Welcome to Monday, May 11, 2026, and Eat What you Want Day. I assume that this means you can pig out on pizza, ice cream, and hamburgers. That is, unless you “want” zucchini, fish, and Brussels sprouts (I’d maintain that people “want” those only in the sense that they promote health. What they really want is comfort food.)
It’s also Hostess Cupcake Day (they were first sold on this day in 1919), and National Twilight Zone Day, though there’s no obvious connection between the date and the show. Here’s the show’s introduction, and if you remember it you’re a geezer:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 11 Wikipedia page.
On Saturday we had a waterfowl rescue. Two people who know of my status as Duckmeister emailed me to say that a lone duckling was swimming in Botany Pond. They also sent this photo:
Well, it didn’t look like a duckling (they have more dark color on their heads), but since there was only one baby and no mother, there was no choice save to rescue it. I hopped in my car and drove to Botany Pond, where I met the two emailers. Fortunately, the little one was swimming by the edge of the pond, so I didn’t have to go into the water: I stole up behind it and scooped it up.
It was much larger and more vigorous than a newborn duckling, and I suspected it was a gosling. Either it was an orphan that wandered into the pond or had been put there by someone who found it. Either way, leaving it there was a death sentence. After I caught it, I called the local woman who’s a representative for Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, a great organization that rescues injured birds. The three of us drove it over to her house, and, pronouncing that it was definitely a gosling, she took it in for transfer yesterday to a wildlife rehab place. Here’s a photo of the two people who contacted me. They saved a life.
Look how big it is, and it was struggling hard. It’s okay now, though. This was my first goose rescue!
Da Nooz:
*Yesterday at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal reveals that Israel has (or had) a secret military base in a remote area of Iraq.It’s not clear whether Iraq even knew about it.
It’s Sunday, May 10, and in mid-March, while the war rages in Iran, a shepherd in Iraq’s western desert witnesses helicopters and gunfire illuminating the horizon. Following the publication of his testimony by Iraqi state media, the military sent forces to investigate this “unusual military activity,” only to be repelled by airstrikes.
What was happening in this remote region of a hostile country? According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the IDF was operating a secret military base.
Citing U.S. officials and other sources, the report claims Israel established the base shortly before the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran commenced. Serving as a logistical hub for the IAF, the site reportedly housed special forces and search-and-rescue teams on standby to recover any downed pilots. This marks the first time Israel has established a base in Iraq—or at least the first time we know about it. The outpost is likely what IAF Chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar was alluding to when he noted that the air force’s special units were carrying out “extraordinary missions that can spark one’s imagination.
During the high-stakes rescue of an American F-15 crew in early April, while U.S. forces performed the lion’s share of the extraction, Israel provided suppressive airstrikes—likely launched from this very base.
Following the skirmish with Iraqi forces, a member of parliament for the local Karbala governorate stated that a force, likely American, had “carried out a rapid landing under air cover in the Najaf-Karbala desert.”
His suspicion that a foreign power was operating there was well-founded. An expert told the WSJ that the western desert is a perfect spot for a clandestine outpost due to its vast size and sparse population, noting that U.S. special forces made extensive use of this region in 1991 and 2003. Locals had noticed unusual helicopter activity before the war but had “learned to stay away” given the history of the site.
The crown jewel of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” was Hezbollah in Lebanon; the Ayatollahs had successfully created a land border with their enemy to support and launch operations. It appears that years later, Israel has done the same.
The base appears to be temporary, but still . . . . it may be another sign of decreased hostility between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. You can read the Wall Street Journal article here. It does imply that the Israeli base was set up secretly, and the government wants it gone, but the WSJ adds this: “An Iraqi government spokesman declined to comment further on the incident or whether it knew of the Israeli base.” If Israel set up the base in secret, without consulting the Iraqi government, well, it was illegal but very clever.
*The “ceasefire” in the Iran war is far from complete: yesterday Iranian drones attacked a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran is reported to be continuing its attacks on Kuwait and the UAE.
ran has sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal via Pakistani mediators and wants negotiations to focus on permanently ending the war, Iran’s state-run media said Sunday. Pakistan confirmed receiving it.
Iran seeks to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel fights the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, and to ensure the security of shipping, its state TV said. Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Iran’s nuclear program, an issue that Tehran would rather discuss later.
The White House had no immediate comment about Iran’s reply. President Donald Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC.
