Monday: Hili dialogue

March 31, 2025 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Monday of a busy week, and also the last day of March: it’s March 31, 2025, and the month is not going out like a lamb (showers in Chicago yesterday, near freezing this morning). It’s International Taco Day, and who doesn’t love these? (I do eschew the fish tacos).  Here’s food maven Mike Chen sampling what he thinks are the five best tacos in Mexico City:

It’s also Nation Clams on the Half Shell Day (okay, but I prefer oysters), National Tater Day, Eiffel Tower Day, National Crayon Day, and National Bunsen Burner Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 31 Wikipedia page.

This is a busy ten days to come: writing tasks, duck tending, attending a memorial service for a late colleague, a breakfast meeting with other emeritus faculty with the University President (oy!), my biannual tooth cleaning, and a second visit to the ophthamologist to measure my corneas for future cataract surgery. I grow old. . . . .  Posting may be a bit lighter over the next two weeks, but bear with me. I try my best. But I am sad that there were so few comments on the wonderful Duckapalooza Post. Don’t people like ducks?

Da Nooz:

*Obituaries first: Richard Chamberlain died at 90. Dr. Kildare is no more!

Richard Chamberlain, an actor who got his start playing a hunky TV doctor and went on to become a miniseries maestro, died on Saturday, according to his publicist. He was 90 years old.

Chamberlain died in Hawaii of complications following a stroke, publicist Harlan Boll said in a statement. The award-winning “Thorn Birds” star would have turned 91 on Monday.

Chamberlain, a three-time Golden Globe winner, wore many hats over the years – actor, singer, soldier, painter, author – but he first rose to prominence and cemented his heartthrob status playing a handsome young physician in the 1960s series, “Dr. Kildare.”

The series aired on NBC between 1961 and 1966. In 1963, Chamberlain won a Golden Globe for best male TV star for his performance as Dr. Kildare.

“It took right off all around the world, as a matter of fact,” Chamberlain said in a 2021 interview. “I was getting all of this attention and stuff and it was my absolute, total dream come true. I was so happy with it.”

Chamberlain also had a thriving film career. In 1970, he played Octavius Caesar in “Julius Caesar,” alongside Charlton Heston and Jason Robards, and appeared in 1973’s “The Three Musketeers” alongside Raquel Welch and Oliver Reed. In 1974, he had a role in the Oscar-winning film “The Towering Inferno.”

In the 1980s, Chamberlain also became known as the “king of the mini-series,” according to the Associated Press. And it’s clear to see how he earned the moniker.

He starred in the hit miniseries’ “Shōgun” in 1980 and “The Thorn Birds” in 1983. Each earned him a Golden Globe. In 1996, he reprised his “Thorn Birds” role of Father Ralph de Bricassart in the TV movie “The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years.”

He was a handsome fellow!  And there was Yoko Shimoda, the beautiful Mariko, who would sometimes talk about “pillowing” with John Blackthorne, the Western navigator played by Chamberlain.

I used to watch Dr. Kildare every week, and remember it competing with another doctor drama, “Ben Casey,” starring Vince Edwards, who died in 1996. I also watched every episode of Shõgun, and even read the book. Here’s Chamberlain talking about Shõgun:

*It’s no surprise that Trump, feeling his oats, has threatened to impose tariffs on Russian oil to countries that buy it. This seems a bit counterproductive if Trump is cozying up to Putin. (Article archived here.)

President Trump leveled his strongest criticism to date against President Vladimir V. Putin on Sunday, threatening to impose “secondary tariffs” on Russia’s oil if the country thwarted negotiations on a cease-fire deal with Ukraine that would stop the fighting.

The comments, relayed on “Meet the Press” by the show’s host Kristen Welker, reflected a conversation she said she had hours earlier with Mr. Trump, in which he signaled growing impatience with the negotiations. Mr. Trump told her that tariffs of 25 to 50 percent on Russian oil could be imposed at “any moment” and that he planned to speak with his Russian counterpart this week.

“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump has previously referred to secondary tariffs as levies on imports from countries that purchase products from a nation he’s targeted in his foreign policy. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The comments were notable given the steps that Mr. Trump has taken to align himself with Mr. Putin, despite the United States’ support for Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than three years ago. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has declined to acknowledge that it was Russia who started the war, falsely declared Mr. Zelensky a “dictator” but not Mr. Putin, and accused Mr. Zelensky of not wanting peace.

Mr. Trump’s remarks also reflected his increasing promise to use tariffs to compel countries to bend to his domestic and foreign policy goals. In the same phone call, he said he would consider secondary tariffs on Iran if it did not reach a deal with the United States to ensure it did not develop a nuclear weapon, Ms. Welker said.

