Tuesday: Hili dialogue

July 5, 2022 • 6:30 am

It’s the cruelest day: Tuesday, July 5. All the fireworks have burnt out, and it’s time to get back to work. Foodwise, it’s National Apple Turnover Day, through strawberry or cherry turnovers are better. But all are better than not having a turnover.

It’s also National Graham Cracker Day, Bikini Day (see below), Mechanical Pencil Day, National Workaholics Day, and Fifth of July, the historic celebration of the abolition of slavery in New York in 1827.

I saw this announcement of an art exhibition on the way to work this morning (it’s wet because we had a bad thunderstorm last night). And I swear, I thought it was some kind of food announcement, as I read it as “Slaw and Taters.” (I hadn’t had my coffee yet):

Stuff that happened on July 5 includes:

Now you’d better be rich to buy this one. The Christian Science Monitor notes an auction price, and this was in 2016:

A copy of Sir Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” one of the most groundbreaking scientific texts ever written, has been sold for $3.7 million. The enormous price tag makes this first edition the most expensive scientific bound volume ever sold at auction.

Voilà:

  • 1841 – Thomas Cook organises the first package excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough.

Here’s a 1922 poster for Cook expeditions:

https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2016/1219/Newton-s-opus-sells-for-3.7-million-How-Principia-changed-perceptions:

You can read the complete oration here, and below is a photo of Douglass, who had once been a slave:

  • 1915 – The Liberty Bell leaves Philadelphia by special train on its way to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. This is the last trip outside Philadelphia that the custodians of the bell intend to permit.
  • 1937 – Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

I happen to like some Spam occasionally, and it’s worth keeping a can in your cupboard. It lasts forever, and can be stir-fried with rice, put into an omelette, or used in a gazillion different ways. It also now comes in a large number of varieties. It has only six ingredients: pork with ham meat added (that counts as one), salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrite.

Remember this?

Here’s that first picture, with the caption:

Micheline Bernardini wearing the first bikini, 1946. The new ‘Bikini‘ swimming costume (in a newsprint-patterned fabric), which caused a sensation at a beauty contest at the Molitor swimming pool in Paris. Designer Louis Reard was unable to find a ‘respectable’ model for his costume and the job of displaying it went to 19-year-old Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris. She is holding a small box into which the entire costume can be packed. Celebrated as the first bikini, Luard’s design came a few months after a similar two-piece design was produced by French designer Jacques Heim.

  • 1948 – National Health Service Acts create the national public health system in the United Kingdom.
  • 1971 – The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon.
  • 1975 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title.

Here’s Ashe beating the reigning champion, Jimmy Connors.

  • 1994 – Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.
  • 1996 – Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

Here’s a short video about Dolly, a true clone, developing with an egg that had its own nucleus replaced with one taken from another sheep, and then that egg was carried by yet another surrogate mother. Dolly was euthanized when six years old because the had arthritis and a progressive lung disease.

  • 2009 – The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered in Britain, consisting of more than 1,500 items, is found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.

The hoard included valuable items of gold and precious stones, like this sword hilt with garnet inlay (uncleaned!) and a garnet-adorned fish (well, I think it’s a fish):

Da Nooz:

*Yes, another mass shooting, this time six people and 26 injured by a shooter from a rooftop in Highland Park, Illinois. A suburb in Chicago. They didn’t get the alleged perpetrator yet, but he’s been dentified 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo III, and they have a car model and a license plate number. (There was another mass shooting as well near me (on Chicago’s South Side), which injured five but didn’t kill anyone.)

UPDATE: The suspect has been apprehended.

A massive search for a gunman turned Fourth of July celebrations across the Chicago region into chaos on Monday, after someone opened fire from a rooftop into a parade in suburban Highland Park, killing at least six people and sending two dozen more to the hospital with injuries.

Residents near the parade route were told to stay inside as hundreds of law enforcement officers fanned out across Chicago’s northern suburbs, and communities weighed whether it was safe to carry on with their own holiday celebrations.

Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the gunman had not been identified, and he asked nearby residents to turn over any security camera footage to investigators. Officials had recovered a rifle, he said, and SWAT teams were going door to door in the area.

