Category: Leon monologue

Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

December 30, 2019 • 6:45 am

It’s now Monday, December 30, 2019: the Sixth Day of Christmas (Geese a’-Laying), but, more important, the last day of both Hanukkah and of Coynezaa—the day on which Our Savior J.C. was born and, today, becomes officially old.

And oy, it’s National Bicarbonate of Soda Day, presumably meant to help you recover from holiday overeating. But it’s also Bacon Day (not kosher) and Falling Needles Family Fest Day, marking the senescence of the Christmas tree and symbolizing the enroaching decrepitude of our Savior J.C.

News of the Day: The Chinese scientist who created the two CRISPR babies has been sentenced to three years in jail (see the link, h/t: Matthew). He’s also been fined $425,000 and is banned for research on reproduction for life.

Stuff that happened on December 30 include:

  • 1066 – Granada massacre: A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city.
  • 1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Moscow river three days later.

Here’s the bizarre fellow:

With wife and daughter. As you may remember, he was a hard man to kill. First he was poisoned with both wine and cakes, and then shot. That didn’t do him in, so he was shot again and thrown into the river.

  • 1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
  • 1965 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.
  • 2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed.

Yes, my birthday marks the execution of two loons.

Notables born on this day include:

  • AD 39 – Titus, Roman emperor (d. 81)
  • 1865 – Rudyard Kipling, Indian-English author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)
  • 1910 – Paul Bowles, American composer and author (d. 1999)
  • 1928 – Bo Diddley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2008)
  • 1931 – Skeeter Davis, American singer-songwriter (d. 2004)

Davis, of course, was famous for her monster hit “The End of the World“, released in 1962 and produced by Chet Atkins. It made it to #2 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and country charts, thus being one of the first country crossover songs. (It was also recorded by The Carpenters.) It was played at both Atkins’s funeral (2001) and Davis’s funderal at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville (2004).

  • 1935 – Sandy Koufax, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1942– Michael Nesmith, American musician and songwriter
  • 1945 – Davy Jones, English singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2012) [JAC note: two Monkees were born on my birthday]
  • 1946 – Patti Smith, American singer-songwriter and poet
  • 1949 – Jerry Coyne, superannuated evolutionary biologist, your host
  • 1959 – Tracey Ullman, English-American actress, singer, director, and screenwriter
  • 1965 – Heidi Fleiss, American procurer
  • 1975 – Tiger Woods, American golfer
  • 1984 – LeBron James, American basketball player, producer and businessman

Those whose lives were quenched on December 30 include:

  • 1916 – Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic (b. 1869) [see above]
  • 1970 – Sonny Liston, American boxer (b. 1932)
  • 1979 – Richard Rodgers, American playwright and composer (b. 1902)
  • 2004 – Artie Shaw, American clarinet player, composer, and bandleader (b. 1910)
  • 2006 – Saddam Hussein, Iraqi general and politician, 5th President of Iraq (b. 1937)
  • 2012 – Carl Woese, American microbiologist and biophysicist (b. 1928)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, I am happy that Hili sent me birthday wishes!

Hili: Do you still have that delicious bacon in the fridge?
A: Why do you ask?
Hili: I will eat it to celebrate Jerry’s birthday.
(Photo: Paulina R.)
In Polish:
Hili: Czy w lodówce jest jeszcze ten pyszny bekon?
Ja: Dlaczego pytasz?
Hili: Zjem go, żeby uczcić urodziny Jerrego.
(Zdjęcie: Paulina R.)

And in Wloclawek, Leon is engaged in his usual activity: waiting for noms.

Leon: I could eat something.

In Polish: Zjadłbym coś.

Reader Rick tells me I’m featured on Anu Garg’s “A Word A Day” section of today’s Wordsmith (I don’t know that site); to wit:

I’ll Follow the Sun (cat version):

An oldie but a goodie from Literary Jokes and Puns (h/t: vanewimsey):

From Jesus of the Day:

A tweet from reader Barry. Is this a therapy fish or a therapy human?

