Saturday: Hili dialogue

March 9, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s the weekend at last, and I think the scent of Spring is in the air on this ninth of March, 2019. It’s National Crab Day, and I could use a batch of blue crabs, a mallet, and a pitcher of beer. That’s one of the best American meals you can get.

On this day in 1500, the fleet of the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral left Lisbon , heading for the Indies. The fleet discovered what is now Brazil in South American, and that’s why the country speaks Portuguese.  On March 9, 1566, the secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, David Rizzio, was murdered in her presence in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh.  On this day in 1776, Adam Smith published his famous book The Wealth of Nations.  On March 9 of 1916, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, along with 500 raiders, attacked the border town of Columbus, New Mexico (note that Wikipedia’s “Pancho Villa” page says only 100 raiders, so again we have a discrepancy). He was after arms and ammunition, but got General Pershing and the U.S. Army on his tail, though he eluded capture.

On March 9, 1946, the Bolton Wanderers Stadium Disaster took place in Bolton, when a barrier collapsed under a packed crowd (estimated at 85,000), resulting in the death of 33 fans and injuries to hundreds. Oddly, they continued the game after the bodies were covered. Here’s a  12-minute video about that event, with interviews of many who were at the game:

On March 9, 1954, CBS News with Edward R. Murrow (produced by Fred Friendly) produced the “See it Now” episode describing the malfeasance of Senator Joseph McCarthy, which helped bring him down. It was also influential in how future television investigations would be structured. In his famous summary, Murrow said this, which still resonates today:

No one familiar with the history of his country can deny that Congressional committees are useful; it is necessary to investigate before legislating. But the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one, and the junior senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind as between the internal and the external threats of communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty; we must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of the law.

Here is the entire show, well worth watching:

On this day 60 years ago, the Barbie doll was introduced at New York’s International Toy Fair.

Notables born on this day include Vita Sackville-West (1892), Samuel Barber (1910), Mickey Spillane (1918), Ornette Coleman (1930), Yuri Gagarin (1934, first human in space), Bobby Fischer (1943), Bobby Sands (1954), Ornella Muti (1955).

Sands, an IRA member died on May 5, 1981 during a prison hunger strike; 9 others died in the same episode. Sands was only 27.  Here were their demands:

Those who expired on this day include Cardinal Mazarin (1661), Mary Anning (1847), Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1895), Robert Mapplethorpe (1989), Charles Bukowski (1994), George Burns (1996), Notorious B.I.G. (1997), and John Profumo (2006).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s comment is a bit opaque. Malgorzata explains:

“Wisła is the biggest river in Poland, it flows through the whole of Poland. Hili is a tiny cat and has absolutely nothing to do with the river and its flow. The idea that a tiny cat should be, on the one hand, proud, and, on the other, a bit patronizing towards this huge river seemed funny to us.”
The dialogue:
Hili: I’m proud of my river.
A: Why?
Hili: Because it continues to flow in spite of all obstacles.
She does look proud, doesn’t she?
In Polish:
Hili: Jestem dumna z mojej rzeki.
Ja: Dlaczego?
Hili: Bo dalej płynie, mimo wszystkich przeszkód.

A tweet from reader Nilou. Imagine trying to rock climb in a full-length skirt! Pinker was right!

Tweets from Grania, the first showing a beautiful and adventurous Bengal cat:

https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1103906100225564672

Nick Cohen speaks truth to the benighted and the Woke. Many Brits contest the accusation that Labour has adopted an anti-Semitic cast.

. . . and God gets wise:

Man, viruses are SMALL!

https://twitter.com/MichaelGalanin/status/1102226924364095490

Okay, which muscle is this?

https://twitter.com/MichaelGalanin/status/1102316844315303937

Tweets from Matthew. Can you really eat a pineapple this way? Please, somebody try this!

https://twitter.com/DenzBenzi/status/1103958443050889216

So much for Michael Behe’s contention that only broken genes can promote adaptation:

Matthew retweeted this and commented, “Cool! But you might get frog spunk on your fingers.”

This is the opposite of a cat in so many ways:

 

 

20 thoughts on “Saturday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Young green jackfruit makes a perfect substitute for crab, properly dosed with Old Bay.

  2. That’s a very biologically appropriate way to eat a pineapple. Our normal “slices” completely ignore the fruit’s inner structure.

    1. Several replies to the pineapple tweet say they tried it at home and it was mostly a failure. I’m guessing the pineapple shown in the movie was either very, very ripe or some different variety than we get in our supermarkets. I would bet on the latter.

