Good morning on Wednesday, June 29, 2022, a Hump Day (or “Kupra diana”, as they’d say in Latvia), and National Almond Buttercrunch Day. (Eat a Heath Bar instead.)

It’s also National Waffle Iron Day, National Camera Day, and National Statistics Day in India.

Stuff that happened on June 29 includes:

• 1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.
• 1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, built by William Shakespeare‘s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, burns to the ground. Here’s that first theater, and Julius Caesar was probably the first play. The second one, even spiffier, was shut down by the Puritans in 1642. 

• 1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.

Macdonell’s house still stands in Toronto (below), but it’s come down in the world. The store within should have been called Mystic MacMuffin:

• 1880 – France annexes Tahiti, renaming the independent Kingdom of Tahiti as “Etablissements de français de l’Océanie”.
• 1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population at the time.

People often think that Hyde Park, where I live, is its own named town. It once was, but now it’s a section of Chicago (and a nice one). An aerial view looking north from Hyde Park is below. The oldish building with the green roof in the foreground is the Museum of Science and Industry, the last remnant of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. I live very close to it. Lake Michigan is to the right.

• 1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.

Here’s the plane and also its landing at Wheeler Field Hawaii. Flight time: 25 hours and 50 minutes. Lindberg flew solo across the Atlantic five weeks earlier (the Bird had a crew of two) and perhaps for that reason got all the attention.

• 1952 – The First Miss Universe pageant is held. Armi Kuusela from Finland wins the title of Miss Universe 1952.

Here she is in 1952 and just this year. She is still lovely:

• 1972 – The United States Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

This led to a national moratorium on the death penalty, but for only four years, as Georgia put someone to death in 1976.

• 1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.

I don’t know from ballet, but I’ve always been more impressed by the dancing of Baryshnikov than of Nureyev. Here’s an example:

• 1987 – Vincent van Gogh‘s painting, the Le Pont de Trinquetaille, is bought for $20.4 million at an auction in London, England.

Here’s the painting, which I don’t consider a particularly good van Gogh. But it is a van Gogh, and that’s enough to give it a stratospheric value:

• 2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush‘s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.

The court did approve of trials by military courts, but not by the military commissions set up by the Bush administration. Hamdan, however, who worked as a bodyguard and chauffeur for Osama bin Laden, was released in 2008—four years after he was captured.

• 2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.

Here’s ” The first iPhone on display under glass at the January 2007 Macworld show”:

Da Nooz:

*I hope they make a movie about the January 6 hearings, as I’m missing a lot of the juicy stuff. Take this NYT headline; how can you not click on it? Do it!

This is what the young folk call “hot tea”:

In extraordinary blow-by-blow testimony based on episodes she witnessed in the West Wing of the White House, Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff, revealed that the president had demanded to march to the Capitol with his supporters even as the riot was underway, at one point trying to grab the steering wheel of the presidential limo from a Secret Service agent when he was told he could not go.

You saw that Ghislaine Maxwell got a 20-year bid today — less than the 30 years the prosecution asked for, but much stiffer than the 5 years she was seeking?

Seems the judge wanted to give her a sentence she has a chance to outlive.

Maxwell has been detained pending trial as a flight risk. She has two years in, for which she will receive credit toward her 20 year sentence.

When I asked Ken if he thought Maxwell was, like Epstein, a suicide risk, he added this:

While in pretrial detention, she’s been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in a segregated housing unit. I’m sure they’ve kept a close eye on her to avoid the embarrassment of an Epstein replay.  Her “paperwork” (including the Judgment & Commitment Order and her Presentencing Investigation Report) will now be sent to the regional designator’s office of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and in the next 60 days or so, she’ll receive a permanent designation to a federal penal facility consistent with her security classification.

From that NYT article:

If the conviction is upheld, Ms. Maxwell, with time potentially deducted for good behavior and credit for the two years she has spent in jail, could leave prison in her late 70s.

*The NYT has an article by Carl Zimmer on what CRISPR gene-editing technology has accomplished. The occasion is the tenth anniversary of the paper in Science by Doudna, Charpentier et al. (those two won the Nobel for CRISPR) that laid out a way to do gene editing using CRISPR and the Cas9 protein.  It’s an excellent summary of how the editing works, how it’s been used scientifically and medically, and what’s in the offing. Will we see babies whose DNA is edited to “improve” them?

*A gazillion readers (thanks to all of you) sent me a link to this Guardian article that begs for refutation (click to read). It’s basically a rehash of the old controversy about the gaps in the “modern synthesis” of evolution. It also describes bogus “mysteries” that have supposedly eluded evolutionists (one is that old canard, the evolution of the eye). I volunteer to take it on, but give me a few days.

Reader Jez sent an archived article from The Daily Fail that it begs for a click (do so if you want to read it):

The highlights:

The transgender skateboarder, 29, who claimed first prize in a New York City women’s competition this weekend, defeating her 13-year-old and 10-year-old competitors, is a divorced, ex-Navy father-of-three who was rejected from the women’s Olympic qualifiers last year because her testosterone levels were too high.

Ricci And Tres, 29, beat 13-year-old Shiloh Catori to claim first prize at The Boardr street skating contest at the Lower East Side Coleman skatepark in New York City on Saturday, taking home $500.

The competition was open to all ages and abilities, but its heats and finals were segregated by gender.

Tween Shiloh, who won the event last year, insists she is ‘not at all upset’ by the result and says Ricci should be able to compete.

However others, including fellow skater Taylor Silverman, say it’s unfair that they have to compete against someone who developed as a man, making them taller and stronger than their competitors.

Now, DailyMail.com can reveal that Tres tried to enter the Women’s Street USA Skateboarding National Championships in a bid to qualify for the Olympics, but that she was rejected.

Apparently Tres’s testosterone titer was too high for the Olympics but okay for this competition. She makes an unusual admission, though:

‘I know I will never be a woman, because women are miraculous, they have babies and create life and do all that awesome stuff. I’ll never have that ability but I feel like I am a woman.

‘I would have wished to be born one so I’ll try to fill that image as much as I can for myself and that pretty much involves being as cute as can be,’ she said.

Here’s a tweet about it, and I’ve found the same details at other sources, including ABC15 News, so the story seems legit.

One reader who read the story wrote me this:

And here’s bouncy little Kulka:

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

Here’s a science meme I found:

When you don’t have any new data to present at the lab meeting.
pic.twitter.com/wKc8VZ50bL

— Rita Idugboe (@RitaIdugboe) June 27, 2022

From Ken, who says, “A fool continues to pursue her folly.” Yes, it’s La Boebert in full bull-goose looney mode, espousing a theocracy. She claims that the separation of church and state “is not in the Constitution; it’s in a stinking letter.” Has she read the First Amendment?

“I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk.”

Lauren Boebert went full theocracy, and proclaimed, “The church is supposed to direct the government” per the founding fathers. pic.twitter.com/XW5nXZZ6r8

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) June 27, 2022

From Simon, who says, “If they paid, do they get a refund?”  I’m not sure what’s going on here. Do readers know?

‘Merica pic.twitter.com/csPvYZlYIA

— TG (@TG22110) June 27, 2022

From Barry, we have two snakes mating (I don’t know the species, but surely a reader knows. It’s America, so if it’s venomous they’re probably rattlesnakes.

And the sequel is the second tweet below.

Wild!!!! pic.twitter.com/6ZwsRTChe3

— King Dosty 🇬🇭 (@kingdostymusic) June 27, 2022

From the Auschwitz Memorial:

29 June 1944 | A 4-year old Hungarian Jewish boy Gabor Neumann and his mother Margit (who was 9-months pregnant at the time), were murdered in a gas chamber at #Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. pic.twitter.com/8gNj5Twc0v

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 29, 2022

Tweets from Matthew. First, one tweet about that godawful Guardian article:

Nope. pic.twitter.com/oNsdWvGE6j

— Angus Davison #UCUstrike (@angus_davison) June 28, 2022

Matthew’s favorite dinosaur gets drawn:

Walking with STEGOSAURUS pic.twitter.com/bpMIVqO5uR

— Grace Varnham (@GraceVarnham) June 26, 2022

And I think this gets Tweet of the Month Award:

What a fantastic picture of an elusive snow leopard in Ladakh, probably reacting to the shutter sound of the camera trap. https://t.co/g9ZsSjy1ip pic.twitter.com/cfwpd9xNbZ

— Dhruva Jaishankar (@d_jaishankar) June 26, 2022

Welcome to Thursday, June 23, 2022: National Pecan Sandy Day, celebrating a kind of dry cookie that some people like.

It’s also International Widows Day, National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism (in Canada), Saint John’s Eve and the first day of the Midsummer celebrations (these occur in Spain, Cornwall, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Belarus. Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine), and United Nations Public Service Day.

Stuff that happened on this day include:

• 1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) begins.

Here’s a short animated reconstruction of the battle, in which the stalwart Scots defeated the English despite being outnumbered by more than three to one:

• 1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson’s fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again.
• 1794 – Empress Catherine II of Russia grants Jews permission to settle in Kyiv.

“Catherine II” was Catherine the Great, who ruled for 34 years as the last Empress of Russia.  Here’s a portrait of her by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder, from 1780, presumably painted from life:

• 1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the “Type-Writer”.

