Category: Hili Dialogue

Friday: Hili dialogue

June 1, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s JUNE! June 1, 2018, and the month that summer begins. It’s National Hazelnut Cake Day, a comestible which I’m sure is delicious, though I’ve never had it.  Further, it’s also Neighbour’s Day, though the link gives no instructions on what to do about it. Borrow a cup of sugar?

On June 1, 1495, the monk John Cor of Fife, probably an apothecary on the side, records the first known mention of Scotch whisky. The data from Wikipedia: “To Brother John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt.” — Exchequer Rolls 1494–95, Vol x, p. 487. 

On this day in 1533, Ann Boleyn was crowned Queen of England; she lasted three years before being beheaded.  On June 1, 1812, U.S. President James Madison asked Congress to declare war on the UK, beginning the War of 1812. On this day in 1916, Louis Brandeis became the first Jew appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, serving until 1939.  On June 1, 1962, Adolf Eichmann, abducted from Argentina, was hanged in Israel.  And a banner day for me: it was on this day in 1967 that the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released—the album that made me an atheist. On this day in 1974, the Heimlich maneuver was published in the journal Emergency Medicine. You may not know that it’s not now recommended as the first course of action for conscious but choking people. Or so Wikipedia reportsm (my emphasis):

From 1985 to 2005, abdominal thrusts were the only recommended treatment for choking in the published guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross. In 2006, both organizations drastically changed course and “downgraded” the use of the technique. For conscious victims, the new guidelines recommend first applying back slaps; if this method failed to remove the airway obstruction, rescuers were to then apply abdominal thrusts. For unconscious victims, the new guidelines recommend chest thrusts.

Finally, on this day in 2004, Terry Nichols was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without possibility of parole for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing—a Guinness World Record for the longest prison sentence in recorded history.

Notables born on June 1 include physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796), Brigham Young (1801), Andy Griffith and Marilyn Monroe (both 1926), ecologist Richard Levins (1930), Pat Boone (1934; he’s still with us at 84), Morgan Freeman (1937), Frederica von Stade (1945) and Heidi Klum (1973).  Those who died on this day include U.S. President James Buchanan (1868), Lizzie “The Axe” Borden (1927), Hugh Walpole (1960), Paula Hitler (Adolf’s sister, 1960), Adolf Eichmann (1962; see above), Reinhold Niebuhr (1971), David Ruffin (1991) and Yves Saint Laurent (2008).

Most of you probably don’t know that Hitler had a sister, who of course kept a low profile after the war. She gave but one interview (excerpt below), and was said by her American interrogators to have had a remarkable resemblance to Adolf. Well, judge for yourself (it may help to Photoshop in a mustache and the Adolfian hairdo:

 

A small bit of the one interview she gave, most of which has been lost:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Hili dialogue needs a bit of explaining. Malgorzata notes, “Andrzej means that the best thing you can do with a good advice is to give it to somebody else and forget it. You can also forget it without giving it to anybody.”

Hili: The weeds under the trees are taken care of but it’s time to mow the grass.
A: I love good advice, I immediately hand it over to others.
In Polish:
Hili: Pod drzewami chwasty wypalone, ale trawę pora skosić.
Ja: Kocham dobre rady, natychmiast przekazuję je innym.
In Winnipeg, Gus ignores the lovely flowers for he sees something else—probably a squirrel, which, he’s heard, tastes like chicken.

 

From Grania, a protective rhino baby (cub?):

https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1001801880765390853

Some history for your delectation:

Please put the sound on; can dogs actually MAKE such a noise?

A historically inaccurate crack about the Roseanne Excuse:

From Matthew, who notes that we all need to learn how to pronounce “Euler”:

This video is said to demonstrate British politeness, but I don’t think it’s polite for a motorcycle to ride between lanes of traffic:

A wingless fly with a funny joke in response:

A video illustrated with a limerick:

Those are some fugly sandals that Einstein bought! But of course he never cared about his appearance.