Meanwhile, the fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry called it a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region.”
. . .Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that’s key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.
The U.S. in turn has blockaded Iranian ports and on Friday struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on one of the U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.
The American military said Sunday that it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four since the blockade began April 13.
. . . Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS scheduled to air later Sunday said the war isn’t over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.
“Physically” of course means American military stomping around Iran, something that would be unacceptable to the American people. If uranium is to be removed, it would have to be Israeli boots on the ground. (There’s no way to remove uranium again the Iranian will save invasion.) See the next item for what this all adds up to.
*I’m starting to agree with the premise of this NYT “news analysis” article: “Trump looks for a silver bullet to end the Iran war. There may be none.” (Article archived here.)
President Trump keeps looking for the magic formula that will deliver him victory in Iran.
First was the airstrike last June intended, he said, to “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear program. Then came the intense February air campaign carried out with Israel and designed, he said, to deliver regime change and a popular uprising. Then he bet on a blockade of Iranian shipping to end the Iranian stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, in a new effort to break Iran’s control over the strait, Mr. Trump has announced a plan with few details to help guide stranded ships out through it. Iran responded with missiles and drones, and given the risks, most tankers are unlikely to dare crossing the strait for now.
But Mr. Trump’s conviction that these tactics will bring about Iran’s capitulation is deeply flawed, officials and analysts say. They say it is a misreading of the Islamic Republic’s strategy, psychology and capability for adaptation. The Iranian government believes that it has the upper hand for now, and that it can withstand economic pressure, as it has in the past, longer than Mr. Trump can tolerate rising energy prices brought about by the halting of traffic through the strait.
. . .If anything, Iran’s positions have hardened. But Mr. Trump’s tactics have not changed.
“At every point when pressure has not delivered the intended result, he’s sought a new tool of coercion which he believed would magically conjure victory,” said Ali Vaez, Iran project director for the International Crisis Group. “He always believes he’s one little turn of the screw away.”
Pressure can work over time, “but pressure without an open door is an exercise in futility,” Mr. Vaez said. “Trump doesn’t understand that no matter the pressure, so long as you don’t give them a face-saving way out and a mutually beneficial agreement — not capitulation or surrender — you won’t get a deal.”
Experts are dubious that time will work in Mr. Trump’s favor.
The United States “can certainly do more damage to the Iranian economy, but they have withstood more pressure than any other economy in history, and that hasn’t produced the collapse of the regime or more reasonable positions,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran specialist and director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution.
Depressing, isn’t it? One thing seems certain: this was is going to hinge on Iran’s desire to keep its of nuclear capabilities. They will not give in, and given what Trump said, he’d have lost the war if he left Iran with any such capabilities. Of course Trump has rhetorical ways of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, but that leaves Israel holding the bag. If Iran eventually gets nukes, Israel is toast, and of course nobody can ever touch Iran again (in that sense it’s like North Korea). It’s now or never to get rid of enriched uranium.
*And here’s a NYT article whose title is pure clickbait for me. Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic Representative from New Jersey, tells us, “I’m a Democrat. My party has a double standard on antisemitism” (archived here).
In 2017, Democratic leaders denounced the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us.” In 2022, Democrats took Donald Trump to task for having dinner with Nick Fuentes, an antisemite and a white supremacist. Across the Democratic Party’s ideological spectrum, right-wing hate is consistently condemned.
But today, too many Democrats are noticeably and shamefully silent when antisemitism comes from the far left — at a moment when the Anti-Defamation League is reporting a surge of antisemitic incidents in the past three years.
It’s a glaring double standard.
Consider the response to — really, the embrace of — Hasan Piker, a prominent left-wing commentator with millions of online followers. He referred to Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and said “America deserved 9/11,” both statements he halfheartedly walked back. He said that Hamas — a designated terrorist organization that has killed Americans and taken Americans hostage — is “a thousand times better” than Israel, America’s ally, which he called a “fascist settler colonial apartheid state” — a statement he stands by. None of this should be waved away as mere edgy commentary. Mr. Piker traffics in antisemitic and anti-American extremism that has been met by silence from many on the Democratic left.
Sadly, we’ve seen several prominent Democrats appear on his show and even campaign with him, granting his views legitimacy.
