Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
This post is late this morning as WordPress “missed the schedule.” Not my fault!
Welcome to Sunday, March 31, 2024, with April just around the corner. For the Christians among us, today is Easter. Adults who are religious will go to chuch, bur for kids it’s a day of egg-hunting and especially eating candy, like this chocolate rabbit duck sent in by Matthew:
It’s also National Oysters on the Half Shell Day, and the myth goes that you can eat oysters only in months with an “r” in them, so you’re good for another month. (It’s just a myth.) In honor of oysters, read “The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll, where the oysters do meet a grim fate. Here are the last three verses:
It seems a shame,’ the Walrus said,
To play them such a trick,
After we’ve brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!’
The Carpenter said nothing but
The butter’s spread too thick!’
I weep for you,’ the Walrus said:
I deeply sympathize.’
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
O Oysters,’ said the Carpenter,
You’ve had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?’
But answer came there none —
And this was scarcely odd, because
They’d eaten every one.”
A wonderful illustration of “The Walrus and the Carpenter speaking to the Oysters” from John Tenniel:
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, uploaded by Mr. Absurd
Evans said he searched for the best example he could find of Southern Jewish humor. He told the story of a Jewish storekeeper in a small town who was approached by the Christian elders to show solidarity for their Easter holiday.
Mr. Goldberg was chagrined but when Easter came, after sunrise services on a nearby hilltop, the mayor, all the churchgoers, and the leading families in the city gathered in the town square in front of his store. The store had a new sign but it was draped with a parachute.
After an introduction from the mayor, at the appointed hour, the owner pulled the rope and there it was revealed in all its wonder for all to see: “Christ Has Risen, but Goldberg’s prices remain the same.”
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 31 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Well, now Jews traveling to Sweden for the Eurovision Song Contest are apparently in danger, and have been warned to remove signs of their “Zionism,” apparently things like kippahs and Star-of-David necklaces. SWEDEN, for crying out loud! The Times of Israel reports: (h/t Anna)
Israelis traveling to Malmo, Sweden, for the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest should take care to hide their identity, an Israeli official says.
“We are not saying not to travel there, but those who travel should not display their Zionism,” says the official during a briefing to Israeli reporters on new travel warnings issued ahead of the Passover holiday.
(By “Zionism,” of course, the dissimulating official means “Judaism”.)
“They shouldn’t walk around with little Israeli flags,” the official explains, adding that there are no specific threats right now.
“You can speak Hebrew with each other, but you don’t have to shout to family or friends at the other end of the street.”
The official says that the Eurovision site itself will be secure, but that Malmo is “an unfriendly area for Israelis.”
(The dissimulating official means “Jews”. He can’t bear to say the word.)
The music contest will take place starting on May 5. Israeli singer Eden Golan will compete in the annual song contest, after months of uncertainty over Israel’s participation amid protests and accusations of politicization.
. . .Jihadist organizations like Al Qaeda and ISIS could target those events, says the official, or could specifically attack Jews and Israelis there.
The primary threats, says the NSC warning, is Iran and its proxies. Dozens of such terror attempts to target Israelis and Jews have been foiled around the world in recent years, says the NSC.
The reason why Malmo is “an unfriendly area for Israelis” is because it has a high population of Muslims, many of whom are unemployed. It is Malmo where there were riots after a Quran-burning last year, But speaking Hebrew is not even close to burning a Qur’an, which, though legal in Sweden, could be seen as a provocation. With 20% of its population Muslim, Malmo is one of the most Muslim cities in Europe, ergo the warning. And I suppose it’s good to warn Jews to be careful. But telling them to hide their identity lest they be attacked? This seems close to the idea of telling women not to wear short skirts and tight tops lest they be raped. It’s your fault if you’re attacked!
President Biden’s open declarations that Israel has failed to limit civilian casualties and enable aid to reach Palestinians; a major speech by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) that blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and U.S. tolerance of an Israeli-opposed U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution — these recent events have soured the relationship between the two countries as seldom before.
The tension is based in reality. Neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Netanyahu is popular at home; both fear for their offices. And yet they face mutually incompatible domestic political pressures. Mr. Biden contends with the Democratic Party’s left wing, which is increasingly critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war, as well as seemingly growing impatience among the wider U.S. electorate. Mr. Netanyahu’s hold on power is hostage to a right wing that supports annexation of the West Bank, but mainstream Israelis, viewing their fight as existential, are hawkish and willing to see the war through to finish off Hamas.
The solution? Israel has to take American advice about how or whether to attack Rafah.
There are signs that the two countries, for all the recent drama, might be starting to shift from political theater to mature statesmanship. Netanyahu advisers have agreed to reschedule a meeting with top Biden administration officials that the prime minister called off last Monday in a show of fury over U.S. abstention on the U.N. resolution.
Meanwhile, the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, did hold businesslike talks with Mr. Biden’s national security team on a subject that really matters: how, or if, Israel can attack the remaining Hamas forces in Rafah — a fight Israelis, in government or otherwise, overwhelmingly believe they must wage — without causing a humanitarian catastrophe for the million-plus people who fled to that town from earlier fighting in the rest of Gaza.
What emerged was a clear statement from the administration that left room for the United States to countenance a Rafah offensive — but only if it included “an achievable, verifiable plan to look after the safety and security of the 1.5 million Gazans that have sought refuge there,” as national security spokesman John Kirby put it on Wednesday.
Such pressure is crucial. A preferable course in the short run would be to negotiate a six-week truce with Hamas, during which the militants would release at least some of their hostages and relief supplies could flow into Gaza more safely. However, Hamas, possibly sensing an opportunity in the spat between the United States and Israel, balked even after Israel softened its terms and for now, at least, negotiations seem to be going nowhere.
