Category: Leon

Saturday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

January 11, 2020 • 6:32 am

Good morning on Saturday, January 11, 2020. It’s National Hot Toddy Day!  Hot Toddys (or is the plural “Hot Toddies”?) can be made from a variety of colored spirits, see here.

It’s also Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day (WHY?), Girl Hug Boy Day (be sure to get written affirmative consent),  National Milk Day, National Secret Pal Day (you know who you are!), National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day (who thought that one up?), and, on a more serious note, National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

It’s going to be a sloppy day today in Chicago, with mixtures of rain and snow and high temperatures a few degrees above freezing. This evening we may get between one and three inches of snow.

News of the Day: After denying it for several days in the face of incontestable evidence, Iran finally admitted that it accidentally shot down the Ukrainian airliner near Tehran, killing 176. And in the U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced she’ll finally send the two articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate next week, so that a trial could begin as soon as mid-week. Her delay apparently accomplished little.

Stuff that happened on January 11 includes:

  • 630 – Conquest of Mecca: The prophet Muhammad and his followers conquer the city, Quraysh surrender.
  • 1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
  • 1879 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
  • 1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
  • 1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.

The patient was 14 year old Leonard Thompson, who had an allergic reaction that nearly killed him (he was on his deathbed anyway, weighing only 65 pounds). But they quickly purified another batch of insulin, and Thompson responded favorably. He went on to live 13 more years taking insulin, dying at age 26 of pneumonia.

This is again one of the great achievements of our species. Here’s are before and after pictures of Thompson with the treatment, and then a photo of him as a young man:

  • 1935 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
  • 1946 – Enver Hoxha, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Albania, declares the People’s Republic of Albania with himself as head of state.

Hoxha (who ruled Albania for 41 years) and Albania itself, a reclusive Marxist-Leninist state, fascinated me when they were closed off. as a youth I once hitchhiked to the border just to look at Albania, and listened to Radio Tirane on my transistor radio. Now, I gather, it’s a nice place to visit. Heeeeere’s Enver:

  • 1964 – Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.
  • 1972 – East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh.
  • 1973 – Major League Baseball owners vote in approval of the American League adopting the designated hitter position.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1638 – Nicolas Steno, Danish bishop and anatomist (d. 1686)

Steno, who made notable contributions in paleontology and geology, was canonized in 1938 but still has not yet become a saint.

  • 1755 – Alexander Hamilton, Nevisian-American general, economist and politician, 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1804)
  • 1807 – Ezra Cornell, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Western Union and Cornell University (d. 1874)
  • 1859 – George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, English politician, 35th Governor-General of India (d. 1925)
  • 1887 – Aldo Leopold, American ecologist and author (d. 1948)
  • 1889 – Calvin Bridges, American geneticist and academic (d. 1938)

Bridges was a very great geneticist who did research at the very beginning of modern Mendelian genetics, working in T. H. Morgan’s lab with fruit flies. Among other things, Bridges discovered the linkage of sex in flies to their X and Y chromosomes. He was also very handsome and a famous womanizer, frequently in trouble for dallying with the ladies. Here he is in the fly lab (he also made many innovations in fly husbandry)

  • 1903 – Alan Paton, South African author and activist (d. 1988)
  • 1923 – Carroll Shelby, American race car driver, engineer, and businessman, founded Carroll Shelby International (d. 2012)
  • 1946 – Naomi Judd, American singer-songwriter and actress

Those who bought the farm on January 11 include:

  • 1843 – Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, author, and songwriter (b. 1779)
  • 1882 – Theodor Schwann, German physiologist and biologist (b. 1810)
  • 1941 – Emanuel Lasker, German mathematician, philosopher, and chess player (b. 1868)
  • 1988 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, Polish-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
  • 2008 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (b. 1919)
  • 2010 – Miep Gies, Austrian-Dutch humanitarian (b. 1909)

Gies was one of the Dutch people who hid Anne Frank, and also hid her papers, which she returned to Anne’s father after the war; those papers included the famous diary.

Others who died on this day include:

  • 2010 – Éric Rohmer, French director, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1920)
  • 2011 – David Nelson, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1936)
  • 2014 – Ariel Sharon, Israeli general and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1928)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is visiting the upstairs lodgers in a Biblical way, even quoting Jesus! (the photo is by Paulina).