Here’s a model for the patent, which was very rudimentary. Sholes is also said to have invented, some time later, the QWERTY keyboard, which I’ve heard is less efficient than other keyboards. But it’s too late to change:

• 1887 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada creating the nation’s first national park, Banff National Park.
• 1917 – In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.

Shore pitched a nearly “perfect” game (one in which all 27 batters are retired without reaching first base). Here he (left) is with another baseball great:

• 1926 – The College Board administers the first SAT exam.
• 1940 – Adolf Hitler goes on a three-hour tour of the architecture of Paris with architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker in his only visit to the city.

Here’s Hitler with Speer (left) in front of the Eiffel Tower. On the right is sculptorn and architect Arno Breker:

• 1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.
• 1969 – IBM announces that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry.
• 1972 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about illegally using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

Here’s part of the smoking gun tapes, with subtitles. It’s pretty incriminating!

• 1972 – Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 is amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds.
• 2017 – A series of terrorist attacks take place in Pakistan, resulting in 96 deaths and wounding 200 others.
• 2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.

A news report of that walk. You can hearing him praying to God to help him across:

DA NOOZ:

*Ukraine is slowly falling into the hands of Russia. From the NYT’s summary:

Approaching a pivotal moment in their invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have tightened their vise around two key eastern cities, raising the risk their slow, brutal advance will capture the cities and trap the Ukrainian troops defending them.

The fall of the two neighboring cities, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, would all but complete Russia’s conquest of Luhansk Province, a major part of the Donbas region that the Russians are attempting to seize in the four-month-old war. That would give a strategic and symbolic victory to President Vladimir V. Putin, and open avenues for Russia’s military to advance deeper into Ukraine.

In my view, Putin could take the whole country if he has the will, and he does—Russian deaths be damned. The war will end only when Putin wants it to end, and on his terms. I don’t like that, but I think it’s true.

*One of the more odious Trumpisms that’s come out in the January 6 panel is that the Orange Man proposed sending fake electors to Washington to try to sway the vote towards him. But now the remit of the panel is widening, and some of those electors have been subpoenaed:

Separately, at least some of the would-be Trump electors in Michigan also received subpoenas on Wednesday, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The precise nature of the information being sought by the Justice Department wasn’t immediately clear; however, Arizonaand Georgia officials testified Tuesday to a House panel probing the Jan. 6 attacks about attempts by Trump and his inner circle of advisers to try to reverse Biden’s electoral college victories in those states.

*The Atlantic—to which I’m newly subscribed because it’s inexpensive for academics—reports that comedian Dave Chapelle, in a surprise announcement, turned down a big honor. The school from which he graduated and has donated to repeatedly, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, decided to name its theater after him.  The naming was delayed from Nov. 1 after Chapelle’s Netflix show, “The Closer”, was criticized for homophobic and transphobic comments

The naming ceremony was rescheduled for last Monday, and guest after guest got up and praised the comedian. Then it was his turn:

. . . Chappelle spoke, telling his own story of the Ellington school’s influence on his life, his fond memories of faculty and classmates. The narrative slowly built toward the controversy that erupted last November. Then came a surprise plot twist.

Chappelle proposed that the theater be named the Theater for Artistic Freedom and Expression, and then said that his name would be added later, only when and if the school community was ready.

It was quite a moment. The audience rapturously applauded.

Author David Frum had two reactions. The first was positive:

The first was admiration for the bravado and ingenuity of Chappelle’s maneuver. So often in these debates over free speech, the adversaries of expression claim to represent the wave of the future. Major surveys have found that Gen Z and Millennial Americans are much more willing to suppress speech in the name of equity than older Americans. Chappelle took a bet here, as if to say: Let’s see who will look silly in five years’ time, you or me.

The NYT has a new article on how you can get a young duckling to imprint on you, though you don’t want to do this deliberately unless you’re prepared to care for the duck until it fledges.  (h/t Robyn)

Hang around a duckling constantly, right after it hatches. Ducklings are most sensitive to imprinting 12 to 36 hours after they emerge from the egg (and the imprinting window lasts about 14 days). Place yourself where they can see you. Birds are visual creatures; a duckling opens its eyes and immediately starts looking for a caregiver. They prefer duck-size objects and S-curve-shaped necks, but they aren’t picky — they will imprint on humans, cats, dogs or, in the case of Martinho-Truswell’s lab research, brightly colored plastic balls or cardboard shapes suspended from a rotating boom on a string. Avoid wearing yellow; ducklings would rather not imprint on anything yellow-colored. “We think that’s to keep them from imprinting on their siblings,” Martinho-Truswell says. Don’t become a duck parent on a whim, though; it’s a big commitment. Imprinting is helpful if you’re a duck farmer, but otherwise might be a burden. Mallard ducks can live for more than 20 years. “You’re taking on something that is going to treat you as its mother for the first year and then as family for the rest of its life,” he says.

I rescued two orphans and slept with them on the day or day after they hatched, and both imprinted on me, following me around the house and peeping pathetically if I was out of sight or tried to put them to bed in a nice soft, padded box. They needed to be with me, and so I slept with them in my armpit or on my chest covered with my open palm (to mimic the mother’s protective wing). Or rather, the ducklings slept. Afraid of crushing them, I didn’t sleep a wink. Still, they were two of the greatest nights of my life.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s dialogue needs an explanation from Malgorzata:

In Poland when somebody cannot decide between the two courses of action he/she says “I’m fighting with my thoughts” [Biję się z myślami]. Hili took it literally and because she (as a Goddess) is a “dualist”, that’s the answer she came with.

Hili: I’m fighting with my thoughts.

A: And?

Hili: I’m winning.

Hili: Biję się z myślami.

Ja: I co?

Hili: Wygrywam.

And a photo of Kulka:

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

From Jez, a Dan Piraro cartoon:

Quarterback Tom Brady is apparently promoting a new line of underwear, and in this Instagram video, described here, he simply destroys the sign of a protestor with an precise football throw. But the article also shows that they made up. This is likely an advertising set-up (I can’t imagine otherwise why they’d pull a stunt like this), but it does show Brady’s passing abilities.

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A post shared by Seth (@dudewithsign)

A groaner from Merilee:

Ricky Gervais mocking wokeness with a very ideologically incorrect couple of jokes:

It might work 😂pic.twitter.com/HeUUSV0IIc

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) June 21, 2022

These are brilliant; see the thread. But they left out the cat saying “Mrkgnao!”: my favorite part!

As has become a tradition on Bloomsday, here are 18 limericks by my friend, the cartoonist, artist and writer, Tom Mathews that brilliantly encapsulate each of the 18 episodes of the greatest novel. A @GrogansPub Notes of Ulysses, if you will 1/19

— Naoise Nunn (@naoisen) June 16, 2022

Nestor

The nightmare of history past
Stephen shares dull experience vast
As Deasy scribe, critic
Waxes anti-Semitic.
But collects his week’s wages at last.

— Naoise Nunn (@naoisen) June 16, 2022

It might work 😂pic.twitter.com/HeUUSV0IIc

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) June 21, 2022

Free talk by Pinkah tomorrow. All you have to do is register at the link:

“Is Music a Universal Language?” Conversation tomorrow in Cantor Gideon Zelermyer's series "A Night @ the Opera," Congregation Shaar Hashomayim. (Gideon did the solo in Leonard Cohen's You Want it Darker & often sings the anthem before Red Sox games) https://t.co/WlnfjSRMvM pic.twitter.com/wGzKotK3qu

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) June 22, 2022

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one who survived:

23 June 1918 | A Polish woman, Jadwiga Cudzich, was born in Kuty. A university student.

In #Auschwitz od 27 July 1942.
No. 11978
She was evacuated to the Ravensbrück camp and liberated there. pic.twitter.com/gPNE1n1V6v

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 23, 2022

Tweets from Matthew. This first two are cool! There are other methods given in the thread.

This would be a close third… pic.twitter.com/JDrL1cz3GV

— Jonathan Hall (@StudyMaths) June 17, 2022

Parental care in beetles! Who woulda thought?

Went for a quick lunchtime stroll at #BCB22 and found a great example of parental care in #beetles; a passalid adult with three larvae. Ballarat area, SE Australia. pic.twitter.com/BRj5ejbglr

— Nick Porch (@InvertoPhiles) June 10, 2022

What a sight!

Hardly we see such sightseeing..! This is from central Indian landscape.

It’s like a ‘tiger march’ in jungle. pic.twitter.com/iURHzGZLT5

— Ramesh Pandey (@rameshpandeyifs) June 12, 2022

This guy comments on bad lighting. I may have shown this before, but here it is again. Whoever designed this should have immediately fixed it. Or maybe it was deliberate. . .

Just to ease you all back in gently, here is a stone cold classic from the spy acrhives. #badlighting #lightingfail #lightingdesign #lighting #lightingdesigner #whatweretheythinking pic.twitter.com/dy0OxydmkD

— Lighting Spy (@LightingSpy) June 16, 2022

Good morning on Monday, June 20, and it’s a federal holiday in honor of Juneteenth, which was actually yesterday (see info given then). There’s a special Google Doodle celebrating the holiday (click on screenshot below), and after you click, wait a second for the animated celebration to begin.