A friend, inquiring about my well being, wrote this as well:

Americans are simply going to stop gathering in groups if this keeps up. Every public event is now an opportunity for mass murder.
And the Supreme Court just made it that much more likely.
But Homo sapiens is a social species, so I don’t think we’ll really stop gathering in groups. What will happen is that people in the groups will just carry more guns! MORE GUNS! THAT WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM!

*Everyone knows that walking is good exercise: my doctor says that for decent heart health I should walk 3.5 hours per week at a rapid pace, and I usually have time to comply.  But the NYT has a “self help health” article on “6 ways to level up your daily walk,” with useful tips. #1 is “do Nordic walking”, which involves using poles with rubber tips. That’s said to increase both calorie consumption and oxygen expenditure by about 22% as it forces you to move your arms.

The others are “have fun”, use “props” like a backpack or good insoles, multitask by fitting walking into open parts of your schedule, listen to music, and do “interval walking”, varying fast with easier walking. I do the last three during my walks, but I don’t want no stinking sticks!

*Here’s worthwhile clickbait from The Washington Post: an article called “The Jan. 6 committee bet big with Cassidy Hutchinson. Did it pay off?” I would say, “hell yes!”, and the article agrees, though not as vehemently:

Numerous people close to the committee’s work say the abrupt decision to go public with Hutchinson’s testimony, which surprised even some of its top aides and which involved presenting the world with details the committee itself had learned only days earlier, was necessary to prevent her account from leaking. With evidence that Trump allies were trying to influence her decision to talk, some members also worried she might back out if they waited any longer.

By rolling the dice, the committee attracted the attention it has sought for its message that Trump’s role in precipitating the Jan. 6 attack was illegal, unconstitutional and disqualifying for any future bid for public office.

The downside:

But by rushing Hutchinson onto the witness stand, the committee has also exposed itself to criticism that it failed to thoroughly vet her claims.

Hutchinson has come under intense scrutiny from Trump and his allies, who have accused her of lying or derided her for relaying hearsay that would not hold up in a criminal proceeding.

So far, no one has publicly corroborated her account of a struggle between Trump and the Secret Service in his presidential SUV, but nor is anyone known to have disputed it under oath. Officials have said anonymously that the Secret Service agents involved are prepared to contradict Hutchinson in sworn testimony, although they do not appear to have done so.

One person is quoted as saying that they should not have brought the “Trump lunging for the steering wheel” anecdote into Hutchinson’s testimony, but others disagree. In my view, her testimony is the watershed moment that will lead to Trump’s indictment. But will he be indicted. Let’s take an unscientific poll.

Will Trump be indicted at last after the Jan. 6 committee hearings and the Justice Department's ruminations?

View Results

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*The Akron (Ohio) police department has released bodycam video in the killing of Jayland Walker, 25, who fled after a traffic stop and is said to have fired a gun during the car chase. A foot chase followed, with officers claiming to have used a taser and then, when that failed, fired 90 shots, hitting Walker 60 times. He was apparently unarmed when fleeing (a gun was found in the car), and the AP report claims that it looked as if he was going for his gun:

Akron police released video of the shooting of Jayland Walker, 25, who was killed June 27 in a pursuit that had started with an attempted traffic stop. The mayor called the shooting “heartbreaking” while asking for patience from the community.

It’s not clear how many shots were fired by the eight officers involved, but Walker sustained more than 60 wounds. An attorney for Walker’s family said officers kept firing even after he was on the ground.

The justification for the shooting:

Police body camera videos show what unfolded after the roughly six-minute pursuit. Several shouting officers with guns drawn approach the slowing car on foot, as it rolls up over a curb and onto a sidewalk. A person wearing a ski mask exits the passenger door and runs toward a parking lot. Police chase him for about 10 seconds before officers fire from multiple directions, in a burst of shots that lasts 6 or 7 seconds.

At least one officer had tried first to use a stun gun, but that was unsuccessful, police said.

Mylett said Walker’s actions are hard to distinguish on the video in real time, but a still photo seems to show him “going down to his waist area” and another appears to show him turning toward an officer. He said a third picture “captures a forward motion of his arm.”

In a statement shared Sunday with reporters, the local police union said the officers thought there was an immediate threat of serious harm, and that it believes their actions and the number of shots will be found justified in line with their training and protocols. The union said the officers are cooperating with the investigation.