. . .Last month, most Senate Democrats voted for two measures that would have blocked sales of military equipment to Israel, with some arguing that among the reasons for their votes was their assessment of Israel’s human rights record. Is this turnabout a legitimate departure from decades of American foreign policy? Or — more likely — is it a politically convenient stance that coincides with a small but vocal and growing segment of the political left making opposition to support for Israel a new litmus test?
Turkey, given the history of human rights abuses in those countries?If this is now the standard for supporting military aid and arms sales, then Democratic members of Congress should at least be consistent. Do they also believe we should block weapon sales to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, given the history of human rights abuses in those countries?
. . . The Democratic condemnation piled on Israel’s government is overwhelming in comparison to other allies. It’s also louder than Democrats’ condemnation of Iran’s regime for the slaughter of thousands of Iranians in December and January. Israel has been decried by some leading Democrats as an “apartheid” state. But I haven’t heard any of them claim apartheid when it comes to how women and L.G.B.T.Q. people are treated across the Middle East.
. . . There should be one response to those who express hatred toward any American: condemnation. Hate is hate. It doesn’t get a pass because it comes from your side of the aisle.
As my Senator Dick Durbin responded when I questioned his Senate vote against Israel, his vote was a response to Israel’s lack of humanitarian aid to Gaza and to its killing so many civilians, “70 percent of which were women and children.” Durbin’s figure was erroneous, taken straight from Hamas, and he didn’t mention the issue of Hamas blocking aid. No government is perfect and there’s aways ways they can do better, but Democrats like Durbin are in danger of losing America’s strong democratic ally in the Middle East. They are also endangering Israel, but given that it’s the Democratic party, perhaps they don’t care.
*The cruise ship carrying passengers infected with hantavirus, several of whom have died, has reached port in the Canary Islands, and evacuations are beginning. Although the mortality rate of those infected with this variant virus is high (about 35%), it is not nearly as transmissible as Covid, and supposedly requires “intimate contact.”
The cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak arrived early Sunday in Spain’s Canary Islands, setting in motion a delicate evacuation process designed to end the weekslong ordeal of those on board while avoiding the spread of a contagion that left three passengers dead.
The MV Hondius, carrying around 150 people, was anchored off Tenerife, the largest island in the archipelago near northwest Africa, Spain’s Health Ministry said. From there, authorities planned to ferry the people to shore and put them on flights home for quarantine and isolation.
None of those on board were showing symptoms as of a Saturday statement from World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who traveled to the Canaries to observe the operation.
Hantavirus is a rare but potentially lethal family of viruses carried by rodents, with different forms attacking the lungs or kidneys. The Andes strain identified in this outbreak is unusual in that it can be transmitted from human to human.
Eight cases, including the three deaths, had been reported as of Friday, the WHO said.
Tedros said the Hondius evacuees would be received “at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries.”
. . .The decision to let passengers disperse around the globe has stirred anxiety beyond the Canary Islands, but infectious-disease doctors told The Wall Street Journal that any fears of a Covid-like situation were misplaced.
The group includes 17 Americans, and staff from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were expected to meet them in the Canaries to facilitate their transfer to special quarantine facilities in Omaha, Neb.
. . .Some of the crew will remain on the ship, which will continue on to the Netherlands.
Repatriation flights have been chartered or scheduled to transport passengers back to the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and France.
France repatriated five citizens on Sunday. They will then be placed in quarantine at a hospital for 72 hours while a full evaluation is conducted and before arrangements are made for their return home, where they will undergo 45 days of isolation with appropriate monitoring, the ministry said.
The U.S. hasn’t told news outlets how they’ll quarantine Americans; the news last night said they’re still “working it out.” But this isn’t rocket science. You either quarantine everybody carrying the virus for 40-odd days and monitor everyone returning for eight weeks, or you risk a wider infection, though probably not a pandemic.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili makes a funny:
Hili: I met an ant in a black habit.
Andrzej: You must have imagined it.
Hili: No, she said she’s a nun.
In Polish:
Hili: Spotkałam mrówkę w czarnym habicie.
Ja: Musiała ci się zdawać.
Hili: Nie, powiedziała, że jest zakonnicą.
*******************
From Stacy. Twizzlers are about the worst candy there is: they’re even worse than candy corn. But my sister loved them, so after Halloween I’d exchange my Twizzlers with her for some real candy:
Fr0m The Dodo Pet:
From CinEmma:
From Masih: Kosar Eftekhari is a 27-year-old Iranian woman protestor who lost an eye when the police shot her two years ago. That didn’t help her in Berlin. What hateful people!
