Category: Leon monologue

Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

October 7, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s another damn Monday: October 7, 2019, and school at the University of Chicago has been in session for a week. Yesterday there were eleven ducks in Botany Pond: four drakes and seven hens, all jockeying for mates. They were so frenetic that I couldn’t descry whether one of them was Honey. I have ordered more duck chow in case they decide to hang around for a while. And once again I am disappointed at the tepid response to my science post, though I realize that many readers don’t think they have anything to add.

It’s National Frappe Day (what New Englanders call a milkshake), Blue Shirt Day® (to highlight bullying; does this really accomplish anything?), National Flower Day, National Inner Beauty Day, and World Architecture Day.

Stuff that happened on October 7 includes:

  • 1868 – Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.
  • 1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222–0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.

Here’s the scoreboard for that game, and Wikipedia’s note on lopsided American football games (there hasn’t been another 100+ score in over 50 years):

Since World War II, only a handful of schools have topped 100 points in a college football game. The modern-era record for most points scored against a college opponent is 106 by Fort Valley State of Georgia against Knoxville College in 1969. In the previous year Houston defeated Tulsa 100–6 to set the NCAA record in major college football. In 1949 the University of Wyoming defeated University of Northern Colorado 103–0. The Division III football scoring record was set in 1968 when North Park University defeated North Central College 104–32, using ten passing touchdowns along the way.

 

  • 1949 – The communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.
  • 1958 – The U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury.
  • 1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 3 transmits the first-ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.

Here’s the first image of the “dark side” of the moon from Luna 3, with the caption “The first image returned by Luna 3 showed the far side of the Moon was very different from the near side, most noticeably in its lack of lunar maria (the dark areas).”

  • 1985 – Four men from the Palestine Liberation Front hijack the MS Achille Lauro off the coast of Egypt.
  • 1988 – A hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice near Alaska; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.
  • 1996 – Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.
  • 1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.

I still remember this brutal assault. Shepard lived six days (in a coma) after the assault; both of his assailants are serving life terms in prison. And here’s Shepard, an unwilling martyr to homophobia:

  • 2001 – The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground. [JAC: We’re still there, with no signs of leaving.]

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1885 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
  • 1900 – Heinrich Himmler, German commander and politician (d. 1945)
  • 1923 – Irma Grese, German SS officer (d. 1945)

Grese, a vicious woman who was a guard at the Ravensbück and Auschwitz concentration camps, was hanged under British law for war crimes. At 22, she was the youngest woman executed under British law in the 20th century.  She was as the “Hyena of Auschwitz” because of her brutal behavior, and you can read more about her here.  A photo (and boy, does she look mean!):

 

  • 1931 – Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1934 – Ulrike Meinhof, German far-left terrorist, co-founder of the Red Army Faction, journalist (d. 1976)
  • 1939 – Harry Kroto, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2016)
  • 1952 – Vladimir Putin, Russian colonel and politician, 4th President of Russia
  • 1955 – Yo-Yo Ma, French-American cellist and educator
  • 1964 – Dan Savage, American LGBT rights activist, journalist and television producer
  • 1975 – Tim Minchin, English-Australian comedian, actor, and singer

Those who died on this day include:

  • 1849 – Edgar Allan Poe, American short story writer, poet, and critic (b. 1809)
  • 1925 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player and manager (b. 1880)
  • 1992 – Allan Bloom, American philosopher and educator (b. 1930)
  • 2009 – Irving Penn, American photographer (b. 1917)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is asking about the library. (I’m told that she can read, but prefers not to!)

Hili: What is in these books?
A: Mainly words, some wise, some beautiful, and some not worth returning to.
In Polish:
Hili: Co jest w tych książkach?
Ja: Głównie słowa, jedne mądre, inne piękne i jeszcze są takie, do których nie warto wracać.

And in nearby Wloclawek, Leon rests and philosophizes:

Leon: I am where my pillow is.

In Polish: Tam ja, gdzie poduszka moja.

Bored Panda has a really nice post of interesting and amazing teachers. Here are a few photos from it (h/t: Su):

From someone’s physics teacher:

Caption: “After Not Taking Attendance All Quarter, My Teacher Assistant Was Out Of Town On Exam Day. This Was The Last Question”

 “My biology professor was wearing an awesome tie yesterday.” Indeed!!

There are 47 more at the site; go over and look!

From reader gravelinspector, a history lesson imparted by the Ohio State University marching band.