. . . No one — Israeli society, Gaza’s suffering civilians, the hostages still languishing in Hamas’s tunnels — can afford a stalemate. For all his tough criticism, Mr. Biden is still a close friend of Israel and willing to take political risks to support it. Israel’s future might depend on understanding that, when someone like that offers advice, it’s wise to listen.
It might be wise to listen, but not necessarily to do what Biden says (remember, he called an assault on Rafah a red line that could not be crossed). The Post also fails to realize that Israel is already making provisions to evacuate civilians, but if Hamas won’t let them leave, well, the extra carnage would be on their heads. No other country in the world save Israel goes to these extreme lengths, telegraphing their miltary punches to save civilian lives, yet Israel is the only country in the world that is excoriated if it doesn’t defend itself against attackers the way Biden—or, indeed, the world—wants it to.
*Harvard has found a book in its library bound with human skin, and has removed the epidermal binding. This is a ghoulish tale.
Harvard University said it has removed human skin from the binding of a 19th century book about the afterlife that has been in its collections since the 1930s. The decision came after a review found ethical concerns with the book’s origin and history.
The book, “Des Destinées de L’âme,” meaning “Destinies of the Soul,” was written by Arsène Houssaye, a French novelist and poet, in the early 1880s. The printed text was given to a physician, Ludovic Bouland, who ”bound the book with skin he took without consent from the body of a deceased female patient in a hospital where he worked,” Harvard said in a recent statement. The book has been at the university’s Houghton Library.
Bouland included a handwritten note inside the book. It said “a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering,” associate university librarian Thomas Hyry said in a published question-and-answer segment online Wednesday. The note also detailed the process behind preparing the skin for binding.
Scientific analysis done in 2014 confirmed the binding was made of human skin, the university said.
In its statement, Harvard said the library noted several ways in which its stewardship practices failed to meet its ethical standards.
“Until relatively recently, the library has made the book available to anyone who asked for it, regardless of their reason for wishing to consult it,” Harvard said. “Library lore suggests that decades ago, students employed to page collections in Houghton’s stacks were hazed by being asked to retrieve the book without being told it included human remains.”
When the testing confirmed the book was bound by human skin, “the library published posts on the Houghton blog that utilized a sensationalistic, morbid, and humorous tone that fueled similar international media coverage,” the university said in its statement.
The removed skin is now in “secure storage at Harvard Library,” Anne-Marie Eze, Houghton Library associate librarian, said in the question-and-answer session.
I guess it was no secret that people knew for a long time that it was bound with skin. Here’s Harvard’s apology in the first link above:
Harvard Library acknowledges past failures in its stewardship of the book that further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding. We apologize to those adversely affected by these actions.
But who was adversely affected by these actions. I don’t want to be callous, but there is some human exceptionalism at play here. What about books bound in calfskin: baby cows killed before they even grow up? And from the interview:
Our review also made clear that we have fallen short of an ethic of care in stewardship over the years. For example, when the book’s binding was originally confirmed to be human in 2014, Harvard Library announced the news in two sensationalistic blog posts focused on the morbid nature of the object, rather than on the person whose skin was used without consent or its moral implications. The post fueled similar international media coverage, and while the blog posts were later amended, their tone is something we regret deeply. Library lore also suggests that decades ago, students employed to page collections in Houghton’s stacks were hazed by being asked to retrieve the book without being told it included human remains.
But they don’t know who the person was! Perhaps the binder didn’t ask permission of the woman’s relatives, but I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t care if my own skin would be used to bind a book, but they’d have to look hard for parts without hair.
Three United Nations observers and a translator have been wounded by shelling in Rmeish, southern Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping mission said.
Lebanon’s state news agency reported that an Israeli drone strike was behind the explosion, but the Israeli military denied it was responsible.
The UN mission, Unifil, said those hurt were receiving treatment and that it was investigating the blast’s origin.
It comes after rising tensions along the unofficial Israel-Lebanon border.
In a statement, Unifil said a shell had exploded near the group who had been on a foot patrol along the UN-demarcated Blue Line that divides southern Lebanon from Israel.
It described the targeting of peacekeepers as “unacceptable”.
No details have been given about the nationality of the observers or their condition. The Lebanese translator is reported to be stable.
The problem, of course, is that the United Nations is failing to enforce a binding UN Security Council Resolution: Resolution 1701. Designed to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the resolution forbids Hezbollah from being armed, much less firing rockets into Israel (which of course it’s doing); to stay many kilometers away from the border (Hezbollah is now right up to the border of the “no-man’s land between Israel and Lebanon); and for Lebanon to end Hezbollah’s military activities (now Hezbollah in effect controls Lebanon). Because the Reolution has failed, there’s a big UN military presence in Lebanon: UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon).
While the world comes down on Israel, nobody says a word about Lebanon or Hezbollah violating a binding UN Security Council regulation. UNIFIL are cowards, and when the fighting has gotten intense in the past between Israel and Lebanon, they have fled over the border to Israel! There are 10,000 timorous UN “peeacekeepers” in Lebanon, and if Hezbollah continues to crowd them while firing rockets at Israeli civilians, Israel’s inevitable response is going to endanger UN soldiers. The UN should either take its military out of Lebanon, since they accomplish nothing, or make them do the job that the UN mandated Resolution in 1701.