Pigeon in the airport; one of the comments was: “Surely that’s carrion luggage”:

https://twitter.com/courtesy707/status/1002126498592120837

Reader Gethyn, part of Theo’s staff, sent a video telling us how to keep our cats cool this summer:

And reader Bryan sent me this:

The 2018 Scripps Spelling Bee final word was :

“koinonia”

“The Greek word “koinonia” — most commonly pronounced “koy-nuh-NEE-uh” — is defined as “intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community.””
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/us/national-spelling-bee-winner/index.html

Monday: Hili dialogue

May 28, 2018 • 6:30 am

We’re getting close to June, as today is Monday, May 28, 2018, the Memorial Day holiday in the U.S. and National Brisket Day, a holiday for both Jews and Texans. It’s also Menstrual Hygiene Day, a day instituted by a German NGO. As it’s a holiday, and nobody is at work, I am insane for being in the office. But there are ducks to feed.

On this day in 585 B.C., a solar eclipse occurred, and one predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales. It took place while Alyattes was battling Cyaxares in the Battle of Halys and the astronomical event led to a truce. As Wikipedia notes, “This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.” But I’m amazed that they could predict such an eclipse so long ago. On May 28, 1588, the Spanish Armada (130 ships, 30,000 men) set sail from Lisbon, heading towards England.  It took three days for all the ships to depart. The assault failed, of course, and a third of the Spanish ships failed to make it home. On May 28, 1871, the Paris Commune fell. And 21 years later to the day, John Muir organized the Sierra Club in San Francisco.

When I was young, the Dionne quintuplets, born to a French-Canadian family in Ontario, were a big deal. Born on this day in 1934, they were the first quintuplets known to have survived infancy. These days this isn’t such an unusual event, but back then they were very famous, and were even presented to Queen Elizabeth II. Here they are at the age of 13. Two of them are still alive:

On this day in 1937, the German automobile company Volkswagen was founded. And exactly five years later, Nazis in Czechoslovakia killed over 1800 people in retribution for the assassination attempt (successful) on Holocaust architect Reinhard Heydrich. As Wikipedia reports, the assassins were linked “to the villages of Lidice and Ležáky. Both villages were razed; all men and boys over the age of 16 were shot, and all but a handful of the women and children were deported and killed in Nazi concentration camps.”  On May 28, 1987—and you may remember this—the West German pilot Mathias Rust (age 18), landed a private plane in Red Square in Moscow. Detained, he was released on August 3 of the next year.  Here’s a short documentary on Rust’s achievement:

On May 28, 1999, Leonardo’s “The Last Supper”, after undergoing renovation for 22 years, was put back on display. And on this day in 2002, the last girder was removed from the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attack. The end of “cleanup” was celebrated with a ceremony at Ground Zero.

Notables born on this day include William Pitt the Younger (1759), Louis Agassiz (1807), Jim Thorpe (1888), Patrick White (1912), Walker Percy (1916), Rudy Giuliani (1944), Gladys Knight (1944), Leland Sklar (1947), Kylie Minogue (1968; she’s 50 today), and Carey Mulligan (1985). Notables who died on May 28 were few; they include Noah Webster (1843), war hero Audie Murphy (1971), and Maya Angelou (2014).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is contradicting Steve Pinker:

Hili: Memory has an optimistic feature.
A: And that means?
Hili: I’m always thinking that it was better in the past.
In Polish:
Hili: Optymistyczna cecha pamięci…
Ja: To znaczy?
Hili: Zawsze myślę, że dawniej było lepiej.

 

And in Winnipeg, Gus shows his “third eye”:

Tweets from Grania. The Catholic Church, butthurt by the outcome of the referendum, is calling their believers who voted for repeal “sinners”. Nya nya nya, Vatican!

. . . and here are some tweets that affirm this:

CubeSats are miniature satellites (see here):

These consorting felids are caught in the act; the black one gives the stink eye to the camera:

Matthew sent honeyguides; they are brood parasites of other species and the eggtooth is for killing not their siblings, but their unrelated nestmates:

It’s spring, and all baby animals are out. Which reminds me—it’s time to tend the ducklings:

Look at the tongue on this numbat. There are several species, but all eat termites:

Okay, you tell me why camels have “filters” on their cheeks.