Three animal tweets from Heather Hastie. First, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But who’s imitating who?

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1176210287684456450

Cats taking over dog beds are now an Official Internet Thing™:

I love this one!

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences goes all soft porn with a racy picture; but the study cited is ONLY IN RABBITS! Matthew calls out PNAS:

Three more tweets from Matthew. First, where physics equipment goes to die:

I have no words for this one, except that it’s in India:

And another fantastic find by Dr. Cobb:

https://twitter.com/mr_meowwwgi/status/1180438803036692480?s=11

 

 

Saturday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

October 5, 2019 • 6:30 am

I am cooling my heels in the Baltimore airport en route to Chicago, writing in advance to wish you a happy October 5, 2019, and a joyous National Apple Betty Day, a toothsome dessert better known as “Apple Brown Betty” or “Apple Crumble.” It’s also Do Something Nice Day, Global James Bond Day (don’t ask me why they picked October 5), National Get Funky Day,  and World Teachers’ Day.

Stuff that happened on October 5 includes:

Here’s the plane. Wikipedia adds: “On October 5, 1905 Wilbur made a circling flight of 24 miles (38.9 km) in 39 minutes 23 seconds, over Huffman Prairie, longer than the total duration of all the flights of 1903 and 1904. Four days later, they wrote to the United States Secretary of War William Howard Taft, offering to sell the world’s first practical fixed-wing aircraft.”

  • 1914 – World War I: An aircraft successfully destroys another aircraft with gunfire.

See here for the story. The successful plane was a French two-seater Voisin biplane, and the German plane, both of whose occupants were killed was an Aviatik biplane. Here’s the French plane. Note that the machine gun was in front of the propeller, so no synchronization of bullets with propeller was necessary.

  • 1938 – In Nazi Germany, Jews’ passports are invalidated.
  • 1943 – Ninety-eight American POWs are executed by Japanese forces on Wake Island.
  • 1944 – The Provisional Government of the French Republic enfranchises women.
  • 1970 – The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is founded.
  • 1982 – Tylenol products are recalled after bottles in Chicago laced with cyanide cause seven deaths.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1829 – Chester A. Arthur, American general, lawyer, and politician, 21st President of the United States (d. 1886)
  • 1864 – Louis Lumière, French director and producer (d. 1948)
  • 1902 – Larry Fine, American comedian (d. 1975)
  • 1902 – Ray Kroc, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1984)
  • 1926 – Willi Unsoeld, American mountaineer and educator (d. 1979)
  • 1936 – Václav Havel, Czech poet, playwright, and politician, 1st President of the Czech Republic (d. 2011)
  • 1943 – Steve Miller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist, worst rock and roll “artist” of our time [added by JAC]
  • 1950 – Edward P. Jones, American novelist and short story writer
  • 1951 – Bob Geldof, British singer-songwriter and actor
  • 1958 – Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist, cosmologist, and author
  • 1959 – Maya Lin, American architect and sculptor, designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Civil Rights Memorial

Those who crossed the Rainbow Bridge on this day include:

  • 1813 – Tecumseh, American tribal leader (b. 1768) [JAC: Read the entry; the man was a great warrior and a great leader, and died in battle. His goal was to establish a pan-Native-American nation east of the Mississippi in league with the British.
  • 1880 – Jacques Offenbach, German-French cellist and composer (b. 1819)
  • 1941 – Louis Brandeis, American lawyer and jurist (b. 1856)
  • 2004 – Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1921)
  • 2004 – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-English physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
  • 2011 – Bert Jansch, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1943)

There aren’t many videos of Jansch, one of my musical heroes. Here he is performing Black Waterside:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili isn’t hungry (mirabile dictu!), but she wants to be hungry. The reason: she just ate. Malgorzata reports: “Yes, I’m holding Hili and she just came from the kitchen after eating a huge meal with her favorite sausage. She just couldn’t fit another bite into her stomach.”

Hili: I’m starting to long for the moment when I will be hungry.
Malgorzata: Aren’t you hungry yet?
Hili: Perhaps not yet.
In Polish:
Hili: Zaczynam tęsknić do chwili kiedy będę głodna.
Małgorzata: A jeszcze nie jesteś głodna?
Hili: Chyba jeszcze nie.

It’s some kind of anniversary for Leon: either his adoption day or his birthday; I don’t know which. If you wish, send me greetings and I’ll forward them to his staff.

Leon: Such an important day and no wishes, no presents?