*Science writer Ed Yong has just discovered birding, and has a paean to his new obsession in the NYT, “When I became a birder, almost everything else fell into place.” (It’s archived here.) Yong used to live in England, but now lives in Oakland, which, surprisingly, is a great site for birding. And he’s caught the birder bug:
. . . . my Birder Derangement Syndrome has progressed at an alarming pace. Seven months ago, I was still seeing very common birds for the first time. Since then, I’ve seen 452 species, including 337 in the United States, and 307 this year alone. I can reliably identify a few dozen species by ear. I can tell apart greater and lesser yellowlegs, house and purple finches, Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks. (Don’t talk to me about gulls; I’m working on the gulls.) I keep abreast of eBird’s rare bird alerts and have spent many days — some glorious, others frustrating — looking for said rare birds. I know what it means to dip, to twitch, to pish. I’ve gone owling.
He’s gone owling!
I didn’t start from scratch. A career spent writing about nature gave me enough avian biology and taxonomy to roughly know the habitats and silhouettes of the major groups. Journalism taught me how to familiarize myself with unfamiliar territory very quickly. I crowdsourced tips on the social media platform Bluesky. I went out with experienced birders to learn how they move through a landscape and what cues they attend to.
I studied up on birds that are famously difficult to identify so that when I first saw them in the field, I had an inkling of what they were without having to check a field guide. I used the many tools now available to novices: EBird shows where other birders go and reveals how different species navigate space and time; Merlin is best known as an identification app but is secretly an incredible encyclopedia; Birdingquiz.com lets you practice identifying species based on fleeting glances at bad angles.
This all sounds rather extra, and birding is often defined by its excesses. At its worst, it becomes an empty process of collection that turns living things into abstract numbers on meaningless lists. But even that style of birding is harder without knowledge. To find the birds, you have to know them. And in the process of knowing them, much else falls into place.
Birding has tripled the time I spend outdoors. It has pushed me to explore Oakland in ways I never would have: Amazing hot spots lurk within industrial areas, sewage treatment plants and random residential parks. It has proved more meditative than meditation. While birding, I seem impervious to heat, cold, hunger and thirst. My senses focus resolutely on the present, and the usual hubbub in my head becomes quiet. When I spot a species for the first time — a lifer — I course with adrenaline, while being utterly serene.
I also feel a much deeper connection to the natural world, which I have long written about but always remained slightly distant from. I knew that the loggerhead shrike — a small but ferocious songbird — impales the bodies of its prey on spikes. I’ve now seen one doing that with my own eyes. I know where to find the shrikes and what they sound like. Countless fragments of unrooted trivia that rattled around my brain are now grounded in place, time and personal experience.
Yong writes eloquently about how birding has improved his life, which has “fallen into place,” and as for the idea that (as a freelancer) his birding is “unproductive”, he adds
I reject that. These recent years have taught me that I’m less when I’m not actively looking after myself, that I have value to my world and my community beyond ceaseless production, and that pursuits like birding that foster joy, wonder and connection to place are not sidebars to a fulfilled life but their essence.
It’s easy to think of birding as an escape from reality. Instead, I see it as immersion in the true reality. I don’t need to know who the main characters are on social media and what everyone is saying about them, when I can instead spend an hour trying to find a rare sparrow. It’s very clear to me which of those two activities is the more ridiculous. It’s not the one with the sparrow.
Although I’m not a birder, I agree. I wish him well, and may his life list grow ever longer, and may he finally see that elusive lazuli bunting!
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron, Jewish atheist cats, admire the real resurrection:
Retweeted by Masih, a picture of Pouria Zeraati, an Iranian journalist who appeared on a program made in London. He was attacked by a group of people, likely inspired by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, but he survived. Like Masih, he’s been under constant threat for his critical reporting on the regime, and now (also like Masih) will have to keep on the move.
A scientist who won’t play the game. You can find the original op-ed here. An extract:
My quandary comes down to whether I should “check the box” on an upcoming NIH grant application attesting to my recent African heritage. Since at least 2015, the NIH has asserted its belief in the intrinsic superiority of racially diverse research teams, all but stating that such diversity influences funding decisions. My family’s origins qualify me under the federal definition of African-American. Yet I feel it’s immoral and narcissistic to use race to gain an advantage over other applicants. All that should matter is the merit of my application and the body of my work, which is generally accepted as foundational in atherosclerosis research.
Now I’m not sure if the NIH does practice race-based funding, as, if you click the first link “at least 2015”, that initiative was withdrawn for showing racial preferences. Only those in the NIH’s granting system know if race still plays a role, or if they’ve somehow rigged the grant game. But I admire this guy for not truckling to the Zeitgeist.
A scientist with West African heritage refuses to “check the box” on his NIH application.
It means his team’s “application is more likely to lose on ‘diversity’ grounds,” but he thinks it’s “immoral and narcissistic to use race to gain an advantage over other applicants. All… pic.twitter.com/UKTXmUW13k
This species of stingless bee shows two forms of nest architecture that are inherited across generations. Is this cultural or genetic inheritance? Read the paper.
Study led by my student @dipietroviviana on the inheritance of alternative nest architectures in stingless bees available on the Current Biology website! Stacked or helicoidal nest architectural traditions persist across different worker generations! 🧵https://t.co/ipSGIurmg2pic.twitter.com/ML4bJfheD8
On this day:
1492 – Queen Isabella of Castile issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.
1901 – Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák premieres at the National Opera House in Prague.
1913 – The Vienna Concert Society rioted during a performance of modernist music by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, and Anton von Webern, causing a premature end to the concert due to violence; this concert became known as the Skandalkonzert.
1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
1921 – The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.
1930 – The Motion Picture Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty-eight years.
1939 – Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain pledges British military support to the Second Polish Republic in the event of an invasion by Nazi Germany.
1945 – World War II: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.
1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
1968 – American President Lyndon B. Johnson speaks to the nation of “Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam” in a television address. At the conclusion of his speech, he announces: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
1970 – Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.
