Monday: Hili dialogue

March 29, 2021 • 6:30 am

It’s Monday, March 29, 2021: Jerry Goes to Texas Day! Posting may be very light for the next ten days or so, but I’ll certainly post the Hili dialogues and will try to post BBQ pictures. The photo below represents my first destination, and don’t kvetch about the saltines, which are common in Texas BBQ joints. Brisket and sausages are de rigueur, and your sides back then included either a pickle or whole raw onion.

It’s also National Chiffon Cake Day, but bugger that, for if all goes well I’ll be stuffing barbecued brisket into my maw before the sun goes down. Besides that, it’s Texas Love The Children Day (well, they putting them in pods at the border), National Vietnam War Veterans Day, Smoke and Mirrors Day, and Piano Day.

News of the Day:

First, a pet peeve: The news on television last night did not say, as it should have, “yesterday 3.3 million people were vaccinated.” No, they said, “Yesterday there were 3.3 million shots in arms.” This is both a neologism and synecdoche.  (A similar example is “boots on the ground”  for “soldiers”.) Does the news do this to seem cool, using a particular language fad?

The violence continues in Myanmar, with dozens more people reportedly gunned down, including mourners attending the funeral of a civilian killed the day before. Meanwhile, the thug generals attended a gala celebrating Armed Forces Day. Over 400 citizens have been killed in the latest protests.

The New York Times reports that the editor of the Journal of the American Association (JAMA) has been placed on leave for a remark made not by him, but by a deputy editor, a remark considered racist:

The controversy began when Dr. Ed Livingston, a deputy editor, said on a Feb. 24 podcast that structural racism no longer existed in the United States.

“Structural racism is an unfortunate term,” said Dr. Livingston, who is white. “Personally, I think taking racism out of the conversation will help. Many people like myself are offended by the implication that we are somehow racist.”

The podcast was promoted with a tweet from the journal that said, “No physician is racist, so how can there be structural racism in health care?” The response to both was swift and angry, prompting the journal to take down the podcast and delete the tweet.

Livingston resigned, but now main editor above him has been deep-sixed.

Franco is still dead, and the container ship “Ever Given” (no, not “Evergreen,” which is the company, not the ship) is still stuck in the Suez Canal. Dredging and tugboats moved the ship an angle of two degrees—about 100 feet), but the bow is still stuck fast. Officials hope that the spring tide associated with a full moon will help. But some ships have already bailed and headed for Cape of Good Hope:

Some ships have already decided not to wait, U-turning to take the long way around the southern tip of Africa, a voyage that could add weeks to the journey and mean more than $26,000 a day in fuel costs.

If the Ever Given breaks free by Monday, the shipping industry can absorb the inconvenience, analysts said, but beyond that, supply chains and consumers could start to see major disruptions.

Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 548,867, an increase of “just” 487 deaths over yesterday’s figure.  The reported world death toll stands a 2,797,380, an increase of about 6,500 deaths over yesterday’s total. 

Stuff that happened on March 29 includes:

  • 845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
  • 1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.
  • 1857 – Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry mutinies against the East India Company’s rule in India and inspires the protracted Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.
  • 1867 – Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes Canada on July 1.
  • 1871 – Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
  • 1945 – World War II: The German 4th Army is almost destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.
  • 1951 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.

This photo was taken at the courthouse after the conviction. They were both executed by electrocution on June 19, 1953.

  • 1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
  • 1971 – My Lai Massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
  • 1973 – Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
  • 1974 – Terracotta Army was discovered in Shaanxi province, China.

There are more than 8,000 life-sized figures in this army, which were made and buried with  Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, in the third century BC. Here’s one of the three pits containing the figures:

  • 2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed.
  • 2017 – Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union, formally beginning the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. 