Trump is using money (which talks, of course) to blackmail countries into doing his will, but other sticks are also in play, like the revocation of security clearances threatened for law firms.  As for Iran, it’s going to develop a nuclear weapon come hell or high water, and nothing Trump does can stop that.

*I’ll try not to do too much Trump-dissing, though I remember when readers chewed my tuchas for not doing enough.  His latest gaffe, of course, is the Big Tariff threat, for tariffs don’t do anybody any good and will ultimately hurt the American consumer, whose disaffection with inflation helped Trump get elected in the first place. Now he says he doesn’t give a hoot if car prices rise in America. (article archived here). Bad optics!

President Trump said he “couldn’t care less” if foreign automakers raise their prices for U.S. consumers in response to new tariffs, doubling down on an aggressive strategy to remake the American economy with heavy tariffs set to go into effect this week.

In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump said a new 25% tariff on all imported vehicles and parts starting this week would make foreign cars more expensive and bolster sales of U.S. vehicles.

In addition, Trump has declared April 2 as “Liberation Day” for the U.S., when he will put in place what is called reciprocal tariffs that seek to equalize U.S. tariffs with the duties charged by trading partners, as well as tariffs on a range of sectors. Other tariffs he has already implemented have started to scramble supply chains and driven up some costs—a price Trump says is worth it to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S.

“I couldn’t care less, because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they’re going to buy American cars,” Trump said. “I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty.”

In the interview, the president also disputed that he had instructed U.S. automaker CEOS on a call in early March to not raise prices, which executives have said is inevitable in the face of tariffs. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump had warned executives that the White House would look unfavorably on such a move, leaving some of them rattled and worried they would face punishment if they increased prices.

“I never said that,” Trump told NBC.

Another Big Lie. Of course prices will go up; we can’t expect American automakers and retails to absorb a 25% increase.  I wonder who ever put the idea of tariffs in his ear? Could it have been Musk?

*Yesterday morning I spent $5 for a dozen eggs, which is about five times what I used to pay when they were on sale in my local supermarket. That hurt, but I am making a recipe that calls for eggs.  Now the WaPo notes that egg prices are bellwethers of consumer discontent. Their article is called, “Eggs are president now” (archived here).

What is an egg worth?

Do not confuse the question with what an egg costs, which this week was about $5.90 by the dozen, on average, going up to as much as $10 retail, depending on where you live in the country.

Every trip to the grocery store is, for Sheri Yasuna, a lesson in Egg Math. Yasuna, 47, lives on the south coast of Oahu, where groceries are expensive even in normal times. She usually buys eggs in cartons of 18. But this month she saw them priced at $15.99 — nearly a dollar an egg.

“I said ‘My god, do I need 18 eggs?’” says Yasuna, whose family has decided to cut back their egg consumption. “Something that was such a common household item has become almost a luxury.”

Do the Egg Math, and maybe they’re worth $500. That will get you a six-month rental of a chicken coop, plus chicken feed and two laying hens, which will produce a dozen or more eggs per week — all from Jenn Tompkins’ business, Rent the Chicken, in Freeport, Pennsylvania. Tompkins, known as “Homestead Jenn,” has received five times the usual number of inquiries this month, ever since Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested on Fox News that a solution for skyrocketing egg prices — a problem that her boss, President Donald Trump, pledged to fix on day one — is for Americans to simply raise their own hens.

But for everyone else, egg prices are a big flocking problem. Eggs have become a symbol for everything that’s rotten these days: inflation, the supply chain, bird flu, the controversy over vaccination, the inability of government to crack basic problems. Eggs signify the failure of the Biden administration or the Trump administration, depending on which side of the coop you’re standing.

Eggs may be the new gasoline, in the way that satisfaction with our economy seems to rise and fall inversely to their price — a soufflé of discontent that isn’t settling.

But get a load of this:

The furor over egg prices “really underscores to us how essential eggs are in people’s lives,” says Ed Hoffman, the American Egg Board’s vice president of marketing and communications, who is not having a great month. It’s not the best time to be in the egg promotion business. Instead, the Chicago-based commodity board — you might remember their catchy “The Incredible, Edible Egg” jingle from the 1970s — has been focusing on helping people stretch their egg supply.

“Maybe if you mix in cottage cheese, for example, you can use one fewer egg or a couple fewer eggs and still have a really delicious breakfast,” says Hoffman.