1990 – Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax. [My oldest friend’s flatmate, Roy, was falsely arrested, beaten up in the back of a police van, and made history when the jury asked the judge to stop his trial because the police evidence was so laughable.]
1991 – Georgian independence referendum: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 – The Warsaw Pact formally disbands.
1995 – Selena is murdered by her fan club president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas.
2016 – NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station. [The “yearlong mission” was actually just 340 days, but is significant because Kelly’s identical twin brother, also an astronaut, stayed on Earth thereby facilitating the NASA Twins Study.]
Births: [A good day for composers.]
1596 – René Descartes, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1650).
1621 – Andrew Marvell, English poet and politician (d. 1678).
1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1750).
1732 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1809).
1747 – Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, German pianist and composer (d. 1800).
1778 – Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch zoologist and ornithologist (d. 1858).
1809 – Otto Lindblad, Swedish composer (d. 1864). [Most famous for the musical score of Kungssången, the Swedish royal anthem.]
1823 – Mary Boykin Chesnut, American author (d. 1886).
1833 – Mary Abigail Dodge, American writer and essayist (d. 1896).
1872 – Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet manager and critic, founded the Ballets Russes (d. 1929).
1879 – Phoebe Chapple, Australian medical doctor (d. 1967).[Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]
1890 – William Lawrence Bragg, Australian-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971).
1905 – Robert Stevenson, English director and screenwriter (d. 1986).
1911 – Freddie Green, American guitarist (d. 1987). [Played rhythm guitar with the Count Basie Orchestra for almost fifty years.]
1913 – Etta Baker, African-American singer and guitarist (d. 2006).
1922 – Patrick Magee, Irish actor (d. 1982).
1926 – John Fowles, English novelist (d. 2005).
1933 – Anita Carter, American singer-songwriter and bassist (d. 1999).
1934 – Richard Chamberlain, American actor.
1935 – Herb Alpert, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and producer.
1938 – Patrick Bateson, English biologist and academic (d. 2017).
1943 – Christopher Walken, American actor.
1944 – Mick Ralphs, English singer-songwriter and guitarist.
1948 – Al Gore, American soldier and politician, 45th Vice President of the United States and Nobel Prize laureate.
1950 – Sandra Morgen, American anthropologist and academic (d. 2016).
1955 – Angus Young, Scottish-Australian guitarist and songwriter.
1971 – Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor.
1990 – Lyra McKee, Irish journalist (d. 2019). [Shot during rioting in the Creggan area of Derry, Northern Ireland. Two men have been charged with her murder, but the trial has not yet been held.]
Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five. (Benjamin Franklin):
1631 – John Donne, English lawyer and poet (b. 1572).
1797 – Olaudah Equiano, Nigerian merchant, author, and activist (b.1745). [Enslaved as a child in West Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.]
1837 – John Constable, English painter and educator (b. 1776).
1855 – Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (b. 1816).
1913 – J. P. Morgan, American banker and financier (b. 1837).
1917 – Emil von Behring, German physiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1854).
1945 – Hans Fischer, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881).
1978 – Charles Best, American-Canadian physiologist and biochemist, co-discovered Insulin (b. 1899).
1980 – Jesse Owens, American sprinter and long jumper (b. 1913).
1993 – Brandon Lee, American actor and martial artist (b. 1965).
1998 – Bella Abzug, American lawyer, activist, and politician (b. 1920). [A leading figure in what came to be known as eco-feminism.]
2011 – Mary Greyeyes, the first First Nations woman to join the Canadian Armed Forces (b. 1920).
2002 – Barry Took, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1928).
2016 – Ronnie Corbett, Scottish comedian, actor and screenwriter (b. 1930). [Dad appeared with him in an episode of the (dire) TV series Sorry! – I was in the audience when it was recorded.]
2016 – Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-born English architect and academic, designed the Bridge Pavilion (b. 1950).
2019 – Nipsey Hussle, American rapper (b. 1985).
2022 – Shirley Burkovich, former American All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) player (b. 1933).
Woman of the Day:
[Text adapted from Wikipedia]
Phoebe Chapple MM (born on this day in 1879, died 24 March 1967) was a South Australian medical doctor, decorated for her heroic service in France during World War I.
Born in Adelaide, South Australia, she was the youngest daughter of Frederic Chapple, and his wife Elizabeth Sarah Chapple, who had left England in 1876 to take up the position of headmaster of Prince Alfred College, a prestigious Methodist school for boys in the inner eastern suburbs of the city.
From 1891, she was a conspicuously successful student at the Advanced School for Girls, a radical new institution founded by the South Australian government to prepare able girls for entry to the University of Adelaide. She matriculated in 1895 and commenced the Bachelor of Science course in 1896, and was conferred with her BSc in 1898. She went on to study Medicine, and qualified MB and BS in 1904.
She served at the Adelaide Hospital as house surgeon in 1905, then in 1906 and 1907 worked with the Sydney Medical Mission, a service founded by Dame Emma Dixson and run by women for women of the poorer areas of the city. She returned to Adelaide late in 1907 and set up in practice. She conducted first aid courses in conjunction with the YWCA and St. John Ambulance Brigade and was medical officer to the South Australian Refuge from 1908 to 1935.
Chapple did a great deal of work of a charitable nature without charge. From around 1910 she was acting as honorary surgeon, later honorary superintendent, at the Salvation Army’s maternity hospital in Carrington Street and then that organization’s McBride Maternity Hospital from 1914. She was to work for that hospital until 1929. For some years she gave her services to the Children’s Home in Magill.