Maternity time:

And guess who this evolutionary geneticist is.  I knew him. Hint: he’s dead now.

A puffin soaring on thermals:

And on a more sober note, this is how Palestinian children graduate from kindergarten (h/t Malgorzata):

 

Sunday: Hili dialogue

May 27, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s Ceiling Cat’s Day: Sunday, May 27, 2018, and it’s National Italian Beef Day, a sandwich made famous by Chicago and made properly only in Chicago. It’s also the start of National Reconciliation Week in Australia, a celebration of aboriginal rights and their long-term neglect.

I haven’t yet done the daily Duck Count and Feeding, but I have to say that my first visit to the pond each day is always fraught with anxiety. Yesterday, thanks to kind reader Linda Calhoun, who found them, I ordered $35 worth of floating “starter duck pellets”. This morning I go on another shopping trip to buy corn, shredded wheat, and oatmeal. (The ducks eat better than I do!)

On this day in 1703, Peter the Great founded the city of Saint Petersburg. On May 27, 1927, the Ford Motor Company made its last model T, preparing to make its successor, the Ford Model A. On this day in 1933, the Walt Disney company released its cartoon Three Little Pigs, considered the most successful animated short ever made. It was helped by its hit song, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”  Here it is! The song starts at 1:55:

On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened—first to pedestrian traffic only—connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California.  Exactly three decades later, Australians passed a constitutional referendum giving the government power to make laws ameliorating the plight of indigenous Australians, who before that weren’t even counted in the census. (See “National Reconciliation Week” above.) Finally, exactly two years ago, Barack Obama became the first US President to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and meet survivors of the American A-bombing of that city.

Notables born on this day include Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794) and Amelia Bloomer (1818), best known for giving her name to the ladies’ garment (the first widespread attempt of women to wear pants), but in reality a well known journalist and feminist activist. About those bloomers, shown below, Wikipedia says this:

In 1851, New England temperance activist Elizabeth Smith Miller (aka Libby Miller) adopted what she considered a more rational costume: loose trousers gathered at the ankles, like women’s trousers worn in the Middle East and Central Asia, topped by a short dress or skirt and vest. The costume was worn publicly by actress Fanny Kemble. Miller displayed her new clothing to Stanton, her cousin, who found it sensible and becoming, and adopted it immediately. In this garb Stanton visited Bloomer, who began to wear the costume and promote it enthusiastically in her magazine. Articles on the clothing trend were picked up in The New York Tribune. More women wore the fashion which was promptly dubbed The Bloomer Costume or “Bloomers“. However, the Bloomers were subjected to ceaseless ridicule in the press and harassment on the street. Bloomer herself dropped the fashion in 1859, saying that a new invention, the crinoline, was a sufficient reform that she could return to conventional dress.

Bloomers

Others born on this day include Julia Ward Howe (1819), Wild Bill Hickok (1837), painter Georges Rouault (1871), Dashiell Hammett (1894), Rachel Carson (1907), John Cheever (1912), Sam Snead (1912), Henry Kissinger (1923), and Ramsey Lewis (1935).  Kissinger is 95 today, and outlived his nemesis Christopher Hitchens, who once said one of the worst things that could happen to him (Hitchens) was to die before Kissinger. He did.

Those who died on May 27 include Niccolò Paganini (1782), Robert Koch (1910; Nobel Laureate), Robert Ripley (1949), Jawaharlal Nehru (1964), Gil Scott-Heron (2011), and, just last year, Gregg Allman (2017).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is acting like royalty again:

Hili: In principle we understand each other without words.
A: I’m glad.
Hili: But you could try harder.
In Polish:
Hili: W zasadzie rozumiemy się bez słów.
Ja: Cieszę się.
Hili: Ale czasem mógłbyś się lepiej starać. ​

Out in Winnipeg, Gus, briefly untended, got into the catnip plant, winding up completely baked!