“You deserve to be blinded, you ugly puppet of America and Israel. Leave Germany. Go to America. Go to Israel.”
These were the words shouted at Kosar Eftekhari in Berlin by people marching under the slogan of “Free Palestine” and violently attacked the victim of Islamic Republic… pic.twitter.com/9QQXCf7NTE
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) May 10, 2026
Luana found this on Twitter; it’s a cartoon of “The Log Driver’s Waltz,” which shows virtually every Canadian stereotype there is. But it was made in Canada! I wonder if they’d make it now. It is a catchy tune.
Remember when they used to put this on tv and celebrated Canada’s Heritage? pic.twitter.com/jQY9GYoxkg
— Bruce (@bruce_barrett) May 7, 2026
Emma posted an educational thread about the hantavirus. Start with this tweet:
On Hantavirus: a (non-technical) thread.
Disclaimer: I am a biology PhD, but not virology/epidemiology. Husbandman is a virology PhD. But I’m told I’m good at communicating science, so here’s my take. #Hantavirus
— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) May 7, 2026
The Number Ten Cat was out on the tiles:
Politicians come and go: cats are permanent https://t.co/dC22wEnnsb
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) May 9, 2026
From Barry: a cat stole the d*g’s bed, as is proper. Sound up to hear the howls of anguish!
His bed was stolen
Ricky Gervais has a new series about. . . CATS!
My new series ALLEY CATS comes to Netflix on 7 August. I’ve never been so excited/worried about any show since The Office. There’s nothing like it. And as with all my work, some people will hate it & some will fucking love it. But how can I make sure everyone watches it? Help! pic.twitter.com/Vv35phXqCZ
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) May 9, 2026
It starts on Netflix in August. Here’s Gervais plugging it:
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This German Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was seven, and would be 89 today had she lived.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2026-05-11T10:02:44.784Z
One from Jez, who actually went to this rally in London. We’ll have his report and photos in tomorrow’s Nooz:
Standing Strong. Extinguish Antisemitism.
Join the rally to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and stand up against antisemitism and extremism.
📍 Central London | 🗓 Sunday 10 May | 🕐 1pm pic.twitter.com/gmPN8GEk4o
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) April 28, 2026
Wow, that’s a beautiful story about the gosling, what a great way to start a Monday!… and the waltz is now stuck in my head!
🪵🌊🐥
I’m a bit late to the party on this post but the goose rescue did make me smile.
Our host is in danger of becoming some form of Anseriformes deity. Not omnipotent but certainly on the benevolent side.
I used to use the Twilight Zone intro to open a virology course.
Fair enough, since viri are a sort of zombie half-life. Out of curiosity, what’s the actual reason you used it?
And FWIW, that TZ intro is one of a the later ones, but still well within geezer(ess) territory. The original intro featured a static, monochrome (duh), bare jagged landscape starkly lit from the side. Quite creepy, especially with Rod Serling’s gentle voice-of-doom narration.
I was just gonna say … I actually find the original (by Bernard Herrmann, no less) more disturbing than the later one that became more iconic.
‘Cause, to a biology student, viruses are somewhat outside the ordinary. I was just looking at the syllabus, and noticed that I used three quotes.
Robert May: As one moves down the size spectrum of organisms, from the romantic large mammals and birds, through nondescript small arthropods, on down to protozoan, bacterial and viral species, not only does concern for diversity and conservation fall away, it even changes sign.
Dickson Despommier: Safecrackers. They’re all safecrackers.
Brian Malow: A virus walks into a bar. The bartender says, “We don’t serve viruses in this bar.” The virus says, “Now we do.”
Thanks Jez. Looking forward to your boots on the ground report.
If I may jump in before Jez, I attended the Standing Strong rally yesterday in London. Missed the 1pm start – domestic problems plus the very strong security: all bags had to be searched before one got to walk on Whitehall – so didn’t get to hear much of the speeches. Very impressed by the turnout, and it was a joy to see Israeli, Iranian (not the Islamic Republic), UK and England flags on a British street rather than those bloody watermelon ones and their attendant glorify-terrorism offshoots. The atmosphere, to me, seemed rather like a festival; very friendly; people chatty and open. And you know what? Not even a smidgen of anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian chants or propaganda – perhaps that mob could take a lesson or two on how to run a rally without the hate.
