Category: Leon monologue

Tuesday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

January 15, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s Tuesday, January 15, 2019, and National Popcorn Day. In North Korea it’s Korean Alphabet Day, celebrating the invention of the modern Korean alphabet, Hangul, in the fifteenth century. In South Korea, though, Alphabet Day falls September 9.

Today’s Google Doodle (below) celebrates Sake Dean Mahomed (1759-1851), Anglo-Indian author (he was the first Indian to publish a book in English, The Travels of Dean Mahomed, published on this day in 1794) and opened the first Indian restaurant in England, which Wikipedia describes like this:

Dean Mahomet opened the first Indian restaurant in England: the Hindoostane Coffee House in George Street, near Portman Square, Central London. The restaurant offered such delights as the Hookha “with real chilm tobacco, and Indian dishes, … allowed by the greatest epicures to be unequalled to any curries ever made in England.” This venture was ended due to financial difficulties.

It’s a big day in history today, as a number of significant events happened on January 15. First, Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey in 1559. She ruled until her death in 1603.  Exactly two centuries after that day, the British Museum opened to the public.

On January 15, 1870, a cartoon appeared that forever associated the Democratic Party with a donkey (it wasn’t the first cartoon to do this, however). The famous one below was drawn by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly, and here it is:

The explanation from Smithsonian.com:

On January 15, 1870, Nast published the cartoon that would forever link the donkey to the Democrat. A few ideas should be clear for the cartoon to make sense: First, “republican” and “democrat” meant very different things in the 19th century than they do today (but that’s another article entirely); “jackass” pretty much meant the exact same thing then that it does today; and Nast was a vocal opponent of a group of Northern Democrats known as “Copperheads.”

In his cartoon, the donkey, standing in for the Copperhead press, is kicking a dead lion, representing President Lincoln’s recently deceased press secretary (E.M. Stanton). With this simple but artfully rendered statement, Nast succinctly articulated his belief that the Copperheads, a group opposed the Civil War, were dishonoring the legacy of Lincoln’s administration. The choice of a donkey –that is to say, a jackass– would be clearly understood as commentary intended to disparage the Democrats. Nast continue to use the donkey as a stand-in for Democratic organizations, and the popularity of his cartoons through 1880s ensured that the party remained inextricably tied to jackasses.

On January 15, 1889, the Coca-Cola Company was incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia. I still think their advertising slogan, “The taste you never get tired of,” is one of the most succinct and accurate in the history of advertising.  Exactly three years later, James Naismith published the rules of basketball.

On this day in 1919, the Great Molasses Flood occurred in Boston when an exploding molasses tank sent an eight-foot tsunami of the good through the streets of Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150. Here’s a photo of the aftermath with a caption from Wikipedia:

Twenty one people were killed on Commercial Street in the North End when a tank of molasses ruptured and exploded. An eight foot wave of the syrupy brown liquid moved down Commercial Street at a speed of 35mph. Wreckage of the collapsed tank visible in background, center, next to light colored warehouse. Elevated railway structure visible at far left and the North End Park bathing beach to the far right. A “before” view of the disaster can be seen in this image.

On January 15, 1962, Europe’s oldest surviving manuscript, the Derveni papyrus, (ca. 340 BC, with the orignal  text dating back 150+ years earlier), was found in northern Greece. It’s part of a philosophical treatise, and here are some fragments as shown on Ancient Origins:

On this day in 1967, the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the first Super Bowl, played in Los Angeles. Eighteen years ago today, Wikipedia went online. Finally, exactly ten years ago, US Airways Flight 1549, with pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles at the controls, went down, landing in New York’s Hudson River after the engines were stopped by collision with a flock of Canada Geese. Thanks to extremely skillful piloting and the calm heads of the crew, all 155 people on board survived, with very few injuries.

Notables born on this day include Molière (1622), Josef Breuer (1822), Osip Mandelstam (1891), Edward Teller (1908), Gene Krupa (1909), Lloyd Bridges (1913), Maurice Herzog (1919), and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929).

Those who died on January 15 include Matthew Brady (1896), Rosa Luxemburg (1919), Jack Teagarden (1964), and Harry Nilsson (1994).

