Sunday: Hili dialogue

October 15, 2023 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the Sabbath for goyische cats: Sunday, October 15, 2023, and National Red Wine Day. I’ll celebrate by having that tipple, will you? If so, put the name of the bottle below.  If I could choose to drink one bottle of wine that has been well stored, it would be this one, the legendary 1961 Petrus (I’ve never had it and couldn’t afford it):

It’s also “I Love Lucy” Day (the t.v. show premiered on this day in 1951), National Grouch Day, National Pug Day, Breast Health Day, Global Handwashing Day, National Cheese Curd Day, National Mushroom Day, National Roast Pheasant Day, National Chicken Cacciatore Day, National Shawarma Day (in Canada; cultural appropriation), National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, and Shwmae Su’mae Day (Wales), a day to promote the Welsh language. 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the October 15 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Gazans are streaming southward, some trying to cross into Egypt, while the IDF has given stronger hints that a ground invasion will soon begin.

Hundreds of thousands of panicked Gazans fleeing south in response to Israeli warnings struggled to find food and shelter on Saturday in an intensifying humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations saying that nearly half the population had been displaced and water supplies were dwindling.

On Saturday, the Israeli military made an announcement that was its clearest indication yet that they are preparing to launch what they called “a significant ground operation,” as part of “an integrated and coordinated attack from the air, sea and land.”

The Israeli military also said on Saturday it would allow Palestinians to move south on two of the Gaza Strip’s main roads between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. “without any harm,” an announcement that some Palestinians took as a deadline.

The highways heading south were packed with vehicles piled high with blankets and mattresses. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in just the last 12 hours, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians said on Saturday afternoon, as it warned that access to water supplies in Gaza was now “a matter of life and death.”

But the border to Egypt appears closed, despite an earlier agreement.

As the migration continues, the exodus is restricted at Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. A Hamas official said they aren’t permitting the migration of Palestinians to Egypt and hinted that Egypt is supporting their decision by closing its borders.

If Egypt closes it border, it’s for sure not to “support Hamas”, but to keep Hamas out of Egypt! But since there was apparently an agreement to open the border, if only for a while, it’s odious to keep it closed. Another NYT article buttresses the one above, showing that even Palestinian-Americans are barred:

American citizens said they were stranded at Gaza’s border with Egypt on Saturday afternoon despite a U.S. official saying earlier that an agreement had been reached to allow them safe passage from the blockaded enclave.

The official said that both Israel and Egypt had agreed to allow Americans to go through the Rafah crossing from Gaza between noon and 5 p.m. local time. But as of 4 p.m., the crossing remained closed, according to two families.

Something very weird is going on here. Is Hamas blocking the border? If not, why did the Egyptians change their minds?

*The Wall Street Journal explains more: Egypt wants some deals made to let the Palestinian-Americans through.

A diplomatic effort to evacuate U.S. citizens from Gaza faltered after Egyptian officials said they would only allow foreigners to cross the border if aid could pass in the opposite direction.

Egypt’s refusal on Saturday, confirmed by three officials and in an announcement on state television, thwarted the latest U.S. push to evacuate any of the 500 or more Americans in Gaza wishing to leave through the enclave’s southern border with Egypt.

Israel—which has sealed off Gaza’s northern border with a ground invasion by Israeli forces believed imminent—said Saturday that it would give a few hours of safe passage for people in northern Gaza to move southward. A doctor in Gaza said corpses were piling up in the main hospital’s morgue and under rubble from Israeli airstrikes launched in response to Hamas militants’ lightning strike into Israel last Saturday.

And this makes sense:

Earlier Saturday, the U.S. had helped broker a deal between Israel and Egypt to allow U.S. citizens across the Rafah border crossing from Gaza to Egypt, according to a senior U.S. official and an Arab official.

But the deal’s 5 p.m. deadline for evacuees to cross passed, and three Egyptian officials said no foreigners would be allowed through unless an agreement is reached to allow the delivery of water, food, medical supplies and other aid into the Gaza Strip.

“We can’t allow a few foreigners out and not allow humanitarian aid in for the Palestinians who will be stuck there,” one Egyptian official said.