These are not, incredibly, the worst egg prices that America has ever seen. In the early days of California’s gold rush in the mid-1800s, when rapid population growth and lack of poultry hiked up the price of an egg to $1 apiece (more than $30 today), forty-niners engaged in violent combat for control of a rocky island 26 miles off the coast of San Francisco where foul-tasting wild eggs could be foraged amid a high concentration of bird poop, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

They must really have been hungry for eggs to pay the equivalent of thirty bucks for one. I got queasy paying 40 cents per egg.  And believe me, I’ve cut down. Perhaps egg prices will be the nail in Trump’s coffin.

*And, as NBC News says at the end of each show, “There’s GOOD news tonight.” I’ll end this with some good news: the world’s longest known cat tail has been determined by Guinness.

 A silver Maine coon cat from Minnesota was awarded a Guinness World Record after his tail was measured at 18.5 inches long.

Amanda Cameron said her family’s 2-year-old cat, Mr. Pugsley Addams, has always had a long tail, and the subject even came up during his first visit to the vet.

Cameron said the veterinarian mentioned it again 6 months later, inspiring her kids to research the Guinness World Records for the longest tail on a domestic cat living.

“And what do you know — to our shock, Pugsley beat it,” Cameron said.

She said Pugsley is a remarkably easy-going and friendly feline.

“Everybody always wants to meet him, and falls in love with his calm demeanor. He is pretty level-headed, even in new situations that might be scary for some cats,” she said. “He is super soft, and is always purring. He’s just a great little guy to be around. When we go out and about, they call him a ‘local celebrity!'”

Look at this tail!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is demanding attention from Andrzej:

A: Take your paws off my keyboard.
Hili: Hili: It’s the best way to get your attention.
In Polish:
Ja: Zabierz swoje łapki z mojej klawiatury.
Hili: To najlepszy sposób zwrócenia twojej uwagi.
And a picture of Szaron resting comfortably:

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

From My Cat is an Asshole:

From Things With Faces (I hope it’s real):

From Now That’s Wild:

From Masih. I can’t remember if I posted this earlier, but it is good to remind ourselves of the oppression faced by Iranian women. This one, like many, had an eye shot out by good of the regime. (Masih’s assassins were convicted.)

Luana got this from Swarthmore.  Note the “stimulation accessible,” which, according to Google’s AI, means: “generally it means making stimulation (whether sensory, mental, or otherwise) easily accessible to individuals, particularly those with disabilities or specific needs, or promoting activities that encourage engagement and well-being.”  I’m still not sure what it means in this context.

From Malcolm; cats properly lined up to watch television:

From my feed, some mighty generous people:

From my Bluesky feed. I don’t know what a gadwall OR the Beastie Boys sound like, but you can hear a gadwall here.

#science #FieldBiology #BeastieBoys #intergalactic #gadwall #bio #AnimalBio #ducks #funny #TeachingResources

— Behind the Frequency (@behindthefrequency.bsky.social) 2025-03-30T17:58:59.692Z

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

One of the lucky ones: he survived Auschwitz and lived to be 92.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-03-31T10:20:37.860Z

Two posts from Doctor Cobb. The first one is adorable!

I try to stay away from politics but this crab eating a grape is very important.

— Paul Bronks (@slendersherbet.bsky.social) 2025-03-29T21:21:30.134Z

Is this bison shedding, or does he have mange. Either way, he’s HUGE! Matthew says he’s an “absolute unit.”

Met this big boy at Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah. Majestic AF. 🦬 #utah #BlueskyArtShow #antelopeisland #stateparks #bison #nature #animals

— Jess (@crochetedjess.bsky.social) 2025-03-29T17:10:01.161Z

41 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
    Perfect love is rare indeed – for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain. -Leo Buscaglia, author, speaker and professor (31 Mar 1924-1998)

  2. I must say that I am rather sceptical of the narrative about Iranian police shooting out the eyes of protesters, and not because I have any sympathy for the reprehensible regime, which I wholeheartedly loathe, but for technical reasons.
    (1) Even talented, experienced marksmen would find it next to impossible to reliably hit a target the size of an eye, depending on a range of factors, including distance, wind, difference in elevation, and of course movement of the target. So even if the police are trying to shoot people in the eye, we would expect dozens of hits to the rest of the face and head for every hit to the eye, and as far as I know, we are not seeing this.
    (2) Any hit to the eye will almost always result in further severe injury or death, not just blinding of the eye, unless one is using, e.g. a very low-powered air rifle with pellets or rubber/plastic projectiles instead of actual bullets, and again, we are not hearing about any such thing.
    So I’m not sure what is going on with this narrative, but something seems rather fishy.

      2. I think they’re called “KIP”s for “Kinetic Impact Projectiles”. They fire bean-bags, rubber bullets, baton rounds, sponge/pellet rounds, those kinds of things*. Since so many have been deliberately blinded in one eye, my guess is they are fired at point blank range.