Before:

After:

 

Matthew sent a bunch of tweets. Here’s an example of scientific inflation.

https://twitter.com/TheropodaBlog/status/1000318416266424320

If you didn’t believe the photo I put up the other day of goats grazing on the side of a dam, standing on tiny bits of protruding wall, have a look at this:

Why did this cat make such a big leap? Have a look:

A banana eel:

One would think this would hurt the bobcats, but they seem to climb cactuses frequently:

And an optical illusion:

Friday: Hili dialogue

May 25, 2018 • 6:30 am

Good day, friends; it’s Friday, May 25, 2018, and the beginning of a three-day weekend in the U.S. (Memorial Day). But there’s no rest for Duck Tenders; the little ones need to be fed.

It’s a great culinary holiday for humans: National Wine Day, and I may crack a bottle of aged Rioja. Douglas Adams fans will also know it’s Towel Day, and if you know that you may want to celebrate another holiday today: Geek Pride Day.

On this day in 1521, the Diet of Worms ended (I bet the participants were greatly relieved when they could eat real food) when the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, declared Martin Luther to be an outlaw. On May 25, 1878, the Gilbert and Sullivan opera H.M.S. Pinafore opened in London.  Exactly 17 years later, Oscar Wilde was convicted of homosexual behavior (“acts of gross indecency”) and was sentenced to two years in prison, which broke him.

A banner day in the history of teaching evolution; on this day in 1925, John Scopes was indicted in Dayton, Tennessee for teaching that humans evolved. This day in 1955 saw the first ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 m.), the third-highest mountain in the world (do you know the second?). A British expedition led by Charles Evans put Joe Brown, George Band on the summit on this day, followed by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather on May 26. On May 25, 1961, John F. Kennedy declared before Congress that the U.S. would put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. We did! Here’s what he said (the Moon part starts at 2:22):

On May 25, 1977, Star Wars was released in theaters. I still haven’t seen it. And on this day 7 years ago, Oprah Winfrey aired her last show after 25 years on television. No tears from me.

Today’s Google Doodle (below) celebrates the Chinese-American cinematographer James Wong Howe, nominated ten times for an Oscar (he won twice, for Hud and The Rose Tattoo). From C|Net:

Howe worked on more than 130 films during his career, including the 1934 comedy-mystery The Thin Man. The movie, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, was added to the US National Film Registry in 1997, having been deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Howe, who served as cinematographer on the movie, was honored Friday with a Google Doodle on the anniversary of the film’s release.

. . . This doodle was scheduled to run a year ago, but was withheld out of respect when Hurricane Harvey struck the South.

“Though we don’t usually run Doodles more than once, Howe left such a unique and indelible mark on American cinema that we decided to run the Doodle this year on the anniversary of the release of one of his most notable works,” Google said in a statement.

Notables born on this day include Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Ralph Waldo Emerson (both 1803), Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878), Igor Sikorsky (1889), Beverly Sills (1929), and Anne Heche (1969). Those who died on this day includes William Paley (1805), photographer Robert Capa (1954), and Sloan Wilson (2003; father of Group Selection Fanatic David Sloan Wilson).

Capa was a brave man, and one of the few photographers who went ashore with troops on D-Day, snapping pictures under fire. Here’s the US. landing on Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944:

 

 

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, for once Cyrus is smarter than Hili:
Hili: The more I think the more pessimistic I am.
Cyrus: Stop thinking.
In Polish:
Hili: Im dłużej myślę, tym bardziej jestem pesymistyczna.
Cyrus: Przestań myśleć.

Up in Winnipeg, Gus is enjoying the balmy weather:

Grania says that this is an important use of Twitter. When you vote you will see the results:

https://twitter.com/419vince/status/998338737930194944

The Monty Hall problem, whose solution (switch doors if you see one that you didn’t choose opened without a prize behind), is counterintuitive. I’ve never seen the problem instantiated in real life beyond the game show, but here it is. Many people still don’t believe you should switch doors, but I will bet anyone $50 (one person) that it’s the best strategy. Switching burritos gave this guy a higher chance of getting the steak.

What should have been the Trump/Kim Jong-un summit coin. I tried to order one of the real ones yesterday, but the website was overloaded.

