Sunday: Hili dialogue (and Mietek monologue)

Happy Cat Sabbath: It’s Ceiling Cat’s Day, October 11, 2020: National Sausage Pizza Day, a comestible that clearly isn’t kosher. It’s also Southern Food Heritage Day, World Obesity Day, and Kraken Day, described this way:

Kraken Day, also known as Myths and Legends Day, is part of International Cephalopod Awareness Days, or Cephalopod Awareness Week, which takes place from October 8-12 each year.

Finally, in the U.S. it’s International Day of the Girl Child, International Newspaper Carrier Day (how many readers delivered papers?), and National Coming Out Day. 

News of the Day:

This happened yesterday (the CNN headline was “Trump delivers dark and divisive speech in first major appearance since Covid diagnosis“):

One of the most grotesque spectacles in American history: A desperate, incoherent, steroid-addled infected traitor shits upon the People's House as his racism-crazed cult followers spread a deadly virus for the chance to get to see him.[📷 @erinscottphoto] pic.twitter.com/Phmr7Et0n5

— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) October 10, 2020

People wore masks, though the first thing Il Duce did when he appeared was to publicly peel off his mask, a clear signal; but there was no social distancing. Trump’s doctor (I don’t trust him) says he’s cleared to interact with people and is “no longer a transmission risk”, but still won’t say if he’s tested negative for the virus. And that surely means that he hasn’t tested negative.

The Washington Post reports that an after-midnight military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, featured the largest liquid-fueled, road-mobile nuclear missile anyone’s ever seen. Apparently it can carry several nuclear warheads that can be delivered inter-continentally, but the Great Leader says that it’s only for deterrence.  Here’s a photo, but I always wonder how experts can tell these are real missiles rather than dummies:

A strident atheist proclaims, “I’m ready for an atheist president”—in Cosmopolitan, of all places! (h/t Barry) An excerpt:

We may think of ourselves as “one nation, under God” (that lil phrase was only added to our pledge of allegiance in 1954, btw), but right now, nothing about our nation is feeling whole, one. Our insistence on religion as a unifying American principle feels just as outdated and illusory as the notion of civility in the White House. And when politicians wield their faith as a means to convince voters that they’re “good,” it strikes me as downright condescending.

Good news! LiveScience reports that, after Tasmanian devils disappeared from the Australian continent about 3,500 years ago, probably outcompeted by dingos, they’re back on the mainland again (see also National Geographic).

Aussie Ark, a wildlife nonprofit in Australia, has been breeding and studying Tasmanian devils for more than a decade, with the goal of eventually reintroducing devils into the wild once conditions were sustainable for their survival, according to the statement. For the recent release, Aussie Ark partnered with GWC and WildArk, another wildlife conservation nonprofit; they released 11 Tasmanian devils on Sept. 10. (h/t Sue)

The wild devils in Tasmania have been hit hard by a contagious face cancer, transmitted by bites from other devils, but the released population on the mainland is cancer-free, so there’s no chance that an expanded population will be afflicted by the disease. You go, o lovely fierce marsupials!

The New York Times has a figure and a list of coronavirus cases in American colleges and universities. Right now the total is more than 178,000 cases at 1400+ colleges. Ohio State seems to hold the record, with 3,051 reported cases, but it has a huge enrollment—66,400 or so. The University of Wisconsin at Madison is only ten cases behind Ohio State (enrollment: 43,820), but clearly has a higher infection rate. The University of Chicago is on the low side, with 79 reported cases (enrollment: 14,467 counting grad students), and I hope it stays that way.

Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 214,184, an increase of about 600 deaths over yesterday’s report. The world death toll remains at “1.0 million +”, with 4,646 deaths reported yesterday.

Stuff that happened on October 11 includes:

• 1531 – Huldrych Zwingli is killed in battle with the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland.
• 1767 – Surveying for the Mason–Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.

Here’s the Mason-Dixon line [dark red] from the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Surveyed to resolve a border dispute, it later became the informal line of demarcation between slave states in the South and free states in the North.

• 1852 – The University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
• 1906 – San Francisco sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan by ordering segregated schools for Japanese students.
• 1954 – In accord with the 1954 Geneva Conference, French troops complete their withdrawal from North Vietnam.
• 1962 – The Second Vatican Council becomes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
• 1968 – NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission.
• 1976 – George Washington is posthumously promoted to the grade of General of the Armies.

That took long enough, and what was accomplished by it?

• 1984 – Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

Here’s an short interview with Sullivan that shows scenes from her space walk (trigger warning: d*g!)

• 1991 – Prof. Anita Hill delivers her televised testimony concerning sexual harassment during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination.

Hill, now 64, teaches at Brandeis University and a works as a lawyer with the Civil Rights and Employment Practice group of the plaintiffs’ law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll. And of course we all remember the tense standoff between her, Clarence Thomas, and the Senate.  Here’s Joe Biden, who gave Hill a hard time during the hearings, asking her to say “Long Dong Silver”. It didn’t matter, but I did and do believe that Hill was telling the truth.