It’s also National Vanilla Milkshake Day, though I have no idea who would want such a thing.

Finally, it’s both West Virginia Day (in West Virginia) and World Refugee Day. 

Note that the summer solstice occurs at 4:13 a.m. tomorrow, which will be the longest day of the year. 

Wine of the Day: Below: my Father’s Day wine along with a honking t-bone, tomatoes, corn on the cob, and rice. I picked the bottle out of my collection, and have no idea when I bought it or what I paid for it (prices now tend to be about $20-$24). It’s a Finca Villacreces Pruno 2012 from the Ribiera del Duero, a wine region in northern Spain near Rioja. Indeed, this wine resembles a gutsy Rioja—but much cheaper.

Robert Parker, giving it a high rating of 93, made these notes in 2014: :

This blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon emerges from a vineyard situated adjacent to one of the famous vineyards utilized to produce Spain’s greatest red wine, Vega Sicilia. Made from relatively old vines, the 2012 Pruno is a sexy, opulent, voluptuously textured effort that spent 12 months in two-year-old French oak barrels. Reminiscent of a baby Vega Sicilia, it possesses a dense ruby/purple color as well as notes of high-class, unsmoked cigar tobacco, creme de cassis, licorice, graphite and spice box. Full-bodied, deep, velvety textured, lush and heady, at $20 a bottle, it is another sensational bargain from Eric Solomon. Enjoy it over the next 5-6 years.

I’ll leave the tobacco and graphite stuff to Parker, but this is a dark garnet, full-bodied, blackberry-flavored tour de force, dry and powerful. And at this price point it’s a real bargain. Note that I drank it 2 years after Parker’s “drink by” date, but it was still terrific, with no signs of being over the hill. This one comes highly recommended, but be sure to decant it, as there’s a moderate sediment. A great value for the quality.

Stuff that happened on June 20 include

• 1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.

There were either 146 or 64 prisoners jammed into the cell (designed to hold 2 or 3 prisoners) overnight, and we know that when they opened the door the next morning, only 23 were left alive. Here’s a brief video:

• 1782 – The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.

Here’s the two sides of the original seal, and the machine meant to impress it, still in use though the stamping machine was made in 1903:

• 1837 – Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
• 1840 – Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.

Here’s part of the patent:

• 1877 – Alexander Graham Bell installs the world’s first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
• 1893 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.
• 1942 – The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The escape was successful in that none of the escapees were returned to the camp, though Piechowski was imprisoned for seven years by the Communists. Here he is in an Auschwitz prison suit.  See the tweet below about Piechowski’s death at 98.

• 1944 – The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.

Here’s a German video showing some tests of the original V-2 (a lot were failures):

• 1945 – The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.

The eponymous song by Tom Lehrer. Remember this?

• 1972 – Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.

Here’s Rose Mary Woods’s demonstration of the “Rose Mary” stretch that supposedly explained the gap:

Rose Mary Woods, Nixon’s loyal private secretary, was tasked with transcribing the tapes before they were turned over to prosecutors. Woods testified in front of a federal grand jury in 1974 that she was using a dictaphone, which had a pedal that would pause the recording when she lifted her foot off it, and she claimed she had erased part of the tape by mistake.

“Her explanation was that she was listening to the tape and … the telephone rang,” said Wine-Banks. “So she kept her foot on a pedal, pushed the wrong button. She pushed record instead of off and reached for the phone.”

• 1975 – The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as “summer blockbusters“.

The most famous scene from the movie:

• 1991 – The German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital of Berlin.

DA NOOZ:

*The NYT examined over a thousand photos taken by its own photographers and other wire-service photographers, looking to see what kind of weapons the Russians were using against Ukraine. They identified 2,000 munitions (I assume this means individual weapons, not 2,000 different munitions, and found what you expected:

Of the weapons identified by The Times, more than 210 were types that have been widely banned under international treaties. All but a handful were cluster munitions, including their submunitions, which can pose a grave risk to civilians for decades after war has ended. More than 330 other weapons appeared to have been used on or near civilian structures.

Because of the difficulties in getting comprehensive information in wartime, these tallies are undercounts. Some of the weapons identified may have been fired by Ukrainian forces in an effort to defend themselves against the invasion, but evidence points to far greater use by Russian forces.

Customary international humanitarian laws and treaties — including the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their protocols — demand that the driving principle in war be military necessity, which mandates all combatants direct their actions toward legitimate military targets. The law requires a balance between a military mission and humanity. Combatants must not carry out attacks that are disproportionate, where the expected civilian harm is clearly excessive, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, to the direct and concrete military advantage that would be anticipated. Combatants must consider distinction, that attacks are directed only toward lawful targets and people and are not applied indiscriminately. And they must not use weapons calculated to inflict unnecessary suffering.

“The Russians have violated every single one of those principles almost daily,” said Mike Newton, a Vanderbilt University law professor who frequently supports efforts to prosecute war crimes all over the world.

One issue, however, is that I’m pretty sure that the Russians aren’t signatories on treaties that ban most of these munitions. By the way, besides cluster munitions, the dubious weapons include unguided missiles, rockets and bombs (stuff mostly abandoned by the West in favor of guided weapons), booby traps, and antipersonnel land mines. There are photos and diagrams in the article.

*Shoot me now! Sarah Palin is back, running for a House seat that’s vacant because its Republican holder died. The good news is that the seat expires next January. The bad news is that Palen is first among four candidates—three Republicans and one Democrat (the Dem is last). And if she gets her tuchas in a House seat, she may get to keep it, and then think about how many loons we’ll have in Congress!

*I heard this on the ABC Evening News (my usual NBC News was preempted by a GOLF GAME, for crying out loud, which is itself a crime), and it’s verified on their site. Nearly 60% of Americans think that Trump should be criminally charged for his shenanigans around the election and the January 6 insurrection:

With the first full week of hearings for the House select committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol now complete, nearly 6 in 10 Americans believe former President Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the incident, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.

Six in 10 Americans also believe the committee is conducting a fair and impartial investigation, according to the poll.

In the poll, which was conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, 58% of Americans think Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the riot. That’s up slightly from late April, before the hearings began, when an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 52% of Americans thought the former president should be charged.

When I heard this, I had a question. Ex-Presidents are protected by the Secret Service until they die. If Trump goes to jail, will the Secret Service be there to protect him?

*Helaine Olen, a young Washington Post writer, gets the Andy Rooney of the Future Award in her new column, “QR code menus are the death of civilization.” I could have written that title! And Olen is right. These are increasingly common menus that consist of a QR code; when you scan it with your phone, the menu comes up on your screen, and that’s how you order. It sucks big time, as Olen notes (and they’re no longer needed for covid prevention):

Whipping out a phone to check the menu, on the other hand, is hardly conducive to setting a mood, unless you want to dine in the metaverse. Smartphones are endlessly distracting, and it takes discipline to put them away after checking a menu, a bit of self-control many can’t always muster. (Guilty.) It’s all too easy to rationalize checking just one email, sending just one tweet, taking just one glance at Instagram. (Guilty again.) We already spend almost five hours a day staring at our smartphone screens. Do we really need a prompt to spend even more time in our electronic silos?

. . . Yes, QR code menus have their defenders. I actually know a few of these benighted souls. Some of them are even my colleagues. They say QR code menus are healthier, and better for the environment. But let’s get real. Germy? If you’re that concerned, ask the restaurant management about paid sick leave policies for the staff, something that’s bound to be much more effective at cutting contagion. And no one who writes for a print newspaper has any business complaining about the waste of paper in printing a menu.

Look at the “likes” on this tweet!

what do we, as a culture, have to do to kill QR code menus

— allison (@allisongeroi) May 31, 2022

This is a writer who knows how dining out is supposed to work: it’s an event! Ceiling Cat bless you, Ms. Olen!

*In the middle of last September, Jack the Cat, who’s staffed by the offspring of old friends, had a bad accident, falling off a third-floor porch and severely injuring his mandible and front paws. For a while we didn’t think he was going to make it, but thanks to the staff at Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston and his own loving staff, he got fantastic care. I’m delighted to report that Jack is pretty much back to normal, walking without a limp and gallivanting about. (Go here to see the story of his original mishap and healing.)

Here he was right after the accident and the operations on his paw (the buttons are there to help fasten the wires in his jaw):

But look at him now!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is offended, and now I am offended by Hili. But the insult to ducks is really an insult to something else. Malgorzata explains:

The name of the leader of the party ruling in Poland since 2015 (and take my word for it – it’s the worst government in the history of Poland) is Jarosław KACZyński. “Duck” in Polish is KACZKA. His name is  a derivative of it. All possible jokes about ducks are now circulating in Poland. This man is the remaining twin of the duo which we call “the horrible twins”, who have been a bane of Poland for decades. The other twin died in an air crash in 2010. He was then President of the country and the remaining twin was Prime Minister. So Hili is criticizing the horrible man who is the de facto ruler of Poland.

A: In Egypt they again found a whole lot of mummies of ancient cats.

Hili: And what were they supposed to mummify? Ducks?

Ja: W Egipcie znowu znaleźli mnóstwo mumii starożytnych kotów.

Hili: A co mieli mumifikować? Kaczki?

