Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili is confused:
Hili: What was it I wanted to say?
A: Alas, that I don’t know either.
.
.
In Polish:
Hili: Co ja chciałam powiedzieć?
A: Niestety, ja też nie wiem.
Saturday: Hili dialogue
August 19, 2023 • 4:54 am
Yep – been there – done that –
There’s something good in that.
Bit o’ Zen….
Yep Hili. I do recognize that look. Welcome to the oldsters’ club.
I think Hili is just piled higher and deeper – the elapsed time is just a necessity.
I’m banking on that, BTW.
On this day:
295 BC – The first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, is dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the Third Samnite War.
1612 – The “Samlesbury witches”, three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, are put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft, one of the most famous witch trials in British history.
1692 – Salem witch trials: In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
1839 – The French government announces that Louis Daguerre’s photographic process is a gift “free to the world”.
1848 – California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).
1854 – The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear and in return are massacred.
1934 – The German referendum of 1934 approves Adolf Hitler’s appointment as head of state with the title of Führer.
1936 – The Great Purge of the Soviet Union begins when the first of the Moscow Trials is convened.
1944 – World War II: Liberation of Paris: Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
1953 – Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. [Last week the UK again refused to apologise for MI6’s role.]
1960 – Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
1960 – Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2: The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants.
1964 – Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, is launched. Two months later, it would enable live coverage of the 1964 Summer Olympics.
1980 – Otłoczyn railway accident: In Poland’s worst post-war railway accident, 67 people lose their lives and a further 62 are injured.
1987 – Hungerford massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a semi-automatic rifle and then commits suicide.
1989 – Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist prime minister in 42 years.
1989 – Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The August Coup begins when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine.
2003 – Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing: A suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, planned by Hamas, kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children.
2005 – The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.
Births:
1631 – John Dryden, English poet, literary critic and playwright (d. 1700).
1646 – John Flamsteed, English astronomer and academic (d. 1719).
1689 (baptized) – Samuel Richardson, English author and publisher (d. 1761).
1815 – Harriette Newell Woods Baker, American editor and children’s book writer (d. 1893).
1858 – Ellen Willmott, English horticulturalist (d. 1934).
1871 – Orville Wright, American engineer and pilot, co-founded the Wright Company (d. 1948).
1900 – Dorothy Burr Thompson, American archaeologist and art historian (d. 2001).
1902 – Ogden Nash, American poet (d. 1971).
1921 – Gene Roddenberry, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1991).
1923 – Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist, inventor of relational model of data (d. 2003).
1928 – Bernard Levin, English journalist, author, and broadcaster (d. 2004).
1930 – Frank McCourt, American author and educator (d. 2009).
1933 – David Hopwood, English microbiologist and geneticist.
1937 – Richard Ingrams, English journalist, founded The Oldie.
1939 – Ginger Baker, English drummer and songwriter (d. 2019).
1940 – Johnny Nash, American singer-songwriter (d. 2020).
1945 – Ian Gillan, English singer-songwriter.
1946 – Bill Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 42nd President of the United States.
1951 – John Deacon, English bass player and songwriter.
1961 – Jonathan Coe, English author and academic.
1982 – Melissa Fumero, American actress.
I focused the magnifying glass
That brought the downfall of Icarus:
1662 – Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (b. 1623).
1895 – John Wesley Hardin, American Old West outlaw, gunfighter (b. 1853).
1923 – Vilfredo Pareto, Italian sociologist and economist (b. 1845).
1936 – Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet, playwright, and director (b. 1898).
1944 – Henry Wood, English conductor (b. 1869).
1976 – Alastair Sim, Scottish-English actor (b. 1900).
1977 – Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor (b. 1890).
1980 – Otto Frank, German-Swiss businessman, father of Anne Frank (b. 1889).
1994 – Linus Pauling, American chemist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901).
2001 – Donald Woods, South African journalist and activist (b. 1933).
2014 – James Foley, American photographer and journalist (b. 1973).
2017 – Dick Gregory, American comedian, author and activist (b. 1932).
So back about 1991 there was a slim chance that Russia might amount to something rather than the misery of today. And now maybe it is our chance for the same. Will we continue or turn into a fascist state of corruption and disgust. It is a close call.
Surely Richard Ingrams is more notable for his role in establishing Private Eye and editing it for many years than for founding the Oldie?
The Salam Witch trials… that poor clergyman must have wondered what the f**k is going on, not to diminish the suffering of the accused women.
Superstition! killing and maiming. I place religion in the same boat, the element of fear, rituals, power, the supernatural. All their missing is the cauldron and long gnarly fingernails. It’s a horror show for reason and rationality.