Monday: Hili dialogue (and Kulka monologue)

Good morning on Monday, March 15, 2021: the Ides of March and National Peanut Lover’s Day. Again with the singular possessive: who is the single peanut lover being feted?

It’s also National National Pears Hélène Day (pears poached with red wine and named after Offenbach’s operetta La belle Hélène), World Consumer Rights Day, Fill Our Staplers Day (always a good idea), National Brutus Day (it is, after all, the Ides of March), and Everything You Think is Wrong Day.

News of the Day:

When I drove to the grocery store at 7 a.m. yesterday, the street in front of the UC Hospital’s emergency room was blocked off by cop cars at both ends. There were many other cop cars with lights flashing, and a group of people milled around outside the ER door. I had never seen anything like this before. It turns out that there were multiple shootings yesterday on the South Side, where the University of Chicago and its hospital are located. One of the incidents, which I suspect caused the fracas I saw, involved an early-morning mass shooting at a party that wounded 15 and killed 2. So far this weekend—and I’m writing this at about 6 pm on Sunday—31 people have been shot in Chicago, and 7 of them died. The carnage is unbelievable.

According to CBS News, 34% of Republicans will not be taking the coronavirus vaccine. Assuming that Republicans are about half the electorate, that puts us at about 83% of the population vaccinated—barely on the border of herd immunity. Compare that to only 10% refuseniks among Democrats. What can you conclude from this comparison? To quote Dr. Seuss yours truly:

Republicans won’t take the shot;
“They’ll microchip me!” is their thought.
But Democrats are far, far wiser:
They line up for their jabs from Pfizer.

Is Meghan Markle planning a political career in the U.S., including a run for the Presidency? So says The Daily Fail:

One senior Labour figure – a veteran of Tony Blair‘s Downing Street administration with strong links to Washington – claimed to The Mail on Sunday that Ms Markle, 39, was networking among senior Democrats with a view to building a campaign and fundraising teams for a tilt at the US Presidency.

Last night, a source close to the Duchess of Sussex declined to comment, but the couple have made little secret of their political beliefs.

No way! But then again, Arnold Schwarzenegger became the governor of California. . .

Last night Billy Strings, a product of Michigan, won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album with his release of “Home.” (See my posts about him here and here.)

Shoot Me Now Department. A NYT essay combines decent pictures with absolutely dreadful and overheated prose/poetry, in a nostalgic piece on dancing in clubs and its absence during the pandemic. The writing is absolutely DIRE, with the text, by Wisher, so self-consciously saccharine as to be indigestible. But read it (click on screenshot). The headline is of course clickbait, and I bit:

Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 534,476, an increase of just {well, “just” may not be a good word) 572 deaths over yesterday’s figure—a very low number.  The reported world death toll stands at 2,666,125 an increase of about about 5,700 deaths over yesterday’s total. 

Stuff that happened on March 15 includes:

• 44 BC – The assassination of Julius Caesar takes place.

Caesar was stabbed 23 times, but a post-mortem examination (the first in history) determined that only one of them would have been fatal, and that Caesar died from blood loss. A depiction sans blood:

• 1564 – Mughal Emperor Akbar abolishes the jizya tax on non-Muslim subjects.
• 1877 – First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.

Here’s the English cricket team for that match, and a hirsute bunch they are (only one lacks facial hair):

• 1916 – United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
• 1917 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne, ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty.

The Tsar, of course, was executed, along with his family and his retainers, in 1918. Here he is with the Wikipedia caption: “Emperor Nicholas II of Russia with his physically similar cousin, King George V of the United Kingdom (right), wearing German military uniforms in Berlin before the war; 1913.”

• 1927 – The first Women’s Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.

Here’s a short silent film (talkies were introduced that year) of the race, with Cambridge clobbering Oxford by three lengths:

• 1939 – Germany occupies Czechoslovakia.
• 1965 – President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress “We shall overcome” while advocating the Voting Rights Act.
• 1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.
• 2019 – Beginning of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.