Nilsson hung around a lot of musical big names like Bob Dylan, but to my mind never sang much that was good—with one exception. And that is the song below, written by Fred Neil, with Nilsson’s Grammy-winning version featured in the movie “Midnight Cowboy.” This offsets any number of execrable songs like “Put the Lime in the Coconut”

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej has had a heart attack and is in the hospital for a few days more. He doesn’t usually let readers know when he’s ailing, but made an exception in today’s dialogue. I’m sure readers join me in wishing Andrzej all the best and a speedy recovery.

Hili: What are we going to do if Andrzej doesn’t return from the hospital tomorrow?
Malgorzata: Well, he will probably come back the day after tomorrow and everything will get back to normal.
In Polish:
Hili: Co zrobimy, jeśli Andrzej jutro nie wróci ze szpitala?
Malgorzata: To pewnie wróci pojutrze i wszystko wróci do normy.
Leon is vacationing with his staff in the snowy mountains of southern Poland.
Leon: Is anyone out there?
In Polish: Ktoś tu w ogóle przyjdzie?
A prescient Mencken quote found by reader Norm. (UPDATE: This quote appears to be at least partially doctored–see the comments–so Mencken wasn’t so prescient after all. I should have suspected that. )

A tweet by Bari Weiss, and yes, Walker’s antisemitism should become common knowledge so the Outrage Brigade can decide whether to continue to laud an antisemite or, if they follow their own pattern and principles, demonize her permanently.

Two tweets from Heather Hastie. The first shows a raccoon with musical ambitions:

https://twitter.com/SlenderSherbet/status/1084506389039509504

Yet another ninja cat, this one sent to Heather by Ann German:

https://twitter.com/invisibleman_17/status/1084138929031467008

This tweet, unearthed by reader Barry, shows the remarkable similarity of bones in a human foot (right) and an elephant’s foot (left). It seems that the elephant is just a human with fleshy high heels:

https://twitter.com/JulieAMcLean/status/1084324069103722496

Tweets from Grania. What is this wolf cat? A Maine Coon, or another breed?

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1084473171389091840

Well, I’m culturally illiterate and so don’t know what Knight Rider is, but Grania assures me this is funny:

A remarkable time-lapse video of a volcano erupting taken from the ISS:

Tweets from Matthew. I’m sure scientists have a number of hypotheses relevant to this question, but have they been tested?

Some very important history of science:

This is just cool beyond words:

 

Friday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

December 28, 2018 • 6:30 am

n.b. Grania has contributed to this post as I am leaving early.

Well, if you read this after 10 a.m. Chicago time, I’ll be winging my way nonstop to Hawaii—a 9.5 hour flight. It’s the fourth day of Coynezaa: Friday, December 28, 2018, with two days to go. (It’s also the fourth day of the Twelve Days of Christmas, but the religious holiday is trivial in comparison.) It’s also National Boxed Chocolates Day, and I’ll eat them all, boxed or unboxed. If they wanted to have such a food day, they should have put it on Boxing Day.

  • 169 BC – The menorah is lit to rededicate the Holy Temple of Jerusalem after two centuries of foreign rule and religious oppression and a seven-year revolt. The menorah burns for eight days without the sufficient fuel needed to do so, birthing the holiday Hanukkah.
  • 1065 – Westminster Abbey is consecrated in England.
  • 1836 – Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico with the signing of the Santa María–Calatrava Treaty.
  • 1879 – Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75. It was the inspiration for this rather awful poem.
Click through for the rest of it.

 

Notables born on this day include

  • 1856 – Woodrow Wilson, American historian and politician, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)
  • 1882 – Arthur Eddington, English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician (d. 1944)
  • 1902 – Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher and author (d. 2001)
  • 1922 – Stan Lee, American publisher, producer, and actor (d. 2018)
  • 1934 – Maggie Smith, English actress
  • 1944 – Kary Mullis, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1954 – Denzel Washington, American actor, director, and producer
  • 1978 – Chris Coyne, Australian footballer and manager

Those who died on December 28 include

  • 1937 – Maurice Ravel, French pianist and composer (b. 1875)
  • 1945 – Theodore Dreiser, American novelist and journalist (b. 1871)
  • 1992 – Sal Maglie, American baseball player and coach (b. 1917)
  • 2004 – Susan Sontag, American novelist, essayist, critic, and playwright (b. 1933)
  • 2014 – Leelah Alcorn, American transgender teenager (b. 1997)
  • 2016 – Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer and dancer (b. 1932)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has a Great Notion:

A: I see that you have a great idea.
Hili: Yes, I’m going to jump up on this little tree.
In Polish:
Ja: Widzę, że masz jakąś wielką ideę.
Hili: Tak, wskoczę na to małe drzewo.

