The internet at my hotel has been on the fritz much of the weekend, and let’s hope I get through this post before it goes down again. The Hili dialogue will be short today as I have only half an hour.
I have a full set of food and tourism photos from yesterday, but was unable to post them, and soon must head out for another meal at Cartet. It was a lovely, sunny day in Paris yesterday, and I went to the exhibits at the Musée de Homme, as two readers suggested.
That aside, good morning on Monday, April 17, 2023. I have but two days left in Paris, and two lunches. It’s national Cheeseball Day, recalling a favorite hostess appetizer of the Fifties.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is clearly in a philosophical model
Hili: History repeats itself.A: Yes, but every time a bit differently.
In Polish:
Hili: Historia się powtarza.Ja: Tak, za każdym razem trochę inaczej.
“… on the fritz …”
Hmmm…
From : https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/on_the_fritz
“Etymology
Unknown. Attested from 1902, originally meaning “in a bad way” or “in bad condition”, malfunctioning of an appliance. Perhaps from German name Fritz, or onomatopoeic (here, imitating the sound of electric sparks jumping).[1]”
Ha!
You know what, there’s probably a benefit to staying off the screen – use that focus to take in Paris.
Ref. 1 : https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ont4.htm
SpaceX first test launch of Starship+SuperHeavy in 12 minutes! Live Feed (hoping this comment gets through moderation in time!).
Now about 1 hr from now, expected 08:20 Central Time.
Fueling is underway.
Thanks for the reminder. Now scheduled at about 8:35am central u.s time (same as chicago)
CORRECTION. SORRY….make that 8:20 central time!
They have decided to cancel the launch due to a pressurization issue of some sort. They are going to continue but as a wet dress rehearsal, i.e. they’ll stop at about T-10 seconds.
Launch just scrubbed for today …
Thanks!
T-~8 declared “wet dress rehearsal”.
In a video of typical days at Starbase : they save sea turtles! On purpose!
This was great though, good overview/recap – … hmmm, I think this video: https://youtu.be/KQBVOQ79G2s
They scrubbed and killed live broadcast at a t-40 seconds hold. Will hopefully do a 48 hr recycle to wednesday. Wish they had stayed on live for a bit longer. They had earlier decided to scrub today because of a pressurization issue that could not be addressed during countdown. But planned to make this a wet dress rehearsal down to t-10 seconds. Big thanks to Coel for heads up this morning!
Starship heard you, and went on the fritz. (sticky pressurisation valve, from reports here). 48hr scrub and turnaround.
On this day:
1521 – Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. Initially intimidated, he asks for time to reflect before answering and is given a stay of one day.
1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.
1895 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtian province, Taiwan and the Penghu to Japan.
1951 – The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom’s first National Park.
1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
1970 – Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
2014 – NASA’s Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.
Births:
1820 – Alexander Cartwright, American firefighter and inventor of baseball (d. 1892).
1897 – Thornton Wilder, American novelist and playwright (d. 1975).
1923 – Lindsay Anderson, English actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1994).
1929 – James Last, German-American bassist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2015).
1930 – Chris Barber, English trombonist and bandleader (d. 2021).
1942 – Buster Williams, American jazz bassist.
1946 – Clare Francis, English sailor and author. [The first woman to captain a successful boat on the Whitbread Around the World race.]
1948 – Jan Hammer, Czech pianist, composer, and producer.
1955 – Pete Shelley, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2018). [Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)?]
1957 – Nick Hornby, English novelist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter.
1985 – Rooney Mara, American actress.
Are you ready to match wits with the Duck of Death? You may get a second chance at life. But you can’t cheat death:
1669 – Antonio Bertali, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1605).
1790 – Benjamin Franklin, American inventor, publisher, and politician, 6th President of Pennsylvania (b. 1706).
1960 – Eddie Cochran, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1938).
1993 – Turgut Özal, Turkish engineer and politician, 8th president of Turkey (b. 1927).
1997 – Chaim Herzog, Israeli general, lawyer, and politician, 6th President of Israel (b. 1918).
1998 – Linda McCartney, American photographer, activist, and musician (b. 1941).
2003 – Earl King, American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter (b. 1934).
2014 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1927).
Hope your visit to Cartet is more in line with what you remember two years ago. Nice spring day in Paris; snow in Chicago it looks like.
Alexander Cartwright did not invent baseball.
Indeed. In fact, on wikipedia’s page you find this;
I believe there is some evidence that baseball was invented in England. Certainly the Doubleday story is a myth.
Baseball evolved (so to speak) from the 18th century British game “rounders”; but there was at least one intermeidate form between rounders and baseball, called “town ball”.
I just went by the Wikipedia list for today’s births etc. – I’ve amended that now to note that the claim is disputed, although there’s no guarantee that my edit will stick.
Looking forward to seeing pictures once internet service is back.
It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.
When my wife and I lived in Paris, many years ago, the Musée de l’Homme was one of our favorite hangouts, particularly the Arctic section. Years later, I learned that the Musée de l’Homme had been an early and particularly active center of resistance to the Nazi occupation, led by the curator of the Arctic section, Boris Vildé. He was executed by the Gestapo in 1942 along with several other members of the Réseau du Musée de l’Homme.
See: https://www.museedelhomme.fr/en/the-musee-de-l-homme-resistance-network.