by Grania
Fear not, Jerry will be with you shortly. He’s just having a lie-in this morning.
Anyhoo, welcome to the middle of the week.
In history today:
- 1453 – Fall of Constantinople: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire.
- 1660 – English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.
- 1780 – American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Waxhaws, the British continue attacking after the Continentals lay down their arms, killing 113 and critically wounding all but 53 that remained.
- 1848 – Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
- 1886 – The pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in The Atlanta Journal.
- 1919 – Albert Einstein‘s theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin (see Eddington experiment).
- 1953 – Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay’s (adopted) 39th birthday.
- 1990 – The Russian parliament elects Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
- 2015 – One World Observatory at One World Trade Center opens.
Notable birthdays:
- 1716 – Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, French zoologist and mineralogist (d. 1800)
- 1736 – Patrick Henry, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of Virginia (d. 1799)
- 1894 – Beatrice Lillie, Canadian-English actress, singer and writer (d. 1989)
- 1903 – Bob Hope, English-American actor, singer, and producer (d. 2003)
- 1929 – Peter Higgs, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1956 – La Toya Jackson, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1957 – Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iranian film director
- 1992 – Sarah Moundir, Swiss tennis player
- 1993 – Grete Šadeiko, Estonian heptathlete
Today Hili is pondering her varied responses on catching her reflection in the mirror. I am sure that we all feel the same way.
Cyrus: How do you do on the mirror test?
Hili: It depends on how I feel.
In Polish:
Cyrus: Jak reagujesz na test lustra?
Hili: To zależy jaki mam dzień.
Merilee sent this picture:
And then Jerry sent this one of a cat with a special stegosaurus cut:
From Twitter today:
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
IN MICEhttps://t.co/Tl3A4GjD6K
— justsaysinmice (@justsaysinmice) May 27, 2019
My days of taking fashion seriously are coming to a middle. (the replies are good though)
What can you fit in these? pic.twitter.com/vB3hjbzL06
— Alia / BLM! 🦋 (@LetBenSoloLive) March 14, 2019
Chordate Sex, admittedly not the most inspirational porn ever.
NSFW if you’re a fish. https://t.co/Spu2gwez5l
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) May 28, 2019
There are a lot of RH:PACs out there.
RH;PAC is my favourite pic.twitter.com/cjOM5CNEc7
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) May 28, 2019
The Tailor bird in action
No big deal; just a bird sewing together a bunch of leaves to make a nest. 😮 https://t.co/Bx3kgaREKX https://t.co/sjFtCEEqzu pic.twitter.com/TQIOscReaj
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) May 28, 2019
And an octopus in action
https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/1133269240453185536?s=20
The most chilled-out capybara on the block today
https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/1133231971717435392?s=20
Grumpy cat, gone but not forgotten
https://twitter.com/_youhadonejob1/status/1133342502650466304?s=20
Proof that gay men are God’s Chosen People.
Are you a woman who wants to live longer, be healthier, and be happier? Don't get married and don't have kids: https://t.co/gcxUYtaPsU …
If you're a man, do the opposite.
— Ali A. Rizvi (@aliamjadrizvi) May 28, 2019
I’m not sure if the duck is happy about it.
https://twitter.com/Bob_Animal/status/1133451429677600769?s=20
should the tiny handbags on also be “in Mice”?!
I saw then and thought back of Joliet Jake’s release scene at the start of the Blues Brothers.
Sarah Moundir; I think nobody in Switzerland has ever heard of her, besides her family, friends and close tennis colleagues. But she has a Wikipedia entry!
Regarding the cat, I would choose crying. The owner shouldn’t be a cat owner.
agreed!
I can sort of imagine how the tailor bird evolved her ability to sew. But, it does seem a bit farfetched. I believe an advantage to the approach is that the leaves remain attached to the tree and remain green and strong while the eggs and hatchlings develop.
Sub
They’re dropping like flies on Everest. I hope there hasn’t been anniversary death up there on this day.
The capybara and the puppy napping on the duck are priceless.
What kind of bird is it that did the capybara nostril flip?
It must be a scarlet ibis.
Thanks for the identification. Now I can say that if a scarlet ibis did that to me while I was just sitting there minding my own business, that’s exactly how I’d react too. I mean, what else *could* one do?
A number of animals have “off switch” reactions like this. Most of us know how to chill out a cat by picking it up by the scruff of the neck. I’ve never felt the need to do that with a dog, but don’t they have a similar response? A species of shark has a response like that – which I’ve seen video of being exploited for fitting them with tracking tags. There are probably other example.
The kitten example suggests that at least this example is a parental care adaptation. The shark one is really off.
Those little purses are good for a right dose of deadly cyanide, even a few of them, methinks.
You’ve been reading Agatha Christie again? Otherwise … you have some suspicious internet search history, and BoSS are going to be hammering through your door shortly.
(Is it still BoSS, or are they long renamed?)
A handbag needs only be big enough to carry a diamond or two!
J.D. Robb just wrote about the use of cyanide
in a cocktail drink.
And that running octopus is awesome!
This is a description from Wikipedia “Amphioctopus marginatus, also known as the coconut octopus and veined octopus, is a medium-sized cephalopod belonging to the genus Amphioctopus. It is found in tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean. It commonly preys upon shrimp, crabs, and clams, and displays unusual behavior including bipedal walking and tool use (gathering coconut shells and seashells and using these for shelter).”
Since they are so clever, I can’t but wonder if they get together to make clippety-clop music with the coconut shells. Here’s Michael Palin giving a demonstration on making and using the shells for this purpose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39JOs8VvuQ
We did that in the first grade. It was fun.
OK, the tailor bird is the most remarkable thing I’ve seen in a while (in spite of previous remarks on other things).
Hang on- Constantinople fell???! Sorry – I am clearly a bit behind on the news!
With hindsight probably one of the worst disasters for the West.
But then it is said it was the Fourth crusade, about 250 years earlier, that really broke Byzantium’s back. The Byzantine Empire never recovered significantly.
Historian?
The dog and the duck is the more homely sequel to that stupid frog and scorpion story.
Bob Hope. Hadn’t heard anything regarding him in years. Then one morning he pops up in, as I recall, a Denny’s commercial. Holy crap it’s Bob Hope and he’s still alive. Thanks to the magic of the internet I now realize, since like a couple minutes ago, it apparently was actually a K-Mart commercial haha. Ah the foibles of memory.
The cat in the apple is awesome, but nothing beats Jesus in a d*g’s butt.
https://imgur.com/gallery/qr9Qdcf
Halleujah! I am a believer now that the deity has manifested himself in a dog’s butt.
And thanks, because I collect notices of anomalous and incongruous manifestations of Jesus, and nothing could possibly surpass this miraculous manifestation.
Huh, now the Big Orange Cheese can just wear his McDonald lunch on his head. No need for the faux Swiffer do.
The tailor bird is wonderful!