Hili: Do not think that I have come to bring peace.
Paulina: So why have you come?
Hili: To see how our neighbours are.
In Polish:
Hili: Nie sądź, że przyszłam głosić pokój.
Paulina: A po co przyszłaś?
Hili: Dowiedzieć się co słychać u sąsiadów.

And in nearby Wloclawek, Leon gets some respite from his rambunctious brother Mietek:

Leon: A moment of rest until this little ginger-haired kitten climbs up here.
In Polish: Chwila wytchnienia,tu ten mały rudy nie wlezie.

A gif from Facebook (h/t: Beth). What an awesome cat!

A true fact:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Bad Cat Clothing on Facebook. This one really cracks me up:

One of Titania’s latest (the original tweet, about a teacher musing about burning books, has disappeared, along with the account!)

https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath/status/1215506422865199104

Two tweets from Heather Hastie. First, a dolphin tries to mate with woman.

https://twitter.com/LockerRoomLOL/status/1214410439192219649

The lovely fox Snowdrop, one of Mr. Lumpy’s friends:

Tweets from Matthew. In this first one, Trump’s spiritual advisor speaks in tongues. This stuff really freaks me out, but I can’t look away:

This 99 year old Holocaust survivor Agnest Keleti is the most decorated Jewish woman athlete, having nabbed five gold medals for Hungary in gymnastics in the 1952 Olympic games. I’ve put a video of her performances below the tweet:

I really need to get some of these bat quarters! You can buy them now in proof sets, and I hear they’ll be released to banks at the beginning of February. But I wouldn’t want to spend them!

Another goose parade (we can’t see too many of these!). This appears to be in Germany, and the geese appear to be imprinted on the woman. Or else they’re just really well trained.

Sound up!

 

Friday: Hili dialogue (and Leon and Mietek chorus)

January 10, 2020 • 6:30 am

It’s Friday, January 10, 2020, and National Bittersweet Chocolate Day. I don’t know about you, but I find that the older I get, the darker I like my chocolate. I must now have at least 85% cocoa in my bar, and I’ve even had the 95% Lindt bar, which was great (but expensive). Pretty soon I’ll be gnawing on pods.

It’s also Save the Eagles Day, Peculiar People Day, Houseplant Appreciation Day (also Labplant Appreciation Day), and, in the Falkland Islands, Margaret Thatcher Day, commemorating the Iron Lady who gets credit for the British Victory in the Falklands War.

It’s a warm 48° F (9° C) in Chicago this morning, and the temperature will dip a few degrees but we won’t reach the freezing point. It’s been a very temperate month and a half. There is snow and rain predicted over the next couple of days.

Stuff that happened on January 10 was thin, and includes:

  • 1776 – American Revolution : Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.
  • 1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
  • 1901 – The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
  • 1920 – The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.
  • 1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

Notables born on this day include, curiously, four rock musicians as well as two geneticists:

  • 1887 – Robinson Jeffers, American poet and philosopher (d. 1962)
  • 1904 – Ray Bolger, American actor and dancer (d. 1987)
  • 1924 – Max Roach, American drummer and composer (d. 2007)
  • 1936 – Walter Bodmer, German-English geneticist and academic
  • 1940 – Godfrey Hewitt, English geneticist and academic (d. 2013)
  • 1943 – Jim Croce, American singer-songwriter (d. 1973)

The great Croce, who died at 30 in a plane crash in Louisiana. His sidekick who accompanies him here, Maury Muehleisen, also died in that crash. This is my favorite Croce song, released in 1972:

 

Others born on this day include

Below is a different John Fahey, an American musician I loved, but I put up the song before I read the bio above. So be it. The Fahey below is perhaps my all-time favorite “folk” guitarist, though you can hardly call what he produces “folk music.” It was sui generis, with roots in blues, folk, country, and even religious hymns.  He was always broke, mostly drunk, and I carried on a brief correspondence with him in high school. He told me in a letter that his guitar was a Bacon and Day Señorita guitar that he bought in a pawn shop with a bowed neck (the guitar’s neck, not his). I believe he’s playing that guitar here. Fahey died at 61 after a sextuple coronary bypass; he was homeless at the time and sometimes lived in his car. In this clip he’s quite young, probably fresh out of UCLA (he studied philosophy and music).