She wished to volunteer for active service in the Great War, and as the Australian forces had no intention of employing women doctors, [JG: Another female doctor with 25 years experience was told that if she wished to aid the war effort she should “go home and knit socks”] she sailed to England at her own expense in February 1917, intending to join the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service which had called for 400 suitably qualified women. She arrived in April and was soon appointed as surgeon with the Cambridge Military Hospital at Aldershot, attending to wounded soldiers. In November 1917, she was appointed honorary Captain [JG: “honorary” because women were not eligible for an officer’s commission] in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), and attached to the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), (from 1918 known as Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps), which was preparing to embark for France, and she was one of the first to go.
On 29 May 1918, Chapple was at a WAAC camp near Abbeville during an air raid, when a bomb exploded on a covered trench used by the women as a shelter, killing eight and wounding nine, one mortally. [JG: This is the same event mentioned in respect of previous Woman of the Day Margaret Caswell.] Working in the dark for hours, Chapple moved through the destroyed trench tending to the wounded. For this, she was awarded the Military Medal, the first woman doctor to be so decorated, presented at Buckingham Palace in June 1919, and also promoted to honorary Major. [JG: Note that a male of equivalent rank would have been awarded the Military Cross, but this was reserved for men. The first Military Cross was not awarded to a woman until 2006!] The citation for the award reads:
For gallantry and devotion to duty during an enemy air raid. While the raid was in progress Doctor Chapple attended to the needs of the wounded regardless of her own safety.
Chapple next served at Rouen and Le Havre, and at the cessation of hostilities embarked on further training in England. She returned to Adelaide on the Orsova in September 1919.
She unsuccessfully stood for election to the Robe ward of the Adelaide City Council in December 1919, as a representative of the Women’s Non-Party Political Association, and in the same month she was appointed surgeon to the clinical department of the Adelaide Hospital.
Much of her medical work was in obstetrics and gynaecology; she was on occasion called upon as expert witness in cases of death brought about as a result of abortions, usually from peritonitis or septicaemia.
The influenza epidemic of 1931 kept her busy: she made 100 visits to the Methodist Children’s home alone, all pro bono.
Chapple’s last overseas trip was in March 1937, when she sailed for London in the Orion to attend the coronation as an official guest. While in Britain, she attended the Medical Women’s International Conference in Edinburgh, at which she was the accredited Australian representative, and the annual meeting of the B.M.A., held in Belfast.
During World War II, she was active with the Voluntary Services Detachments.
She maintained a lifelong friendship with fellow women doctors like Helen Mayo and her old mentor Violet Plummer.
Chapple died on 24 March 1967, at age 87, and was cremated with a military funeral. Her will provided for a bursary to be awarded in her name to students of St Ann’s College, University of Adelaide.
The primary satisfaction I enjoy from birding comes not from adding to my life list of species seen, but from uploading my sightings to eBird and knowing that, in aggregate, that data will help future ornithologists gain a greater understanding of birds. Hopefully from that data will flow good public policy and important habitat preservation.
Right on!
I read a book about Prohibition that explained why it took so long for women to get the vote. In the public eye, the Women’s Suffrage movement and the Temperance movement were linked. Indeed, many women belonged to both groups and said that as soon as they got the vote they would shut down every saloon in the country. Women saw banning alcohol as a feminist cause: booze led to wife-beating, rape, broken families, and so on. Men felt that if giving women the vote meant losing their booze, that was too high a price to pay. Of course, there were other reasons, including plain old sexism (“Their pretty little heads aren’t designed for complicated ideas like politics”) but the Temperance issue was evidently a major stumbling block.
This was one of those last mile problems: the joint Suffrage and Temperance movements coalesced in about 1893, but women has been denied the vote in the U.S. (and elsewhere) long before there was any “temperance” movement, so for centuries the denial of the vote was pretty much pure sexism. By the beginning of the 20th century, the expansion of women’s rights (everything from inheritance and divorce to education) offered a promising opening for voting rights, but that last mile was slowed by the temperance movement. It was no coincidence that Prohibition via the 18th Amendment in 1919 was followed shortly by extending the franchise to women via the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Yes, but the temperance movement itself was a very female skewed operation.
Hopefully we can end the war on drugs one day which makes taking illegal drugs so dangerous – as opposed to the drugs themselves. Which are non-hazardous when used correctly. Prohibition ENSURES drug can’t be taken safely.
D.A.
NYC
There is a book, Dark Archives, by Megan Rosenbloom, about books bound in human skin. She recounts the discussion she had with the Princeton librarian, Paul Needham, about Bouland and the Harvard book bound in human skin. She argues against the removal of the binding, and Needham argues in favor of the steps that have in fact now been taken.
How does removing the skin and placing in “secure storage at Harvard Library” solve the problem? Surely the human skin must be returned to the most closely appropriate next of kin.
What was the human-skin book about — Best Way to Skin A Human? Or, Sustainability Through Repurposing? And why has the actual book not been destroyed?
Preformative protests are perpetual. More people must be held accountable. Harvard has the money, go looking.
Hmm… I see no intrinsic problem with the book having been bound with the skin of a human cadaver. It might make some people squeamish, but that’s their problem, I think.
The book, which I haven’t read, is about the afterlife — something for which there is no credible evidence — but the physician obviously thought that a binding made of human skin would perhaps lend poignancy to the subject matter.
As Jerry suggested, I think objections to using human skin in this way suggest that “human exceptionalism” is at play. Actually, I think Jerry might actually have meant “essentialism” — a view that objects have “special” attributes apart from their physical attributes, which are necessary to their “identity.”
Many people would not want to put on a sweater if they were told that the sweater had been worn by Hitler. The reaction is understandable, but silly, I think, as many beliefs about the supernatural are. I think at least some of the objections to the book binding are similar.
I agree that Harvard’s action of removing the skin doesn’t solve the “problem.” But I doubt there’s any real problem. And I would certainly not want the book — without its cover — destroyed. What’s the reasoning behind wanting the book destroyed? It was written before it even had the aforementioned binding.