From Matthew. LOOK AT THOSE BIRDS!

What is a group of wolverines called?

Drosophila costumes! One has a white-eye mutation.

Vestiges of evolution:

A sarcastic remark:

https://twitter.com/ADACTIVITY/status/999451253418717185

And a burning question:

From reader Barry:

https://twitter.com/StefanodocSM/status/999205352150327296

And from reader Dennis:

Sunday: Hili dialogue

May 20, 2018 • 6:30 am

Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus) is back doing Hili, but readership and comments seem to be low, and I’m wondering how long I can sustain the will to do this. I will soldier on at least temporarily.

My heart is heavy this morning, as my brief visit to the pond revealed the arrival of yet another mallard drake (there are two besides Frank now) and no sign of mom and ducklings. I will do the feeding and a closer inspection later; I hope fervently that mom and ducklings are hiding somewhere, although I don’t know how they’d get out of the pond. But I will ensure the “duck island” is put in shape today in case of future ducklings.

It’s May 20, 2018, and a cold and cloudy Sunday in Chicago, with the high temperature predicted to be only about 50°F (10°C) . It’s National Quiche Lorraine Day (I’d prefer a cassoulet), as well as World Metrology Day (not misspelled) and World Bee Day (the birthday of the pioneer of beekeeping.

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the first atlas of the world, published on this day in 1570: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, or Theatre of the World. As Forbes notes,

. . . [it] was a novel concept in the late 16th century: a book of maps, all the same size, organized geographically.

It was the work of cartographer Abraham Ortelius, who collected the maps, added his own notes, and had the book printed from specially-engraved copper plates. It contains one of the earliest allusions to what would later become the theory of continental drift, and it’s full of the names of the leading scientists and cartographers of the late sixteenth century – people like Gerardus Mercator, whose method of representing the round globe on a flat map is still in use today. Ortelius did almost none of the actual surveying or drawing for the maps in his book; his role was to bring them all together with descriptions and references. So he cited the names of the 33 cartographers whose work he used – another first, in a period when rules about plagiarism would horrify most college professors today. He also included a list of 54 more professional cartographers.

On May 20, 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India from Europe, arriving at Calicut, a city in Kerala. On this day in 1609, Shakespeare’s sonnets were published by Thorpe; Wikipedia adds “perhaps illicitly.”  In 1873, two Jewish men, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, got the U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. The rest is history: I suppose I’ve worn them about 95% of the days of my life since my junior year of college. On May 20, 1883, the volcano Krakatoa began its infamous eruption, culminating with an explosion on August 27 that killed over 36,000 people.  On this day in 1932, Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland on the first successful solo crossing of the Atlantic by a woman pilot. She landed in Ireland on May 21.  On this day in 1940, the first prisoners arrived in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. Exactly 16 years later, the first airborne hydrogen bomb was dropped by the U.S. in a test over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. Here’s a video.

On May 20, 1964, Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation—the echo of the Big Bang. Both men were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978.  On this day in 1989, the Chinese government declared martial law in response to pro-democracy demonstrations, culminating in the Tiananmen Square massacre, with protests lasting until June 4. Finally, on May 20, 1983, a team of scientists led by Luc Montagnier published a paper in Science revealing the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Montagnier, along with  Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2008, while Robert Gallo, who fought fiercely for credit (and probably deserves some) got nothing.

Notables born on this day include Sir William Congreve (1772), Simon Fraser (1776), Honoré de Balzac (1799), John Stuart MIll (1806), James Stewart (1908), Moshe Dayan (1915), geneticist E. B. Lewis (1918), Stan Mikita (1940), Joe Cocker (1944), Cher (1946), and Patrick Ewing, Jr. (1984). Those who died on May 20 include Clara Schumann (1896), Hector Guimard, designer of the Paris Metro entrances (1942), Max Beerbohm (1956), Barbara Hepworth (1975), Gilda Radner (1989), Stephen Jay Gould (2002), and Robin Gibb (2012).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Princess gave us a scare:

A: Have you converted to vegetarianism?
Hili: No, I still live according to nature, but grass helps the digestion.
In Polish:
Ja: Nawróciłaś się na wegetarianizm?
Hili: Nie, nadal żyję w zgodzie z naturą, ale trawa wspomaga trawienie.