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1790 – John Tyler, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the United States (d. 1862)
  • 1867 – Cy Young, American baseball player and manager (d. 1955)
  • 1899 – Lavrentiy Beria, Georgian-Russian general and politician (d. 1953)
  • 1916 – Eugene McCarthy, American poet and politician (d. 2005)
  • 1918 – Sam Walton, American businessman, founded Walmart and Sam’s Club (d. 1992)
  • 1929 – Richard Lewontin, American biologist, geneticist, and academic

Dick is 92 today. Here’s a photo from 2017, when I paid a visit to Dick at his assisted living facility and showed him proper homage:

  • 1943 – Eric Idle, English actor and comedian
  • 1955 – Marina Sirtis, British-American actress

Here’s Counselor Troi in 2012, pointing out her tattoo of my own favorite team, Spurs:

Marina Sirtis at the 2012 Phoenix Comicon.
  • 1964 – Elle Macpherson, Australian model and actress
  • 1972 – Priti Patel, British Indian politician, Secretary of State for the Home Department

Those who succumbed on March 29 include:

  • 1772 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish astronomer, philosopher, and theologian (b. 1688)
  • 1912 – Robert Falcon Scott, English lieutenant and explorer (b. 1868)
  • 2016 – Patty Duke, American actress (b. 1946)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili remains mum for fear of being canceled:

Hili: I will not comment.
A: Why?
Hili: I could say too much.
In Polish:
Hili: Nie będę się wypowiadała.
Ja: Dlaczego?
Hili: Bo mogłabym powiedzieć za dużo.

Three pictures by Paulina of Kulka making mischief:

From Bruce. Well, the morphology is close. . .

From Nicole:

From Jesus of the Day:

A tweet from Barry. Who says that animals don’t play or experience pleasure?

Tweets from Matthew. The first is a lovely nature post he retweeted, showing that ducks always have the right of way:

x

Two Tik Toks, but Matthew wanted me to see the second one. OPOSSUM WINS!

Matthew loves capybaras as much as I love ducks:

As Matthew says, “MEEP! MEEP!”

Lots of good cat tweets on this thread:

28 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

    3. That’s triggering for me. A friend and I once set a pub quiz and one of the questions was “what is the southern most tip of South America?” The official “the quiz master is always right” answer was the Cape of Good Hope. We got into some trouble for that.

      Reply

  2. The racism debate seems to have devolved into two positions: all whites are racist, and racism doesn’t exist.

    Missing: thoughtful analysis of individual situations, complexity, ambiguity, self-reflection.

    And the search for simple answers continues unabated.

    L

    Reply

  3. This trip is a big deal after your year of quarantine. Have a safe trip and please consider participating in the karting experience offered at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

    Reply

  4. “how can there be structural racism in health care?”
    Perhaps the point is poverty, not race per se? Structural poverty certainly leads to bad health. Any data on health per income group?

    Reply

    2. Reminds me of the joke of a few years ago:

      – Tell me, do you enjoy watching football at all?

      – No, not really, I’m a Spurs supporter.

      🙂

      Reply

  9. This photo was taken at the courthouse after the conviction. They [Julius and Ethel Rosenberg] were both executed by electrocution on June 19, 1953.

    I’d say Ms. Streep played a pretty good Mrs. Rosenberg (or, technically, I suppose, Mrs. Rosenberg’s ghost) when she showed up to help say Kaddish upon the death of Al Pacino’s Roy Cohn in Mike Nichols’s screen adaptation of of Tony Kushner’s play Angels Over America. Some mensch, that Mrs. Rosenberg in this scene, given the history between them:

    Reply

  12. War criminal Lt. William Calley was convicted and given a life sentence for his involvement in the My Lai mass murder of 350-500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians, including the elderly, children, and women, some of whom were raped. Calley received successive reductions in sentence and served only 3 years in detention, under house arrest, before release. Soldiers in his unit testified that Calley personally executed between 20 and 100 civilians rounded up the day of the massacre.

    Reply

    1. Calley enjoyed widespread public support and there were even demands to create a William Calley Day in his honor. Jimmy Carter reacted by creating American Fighting Man’s Day instead, asked citizens to drive a week with their lights on and stated that Calley had been unfairly scapegoated.

      Reply

    1. They can say “fully vaccinated” vs. “received vaccinations” or “received shots” but I take your larger point.

      Reply

  14. Have a great trip Jerry. I am looking forward to seeing photos of the Texas fare you will be enjoying. All the best.

    Reply

  15. From Jerry’s Today’s History

    1945 – World War II: The German 4th Army is almost destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.

    The word ‘again’ should be added to this. How many times was the German 4th Army in W.W.II destroyed by the Soviet’s, 3,4 times?

    Reply

    1. Yeah…I think it was only a meager morale booster in the end. The 4th Army is still alive! When it was probably scrap tanks and lories with no leader.

      Reply

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