In Polish: Taki ważny dzień i żadnych życzeń, żadnych prezentów?

From Pictures in History via Stash Krod: a real hammerhead shark. As Stash said, “Nailed it!”:

An amazing Facebook post by my friend Moto. The caption recounts the early life of Hank Aaron, who is still with us and will be 86 next February 5.  I can’t vouch for the truth of the narrative, but what I have checked out seems right.

And a motorcycle made from balloons, taken from the Amazing Things FB page (Caption: “ok this guy is an artist! the whole thing made of balloons https://www.facebook.com/sam.cremeens”)

Two tweets from reader Barry. First a photo taken in the Library of Congress cafeteria, of all places. We have a plant in there!

Barry thinks this is a marmoset, but I’m sure it’s not. I believe it’s a sugar glider. What say you?

Two tweets from Heather Hastie. First, a miscreant tortoise, now with music:

And a real Chinese lucky cat. I suspect the owner is offstage giving cues, though.

From Matthew: Teddy, the vociferous porcupine, noms pumpkin. Sound up to hear both the nomming and Teddy’s lovely voice.

A goose and his staff go shopping at Wal-Mart. A lovely relationship, though the staff’s narration is a bit annoying;

This kauri tree lived for about 1500 years, long enough to document a near reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles. Click on the link to read more:

 

What Matthew calls an “oldie but goldie” from Doonebury. It’s of course from the Nixon era, but it’s strangely relevant today:

Friday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

October 4, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s Friday, October 4, 2019, and National Taquito Day (I doubt I’ve ever had one of these; what’s the point of a tiny taco?).  It’s also Cinnamon Roll Day, World Animal Day, National Denim Day (I’m wearing jeans), National Vodka Day, and the beginning of World Space Week.

I’m writing most of this on Thursday morning, as tomorrow I leave early to travel to Albany and then fly back to Chicago—via Baltimore! Will any ducks be at Botany Pond when I return? Stay tuned.

As of Thursday night, there were three ducks swimming around: a lovely drake (probably not Ritz), an unknown hen, and . . . HONEY!!!! I hope to see her at least one more time before she heads down the Mississippi Flyway. Yesterday I have reports that Wounded Warrior, the injured hen, now seems to have completely recovered and is swimming normally and flying in and out of the pond. This makes me very happy.

Stuff that happened on October 4 includes:

  • 1535 – The Coverdale Bible is printed, with translations into English by William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale.

This was the first translation of the entire Bible into modern English, and here’s the frontispiece:

  • 1582 – The Gregorian Calendar is introduced by Pope Gregory XIII.
  • 1853 – The Crimean War begins when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire.
  • 1883 – First run of the Orient Express. 

Here’s a poster from 1888 or 1889 advertising that luxury train, which went from London to Istanbul; the regular runs stopped in 1977 though there’s still an expensive tourist train that does the run from Paris to Istanbul:

  • 1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.
  • 1936 – The British Union of Fascists and various anti-fascist organizations violently clash in the Battle of Cable Street.

This was a famous pushback by the British public against Oswald Mosley’s “black-shirt” British Union of Fascists, who were Nazi sympathizers. I suppose you could call the protestors the first Antifa, but I like them a lot more than today’s Antifa. Here’s a short film:

  • 1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.
  • 1997 – The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs in North Carolina

The details of this one and and of the biggest cash robbery:

The Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery was a robbery of $17.3 million in cash from the Charlotte, North Carolina, regional office vault of Loomis, Fargo & Co. on the evening of October 4, 1997. .  This robbery was the second-largest cash robbery on U.S. soil at the time, as only seven months earlier, on March 29, 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida, Phillip Noel Johnson stole $18.8 million from the Loomis Fargo armored vehicle he was driving.

The perpetrators of both robberies were caught and most of the money recovered.