Those who took the Dirt Nap on this day include one well known rock musician:

  • 1778 – Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist and physician (b. 1707)
  • 1917 – Buffalo Bill, American soldier and hunter (b. 1846)
  • 1951 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
  • 1961 – Dashiell Hammett, American detective novelist and screenwriter (b. 1894)
  • 1971 – Coco Chanel, French fashion designer, founded Chanel (b. 1883)
  • 2016 – David Bowie, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (b. 1947)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili acts oddly religious for an atheistic Jewish cat, but Malgorzata explains, “A messiah doesn’t need to be divine. For Hili if you come with a piece of raw beef you are a messiah: her deepest desire is fulfilled.”

A: Hili, what are you doing up there?
Hili: I’m waiting for a messiah.
(Photo: Paulina R.)
In Polish:
Ja: Hili, co ty tam robisz?
Hili: Czekam na mesjasza.
(Zdjęcie: Paulina R.)

And in nearby Wloclawek, Leon and his brother Mietek are peckish:

The boys: Dinner?

In Polish: Kolacja?

Some hilarity from Jesus of the Day:

From Facebook. I like it:

A vegan hunter from !!!OMG Blog!!!: Does he have an aubergine license?

 

From Titania, who shows that Dr. Who is the next candidate for demonization. There’s a long thread below that tweet in which Titania continues her faux castigation.  See the Guardian article on why the show is problematic here.

I guess this proves that d*gs can plan ways to have fun. Note that it’s a border collie.

Two tweets from Heather Hastie. First, a “legless lizard.” Read more about this group here.

I always wonder whether these tests and the student answers are genuine. Who knows?

Tweets from Matthew. The first one is fascinating but grim. There’s no way to save that fish as it’s already been injected with venom:

More pugnacious kitties:

A big rock moves on Mars. Is it due to water? Probably not, but your guess is as good as mine:

A capybara acting like a cat! (Remember, these are the world’s largest rodents.)

 

Saturday: Hili dialogue

December 28, 2019 • 6:30 am

Good morning on the last Caturday of the year: Saturday, December 28, 2019. It is the fourth day of Christmas (“calling birds”), the sixth full day of Hanukkah, and the fourth and antepenultimate day of Coynezaa. It’s National Boxed Chocolates Day, and thanks to the largesse of readers, I am now in possession of my favorite boxed chocolates (and America’s best commercial chocolates): See’s.

It’s also Call a Friend Day, International Jewish Book Day, and National Card Playing Day.

Stuff that happened on December 28 includes:

  • 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.

I may be a secular Jew, but I don’t believe a word of it.

  • 1836 – South Australia and Adelaide are founded.
  • 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.

By all means read William McGonagall‘s poem on this incident, “The Tay Bridge Disaster.” McGonagall was one of the two worst poets in history (the other is Julia A. Moore, “the sweet singer of Michigan”), and this poem is a great specimen of his work.

  • 1885 – Indian National Congress, a political party of India, is founded in Bombay Presidency, British India.
  • 1895 – The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines.
  • 1895 – Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.

For this Röntgen won the first Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded in 1901.

Here’s a 2.75-minute summary of that great game:

Finally,

  • 1973 – The United States Endangered Species Act is signed into law by Pres. Richard Nixon.

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)
  • 1903 – John von Neumann, Hungarian-American mathematician and physicist (d. 1957)
  • 1934 – Maggie Smith, English actress
  • 1944 – Kary Mullis, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019)
  • 1954 – Denzel Washington, American actor, director, and producer
  • 1978 – Chris Coyne, Australian footballer and manager
  • 1979 – Noomi Rapace, Swedish actress

Those who ceased to exist on December 28 include:

  • 1937 – Maurice Ravel, French pianist and composer (b. 1875)
  • 1945 – Theodore Dreiser, American novelist and journalist (b. 1871)
  • 1983 – Dennis Wilson, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (b. 1944)
  • 1984 – Sam Peckinpah, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1925)
  • 1993 – William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian (b. 1904)
  • 2004 – Susan Sontag, American novelist, essayist, critic, and playwright (b. 1933)

The September 23 issue of The New Yorker has a free online review by Janet Malcolm of a new biography of Susan Sontag written by Benjamin Moser. It’s well worth a read to learn about this fiercely smart and deeply complex, self-deprecating woman. A quote:

“I loved Susan,” Leon Wieseltier said. “But I didn’t like her.” He was, Moser writes, speaking for many others.