And spring is firmly ensconced in Winnipeg, where Gus has just been given a new catnip plant. Here he looks pretty baked:

Some tweets from Matthew. Have a gander at this lovely grasshopper, which looks as if it were made of steel:

A heron surfing on a hippo!

https://twitter.com/BoringEnormous/status/997585152900587521

A rare artist who could actually draw a cat accurately:

And the world’s most graceful cat. LOOK AT THIS VIDEO!

This video claims the whale is “thanking” its rescuers for freeing it from a fishing net, but of course that’s pure speculation:

I’m not sure what mayhem ensued here:

Matthew wants us to know about this important scientific advance in cat research:

Reader Gethyn tells us about the spread of domesticated cats from their origin in the Middle East:

And from Grania, interspecies (or inter-object) love:

Ceiling Cat bless Emma Thompson, here refusing to discuss the royal wedding:

Friday: Hili dialogue

May 4, 2018 • 7:00 am

Good morning on Friday, May 4, 2018, and it’s National Hoagie Day (also called a “sub”): the overstuffed sandwiches that Made American Great. For you sci-fi fans, it’s Star Wars Day, whose origin Wikipedia describes as:

The date was chosen for the pun on the catchphrase “May the Force be with you” as “May the Fourth be with you”. Even though the holiday was not actually created or declared by Lucasfilm, many Star Wars fans across the world have chosen to celebrate the holiday. It has since been embraced by Lucasfilm as an annual celebration of Star Wars.

The geese may have left the pond; I didn’t see them either yesterday afternoon or this morning. If they’re gone, I wonder where they went. But Frank is still there, waiting for his wife and offspring. . .

On May 4, 1886, the Haymarket Riot took place in Chicago when someone threw a bomb at police who were breaking up a labor rally. The bomb and subsequent police fire killed 11 and wounded 60. Eight anarchists were convicted of the crime, and four were hanged. On this day in 1904, the U.S. began building the Panama Canal. In 1953, Ernest Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for his overrated novel The Old Man and the Sea (he was later to win a Nobel). On May 4, 1961, the civil rights “Freedom Riders” began their first bus trip through the American South.

A day of infamy for us oldsters: it was on May 4, 1970, when the U.S. National Guard killed four unarmed students at Kent State University in Ohio who were protesting the Vietnam War. That inspired this song by Neil Young:

On this day in 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. And, in 1994, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Peace Accord giving Jericho and the Gaza Strip self rule. The two, along with Shimon Peres, won the Nobel Peace Prize that same year—surely a premature award!

Births of notable people were thin on the ground on this day (and none took place in the air, either). Those born on May 4 include Thomas Henry Huxley (1825), Alice Liddell (1852), Audrey Hepburn (1929) and Randy Travis (1959). Those who died on this day included Moe Howard (1975) and Nobel-winning biochemist Christian de Duve (2013).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is concerned with the usual vital matters (notice how she’s slimmed down).

Hili: What did you buy?
A: Bread, tomatoes, apples, cheese…
Hili: Tell me only about things that are important.
(Photo: Zuzanna Frydrych)
In Polish:
Hili: Co kupiłeś?
Ja: Chleb, pomidory, jabłka, ser…
Hili: Wymień tylko to, co ważne.
(Foto: Zuzanna Frydrych)

Up in Winnipeg, Gus is in the garden enjoying the young Spring:

From Grania; the certificate can accompany getting a graduate degree through extension school, so a snooty Harvard person told me this wasn’t a “real” certificate!

Here’s one of the courses that you can take to get a Harvard Social Justice certificate. How low the mighty school has fallen!

Dinosaur gastroliths!

Hummingbirds sip lemonade. How nice to have these featherweights perch on your hand!

A parrot turns on its own bathwater:

Swans and their cygnets:

From the creator of The Oatmeal, a three-part tweet in which his video is turned into a cartoon. And yes that’s a squirrel inside the moving bag!