  • 2004 – SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight.
  • 2006 – WikiLeaks is launched.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1542 – Robert Bellarmine, Italian cardinal and saint (d. 1621)
  • 1861 – Frederic Remington, American painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 1909)
  • 1880 – Damon Runyon, American newspaperman and short story writer. (d. 1946)
  • 1895 – Buster Keaton, American film actor, director, and producer (d. 1966)
  • 1923 – Charlton Heston, American actor, director and gun rights activist (d. 2008)
  • 1943 – H. Rap Brown, American activist
  • 1976 – Alicia Silverstone, American actress, producer, and author

Those who passed on on October 4 include:

  • 1669 – Rembrandt, Dutch painter and illustrator (b. 1606)
  • 1904 – Carl Josef Bayer, Austrian chemist and academic (b. 1847)
  • 1944 – Al Smith, American lawyer and politician, 42nd Governor of New York (b. 1873)
  • 1947 – Max Planck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
  • 1951 – Henrietta Lacks, American medical patient (b. 1920)
  • 1970 – Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (b. 1943)
  • 1974 – Anne Sexton, American poet and author (b. 1928)
  • 1982 – Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist and conductor (b. 1932)
  • 2004 – Gordon Cooper, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1927)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili shows an unsual (but bogus) empathy:

Hili: This chair is not comfortable.
Sarah: So go on the bed.
Hili: I will lie here a moment in solidarity with cats who don’t have access to soft beds.
Photo: Sarah Lawson
In Polish:
Hili: To krzesło nie jest wygodne.
Sarah: To idź na łóżko.
Hili: Poleżę tu chwilę w ramach solidarności z kotami, które nie mają dostępu do miękkich łożek.

And in Wloclawek, Leon has clearly recovered from his illness:

Leon: Is supper ready yet?

In Polish: Jest już kolacja?

Would you get a tattoo like this? They are lovely, but I think my body shall remain unmarked:

Three tweets from Heather Hastie. Notice how the sneaky student hides the kitten from the teacher:

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1176267910400135168

A classic meme, this time with a bear:

A VERY hungry bird!

Tweets from Matthew Cobb. The first is an interesting case of convergent evolution, and in species with bright colors. The “super black” plumage exaggerates the brightness of adjacent color patches.

Do you think this pig is blowing bubbles for the fun of it?

This shows two things: Matthew has been feeling down, and there are dolphins swimming in the Potomac. I’m amazed (by the latter):

The Tribune Tower, the world’s only Gothic skyscraper, was the former home of Chicago’s best newspaper, and my favorite building in the city. Now it’s being turned into luxury condos.

Here’s what the building looks like. Flying buttresses!

Thursday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

October 3, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s Thursday, October 3, 2019, and as you read this I will be in Williamstown, Massachusetts, scheduled to give a talk at the extremely woke Williams College. But I’m avoiding all politics there, limiting my discussions to biology and free will. Posting will be very light today and tomorrow.

It’s also National Soft Taco Day (cultural appropriation), National Boyfriend Day, National Kale Day (Jebus, I hate that stuff, and that’s not good because it’s good for you), and National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day. Finally, Wikipedia tells us that “On social media: [it’s] ‘Mean Girls Day’, a widespread phenomenon in celebration of the film Mean Girls.  Why they’d celebrate that is a mystery.

Stuff that happened on October 3 includes:

  • 42 BC – Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight a decisive battle with Caesar’s assassins Brutus and Cassius.
  • 1283 – Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, is the first nobleman to be executed by hanging, drawing and quartering.

Perhaps you’re familiar with this gruesome method of execution from the film Braveheart, for it’s the way William Wallace was executed. Apparently the prince of Gwynedd was the first prominent person in recorded history to be executed this way. Wikipedia tells us how it went:

On 30 September [1283], Dafydd ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, was condemned to death, the first person known to have been tried and executed for what from that time onwards would be described as high treason against the King. Edward ensured that Dafydd’s death was to be slow and agonising, and also historic; he became the first prominent person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn and quartered, preceded by a number of minor knights earlier in the thirteenth century. Dafydd was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury attached to a horse’s tail then hanged alive, revived, then disembowelled and his entrails burned before him for “his sacrilege in committing his crimes in the week of Christ’s passion”, and then his body cut into four-quarters “for plotting the king’s death”. Geoffrey of Shrewsbury was paid 20 shillings for carrying out the gruesome act on 3 October 1283.