And in nearby Wloclawek, Leon wants some treats. Look how sad he seems!

Leon: Will I get any presents today as well?
In Polish: Czy dziś też dostanę jakieś prezenty?
There needs to be a trigger warning on nearly all of the tweets today. You may or may not be mentally scarred by what follows.
From reader Michael: a nefarious Christmas prank. Go to the thread to find out what Dad did.

Did Dad bite? Read at the site and here.

From reader Blue:

https://twitter.com/_youhadonejob1/status/1078099794856472587

Tweets from Matthew. New life!

They sacrificed an entire train and a bridge for this shot, a precursor of Bridge Over the River Kwai:

Cute moggie loose on the pitch! I always wonder if these cats are lost or feral. Regardless, I think that they should be rescued and placed in an Adoption Shelter for Footie Cats:

Tweets from Grania. I’m not sure how political journalist Steve Kornacki is killing Bernie, but I’d rather have Joe anyway.

An affectionate cat and its pole-dancing staff:

Grania calls this excerpt from a 1970s children’s book “the stuff of true horror.” You be the judge; be sure to read all the pages!

(I’m reasonably sure that the first thought a child had on reading this book was not, why don’t they do it all day? It was probably more like Where do they keep the key to the liquor cabinet?) Worst porn ever.

This is of course welcome news, and Grania says she’s taking it as “the final and unalterable word.” As for me, well, I’ve been drinking coffee and wine since forever:

 

Thursday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

December 27, 2018 • 7:00 am

It’s Thursday, December 27, 2018: the third day of the Six Days of Coynezaa.  (It’s also the third day of the Christian “Twelve Days of Christmas,” a vastly inferior holiday). It’s National Fruitcake Day, celebrating the current U.S. President, and St. Stephen’s Day for the Eastern Orthodox Church—a public holiday in Romania.

I am leaving for Hawaii for three weeks tomorrow, and posting will be light, though I fully intend to document my travels, including the reportedly great Hawaiian food. (I’ll even try spam sushi!) As I mentioned before, please don’t send wildlife photos during my absence, as they may get lost. Aloha!

History was a bit thin on this day. In 537, this was the day on which the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (now Istanbul) was completed.  On December 27, 1657, the freedom of religion was declared a fundamental right in the U.S. via the The Flushing Remonstrance, this document is considered a precursor of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

And it’s BEAGLE DAY: on December 27, 1831, Darwin set out on HMS Beagle, returning 5 years later with a boat full of specimens and a head full of ideas. Fourteen years later, Dr. Crawford Long of Georgia was the first to use ether anesthetic for childbirth, obviating the Bible’s stricture (John 16:21 was used to justify withholding anesthesia) that “a woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”  Screw that!

It was on this day in 1911 that “Jana Gana Mana,” the national anthem of India composed by Rabindranath Tagore, was first performed at the Indian National Congress in Calcutta.  At about 50 seconds long, it’s surely one of the world’s shortest national anthems. Here it is sung by Indian women actors, and a lovely tune it is (Tagore was, of course, a consummate artist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature):

In Hindi:

जन-गण-मन अधिनायक जय हे
भारत भाग्य विधाता ।
पंजाब-सिन्धु-गुजरात-मराठा,
द्राविड़-उत्कल-बंग
विंध्य[a] हिमाचल यमुना गंगा,
उच्छल जलधि तरंग
तब[b] शुभ नामे जागे, तब[c] शुभ आशिष मांगे
गाहे तब[d] जय गाथा ।
जन-गण-मंगलदायक जय हे, भारत भाग्य विधाता ।
जय हे, जय हे, जय हे, जय जय जय जय हे ।

English translation (by Tagore himself):

Thou art, the ruler of our minds, of all people
The dispenser of India’s destiny!
Thy name rouses the heart of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat
and Maratha, of the Dravida and Odisha
and Bengal; It echoes in the hills of Vindhya and the
Himalayas, and mingles in the music of Ganga and Yamuna
and is chanted by the waves of the Indian sea.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hands,
Thou dispenser of India’s destiny.
Victory, Victory, Victory to thee

On this day in 1927, “Show Boat”, by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, was first performed at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. Wikipedia says it’s “considered to be the first true American musical play.”  41 years later, Apollo 8 splashed down in the Pacific after completing the first manned mission that orbited the Moon.  And, after the death of Franco (he’s still dead), Spain became a democracy on this day in 1978. Finally, it was on December 27, 2007, that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan while campaigning to regain her position as Prime Minister.