I any case, I’m now curious about “Dark Archives,” the book by Megan Rosenbloom. Even the 1880s book by Arsène Houssaye — now without its skin — might be interesting to read, though I don’t believe in any supernatural afterlife.
IMO, all book banning seems to be performative virtue signaling. I probably should have indicated my sarchasm more clearly. I was just venting.
But your post is very thoughtful, and more in keeping with the tenor of this website!
Hmm… I had thought briefly that your comment might not be at face value. But my consideration went only skin deep. 😎 Thanks for the clarification!
Thank you, Cransdale, for this book reference. I’ve ordered it via interlibrary loan through my local library. The Wikipedia article about the book & author has a good summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Archives
Given that I worked for 10 years at a mortuary (and also lived then in a cemetery), I’m sure this book will be interesting. In fact, I’m surprised I hadn’t known about it. (So thanks again.)
Women could not vote nationally until 1920, but prior to that date fifteen states, starting with Wyoming in 1869, had extended voting to women.
Also, “Mr. Biden contends with the Democratic Party’s left wing, which is increasingly critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war. . .” is misleading. The left wing of the Democratic party has been opposed to any retaliation against Hamas since October 7.
The lovely description from Ed Yong about what birding can do for you is very much like what ‘bugging’ with the camera does for me. But I can’t express it like he does.
You express it with your fine pictures.
+1
He surely does!
Yes. UNIFIL Is a complete failure. Consequently, Israel will have no choice but to neutralize Hezbollah, giving the rest of the international community yet another opportunity to defame Israel—even though the Israeli action will be for the benefit of the entire world—including, yes, the antisemites in Malmo, Sweden.
For the Christians among us, today is Easter.
Unless you’re Eastern orthodox, in which case you have to wait until May 5! ROFLMAO
Perhaps between the two dates he’s Schrödinger’s Jesus; can’t tell if he’s alive or dead until you look into the tomb…
Thx for mentioning 1701. Hezbassholes were SUPPOSED to be out of Lebanon sth of the Litani River for decades now. There’s your “UN sponsored peace” currently making north Israel uninhabitable by raining down metal on them.
1701 is an argument in itself against the 2 State Suicide “solution” for Israel but nobody has heard of it!
Frustrating for Lebanon-watching Zionists like myself.
D.A.
NYC
ps love the cassowary at the beach tweet. They’re utterly amazing creatures, my favorite Aussie animal and I grew up there: I’ve been bitten, stung, pronged and munched on by the best of them (and people wonder why I live in NYC now!)
On this day:
1492 – Queen Isabella of Castile issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.
1901 – Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák premieres at the National Opera House in Prague.
1913 – The Vienna Concert Society rioted during a performance of modernist music by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, and Anton von Webern, causing a premature end to the concert due to violence; this concert became known as the Skandalkonzert.
1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
1921 – The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.
1930 – The Motion Picture Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty-eight years.
1939 – Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain pledges British military support to the Second Polish Republic in the event of an invasion by Nazi Germany.
1945 – World War II: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.
1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
1968 – American President Lyndon B. Johnson speaks to the nation of “Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam” in a television address. At the conclusion of his speech, he announces: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
1970 – Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.
1990 – Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax. [My oldest friend’s flatmate, Roy, was falsely arrested, beaten up in the back of a police van, and made history when the jury asked the judge to stop his trial because the police evidence was so laughable.]
1991 – Georgian independence referendum: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 – The Warsaw Pact formally disbands.
1995 – Selena is murdered by her fan club president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas.
2016 – NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station. [The “yearlong mission” was actually just 340 days, but is significant because Kelly’s identical twin brother, also an astronaut, stayed on Earth thereby facilitating the NASA Twins Study.]
Births: [A good day for composers.]
1596 – René Descartes, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1650).
1621 – Andrew Marvell, English poet and politician (d. 1678).
1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1750).
1732 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1809).
1747 – Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, German pianist and composer (d. 1800).
1778 – Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch zoologist and ornithologist (d. 1858).
1809 – Otto Lindblad, Swedish composer (d. 1864). [Most famous for the musical score of Kungssången, the Swedish royal anthem.]
1823 – Mary Boykin Chesnut, American author (d. 1886).
1833 – Mary Abigail Dodge, American writer and essayist (d. 1896).
1872 – Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet manager and critic, founded the Ballets Russes (d. 1929).
1879 – Phoebe Chapple, Australian medical doctor (d. 1967).[Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]
1890 – William Lawrence Bragg, Australian-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971).
1905 – Robert Stevenson, English director and screenwriter (d. 1986).
1911 – Freddie Green, American guitarist (d. 1987). [Played rhythm guitar with the Count Basie Orchestra for almost fifty years.]
1913 – Etta Baker, African-American singer and guitarist (d. 2006).
1922 – Patrick Magee, Irish actor (d. 1982).
1926 – John Fowles, English novelist (d. 2005).
1933 – Anita Carter, American singer-songwriter and bassist (d. 1999).
1934 – Richard Chamberlain, American actor.
1935 – Herb Alpert, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and producer.
1938 – Patrick Bateson, English biologist and academic (d. 2017).
1943 – Christopher Walken, American actor.
1944 – Mick Ralphs, English singer-songwriter and guitarist.
1948 – Al Gore, American soldier and politician, 45th Vice President of the United States and Nobel Prize laureate.
1950 – Sandra Morgen, American anthropologist and academic (d. 2016).
1955 – Angus Young, Scottish-Australian guitarist and songwriter.
1971 – Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor.
1990 – Lyra McKee, Irish journalist (d. 2019). [Shot during rioting in the Creggan area of Derry, Northern Ireland. Two men have been charged with her murder, but the trial has not yet been held.]
Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five. (Benjamin Franklin):
1631 – John Donne, English lawyer and poet (b. 1572).
1797 – Olaudah Equiano, Nigerian merchant, author, and activist (b.1745). [Enslaved as a child in West Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.]
1837 – John Constable, English painter and educator (b. 1776).
1855 – Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (b. 1816).
1913 – J. P. Morgan, American banker and financier (b. 1837).
1917 – Emil von Behring, German physiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1854).
1945 – Hans Fischer, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881).
1978 – Charles Best, American-Canadian physiologist and biochemist, co-discovered Insulin (b. 1899).
1980 – Jesse Owens, American sprinter and long jumper (b. 1913).
1993 – Brandon Lee, American actor and martial artist (b. 1965).
1998 – Bella Abzug, American lawyer, activist, and politician (b. 1920). [A leading figure in what came to be known as eco-feminism.]
2011 – Mary Greyeyes, the first First Nations woman to join the Canadian Armed Forces (b. 1920).
2002 – Barry Took, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1928).
2016 – Ronnie Corbett, Scottish comedian, actor and screenwriter (b. 1930). [Dad appeared with him in an episode of the (dire) TV series Sorry! – I was in the audience when it was recorded.]
2016 – Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-born English architect and academic, designed the Bridge Pavilion (b. 1950).
2019 – Nipsey Hussle, American rapper (b. 1985).
2022 – Shirley Burkovich, former American All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) player (b. 1933).
Woman of the Day:
[Text adapted from Wikipedia]
Phoebe Chapple MM (born on this day in 1879, died 24 March 1967) was a South Australian medical doctor, decorated for her heroic service in France during World War I.
Born in Adelaide, South Australia, she was the youngest daughter of Frederic Chapple, and his wife Elizabeth Sarah Chapple, who had left England in 1876 to take up the position of headmaster of Prince Alfred College, a prestigious Methodist school for boys in the inner eastern suburbs of the city.
From 1891, she was a conspicuously successful student at the Advanced School for Girls, a radical new institution founded by the South Australian government to prepare able girls for entry to the University of Adelaide. She matriculated in 1895 and commenced the Bachelor of Science course in 1896, and was conferred with her BSc in 1898. She went on to study Medicine, and qualified MB and BS in 1904.
She served at the Adelaide Hospital as house surgeon in 1905, then in 1906 and 1907 worked with the Sydney Medical Mission, a service founded by Dame Emma Dixson and run by women for women of the poorer areas of the city. She returned to Adelaide late in 1907 and set up in practice. She conducted first aid courses in conjunction with the YWCA and St. John Ambulance Brigade and was medical officer to the South Australian Refuge from 1908 to 1935.
Chapple did a great deal of work of a charitable nature without charge. From around 1910 she was acting as honorary surgeon, later honorary superintendent, at the Salvation Army’s maternity hospital in Carrington Street and then that organization’s McBride Maternity Hospital from 1914. She was to work for that hospital until 1929. For some years she gave her services to the Children’s Home in Magill.
She wished to volunteer for active service in the Great War, and as the Australian forces had no intention of employing women doctors, [JG: Another female doctor with 25 years experience was told that if she wished to aid the war effort she should “go home and knit socks”] she sailed to England at her own expense in February 1917, intending to join the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service which had called for 400 suitably qualified women. She arrived in April and was soon appointed as surgeon with the Cambridge Military Hospital at Aldershot, attending to wounded soldiers. In November 1917, she was appointed honorary Captain [JG: “honorary” because women were not eligible for an officer’s commission] in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), and attached to the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), (from 1918 known as Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps), which was preparing to embark for France, and she was one of the first to go.
On 29 May 1918, Chapple was at a WAAC camp near Abbeville during an air raid, when a bomb exploded on a covered trench used by the women as a shelter, killing eight and wounding nine, one mortally. [JG: This is the same event mentioned in respect of previous Woman of the Day Margaret Caswell.] Working in the dark for hours, Chapple moved through the destroyed trench tending to the wounded. For this, she was awarded the Military Medal, the first woman doctor to be so decorated, presented at Buckingham Palace in June 1919, and also promoted to honorary Major. [JG: Note that a male of equivalent rank would have been awarded the Military Cross, but this was reserved for men. The first Military Cross was not awarded to a woman until 2006!] The citation for the award reads:
Chapple next served at Rouen and Le Havre, and at the cessation of hostilities embarked on further training in England. She returned to Adelaide on the Orsova in September 1919.
She unsuccessfully stood for election to the Robe ward of the Adelaide City Council in December 1919, as a representative of the Women’s Non-Party Political Association, and in the same month she was appointed surgeon to the clinical department of the Adelaide Hospital.
Much of her medical work was in obstetrics and gynaecology; she was on occasion called upon as expert witness in cases of death brought about as a result of abortions, usually from peritonitis or septicaemia.
The influenza epidemic of 1931 kept her busy: she made 100 visits to the Methodist Children’s home alone, all pro bono.
Chapple’s last overseas trip was in March 1937, when she sailed for London in the Orion to attend the coronation as an official guest. While in Britain, she attended the Medical Women’s International Conference in Edinburgh, at which she was the accredited Australian representative, and the annual meeting of the B.M.A., held in Belfast.
During World War II, she was active with the Voluntary Services Detachments.
She maintained a lifelong friendship with fellow women doctors like Helen Mayo and her old mentor Violet Plummer.
Chapple died on 24 March 1967, at age 87, and was cremated with a military funeral. Her will provided for a bursary to be awarded in her name to students of St Ann’s College, University of Adelaide.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Chapple
The primary satisfaction I enjoy from birding comes not from adding to my life list of species seen, but from uploading my sightings to eBird and knowing that, in aggregate, that data will help future ornithologists gain a greater understanding of birds. Hopefully from that data will flow good public policy and important habitat preservation.
