The Last Supper

April 4, 2022 • 10:00 am

I show below the final dinner on the MS Roald Amundsen on Saturday evening. It was the final meal before a hurried breakfast the next day. expected a fancier feed than usual.  It was a bit fancy, though I missed my burgers and milkshake in “The People’s Restaurant,” the Fredheim.

I hied myself to the Aune restaurant a bit after six, when it would be less crowded and one could see the sunset. Here’s a panorama, although there’s a smaller dining space (with equally good views) to the left:

And the courses, described (and spelled) as on the menu:

“Potato waffel, lemon cream, semi dried tomato and crispy onion.”

It sounds like a weird mixture, and it was (they didn’t mention the asparagus). A dry “waffel” didn’t meld well with an only slightly cooked onion and the “lemon cream.”

The waiter asked me what I thought of it, and I said, “It wasn’t very good.” So he brought me a half-bowl of another appetizer on tap: also a mixture of strange things.

“Apple, parsnip & potato soup, diced green apple, goat cheese, walnuts.” This dish was okay, even though unusual. I couldn’t detect the walnuts.

The main course, one that’s often offered on “special nights.”

“Beef Wellington, asparagus, mushroom, onions, mashed sweet potato and madeira sauce.”

This was pretty decent, but the pastry had gotten soggy and there really wasn’t any need for all those mushrooms around the beef. The beef was cooked properly—medium rare—but didn’t taste very beefy.

Finally, dessert: “Omelette Norvégienne”, which the waiter called “Baked Alaska”. It wasn’t really a baked Alaska for the meringue was cold, though the ice cream was. It was still good and the mango sauce was a definite plus. As usual, desserts in the Aune are the best courses.

And so back to Chicago after a decent breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn.

Soon I’ll be kicked out of my room and will have to cool my heels for several house in the “crew room” downstairs until I head over to the airport (a 10-15 minute walk) to catch an 8:30 flight to Houston.

In the meantime I’m anxiously awaiting an email with the results of my mandatory PCR test for covid, which I took at 9:30 this morning. A negative result is required to board the plane to the US, and the test must be taken no more than 24 hours before the first flight on the way home.

If things go awry—and one can’t be assured that they won’t—I won’t be allowed on the plane. I’m sure I don’t have covid, but not so sure that the testing company (two people with swabs, test tubes, and ice buckets) will get the results to me in time. They said they would, but hey. . . .

Wish me luck!

Monday: Hili dialogue

April 4, 2022 • 6:45 am

Where I am now: writing on my laptop in bed at the Santiago Airport Holiday Inn. It was a nightmare getting here from the ship: TONS of paperwork to disembark and then, in the heat, a packed, un-airconditioned bus with a crazy driver who first got us stuck in a traffic jam and then GOT LOST and had to get out and ask directions. Then he let all the crew off about a 15-minute hike in the heat from the hotel, with many of them had havingbeen on the ship for months and trying to haul tons of luggage. What should have been a 1.5 hour trip maximum took about four, and I’m still recovering after quaffing tons of water. (Once again my thirst was slaked within seconds.)

My lovely view of Terminal 1:

(I’ve recovered after breakfast.)

See how much I can kvetch when I just came back from a fantastic month in Antarctica? It should have chilled me out literally and figuratively, but here I am back in the rat race of documents, schedules, and airports, and the anxiety is already seeping back into my psyche.

Well, welcome anyway to Monday, April 4, 2022:  National “Cordon Bleu” Day.  What is that, you ask? Wikipedia is your friend!

A cordon bleu or schnitzel cordon bleu is a dish of meat wrapped around cheese (or with cheese filling), then breaded and pan-fried or deep-fried. Veal or pork cordon bleu is made of veal or pork pounded thin and wrapped around a slice of ham and a slice of cheese, breaded, and then pan fried or baked. For chicken cordon bleu chicken breast is used instead of veal. Ham cordon bleu is ham stuffed with mushrooms and cheese

And what does the name mean?

The French term cordon bleu is translated as “blue ribbon”.[4] According to Larousse Gastronomique cordon bleu “was originally a wide blue ribbon worn by members of the highest order of knighthood, L’Ordre des chevaliers du Saint-Esprit, instituted by Henri III of France in 1578. By extension, the term has since been applied to food preparation to a very high standard and by outstanding cooks. The analogy no doubt arose from the similarity between the sash worn by the knights and the ribbons (generally blue) of a cook’s apron.”

I’ve never had any dish of this type. Here’s chicken cordon bleu:

And for a couple more days I’ll ask readers to help me out by going to the Wikipedia page for April 4 and singling out in the comments any notable events, births, or deaths.

*Here’s today’s banner headline (online) from the New York Times. Click to read:

The top news:

As the world reacted in horror to images of dead bodies lying in the streets of Kyiv’s suburbs — some with their hands bound — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called on Western leaders to take tougher steps to ensure that the killings blamed on retreating Russian forces were the “last manifestation of such evil on earth.”

The photos of civilians, who Ukrainian officials said had been executed, prompted some European leaders to demand further sanctions against Russia, potentially including a cutoff of Russian gas. But European Union nations remained divided on Monday over such a drastic step, underscoring the bloc’s dependence on Russian energy, even as some Western allies said that Russia had committed war crimes.