Well, here’s all the footage that has been released (the shooting isn’t shown, but it’s labeled as “graphic”. It’s hard to tell anything, but I’m skeptical of the cops saying they thought that Walker was going for his gun. Perhaps it looks like it, but I’m glad I’m not going to judge this one:

Akron has declared a state of emergency and imposed a 9 p.m. curfew after protests (Walker was black, so there is a race angle).

*Ken Burns has made a six-minute pro-immigration film, “America is failing refugees and itself,”  that you can see at the New York Times. It more or less makes a case for open borders, not mentioning that many who arrive at the U.S.’s southern border (and other borders) are not refugees, but people seeking economic opportunity. Burns’s exemplar of “good” immigrants is a pair of Jewish twins who fled Ukraine when it was under the Soviets, and became officers in the U.S. Army.  Yes, we are a nation of immigrants, and should always remember how much our country has and is being enriched by them, but Burns’s implicit call for admitting all immigrants is not going to help the Democrats. In fact, I’d say his short film way oversimplifies the situation in America by appealing to simple patriotism.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s words are enigmatic unless you know the story. From Malgorzata: “Hili is talking about raspberries. A few days ago there was a dialogue in which Andrzej claimed that raspberries need some more weeks to be ripe while Hili claims that it’s a matter of days. Hili was right. We are already eating ripe raspberries.”

A: Where are you going?
Hili: To see who was right.
A: You were right, as always.
In Polish:
Ja: Gdzie idziesz?
Hili: Zobaczyć kto miał rację.
Ja:” Ty miałaś rację, jak zawsze.

***************

From Beth:

Two from Bruce, the first appropriate for yesterday:

A tweet I found. One owl is different from all the others. . .

A tweet from God after the mass shootings in Denmark and, on Sunday, in Highland Park, Illinois:

From reader Barry, who captions this, “Not what I want to see at the beach.” H adds, “Be sure to freeze the last second so you can read what’s under the cat’s face:” As a favor, I put a screenshot below the tweet:

I tried a screenshot:

From SImon, a real groaner:

From the Auschwitz Memorial: gassed at eight years old.

Tweets from Matthew. It’s a pity the Sumerians didn’t have Tim Taylor’s Landlord.

Now that drones can do this, fireworks are on their way to extinction!

Bobbing ducks (I’ve seen them do this many times). Translation from the Japanese:

Whac-A-Mole

 Parents and children who passed by said, “That’s a duck on TV! There are a lot of them.” Saying that I was really surprised because this is that parent and child, and I was very happy to teach it. Did my mother believe me … It’s been 44 days since the TV moved. The reddish one is the mother duck.

And the obligatory paw inspection:

13 thoughts on “Tuesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. According to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator, that three-week Cook’s tour to Egypt that cost £70 in 1922 would set you back almost £3,000 in today’s pounds. That’s $3,600 at the current (truly dire) exchange rate.

    Reply

  2. Alas, the Hili dialogue itself and some other sectors appear to have been replaced with Xs.

    Reply

  3. 1841 – Thomas Cook organises the first package excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough.

    For those not conversant with UK geography: Loughborough (pronounced luffbruh) and Leicester (pronounced lester) are about twelve miles apart.

    Reply

  4. Here’s [Arthur] Ashe beating the reigning champion, Jimmy Connors [at Wimbledon].

    That was the match that revealed Jimmy Connors’s Achilles heel. Connors was a top player for another decade and a half, and won the US Open later that summer (and added two more US Opens and a Wimbledon championship over his career). But he was never the same juggernaut he’d been going into that match. A year earlier, in 1974, he’d won all three majors he was eligible to play (then all played on grass) and might have won the Grand Slam had he been allowed to compete in the French Open (on clay, at Rolland Garros). And going into the 1975 finals against Ashe, Connors hadn’t dropped a set during the entire Wimbledon fortnight.

    Reply

    1. Correction: Connors didn’t win the US Open in ’75. (He lost in the finals to Spaniard Manuel Orantes, the first time the tournament was played on clay.) He won the Open in ’76, ’78, ’82 (the same year he won his second Wimbledon) and ’83.