  • 1789 – George Washington proclaims a Thanksgiving Day for that year.
  • 1932 – Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.
  • 1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon to become the world’s third nuclear power.
  • 1957 – The California State Superior Court rules that the book Howl and Other Poems is not obscene.
  • 1981 – The hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends after seven months and ten deaths. [JAC: The dead included Bobby Sands.]
  • 1990 – The German Democratic Republic is abolished and becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1858 – Eleonora Duse, Italian-American actress (d. 1924)
  • 1900 – Thomas Wolfe, American novelist (d. 1938)

Wolfe is one of my favorite writers. Here’s a photo (he died at only 38):

  • 1916 – James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (d. 1995)
  • 1925 – Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (d. 2012)
  • 1941 – Chubby Checker, American singer-songwriter
  • 1949 – Lindsey Buckingham, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1954 – Stevie Ray Vaughan, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1990)

I discovered Fleetwood Mac only relatively late, well after they’d passed their peak. And now I marvel about how great they were, and what a good guitarist Buckingham was. Here he shows off his skills in a 2008 acoustic rendition of “Big Love” (beginning of clip to 3:45). It’s a good specimen of three-finger picking, and I’m especially impressed at how he plays a complicated melody at the same time singing with extreme soulfulness:

Those who snuffed it on October 3 include:

  • 1656 – Myles Standish, English captain (b. 1584)
  • 1867 – Elias Howe, American engineer, invented the sewing machine (b. 1819)
  • 1967 – Woody Guthrie, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1912)

Woody Guthrie died of Huntington’s Disease at age 55—a disease that also killed his mother and two of his daughters—after a long period of decline. Only two videos survive of him performing live. This is one of them, in which Guthrie performs “John Henry” with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee:

His famous guitar had a label: “This machine kills fascists”:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili laments the cold weather, which has already curtailed her nocturnal roaming:

Hili: Nuts are starting to fall off the trees.
A: So what?
Hili: It bodes ill; winter will come.
In Polish:
Hili: Orzechy zaczynają spadać.
Ja: No to co?
Hili: To źle wróży, będzie zima.

And in nearby Wloclawek, Leon has been sick, but he’s recovering now.

Leon: Perhaps it’s time to end being ill.

In Polish: Chyba muszę skończyć z tym chorowaniem.

 

From gravelinspector: the Quacktress is still peddling woo at her site:

A tweet from God about evolution:

From Barry: A dragonfly that thinks it’s a sexpot:

Two tweets from Heather Hastie. In the first one, a cat pwns a Robo-Vac:

And a tweet (via Ann German) responding to one of Trump’s tweets that said simply, “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT”:

Three tweets from Matthew. This first one shows that ducks don’t always like the rain:

Matthew said this tweet is going to make me feel old. It doesn’t—it makes me feel proud. “Spill the tea” will be one entry on a future “Words and phrases I despise” post. And “retweet” is old hat.

A cryptic moggie:

 

 

Monday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

September 23, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s FALL now in the Northern Hemisphere, as it’s September 23, 2019 and the equinox began this morning at 3:50 Eastern time. Google celebrates with a Doodle that links to the season:

But south of the Equator it’s now Spring, and here’s the Doodle they see:

It’s National Pancake Day. and also Celebrate Bisexuality Day, National Great American Pot Pie Day (when I was a kid we used to have these as “t.v. dinners”, on a tray in front of the television), and Restless Legs Awareness Day.

Stuff that happened on this day includes:

  • 1642 – First commencement exercises occur at Harvard College.
  • 1806 – Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
  • 1845 – The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.
  • 1846 – Astronomers Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.
  • 1909 – The novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera), by Gaston Leroux, is published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.
  • 1932 – The unification of Saudi Arabia is completed.
  • 1980 – Bob Marley plays what would be the last concert of his life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Marley died the next year of melanoma that had spread throughout his body. There is no video of his last concert, but you can hear snippets of the songs from that concert streamed here. Wikipedia reports this about his death:

While Marley was flying home from Germany to Jamaica, his vital functions worsened. After landing in Miami, Florida, he was taken to the hospital for immediate medical attention. Marley died on 11 May 1981 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami (now University of Miami Hospital), aged 36. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death. His final words to his son Ziggy were “Money can’t buy life.”

  • 1986 – Houston Astros’ Jim Deshaies sets a record, striking out the first eight batters he faces against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

However, it’s not an unshared record, for Wikipedia notes that “This feat was equaled by Jacob deGrom on September 14, 2014 and Germán Márquez on September 26, 2018.”  Finally, we have this:

  • 2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox (“Phoenix 0.1”) is released.