Here’s Paul Robeson in the 1936 movie version of “Showboat”, singing “Ol’ Man River.” This song always moves me to tears, and I used it in my Ph.D. defense along with a slide montage of my work in the lab. Robeson’s voice was simply stunning. Although it was written by two white Jews, I can’t see it in any way as offensive: it’s about the horrible plight of slaves. Well, there was this one thing. . .  (from Wikipedia):

Beginning about 1938, and continuing on to the end of his career, Paul Robeson changed a few of the lyrics of “Ol’ Man River” when singing it at recitals, though never in actual stage performances of Show Boat, and not in the 1936 film version. (In addition to the 1928 and 1932 stage productions as well as the 1936 film version, he appeared in a Los Angeles stage revival in 1940). Except for the change of the word “niggers” to “darkies,” the lyrics of the song as Robeson performed it in the 1936 film version of the show remain exactly as Oscar Hammerstein II originally wrote them in 1927. However, after 1938, Robeson would record the song only with the lyrics that he used in his post-1936 concert recitals.

Notables born on this day include Louis Pasteur (1822), Marlene Dietrich (1901), Oscar Levant (1906), William Masters (1915), Gérard Depardieu (1948), and Savannah Guthrie (1971).

Those who croaked on December 27 include many frogs, as well as Hyacinthe Rigaud (1743), Charles Lamb (1834), Drosophila geneticist Calvin Bridges and Osip Mandelstam (1938), Hoagy Carmichael (1981), Meadowlark Lemon (2015; I saw him play with the Harlem Globetrotters), and Carrie Fisher (2016).  Here’s Rigaud’s painting of Louis XV as a child:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is worried because there’s nothing to worry about (she’s a Jewish cat). That reminds me of a story. As a graduate student at Harvard, I was working at the bench one day when a fellow apostate Jew, another grad student in the lab, walked in rubbing his hands and saying, “Oh boy, oh boy, oh BOY!”  I said, “What’s up, Fred?” He replied, “I have three things to worry about today.” He was happy about it!

A: What do you see there?
Hili: A lack of reasons to be anxious.
In Polish:
Ja: Co tam widzisz?
Hili: Brak powodu do obaw.

In nearby Wloclawek, Leon observes, or rather hears, the holidays. (He and his staff will soon go hiking in the mountains of southern Poland):

Leon: This observing of Christmas is definitely too noisy!
In Polish: To całe świętowanie jest zdecydowanie zbyt hałaśliwe!

A tweet from reader Nilou: a cat with a human face. Is this one of those wolf cats?

https://twitter.com/MeetAnimals/status/1077980045875073025

Tweets from Grania. Don’t ever say that cats don’t help humans!

https://twitter.com/FluffSociety/status/1077700681891438592

More cats. When I saw this and realized how soothing it was, I suggested to Grania that someone should make an 8-hour YouTube recording of cats purring to help insomniacs sleep. Sure enough, I found one! There’s nothing you can’t find online!

From the woke and inimitable Titania McGrath:

https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath/status/1075008415578099712

This is very good!

https://twitter.com/PersianRose1/status/1074129459408556032

A lovely video of the Moon presented by a former astronaut on the ISS:

Tweets from Matthew. If I’m correct, that water is millions of years old.

Matthew loves his optical illusions:

I really really really want to see this in Japan. Do the capybaras eat the fruits, or are they like rodential bath salts?

The remaining tweets came from this one, collecting the craziest ways food was served this year.

I love these:

This is both hilarious and disgusting:

 

Tuesday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

December 25, 2018 • 6:30 am

So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Yes, it’s Tuesday, December 25, 2018, the very first day of the six-day holiday of Coynezaa.  It’s also National Pumpkin Pie Day, which is meet and proper since everyone in the U.S. will eat it today, while in England they’re having mince pies, also meat and proper. Throughout the world, Christians are commemorating what they take to be the birth of Jesus, but we discussed that claim yesterday.