Here’s why Egypt says it’s resistng:

Egypt is apprehensive about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees being displaced into Egypt, or of getting drawn deeper into the conflict. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, an ardent enemy of Hamas, has also warned that a mass displacement from the enclave could mean an end to the aspirations of a Palestinian state.

Egypt told the U.S. that it has too many evacuation requests to accommodate U.S. nationals and that it can’t grant passage to one country over others, according to two Egyptian officials, who also cited security concerns related to a lack of screening of individuals. An Arab official said all sides were still involved in talks regarding the border crossing.

Clearly the Israeli request that Gazans move south must be coupled with increased humanitarian aid. The European Commission, which supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, is also tripling its humanitarian aid to Gaza, donating 75 million Euros. But what if Hamas moves south too, so that they’ll still use their countrymen as human shields?

*The WaPo ponders the question of “Have war crimes been committed in Israel and Gaza?” There’s no doubt that Hamas committed war crimes in Israel, and does so every time it fires a rocket into a civilian area (that’s all rockets), but what about Israel’s actions?

As the war between Israel and Hamas escalates in Gaza, both sides have said they are adhering to international law.

Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told the Economist this week that his group, which led the attacks that killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, “obeys all international and moral laws.” He said the operation targeted only “military posts,” despite clear evidence that hundreds of civilians were among those killed by Palestinian militants.

But then Taylor doesn’t even answer his own question, just listing the questions at issue without answering them with respect to both sides. But it’s still interesting to know what the law is. I’ll give a few-word short answers (in CAPS) that I’ve gleaned from Taylor.

a.  Can civilians be targeted under international law?  NO.

b.  Can civilians can be targeted if military groups are present? IT DEPENDS ON WHETHER CIVILIAN LOSS OF LIFE IS “EXCESSIVE”

c.  What if a party to the conflict warns civilians ahead of an attack? HE DOESN’T GIVE AN ANSWER, BUT IT’S CLEAR THAT ISRAEL DOES THIS WHILE HAMAS DOESN’T, AND SURELY A WARNING IS MORE MORAL.

d. What is “collective punishment”? BEING PUNISHED FOR AN ACT YOU DID NOT COMMIT. THIS IS A WAR CRIME. REPRISALS AGAINST CIVILIANS FALL IN THIS CATEGORY. SO DO SIEGES THAT STARVE PEOPLE, WHICH IS WHY I OPPOSE ISRAEL’S SIEGE.

e.  Is using white phosphorus a war crime?  IT DEPENDS HOW IT IS USED. ISRAEL IS ACCUSED OF USING IT THIS WEEK BUT DENIES IT. IF THEY DID USE IT IN PROHIBITED WAYS I’D CALL THEM OUT FOR WAR CRIMES.

f.  What does international humanitarian law say about taking hostages and the use of ‘human shields’?  BOTH ARE EXPRESSLY AGAINST ALL INTERNATIONAL LAWS, AND BOTH ARE USED BY GAZANS BUT NEITHER BY ISRAEL

g. Is the targeting of hospitals, schools, and religious buildings allowed during war? IT DEPENDS; THEY CAN BE IF THEY’RE ALSO USED FOR MILITARY PURPOSES.

Read and then make your own decisions, though we will have to wait to learn more about Israel’s behavior in the coming battle (we already know a lot about Hamas’s tactics).

*This was a surprise to me: the Australians have voted “no” on a proposal to recognize Aboriginal people in their constitution.

Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in the country’s constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.

Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.

To succeed, the yes campaign – advocating for the voice – needed to secure a double majority, meaning it needed both a majority of the national vote, as well as majorities in four of Australia’s six states.

The defeat will be seen by Indigenous advocates as a blow to what has been a hard fought struggle to progress reconciliation and recognition in modern Australia, with First Nations people continuing to suffer discrimination, poorer health and economic outcomes.

But what is the “voice to Parliament” that was being voted on?

The referendum question, to amend Australia’s constitution to recognise the first peoples of Australia by establishing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to parliament, was deliberately vague. The failure of Australia’s previous referendum in 1999 – to become a republic and acknowledge Indigenous ownership – was seen to have failed because it put forward a specific model to voters.

Exactly what the voice advisory body would look like and how it would function were to be determined only once the concept had won approval.