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

From Tom:

From Debra, who says, “This is the guy that saved all those kittens on the road. I like how this kitten put his/hers hands up when faced with a shooter.”  Yes, it’s probably a Photoshop job, but I still like it.

From Stash Krod:

More later on this announcement from God. The data cited by Axios happen to be true:

My belief in America has hit a new low too. https://t.co/zkxGWmiVa5

— God (@TheTweetOfGod) June 17, 2022

From Simon: the “infinite monkeys” scenario:

Infinite monkeys type Shakespeare pic.twitter.com/j1MQM1Tzf0

— Adrian Bliss (@adrianbliss) June 18, 2022

A couple of days ago NYT staff writer Emily Bazelon produced a really good piece on “The battle over gender therapy,” detailing all the fighting about puberty blockers, “gender affirming therapy”, and so on. Because she didn’t hew absolutely to the trans-activist line, but actually gave arguments from both sides, the activists are ripping her apart (look at the comment below by the odious Chase Strangio, the ACLU’s chief lawyer for gender affairs. I suggest you read Bazelon’s long article for yourself.

The tweet is from Josh Szeps, who works for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

I’m so proud of @emilybazelon & the @nytimes for her compassionate feature on the complexity of youth gender health care.

Because it doesn’t mindlessly recite every catechism of the gender cult, cultists are angry. Good.

I just wish more journalists weren’t cowed by bullies. https://t.co/SURf6vYzSY

— 𝕁𝕠𝕤𝕙 𝕊𝕫𝕖𝕡𝕤 (@joshzepps) June 18, 2022

From the Auschwitz Memorial. See the note (and link) above about this escape:

Kazimierz Piechowski, the last surviving participant of the escape from 20 June 1942, passed away on 15 December 2017 at the age of 98. pic.twitter.com/KzwdLyRCdD

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 20, 2022

Tweets from the estimable Professor Cobb.

My thoughts on the existing dangers to American democracy https://t.co/psI0c017OO

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) June 19, 2022

A quote from Rather’s piece:

Trump and his confederates — and I choose that word in full recognition of its historical meaning — sought to foment this chaos through the raw exploitation of power and intimidation to nullify Joe Biden’s victory. That a conservative of Judge Luttig’s stature would speak with such unequivocal force, and that it would be echoed by Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and the Republican staffers on the committee, makes clear that there is a delineation in what they are investigating that is based not on politics but on fidelity to the law and America’s democratic principles.

As the hearings paint a devastating picture of Trump’s plot, there is an emerging Republican talking point that this is all old news. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose ambition to be president is about as naked as a jaybird, called it “beating a dead horse.” It’s an approach that works both to minimize the coup attempt and suggest the Republican Party should move beyond Trump and embrace something new (as in him).

DeSantis’s self-serving protestations, and those of others like him, deliberately obscure the truth. Exposing an attempt to override elections and the will of the voters is not beating a dead horse, unless that horse is American democracy. Promoting the Big Lie as an excuse to nullify Democratic victories has become a mantra for large swaths of the Republican Party.

Read the thread below: what they found inside the building, preserved by the landslide, is stunning, especially the floor and frescoes:

1) The Roman Capitolium of Brescia (ancient Brixia). Fortuitously buried by a landslide in the Middle Ages, the remains of the Capitol temple are a wonder in themselves – but what archaeologists discovered inside is truly unique. Let's take a journey into this remarkable site.. pic.twitter.com/0alxk1kML8

— Gareth Harney (@OptimoPrincipi) June 19, 2022

Some of the interior:

5) This incarnation of the temple, built in 73 AD under Vespasian, had many such wonders to present to archaeologists, but before we look at those let's delve deeper. This was the last of three rebuildings of the sanctuary on the site, with one built on top of another.. pic.twitter.com/1OlAqiu92y

— Gareth Harney (@OptimoPrincipi) June 19, 2022

The big news on those interested in sports and gender is below, but we’ll have more on it later today. This means that any transgender woman who has gone through any part of male puberty cannot swim against biological women in the Olympics, period. FINA sets the criteria for Olympic swimming and other international competition in water sports.

FINA come through.

No male who has experienced any part of male puberty is eligible for female categories.

🥂 https://t.co/wOaErk9dZW

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) June 19, 2022

Good morning on Cat Shabbos: Saturday, June 18, 2022: International Picnic Day. But no picnics on the Sabbath unless somebody else does all the work!

It’s Paul McCartney’s 80th birthday today! (See below.).

Stuff that happened on June 18 includes:

• 1178 – Five Canterbury monks see an event believed to have been the formation of the Giordano Bruno crater on the moon. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon‘s distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision.

The original report (from Wikipedia), which comports with what one expects when an asteroid or comet strikes the Moon.

Five monks from Canterbury reported to the abbey’s chronicler, Gervase, that shortly after sunset on 18 June 1178, they saw “the upper horn [of the moon] split in two”. Furthermore, Gervase writes:

From the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the Moon which was below writhed, as it were in anxiety, and to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the Moon throbbed like a wounded snake. Afterwards it resumed its proper state. This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, the flame assuming various twisting shapes at random and then returning to normal. Then, after these transformations, the Moon from horn to horn, that is along its whole length, took on a blackish appearance.

In 1976, the geologist Jack B. Hartung proposed that this described the formation of the crater Giordano Bruno.

This is in now in doubt, however, since the crater appears from dating methods to be several million years old. The answer is “we just don’t know what the monks saw.”

Here’s the crater, 22 km across:

• 1812 – The United States declaration of war upon the United Kingdom is signed by President James Madison, beginning the War of 1812.
• 1858 – Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.

The paper came with a letter, which is the one letter missing from Darwin’s correspondence. While some have hinted darkly that Darwin destroyed the letter because someone else came up with the theory of natural selection (Wallace’s paper didn’t deal with “identical conclusions about evolution”), Darwin arranged for Wallace’s paper to be published back to back with Darwin’s own hastily-written precis of natural selection. Both men thus got equal temporal priority (you can see the papers here), but Darwin gets most of the credit because he went on to write up his Big Book in 1859 that described natural selection as well as evolution in much detail, and giving tons of evidence. [Addendum by GCM: The joint publication by Wallace and Darwin was a “win-win” for them, with both men jointly introducing natural selection, while establishing the independence of their discoveries, Wallace in this ‘Ternate Essay’, and Darwin through extracts from his essay of 1844 and a letter to Asa Gray from 1857. I wrote a short paper about the circumstances in 2002, which I revised and posted here at WEIT as part of the Wallace Year (2013) celebrations: Darwin and Wallace at Burlington House. For full historical accounts, see the references in that post, especially the paper by John van Wyhe and Kees Rookmaker (and have a look at John’s more recent publications).]

• 1859 – First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps.

The mountain is 4,194 m high (13,760 ft). Here it is:

• 1873 – Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.

Here’s one of our earliest U.S. feminists, photographed around 1870:

• 1940 – The “Finest Hour” speech is delivered by Winston Churchill.

Churchill didn’t have a particularly mellifluous voice, but oy, was he a great orator! Here’s a snippet of the speech with the “Finest Hour” bit (go to 4:53):

• Paul McCartney born (see below)
• 1945 – William Joyce (“Lord Haw-Haw“) is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II.

Joyce was hanged on January 3, 1946. Here is his anti-Semitic final statement, and a photo of him below (he was wounded in the buttocks during capture)

In death as in life, I defy the Jews who caused this last war, and I defy the power of darkness which they represent. I warn the British people against the crushing imperialism of the Soviet Union. May Britain be great once again and in the hour of the greatest danger in the West may the standard be raised from the dust, crowned with the words – “You have conquered nevertheless”. I am proud to die for my ideals and I am sorry for the sons of Britain who have died without knowing why.

Joyce on his way to captivity:

• 1948 – Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
• 1983 – Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

Here she is; tragically, she died at only 61 of pancreatic cancer.

DA NOOZ:

*It’s pretty clear that the Congressional hearings on the January 6 insurrection are largely designed to get Donald Trump indicted. I don’t know if that will happen, but I do think that these hearings have damaged the man—perhaps to the extent that he’ll never again be a viable candidate for President. (This despite the fact that other Republicans who voice support for The Big Steal scenario have won primaries in the last week.)

The latest news is that the committee may start sharing transcripts of its findings with the Department of Justice as early as next month. As I said the other day, the DOJ has six prosecutors watching the proceedings full time, and there is only one man who has the power to get Trump indicted for federal crimes: Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Justice Department officials and top investigators, including Matthew M. Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, are growing increasingly impatient to obtain the transcripts, which they see as an essential source of information needed to guide their own interviews with former President Donald J. Trump’s allies, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

The Justice Department sent the committee a two-page letter on Wednesday accusing the panel of hampering the federal criminal investigation into the attack by refusing to share interview transcripts with prosecutors.

The committee isn’t being deliberately truculent: its chairman just wants to get more accomplished before it turned over material to the DOJ.