        *My son is a US Marine embassy guard. I’ve learned a lot.

    2. I, too, have been wondering about that. It seems that these are rubber-bullet–type shootings, leading to a variety of serious injuries, from blindness to death. As it turns out, there’s a Wikipedia page devoted to “Eye injuries during 2022 Iranian protests,” discussing the use of kinetic-impact-projectiles, i.e. “baton rounds,” for crowd control (and presumably deliberate injury).
      * Edit: See also EdwardM’s reply, posted shortly before mine.

    3. The weapons are not normal guns firing bullets. They are “less than lethal” weapons intended to subdue and often used for crowd control and riot situations. There are various kinds. Some shoot small bean bags, some shoot large rubber “bullets.”

      These weapons are often used up close and personal. Perhaps eyes are not being targeted, though I think that is very plausible. Likely even. I’ve no doubt that at a minimum faces are being targeted. Eyes are much more delicate than the rest of the face. The rest of the face can heal with little to no trace from weapons like this, while an impact on the eye will leave lasting damage.

    4. I’ve wondered about this myself Jared.
      A few years ago there were reports and pics of the Indian police targeting eyes of protesters in Kashmir.

      I know nothing about ballistics or guns but.. I guess… they’re using some kind of shotgun like device which impacts the whole face rather than marksmen shooting at eyes per se?
      Wiser minds than mine can comment below but I’m curious.

      Not to defend Iran of course, I hate them deeply, but last year the IRGC was accused of “poisoning” teenage girls with gas in schools which mapped exactly teen girl social panics in other countries. And there was no proof of it.

      It is important to be accurate on our enemies ACTUAL actions rather than just throwing things at a wall.

      D.A.
      NYC

  3. I wonder who ever put the idea of tariffs in his ear? Could it have been Musk?

    That’s unlikely since Musk is not keen on tariffs. Trump was talking about tariffs well before the Trump/Musk relationship developed, and prior to that, in early 2024, Musk spoke against tariffs (while Tesla itself made statements against tariffs).

    More recently, while Musk has not publicly spoken against Trump’s tariffs, nor has he spoken in favour. While he posts about all sorts of things incessantly on Twitter, I’ve not seen him Tweet in support of tariffs. Of course Musk has business interests in lots of countries, including Mexico and China.

    1. And it certainly wasn’t the folks of Project 2025 who had this to say about tariffs: Federal Reserve research shows that the tariffs have cost about 75,000 manufacturing jobs while creating only about 1,000 jobs in the steel industry—not including the effects of the retaliatory tariffs described above. Higher steel prices added an average of $250 to the price of new cars, and larger trucks—the vehicle of choice in rural America—were hit even more dramatically.
      Trade is generally a win-win for both participants. Tariffs are a lose-lose-lose
      game, with the tariff raiser losing affordable goods, the tariff target losing exports, and the tariff raiser losing again from retaliatory tariffs. Tariffs also have an additional overlooked hidden cost: Companies redirect resources to dodge tariffs by redesigning products, switching to more expensive suppliers, using lower-quality materials, and lobbying. This might be good for lawyers, but it is bad for the economy. These resources could have been used instead to make a better product more cheaply

    2. Agree, it’s not Musk. Plus Trump did tariffs in his first term too. He re-negotiated the trade deal with Canada in his first term. The one he’s now saying is “ripping America off.”

      Plus few mention why there is US auto manufacturing in Canada. It’s certainly not because of lower wages.

      In fact it dates back to the 1960s: Ford, GM and Chrysler agreed to move a fraction of their manufacturing to Canada in return for duty free access to the Canadian market. It’s called the Auto Pact.

      If Trump succeeds in moving this manufacturing back to the US, that will be end of US cars sold in Canada.

      1. Yes Frau K.
        Trump has had a specific hard on (if you’ll pardon my coarseness) about trade imbalances back as far back as the 1990s.
        It is one of his only actual political opinions.

        He was retrospectively all aboard when idiotic congressmen were bashing Toyotas on the Mall. (Japan was The Main Enemy then).

        And Musk loves free trade.

        D.A.
        NYC

  5. Eggs: Back in the late ’80s I met a retired career US State Dept diplomat who had been at the desk in Helsinki in/after WWII. He told me that eggs were so scarce at the end of the war that they came over from Stockholm in the diplomatic pouch, $1@, which I think is something like $17 in 2025$.

    But wait till the price of toilet paper skyrockets from the tariff on Canadian pulp!

      1. Copies of The Art of the Deal should become a fixture in American bathrooms, for their hygienic utility and also as a daily practical critique of the author.