In other words, it wasn’t clear what people were voting on, and that’s plain weird. No wonder the referendum failed.

*And some good news from the AP’s “Oddities” section:

A flock of swans that grew from a gift nearly 70 years ago from Queen Elizabeth II has been rounded up in Florida to ensure they are all healthy.

On Tuesday, there were 50 swans collected in Lakeland, which is east of Tampa. Park supervisor Steve Williams said the birds are a cherished part of the city.

“I mean, they are a city icon. They are. And we take very good care of them,” he said.

The roundup each fall enables veterinarians to conduct health examinations of the city-owned swans, with those scheduled for Wednesday morning. Lakeland’s swans are descended from a pair of mute swans given by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.

The goal is to keep them all in good shape, said veterinarian Price Dickson.

“Tomorrow we will be taking all of these swans one by one and giving each of them a physical exam, weighing them, checking for any infections, any wounds, any problems that would need to be addressed,” Dixon said.

The city has conducted the annual wellness checkups since 1980.

Here’s a news video of this year’s Big Roundup:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is napping in Andrzej’s trousers. Malgorzata explains the dialogue: “In Polish the word for “choice” and “election” is the same. We have elections today and this is a hint to go and vote (preferably choosing something different than what we are stuck with now). ”

Hili: You have to elect a different pair of trousers.
A: I’m afraid I don’t have another choice.
In Polish:
Hili: Musisz założyć inne spodnie.
Ja: Obawiam się, że nie mam innego wyboru.

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

From Susan, a great exchange:

Reader Rick sent in a Bizarro cartoon by Wayno and Piraro, adding, “I wonder how many newspapers will refuse to print this cartoon by Wayno.”  I will!

From Annie, some juvenile humor (but I’d put out such a pumpkin!):

From Maish; a bit fracas caused by men defending an unveiled woman vs. the fricking morality police:

From Barry, who calls this “Honey, I’m home!”  Oy!

From the Babbling Beaver. I’m sure the quote is fake but the headline is true.

From Simon, Liz Cheney speaks out again, but Jordan may well become Speaker:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I “quote-tweeted”:

Tweets from Dr. Cobb. He sent me this one, with Booker T. and the MGs, to give me “some respite”. It did.

And here’s Booker T. Jones 44 years later, playing with Darryl Hall and others. He hasn’t lost a lick. (I still consider this the most dance-worthy song in the history of rock.)

Matthew’s own tweet, with another. He adds, “Yes, Tina’s ancestor fought at Hastings. A decsendant of his was also involved in the mruder of Thomas Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral (he put the three knights up in his castle)

Another tweet by Matthew inspired by his writing a biography of Francis Crick. I’ve always wanted to use one of these cards, but never had the guts. (The “LMB” is the Laboratory of Molecular Biology.)

30 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  1. With my current serious blood pressure medication, I am allowed but one drink a week (it is ok…the meds keep me alive and the weekly tipple makes life enjoyable). So I cannot join you today as I had a wonderful Barolo last night with an extended-family dinner to celebrate our baby daughter’s fiftieth and my baby brother’s visit to town for his fifty-fifth high school reunion. I hope that someday your life and a well-stored bottle of ‘61 Petrus intersect, Jerry.

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  2. If the Egyptians opened the border, Israel would then push the entire population of Gaza into Egypt. That would then likely topple the government of Egypt, turning it into an Islamist state.

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    1. Population of Egipt for year 2023 is 112,716,000. Population of Gaza is 2,000,000. Do you really think that these 2 million Palestinians can change the country of over 112 million?

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        1. Well, Egypt is no democracy. Many Muslim Brotherhood’s member are in prison. If Egyptians frisk every refugee for weapon and then disperse them through Egipt so that every family ends in different town/village which they are not allowed to leave, if the do not allow any UNRWA officials to collect them, feed them, and teach them hate, there is a stor chance than in 5-10 years the whole problem of “Gaza refugees” would disappear.

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  3. On this day:
    1582 – Adoption of the Gregorian calendar begins, eventually leading to near-universal adoption.

    1783 – The Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon makes the first human ascent, piloted by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier.

    1793 – Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted of treason.

    1815 – Napoleon begins his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

    1863 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship, sinks, killing its inventor.