You missed some great speeches – I’m hoping that the organisers will be releasing a video recording at some point soon. Yes, a complete absence of hate – and the event finished with the crowd singing “God Save the King” followed by the Israeli national anthem.
The necessity of the bag searches spoke volumes about the threat posed to a peaceful group meeting to stand up against anti-Semitism.
Thank you for pointing that out, as well as posting about the event.
Cheers—a dram of malt on me.
I always liked Dick Durbin because of his speech defending wooden baseball bats on the House floor. https://www.c-span.org/clip/house-proceeding/dick-durbin-floor-speech-on-baseball-bats/4504704
This was certainly the greatest speech ever given on the House floor. You have to go to fiction (like Mr Smith goes to Washington) to compete with it.
But I guess it is time for him to retire. His letter in response to you certainly wiped away 36 years of respect for him.
It’s amazing what can happen in just one day.
—Iran responded to the U.S. proposal with a proposal of its own. Trump rejected it. Will the war restart? Will the negotiations continue? The Iranians are stringing us along and, if we allow it, will do so until the next President is sworn in. I wonder if we should be seeking a “deal” at all. What other options are there? I will leave that question to the imagination.
—Two of the Americans exposed to the Hantavirus have tested positive. I am hoping that all 17 of the Americans will be quarantined, despite the earlier plan for quarantine to be optional. I understand that we know more about the Hantavirus than we did about Covid-19, but quarantining a few people for a few weeks would be a small sacrifice to make just in case this variant of the virus is more transmissible than what we’ve seen before.
—Finally, a lonely goose was rescued. As President Trump would say: “It’s the best rescue ever! They tell me that no one has seen anything like it before. We’re making our Geese of America great again!
Correction: One American on the plane has tested positive, not two.
The version of “Logdrivers Waltz” featured in the NFB animation was sung by Kate & Anna McGarrigle.
Ha, of course. Thanks! I thought I recognized that “day-oon” for “down”. Common accent in Eastern Canada (especially in New Brunswick) but Kate always seemed to lean into it. That must go back to their Mountain City Four days from their time at McGill during the 1960s, before they hit the big time. (They influenced Linda Rondstadt, Emmylou Harris, and Bob Dylan, you know!) The songwriter, Wade Hemsworth, also wrote “The Blackfly Song”.
I have childhood memories of the St. John River, 1900 feet wide at Fredericton where my grandparents lived, being completely choked with logs in the spring, guys with peavy poles unchoking them just as in the NFB short. Through the winter, the lumberjacks would skid the cut logs through the snow with horses onto the river ice. Then at spring break-up, down they went to the pulp mills in Saint John to be turned into newsprint for the New York Times and the other big city dailies. That all stopped when construction for the Mactaquac Dam and hydropower generation plant began in 1965….and as the road network burgeoned to allow trucks to carry the logs continually all year long instead of one big rush in the spring.
Pulp and paper has been going through a long decline in Canada but there are still several mills in New Brunswick. “That stink, my son, is the smell of money!”
Perhaps the gosling in the pond is a sign that Botany Pond is a place that is widely known as welcoming and kind. And by now, everyone on campus should know that the DuckRescue® team is on call for every creature above and below the waters of the Pond. Certainly your readers know of the extraordinary lengths you all take to ensure the safety and well-being of any feathered visitors. I love those stories!
Just to be provocative, how does the fact that invasion would be “unacceptable” to the American people — I accept this as fact — influence the President’s decision process re invasion? How do The People restrict the Executive’s choices in war? What’s the coupling mechanism? It seems to me that President Trump can do whatever he wants until January 2029. If Congress could compel him to obey the War Powers Act, all those blockading sailors and Marines would already be on their way home from theatre, as would the airmen standing by to visit retaliatory violence on Iran’s land installations.
As a child, Hostess cupcakes were my second favorite treat—after Sara Lee chocolate cake. That cake had the best frosting ever. I wonder if it is still made?
Rescuing that gosling is really cool. Especially when one considers that a gosling grows up to be a goose, which can be mean, aggressive, and terrifying.
But—
There are few sounds as lovely as a flight of geese heading south on a cold autumn morning. Really, one of nature’s wonders. IIRC, Neil Young used recordings of Canada geese honking as background of his song “Pocahontas”.