Russia denies executing civilians, and these incidents have not been absolutely confirmed, but I doubt that the Ukrainians would fake these executions. That would involve shooting their fellow citizen in the head and then binding their hands! Here’s one example:

In Bucha, bodies lay in yards and roadways days after Russian troops withdrew from the area. A mother described burying her daughter under plastic sheeting and boards after Russian forces shot her. At a mass grave, a pile of excavated dirt lay nearby to pile onto bodies, as shoes and body parts protruded from a thin layer of earth.

And nobody can claim that these civilians were executed because they were acting as soldiers, bearing weapons, firing at Russians, and therefore “available” to be shot. That doesn’t fly because these people had been captured, and even if they were apprehended in combat they should at worst be POWs. Plus some of them are children. This is the sign not of war, but of genocide.

*The EU, dependent on Russian gas, is still reluctant to tighten the sanctions further by cutting off that gas, but it’s very strange that the EU would still do business with a regime that is involved in genocide of Ukrainians.

*I would have thought that Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine would have boosted his popularity, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. An op-ed in the Washington Post frets about the Prez’s low approval rating and why it remains so low (41%!):

Democrats who hoped that the strong monthly job numbers and the war in Ukraine would buoy Biden’s poll numbers have been thoroughly disappointed. After a brief rise in early March, the president’s approval rating sits at a lowly 41 percent in the RealClearPolitics average. The party’s chances of holding the Senate rest on a knife edge at best, and the prospects of a Democratic House next year grow dimmer by the day.

“I’m not quite sure what the disconnect is between the accomplishments,” [Hillary] Clinton told NBC’s Chuck Todd, “… and some of the polling.” But the answer is clear: In a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, the top two issues for Americans were inflation (32 percent) and the economy (27 percent). Bloomberg economists estimate that inflation will cost households an extra $5,200 this year. And as I noted last fall, though the administration may be proud of its achievements, many Democrats and most independents think Biden has accomplished little as president.

And he’ll accomplish even less if the Democrats lose big in the midterms. The author, James Downie, recommends that the Dems adopt the tactics that Amazon workers used in Staten Island to successfully unionize:

Like those Amazon workers, Democrats cannot be afraid to fight. Just because a handful of moderate holdouts have derailed key parts of Biden’s legislative agenda doesn’t mean the struggle is over. While a president has no boss to “antagonize,” Democrats can take on other people’s bosses — both proverbial and literal. Building on the president’s “billionaire minimum income tax” with executive actions to lower drug prices, strengthen overtime, boost worker protections and tackle student debt will provide immediate relief to millions and reinvigorate unmotivated voters.

Well, I’d like to hear what James Carville has to say.

*Former basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has an eponymous Substack site, and it’s a good one, ranging thoughtfully over a range of topics. The man is a polymath: the next thing you know he’ll be making breakfast foods: “Kareem of Wheat.” But seriously, folks, his pieces are well worth a look, and one of the best is his take on Slapgate, called “Will Smith did a bad, bad thing.”   (h/t: Richard) An excerpt:

Some have romanticized Smith’s actions as that of a loving husband defending his wife. Comedian Tiffany Haddish, who starred in the movie Girls Trip with Pinkett Smith, praised Smith’s actions: “[F]or me, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives.”

Actually, it was the opposite. Smith’s slap was also a slap to women. If Rock had physically attacked Pinkett Smith, Smith’s intervention would have been welcome. Or if he’d remained in his seat and yelled his post-slap threat, that would have been unnecessary, but understandable. But by hitting Rock, he announced that his wife was incapable of defending herself—against words. From everything I’d seen of Pinkett Smith over the years, she’s a very capable, tough, smart woman who can single-handedly take on a lame joke at the Academy Awards show.

This patronizing, paternal attitude infantilizes women and reduces them to helpless damsels needing a Big Strong Man to defend their honor lest they swoon from the vapors. . . .

*Reader Malcolm recommends we read the post by David Lat at Original Jurisdiction: “Is free speech in American Law schools a lost cause?”  There’s no firm prognostication, but Lat says this:

One final thought: I can’t believe I’m having to write a defense of a free-speech regime in which people listen respectfully to the other side, even when they find the other side’s views abhorrent, as opposed to a free-speech regime where “freedom” belongs to whoever can yell the loudest. You would have expected—and hoped—that law students, as future lawyers, would understand the value of the former and the problems with the latter.

When these law students become lawyers, and many of them have to go to court or a negotiating table, they will have to listen to the other side—whether they like it or not, and no matter how “offensive,” “triggering,” or “violent” they find the views of the other side to be. Shouting down opposing counsel, then claiming that you’re just engaging in your own form of “free speech” or “zealous advocacy,” will not fly in the world beyond Yale Law School.

*And another op-ed article for your delectation, with the link sent by several readers. From Microsoft News via Newsweek: “Scientific institutions are going woke—and hemorrhaging credibility.” This is not news to many of us immersed in academic science, but people might be startled at the degree to which ideology has infused science.  The piece is a bit exaggerated (for example, I don’t think that the fulminating wokeness of science is the reason people are resistant to science like covid advice, but there’s certainly truth it it:

This phenomenon is called institutional capture, which refers to what happens when organizations get caught in a moral puritanical movement and lose sight of their primary missions—as places of knowledge, objective learning, and the free exchange of ideas.

And then these same organizations are befuddled when the public doesn’t trust them on critical issues such as vaccines or climate change.

Part of the issue is that scientific institutions are signaling allegiance with progressive culture war causes. This not only turns off half the population on the other side of these debates (as well as many on the center), but it makes these organizations appear ideological rather than neutral. They appear untrustworthy—or even nuts.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn: Hili muses on how the war puts things in perspective:

Hili: I wonder.
A: What about?
Hili: What were we worried about before the war?
In Polish:
Hili: Zastanawiam się.
Ja: Nad czym?
Hili: Czym martwiliśmy się przed wojną?

And here is Karolina cuddling an unhappy Kulka, with a caption and the explanation:

Caption: “Today there is an Advent retreat in school and Karolina stayed at home, for she would as soon sit in a Polish Mass as in a Turkish sermon.”

In Polish: Dziś w szkole rekolekcje, więc Karolina zostaje w domu, bo siedziałaby na polskiej mszy jak na tureckim kazaniu.
Malgorzata’s explanation:  “In the strange hidden theocracy in Poland,  all nominally secular schools are obliged to send all Catholic pupils to the church a few times a year for a religious retreat. Non-Catholic pupils stay at home. And the explanation for ‘Turkish sermom’:. It’s a popular description of something totally incomprehensible.

Some takes on Slapgate sent by Divy:

And a cat toy (for staff, actually), sent by Nicole:

From Jesus of the Day:

 

Here are the top recent searches on this website. The answer to the second question is “YES!”

I don’t know which of the cakes in the second tweet below is the most amazing, but I have to say that the oyster cake is truly remarkable. I have no idea what that first tweet is about, but I couldn’t embed the second without the first (I’ll have to learn to do that some day):

As I mentioned earlier, for some reason I get a small selection of tweets sent to me daily in my Gmail account. I don’t know how this happened, but there’s some good ones. Here’s one:

And here’s another (I really AM sick of long threads). If you often have a lot to say, get a website!

And yet another:

Tweets from Matthew. Go to the reddit video for full appreciation:

Ukrainian soldiers and their cats (there’s some other animal in there, too):

Well, I’ll be! Did you know there were gastropods with two shells?

Translation of the tweet below from Google:

One of the shellfish in Okayama prefecture that must not be forgotten is the snail Tamanomidorigai, which has a bivalve-like shell but is actually a snail. In 1959, Professor Shiro Kawaguchi (at that time) of the Tamano Seaside Experiment Station, Okayama University, surprised the world by reporting raw shellfish for the first time. It has antennae, eyes, and radula, and the fetal shell at the top of the shell is rolled, so it is a clear snail. It grows on Iwazuta in the tide zone. …

Would you put this in your home?:

Sunday: Hili dialogue

April 3, 2022 • 6:30 am

Where we are now: The ship’s real-time map shows us where we should be: at the docks in Valparaiso, the port for Santiago. I was awake when we pulled up alongside the pier at 5:30 or so, and docking was surprisingly smooth:

The passengers will begin leaving the ship at about 8 a.m., and, as crew, we leave last: a bit before noon.  Then to the airport hotel to cool our heels. I have a PCR test tomorrow morning and my flight leaves tomorrow evening, arriving in Houston about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning

The harbor at Valparaiso; it seems that half the Chilean Navy is here:

And its fabled hills. I spent four or five days in this town in 2019, waiting for our late ship to arrive.

Rabbit at rest: A panorama of the docks; we’re moored next to a bunch of cargo containers.

Greetings on a Santiago Sunday: it’s, April 3, 2022, National Chocolate Mousse Day, an estimable dessert when made properly, as at Chez Denise in Paris.

If you want to help out with “this day in history”, go to the Wikipedia page for April 3 and give us your favorite notable events, births, and deaths.

Before you read the news below, take today’s New York Times news quiz, with eleven questions. I got eight, and failed the pop-culture and sports questions, as well as the Coors question.

*The NYT “big story”, which was a banner headline last night, says that Russian troops seem to have given up trying to take Kyiv. An especially horrifying report involves evidence (not yet verified by the media) that the Russians executed some civilians directly. Click screenshot to read:

However, it is a banner in the Washington Post (click to read):

The major news from the NYT:

As Russian troops retreated from areas outside Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, they left behind devastation that is only now becoming clear. Civilians have emerged from basement shelters to clamor for bread distributed by the Ukrainian soldiers retaking territory. The husks of destroyed tanks clutter roads. Mines and booby traps have been hidden amid the wreckage. Bodies lay uncollected in streets littered with debris.

The dead include civilians, some of whom Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of executing. Footage posted by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and photographs from The New York Times and Agence France-Presse showed the bodies of men in civilian clothes on the streets of Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv. In one photo, three people were seen lying on a roadside beside a pile of wooden pallets, blood darkening the ground beside them, one with white cloth binding his hands.

It’s not clear if the Russians will renew their assault on Ukraine’s capital or have retreated and regrouped for a fresh attack, but what is clear is that much of the city is in ruins and the assault continues in the eastern part of the country, with missile attacks on Odesa. This picture of people grabbing for loaves of bread in Kyiv, given (uncredited) in the NYT, shows how desperate the situation is:

Despite reports that Zelensky and Putin would meet for peace talks in Istanbul, that appears to be b.s.:

Russia’s chief negotiator in peace talks, Vladimir Medinsky, rejected a Ukrainian counterpart’s suggestion that Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could soon hold direct talks. Mr. Medinsky said the two sides remained far apart on the status of Crimea and the eastern Donbas region, both of which are claimed by Russia. Russia says the status of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, is settled, while Ukraine has proposed a 15-year negotiation process.

And, the “evacuation” of Mariupol by the Red Cross, scheduled for yesterday, once again failed as the relief convoy didn’t reach the city. It’s clear that the Russians don’t want this to happen, but the Red Cross will try again today.

From the Post, discussing Russia’s withdrawal from around Kyiv:

The shift reflects a recognition in Moscow that Russia can no longer accomplish its original goals, analysts say. After making initial gains, its forces have stalled on most of the fronts they advanced on, and they have meanwhile suffered huge losses in terms of equipment and soldiers.

*Remember Oberlin College’s battle with Gibson’s Bakery, with the court ruling that Oberlin, after repeatedly libeling the bakery by accusing it of racism, awarded $50 million in damages? That seems ages ago, and it was (see my posts here), and one of the bakery’s owners has since died, but there’s good news for Oberlin now. According to the Wall Street Journal, an appeals court has upheld the huge fine on the College, which has been having severe financial troubles:

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Ohio Court of Appeals handed down a long-awaited decision Thursday in the case of Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College. The court dismissed all of Oberlin’s appellate claims and confirmed the jury’s finding that the college, a small private liberal arts institution in rural Ohio, was liable for libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional interference with a business relationship. It then upheld the trial jury’s award to Gibson’s Bakery of $11.1 million in compensatory damages, $33.2 million in punitive damages and $6.3 million in attorneys’ fees.

The appellate judges held that while the trial court had properly found that “the student chants and verbal protests about the Gibsons being racists were protected by the First Amendment,” what separated Oberlin and placed it in a financial vise was the active, irresponsible and defamatory actions of several of its senior administrators. Rather than try to resolve the matter early on or use the resulting guilty pleas as a lesson, Oberlin actively sought to punish Gibson’s Bakery for having a different perspective, for standing by the arrest of the three Oberlin students, and for exercising its right of legal redress.

If I know Oberlin, they’ll further bankrupt the school by appealing higher up (if they can under the law). They’ve already had to put $36 million in escrow, and will eat up more in lawyers’ fees if they pursue this case. It’s time for them to cut their losses.

*The Washington Post gives a number of suggestions (with illustrations) about how to sleep on a plane. They don’t show the best way, which is to have an entire row of seats to yourself and lie down on them. Barring that, and when I have an aisle seat (my favorite), my own position is “The Risky Business,” which does get your legs bumped by people walking by and by passing carts.

*How can you resist reading an article, like this one in the NYT, called “I got lost in a Tokyo station and found the perfect comfort food”?

Kakuni translates to “square simmered” in Japanese. It’s pork belly cooked in a trinity that’s largely synonymous with the country’s cuisine: sugar, sake and soy sauce. The most expensive ingredient is time. But cooking kakuni is wildly simple: After frying your pork lightly for color, you simmer the meat until it’s soft to the touch, rendering most of the fat. This allows the base ensemble to imbue your meal with silky, molten flavor. For all of its simplicity, the dish is wildly consoling. You’re just as likely to find it chalked across the menu board of a bar as in the weeknight rotation of somebody’s home.

. . .Before my first bites of kakuni, my interactions with pork belly were seldom and sporadic: It generally wasn’t my cut of choice. I didn’t eat much bacon as a kid. I hadn’t yet fallen in love with Korean barbecue. Among the Jamaican pork dishes I grew up on, thicker cuts were generally used. And the same was true of the many banh mi I’d wolfed down across Houston, and of the backyard cookouts I’d been privy to in Texas: Great care was taken to avoid the pig’s fattiness. I didn’t know what I was missing.

So I took one bite. And then another. Each chew felt like strumming an entirely new set of chords: velvety and heartening, heightened by its directness. Then it was gone.

A photo and its caption from the article. Be sure to have plenty of rice and cold beer on hand!

Chris Simpson for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas.

*Finally, the Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes saga has been made into an 8-hour Huli miniseries called “The Dropout”. Reviews are generally positive, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a critics score of 89%.  Amanda Seyfried is particularly singled out for her portrayal of Holmes, even getting that voice accurate. Here’s a trailer, though. I can’t watch it as I’m still on the ship:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron are protective:

Szaron: Do you see this crow?
Hili: I do; she probably thinks that it’s her garden.
In Polish:
Szaron: Widzisz tę wronę?
Hili: Widzę, pewnie myśli, że to jej ogród.
Here’s Karolina kuddling Kulka:

A cat meme from Barry, which is true:

A news sign photographed by Dom. How did this happen?

From Anna:

An Scottish search-and-rescue dog named Skye retires and gets a well-deserved award (retweeted by Ricky Gervais; sound on):

From Simon: An April Fool’s tweet, but one from New Jersey’s real governor:

From Barry, another April Fool’s tweet:

And one more:

Tweets from Matthew. Yes, the story is well known of Darwin’s orchid and the later discovery of the moth he predicted could pollinate it. Now, though, it’s even more interesting: the linked paper shows (for a fee if you don’t have library access!) that male moths (but not females) can respond to bat sonar by jamming it, stymying the predator. Why not the female moths? I don’t want to pay for the paper when I can get it free in Chicago. A minimum of $10, and it goes higher: highway robbery!

I think I’ve posted this one before, which Matthew called “light hearted relief” from the war. It is. If you’ve seen it, well, here it is again:

I’m always amazed by how much stuff these creatures can pack into their cheek pouches.

The best for last: Mother duckling, helped by staff, walks her 10 ducklings, who hatched in the enclosed courtyard of a hospital, though the maternity ward of a hospital to “freedom”. I’ve put the Facebook video below, though I can’t tell whether “freedom” involves what it should: a safe pond or lake (I can’t see the video on the ship).

 

Chile: Days 32 and 33

April 2, 2022 • 2:15 pm

And so our trip comes to an end: a month of sailing and many glories seen, many penguins photographed, many icebergs floating by.

For over two days we’ve been sailing almost due north toward Valparaiso, and we arrive at about 6 a.m. tomorrow.  At about noon I’ll disembark (i.e., “leave”). The next night, assuming I’ll pass my second PCR test for covid in 2.5 days, I’ll fly back home for a several-week respite before the next trip.

There’s really nothing much to tell about the last few days. We’ve had lectures to watch, though none of them have been recorded, meals on tap, recaps of the trip, which just make me nostalgic and the sea all around. A whale was reported off the starboard bow this morning, but when I got up on deck there was a big crowd with binoculars but of course the whale was gone.

All I can proffer as my final post is a map and the one meal I’ve eaten (in the Aune) since my last report. Food first, with the menu descriptions:

The daily bread basket in the Aune. I’m reduced to posting pictures of rolls!

“Chicken liver pate, grilled rustic bread and cornichon.”

This is why I ate in the Aune yesterday: to try this dish: “Reindeer roasted root vegetable and wine sauce.”

The meat was very lean, as you can see, and very tender, but lacked flavor. But at least I got to try reindeer.

As Ishiguro would call this, “The remains of the plate.” It reminded me of an abstract painting.

Chocolate soufflé. As usual, dessert was the best dish of the meal, served piping hot with a poached strawberry:

The Expedition Team kept a running map of our journey (this is the second one; the route was different on my first). We started in Punta Arenas, took the Beagle channel to the South Atlantic, and then headed to the South Shetlands. We wound around the Antarctic Peninsula for a few days, and then headed north, passing Cape Horn. After tooling around the fjords for a couple of more days, we exited to the Pacific. Now it’s full steam ahead for Valparaiso, where the ship will refuel and head north to Alaska and then through the Northwest Passage back to Norway. But that last trip will, I think, be without passengers.

Here’s an enlargement; the Team conveniently numbered the high spots. For me? It’s hard to match the beauty of the Lemaire Channel, and of course any place with penguins is a high spot. I still say that if you can get.yourself down here once in your life, do so. I’ve never seen anything like it. And don’t forget Torres del Paine National Park as a side trip. I did that in 2019, and it’s stunning.

My favorite picture from the trip (click to enlarge the next two):

And second favorite picture. Sense any theme?

Fellows of New Zealand’s Royal Society demand apology and full review of the Society after poor treatment of two members

April 2, 2022 • 11:00 am

I don’t want to repeat the whole saga of the Royal Society of New Zealand and its defense of “other ways of knowing”, but here are a few steps leading up to this post that you can glean from my collection of posts on the issue.

1.) The New Zealand government has begun a policy that will facilitate teaching Mātauranga Māori (“MM”), or Māori “ways of knowing”, as coequal to science in secondary school science classes. Many universities have taken this up as well. The problem is that MM, while containing some practical wisdom about things like when to hunt or pick berries, is also heavily larded with superstition, religious claims, morality, and legend passed down by word of mouth over centuries. MM claims, for instance, that the Polynesians discovered Antarctica in the early seventh century; a completely unsupported and unrealistic claim. MM is also explicitly creationist. Thus teaching the contents of MM as coequal to science, and not interior to it—modern science is, after all, said to be racist and “colonialist”—is a bad strategy, one that will confuse students and drag New Zealand further down in its already-low ranking of science education among comparable countries

2.) In response to the government’s policy, seven professors at The University of Auckland wrote a letter (“In defence of science”) to the NZ magazine The Listener While arguing that MM is essential to be taught as a form of cultural inheritance and a force for devising policy, “it falls far short of what we can define as science itself.” That happens to be a fact. The purpose of the letter was not to denigrate Maori culture, but to argue that its “way of knowing” was not science, as well as to defend science itself.

3.) Enraged by this fact, academics, many Kiwi academics, and writers, as well as Māori people and sympathizers, attacked the letter and its seven writers, calling them bigoted and “racists.” This is because New Zealand is an overly woke nation, so that saying that MM falls short of science itself is, to many, equivalent to saying that “Māori are an inferior people.” (In fact, one of the signers, Garth Cooper, has Māori heritage.) In response to this misperceived racism, counter-letters were written and petitions were circulated. Given the climate of the country, few people wanted to come forward to defend the “Satanic Seven” who signed the letter.

4.) Worst of all, the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ), devoted to honoring those who do good science, also attacked the Listener letter and its signers by issuing the following statement (it’s now disappeared from the RSNZ site):

The last two paragraphs are particularly odious, asserting that yes, MM is science and that arguing otherwise causes unspecified “harm.”

5.) The foreign press got wind of this after several non Kiwi-scientists, including Richard Dawkins and I, issued public statements and wrote to the RSNZ about their ridiculous accusations. In the meantime, several people complained to the RSNZ that two of its members who signed the letter, philosopher Robert Nola and biochemist Garth Cooper, were guilty of unprofessionalism and of causing harm.

6.) The RSNZ launched a preliminary investigation of Nola and Cooper and, after having attacked them and their fellow signers in the now-vanished RSNZ statement, decided that the two members had done nothing wrong. The investigation was dropped. No apology was tendered to Nola or Cooper, who then resigned from the RSNZ in disgust.

But things aren’t over yet. This whole kerfuffle left a bad taste in people’s mouths, especially because many who agreed that MM is not equivalent to science were too afraid to say anything, lest they get punished or even fired (see below). I got a lot of emails from New Zealanders who sided with the Satanic Seven but were scared as hell to say anything in their defense. Talk about chilling of speech! On this issue, at least, New Zealanders were acting like advocates of China’s Cultural Revoution.

I’ve just obtained a petition/letter signed by 73 Fellows of the RSNZ objecting to the treatment of Cooper and Nola by the Society and calling for both an apology to the pair (a third Fellow sho signed had died in the interim) and a thorough investigation of the RSNZ’s practices and underhanded way of investigating its members. The petition is below the line, and a lot of what they call “big noises” have signed. The signers call for three motions to be brought before the RSNZ; the motions were proposed by Gaven Martin and seconded by Marston Conder.

I include the list of signers.

To Paul Atkins (CEO RSNZ)

The Fellows, listed below as cosignatories, wish to express their deep concern about what has been happening within the Royal Society of New Zealand over the last year, by moving and seconding the motions below for discussion at the at the 56th hui ā-tau o Ngā Ahurei Annual Fellowship on 28th April.

Many of us have lost confidence in the current Academy Executive and Council, whose actions seemingly have brought the society into disrepute, shutting down useful debate and bringing international opprobrium from leading scientists. We are further concerned about the lack of agency that Fellows have following the many restructures of the Society over the last several years, and the spending of fellowship fees to cover lawyers’ costs and, presumably, public relations consultants to defend the Society’s very poor processes and actions.

In particular:

1. We believe that the content of the initial statement posted by the RSTA on its website in August 2021 about the controversy generated following the Listener letter on the relationship between mātauranga Māori and Science was ill-conceived, hasty and inaccurate in large part.

2. We are appalled at the mishandling of the formation of the initial committee set up by RSTA to investigate the complaint, the length of the process, and the handling of the publication of the outcome, which suggests both that the RSTA cannot decide whether mātauranga Māori is or is not Science, and impugned the integrity of two eminent Fellows.

3. It is extremely unfortunate that this process has led to the resignation from this Academy of two of its distinguished Fellows. One is a renowned philosopher of science, and the other is perhaps the strongest scientist of Māori descent in the society and is someone who has been active in supporting Māori students in education for decades, and who, along with other experts in Science, offered an expert opinion that was rejected by the Society as being without merit, and characterised as racist by members of the Academy Executive (and current and former Councillors).

We therefore move that:

1. Both the Society and Academy write to Professors Cooper and Nola, and to the Estate of Professor Corballis, and apologise for its handling of the entire process.

2. The Society reviews its current code of conduct to ensure that this cannot happen again, and in future the actions of the Academy/Council are far more circumspect and considered in regards to complaints concerning contentious matters.

3. The entirety of the RSNZ/RSTA entity be reviewed, examining structure and function and alignment with other international academies, and the agency given its Fellows upon whom its reputation rests.

Moved: Gaven Martin (Massey University)

Seconded: Marston Conder (The University of Auckland)

Cosignatories: (in alphabetical order)

Marti Anderson (Massey University)

Geoff Austin (University of Auckland)

Edward Baker (University of Auckland)

Debes Bhattacharyya (University of Auckland)

Dick Bellamy (University of Auckland)

Douglas Bridges (University of Canterbury)

Gillian Brock (University of Auckland)

Linda Bryder (University of Auckland)

Alan Bollard (Victoria University of Wellington)

Brian Boyd (University of Auckland)

John Caradus (Grasslanz)

Howard Carmichael (University of Auckland)

Garth Carnaby (University of Auckland)

John Chen (University of Auckland)

Mick Clout (University of Auckland)

Jill Cornish (University of Auckland)

Grant Covic (University of Auckland)

Dave Craw (University of Otago)

Max Cresswell (Victoria University of Wellington)

Fred Davey (retired)

Stephen Davies (University of Auckland)

Alison Downard (Canterbury Univeristy)

Rod Downey (Victoria University of Wellington)

Geoffrey Duffy (University of Auckland)

Joerg Frauendiener (Otago University)

Rob Goldblatt (Victoria University of Wellington)

Stephen Goldson (Agresearch)

Rod Gover (University of Auckland)

Russell Gray (Max Planck/UoA)

Frank Griffin (University of Otago)

John Harvey (University of Auckland)

Bruce Hayward (Geomarine Research)

Janet Holmes (Victoria University of Wellington)

Peter Hunter (University of Auckland)

John Harper (Victoria University of Wellington)

Bruce Hayward (Geomarine Research)

Manying Ip (University of Auckland)

Mac Jackson (University of Auckland)

Geoff Jameson (Massey University)

Steve Kent  (Hon.; University of Chicago)

Estate Khmaladze (Victoria University of Wellington)

Bakh Khoussainov (University of Auckland)

Matt McGlone (Victoria University of Wellington)

Neil McNaughton (University of Otago)

Miriam Meyerhoff (Oxford University)

Michael Neill (University of Auckland)

Eamonn O’Brien (University of Auckland)

John Ogden (Emeritus Fellow)

Jenni Ogden (Emeritus Fellow)

David Paterson (Oxford University)

Paul Rainey (Max Planck/Massey)

Raylene Ramsay (University of Auckland)

Ian Reid, (University of Auckland)

Mick Roberts (Massey University)

Viviane Robinson (University of Auckland)

Clive Ronson (University of Otago)

Peter Schwerdtfeger (Massey University)

Barry Scott (Massey University)

Charles Semple (Canterbury University)

Vernon Squire (Otago University)

Mike Steel (Canterbury University)

ATS (name withheld until 28 April)

Kim Sterelny (Australian National University)

Rupert Sutherland (Victoria University of Wellington)

Jeff Tallon (Victoria University of Wellington)

Marcus Ulyatt (ret)

Matt Visser (Victoria University of Wellington)

Jack Vowles (Victoria University of Wellington)

Joyce Waters (Massey University)

Geoff Whittle (Victoria University of Wellington)

Chris Wild (University of Auckland)

Colin Wilson (Victoria University of Wellington)

Christine Winterbourn (Otago University)

Gaven Martin then transmitted the motions to officials of the RSNZ with his own cover letter, below, which I have permission to publish. Here it is. The recipient list includes the Chair of the Academy as well as the President of the RSNZ. I have put the third point in bold because it shows the climate of intimidation that besets not just the RSNZ, but the whole country when it comes to issues about its indigenous people.

[From]: Gaven Martin

To: Paul, Brent Charlotte, Marston

Dear Paul (and  Charlotte and Brent and blind cc)

Please find attached three motions with a supporting letter, which we expect to be tabled at the 56th hui ā-tau o Ngā Ahurei Annual Fellowship meeting (hereafter AGM) on the 28th of  and circulated to Fellows before then.

The motions are moved by myself, seconded by Marston Conder, and have nearly 70 Fellows as co-signatories obtained over three days.

I would make the following additional comments.

    1. The inclusion of each co-signatory has been validated by an email confirmation held by two of us.
    2. A number of other Fellows have said (in writing) that they will support these motions in a vote, but do not like the idea of sending letters with lots of signatories.
    3. Sadly several other Fellows have also indicated they will vote in favour,  but because of the potential harassment and bullying they believe they would receive (from some current and former members of the Academy and the RSNZ Council, and from colleagues in senior and other positions within their University), they do not wish to disclose their names in this document, especially if it becomes public.  Many younger Fellows and others have said (again in writing) that their jobs would be at risk signing this letter.  Two Fellows (major RSNZ Medalists) said this: “Better not (sign) at this stage – … I agree with all the statements – but you can’t imagine the pressure being put on us. I will vote for the motion though.”, and “In confidence I am disillusioned with RSNZ and I am too scared to sign anything for fear of what may happen to me at UoA if I do so”.  This is a startling indictment of the situation in the research community in NZ at the moment, and of the way in which the RSNZ handled and exacerbated the controversy over the letter to the Listener.
    4. A few of the co-signatories are Emeritus Fellows,  and believe they might have no voting rights, but they sincerely wish to express their opinion on these matters.
    5. If you are not able or willing to circulate this to all Fellows ahead of the AGM,  then please let us know at your earliest convenience (and at least before 14th April), so that we can ensure it happens, and we can also let Fellows know of your inability or unwillingness to do so.
    6. We  have no wish to see the Society harmed further than it has recently harmed itself, but manifest changes are necessary to remedy the very low levels of accountability of the Council and Academy. In particular, Fellows should be accorded more agency, so that the current disconnection between RSNZ and its Fellows is reduced.
    7. As no doubt you are aware, currently there is considerable media interest in the attached document.  We have endeavoured to keep this confidential, but we cannot ensure these issues will remain in confidence leading up to 28th April

Regards

Gaven Martin

This cover letter will be distributed to all signatories on Monday 28th March.

Note that this is both a free-speech issue, bearing on the right of fellows to say what they think in public without suffering official consequences, but also an issue of the credibility of the RSNZ itself, which has publicly aligned itself with MM and thus debased real science. This is a problem with the whole educational establishment in NZ, and it starts at the top with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Maybe this has escaped her notice, but she may want to pay attention since her nation is becoming fractured by ethnic divides. Teach MM in schools: of course; teach MM as equivalent to science: no. Not unless, that is, Ardern wants her nation to become simultaneously woker and more ignorant.