Notables born on this day include:

• 1844 – Henry J. Heinz, American businessman, founded the H. J. Heinz Company (d. 1919)
• 1918 – Jerome Robbins, American director, producer, and choreographer (d. 1998)
• 1925 – Elmore Leonard, American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
• 1937 – Bobby Charlton, English footballer and manager

There’s a good FIFA  video about Charlton, who played for Manchester United most of his career. You can see it on Youtube by clicking on the screenshot below (I can’t embed the video; it’s FIFA!):

• 1946 – Daryl Hall, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1968 – Jane Krakowski, American actress and singer

Those who met their Just Reward on October 11 include:

• 1779 – Casimir Pulaski, Polish-American general (b. 1745)
• 1809 – Meriwether Lewis, American captain, explorer, and politician, 2nd Governor of Louisiana Territory (b. 1774)
• 1940 – Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (b. 1860)
• 1961 – Chico Marx, American comedian (b. 1887)
• 1963 – Jean Cocteau, French author, poet, and playwright (b. 1889)
• 1965 – Dorothea Lange, American photographer and journalist (b. 1895)

Lange became well known for her photographs of people affected by the Great Depression, taken for the Farm Security Administration . Here’s one of them:

• 1971 – Chesty Puller, American general (b. 1898)
• 1991 – Redd Foxx, American actor and comedian (b. 1922)
• 2019 – Alexei Leonov, Soviet/Russian cosmonaut and first human to conduct a spacewalk (b. 1934)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili likes to be admired, but not out in the open, where there may be d*gs. Here she is down by the Vistula:

Hili: Open spaces make me anxious.

A: Why?

Hili: Everybody can see me

Hili: Otwarte przestrzenie budzą niepokój.

Ja: Dlaczego?

Hili: Wszyscy mnie widzą.

In nerby Wloclawek, Mietek the kitten is no longer a kitten. He’s an adult cat, and showing all the signs of it.

Mietek: What do you mean that I had dinner already?!!!

A Halloween meme from Nicole:

From Jesus of the Day; time to rectify the deficit of penguins in STEM:

And speaking once again about flies (I have to hand it to Pence—he’s made flies great again!), here’s a cat/fly meme from The Cat House on the Kings:

From Titania. This statement might sound ridiculous, but in fact it is the sentiment of some of the Woke:

If you only have sex with people you find attractive, you might want to ask yourself why you’re such a superficial bigot.

— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) October 9, 2020

I’m highlighting the second tweet below (I can’t figure out how to embed a single tweet in a thread). It shows Trump making another ridiculous statement (at the end). I guess he hasn’t heard of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the first video also shows one of his unhinged moments.

Asked what he wants to accomplish in a second term, Trump says "I have done more for Black community than any president except Abraham Lincoln." He remains unable to answer this extremely basic question. pic.twitter.com/c9NWho6QLX

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2020

A tweet from Barry. Notice how the beasts become bipedal before the hit. As Barry says, “That’s gotta hurt!”, but I’m not so sure:

من قوة النطحة وقف الاثنان ليستوعبان ما حدث 😂.. pic.twitter.com/8rjcw1fQcq

— Powerful (@Powerful_73) October 9, 2020

From Simon, the first animation I’ve seen from The Lincoln Project. Sound up. A “Walk of Shame” usually refers to a college woman sneaking back to her dorm or sorority house after spending a night with a guy, wearing the same clothes she wore the previous evening.

The Walk of Shame. pic.twitter.com/GoIjL271SW

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 9, 2020

A lovely carving by a talented carver:

Hot out of the workshop Mr Fox it’s been a bit of a struggle really as the dark stipe of grain turned up late into the carving so had to figure a way round or through it.
He slept all the way through 🙄 pic.twitter.com/BT1uaisIzB

— Peter (@woodcarver_t) October 9, 2020

This is the most enlightened society ever:

In my neighbourhood in Brussels you can apply to the local council for a licence to feed stray cats, and now it's the only ID card I'll ever use pic.twitter.com/Up8iwnOYhM

— 🌠John Hyphen (yuletide)🌲 (@JohnHyphen) October 1, 2020

LOL, a climbing frame:

Previously an imposing, feared and respected leader of the farm, all of this hard-won status tragically evaporated, once he was demoted to what amounts to a glorified goats climbing frame… pic.twitter.com/4Sc9NiAOJW

— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) October 10, 2020

More than one scholar has written me in the past week saying I was right about denying that Arab scholars anticipated Darwin’s theory of evolution hundreds of years before The Origin. And here’s another one.

Sorry, but Muslim scholars did 𝒏𝒐𝒕 write about evolution, let alone natural selection, 1000 yrs before Darwin …
"A Thousand Years Before Darwin, Islamic Scholars Were Writing About Natural Selection" https://t.co/H7uUOJCygH via @vice

— Sean W. Anthony (@shahanSean) October 9, 2020