ridicule in that episode would be … definitely “cruel and unusual punishment”.

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