Tweets from Dr. Cobb, beginning with the daily egress of fowls from the Marsh Farm Barn. Sadly, I got no shout-out, though I asked. But there are four flying ducks (and a partridge in a pear tree):

And now a peacock has joined the menagerie:

Matthew and I both think this one is real, though I suppose it could be bogus:

https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1210839147658850306?s=11

I wonder if the cat does this to anyone who sings?:

Another lovely cat/staff interaction:

 

The battle of Wtaerloo, with this key from Matthew:

Blue = French
Solid block = infantry
Diagonal block = cavalry
“tour” in tweet = “tout”

A lot going on in these videos. First, an obstreperous young goat. And then a humorous mongoose/hornbill video. Make sure the sound is up for the second:

 

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”:

Friday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

December 27, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s Friday, December 27, 2019: the third day of Christmas (French Hens Day), the fifth full day of Hanukkah, and the third day of Coynezaa. It’s also National Fruitcake Day: the day when everybody circulates the world’s one existing fruitcake to somebody they’ve neglected (and want to punish). It’s also Visit the Zoo Day, though I’m not a big fan of zoos and won’t be going.  In North Korea it’s Constitution Day. Although I had no idea they had a constitution, you can find more information about it here, though I don’t see anything about The Right to Starve or about The Right to Put Three Generations of Relatives in a Labor Camps if One of Them Offends the State.

The weather is now predicted to be above freezing for at least a week: it’s an extraordinarily warm Coynezaa season in Chicago. The high today is predicted to be 44° F (7° C), and yesterday’s high—61° F or 16° C—set an all-time temperature record for December 26 in Chicago, beating the previous record by 6 full degrees Fahrenheit.

Stuff that happened on December 27 includes:

Read about the event: a group of non-Quaker citizens of Flushing (now in New York) petitioned governor Peter Stuyvesant to lift the ban on Quaker worship. It was a plea for religious tolerance, and it failed. Stuyvesant dissolved the local government and arrested the leaders. The Flushing Remonstrance articulated freedom of religion but did not create it.

The first is a big happening:

  • 1831 – Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate his theory of evolution.
  • 1845 – Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
  • 1911 – “Jana Gana Mana”, the national anthem of India, is first sung in the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.

The song, both lyrics and music, were written by the polymathic artist Rabindranath Tagore. Here are a number of famous Indian vocalists singing it. I have to say that it’s a good song—certainly far better than the U.S. National Anthem:

  • 1927 – Kern and Hammerstein’s musical play Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.

The movie version of Show Boat was filmed nine years after the play, and features this song, here sung by the great Paul Robeson. It’s a remarkably anti-racist song for its era, though the Broadway version of the song had the “n-word” instead of “darkies”. Robeson’s voice is ineffably thrilling:

  • 1929 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the “liquidation of the kulaks as a class”.
  • 1935 – Regina Jonas is ordained as the first female rabbi in the history of Judaism.

Jonas was ordained as a rabbi in Germany. Being a woman, she couldn’t find a pulpit, but did religious work until she was sent to the internment camp Theresienstadt by the Nazis in 1942. There she worked in a a rabbinical capacity until 1944, when she was moved to Auschwitz and killed immediately at age 42. Here’s her photo:

How big? Wikipedia explains:

The Cave of Swallows, also called the Cave of the Swallows (Spanish: Sótano de las Golondrinas), is an open air pit cave in the Municipality of Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The elliptical mouth, on a slope of karst, is 49 by 62 m wide and is undercut around all of its perimeter, widening to a room approximately 303 by 135 meters (994 by 442 ft) wide.The floor of the cave is a 333-meter (1092 ft) freefall drop from the lowest side of the opening, with a 370-meter (1,214 ft) drop from the highest side, making it the largest known cave shaft in the world, the second deepest pit in Mexico and perhaps the 11th deepest in the world.

Here’s an Attenborough video segment about the cave that kicked off an episode of BBC’s “Planet Earth” i 2006.

  • 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.
  • 1978 – Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship.
  • 2007 – Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a shooting incident.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1822 – Louis Pasteur, French chemist and microbiologist (d. 1895)
  • 1901 – Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress and singer (d. 1992)
  • 1915 – William Masters, American gynecologist, author, and academic (d. 2001)
  • 1943 – Cokie Roberts, American journalist and author (d. 2019)
  • 1948 – Gérard Depardieu, French-Russian actor
  • 1963 – Gaspar Noé, Argentinian-French director and screenwriter
  • 1971 – Savannah Guthrie, American television journalist

Those who found eternal quietus on December 27 include:

  • 1834 – Charles Lamb, English essayist and poet (b. 1775)
  • 1938 – Calvin Bridges, American geneticist and academic (b. 1889)
  • 1950 – Max Beckmann, German-American painter and sculptor (b. 1884)
  • 2003 – Alan Bates, English actor (b. 1934)
  • 2012 – Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., American general and engineer (b. 1934)
  • 2015 – Meadowlark Lemon, American basketball player and minister (b. 1932)
  • 2016 – Carrie Fisher, American actress, screenwriter, author, producer, and speaker (b. 1956)

Here’s Beckmann’s “Still Life with Cats” (1917). Beckmann did a fair few renditions of cats that you can see here.