Here’s what it looked like:

Notables born on September 23 include:

  • 1889 – Walter Lippmann, American journalist and publisher, co-founded The New Republic (d. 1974)
  • 1899 – Louise Nevelson, American sculptor (d. 1988)
  • 1920 – Mickey Rooney, American actor, singer, director, and producer (d. 2014)
  • 1930 – Ray Charles, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (d. 2004)
  • 1949 – Bruce Springsteen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1970 – Ani DiFranco, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1971 – Sean Spicer, 30th White House Press Secretary

Those who croaked on this day include:

  • 1889 – Wilkie Collins, English novelist, short story writer, and playwright (b. 1824)
  • 1939 – Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (b. 1856)
  • 1987 – Bob Fosse, American actor, dancer, choreographer, and director (b. 1927)
  • 2014 – Irven DeVore, American anthropologist and biologist (b. 1934)

Here’s Freud’s famous couch, far more luxurious than I imagined, as it’s seen in London’s Freud Museum:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili contemplates the origin of her species:

Hili: How did cats domesticate humans?
A: Probably by reducing their inborn aggression with quiet purring.
In Polish:
Hili: Jak kot udomowił człowieka?
Ja: Prawdopodobnie łagodząc jego wrodzoną agresję cichym mruczeniem.

And nearby in Wloclawek, Leon is basking.

Leon: On the sunny side of the force.

In Polish: Po słonecznej stronie mocy.

I forgot the name of the reader who sent this, but thank you. 1971 was an okay vintage for claret (Bordeaux), but not spectacular.

Doc Bill posted this with a “NOOOOO!” I agree:

But wait: it gets worse!

Two tweets from Nilou. I investigated this first one, but apparently Captain Morgan’s (a spiced rum) had taken down the ID logon. But see the second tweet:

And, as she says “All roads lead to Gibraltar”:

From reader Barry. I wonder whether she simply went beyond the Bible passages, or whether Bible passages themselves can get you a Twitter ban:

https://twitter.com/MichaelPaulkov2/status/1175754975206621184

Two tweets from Heather Hastie. First, the Big Cat Who Couldn’t:

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1170411848115638278

Heather says that this is pretty much true for her, too:

Three tweets from Matthew.  This first one, as they say, “Wins the Internet”:

This is close to an optical illusion, a genre that Matthew loves:

Opals are my favorite stones, but they’re too soft to wear:

https://twitter.com/michaelgalanin/status/1174189885734998016?s=11

 

 

Sunday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

September 22, 2019 • 6:30 am

We have but one more day until summer goes away: it’s now Sunday, September 22, 2019, and National Ice Cream Cone Day. It’s also Daughter’s Day (note misplaced apostrophe: we’re not celebrating a single daughter), National Hobbit Day (although The Hobbit was first published on September 21), National Girls’ Night In Day, and National Elephant Appreciation Day (though there are no wild elephants in the U.S.)

Today’s Google Doodle is a gif that, if you click on it, goes to a number of sites about Junko Tabei, a Japanese woman and the first of her sex to climb Mount Everest, accomplishing the feat in 1975. But she also climbed the “Seven Summits”: the highest mountain on each continent, shown in this animation.

Here she is in action:

 

Stuff that happened on September 22 includes:

As Wikipedia notes, Jonson got off easy:

Tried on a charge of manslaughter, Jonson pleaded guilty but was released by benefit of clergy, a legal ploy through which he gained leniency by reciting a brief bible verse (the neck-verse), forfeiting his ‘goods and chattels’ and being branded on his left thumb.

  • 1692 – The last hanging of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials; others are all eventually released.
  • 1823 – Joseph Smith claims to have found the golden plates after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried.
  • 1888 – The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published.
  • 1896 – Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.
  • 1927 – Jack Dempsey loses the “Long Count” boxing match to Gene Tunney.

Tunney eventually won, though he might have lost had Dempsey been aware of the rule to go to a neutral corner after a knockdown. Here’s a video of the infamous “long count” (supposed to be ten seconds):

  • 1975 – Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but is foiled by the Secret Service.
  • 1979 – A bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.
  • 1980 – Iraq invades Iran.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1515 – Anne of Cleves (d. 1557)
  • 1791 – Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (d. 1867)
  • 1901 – Nadezhda Alliluyeva, second wife of Joseph Stalin (d. 1932)
  • 1902 – John Houseman, Romanian-American actor and producer (d. 1988)

Housemen, born in Romania and originally named Jacques Haussmann, acquired his English accent through education. He’s perhaps most famous for the role of the stern law professor Charles W. Kingsfield in the movie The Paper Chase (1973), also starring Timothy Bottoms and Lindsay Wagner. My favorite scene is in the trailer below, where, at Harvard Law School,  Kingsfield gives Hart a dime and tells him to call his mother. (Go here for a real law professor’s take on the accuracy of the movie.)

