Something got screwed up, as I thought Matthew was going to post the official Hili Dialogue (sans les accoutrements) this morning, but I haven’t seen it. So, ripped right from Listy’s website, here are Hili and Szaron discussing politics. But haven’t they got the directions mixed up?
Hili: From the west there is darkness.Sharon: Light will come from the east.Hili: I’m not sure.
In Polish:
Hili: Z zachodu idzie ciemność.Szaron: Światło przyjdzie ze wschodu.Hili: Nie jestem pewna.
But this did remind me of the ending of the Sherlock Holmes story “His Last Bow,” the very last of Conan Doyle’s tales of Holmes, which I read avidly as a boy. Here Holmes muses on war coming from the east (the story was published in 1917), while the clueless foil Watson thinks it’s about the weather.
As they turned to the car Holmes pointed back to the moonlit sea and shook a thoughtful head.
“There’s an east wind coming, Watson.”
“I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.”
“Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.”
In the absence of our host’s usual added extras in today’s Hili, here’s a cat-related funny that my wife sent me: https://twitter.com/catworkers/status/1497752884250918912?s=27
Good one, JezGrove. Reminded me of a YouTube I saw. I tried to reply with the link, but I don’t know how to make a clickable link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3P53Psan7U
Ever since seeing this raccoon, I worry what the local ones are doing to our vehicles at night after they finish up the last bits of cat food on the porch!
It reminds me of the final scene in The Terminator — Alla! Viene la tormenta!
Also (more loosely) cat-related is this short Dave Allen clip that something reminded me of earlier today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS3BZs5fx3Q
The quote from “The Long Bow” is also at the end of the movie Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), upon which elements of the movie are based. HERE.
I read those Sherlock Holmes stories as a lad, too, and had a fondness for Dr. Watson. But then, I’ve always appreciated stories narrated by a good second banana (though I think “The Last Bow” is one of the few Holmes tales narrated in the third person).
I’ve always thought that Watson came off better in the stories than in the movies, and it is one of the drawbacks of the Rathbone/Bruce pairing that Watson comes off as such a bumbler.
Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, with Martin Freeman as the Dr, is far more entertaining, and more of an equal.
The Sherlock Holmes TV programs produced by Granada in the 80s and early 90s, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, gave us two excellent Watsons—David Burke in “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” and Edward Hardwicke in “The Return of SH,” “Casebook” and “Memoirs.” The series was very faithful to Doyle’s stories and its Watsons are among the best in any visual medium. And Brett remains the definitive Holmes to me.
The “Bendy Cucumber” adaptations build a surprising number of genuine Arthur Conan Doyle elements into the episodes, although I realise that the modernisation of the stories isn’t to everyone’s taste.
“His Last Bow” can be called “the very last of Conan Doyle’s tales of Holmes” because none of Doyle’s later Holmes stories were set after 1917. But Doyle did continue writing Holmes stories after publishing “The Last Bow.”
These were set in the early 1900s and collected as “The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes” in 1927. They tend to be looked down upon by fans, but several of the stories are excellent (“The Illustrious Client,” “The Sussex Vampire,” “The Three Garridebs,” “The Problem of Thor Bridge,” “Shoscombe Old Place”) and some are interesting experiments that depart from formula (“The Lion’s Mane,” “The Veiled Lodger,” “The Retired Colourman”).
Steven Chu, Linus Pauling, and Frank Gehry were born on the 28th.
DJ Khaled and Joss Ackland were born on the 29th. Too bad for them 🙂
Pauling got away. The rest are still stuck.
Olof Palme was shot dead on the 28th.
The Fields Medal winning mathematician Jean Bourgain was born OTD in 1954. (Died 2018.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bourgain
The great physicist Freeman Dyson died OTD in 2020. (Born 1923.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
Ahhh! Spoiler alert!
Not read that one yet! And not seen Titanic as someone told me it sinks.
Matthew prob up to eyeballs in lectures & marking, poor chap!
I believe that Hili is referring to the uncertainty that any light will emerge from Ukraine.
I wouldn’t say that the comments make up entirely for JC’s absence, but you all have quite brilliantly channeled the tone of WEIT. Thank you!