Greetings on Saturday, April 3, 2021: National Chocolate Mousse Day. Here’s a specimen from Nelson’s Candies in New Hampshire (only $7.95):
Remember, tomorrow is Easter, so be sure to scarf those chocolate eggs. You can send all your spare Marshmallow Peeps® to me.
News of the Day:
I haven’t been paying attention to the news, and so just learned, after everyone else had, that a guy rammed his car into police officers at the U.S. Capitol, killing one and injuring another. He then exited his car brandishing a knife, and was shot dead. All we know about him is that he was a 25-year-old named Noah Green from Indiana, and was a follower of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. The police are not considering this an act of terrorism.
HuffPost also reports on this story, and links to the New York Times report given above, but leaves out one detail: that the suspect, Noah Green, was a follower of the Nation of Islam and its leader Louis Farrakhan.
Troubles continue in Myanmar: yesterday security forces killed at least five protestors, bringing the death toll to over 550 since the coup on February 1 (the regime, which is also arresting journalists, forbids them to use the word “coup”). They’ve shut down the Internet and begun arresting social influencers. Is Myanmar going the way of North Korea? I doubt it, for the people aren’t putting up with this and continue to rebel.
I am saddened to report that reader Jez’s toothless cat Marcus Clawrelius, whom we met last September, passed away suddenly on Thursday. Here’s a final photo of Marcus sitting in a flower pot in the garden last week. Our condolences.
Bret Stephens has an article in the NYT about a Holocaust survivor, Buba Weisz Sajovits, who’s still alive and is making disturbing but moving paintings about her experience as a child in Auschwitz (her sister Icu also survived). Go have a look at the paintings, their explanation, and Sajovits’s story.
Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 553,554, an increase of 961 deaths over yesterday’s figure. The reported world death toll stands at 2,852,987, an increase of about 10,300.
Hili is still not comfortable with Szaron, but the good news is that she’s stopped hissing at both Szaron and Kulka, and even touches noses with them.
Hili: This is not a good scene.A: Why?Hili: You have a superfluous cat in the frame.
Hili: To nie jest dobre ujęcie.Ja: Dlaczego?Hili: Masz zbędnego kota w kadrze.
A meme from Nicole (I don’t know the cartoonist):
And remember. . . . tomorrow is Easter!
Here’s a video posted on the FB page Jesus of the Day. It’s from Match.com and shows Satan going datin’!
From Luana. I’ll dedicate this one to the Society for the Study of Evolution, which has announced that human sex is not binary.
About to publish my 10,000 word treatise in Quillette about why sex IS in fact a spectrum after all. Compiling all the evidence has truly been a monumental task. Sneak peak figure below.
Stay tuned! 🤗 pic.twitter.com/AN6CVHhQjQ
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) April 1, 2021
A tweet from Barry, who notes, “What a great invention! This woman deserves to make a million bucks from this (I’m sure cats will like this too).”
I built a chair for needy pets that always want to sit next to you. pic.twitter.com/loTmxmsnQ5
— Simone Giertz (@SimoneGiertz) March 30, 2021
Tweets from Matthew. In honor of the beginning of the 2021 baseball season, here are two tweets about Rube Waddell, a very good pitcher who played at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. He was a famous eccentric, too. The stories are true, because I read about him when I was young.
i am crying laughing pic.twitter.com/Pl1lCDaVBf
— Sam Fishell (@SamFishell) April 2, 2021
Charging ducks!
The Charge of the Flight Brigade. pic.twitter.com/AtJaekQlBd
— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) April 2, 2021
One of Matthew’s tweets; you may want to respond to his query. Oddly, I’ve never had any dreams in which I was naked, but plenty of dreams in which I have an exam to take but either haven’t studied or can’t find the exam room.
Anxiety dreams where we are naked in inappropriate places are very common. What were our anxiety dreams when we didn’t wear any or many clothes?
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) April 2, 2021
A GIANT KAFKA HEAD THAT MOVES! Isn’t this cool?
This sculpture of Franz Kafka's head created by artist David Černý in Prague weighs 45 tons and it's fully self-rotating [source, full video: https://t.co/qvypLjEtPA] pic.twitter.com/nH65Zdz8t1
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 2, 2021
Dick Cavett interviews Paul Simon about how Simon wrote “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. It’s fascinating: the song includes snippets from Bach and gospel music.
I have never seen a songwriter break down — note by note — the process by which he wrote a tune like @PaulSimonMusic does here with “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. (1970)
What a joyful exchange. 🙏🏼
(via @jfreewright @PaulEWalsh) @openculture pic.twitter.com/cR1DqR5IjA
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) April 1, 2021
Sad to hear about poor Marcus.
😿😿
Yes, sorry Jez about the loss of your friend. We lost a dog on 3/1 suddenly from cancer; he was only 7. I still think about him every day, but after a month, the sting is not as bad. Only time can heal grief.