  • 2016 – Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer and dancer (b. 1932) [As I noted yesterday, Reynolds died just a day after her daughter Carrie Fisher.]

Speaking of Ravel, this is one of my favorite pieces by him: the “sunrise” (“Lever du Jour”) segment of his ballet Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2. Tell me if it doesn’t evoke all the emotions of watching the sun rise. In fact, it sounds like the sun rising, even thought that happens silently (the birds chirp, however, and you can hear them in the flutes). I’m no classical-music expert, but to me this is one of the most beautiful pieces of that music ever written. (Yes, others will disagree. Take a number. . . .. )

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn,  Hili is taking it easy:

A: The holidays are over.
Hili: Not for everybody.
In Polish:
Ja: Święta się skończyły.
Hili: Jak dla kogo.

In Wloclawek, Leon and Mitek are cuddling again. They are best buddies! Mietek is recovering from his broken knee, and has completely healed from his abdominal injuries.

Leon: Is Christmas over already?

In Polish: Już po Świętach?

This dramatic sneeze of a deer was posted on Facebook by Beth:

A clever d*g photo from Jesus of the Day:

From Amazing Things:

Again we have a full set of tweets from Matthew. First, Smudge the Cat is impeding the rush hour at Marsh Farm Barn:

At last!:  the daily flight of the fowl from Marsh Farm Barn to the outside world. The birds get a lovely breakfast today:

And a special view of Marsh Farm ducks ducking:

Two “big cat” tweets. First, a jaguar on a camera trap:

Is this really the world’s biggest cat? See below the tweet for the answer.

Well, it’s the rarest subspecies of big cat in the world, not species. It is the Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), a subspecies of leopard that has a population of about 90 individuals.

This is your cat on drugs:

https://twitter.com/mr_meowwwgi/status/1210493391575953409?s=11

And this is your cat at the barber:

It’s very sad that this species is now extinct; read more about it here (it hasn’t been seen in over a decade).

 

This tweet will take you to an amusing thread of bad places people had to sleep when visiting others at Christmas:

And another brain dump by the loon that we have to call our “President”:

Tuesday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

December 24, 2019 • 7:00 am

Good morning on the day before Christmas: Tuesday, December 24, 2019. It’s National Eggnog Day, and I’ll avoid the libation since I never had a version I enjoyed.  It’s also the very last day you can buy holiday gifts, and I’m told that  Amazon is still offering one-day shipping. Good luck with that! It’s also the second full day of Hanukkah, and only one day before the beginning of Coynezaa, honoring the birth of the prophet JC (peace be upon him).

It was extremely warm (for Chicago) yesterday, and will be warm through the whole week (today’s high will be about 51° F or 11° C), so we have zero chance of a white Christmas in Chicago. And although it will be even warmer tomorrow, we won’t approach the record for Chicago on Christmas Day, which was 64° F (18° C), set in 1982.

Riddle: When is a Ceiling Cat not a Ceiling Cat?
Answer: When it’s abed.

Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus) has caught a bug, and will be recumbent at home today. Therefore, posting will be light. But it’s the holidays and everyone should be celebrating anyway.

Here are some of the Christmas Eve festivities around the world:

And a nice article on what the people working in Antarctica are having for Christmas dinner. (Pizza, for one thing.)

Stuff that happened on December 24 includes:

  • 1737 – The Marathas defeat the combined forces of the Mughal Empire, Rajputs of Jaipur, Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Awadh and Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Bhopal.
  • 1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.
  • 1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning.

Have a read about this drunken kerfuffle at West Point. Nineteen cadets were found guilty, and most of those were expelled.

  • 1865 – Jonathan Shank and Barry Ownby form The Ku Klux Klan.
  • 1871 – The Opera Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt.
  • 1906 – Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
  • 1914 – World War I: The “Christmas truce” begins.

There’s a lot of misinformation about this truce, which was the fraternization of German and US/UK soldiers during World War I, but some of it is true. From Wikipedia:

 In the week leading up to the 25th, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In some areas, men from both sides ventured into no man’s land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, creating one of the most memorable images of the truce. Fighting continued in some sectors, while in others the sides settled on little more than arrangements to recover bodies.