And a kitten who hasn’t learned how to eat properly:

https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/991997330537709568

From Matthew; look at that larva!

Note the much larger size of male than female jaws. It isn’t because they eat different things!

And this is freaky. . . .

Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

April 30, 2018 • 7:15 am

Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus) here: I’m back for a week doing the Hili dialogues, but will then repair to Paris for a week and a half. Let’s all have a round of applause for Grania, who took over this onerous duty when importuned.

Honey is still not back, though Sir Francis continues to guard the pond (and to get his daily rations). I will be bereft if my hen mallard doesn’t return; my one hope is that she’s sitting on her eggs somewhere nearby.

It’s April 30, National Raisin Day, brought to you by California Big Raisin. And it’s a UNESCO holiday: International Jazz Day! Let’s have some jazz, then, and in order not to jar you at this time in the morning, some soft jazz:

It’s the 241st birthday of Carl Friedrich Gauss, and Google has a Doodle celebrating the great German polymath. Note that the letters “oogle” each commemorate one of his contributions; can you name them?

On April 30,1492, Christopher Columbus received his “commission of exploration”, which of course led to his voyage to the Americas that year. On this day in 1789, George Washington was sworn in (on Wall Street in New York City) as the first elected President of the United States.  On April 30, 1803, the U.S. bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. This “Louisiana Purchase” more than doubled the size of the country.  On this day in 1897, J. J. Thomson announced his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle; the work was done at the Cavendish Labs and the announcement made at a lecture at London’s Royal Institution.  In 1905, the “Miracle Year” for Einstein, he finished his doctoral thesis on April 30 at the University of Zurich.  Exactly 22 years later, the first set of footprints were left in concrete in front of Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater: they belonged to Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. It’s Hitler Death Day, too: on April 30, 1945, Hitler and his new wife Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker as Russian troops closed in.  Exactly three decades later, Saigon fell to the Communists and the Vietnam war ended as the South Vietnamese President surrendered.  On April 30, 1993, CERN announced that the protocols for the World Wide Web would be free. Finally, in 2008, skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia, were confirmed to be those of Alexei and Anastasia, two children of the Czar. The remains of the whole family, shot by the Bolsheviks, now rest in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.

Notables born on this day include Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777), Alice B. Toklas (1877), Bobby Vee (1943), Annie Dillard (1945) and Gal Gadot (1985). Those who died on April 30 include the engineer Casey Jones (1900), Adolf Hitler (1945; see above), George Balanchine and Muddy Waters (both 1983), and Nobel-winning chemist Harry Kroto (2016).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Elzbieta, who with luck (and with Andrzej II and Leon) will soon be a neighbor of Hili and Staff, came to visit, bringing Hili a cat sausage:

Hili: How nice that you came.
Elzbieta: I can tell that you are glad to see me.
 In Polish:
Hili: Jak miło, że wpadłaś.
Elżbieta: Widzę, że się cieszysz.

The good news from Wloclawek is that Leon and his staff have at last managed to find a contractor to pour the foundations for their wooden home, previously moved from southern Poland and its pieces stored in Andrzej and Malogrzata’s garage over the winter. Soon Leon will be living only ten miles from Hili! Here’s Leon speaking from the site of his future home:

Leon: The Sunday siesta. Where shall I dig around?

In Polish: Niedzielna sjesta, co by tu pogrzebać?

And we’re lucky to have photos and videos of all three Website Cats today. Here is a video of Gus getting baked in Winnipeg. Staff Taskin reports:

I plucked a bit of last year’s dried out plant from the pot. (It was a tiny bit too.) Catnip doesn’t survive our winters, so I will have to buy a new plant this year.

From Matthew; a Christmas pine cone, over half a century old, brings new life:

Spot the spider! Matthew will answer below:

A drunken cat came home:

From Grania: George Takei seems a bit of a flake!

LOL, these ducks refused grapes, as did mine!

A lovely Calico Maine Coon cat (Grania’s favorite) with a simply fantastic tail:

https://twitter.com/Animallovers77/status/990880687816245250

And cats pwning d*gs: all is well in the world.