Google’s U.S. Christmas Doodle is animated, showing that the old rocking chair has got Mr. and Mrs. Santa:


And this is my Christmas Doodle (I didn’t draw it):

To put you in the mood, here’s a slightly dark Christmas ad contributed by Grania (Translation from Swedish: “This year we do everything to make Christmas less stressful. With us, you can solve all the Christmas adventures in one place. Visit http://www.clasohlson.se or welcome to our stores.”)

On this day in 336, according to Wikipedia, there was the “first documentary sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.” It was a big day for coronations of kings: to mention just two, Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on December 25, 800 (in Rome), while William the Conqueror was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey in 1066.

On this day in 1758, Halley’s Comet was seen by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley‘s prediction of its reapparance. That was the first time the appearance of a comet was predicted and then observed.  On Christmas Day, 1950, the Stone of Scone, on which British monarchs were crowned, was stolen from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It reappeared in Scotland in April of 1951.

On December 25, 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft—the first to orbit the moon with humans inside—left that orbit and headed back to Earth.  Finally, on this day in 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union, and that Union was dissolved the very next day. Also on Christmas, Ukraine officially left the Soviet Union.

It was a big day for births; perhaps moms were holding back until Christmas. Notables born on this day include Jesus Christ (year 0, unattested), Isaac Newton (1642; Julian calendar; today is sometimes called “Newtonmas”), Clara Barton (1821), Helena Rubenstein (1870), Kid Ory (1886), Conrad Hilton (1887), Robert Ripley (1890), Humphrey Bogart (1899; today should be called “Bogartmas”), Cab Calloway (1907), Rod Serling (1924), Jimmy Buffett (1946), Sissy Spacek (1949, born on the first day of Coynezaa in the year I was born, so she’s five days older than I), Annie Lennox (1954), and Justin “Cultural Appropriation” Trudeau (1971).

Those who expired on Christmas Day include W. C. Fields (1946), Charlie Chaplin (1977), Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu (1989; executed), Dean Martin (1995), Birgit Nilsson (2005), Eartha Kitt (2008), and George Michael (2016).

In honor of Deano’s passing, here he is singing my favorite Dean Martin song. The woman in yellow, who also sings, is Shirley MacLaine, the recipient of the song/massage is Dorothy Malone, the movie is “Artists and Models” (1955), and the song was misspelled as “Innamorata” by its writers Harry Warren and Jack Brooks (the recorded version is here). (“Inamorata” is the Italian word for a female lover; the male equivalent is “inamorato”.) They don’t make movies like this any more: for one thing, it lacks affirmative consent.

You’ll recognize Martin’s partner, Jerry Lewis, towards the end.

What a voice Deano had!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili uses body language and, according to Andrzej, her tail says, “I’m happy.”

A: What is your tail saying?
Hili: The same thing I say but in a different language.
In Polish:
Ja: Co mówi twój ogon?
Hili: To samo co ja, tylko innym językiem.

And in Wloclawek, Leon’s being a scrooge. After all, he has a Christmas mouse!

Leon:  I don’t understand why there’s so much ado about Christmas.

In Polish: Nie rozumiem o co tyle hałasu z tymi świętami.

A tweet from reader gravelinspector:

Tweets from Grania. She insists (and I concur) that you should look at the whole thread following this first one:

Doesn’t this seem unnecessarily complicated? It looks like one of those “dipping birds.” But I guess it’s a near-optimal design because it hasn’t changed in centuries.

https://twitter.com/PhysicsVideo_/status/1077143437705601024

More crazy hailstones from Sydney, Australia:

A Jebus-themed Christmas card; very clever but still . . . Jebus:

Grania says, “This is awesome”, and it surely is. It has over 100,000 retweets!

Tweets from Matthew. He’s being a grumpy Scrooge at Christmas!

We had Earthrise because of an orbiting spacecraft, not because the moon rotates.

