Thursday: Hili dialogue (and Kulka monologue)

Good morning as we rush toward the “weekend”: it’s September 24, 2020, and National Cherries Jubilee Day, a dessert I’ve never had. It’s also Gallbladder Good Health Day (?), National Punctuation Day, Kiss Day (severe restrictions this year), and National Bluebird of Happiness Day, which prompts me to violate protocol and post this classic Gary Larson cartoon:

News of the Day: Tonight at 8 pm, on many PBS stations in the U.S., there’s a special on RBG (see below). Check your local station for details. (h/t Blue).

Here’s Ginsburg’s memorial service, a very short one, at the Supreme Court, as broadcast by CBS News:

The big news, of course, is that only one of three police officers involved in the killing of Louisville resident Breonna Taylor has been charged, and only with “wanton endangerment”: firing a shot that went into an adjacent apartment. This decision prompted widespread protest in Louisville, as well as in other cities (including Chicago) Two Louisville police officers were shot during the protests; both will be okay and a suspect is in custody.

As if we don’t have enough troubles, Thomas Edsall, in a long op-ed at the New York Times, discusses “Five things Biden and his allies should be worried about.”  An excerpt:

Robert Griffin, the research director at the nonpartisan Democracy Study Voter Study Group, provided data to The Times on trends in suburbia that show a very modestly fluctuating line from last January into this month. Biden’s advantage over Trump ranged from 9.7 to 12.0 percentage points.

“I’m not seeing any substantial changes since January,” Griffin noted by email.

Why, then, should there be any doubt about the outcome on Nov. 3?

Let’s take a look at the answers in the order listed above. . . .

BUT, this might bring a bit of cheer: the election forecast from FiveThirtyEight:

But, back to anxiety, remember this, too (second tweet), Trump won’t agree to concede if he loses. More on this later today.

Q: Will you commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the election?

TRUMP: "We're gonna have to see what happens." pic.twitter.com/Dzj7Q9ZJqv

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 23, 2020

For something light, here’s a nice article on Erno Rubik, inventor of the eponymous Cube, talking about the history of his ever-popular invention. I didn’t realize that the world record for solving the cube is 3.47 seconds, despite the fact that there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 ways to arrange the squares.

Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 201,822, an increase of about 1,100 deaths over yesterday’s report. The world death toll now stands 975,841, an increase of about 6,400 deaths from yesterday. And we’re approaching a million deaths worldwide., which is likely to happen within a week. 

Stuff that happened on September 24 includes:

• 787 – Second Council of Nicaea: The council assembles at the church of Hagia Sophia.
• 1789 – The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act, creating the office of the Attorney General and federal judiciary system and ordering the composition of the Supreme Court.
• 1890 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially renounces polygamy.
• 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument.
• 1929 – Jimmy Doolittle performs the first flight without a window, proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.

Read more about that flight here and here, and below is a photo; the hood is covering the second seat from which Doolittle piloted the plane.  But there was a guy in the front seat; did he give any directions?

• 1932 – Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar agree to the Poona Pact, which reserved seats in the Indian provincial legislatures for the “Depressed Classes” (Untouchables).
• 1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded.
• 1960 – USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched.
• 2015 – At least 1,100 people are killed and another 934 wounded after a stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
• 2019 – An impeachment inquiry is initiated by the United States House of Representatives against President Donald Trump.

Notables born on this day include:

• 1893 – Blind Lemon Jefferson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1929)

Here’s Blind Lemon singing one of his famous songs, “”Black snake moan”, the title of a 2006 movie. He died at 36.

• 1896 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1940)

Fitzgerald is one of my literary heroes. Although he couldn’t spell worth a damn, he could write like a dream. Here he is with Zelda on their honeymoon in 1920. He died of a heart attack at only 44.  It was because of him that I wanted to go to Princeton, but my folks told me they didn’t have enough money to send me. So I went to a much cheaper state school: William and Mary. And I’m glad I didn’t go to Princeton!

• 1898 – Howard Florey, Australian pharmacologist and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)

Florey, Chain, and Fleming shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1945. It’s estimated that their discovery saved some 200 million lives. 200 million!

• 1905 – Severo Ochoa, Spanish–American physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
• 1923 – Fats Navarro, American trumpet player and composer (d. 1950)
• 1936 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, producer and screenwriter, created The Muppets (d. 1990)

Notables who struck out on September 24 were few, and include:

• 768 – Pepin the Short, Frankish king (b. 714)
• 1541 – Paracelsus, German-Swiss physician, botanist, and chemist (b. 1493)
• 1991 – Dr. Seuss, American children’s book writer, poet, and illustrator (b. 1904)
• 2016 – Buckwheat Zydeco, American accordionist and bandleader (b. 1947)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn: Hili remembers the good old days.

Hili: Life was easier in the past.

A: When?

Hili: Last Friday.

And we have our first Kulka monologue, as she joins Szaron on the shelf on the veranda.

Kulka: You will not be alone on this shelf.

From Stash Krod, a Dr. Seussian cat-and-d*g meme:

A cat meme from Nicole:

From Pets Emergency Hospital via Stephen Barnard:

Titania continues her perpetual series on things that have been deemed racist:

THINGS THAT ARE RACIST
(part 28)

• National parks
• Smiling
• Aliens
• Beer pic.twitter.com/BDPaV62fIK

— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) September 23, 2020

A tweet from Simon (I may have posted this before), who said, “That duck must be quackers.” Rechavi gives it an academic spin, as is his wont.

Newbie to academic politics pic.twitter.com/Kyg24csLzv

— Oded Rechavi 🦉 (@OdedRechavi) September 23, 2020

Tweets from Matthew. Here’s the record-breaking women’s surf ride, not that much different from the men’s record:

You can read about Maya's experience riding the wave and how she's battled through injuries to now end up breaking her own previous record! https://t.co/D8Dtz4zRYZ

— Guinness World Records 2021 Out Now (@GWR) September 10, 2020

Look at this adorable porcupines!

Crested #porcupine family, captured at one of our wild dog shared marking sites, with funding from St Louis Zoo and the @leopardess_foundation

Just look at those little baby feet going double time 😍#cameratrap pic.twitter.com/PK9ZkdbnxX

— PredatorConservation (@BPCTcamp) September 22, 2020

Oh, come on! This guy is covered with something sticky!

That’s extraordinary: #Iranian man has an ability to make any object stick to him pic.twitter.com/uIUvTcnL9b

— RT (@RT_com) September 22, 2020

I don’t think this cheetah is going to get lunch:

̶Z̶e̶b̶r̶a̶ ̶c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ✘
Impala / cheetah crossing ✔ pic.twitter.com/2fkXDR9p7k

— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) May 27, 2019

We did stuff like this in grad school, but never this elaborate:

Grad school is about working hard and doing science, but sometimes it's also about wrapping up your friend's desk in an entire roll of wrapping paper pic.twitter.com/nfGWywC5C9

— David Berardo (@CentrlPotential) September 16, 2020

Ceiling Cat bless this Serbian man (even though he was drunk). Ćevapi are grilled sausages made from minced meat, and they’re good: just the ticket when you’re loaded.

A Bosnian man caught by the cops drunk and asleep at the wheel was hauled into the police station and given the right to make one free phone call. He called a ćevapi delivery service — and ordered everyone a portion! This is the kind of Bosnian hospitality I know and love! https://t.co/3zhnvnrJPB

— Valerie Hopkins (@VALERIEin140) September 22, 2020