      1. I was shown that once, and the pineapple was notably ripe. And maybe another variety, I wasn’t told.

        Like oranges the “appropriate” way isn’t a very appropriate (convenient) way to eat.

  3. Murrow believed the new medium of television should be used to do serious and important work and to educate and news journalism should lead in this mission. But soon he became disappointed in the direction some were promoting. Fortunately he did not live to see what became of it all.

    In the 1950s the news was used to inform the people and eliminate the lunatic called McCarthy. Today it promotes and lifts up lunatics such as Trump.

  4. Thanks for the heads up for National Crab Day. I’ve been meaning to have some garlic crab and watch Roger Corman’s “Attack of the Crab Monsters” so I’ll do that tonight. But I can’t decide whether I should watch “See it Now,” also about a rapacious monster, before or after Corman.

    The video “opposite of a cat” is mesmerizing.

  5. A week after the Murrow piece on McCarthy aired on CBS, began the televised Army-McCarthy hearings. Those hearings went on for a couple months and culminated with Army counsel Joseph Welch famously confronting McCarthy with the question, “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

    Murrow and Welch delivered the one-two punch that spelled the end for McCarthy. Later that year (1954) he was censured by the US senate. Within a couple years of that, Joe McCarthy had drunk himself to death at age 48.

    1. I’ve always wondered how the affair would have played without Edward R. Murrow. Much of the nation seemed to trust him at that point to be their conscience and, having watched the segments he did and the way he talked to the audience, I can’t help but think that McCarthy would have been able to stick around significantly longer without Murrow’s interference.

      Anyway, this is a perfect time to talk about lobster! And The Lobster. I enjoy both. What d0 you think of the ending? What do you think of the rest? How fucking amazing is Lanthimos as not just a director (as with The Favourite), but as a writer? What do you think the ultimate message of the film was?

      I will be grading this essay.

      1. Before you get to it: I should have said, “what do you think the ultimate message of the film is” to be consistent.

        At least you keep me on my toes.

        1. I thought the end was perfect — or at least as good as any other ending could have been. There was no backstory to speak of (and even the voice-over narration was meant to be edifying about what was happening onscreen), so why should there be any resolution?

          It was a weird and wonderful film. It struck me as a bit Kubrickian (but then, there were a couple of scenes even in The Favourite that reminded me of Stanley, too).

          I’ve got an emergency with my dog right now at the vet, but maybe we can discuss it a bit more later?

    1. I suspect he thinks the box is a stationary object like a tree. He’s trying to propel forward by “walking” against the box which results in the box rotating.

  7. Consider Edward R. Murrow in light of the degraded state of news casters today. Attempting to create excitement in, and manipulate their viewers by expressing vocal excitement about every storm and shooting.

  9. Re. Ladies’ Scottish Climbing Club:

    To be decent, they would start their climbs in their restrictive, long skirts. However, when no men were around they would often discard these to climb in knickerbockers: knee length trousers that could be hidden under dresses.

    Hidden under dresses. Sneaky ladies.

    1. I was once going to a concert for which it was very difficult to get tickets, as it was a very popular band that was just coming back from a long hiatus and possible retirement and this was their first concert since taking several years off. There was a morbidly obese woman in a very long skirt in front of me at the ticket gates. A few steps after she had her ticket scanned and went through the turnstyle, another woman popped out from under her dress. She had successfully sneaked her friend into the show. I was very impressed!

      1. Günter Grass, in The Tin Drum, describes a woman who wears multiple whoop skirts simultaneously. Her husband, who must hide from the authorities, goes beneath the skirts when the house is searched.

  10. On March 9, 1946, the Bolton Wanderers Stadium Disaster took place in Bolton, when a barrier collapsed under a packed crowd (estimated at 85,000), resulting in the death of 33 fans and injuries to hundreds. Oddly, they continued the game after the bodies were covered.

    It’s odd but not unique. I can think of a couple of other sporting events that went ahead following a similar tragedy.

    In 1985 39 people were killed at Heysl Stadium when a wall collapsed following crowd violence by Liverpool fans. The match between Liverpool and Juventus went ahead anyway because the authorities were concerned about the possibility of further crowed trouble.

    In 1955, 83 spectators were killed when a car crashed and parts of the wreckage entered the crowd. The race was not stopped because the authorities were concerned that the crowds leaving the venue would impede emergency vehicles.

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