Very proper skating in London during the Great War:

Much ado about nothing:

Someone’s Christmas was less than perfect:

Sunday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

December 23, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s Ceiling Cat’s Day: Sunday, December 23, 2018, and National Pfeffernüße Day, a cultural appropriation if there ever was one. Look at the name: it’s a German gingerbread cookie covered with powdered sugar. If you want to eat one, you can do so only while being deeply appreciative of German culture and mindful of how Germans were oppressed. As for us heathens, it’s Humanlight, a secular humanist holiday. But we don’t need no stinking holidays around Christmas, do we? Not even the Seinfeld-ian holiday of Festivus, which is today as well.

Reminder: it’s only two days until Coynezaa begins! Sadly, my holiday has been deeply marred by pervasive reports that Hershey’s chocolate kisses are being produced with broken tips. Nobody seems to know why, but, as HuffPo might say, “Twitter isn’t having it.”

The holiday Google Doodles have begun; today’s gif links to a Christmas song (click on screenshot):

But Grania reports that in the UK the Doodle is this one. I guess Brits don’t believe in Santa but in tea!

History is a bit thin on December 23. On that day in 1783, George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. In 1815, Jane Austen’s novel Emma was first published. Much later, on this day in 1947, the first transistor was demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

On December 23, 1954, the first successful kidney transplant was performed in Boston by J. H. Harrison, J. P. Merrill and J. Murray. It succeeded because, well, read what Wikipedia says:

The Boston transplantation, performed on December 23, 1954, at Brigham Hospital was performed by Joseph Murray, J. Hartwell Harrison, John P. Merrill and others. The procedure was done between identical twins Ronald and Richard Herrick to eliminate any problems of an immune reaction. For this and later work, Dr. Murray received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1990. The recipient, Richard Herrick, died eight years after the transplantation.

On this day in 1972, the 16 survivors of the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 were rescued after 73 days (29 passengers were killed). It’s well known that the survivors made it by subsisting on the flesh of those who died, which is fine with me but horrified many people. Finally, according to Wikipedia, it was on December 23, 1986, that the plane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, [landed] at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling. It was in the air a bit more than nine days! As NASA reported:

Essentially a flying fuel tank, the Voyager lifted off Edwards’ main runway early in the morning of Dec. 14, 1986, rolling down almost the entire length of the 15,000-foot-long runway and scraping off one of its wingtip winglets before it became airborne. When it touched down on the same runway shortly after 8 a.m. on Dec. 23 after nine days, three minutes and 44 seconds in the air, it had less than two hours worth of fuel remaining.

The non-stop unrefueled flight, which more than doubled the previous distance record set in 1962 by a U.S. Air Force B-52H, remains a world record and an unduplicated aeronautical feat.

Here’s the plane:

The plane! The plane!

Notables born on this day include John Jay (1745), Joseph Smith (1805), Edward Blyth (1810), Norman Maclean (1902), Yousuf Karsh (1908), Chet Baker (1929), William Kristol (1952), and Donna Tartt (1963).  Here’s one of Karsh’s famous photographs. The photo’s story is here, and Churchill looks pissed off because, right before Karsh snapped the shutter, he snatched Churchill’s cigar out of his mouth:

Those who joined the Choir Invisible on this day include Lavrentiy Beria (1953; after being found guilty of treason and other crimes, this horrible man was shot while pleading for his life), Peggy Guggenheim (1979), and Oscar Peterson (2007).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is both bored and demanding:

Malgorzata: You do like being petted.
Hili: Yes, but read to me because it’s a little boring.
In Polish:
Małgorzata: Lubisz jak cię głaszczą.
Hili: Tak, ale czytaj głośno, bo nudno.

And a holiday bonus: Leon!

Leon: To get up or not t0 get up, that is the question.

In Polish: Wstać czy nie wstać,oto jest pytanie.

A cartoon courtesy of Moto:

And reader Bruce sent a timely cartoon:

Gethyn shows a cat employing The Force:

https://twitter.com/Animal_R_Us/status/1075763851394572289

From Heather Hastie. I’m not that surprised at the numerous muscles in the cat’s ears, but look at that adorable kitten!

https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/1076165372301082624

Tweets from Matthew. We’ve seen the first one, but check out the second one. Does the kitten recognize its own image in the mirror?

You have to admit that this is funny. One thing about the internet is that it gives all amateur comedians a stage:

I had no idea that early moviemakers did this!