    1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.

    1888 – The “From Hell” letter allegedly sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.

    1910 – Airship America is launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft.

    1923 – The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.

    1928 – The airship Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.

    1951 – Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes completes the synthesis of norethisterone, the basis of an early oral contraceptive.

    1956 – FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, is first shared with the coding community. [I’m guessing that they didn’t call themselves “the coding community” at the time…]I

    1965 – Vietnam War: A draft card is burned during an anti-war rally by the Catholic Worker Movement, resulting in the first arrest under a new law.

    1966 – The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

    1970 – During the construction of Australia’s West Gate Bridge, a span of the bridge falls and kills 35 workers. The incident is the country’s worst industrial accident to this day.

    1990 – Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.

    1991 – The “Oh-My-God particle”, an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray measured at 40,000,000 times that of the highest energy protons produced in a particle accelerator, is observed at the University of Utah HiRes observatory in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.

    1997 – The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.

    2001 – NASA’s Galileo spacecraft passes within 180 km (112 miles) of Jupiter’s moon Io.

    2003 – China launches Shenzhou 5, its first crewed space mission.

    2007 – Seventeen activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country’s first post-9/11 anti-terrorism raids.

    2016 – One hundred and ninety-seven nations amend the Montreal Protocol to include a phase-out of hydrofluorocarbons.

    Births:
    99 BC (probable)[15] – Lucretius, Roman poet and philosopher (d. 55 BCE).

    70 BC – Virgil, Roman poet (d. 19 BC).

    1789 – William Christopher Zeise, Danish chemist who prepared Zeise’s salt, one of the first organometallic compounds (d. 1847).

    1844 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German composer, poet, and philosopher (d. 1900).

    1881 – P. G. Wodehouse, English novelist and playwright (d. 1975).

    1894 – Moshe Sharett, Ukrainian-Israeli lieutenant and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1965).

    1905 – C. P. Snow, English chemist and author (d. 1980).

    1906 – Alicia Patterson, American journalist and publisher, co-founded Newsday (d. 1963).

    1908 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-American economist and diplomat, 7th United States Ambassador to India (d. 2006).

    1917 – Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., American historian and critic (d. 2007).

    1920 – Mario Puzo, American author and screenwriter (d. 1999).

    1923 – Italo Calvino, Italian novelist, short story writer, and journalist (d. 1985). [His short stories about Marco Valdo, a poor rural man living with his family in a big industrial city in northern Italy, are poignant and hilarious. “The Moon and Gnac” is perhaps my favourite.]

    1925 – Tony Hart, English painter and television host (d. 2009).

    1926 – Michel Foucault, French historian and philosopher (d. 1984).[Responsible for the postmodernist rubbish prevalent today. Believed in abolishing the age of sexual consent.]

    1935 – Barry McGuire, American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

    1938 – Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and activist (d. 1997).

    1946 – Richard Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and pianist.

    1948 – Chris de Burgh, British-Irish singer-songwriter and pianist.

    1951 – Peter Richardson, English actor, director, and screenwriter.

    1953 – Larry Miller, American actor and comedian.

    1955 – Emma Chichester Clark, English author and illustrator.

    1969 – Dominic West, English actor and director.

    Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts:
    1674 – Robert Herrick, English poet (b. 1591).

    1838 – Letitia Elizabeth Landon, English poet and novelist (b. 1802).

    1917 – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (b. 1876).

    1930 – Herbert Henry Dow, Canadian-American businessman, founded the Dow Chemical Company (b. 1866).

    1946 – Hermann Göring, German general and politician (b. 1893).

    1958 – Elizabeth Alexander, British geologist, academic, and physicist (b. 1908).

    1964 – Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter (b. 1891).

    1978 – W. Eugene Smith, American photojournalist (b. 1918).

    1999 – Josef Locke, British-Irish soldier, policeman, tenor and actor (b. 1917).

    2000 – Konrad Emil Bloch, Polish-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912).

    2011 – Betty Driver, English actress, singer, and author (b. 1920).

    2018 – Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, philanthropist, owner of the Seattle Seahawks (b. 1953).

    2021 – David Amess, British politician, member of Parliament for Southend West (b. 1952). [Stabbed to death whilst waiting to meet his constituents.]