Here’s that “memorable” image from the Torygraph: a Christmas truce soccer game between Germans and Brits, with the photo from the Imperial War Museum (the Wikipedia article, by the way, is interesting):

  • 1943 – World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Allied Commander for the Invasion of Normandy.
  • 1968 – Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed ten lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures.

And let us not forget Christmas Eve in Auschwitz in 1940. This tweet was forwarded by Matthew Cobb:

Notables born on Christmas Eve include:

  • 1809 – Kit Carson, American general (d. 1868)
  • 1822 – Matthew Arnold, English poet and critic (d. 1888)
  • 1905 – Howard Hughes, American businessman, engineer, and pilot (d. 1976)
  • 1907 – I. F. Stone, American journalist and author (d. 1989)
  • 1922 – Ava Gardner, American actress, most beautiful woman who ever lived (d. 1990)
  • 1923 – George Patton IV, American general (d. 2004)
  • 1946 – Jeff Sessions, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 44th Attorney General of Alabama and 84th Attorney General of the United States
  • 1960 – Carol Vorderman, English television host

Those who turned toes up on Christmas Eve include:

  • 1524 – Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer and politician, Governor of Portuguese India (b. 1469)
  • 1863 – William Makepeace Thackeray, English author and poet (b. 1811)
  • 1873 – Johns Hopkins, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1795)
  • 1914 – John Muir, Scottish-American geologist, botanist, and author, founded Sierra Club (b. 1838)
  • 1984 – Peter Lawford, English-American actor (b. 1923)
  • 1994 – John Boswell, American historian, author, and academic (b. 1947)

Boswell (we called him “Jeb”) lived across the hall from me sophomore year at William & Mary, and already was a star headed for academic success. He later became a renowned professor of history at Yale, specializing in homosexuality and religion. He was gay, but back in college you kept such things under wraps. Boswell died of AIDS in the Yale infirmary on this day in 1994. He was only 47 years old.

Other deaths on Christmas Eve:

  • 2008 – Harold Pinter, English playwright, screenwriter, director, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1930)
  • 2016 Richard Adams, English author (b. 1920)

Do you remember the ending of Adams’s great book Watership Down, when Hazel dies. It’s sad but beautiful:

It seemed to Hazel that he would not be needing his body any more, so he left it lying on the edge of the ditch, but stopped for a moment to watch his rabbits and to try to get used to the extraordinary feeling that strength and speed were flowing inexhaustibly out of him into their sleek young bodies and healthy senses.

“You needn’t worry about them,” said his companion. “They’ll be all right—and thousands like them. If you’ll come along, I’ll show you what I mean.”

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is helping prepare for the holidays. (Note her tongue is out.)

Hili: It’s tidied up, we can start the holiday.
A: Who did the tidying up?
Hili: It’s not important, the important thing is who was overeeeing it.
(Photo: Paulina R.)
In Polish:
Hili: Posprzątane, możemy zaczynać święta.
Ja: Kto posprzątał?
Hili: Nie ważne, ważne kto pilnował.
(Zdjęcie: Paulina R.)

In Wloclawek, Leon wishes people a good holiday:

Leon: Merry Christmas!

In Polish: “Wesołych i spokojnych Świąt!”

A cartoon by Jim Benton, sent in by Mark Sturtevant:

From Jesus of the Day:

Also from Jesus of the Day: a fantastic invention:

A tweet from reader Barry, who describes it like this: “I love how the cat knows that, despite the bounty, something’s not right.”  Indeed!

The cat is very beautiful; does anybody know what breed it is?

https://twitter.com/BestVideosviral/status/1208421891775619072

Also from Barry, a tweet about Ohio’s new “can’t-penalize-religious-answers” law:

Six tweets from Dr. Cobb. It’s a busy Christmas Eve rush hour at Marsh Farm Barn. Cuthbert and all the fowl are looking forward to a good feed tomorrow!

And this is just awesome:

Monster cats!!

I’m not British enough to understand the humor here, but explanations are welcome:

Live and learn (I sure didn’t know this!):

And Matthew’s new book will soon be out; I’m reading a proof copy. It’s good!