Another dichotomy:

Matthew says, “From the tracks they obviously had several goes at this, but still . . . ”  Indeed!

Really? A bunny saving a cat? Can’t cats dig?

Tweets from Grania. The first is the way cats are uniquely obstructive at Christmas:

Collection of semen in kakapos. Look at that guy go!

It may take you a second to get this, as it did for me, but get it you will.

 

Saturday: Hili dialogue

December 15, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s a Caturday again: Saturday, December  15, 2018, and National Lemon Cupcake Day—brought to you by Big Lemon. It’s also International Tea Day as well as Zamenhof Day, created to promote literature in Esperanto, the “universal language”. When I was a kid I tried to learn Esperanto, but quickly gave up, and I’m glad I did. It’ll never be the universal language. Finally, it’s Bill of Rights Day in the U.S. (see below).

On this day in 1791, the Virginia General Assembly ratified the United States Bill of Rights, making it national law. (That includes the First Amendment, of course.) And on December 15, 1906, the London Underground’s new link, the “Great Northern, Piccadilly, and Brompton Railway” opened for business.  In 1933, Prohibition ended when the 21st Amendment to the Constitution became effective, superseding the 18th Amendment (effective 1919) that prohibited the sale, manufacture and transport of alcohol. The Great Experiment, a miserable failure, finally ended.  On this day in 1939, the movie Gone with the Wind opened in Atlanta, Georgia.  Here’s a 4-minute news clip of the opening; listen to the screams when Clark Gable steps off the plane! Olivia de Havilland, who played Melanie, is still alive—at 102!

On this day in 1961, ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death after an Israeli court found him guilty of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and 13 other charges. He was hanged on June 1 of the next year. On December 15, 1965, during Project Gemini, Gemini 6A, carrying Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford, was launched, achieving after 4 orbits the first rendezvous with another spacecraft, Gemini 7. Although they didn’t dock, they were at one point only a few feet apart, and could have docked had they been so equipped.

On this day in 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. would diplomatically recognize the People’s Republic of China, and broke off diplomatic ties with Taiwan.  In 2001, the Leaning Tower of Pisa opened after 11 years of stabilizing. Now, I just heard, it’s starting to lean dangerously again.  Its tilt is only 4°, but it looks bigger than that:

Finally, exactly five years ago today, the Polish rationalist website “Listy z naszego sadu”, edited by Hili and staffed by PCC(E)’s dear friends Andrzej Koraszewski and Malgorzata Koraszewska, went online. See my post on its inception here. Here is the list of writers and editors in both Polish and English:

Note that poor Cyrus, who provides security for the whole enterprise, isn’t on the masthead. . .

Notables born on this day include David Teniers the Younger (1610), Gustave Eiffel (1832), Henri Becquerel (1852; Nobel Laureate), J. Paul Getty (1892), Maurice Wilkins (1916; Nobel Laureate), Freeman Dyson (1923; he’s 95 today), and Michelle “Lady Mary” Dockery (1981).

I have to add this painting, “Cat Concert”, by David Teniers the Younger. It’s awesome!

Those who died on December 15 include Izaak Walton (1683), Sitting Bull (1890), Glenn Miller (1944; plane crash), Wolfgang Pauli (1958; Nobel Laureate), Walt Disney (1966), William Proxmire (2005), and Oral Roberts (2009).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, there’s a bit of a celebration. As I noted above, Listy is five, and Hili takes the credit!

Hili: Today is the fifth anniversary of Listy on the net.
A: Yes, five years of hard work.
Hili: Mainly mine.
In Polish:
Hili: Dziś piąta rocznica “Listów” w sieci.
Ja: Tak, pięć lat ciężkiej pracy.
Hili: Głównie mojej.

Leon is back! But the Dark Tabby doesn’t like winter.

Leon: I get the impression that winter is coming.

(In Polish, Leon: Coś mi się wydaje,że zima nadciąga.)

Here’s a cartoon from reader Bruce. Actually, the book would more appropriately be called “A Farewell to Legs”:

And a cat cartoon:

A dog saves his cat friend from a dangerous altercation:

Heather Hastie has discovered the adorable dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula):

Tweets from Matthew. First, a man has a chin-wag with his goat:

Well, this pun isn’t that bad!