    Reply

    1. Nope you are correct Jez….no “coding community”. It was computer programming in 1966 when I learned FORTRAN (newly released version IV, ANSI 66) in a one credit-hour freshman college course. I think we also may have learned PL-1, but FORTRAN supported me through college, graduate school, and got me my first (post-high school teaching) job as a scientific programmer in the 70’s. In later years my computer science friends scoffed at FORTRAN, but it supported an incredible amount of data analysis and engineering for many years as regulated compilers allowed for card decks to be send between labs.

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      1. My memory of it in college was mainly focused on one semester, when I took the necessary introductory class. I found it fascinating. I would stand in awe of more advanced students who would proudly carry shoeboxes of cards. After final exams, that whole side of campus was well littered with cards that were let loose in celebration.

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        1. I took my kids in to my Nasa office around the mid to late 80’s so they could experience cards and a keypunch before both disappeared into the technology dustbin as terminals and personal computers arose. Every once in a while we would clean out s closet or basement or attic storage area and find boxes of cards with fortran source code on them. .

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      2. Thanks, Jim. I used FORTRAN a little (but mostly COBOL) very many years ago during what I think is the US equivalent of high school. Having to fill in forms with data that got punched on to cards by specially trained operators and keeping programs on 8-hole punched tape seems unbelievable nowadays!

        Much later, my (very dodgy) programing brought me into contact with my wife so it was all worthwhile :o)

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      3. Fortran is a terrible language. One of my college professors snearingly called it “IBM 704 assembler”. Of course, at the time it was created, nobody knew what features make a language good or bad.

        Javascript, which is also terrible, has no such excuse.

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        1. All programming languages have their weaknesses, and their strengths. Name a programming language, and you’ll find valid criticisms of it by people who know what they are talking about. FORTRAN was a pioneering language that paved the way for all others that followed, and it has evolved significantly from the “IBM 704 assembler” that your professor was so scathing about. Sure, you’re not going to use FORTRAN to build a web site or a database, but it was never designed with those purposes in mind. But equally, you’re not going to use Java or Python to write programs to solve highly mathematical problems, like simulations of galaxies or stars or the air flow over an aircraft. That’s where FORTRAN comes in …

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          1. Thank you david. Well said. To a computer science theorist in his academic tower, it might be terrible, but for thousands of engineers and physicists it was the foundation of real world solutions for decades. As you point out, it all depends on what you want to do.

          2. I was on an engineering track in the mid 80s and Fortran (77) was still a required course.

  4. With regards the ‘Voice’ proposal in Australia, it seems that the ‘pro-side’ of the equation felt that their proposal was so self-evidently the right one that they didn’t need to explain it to anyone which left them vunerable, especially once members of the indiginous community started turning up on the ‘No’ side of the equation.

    Worse most of the ‘Yes’ propaganda used shaming tactics to encourage votes.

    Of course the ‘post vote’ media discourse is following the predictable path of claiming that the ‘No’ voters were either racist or ‘tricked’ into voting for the ‘wrong’ side of things, but the numbers are fairly decisive on this occasion.

    Now all Australia needs to do is work out where to go from there.

    Reply

    1. I have tried to figure out what went wrong, and the referendum seemed vague enough that opposition could sow doubt about it, and Aboriginal opinions also voiced doubts since it did not really give them power. From CNN:
      “However, resistance swelled as conservative political parties lined up to denounce the proposal as lacking detail and an unnecessary duplication of existing advisory bodies.” And:
      “During months of campaigning, the No vote gained momentum with slogans that appealed to voter apathy – “If you don’t know, vote No” – and a host of other statements designed to instill fear, according to experts, including that it would divide Australia by race and be legally risky, despite expert advice to the contrary.”

      There was also Aboriginal opposition:
      “Some members of the Indigenous community said they didn’t want to be part of a settler document, demanding more than a body that gives the government non-binding advice.”

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      1. How could a tiny racial minority ever expect to be granted the power to give the government binding “advice”. I know! Ratify and enshrine UNDRIP. Job done.

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      2. I am not sure what your point is but perhaps you think the wrong side won.