*Trump is STILL criticizing Pence. According to the NBC Evening News as well as Reuters, Trump announced yesterday that “Pence had a chance to be great” (he coulda been a contender) but he “lacked courage.” To show the Trumpster’s continuing insanity, read the long letter he wrote criticizing the January 6 committee.  (Actually, someone probably wrote it for him, as it’s in English.) One snippet:

The January 6th Unselect Committee is disgracing everything we hold sacred about our Constitution. If they had any real evidence, they’d hold real hearings with equal representation. They don’t, so they use the illegally-constituted committee to put on a smoke and mirrors show for the American people, in a pitiful last-ditch effort to deceive the American public…again.

They TRIED equal representation, but only two Republicans wanted to be on that committee. I hope Liz Cheney doesn’t suffer cancellation for her sterling performance on the committee.

*For some enjoyment, read Andrew Sullivan’s epic rant about Trump and his role in Jan. 6: “A man and his mob“.

But this complexity misses something important — the contingent importance of individuals in human history. And the truth is: we would not be where we are now without Donald Trump, and Donald Trump alone. He is unique in American history, a president who told us in advance he would never accept any election result that showed him losing, and then proved it. He tried to overturn the transfer of power to his successor by threats and violence. No president in history has ever done such a thing — betrayed and violated the core of our republic — from Washington’s extraordinary example onwards. The stain of Trump is as unique as it is indelible.

Without Trump, January 6 would never have happened. It was his idea, and his alone. No one in his closest inner circle believed he had won the election on November 3. They all knew that the Trump presidency was “the rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg’d, / Nor tackle, sail, nor mast.” None of them would have attempted to keep it afloat.

*POLL! Just give your answer, as PCC(E) wants to know readers’ opinions:

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*Meanwhile, Uncle Joe is, as the Washington Post reports, sending “every signal that he’s running again” in 2024.

*This is tragic:  Nepal has had to move Everest Base Camp to a lower altitude because the famous Khumbu Icefall is melting due to global warming. That has created dangerous crevasses in the previously safe camp. It will also make climbing the mountain harder. But of course basecamp, and now much of the mountain, is full of litter from climbers. (h/t Andrew)

*Today Paul McCartney turns 80—16 years past the age he once saw as being old. To celebrate his dotage, Sir Paul was joined in his June 16 New Jersey concert by The Boss. To wit:

Here are McCartney’s favorite Beatles songs, though only two of them would make my own top five list (“Blackbird” and “Eleanor Rigby”).

• ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’
• ‘Hey Jude’
• ‘Blackbird’
• ‘Eleanor Rigby’
• ‘You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)’

That last song is dreadful and doesn’t belong on the list at all!

To give Sir Paul more encomiums, here he is singing “Blackbird” live.  (Don’t miss the live version of “Eleanor Rigby” here.) Both songs are masterpieces; nothing in modern rock or pop comes close.) Long may he run—a driving force behind the greatest rock band of all time.

*Speaking of Stanford’s authoritarianism, as we did the other day, here we have a Stanford student who almost wasn’t allowed to graduate from Stanford because he didn’t get a covid booster after the first two shots. The weird thing is that the guy wasn’t even in California then: he was moving to Texas!   (h/t Mike)

Stanford announced its booster mandate in December, at which time I was recovering from a covid infection and moving to Texas.

But as I learned in April when Stanford almost gave me the boot, the booster mandate is “not predicated on history of infection or physical location.” I could have been living on a Pacific island the day before my graduation, and America’s finest university would still not be able to tolerate the fact that I was only “fully vaccinated” and not “boosted.” Two shots aren’t enough, science denier – no degree for you!

Spoiler: Stanford did eventually give in when I pointed out the absurdity of their plan to enforce the mandate against me from 2,000 miles away, but only after multiple rounds of protest and a stroke of luck with a single administrator.

Now that is gratuitous authoritarianism.

*And, for fun, after reading an article in Tablet (h/t Malgorzata), I tracked down the only existing recording by Thomas LaRue Jones, “Yidele, Farlir Nit Dayn Hoffnung” (“Don’t Give Up Hope, Mr. Jew”). Jones was a a rare breed: an African-American cantor from the early 20th century. And in case you don’t know what a cantor is, it’s normally a Jew who leads the congregation of a synagogue in song and prayer. Jones, known as “Tevye, der shvartzer khazn” (Tevye, the Black Cantor), wasn’t really Jewish, but he was good at singing traditional Yiddish songs, and made a living performing in public. Very little is known of his life (it’s said that his family was steeped in Judaism, though not Jewish), and there’s only one commercial record (below).

From the Tablet:

Endowed with a pleasant voice, the teenage Jones began a fledgling performance career singing Yiddish songs in local Jewish festive events. As early as 1915, a local Newark newspaper mentions his name, along with several other very Jewish-sounding names, as providing the entertainment for a Jewish wedding. A year later, the paper mentions his name as the person providing musical entertainment at another Jewish event.

. . . The 1920s were an opportune time for Tevye LaRue Jones to make his entrance. Cantorial performance was flourishing in America. Cantors were no longer confined to the sacred space of the synagogue. They recorded their music, at times accompanied by musical instruments which would not be allowed in the synagogue. Even women who would not be allowed to sing in the synagogue were performing hazzones on stage. Hundreds of records of cantorial music were produced, avidly consumed by a public that was also packing concert halls and vaudeville venues where cantors performed. Outside the synagogue the cantor was no longer serving merely as a “shliakh tsibbur,” the voice of his community, but also as a seasoned entertainer whose repertoire often broadened to include folk and Yiddish theater songs. In this thriving popular Jewish culture, a Black cantor would likely prove an attraction.

A poster (translation in caption):

And “the only known early 20th century recording of an African-American singing cantorial music.” The guy isn’t bad!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili still won’t give Kulka a break:

Kulka: May I come up there?

Hili: Don’t even think about it.

Kulka: Czy mogę tam wejść?

Hili: Nawet o tym nie myśl.

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

From Ant:  Good thing they didn’t try to slice it!

From Frits:

From Stash Krod:

Please me some good tweets, as I’m running low except for those from Matthew.

Ah, God is such a wag! This tweet has been deleted, but all the important stuff is below:

People thank Me for creating Friday a lot more than they thank Me for creating cancer.

— God (@TheTweetOfGod) June 17, 2022

What is more fun than this?

Can’t stop watching.. 😅 https://t.co/ZZCvGYV3zN

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) June 18, 2022

A tweet I found on Nellie Bowles’s weekly news summary on Bari Weiss’s site. Bowles said this:

University of Michigan emeritus economics professor, Mark J. Perry, broke down the latest numbers on how many professional diversity officers are on the U of M payroll, and how much these officers make: “126 diversicrats at an average salary of $93,600 with 38 making >$100K and a shocking record-high of $430,795.” The total payroll cost for “diversity equity and inclusion” programming is over $15 million a year, or in-state tuition for almost 1,000 students. One wild DEI idea: Fire every single one of them, and use that money to free 1,000 poor students from debt each year.

Just out: @UMich 2021 salaries (https://t.co/YLMrsSVKd4) reveal 126 diversicrats at an average salary of $93,600 with 38 making >$100K and a shocking record-high of $430,795. Total payroll cost >$15M = in-state tuition for almost 1000 students.@AnnCoulter @GadSaad @CollegeFix pic.twitter.com/iG1MGVZqjb

— Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) December 18, 2021

From the Auschwitz Memorial:

18 June 1934 | A Hungarian Jewish girl, Sarika Kertesz, was born.

In 1944 she was deported to #Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber after the selection. pic.twitter.com/RlbjbqZ5Pt

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 17, 2022

Tweets from Matthew. It was about 38°C two days ago, but my ducks were fine; they stay in the water a lot and seek out shade when on land.

Hottest Day of the Year #4#hottestdayoftheyear pic.twitter.com/fi4L346tAD

— A Cambridge Diary (@acambridgediary) June 17, 2022

Sound up. This is like a horror movie!

Instead of telling you when it's safe to cross the street, the walk signs in Crystal City, VA are just repeating "CHANGE PASSWORD".

Something's gone terribly wrong here. pic.twitter.com/W5h8OjBXUu

— Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano) March 13, 2022

Ah, that classic first line. You better know the book!

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. pic.twitter.com/35mVIWc2i8

— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) June 16, 2022

I’ve saved the best for last. This is stunning!

Two neurons sensing each other. And trying to connect:#neuroscience by @rockatscientist pic.twitter.com/zNIF1qGD6x

— 🧠Slava Bobrov (@slava__bobrov) June 15, 2022

Good morning on Sunday, June 12, 2022, and it’s International Falafel Day, saved from cultural appropriation by being “International”.  Here are some lovely falafel:

I haven’t been to the Middle East, where falafel reins supreme, but here is the best falafel I’ve ever had in my travels. It’s in Paris in the Marais, and there’s always a line:

It’s also World Day Against Child Labour as well as Loving Day in the U.S., described as “an annual celebration held on June 12, the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen U.S. states.”

Wine of the Day: It’s not secret that I like sweet wines; the real secret is how to find good ones, many of them greatly undervalued (try an Aussie Yalumba Antique Muscat, for instance). Sweet wines can be great value for money, but I did splurge quite a bit on this one, a 2018 Klein Constantia, which cost $60—and for 2/3 of a bottle (500 ml).