Notables born on this day include several musicians:

• 1767 – Andrew Jackson, American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States (d. 1845)
• 1912 – Lightnin’ Hopkins, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1982)

Here’s Lightnin’ playing “Baby, Please Don’t Go”:

• 1933 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, American lawyer and judge (d. 2020)

I found this photo of RBG, who, at only 15, was giving a sermon as chief rabbi at the Jewish Summer camp Camp Che-Na-Wa in Minerva, NY (collection US Supreme Court):

• 1935 – Jimmy Swaggart, American pastor and television host

Here’s Jimmy confessing his sins to his congregation in 1988 (the audio cuts out at times, but he starts bawling four minutes in).  He was more or less defrocked after two affairs with prostitutes (you can see one of those hookers discussing Swaggart here).

• 1940 – Phil Lesh, American bassist
• 1941 – Mike Love, American singer-songwriter and musician
• 1943 – Sly Stone, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
• 1947 – Ry Cooder, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Those who succumbed on March 15 include:

• 44 BC – Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman (b. 100 BC)

• 1898 – Henry Bessemer, English engineer and businessman (b. 1813)
• 1937 – H. P. Lovecraft, American short story writer, editor, and novelist (b. 1890)
• 1959 – Lester Young, American saxophonist and clarinet player (b. 1909)

Here’s classic Prez, dextrous but with a light tone, and endlessly inventive, playing “Mean to Me” the year before he died:

• 1975 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek-Argentinian businessman (b. 1906)
• 1983 – Rebecca West, English author and critic (b. 1892)
• 1998 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author (b. 1903)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is showing off her vocabulary:

Hili: I have to figure out new strategies.

A: And what are your aims?

Hili: Reconnaissance of the situation and quick action depending on what I see.

Hili: Muszę rozważyć nowe strategie.

Ja: A jakie masz cele?

Hili: Rozpoznanie sytuacji i szybkie działanie w reakcji na to co zobaczę.

Here’s little Kulka, scuttling about as usual. This is our first Kulka monologue.

Kulka: So what if I’m hiding under the bed?

Philosopher Maarten Boudry sent a photo of his adorable teenage tuxedo kitten Winston Purrchill, adding “Greeting from a pawless Winston (doesn’t he look like a trophy head?)”

From Bruce, who says this is a dog who has dragged the sprinkler through the doggy door:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Facebook: Dogs and the time change:

Titania’s started posting a “Titania Educates” series in which she reproduces some of her Twitter exchanges. Some of these are hilarious:

IMPORTANT THREAD 🧵👇

I am an activist. I am a healer. But above all, I am an educator.

So I thought I would compile some examples of when I successfully re-educated the masses…

— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) March 14, 2021

TITANIA EDUCATES
(part 15) pic.twitter.com/Bvry0QKXNj

— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) March 14, 2021

This came from several readers, thanks to all:

Lmao I’m definitely cat 3 😂🤣😭

You? 👀 pic.twitter.com/rL1x3Gosky

— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) March 13, 2021

From Simon. Tyson is being a real nerd here:

I want to eat Pizza at this place on #PiDay.https://t.co/BfYxsxusxV

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 14, 2021

From Barry. This is incredibly sweet.

When he calls, the Asian elephants he helped rescue come running.

pic.twitter.com/8g7hnFGB83

— Jim and Chuck 🏳️‍🌈 👬🐻🌪🌊🌎 (@fireman452a) March 8, 2021

A nice audio of Mars from Perseverance. Matthew notes, “Sadly, the lasers don’t go pew pew pew.”

A distant, lonely wind…interrupted only by the sounds of laser strikes. @NASAPersevere’s SuperCam instrument has recorded the sound of wind on Mars, along with the laser used to gather information about the structure of rocks in Jezero Crater. Listen in: https://t.co/ARA6E0XDdc pic.twitter.com/4WnowHwVZx

— NASA Mars (@NASAMars) March 10, 2021

More wind on Mars. Is there a wind noise with no ears or microphones to hear it? Answer: NO! Noise depends on a receiver.

Things are sounding really good here. Listen to the first sounds of wind captured by my SuperCam microphone. This mic is located at the top of my mast. For this recording, my mast was still down so the sound is a bit muffled. https://t.co/0KpN30oIro

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) March 10, 2021

Finally, Matthew says, “They couldn’t draw cats 120 years ago either.” Indeed!

Apparently there wasn't much competition for natural history illustration jobs c.1900 pic.twitter.com/yPGNLYANRY

— Dr Vanessa (@HPS_Vanessa) March 10, 2021