        When it was initially proposed it was 70% Yes support but when legitimate questions were asked as to how it would function we were called names and told to educate yourself. All details were apparently going to be revealed after the referendum win.

        You can bet your bottom dollar the government had all ready drafted how it was going to operate but decided not to release it to the general public as it would have been very unpopular.

        Would you think that this is bit odd if you were being asked to alter your constitution?

        The Yes campaign vacillated between virtue signaling, name calling, threats, intimidation and back to sweet endearments at a dizzying speed. The PM even called people thinking of voting No chicken littles. That worked well.

        It looked like a fourth arm of government in Australia with undefined powers. The associated bureaucracy to make representations to the government was never detailed with costs, operations etc. if anything was challenged it would have ended up in the High Court. Great so now we have more money being spent with added time delay. This is not an efficient way to improve lives.

        There was an element of tribalism that I found troubling where the representative were elected or selected (this was vague and undetermined) from each tribe.
        Essentially it would have created another class of people (3% of the population) with different rights and representations within the country.

        The other hidden never to be discussed consequences was the reparations, the treaty and the truth telling.

        Basically the government said trust us we will get this right and the people said yeah nahh.

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    2. Telling voters who have doubts about your (deliberately vague) proposition that they are racist won’t have helped…

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      1. It didn’t, the state Government of Western Australia made the same mistake with their Native Heritage Legislation.

        They followed up a bad rollout by initially branding all criticism of the legistation as being motivated by racism and then suspended the legislation claiming it needed more work.

        You can imagine the effect that fiasco had on the vote for the ‘Voice’ in that state.

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    3. One wag pointed out that only the capital territory voted yes on the strength of its large professional managerial class. IDK anything about the politics of the referendum or whether this view is reliable. [edit: actually many such views expressed]

      Reply

      1. Haha indeed who would have thought overpaid underworked public servants in the ACT would have a clue how many Australians are struggling whilst they write another policy to solve a problem.

        Almost like the politicians or celebrities who don’t know what normal people are experiencing or thinking. Baffling.

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  7. Songfacts.com reports that the name came from Booker T, when Jim Stewart (co-founder of Stax Records) asked him what the song should be called. “Why “Green Onions”?” Jim asked. Booker T said it was “because that is the nastiest thing I can think of and it’s something you throw away.”

    Something you throw away? Say it isn’t so Booker! I’ve always loved “Green Onions” from the very first time I heard it on George Lucas’s American Graffiti. I don’t know how old I was, but I think younger than 10. I was 4 when the movie came out and it is one of my father’s favorites (born in California in 1947 the movie for him was an accurate and nostalgic teenage flashback). Thanks for the live version (and the other Booker T tune), a very welcome respite, indeed.

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  9. Regarding the Bizarro-Wayno-Dan-Piraro cartoon
    (“… and I want to thank God for humiliating our opponents”) …

    I’ve long been a fan of Bizarro cartoons, but I was recently surprised to learn that there’s been a philosophical “conversion” of sorts in the Bizarro universe.

    Perhaps contrary to the intended message — if any — in the most recent cartoon, the world illuminated by the so-called “narrow corridor of thought” made possible by scientific methods and objective evidence has recently been subsumed under the universal umbrella of “woo.” (“Just ask a quantum physicist.”) I don’t know how that might affect future cartoons, but I’m curious.

    From the Bizarro blog of August 6:

    • • • 

    I used to openly mock people who believed in anything outside of the Darwinian model: Humans are accidents of chemistry and evolution, and we cease to exist when we die. The whole wide world of concepts outside of that narrow corridor of thought was what I called “woo-woo.” I was certain there was no woo-woo in the universe.

    I am now of the opinion that the universe is nothing but woo-woo. What we consider reality is an illusion that only works through the five senses of us Homo sapiens. The rest of the universe is one wacky mystery after another; just ask a quantum physicist.

    • • •

    There’s more at the link below (with lots of comments by readers).

    https://www.bizarro.com/blog/2023/8/6/while-we-were-napping

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  10. Not that I am celebrating anything (nor do I feel like it), but in honor of national red wine day, and in honor of just being alive and (relatively) safe in our own home, tonight we are having a very nice bottle: Château Léoville Poyferré 2000.

    Reply

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