The day after Carrie Fisher died, most likely from drug abuse, her mother, the actress Debbie Reynolds, also died. Wikipedia says this:

The day after Fisher’s death, her mother Debbie Reynolds suffered a stroke at the home of son Todd, where the family was planning Fisher’s burial arrangements. She was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she died later that afternoon.  According to Todd Fisher, Reynolds had said, “I want to be with Carrie” immediately prior to suffering the stroke. On January 5, 2017, a joint private memorial was held for Fisher and Reynolds. Fisher was cremated while her mother was entombed. A portion of her ashes were laid to rest beside Reynolds in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. The remainder of those ashes are held in a giant, novelty Prozac pill.

If you don’t believe that last bit, it’s true. Here’s a photo from The Hollywood Reporter of Carrie’s brother Todd carrying her ashes in the giant capsule:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is doing her job, such as it is, as editor of Listy:

Hili: What are you writing about?
A: About productivity.
Hili: Continue; I will just sit here.
In Polish:
Hili: O czym piszesz?
Ja: O wydajności.
Hili: Pisz dalej, ja sobie tu posiedzę.

And in nearby Wloclawek, Leon is catting:

Leon: Hmm, I would like to eat something.
In Polish: Hm, zjadłbym coś.

My college pal Stash Krod posted this Kliban cartoon on his Facebook page, and it is indeed a real Kliban cartoon. It reminds me of Hitchens’s famous “My own opinion is enough for me” remark:

From Jesus of the Day: a problem I always faced as a kid:

From Cole and Marmalade (I may have posted it before, but it’s a winner):

All our tweets today come from Matthew Cobb, mainly because no other regular has sent me any. Fortunately, Matthew has been generous with his “gifting” of tweets.

First, the Friday egress of the fowl from Marsh Farm Barn. Rush hour was slightly delayed because Smudge the Cat wouldn’t get off the door, and also played with the Christmas ornaments:

Friday Rush Hour finally began, with Bumblebee the Sheep coming out first, followed by Lucy the Goat. And, once again, Cuthbert the Goose gets a name check while most of the ducks are ignored.

 

The appointing of federal judges, which have a lifetime sinecure, is a particularly important job of the U.S. President. Unfortunately, we have a madman and a bull-goose loon conservative as President, and so we have the following. (You probably recall, if you’re an Arican, that Brown v. Board of Education prohibited segregation in the public schools.)

https://twitter.com/deepnotion2/status/1210158226232283136?s=11

Well, come January 1, recreational marijuana will be legal in Illinois. . .

The picture on the duvet cover below is, of course, from the movie American Beauty. This would make a great Christmas present!

I don’t know what Ms. Vosshall is on about: this is the natural order of things:

I love muscovy ducks (they’re not artificially selected mallards, but members of another species). They’re sweet and friendly, and wag their tails constantly.

I can’t remember if I posted this before, but it’s worth seeing again. Only in Paris could a general strike produce something like this (note that it’s Matthew’s own tweet):

Matthew’s comment:

A lovely pensive cat. According to translate, it is sitting watching its staff in the bath. My cats generally look more alarmed when I am in the bath, but that doesn’t happen very often.

I hasten to add that Matthew doesn’t mean that he doesn’t bathe often; what he means is that he usually showers rather than sitting in the tub. (I take about one bath a year; I don’t see the point of what my father called “sitting in your own schmutz.) And here’s the Google translation:

I’m sorry! Now bathing! That is this sight! I have been taking a bath with me since I was born, so this face on my side during my bathing. I sleep immediately after taking a bath m(_ _)m

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!

Sunday: Hili dialogue, Mietek and Leon monologue, farm rush hour and some winter morning tweets

December 1, 2019 • 2:59 am

by Matthew Cobb

Good morning! This is the ultimate Cobb morning post – The Boss will be back at the controls tomorrow, full of penguins.

In Poland, Hili is pen-sive (sorry not sorry):

A: Hili, where is my pen?
Hili: Under your desk.
In Polish:
Ja: Hili, gdzie jest mój długopis?
Hili: Pod biurkiem.