      Reply

  5. It more or less makes a case for open borders, not mentioning that many who arrive at the U.S.’s southern border (and other borders) are not refugees, but people seeking economic opportunity.

    One aspect to immigration that is not frequently mentioned is that bringing large numbers of unskilled workers into the U.S. will necessarily increase income inequality.

    Personally, I think the focus should be on eliminating poverty rather than trying to reduce income inequality, but a lot of people fret about income inequality.

    Reply

    1. I’ve never understood the rather large range of attitudes towards immigration in the USA, and truly ineffective policies currently in place. The USA is the only country I know of where large numbers of people think illegal aliens should not be deported as soon as they are found, but at the same time also think too many illegals are “taking jobs”. I’m not talking about asylum seekers and refugees who should legally declare themselves at the border, but only people illegally in the country to work. I read lots complaints about the USA being unable to stop illegal immigration when they refuse to use the solution every other rich nation uses: fine companies that use illegal labour into oblivion. Zero government services for illegals. I often read about raids at meat processing plants, or farms where officials round up a token amount of illegals, but the company isn’t fined. Canada doesn’t have a lot of illegal workers because most places wouldn’t hire them because the fines can put you of business. You have to prove you are hiring legal employees or you can be fined. You can’t go to school if you are illegal, you can’t buy a house, you can’t buy a car, you can’t get a drivers license if you are illegal. Living in Canada illegally for more than a few months would be extremely difficult.

      On the other hand there are lots of jobs that locals won’t do, in Canada that is mainly farm work. But in Canada there are programs to legally bring in all the workers the farmers need. They aren’t illegal so abuse is less common, they have access to government programs, and they don’t worry about being deported. But in the states it seems this work force is supplied by illegals who are at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and live in fear of deportation.

      Truly want to stop the flow of illegals? Fine the companies hiring them. Of course, Canada doesn’t have to deal with a huge, porous border with Mexico, but the fines would work. Truly want to welcome immigrants? Have policies for guest workers that are fair, and policies that allow a reasonable number of people to emigrant to the USA every year that isn’t so convoluted and arbitrary. Canada uses a point system (and family reunions, we aren’t monsters) that seems to work pretty well. Being young, educated, and speaking one of the official languages gives you lots of points. Have skills Canada needs? More points. No arbitrary quotas per country set back in the 1950’s.

      Reply

  6. Ah! National Apple Turnover Day! My favorite is the French Chausson (slipper). I have fond memories of these from when I lived in Boulder, CO in the 80s. A bakery there had the best I’ve ever had, even better than those I’ve had in France, though I’m sure there are good ones there of course. Puff pasty is important but so is the filling. It needs to be real apples with not too much sugar and spices — as far away as possible from that American industrial apple pie filling. I suppose the full name is Chausson de Pommes but, as far as I know, that would be only necessary if the bakery makes more than the standard apple variety.

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  7. I’m also a big fan of Spam, though I always buy the “25% Less Sodium” variety. I don’t know why they don’t just call it “Less Salty”. I can’t imagine that people on low-sodium diets should be anywhere near any variety of Spam. I find the less salty variety just plain tastes better.

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  8. The focus on the steering wheel grab part of Hutchinson’s is the Right’s ridiculous attempt to discredit her testimony. First, she’s only repeating what someone told her. That someone could easily have made it all up but, even if he did, it wouldn’t reflect badly on Hutchinson. Second, that Trump grabbed the wheel or not has no legal ramifications that I can see. That he wanted to go to the Capitol has so far been undisputed.

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    2. Exactly, she made clear she didn’t see that herself. Hearsay , I think that is called.
      I don’t think the committee did a sterling job in that small detail, but on the whole the evidence of Trump wanting to join, not caring about his supporters being armed, and encouraging the sedition appears pretty solid.

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  9. Those cloisonné garnets of the Staffordshire hoard are stunningly beautiful. They also have this intricacy, this ‘je ne sais quoi’, can’t really put my finger on it. Is it intimacy? Warmth? Consolation? A bit like the patina on old woodwork. I mean that the way that the beautiful cabochons in the hoard do not really have.
    When you see that cloisonné you think: they don’t make it like that anymore, nostalgia to a past artisanship? (which you’ve, of course, never known).
    Kinda eery, in a positive way.

    Reply

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