This is a historic wine that almost went extinct—well, it actually did for a while. They starting making it from the muscat grape at this estate in South Africa in 1685, and it became a favorite of many, including Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, Napoleon while in exile in St. Helena, Queen Victoria (who reportedly had a glass every night), Baudelaire, and, in the U.S., George Washington and John Adams, the latter describing it as among the “most delicious wines of the world.” It even gets an approving nod in Jane Austin’s Sense and Sensibility as “the finest old Constantia wine.”

An increase in British tariffs reduced production to almost nothing, and then nothing, with the wine no longer produced after 1872.  But estate was restarted in 1980, and the quality seems back to what it was then—well, at least it’s an indescribably delicious tipple. It’s sweet but not unctuous, with a light straw color.

The odor is unique: a mixture of classic muscat fragrance combined with what I identify as lemon, straw, and a bit of oregano. I will probably never have another bottle of this, as it’s rare and pricey but I got seven glasses from it (you need only a little), so it’s only about $8.50 per glass. (You’d pay more than that for a glass of mediocre red in a restaurant.) It is very highly recommended by all critics (see the captious James Suckling’s review here). If you have a wine-loving friend who likes “stickies”, this would make a great Christmas gift, if you can find it.

It was stunning now but is said to get even better with age. I couldn’t wait.

Stuff that happened on June 12 include:

• 1775 – American War of Independence: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.
• 1817 – The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl von Drais.

Here’s a dandy horse from about 1820. Seems crazy to me, and not that efficient. Scooters would be better:

• 1939 – The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.

And the plaque of my favorite player, though the image is a bit ghoulish:

• 1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

There was more than one diary. Here’s the story of her diary, showing a collection of Anne’s writings. The checkered book on top is the one she was given on this day. You can see a photo here, but I dare not post it because the last time I used two photos from the Anne Frank site, they charged me $160 post facto, saying I’d have to pay even if I removed the photos to make up for the money I (don’t) make on this website. The organization is venal.

• 1963 – NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement.
• 1963 – The film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, is released in US theaters. It was the most expensive film made at the time.

You can see why from the scene below when Cleopatra enters Rome:

• 1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.
• 1967 – The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

Here are Mildred and Richard Loving in 1967. They were convicted in Virginia, brought suit before the Supreme Court, and won with a unanimous decision.

• 1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

Here’s the famous statement:

• 2016 – Forty-nine civilians are killed and 58 others injured in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the gunman, Omar Mateen, is killed in a gunfight with police.

The Pulse Nightclub was torn down and replaced with this memorial:

• 2017 – American student Otto Warmbier returns home in a coma after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison and dies a week later.
• 2018 – United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea held the first meeting between leaders of their two countries in Singapore.

Nothing came of it, of course, and I doubt anything will ever come from our negotiations with the DPRK. Lots of avoirdupois here!

Da Nooz: 

*It’s a fraught summer in Kyiv, as the Associated Press reports in this article and in the video below. The fighting is mostly elsewhere, but the air raid sirens blow regularly, and many of the male residents are preparing to fight in the east or south.

Many, but by no means all, of the 2 million inhabitants who Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said had fled when Russian forces tried to encircle the city in March are now returning. But with soldiers falling by the hundreds to the east and south, the surreal calm of Kyiv is laced with nagging guilt.

“People are feeling grateful but asking themselves, ‘Am I doing enough?’” said Snezhana Vialko, as she and boyfriend Denys Koreiba bought plump strawberries from one of the summer-fruit vendors who have deployed across the city, in neighborhoods where just weeks ago jumpy troops manned checkpoints of sand bags and tank traps.

Now greatly reduced in numbers and vigilance, they generally wave through the restored buzz of car traffic, barely glancing up from pass-the-time scrolling on phones.

With the peace still so fragile and more treasured than ever, many are plowing their energies, time, money and muscle into supporting the soldiers fighting what has become a grinding war of attrition for control of destroyed villages, towns and cities.

*Photos of the prisoners at the US base in Guantanamo Bay are rare, but Wikileaks released some, and the NYT has now published several it got via the Freedom of Information Act.  Here’s one of them.  We should not be keeping prisoners there; they need to be tried or released; indefinite detention without trial is illegal on US soil.

*On Friday evening the average price of a gallon of gas hit $5 for the first time ever. the Rubicon has been crossed!

Some drivers are purchasing fewer gallons on each visit to gas stations but making more frequent trips to fuel up. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at price tracker GasBuddy, said consumer resilience has remained relatively strong, even as demand has started to waver. He projects people will more significantly adjust their driving habits when gas hits between $5.40 and $5.50.

That is around the price that, adjusted for inflation, would surpass the 2008 peak for gas prices, Mr. De Haan said.

Read the new WaPo editorial by Madline Voschl, “I’m a Texas teacher. Here are all the thinks I’m asked to be“. If you think you have a tough job, trying being a public high-school teacher in a district where 60% of the students are economically disadvantaged, with many so hungry that the teacher buys snacks for the kids. On top of that, they had to maintain covid and mask regulations, and many are the family’s main breadwinners, leaving them little time to study.  (h/t David)

*Below is a re-election ad for the biggest loon in Congress, Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert.  She shows her political prowess by winning a demolition derby. (Note that she’s also packing heat.)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili gets a taste of her own medicine:

Hili: This borders on persecution.

Małgorzata: What are you complaining about now?

Hili: About the lack of inclusivity.

Hili: To zakrawa na prześladowania.

Małgorzata: Na co znowu się skarżysz?

Hili: Na brak inkluzywności.

And a photo of Kulka from Paulina:

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

From David:

From reddit:(h/t Merilee)

The last box on earth from cats

From Bruce:

God is flogging His new book. But he doesn’t need money, and why couldn’t he convey his book to others as a revelation?

Thanks Nicolas! Can you believe there are still some followers of Mine who haven't bought it yet? What a bunch of bozos. All they have to do is clickhttps://t.co/TQCt0PMs4p

orhttps://t.co/z7tCG7iB0E

What, they don't want to give money to God? That's what I'm FOR, dammit. https://t.co/9920F77MlM

— God (@TheTweetOfGod) June 9, 2022

From Bette Midler, retweeted by Sarah Silverman:

pic.twitter.com/gNmrbZqrw5

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 6, 2022

A tweet from Barry. His caption: “Get a room!”video

What would you caption this ❤️🦁💓🥰🦁 pic.twitter.com/NUP1WfZXrt

— 🐩wildAnimals🐎 (@Animals10wild1) June 9, 2022

A tweet from Ricky Gervais, showing what he’s reading. He seems to have a penchant for nonscience and fiction, but doesn’t he know that E. O. Wilson has been canceled? I have to say that the Wilson book, though, is far from his best, and was panned in magazines by both Richard Dawkins and me.

Currently reading this lot, for both pleasure and research for #Armageddon With all the other distractions they should last me all year. pic.twitter.com/ZfaBmBl3E8

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) June 11, 2022

From the Auschwitz Memorial. As noted above, it’s Anne Frank’s birthday and the day when, at 13, she was given the first book of her now-famous diary:

12 June 1929 | A German Jewish girl, Anne Frank, was born in Frankfurt.

In 1942 on her 13th birthday she received an empty diary. She perished in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

'Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character & goodness.' (A.Frank) pic.twitter.com/dTdFMVn08h

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 12, 2022

Tweets from Matthew Cobb, who wonders how long this turtle can keep exhaling under water. A long time, I suspect!

💤 pic.twitter.com/HqXrwZmJ94

— Sofía Villalpando (@sofiabiologista) June 11, 2022

Wouldn’t you love to have a bobcat family living in your back yard?

My daughter-in-law's dad lives in Arizona and a bobcat has been hanging out in his backyard so he hasn't been going back there. Turns out it was so peaceful for her that she had her babies there and now the whole family has taken over his yard and omg look how cute they are! pic.twitter.com/KvRdUSxTjK

— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) June 8, 2022

This fish may be deepening its hole to lay eggs, to protect it from predation, or any of a myriad of other reasons:

If you haven’t seen anything amazing today – this is a fish digging it’s own swimming pool using its mouth. You’re welcome! pic.twitter.com/5oaCkZG5W4

— incidental naturalist (@IncNaturalist) June 11, 2022

This winds up as a beautiful story; be sure to read Joe Biden’s letter at the end:

Unironically one of the most wholesome stories I’ve seen recently pic.twitter.com/AQNEpPPMPP

— Right Wing Cope (@RightWingCope) June 9, 2022

Good morning on Thursday, June 9, 2022: National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day. Once again I must kvetch about the use of vegetables in dessert pies. Yes, I know it’s a matter of taste, but all I can say is that those who prefer rhubarb along with strawberries in a pie are deficient in the taste department.

It’s also La Rioja Day, celebrating the province in Spain that makes some of the world’s best red wine.

Stuff that happened on June 9 includes:

• 68 – Nero commits suicide, after quoting Vergil’s Aeneid, thus ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.

Fun facts about Nero.: He is said (there are dissenters) to have kicked his wife Poppaea to death in 65 A.D. and then, says Wikipedia,

In 67, Nero married Sporus, a young boy who is said to have greatly resembled Poppaea. Nero had him castrated, tried to make a woman out of him, and married him in a dowry and bridal veil. It is believed that he did this out of regret for his killing of Poppaea.