  6. While I made no comment on the wonderful Duckapalooza Post yesterday, I did share it with several friends in my walking group who I had told about Botany Pond, PCC(E) and Honey over the years. I thought it was an excellent single post to bring everyone up to date and illustrate the physical environment of the renewed pond.

  7. It’s also Cesar Chavez Day!
    Cesar Chavez Day is a U.S. federal commemorative holiday, proclaimed by President Barack Obama in 2014. The holiday celebrates the birth and legacy of the civil rights and labor movement activist Cesar Chavez on March 31 every year.

  8. HA!
    Don’t be upset at the lack of duck comments. Speaking broadly here – I think the readership, like me, are fairly pro-duck. They are very cool birds with unacceptable sexual practices we let them get away with b/c they’re pretty. Like Lindsay Lohan, say.

    But the lack of comments are maybe because in duckland there’s not much to fight about! There’s no Mallard vs Plain (is there a “Plain duck”?) controversies etc.

    They’re just ducks. And that’s just fine. 🙂

    D.A.
    NYC

  9. The widespread angst over eggs puzzles me. Certainly, given as many as I eat, I prefer lower prices. But I routinely hear people grousing about it who think nothing of popping into McDonald’s and dropping more cash for an Egg McMuffin and a cup of coffee than they would on a dozen eggs. Or others who spend more on an awful Starbuck’s drink than that dozen would have cost. Still others lament egg prices but they casually drop ten bucks on a six pack. It is interesting how our price expectations around certain products anchor with little comparison of relative nutritional worth to cost.

    1. A harbinger, a marker, a sign post. It’s like gas prices, if they go up 20c a gallon, it’s a big deal to people. What is that, an extra $5.00 per tank? Like you say, that’s what people spend every day on their Starbucks. But I think when the prices change suddenly for things like eggs, gasoline, coffee, sugar and other commodities, we notice how thin our wallets have been lately. Given the poor prospects of them fattening any time soon, it’s kind of a comeuppance.

      1. I’m old enough to remember a dismissive retort which was even older than me:
        “Oh, yeah? What’s that got to do with the price of eggs?”

        So I guess at some point the price of eggs must have been used as a standard to measure relevance.

    2. I’ve thought the same things. A very large price hike on eggs does not mean squat to me, in part bc I rarely eat them. But I am sure that restaurants are not keen on the situation since they buy in bulk and their margins are slim at best.

  10. I’m pro-Duck and I enjoyed yesterday’s post.

    What a week this will be. Tariffs kick in, which can’t be good. I can only hope that the stock market has already factored that in and that the market won’t take a big tumble. I’ll try not to watch.

  12. “Intergalactic”, which was released in 1998, is one of the most famous songs from the “Beastie Boys”. The video is a parody or rather homage to Japanese kaiju films. 😀

    1. The Beastie Boys were fun. Every now and then the line “You’ve got to fight for your right to party!” goes through my head for no reason.

    2. The Beastie Boys were fun. Every now and then the line “You’ve got to fight for your right to party!” goes through my head for no reason.

  13. In reading about the tariffs, I found that the United Auto Workers union strongly supports them as they see them as protecting American jobs. I also learnt that about half of the UAW membership is employed in fields outside of the auto industry, including representing members in higher ed; the University of California has about as many UAW members as General Motors does. I have to wonder how the membership in these other areas feel about their leadership endorsing Trump’s policies.
    The application of the tariffs for autos will only be a straight 25% for imported vehicles. For domestically-produced vehicles it will depend on the amount of foreign content. But given that every single vehicle made in the US has at least some parts made outside of the US, it will result in increased costs for the automakers. How they handle the increased costs will be the key; it seems like Trump is asking for them to give up profit to keep prices flat. Very anti-free-market all over the place.

    RPGNo1, thanks for the cool vid!

  14. Richard Chamberlain; only saw Dr Kildare a few times at a friend’s home, but I did see him as Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (Birmingham UK). It was a decent performance, of a play that can often seem long & boring. At the time, although the the stage and auditorium were lit by electricity, the stairs up to the gods, the highest layer of the auditorium, were still lit by gas lamps. And this somewhere between 1968 and 1971.

  16. To Malgorzata and Andrzej, the photos of Hili, Kulka and Szaron have been especially nice lately. The silhouette of the two in the window, one of a particularly petulant looking Hili, another of her stretched out on a rug… The cats in Poland remain the stars of the dialogue.

  17. I loved Duckapalooza! But I only saw it an hour or two ago. Have been feeling poorly and didn’t read much for a few days. I’m just now catching up.

    Always a pleasure to see Esther and Mordechai.

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