Photo from just last week? It looks like he had a great life, even some final outdoor sunshine. Sorry for you furry loss.
Thanks, everyone. I’ve replied at #10 below.
I think I heard the real story just the other day. Jesus sacrificed a weekend for us.
Not even a whole weekend. He was back to life by early Sunday morning.
Do you still have these anxiety dreams of not being prepared for an exam or not being able to find the exam room now, some 40-50 years after your last exam? If so are you your current age or do you appear as your student age?
I still dream that I can’t remember my locker combination and I haven’t had a locker since 8th grade.
I don’t think I do, but generally I have anxiety dreams appropriate to my stage in life. When I was raising young children they tended to be about one of them getting into grave danger, and no one else seemed to care.
It’s thirty years since I was a university lecturer, but I still have anxiety dreams of being in front of a class with no idea what I am going to say.
Same here after 12 years away from the classroom.
20 years after law school I *still* dream of being late for an exam.
D.A.
NYC
The guy at the Capital yesterday that killed one Capital policeman was mentally disturbed. Surprise, surprise. Had the fencing not been taken down a week earlier, this would very likely not happened. Thanks, Republicans.
So sad to hear about Marcus Clawrelius. The photo of him in the flower pot is really lovely.
Jez, so sorry for your loss of Marcus. A sudden loss is so difficult.
Brilliant Satan ad!
If the fellow had been any stripe of non-leftist, they’d be calling it the second capitol insurrection.
Cartoon by Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby based on captions at The New Yorker.
It has got me wondering if lawyers do April-Fool jokes?
Or is that when the send out the invoices?
Very many thanks to our host and WEIT readers for their kind words about Marcus Clawrelius, who lived up to the stoicism of his namesake right to the end. (I have mentioned before that when Marcus arrived at the rescue centre we adopted him from he was in a poorly state – I chose his name in response to the comment “very friendly cat, despite obvious pain” recorded in his medical notes by the veterinarian who had to remove Marcus’ remaining teeth shortly after his arrival there.)
Recently, an ultrasound scan and a non-surgical sample taken from a large growth led our veterinarian to believe that there was a good chance that it could be removed surgically and that Marcus could make a full recovery. There were no guarantees, of course – very sadly, when they began the operation on Thursday morning it was soon clear that the condition was much more serious. We were advised that the kindest thing was to not wake him up from the anaesthetic. It was obviously a hard decision, but the road ahead was going to be a long and painful one and at least poor Marcus has been spared that.
It’s strange how a small animal that spends so much time curled up asleep can leave such a huge void when they are no longer around.
Jez, your sensitive description of Marcus’s last journey made me tear-up.
Sorry for your loss.
Very sad news, and it won’t help that you did the right thing.
Our line in the sand was when Jackie uninterested in a nice piece of fresh liver. When that wouldn’t rouse her from staring at the wall, it was time.
I am so sorry for your loss, Jez. Take care.
So,sorry to,hear of this. As someone once said to me they can be ready to go but we never are ready to let them. It is always heartbreaking but you did it with a true love for him so the grief wil fade but the love won’t .
I’m very touched. Marcus also made an appearance here on WEIT alongside my daughter Ana, and many other readers’ lovely kitties, in Christmas 2020. https://whyevolutionistrue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/thumbnail_fullsizeoutput_ba3-768×652.jpg
It is true to say that his willingness to participate in piano duets wasn’t always appreciated, but the costs of his medical diagnosis and treatment in recent weeks have come from money my wife has been saving towards her new (baby) grand piano, so there were clearly no hard feelings. (Actually, the UK’s Covid-19 restrictions have closed piano showrooms since before Christmas, so more cash had accumulated than was originally anticipated. One thing that softens the grief we are feeling is that we were in the extremely privileged position of not having had to reject a recommended treatment option because we couldn’t afford it.) The new piano will hopefully be chosen soon, but sadly Marcus won’t be here to be blamed for mistakes in the scales and arpeggios – although that might prove to be an interesting legacy…
Thanks for the links to the Rube Waddell anecdotes. How come they’ve never made a movie about him? I think he looks like a young Joaquin Phoenix in the picture, so maybe an older Joaquin Phoenix could play him…
Re: the Bach chorale Paul Simon referenced: growing up in the Southern Baptist church, I remember a hymn set to that chorale entitled, “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” A great vocal bass line in the arrangement.
I have read I forget where that Simon balked at but eventually acquiesced to the insistence of a producer (or “suit”?) to add the third verse (“Sail on silver girl . . . .”). IIRC, he thought to-the-effect its sentiments/lyrics inconsistent with and/or inferior to those of the first two verses.
BOTW and Paul Simon: They don’t make ’em like that anymore…