Right on!
I read a book about Prohibition that explained why it took so long for women to get the vote. In the public eye, the Women’s Suffrage movement and the Temperance movement were linked. Indeed, many women belonged to both groups and said that as soon as they got the vote they would shut down every saloon in the country. Women saw banning alcohol as a feminist cause: booze led to wife-beating, rape, broken families, and so on. Men felt that if giving women the vote meant losing their booze, that was too high a price to pay. Of course, there were other reasons, including plain old sexism (“Their pretty little heads aren’t designed for complicated ideas like politics”) but the Temperance issue was evidently a major stumbling block.
This was one of those last mile problems: the joint Suffrage and Temperance movements coalesced in about 1893, but women has been denied the vote in the U.S. (and elsewhere) long before there was any “temperance” movement, so for centuries the denial of the vote was pretty much pure sexism. By the beginning of the 20th century, the expansion of women’s rights (everything from inheritance and divorce to education) offered a promising opening for voting rights, but that last mile was slowed by the temperance movement. It was no coincidence that Prohibition via the 18th Amendment in 1919 was followed shortly by extending the franchise to women via the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Yes, but the temperance movement itself was a very female skewed operation.
Hopefully we can end the war on drugs one day which makes taking illegal drugs so dangerous – as opposed to the drugs themselves. Which are non-hazardous when used correctly. Prohibition ENSURES drug can’t be taken safely.
D.A.
NYC
There is a book, Dark Archives, by Megan Rosenbloom, about books bound in human skin. She recounts the discussion she had with the Princeton librarian, Paul Needham, about Bouland and the Harvard book bound in human skin. She argues against the removal of the binding, and Needham argues in favor of the steps that have in fact now been taken.
How does removing the skin and placing in “secure storage at Harvard Library” solve the problem? Surely the human skin must be returned to the most closely appropriate next of kin.
What was the human-skin book about — Best Way to Skin A Human? Or, Sustainability Through Repurposing? And why has the actual book not been destroyed?
Preformative protests are perpetual. More people must be held accountable. Harvard has the money, go looking.
Hmm… I see no intrinsic problem with the book having been bound with the skin of a human cadaver. It might make some people squeamish, but that’s their problem, I think.
The book, which I haven’t read, is about the afterlife — something for which there is no credible evidence — but the physician obviously thought that a binding made of human skin would perhaps lend poignancy to the subject matter.
As Jerry suggested, I think objections to using human skin in this way suggest that “human exceptionalism” is at play. Actually, I think Jerry might actually have meant “essentialism” — a view that objects have “special” attributes apart from their physical attributes, which are necessary to their “identity.”
Many people would not want to put on a sweater if they were told that the sweater had been worn by Hitler. The reaction is understandable, but silly, I think, as many beliefs about the supernatural are. I think at least some of the objections to the book binding are similar.
I agree that Harvard’s action of removing the skin doesn’t solve the “problem.” But I doubt there’s any real problem. And I would certainly not want the book — without its cover — destroyed. What’s the reasoning behind wanting the book destroyed? It was written before it even had the aforementioned binding.
I any case, I’m now curious about “Dark Archives,” the book by Megan Rosenbloom. Even the 1880s book by Arsène Houssaye — now without its skin — might be interesting to read, though I don’t believe in any supernatural afterlife.
IMO, all book banning seems to be performative virtue signaling. I probably should have indicated my sarchasm more clearly. I was just venting.
But your post is very thoughtful, and more in keeping with the tenor of this website!
Hmm… I had thought briefly that your comment might not be at face value. But my consideration went only skin deep. 😎 Thanks for the clarification!
Thank you, Cransdale, for this book reference. I’ve ordered it via interlibrary loan through my local library. The Wikipedia article about the book & author has a good summary:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Archives
Given that I worked for 10 years at a mortuary (and also lived then in a cemetery), I’m sure this book will be interesting. In fact, I’m surprised I hadn’t known about it. (So thanks again.)
Women could not vote nationally until 1920, but prior to that date fifteen states, starting with Wyoming in 1869, had extended voting to women.
Also, “Mr. Biden contends with the Democratic Party’s left wing, which is increasingly critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war. . .” is misleading. The left wing of the Democratic party has been opposed to any retaliation against Hamas since October 7.
The lovely description from Ed Yong about what birding can do for you is very much like what ‘bugging’ with the camera does for me. But I can’t express it like he does.
You express it with your fine pictures.
+1
He surely does!
Yes. UNIFIL Is a complete failure. Consequently, Israel will have no choice but to neutralize Hezbollah, giving the rest of the international community yet another opportunity to defame Israel—even though the Israeli action will be for the benefit of the entire world—including, yes, the antisemites in Malmo, Sweden.
Unless you’re Eastern orthodox, in which case you have to wait until May 5! ROFLMAO
Perhaps between the two dates he’s Schrödinger’s Jesus; can’t tell if he’s alive or dead until you look into the tomb…
Thx for mentioning 1701. Hezbassholes were SUPPOSED to be out of Lebanon sth of the Litani River for decades now. There’s your “UN sponsored peace” currently making north Israel uninhabitable by raining down metal on them.
1701 is an argument in itself against the 2 State Suicide “solution” for Israel but nobody has heard of it!
Frustrating for Lebanon-watching Zionists like myself.
D.A.
NYC
ps love the cassowary at the beach tweet. They’re utterly amazing creatures, my favorite Aussie animal and I grew up there: I’ve been bitten, stung, pronged and munched on by the best of them (and people wonder why I live in NYC now!)