Okay, can you guess what this is? (It is a natural object?) Answer is in the tweet’s thread:

Tweets from Grania:

A musical guy and his music-loving moggie. I may have put this up already, but you can’t see it too often. The cat is in bliss, and also helps play the piece.

Look at this tiny kitten waiting for its dinner. So small!

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1073556109603037186

Cat Cerberus guards the bodega:

These are protists!

Tweet of the week: the sound of wind on Mars!!!! Turn up the volume:

 

 

Sunday: Hili dialogue (and Leon Monologue)

November 18, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s Sunday, November 18, 2018, a day on which, in 1929, President Herbert Hoover signed the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, designed to protect waterfowl—including DUCKS. Sadly, that was during the Depression, and there was little money for waterfowl protection. That came later.  It’s also National Apple Cider Day, which is best when fermented before ingested. And, remembering my recent visit to Croatia, I report that it’s also that country’s Remembrance Day of the Sacrifice of Vukovar in 1991.

Today I must work on the very last research paper in which I contributed by working with my own hands on flies. Am I a scientist? Well, until that paper is published!

On this day in 1626, the “new” St. Peter’s Basilica was consecrated; it took 120 years to build. On November 18, 1872, Susan B. Anthony and 15 other women were arrested for voting illegally in the U.S. Presidential election of 1872. Precisely 11 years later, the American and Canadian railroad systems agreed to the institution of the present five continental time zones, apparently replacing a welter of different time zones that existed then. On this day in 1903, the Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty between the U.S. and Panama gave the former exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone. The Canal was completed in 1914, and the U.S. surrendered possession in 1979.

On this banner day in 1928, according to Wikipedia, occurred the “Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey’s birthday.” And here’s that 7½-minute cartoon cartoon; Mickey appears at 0:31, a quacking duck at 2:08, and Minnie at 3:14:

On November 18, 1963, the first push-button telephone went into service. And today is the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana, when, after Congressman Leo Ryan and some of his entourage were murdered by Jim Jones’s cult, the cult then committed mass murder-suicide. 918 people died, including over 270 children. This is the origin of the phrase “He drank the Kool-Aid”.  It’s also the 31st anniversary of the King’s Cross fire in London, in which 31 died people died in the King’s Cross St Pancras tube station. Finally, it’s the 15th anniversary of the first U.S. state granting same-sex couples the right to marry, the ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health by the Massachusetts Supreme Court

Notables born on this day include Asa Gray (1810), Alan Shepard (1923), Linda Evans (1942), Megyn Kelly (1970), Chloë Sevigny (1974) and David Ortiz (1975.

Those who died on November 18 include Robin Hood (1247; really??), Chester A. Arthur (1886), Marcel Proust (1922), Niels Bohr (1962; Nobel Laureate), and Cab Calloway (1994).  In honor of Proust’s death, here’s one of the funniest Monty Python sketches I’ve seen, the famous “Summarize Proust” contest:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili objects to the detritus of Autumn:

Hili: Who left all this litter here?
A: Nature.
Hili: Let her clean it up.
In Polish:
Hili: Kto tak naśmiecił?
Ja: Natura.
Hili: Niech posprząta.

And out at his future home near Dobrzyn, Leon is hungry:

Leon: I think they are having pork chops at the neighbours.

Here’s a tweet from reader Tom, showing one of many animals reunited to their staff during the California fires:

A tweet from reader Nilou, who loves otters:

https://twitter.com/Otter_News/status/1063458254867611649

From reader Blue, the coming thing in water:

https://twitter.com/OregonJOBS2/status/1063595757976997888

Tweets from Grania. Larry, the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, has a message about Brexit:

The site really does belong to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the tweets are sometimes unintentionally funny:

The Dodo gives us another heartwarming animal-rescue video. This baby flying fox is adorable, annd the rescuing woman, who went to a lot of trouble, is a hero! Do watch this video.

I’d comment on the following but I’d only sound like the old “get off my lawn” guy:

Tweets from Matthew. The resemblance between sloths and pain au chocolat (not to mention the unmentionable body part noted below) is uncanny:

I’ve posted this before, but not as a tweet. Acorn woodpeckers were busy!

I’d never noticed this until Matthew sent me the tweet. It wouldn’t work with straight-sided diamonds, of course:

An amazing Janus-like work of art:

https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/1063182283723571200