 

Mietek the kitten is healing nicely, and has become great friends with Leon. Malgorzata sent a picture and a report:
Here is a picture of Leon and Mietek sitting on the same armchair. Elzbieta wrote to me that Leon had just very thoroughly washed the whole kitten. They are friends!
And Elzbieta converted it into a Leon Monologue:

Leon: I washed his ears and he fell asleep.

In Polish: Umyłem mu uszy i zasnął.
Down on farm it’s, well – you know:

 

Because it’s 1 December, we have set up our advent calendar. No chocolate, just little pictures. For the last few years, we have bought one from painter and printmaker Angela Harding:

Here’s a more traditional view of December, taken from the UK children’s Ladybird book series:

 

In Macclesfield, Abi Gilmore caught morning’s minstrel, dawn’s delight. Sound on:

A wintry reintroduction:

A wintry web:

A wintry scene by one of Jerry’s favourite singers:

 

Tweets sent in by The Boss:

If you think Twitter is bad, have a look at the comments on YouTube:

From Heather Hastie – ‘tweet of the week’:

And in a similar vein:

 

A reader asked Jerry this question, who asked me, who asked Twitter. There doesn’t seem to be a simple answer, though if you have any recommendations, chip in below:

Finally, to link with Jerry’s recent amazing trip, here’s a reminder that today is the 60th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty. Some lovely pics in Emma Johnston’s thread:

 

Monday: Hili dialogue, Mietek & Leon monologue, farm rush hour and tweets

November 25, 2019 • 7:35 am

by Matthew Cobb

Apologies for the late posting – I have been on the picket line (see below).

In Poland, Hili demonstrates that there is no such thing as free will, even for a cat:

Hili: Do you like to admit that you were wrong?
A: No.
Hili: So why do you do it?
A: Because I was wrong.
Hili: Czy lubisz przyznawać się do błędów?
Ja: Nie.
Hili: To dlaczego to robisz?
Ja: Bo jestem w błędzie.
Mietek is healing nicely now. In the photo he and his brother Leon are sniffing comfrey roots collected by Elzbieta.
On the farm Monday is the same as any other day. What a rush!

An encounter on a trail; I’m not sure who was more frightened:

Paul Bronks has found some well-behaved ducks (I’m sure we’ve hand this before, sans Bronks’s wit):

A partially leucistic European robin (very different from the US version):

An amazing photo from Alex Wild:

A new word for me – “deimatic”. It means an alarm or warning behaviour but when I went to look in the OED, *it wasn’t there*…

I’m sure many of us can sympathise:

Looks like fun, though maybe not for the sheep:

An amazing discovery off the coast of South Africa – a coelacanth! The divers’ excitement is infectious. Although this is deep for a scuba diver (68 metres), it is very shallow for one of these fish, found only off the coast of Madagascar and (a separate species) off Sulawesi:

Devil’s fingers fungus…

 

As I said, I was on the picket line this morning (we are striking over pensions, pay and employment conditions – this is a national strike), before going to a rally (inside, because the weather – unusually for Manchester – is unpleasant):

 

Sunday: Hili dialogue, Leon monologue, a rushy farm rush-hour and a load of tweets

November 24, 2019 • 5:47 am

by Matthew Cobb

It’s an overcast morning in Manchester, and I am gearing up for an 8-day strike in defence of wages, job status and pensions which will affect 60 UK Universities from Monday. I am also going through the proofs of my forthcoming book The Idea of the Brain (pre-order it now, folks!) and beginning to suffer from the usual authorial anxieties…

In Poland, Hili has no such problems, although it’s hard to tell if she’s pleased or alarmed (my cats would be terrified):

Hili: They’ve come.
A: Who?
Hili: Our guests.

In Polish:

Hili: Przyjechali.
Ja: Kto?
Hili: Nasi goście.

Leon, meanwhile, is clearly fascinated:

Leon: You can find many interesting things on a construction site.

Down on the farm, the fowl all came out in a real rush this morning, while the peahens get stuck:

As I’m sure you all know, today it is happy birthday to On the Origin of Species. My pal Jordi tweeted this:

It’s a chilly morning on Mars:
Dog-duck action (I’m sure we’ve posted this before):

My colleague Jamie Woodward tweeted this:

Owl magic:

Fabulous jaguarundi:

https://twitter.com/nadinejholmes/status/1170040826711433219?s=11

More sweariness from Paul Bronks, via Heather Hastie:

And more tweets from Heather:

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1197876131346747393

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1198026192705794048

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1198238557984501765

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1198330805992509446

Finally, some elegant travellers in south-east London, late last night: