Jerry is in transit so his British amanuensis is filling in. Normal service will soon be resumed.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is pondering the fundamental question of cat existence.
A: What are you waiting for?
Hili: I’m thinking whether to go in or out.
Ja: Na co czekasz?
Hili: Zastanawiam się, czy wejść, czy wyjść.
Apart from the horror of the war, the big news of the day is that two of Darwin’s notebooks, including one with the famous ‘I think’ diagram in it, have been mysteriously returned safe and sound to Cambridge University library, together with this enigmatic note:
Here’s Dr Jessica Gardner, one of the librarians, with one of the notebooks:
No one knows who the culprit is. Adam Rutherford denies all knowledge:
I have not been to Cambridge recently and I don’t know why people keep sending news of this crime which was nothing to do with me https://t.co/K9oGEyUmfg pic.twitter.com/bxUitkbNrA
— Dr Adam Rutherford (@AdamRutherford) April 5, 2022
On this day:
1614 – In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
1621 – The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England.
1792 – United States President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.
1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler issues Fuhrer Directive No. 41 summarizing Case Blue, including the German Sixth Army’s planned assault on Stalingrad.
Births:
1588 – Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (d. 1679)
1827 – Joseph Lister, English surgeon and academic (d. 1912)
1856 – Booker T. Washington, African-American educator, essayist and historian (d. 1915)
1900 – Spencer Tracy, American actor (d. 1967)
1908 – Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
1912 – John Le Mesurier, English actor (d. 1983) – Are you sure that’s wise, sir?
1916 – Gregory Peck, American actor, political activist, and producer (d. 2003)
1917 – Robert Bloch, American author (d. 1994) – author of Psycho
1926 – Roger Corman, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1937 – Colin Powell, American general and politician, 65th United States Secretary of State (d. 2021)
1937 – Andrzej Schinzel, Polish mathematician (d. 2021)
1973 – Pharrell Williams, American singer, songwriter and rapper – A “Happy” birthday for Pharrell! (There’s your earworm for the day…)
1975 – Caitlin Moran, English journalist, author, and critic
1989 – Lily James, English actress
Those who gave up the ghost:
1612 – Diana Scultori, Italian engraver
1964 – Douglas MacArthur, American general (b. 1880)
1967 – Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
1970 – Louisa Bolus, South African botanist and taxonomist (b. 1877)
1970 – Alfred Sturtevant, American geneticist and academic (b. 1891)
1976 – Howard Hughes, American pilot, engineer, and director (b. 1905) – and bashful billionaire.
1994 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1967)
1997 – Allen Ginsberg, American poet (b. 1926)
1998 – Cozy Powell, English drummer (b. 1947) – don’t drink and drive while yakking on the phone and not wearing a seatbelt! “Oh shit!”. But check out his world record: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-FlhtqJtICE
2005 – Saul Bellow, Canadian-American novelist, essayist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
2008 – Charlton Heston, American actor, director, and political activist (b. 1923) – supporter of the Gun Control Act of 1968. What went wrong?
2009 – I. J. Good, British mathematician (b. 1916) – If you’re going to have a law named after you, make it a good one…
Sir Nigel Hawthorne, seen here with Paul Eddington, was born on this day in 1929.
The King of low-budget independent films. He helped launch the careers of almost the entire Easy Rider/Raging Bull generation of American filmmakers, and was a major influence on the French New Wave and on the next generation of Hollywood directors, like Tarantino, the Coens, and Paul Thomas Anderson.
He also had a non-speaking cameo in The Godfather: Part II, made by one of his acolytes, Francis Ford Coppola, in the scenes of the US senate hearings on organized crime. That’s Corman below playing the senator sitting next to the great character actor G.D. Spradlin who’s playing Nevada senator Pat Geary:
Thanks for this, Ken. I devoted a part of my youth to watching such Corman masterpieces as “It
Conquered the World” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters”, but I never knew that Corman had actually
appeared on the other side of the camera. A little like Stan Lee’s brief cameo roles in some of his junk.
+1 Much appreciated, Ken – I had no idea.
Roger Corman was able to keep making movies in Hollywood because, despite their frequent lack of high artistic merit, like Hyman Roth, “he always made money for his partners.” 🙂
What an amazing day!!! Darwin’s most iconic notebooks are back!!!!!
Yeah! I was totally bummed when I first heard of their disappearance.
Hope they increase security surrounding them.