  • 1932 – Ingemar Johansson, Swedish boxer (d. 2009)
  • 1956 – Debby Boone, American singer, actress, and author
  • 1958 – Andrea Bocelli, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1959 – Saul Perlmutter, American astrophysicist, astronomer, and academic, Nobel Prize Laureate

“Time to Say Goodbye” (“Con ti partirò“) is Bocelli’s most famous song, and, as one of the best-selling songs of all time, has become somewhat of a cliché. But I still love it, and here’s his rendition (another famous rendition is a duet with Sarah Brightman, a great version of which you can hear here):

Those who bought the farm on September 22 include:

  • 1554 – Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, Spanish explorer (b. 1510)
  • 1776 – Nathan Hale, American soldier (b. 1755)
  • 1777 – John Bartram, American botanist and explorer (b. 1699)
  • 1828 – Shaka Zulu, Zulu chieftain and monarch of the Zulu Kingdom (b. 1787)
  • 1961 – Marion Davies, American actress and comedian (b. 1897)
  • 2001 – Isaac Stern, Polish-Ukrainian violinist and conductor (b. 1920)
  • 2010 – Eddie Fisher, American singer (b. 1928)
  • 2015 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1925)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is investigating a vole hole:

Hili: This black hole is swallowing everything.
A: You are exaggerating.
Hili: Well, everything that’s interesting.
In Polish:
Hili: Ta czarna dziura pochłania wszystko.
Ja: Przesadzasz.
Hili: Wszystko to, co jest interesujące.

And in Wloclawek, Leon, riding on Elzibeta’s shoulders, doesn’t say a word. I had to make up the Leon monologue.

Leon: If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

Malgorzata’s translation: Jeśli widziałem dalej, to dlatego, że stałem na ramionach olbrzymów.

From Amazing Things, a cryptic Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa). Photo: @AlanMurphyphotography. Since I can’t imagine much preys on these creatures, perhaps the crypsis hides it from prey.

Another owl from Amazing Things; it’s the Pic of the day by: @Elena Mikhaylova. I love this photo:

From Stash Krod. There’s one design flaw with this apparatus. . .

I will put up, over the next few weeks, tweets that Grania herself tweeted. First, Grania’s header:

Then, the last thing she posted:

https://twitter.com/AziraphaleDance/status/1138760324499300352

From gravelinspector:

Two tweets from Heather Hastie:

Her caption: “Just for the pleasure of hearing a cat purr”:

Tweets from Matthew. Guess what this first one is? A SPIDER!

Matthew says, “Big snake!” Indeed. Go to the story to read about the snake, a green anaconda, and I’ve put the video below:

From Wikipedia:
The green anaconda[Eunectes murinus] is the world’s heaviest and one of the world’s longest snakes, coming to 5.21 m (17.1 ft) long. More typical mature specimens reportedly can range up to 5 m (16.4 ft), with the females, around a mean length of 4.6 m (15.1 ft), being generally much larger in adulthood than the males, which average around 3 m (9.8 ft).  Weights are less well studied, though reportedly range from 30 to 70 kg (66 to 154 lb) in a typical adult.

 

Friday: Hili dialogue (and Leon monologue)

September 20, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s Friday, September 20, with one day to go until Fall. In a month I’m off to Antarctica for five+ weeks, and this website will experience its first serious hiatus (internet is dicey on a ship in Antarctic waters, and I’ll be busy lecturing). I ask for your indulgence during that lacuna! Would that Grania were here to fill in, which she would, but that won’t happen any longer.

It’s National Rum Punch Day, as well as National Fried Rice Day, National Pepperoni Pizza Day, and National String Cheese Day. It’s also National Gibberish Day, “dedicated to a type of speech that is nonsensical, or appears to be so” (viz., our “President”).

I saw a bunny on my way to work, and got pretty close, but the iPhone photo is lousy. Still, you can see the creature’s tapetum lucidum. (Also, using my Drosophila net, I rescued a wren caught in the breezeway who couldn’t find the open exit to the outside. I am proud of myself.)