Monday: Hili dialogue

December 16, 2019 • 6:30 am

Good morning: it’s Monday, December 16, 2019, and a cool 27°F (-3° C). And it snowed last night: the first serious snow of the year, though it wasn’t that much: about a third of an inch in our area. Here’s a photo of the snow-dusted street in front of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, which I pass each morning on my way to work:

I’m feeling a bit under the weather today, so posting may be light. And next week the serious holidays begin. But don’t worry: I’ll be here all month, folks.

It’s National Chocolate Covered Anything Day, which sounds good until you realize that “anything” could include owl pellets. It’s also Boston Tea Party Day (that “party” took place on this day in 1773; see below), the Day of Reconciliation in South Africa, and, according to Wikipedia, “The beginning of the nine-day celebration beginning December 16 and ending December 24, celebrating the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born.” I didn’t realize this was a celebration. But it doesn’t interfere with Coyneaa, for which there are nine more shopping days.

Stuff that happened on December 16 includes:

  • 1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
  • 1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
  • 1843 – The discovery of octonions by John T. Graves, who denoted them with a boldface O, was announced to his mathematician friend William Hamilton, discoverer of quaternions, in a letter on this date.

If you must know what octonions are (no, not a foodstuff), you can read about them here. It’s above my pay grade.

  • 1942 – The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
  • 1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
  • 1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
  • 1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight in support of communist North Korea.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1485 – Catherine of Aragon, Spanish princess, later queen consort of England (d. 1536)
  • 1770 – Ludwig van Beethoven, composer (d. 1827)
  • 1775 – Jane Austen, English novelist (d. 1817)
  • 1863 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (d. 1952)
  • 1899 – Noël Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
  • 1900 – V. S. Pritchett, British writer and literary critic (d. 1997)
  • 1901 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist and author (d. 1978)
  • 1917 – Arthur C. Clarke, British science fiction writer (d. 2008)

Those who bought it on December 16 include:

  • 1859 – Wilhelm Grimm, German anthropologist and author (b. 1786) [He was one of the Brothers Grimm, the other being Jacob.] They made it at one time to the German 100-Mark note, to wit, a specimen from 1992:

  • 1965 – W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1874)
  • 1980 – Colonel Sanders, American businessman, founded KFC (b. 1890)
  • 2007 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1951)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Editor Hili shows her usual diligence:

Hili: There are many things I should do.
A: What are you going to start with?
Hili: With thinking of what I’m not going to do.
In Polish:
Hili: Jest wiele spraw, które powinnam zrobić.
Ja: Od czego zaczniesz?
Hili: Od myślenia o tym, czego nie zrobię.

And nearby in Włocławek, Leon hugs his new brother, Mietek. They have become fast friends!

An awesome hipster treat from Instagram, via The Laughing Squid:

A new man-bun hairstyle from Facebook, sent by Rick Powell‎ to Winging It! (Spider and Insect Meme Group) and forwarded by Mark Sturtevant:

From Merilee: A snowcat with a twist:

A tweet from Andrew Doyle, creator of Titania McGrath. I have no love for Boris Johnson but really, wishing him a horrible death because he’s a Tory?  Here’s a privileged white girl who flaunts her virtue: “I plan to be a doctor; I plan to actually care about people.” The “basket of deplorables” meme has clearly crossed the pond

Matthew proffers his favorite: the greeting of the day as the animals leave their barn at Marsh Farm. Today, says Matthew, there’s extras: a climbing cat and agitated fowl!

Three more tweets from Matthew. Note, in this first one, how the birds turn their heads to localize the seeds.

Do you think that the cat was planned here?

https://twitter.com/marinamiries/status/1205856343413809152?s=11

A proper response to an uninformed sign:

Two tweets sent by reader Barry. He captions this for one, “Don’t forget who’s in charge here.”

Ricky Gervais describes atheism in a nutshell, as well as the difference between faith and fact:

Three from Heather Hastie. The first one is both literal and figurative:

A cat who strayed, and the response:

 

Sunday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

December 15, 2019 • 6:30 am

Good morning on Sunday, December 15, 2019. We have a chance of snow today, and it’s a bit chilly (22° F, -6° C). Botany Pond is frozen over, but Honey is down at the Mississippi Delta with her feet up, enjoying the warmth and eating grain.

But oy gewalt: it’s National Gingerbread Latte Day, celebrating the creeping candification of coffee (Coyne’s Fourth Law of Life: all snacks and drinks gravitate asymptotically towards candy), but also National Lemon Cupcake Day.

It’s also Bill of Rights Day, celebrating Virginia’s 1791 ratification of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which officially made enough states to make the Bill effectively part of the Constitution.  It’s also International Tea Day and Cat Herders’ Day,  celebrating those with difficult jobs, like these cowpokes (this is, by the way, the best commercial ever made, bar none):

There’s a scant nine shopping days left until the onset of the season’s best holiday: Coynezaa.

Stuff that happened on December 15 includes:

  • 1791 – The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
  • 1890 – Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
  • 1933 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution officially becomes effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.
  • 1939 – Gone with the Wind (highest inflation adjusted grossing film) receives its premiere at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
  • 1961 – Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.
  • 1973 – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the DSM-II.
  • 1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People’s Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
  • 2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean.

Notables born on this day include:

Here’s Guardroom with Monkeys by David Teniers. Wikipedia “unpacks” it:

Teniers combined the genres of singerie [JAC: Money scenes!] and guardroom scene in the composition Guardroom with monkeys (Private collection). At a first glance, the Guardroom with Monkeys is no different from other guardroom scenes. It is clear from the round moon above the door that the scene is set late at night. The off-duty monkeys have removed their armor, stowed their pikes and rolled up their company flag and placed it against the far wall. Like their human counterparts, the monkey soldiers are loitering about, some of them are drinking and smoking, others are playing games. At the door a cat wearing respectable civilian clothes is led into the room by two monkeys who restrain it. The contrast between the properly dressed cat and the bizarre outfit of the monkey soldiers, one of which is wearing a funnel on his head while another has an upturned pot on his head, raises doubt as to the legitimacy of the monkeys’ authority. As was customary in singeries, the dress and behaviour of the monkeys highlight the foolishness of human undertakings. Teniers may also have intended to criticize the bloated military in the Southern Netherlands in the 1630s.

Singerie avec chat!
  • 1852 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1908)
  • 1892 – J. Paul Getty, American-English businessman and art collector, founded Getty Oil (d. 1976)
  • 1916 – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-English physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
  • 1919 – Max Yasgur, American dairy farmer and host of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (d. 1973)
  • 1942 – Dave Clark, English drummer, songwriter, and producer
  • 1981 – Michelle Dockery, English actress. [I watched Downton Abbey only a couple of times at the behest of friends, but couldn’t get into it. I was, however, much taken with Lady Mary.)

Those who croaked on December 15 include:

  • 1683 – Izaak Walton, English author (b. 1593)
  • 1890 – Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota tribal chief (b. 1831)
  • 1943 – Fats Waller, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1904)
  • 1944 – Glenn Miller, American bandleader and composer (b. 1904)
  • 1950 – Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Deputy Prime Minister of India (b. 1875)
  • 1958 – Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian-Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
  • 1966 – Walt Disney, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (b. 1901)
  • 2011 – Christopher Hitchens, English-American essayist, literary critic, and journalist (b. 1949)

Here’s a 60 Minutes piece on Hitchens, produced when he was undergoing cancer treatment:

And a collection of Hitchens in confrontational moments:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is resting in the basket where they normally keep the firewood:

A; Are you comfortable in this basket?
Hili: No, but I have to show somehow that I am in possession of it.
In Polish:
Ja: Wygodnie ci w tym koszyku?
Hili: Nie, ale muszę jakoś zaznaczyć, że objęłam go w posiadanie.

And in nearby Wloclawek, the loving brothers Mietek and Leon await their noms:

Leon: Do you think they are preparing our supper?
In Polish: Myślisz,że szykują nam kolację?

Another photo of the pair with Elzbieta’s caption: “The big brother washes the ears of the baby brother.”

In Polish: Starszy brat umyje uszka.

Two “cat memes” from Jesus of the Day:

His eyes may be lit up now, but destruction is in them, too. . .

And this one contributed by Merilee:

 

Larry the Cat, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, who lives at 10 Downing Street, weighs in on the election:

From Matthew we have three tweets about his major source of solace: Marsh Farm and its beats. First, the daily egress of animals from the Marsh Farm barn, with Smudge the cat supervising:

And the farm ducks demonstrating their name. Can you spot the smart one?

And a look back when Smudge, the farm cat, was a kitten:

From reader Barry. I may have published this before, but it’s always good to get an evolution refresher:

Cat kung fu from Heather Hastie:

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1205274246940725248

Also from Heather. I wish there was a sound track on this one, as I bet you’d hear some kitten-growling:

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1204399100432658432

And the last word goes to Titania. Some readers don’t find her—or rather, Andrew Doyle—funny, but I think this is great:

Oh, here’s another. She’s a gold mine, I tell you! And look at Boris Derangement Syndrome:

Tuesday: Hili dialogue

December 10, 2019 • 6:30 am

Good morning on a dreary and frigid (21° F, -6°C) Tuesday, December 10, 2019, National Lager Day. Human Rights Day, and, oddly, the Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales.  In Sweden it’s a flag holiday: Nobel Prize Day, when the winners announced last year get their prizes in Stockholm.  In Stockholm, several countries are boycotting the Nobel Ceremony because Peter Handke, who won the Literature prize last year, has been accused of supporting the war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. Finally, there are only two weeks of shopping days until Coynezaa.

Things that happened on December 10 include:

  • 1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg’s Elster Gate.

Too bad he didn’t barbecue it!

A papal bull
  • 1684 – Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley.
  • 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.

They left out one detail, as reported by the Guardian:

THE FIRST traffic signal was invented by J P Knight, a railway signalling engineer. It was installed outside the Houses of Parliament in 1868 and looked like any railway signal of the time, with waving semaphore arms and red-green lamps, operated by gas, for night use. Unfortunately it exploded, killing a policeman. The accident discouraged further development until the era of the internal combustion engine.

  • 1884 – Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.
  • 1901 – The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. (See above.)
  • 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
  • 1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected.

Do read about the riots and the brown dog (yes, there was one) who set them off. Here’s a statue to the Brown Dog, which stood from 1906 until 1910, when miscreants removed it:

  • 1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
  • 1953 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in literature.
  • 1978 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • 1996 – The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1815 – Ada Lovelace, English mathematician and computer scientist (d. 1852)
  • 1830 – Emily Dickinson, American poet (d. 1886)
  • 1851 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian, created the Dewey Decimal System (d. 1931)
  • 1891 – Nelly Sachs, German-Swedish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
  • 1960 – Kenneth Branagh, Northern Ireland-born English actor director, producer, and screenwriter

The first photo below the only authenticated photo of the reclusive Dickinson (she was 17 at the time), although the one below that, found in Amherst in 2012, is thought to show Dickinson with her widowed friend Emily Scott, and experts believe that the person on the left is our poet. I haven’t heard reports about that photo for several years.

Those who began pushing up dirt on this day include:

  • 1896 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, invented Dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize (b. 1833)
  • 1911 – Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist and explorer (b. 1817)
  • 1968 – Thomas Merton, American monk and author (b. 1915)
  • 1999 – Rick Danko, Canadian singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (b. 1943)
  • 2005 – Eugene McCarthy, American poet, academic, and politician (b. 1916)
  • 2005 – Richard Pryor, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1940)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili surveys the surroundings as she ventures out:

Hili: If I see correctly, there is nothing there.
A: It’s better to check everything.
In Polish:
Hili: Jeśli dobrze widzę, to tam nic nie ma.
Ja: Lepiej wszystko sprawdzić.

Elzbieta sent a photo of Leon hanging around with his new brother Mietek:

From Jesus of the Day:

The ArtBasel installation, cat version, credit to @bocaratona, h/t: Stash Krod

 

From reader Barry: an aerial view of a sheepdog at work. It is mesmerizing!

Three tweets from Heather Hastie. This one is ineffably cute. Cats like warmth!

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1203674333106847746

As the kids say, “Oh. My. God.”

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1200775088565608448

And this cat drinks vapor!

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1201650494122463233

Tweets from Matthew, first the usual morning egress at Marsh Farm as the breakfast bar opens for business:

 

This one has some interesting comments in the thread that follows it:

Matthew says of this one: “Amazing video. Marsupials are weird.” But to a marsupial, placental mammals are weird! Sound up.

Anybody interested in playing this video game?