Nero couldn’t bear to kill himself after he’d been repudiated by the Senate, so he got his private secretary to do the deed for him. As for Sporus, he committed suicide in 69 AD to avoid being killed publicly.

• 1856 – Five hundred Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa for the Mormon Trail.

Here’s a remnant of the trail in Nebraska with a present-day trail marker.

• 1954 – Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army–McCarthy hearings, giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

Here’s a video explaining the exchange, which involved McCarthy breaking a promise he made. This exchange really was the beginning of the end for McCarthy, and a good thing it was, too. But there was a bit of planning by Welch too: it was not a spontaneous lecture he delivered to Sen. McCarthy.

• 1957 – First ascent of Broad Peak by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, and Hermann Buhl.

Broad Peak is in the Karakorum and is 8,051 metres (26,414 ft) high. Here it is:

• 1978 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opens its priesthood to “all worthy men”, ending a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men.

This, of course, was due to a “revelation” that was later than it should have been. I wonder why God changed his mind. Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:

During this time [1849-1878], the church taught that the restriction came from God and many leaders gave several race-based explanations for the ban, including a curse on Cain and his descendants, Ham’s marriage to Egyptus, a curse on the descendants of Canaan, and that black people were less valiant in their pre-mortal life. Church leaders used LDS scriptures to justify their explanations, including the Book of Abraham, which teaches that the descendants of Canaan were black and Pharaoh could not have the priesthood because he was a descendant of Canaan. In 1978, it was declared that the restriction was lifted as a result of a revelation given to the church president and apostles. The 1978 declaration was incorporated into the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of Latter-day Saint scripture.

DA NOOZ:

*As I reported yesterday, the “progressive” Left suffered a stinging defeat in the recall election of district attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recalled by a vote of about 60%. The NYT paints this as a warning for the progressives’ policy on police:

The elections on Tuesday showed the extent to which the political winds have shifted even in Democratic cities in the two years since George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer. The initial rally cry on the left then — “defund the police” — has since become so politically toxic that it is now more often used by Republicans as an epithet than by Democrats as an earnest policy proposal. And the crusading energy to overhaul policing in the face of rising crime has waned.

For Democrats, the issue of crime and disorder threatens to drive a wedge between some of the party’s core constituencies, as some voters demand action on racial and systemic disparities while others are focused on their own sense of safety in their homes and neighborhoods.

“Defund the police” was a losing mantra for the outset, yet there are still those who call for it, especially on campus. Some of our own students want the University of Chicago Police defunded, even though those police patrol a huge area of the South Side outside the campus. This baffles me.

*Here’s more backlash reported in The Washington Post, and this worries me more, “Across the country, educational equity was in vogue. And then it wasn’t.” In Colorado Springs, as in other parts of the U.S., conservatives are taking over school boards using the “threat” of CRT teaching as leverage. But the byproducts of conservative school boards, however, are not just unconscionable rules about what to teach, but censorship of books and other educational material.

*As of Wednesday evening, the U.S. House of Representative is set to vote on gun-control measures that the Washington Post says are “some of the most aggressive gun-control measures taken up on Capitol Hill in years“.  And they are, but they’re still weak beer—and worse, they’re like to fail. The bills include:

1.) “raising the minimum age for the purchase of most semiautomatic rifles to 21 and banning high-capacity ammunition magazines”

and

2.)  “proposals that would crack down on gun trafficking, create new safe-storage requirements for gun owners, and codify executive orders that ban untraceable “ghost guns” as well as “bump stock” devices that allow a semiautomatic rifle to mimic machine-gun fire.”

But the big impediment to this is, of course, are the Republicans:

The House votes, however, will amount to little more than a political messaging exercise because of firm Republican opposition to substantial new gun restrictions. That has left hopes for a bipartisan deal that could be signed into law in the hands of a small group of senators who are exploring much more modest changes to federal gun laws. Those talks continued Wednesday in hopes of sealing a deal in the coming days.

I presume by that the Post means that even if the bill passes the Democratic-majority House, it will fail in the Senate. I’m not sure why unless they’re referring to a filibuster, because even Joe Manchin is in favor of stronger gun control than nearly all Republicans want (which is NONE).

UPDATE: The bill passed the House last night by a vote of 223-204, but it’s doomed by the filibuster, as I guessed:

*A group of 90 women gymnasts, including big names like Simone BIles and McKayla Maroney, are suing the FBI for a billion dollars over its admitted mishandling of claims of sexual abuse by team doctor Larry Nassar.

The women are collectively seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI in a lawsuit filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a 1946 law that makes the United States liable for injuries “caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment.” They join 13 others who in April filed a similar lawsuit against the FBI, citing a July report released by the Justice Department’s inspector general that found the bureau failed to properly investigate serious sex-abuse allegations against Nassar.

Normally you can’t sue the government unless you file a request to the relevant agency asking them to allow you to sue them. But this suit involves a specific law dealing with individual negligence.

*The other day we discussed the continuing phenomenon of food “shrinkflation,” whereby containers get smaller and prices either stay the same or rise, which causes an increase in the price of a given amount of comestible. The Associated Press reports that, in these lean and inflationary times, shrinkflation is coming on strong.

From toilet paper to yogurt and coffee to corn chips, manufacturers are quietly shrinking package sizes without lowering prices. It’s dubbed “shrinkflation,” and it’s accelerating worldwide.

In the U.S., a small box of Kleenex now has 60 tissues; a few months ago, it had 65. Chobani Flips yogurts have shrunk from 5.3 ounces to 4.5 ounces. In the U.K., Nestle slimmed down its Nescafe Azera Americano coffee tins from 100 grams to 90 grams. In India, a bar of Vim dish soap has shrunk from 155 grams to 135 grams.

The perfidy goes on and on and on. . . .

[Consumer advocate Edgar] Dworsky said shrinkflation appeals to manufacturers because they know customers will notice price increases but won’t keep track of net weights or small details, like the number of sheets on a roll of toilet paper. Companies can also employ tricks to draw attention away from downsizing, like marking smaller packages with bright new labels that draw shoppers’ eyes.

That’s what Fritos did. Bags of Fritos Scoops marked “Party Size” used to be 18 ounces; some are still on sale at a grocery chain in Texas. But almost every other big chain is now advertising “Party Size” Fritos Scoops that are 15.5 ounces — and more expensive.

PepsiCo didn’t respond when asked about Fritos. But it did acknowledge the shrinking of Gatorade bottles. The company recently began phasing out 32-ounce bottles in favor of 28-ounce ones, which are tapered in the middle to make it easier to hold them. The changeover has been in the works for years and isn’t related to the current economic climate, PepsiCo said. But it didn’t respond when asked why the 28-ounce version is more expensive.

Likewise, Kimberly-Clark — which makes both Cottonelle and Kleenex — didn’t respond to requests for comment on the reduced package sizes. Procter & Gamble Co. didn’t respond when asked about Pantene Pro-V Curl Perfection conditioner, which downsized from 12 fluid ounces to 10.4 fluid ounces but still costs $3.99.

Earth’s Best Organic Sunny Day Snack Bars went from eight bars per box to seven, but the price listed at multiple stores remains $3.69. Hain Celestial Group, the brand’s owner, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

No company will comment, but of course they’d only make things worse if they did.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is fixing to chase Kulka, who is hiding behind the bench.

Hili: I know that she is sitting over there.

A: Does it bother you?

Hili: Theoretically – no, but I will chase her in a moment anyhow.

Hili: Wiem, że ona tam siedzi.

Ja: Przeszkadza ci to?

Hili: Teoretycznie nie, ale i tak ją zaraz pogonię.

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

From the Cat House on the Kings:

From Seth Andrews. This is nerfarious:

From Merilee:

This is from Simon, and I have posted it before, but I’m posting it again because this is a wily and evolved escape behavior of ducks, and I had to catch little ducklings yesterday (they can do this at one day old) who pulled this stunt when I sent for them. But I got five of them!

Duck vs tiger.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/dVYLgI02aO

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) June 7, 2022

Also from Simon: this is a truly amazing stunt (oops; it showed a kid solving three Rubik’s Cube puzzles while juggling them! The tweet was removed, but I found a YouTube video (below):

This is wild — Angel Alvarado (19 years old) set a world record by solving 3 Rubik's cubes in just 4 minutes and 31 seconds…while juggling.

The previous record was 4 minutes and 52 seconds, which Alvarado set a year prior.

Unreal mental processing 🤯pic.twitter.com/GWp5sNaCin

— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) June 6, 2022

From Barry, who sent a tweet yesterday showing that baby owls sometimes sleep on their front, face down. This one is no baby, but does have a temporary impediment:

It’s followed by a tweet showing this owl’s “WTF” moment after it was humiliated.

If count your MF’n Days was a face pic.twitter.com/TuSvHT45yE

— Snappin Necks and Cashing Checks (@TheChiropracti3) February 19, 2022

From the Auschwitz Memorial: today we have someone who survived. (tweet sent by Matthew)

9 June 1928 | A Polish woman, Salomea Kostrubała, was born in Skierbieszów.

In #Auschwitz from 13 December 1942 (deported during pacification of Zamość Region)
No. 26932
In 1944 she was transferred to KL Natzweilter and liberated there. pic.twitter.com/f12315Apk7

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 9, 2022

Tweets from Dr. Cobb, who had a nice day off yesterday celebrating his daughter’s birthday. First a frog evades a predatory spider:

An interesting spider observation @CoLEppingForest Connaught Water today-they did cross back over to the edge of the bank reinforcement where the froglet dropped leaving the spider behind. @BritishSpiders #30DaysWild pic.twitter.com/mi2O0qfFmr

— FrancesD (@Plot7a) June 3, 2022

A cat finds the perfect napping spot:

bboy nest pic.twitter.com/PdO5oA4xp9

— mr claude (clod) (@mrclaudeyboy) June 4, 2022

A lovely moth with weird legs:

Tiny Acraga sp. from
Ecuador, Finca Heimatlos Eco Lodge and Farm, near Puyo. pic.twitter.com/Fbpv3U5wJf

— Eerika (@EerikaSchulz) June 4, 2022

This isn’t Harpo or Chico, but they did do a skit like this (see below):

Harpo/Chico Marx mirror sketch in real life https://t.co/5CGmUyorzv

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) June 5, 2022

Here’s the original

Good morning on The Cruelest Day: June 7, 2022: National Chocolate Ice Cream Day. The best version I’ve had of this treat is the “rich chocolate” flavor at Dr. Mike’s in Bethel, Connecticut: one of the best ice cream shops in America. (Years ago, I once made a long detour to get there; it was worth it.) There’s a new owner now with new flavors, so report back to me if you’re near Bethel. (The chocolate lace flavor is also terrific.)

From Michael Stern at The Daily Beast:

The one flavor you can always count on. . . is rich chocolate, the most chocolaty food imaginable. It is a devastating concoction with an explosive Dutch cocoa taste carried in custard that is as smooth as iced velvet and as rich as clotted cream. Chocolate Lace and Cream, another daily flavor, is made of sweet cream (not vanilla) and chunks of brittle sugar candy sheathed in bittersweet chocolate.

Stuff that happened on June 7 include:

• 1099 – First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins.
• 1494 – Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.

Here’s an original page of the treaty, which is written in Spanish:

• 1654 – Louis XIV is crowned King of France.
• 1862 – The United States and the United Kingdom agree in the Lyons–Seward Treaty to suppress the African slave trade.
• 1892 – Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the “whites-only” car of a train; he lost the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson.

There are no authentic photos of Homer Plessy, but, sadly, he lost his case. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was not unconstitutional so long as “separate but equal” facilities were maintained for different races. Of course, they were separate but never equal.

• 1899 – American Temperance crusader Carrie Nation begins her campaign of vandalizing alcohol-serving establishments by destroying the inventory in a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas.

Her real name was Carrie Moore but she used “Carrie Nation” as she wanted to “Carry the Nation” towards temperance. Here she is with her symbolic axe used to destroy booze:

• 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway ends in American victory.

The U.S. won, but it was a tough battle (and gave its name to Chicago’s smaller airport.  Below is the ship Hiryū sinking, one of three Japanese carriers lost in the battle, and a severe blow to the Japanese navy.

• 1946 – The United Kingdom’s BBC returns to broadcasting its television service, which has been off air for seven years because of World War II.
• 1965 – The Supreme Court of the United States hands down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, prohibiting the states from criminalizing the use of contraception by married couples.

Black and Stewart dissented. Griswold was a member Planned Parenthood who started a birth-control clinic in Connecticut to directly challenge the law. The court rendered a 7-2 decision, with the majority opinion written by William O. Douglas (below).

• 1977 – Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television.
• 1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.

Here’s the most famous room at Graceland, Elvis’s “Jungle Room,” which served as his “mancave.”  The Atlas Obscura says this:

The Jungle Room also became the King’s final recording studio, where he recorded much of his last two albums.

Graceland could be considered the mecca of American mid-century kitsch, but the Jungle Room is truly its best signifier. Its tropical trimmings are reminders of a bygone trend in luxury, now largely considered silly and over-the-top. It was allegedly a favorite place of Elvis’ and his family’s, and the room’s tiki vibe is said to have reminded him of his time spent in Hawaii.

DA NOOZ:

*The head of the violence-prone and right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, was indicted, along with four of his associates, for seditious conspiracy.

*The NYT has a funny video of Jonathan Pie trying to explain to Americans why the Brits consider PM Boris Johnson a wanker. (h/t David). Meanwhile, Johnson will face a no-confidence vote from his own party (I’m writing this Monday evening and may have results Tuesday), all stemming from his hosting a bunch of booze parties during the covid lockdown—a time when those parties were forbidden.

*As of 5 p.m., yesterday Boris survived the vote.

Johnson won the backing of 211 out of 359 Conservative lawmakers, more than the simple majority needed to remain in power, but still a significant rebellion of 148 MPs. With no clear front-runner to succeed him, most political observers had predicted he would defeat the challenge.

But the rebellion represents a watershed moment for him — and is a sign of deep Conservative divisions, less than three years after Johnson led the party to its biggest election victory in decades.

*I don’t know if this is an excuse for Elon Musk to back out of buying twitter, but he is kvetching about the secretiveness of the organization as a possible reason for him to give up. According to the Wall Street Journal,

Elon Musk threatened to terminate his deal to buy Twitter Inc.  in a letter accusing the company of not complying with his request for data on the number of spam and fake accounts on the social-media platform.

Mr. Musk said Twitter has refused to provide the data necessary for Mr. Musk to facilitate his own evaluation of the number of spam and fake accounts. In April, Twitter accepted Mr. Musk’s $44 billion bid to take over the company and go private.

It sounds to me that he’s had second thoughts about saying he was going to buy the entire company. Or perhaps Twitter is holding out, as they made the deal with Musk reluctantly.

*Remember this optical illusion that I posted the other day?

I always ask, can you trust what you're seeing, hearing, think you're understanding?#opticalillusion #ponzi #scams pic.twitter.com/6P8fuTf4T9

— Robert Buschel (@SkywriterEsq) June 6, 2022

The New York Times has an article about it that reveal, among other things, the following:

• The image is actually static, and has much to teach us about how our brains and eyes see the world. In a study published last week in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, psychologists tested this illusion on 50 men and women with normal vision, and, using an infrared eye tracker, found that the greater a participant’s response to the illusion, the stronger the pupil dilation response.
• They also discovered some people — perhaps even you — can’t see it.
• When you look at this illusion, the hole is not darkening. But the perception that it darkened was enough to make your pupils respond.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has chosen her spot:

Hili: There are borders.

A: Between what?

Hili: Between the grass and gravel, on which it’s not comfortable to lie.

Hili: Są granice.

Ja: Między czym a czym?

Hili: Między zielenią, a kamykami, na których źle się leży.

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

From Divy:  A cartoon by Sarah Anderson:

Bathtime for baby elephants! (h/t) Malcolm)

From Stash Krod:

A tweet of God:

My favorite word is “Amen” because when I hear it I know you’re finally done asking Me for stupid shit.

— God (@TheTweetOfGod) June 6, 2022

Two tweets from Barry: A real hero performs CPR on a goat!  I’d do it, too, if I knew that CPR was needed.

Hero 💪 pic.twitter.com/nuDaZrAt3h

— A Dose Of Feel Good 😇 (@ADoseOfFeelGood) May 5, 2022

Bathtime for birds! A chicken getting blow dried after it had a bath along with a raptor in a birdbath!

Wow
I just captured this video of a juvenile Cooper hawk in our birdbath. There's 2 of them that come each day pic.twitter.com/I9QTNBbbkJ

— Hockey_jhon (@hockey_jhon) June 4, 2022

From the Auschwitz Memorial. She lived but a month after arrival:

7 June 1906 | A Polish woman, Zofia Piotrowska, was born in Tarnopol. A nurse.

In #Auschwitz from 19 January 1943.
No. 29901
She perished in the camp on 24 February 1943. pic.twitter.com/hzfsmWfBf8

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 7, 2022

Tweets from Matthew.  Queen Elizabeth does have a sense of humor, though it’s not often on display. Here’s one case where it was. I believe the first part of the anecdote is true, but not the big where she starts cursing.

royal anecdote 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/IBJgYthKer

— alistair green (@mralistairgreen) June 5, 2022

Adam Rutherford is taking over the reins from Alice Roberts as President of the British Humanists. His “platform” doesn’t sound overly woke. . .

Here's our new President, @AdamRutherford, on what being part of Humanists UK means to him, & why you should join too!👇Adam takes the reins from @theAliceRoberts, who for the last few years has done a fantastic job of raising the profile of humanism. 👏 pic.twitter.com/fAUK9jRaiK

— Humanists UK (@Humanists_UK) June 6, 2022

A wryneck is one of a group of Old World woodpeckers, so named because they can turn their heads almost completely backwards. Sound up; the song is faint.

Ridiculous views of Wryneck in song now. Check out the tongue being flicked out towards the end. Sandemar, Sweden pic.twitter.com/6DdLeFAZVH

— Alan Dalton (@Blogbirder) June 5, 2022

Just to be clear: the hologram of the queen was inside a real carriage:

So a hologram of the queen drove through London in a golden carriage today. And people waved at it. They waved at a hologram. pic.twitter.com/hxRFzFp2N7

— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) June 5, 2022