There’s a new Google Doodle today celebrating the Rugby World Cup. The event will be held in Japan from Sept. 20 through November 2. When you click on it (below), you go to a page of upcoming games (today Russia plays the host nation Japan. Australia plays Fiji, New Zealand plays South Africa, France plays Argentina, and Italy plays Namibia):

Stuff that happened on September 20 includes:

  • 1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, ends in a Confederate victory.
  • 1881 – U.S. President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in, the morning after becoming President upon James A. Garfield’s death.
  • 1893 – Charles Duryea and his brother road-test the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.
  • 1962 – James Meredith, an African American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

Meredith was finally allowed to enroll on October 1, but not until Attorney General Robert Kennedy (and the National Guard) intervened and the racist Governor Ross Barnett decided it wasn’t in his interest to keep out the University’s first African-American student. Here’s a photo from the time, labeled as “US Army trucks loaded with steel-helmeted US Marshals roll across the University of Mississippi campus on October 3, 1962.”

  • 1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.

Here’s some scenes from the match (the sound starts about 9 seconds in). I remember that the nation was transfixed, but these days, thank Ceiling Cat, there wouldn’t be much interest in a “battle of the sexes”:

  • 1973 – Singer Jim Croce, songwiter and musician Maury Muehleisen and four others die when their light aircraft crashes on takeoff at Natchitoches Regional Airport in Louisiana.

Note: Croce died on his birthday (see below); he was only 30.

  • 2001 – In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a “War on Terror”.

He should have said a “War on Terrorism”; it wasn’t the terror he was going after.

  • 2011 – The United States military ends its “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.

Notables born on this day include:

  • 1878 – Upton Sinclair, American novelist, critic, and essayist (d. 1968)
  • 1884 – Maxwell Perkins, American editor (d. 1947)
  • 1899 – Leo Strauss, German-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1973)
  • 1913 – Sidney Dillon Ripley, American ornithologist and academic (d. 2001)
  • 1934 – Sophia Loren, Italian actress

La Loren is 85 today. Here’s a photo of her with my dad on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, ca. 1956. She was about 22 at the time. (My dad is on her immediate right.)

  • 1977 – Chris Mooney, American journalist and academic. [Remember “I must have struck a nerve” Mooney? He’s gone very quiet.]

Those who went six feet under on September 20 include:

  • 1586 – Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (b. 1558)
  • 1793 – Fletcher Christian, English lieutenant and mutineer (b. 1764)
  • 1863 – Jacob Grimm, German philologist and mythologist (b. 1785)
  • 1947 – Fiorello H. La Guardia, American lawyer and politician, 99th Mayor of New York City (b. 1882)
  • 1973 – Jim Croce, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1943)
  • 2006 – Sven Nykvist, Swedish director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1922)

This is my favorite Jim Croce song, which I see as a miniature masterpiece. It was the first song of his I ever heard, and I was transfixed when I listened. Wikipedia reports that “The story was inspired during Jim Croce’s military service, during which time he saw lines of soldiers waiting to use the outdoor phone on base, many of them calling their wives or girlfriends to see if their Dear John letter was true.”

Here he is performing the song live, accompanied by Maury Muehleisen, who died in the same plane crash that killed Croce.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is being vain:

Hili: Do I have such huge ears?
A: It’s lengthened shadow.
Hili: A fraud.
In Polish:
Hili: Czy ja mam takie wielkie uszy?
Ja: Nie, to wydłużony cień.
Hili: Oszust.

And everywhere in Poland, Fall has arrived.

Leon: Why are you surprised? It’s autumn.

In Polish: Co się Dziwisz? Jesień!

A stupendous ultrasound of a (human) woman, and Proof of Ceiling Cat, from reader Graham. Look at the cat in there!

From Stash Krod: “Expose yourself to art.”

Pork socks on sale at Wish; not suitable for Jews or Muslims:

There are no more tweets from Grania. I saved some of her emails, but I can’t bear to look at them.

This is one I found about Bret Weinstein’s views on evolution, which I wrote about yesterday. I absolutely deplor Lingford’s statement that Bret’s a “moron” (that’s bloody rude!), for he’s the opposite of that, but you should read the whole thread to see a less but critical take on Bret’s views. There’s a video, too, but I’ll discuss that later.

From reader Barry: faith versus fact. I’m wondering why this guy even goes to church!

From Dom, a lynx photobomb. It’s BEHIND HIM!

A tweet from Heather Hastie. She says, “It’s a puppy, but it’s cute.”

Tweets from Matthew. This is a very bizarre ritual, and though I don’t like the dead cat, I wonder what this is all about:

A caracal (Caracal caracal) catching a bird. Look at the leap in the second tweet! (There are more videos in the thread.)

Yes, a very good idea, but if the pilot hits the power lines he’s cooked!