The RSNZ has now distributed the signed letter/petition to its members and scheduled a meeting to discuss the motions on, as its notice says, “Wednesday, 13 Paenga-whāwhā April 2022”.  The agenda, which I’ll discuss in another post soon, is, as one person wrote me:

“. . . . larded with Māori activities that have become “traditional” in all sorts of settings (educational, governmental, even business) over the last few years of wokeness: a mihi (Māori welcome), waiata (songs: the words are given in Māori, without translation), and karakia (prayer): to conform to recent conformist practice, to establish where the RS sits in terms of respecting Māori culture, and, if you like, to exert systemic control, to establish the climate of thought which you’d be wiser not to resist.
There is no singing of either of New Zealand’s two national anthems (yes, it has two): God Defend New Zealand and God Save The Queen. That would be “colonialism.”

 

How can there be a fair discussion of MM in such a meeting? Well, perhaps there can be, and we can always hope that the three motions above are passed. Stay tuned.

Caturday felids trifecta: The rabbi’s cat; Freddie deBoer muses on his cat at 10; and manly men who love cats

April 2, 2022 • 9:30 am

Today’s Caturday will be short and sweet as I’m busy packing and taking care of last-minute business.

First, from BoingBoing we have a blurb for an animated movie you might want to see. Click on screenshot:

I’ve read two volumes of the graphic novel by Joan Star (there are 11), and thought it was great; but I haven’t seen the animated film.  Since the animation was made in 2011, I’m not sure why it’s being highlighted only now, but who cares? The film is highly rated, getting a 94% critic’s review score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Outside of the Japanese, the French have to be my favorite nationality when it comes to animators. I don’t think anyone can touch the beauty of fluidity of French animation. The film that acted as my sherpa through the lush expanse of French cartoons was The Rabbi’s Cat.

Based on Joann Sfar’s comic of the same name, The Rabbi’s Cat is a stunning work of magical realism with an incomparable visual style. As the title would indicate, the film’s protagonist is the house cat of a rabbi that gains the power of speech after devouring a parrot. Armed with his new silver tongue, the cat begins courting his owner’s daughter—who he mistakingly believes is his mistress—and plunges the family and the entire town into chaos.

The film is a rollicking romp that delves into religion’s place in modernity, war, racism, and how to compartmentalize grief – all through the eyes of an atheist cat that wants to become Jewish to marry a human. You gotta love the French, man.

Indeed! You can’t say that this is simply an adventure/chase film!

There’s a trailer for the English-language release, below, but I haven’t even seen this as there’s no streaming video aboard the ship. But I’ve inserted the link so you can see it:

***************

Readers have recently put me on to Freddie deBoar and his eponymous Substack site, and I like a lot of the stuff he writes.  Yesterday he published a paean to his still-living cat, Suavecito, who just turned ten. “Suavecito” is a brand of hair pomade, but also a popular Cuban song written in 1929; the name means “soft” or “smooth”. (deBoer doesn’t explain the cat’s name, but it’s a good one.)

The paean is a single sentence with no capital letters, and refers to a future apocalyptic time when all humans are gone but animals remain and rule. It’s also somewhat of a lament for death in general as Suavecito ages.

Here’s one excerpt. deBoer certainly loves his cat—as all staff should!:

in this next world the great stone canyons of Manhattan will sit indifferent to the demise of the species that built them, providing shade for lazy dogs that pack together in vast hordes, chewing their fleas, and deer will come to crowd the tombs that once housed subways, and rare eagles that used to live only above the Nordic fjords will come to nest among the gargoyles of the Chrysler building, and a mother bear will teach her cubs to fish in Prospect Park Lake, and the five boroughs will become a realm of myth and prophecy, and rising above all the other beings that hunt and claim land in this vast land will be, my Lord, you! you will be legend! you will move confidently and unthreatened across a teeming landscape of wise and untroubled creatures, most regal of all, and though no humans will remain to make statues of you, the whole vast sweep of the plains across which you unhurriedly journey will be the only memorial you need

and so today, April 1st, I cradle you while I can, knowing that my people’s time grows short, while ahead of you lies prehistoric plains that will grow like pinnacled corn from the human ossuary, and you will be lord and master of a vast kingdom that flourishes beneath your radiant example, and I say happy birthday, you are my friend, I know that you will never die

****************

Here’s another cat film, this time touted by the Good News Network, not a place to read about Jesus but to absorb feel-good stories). Click on the link to read about how manly men love cats:

The film is called Cat Daddies, has just been released, and is about eight “unique” men who are hopelessly devoted to their moggies:

The idea arose after director Mye Hoang noticed a softening of her husband after the pair adopted their first cat: a change deep down that was hard to understand. Taking to Instagram, she found a number of men hopelessly devoted to doting on their furry friends, and wanted to find out more; to document the changing conditions of masculinity in society.

. . . .An actor/influencer, a truck driver, a school teacher, a firefighter, a software engineer, a police officer—these men lead very different lives and can be found all over the country.

Yet they’re united in the love for their cats. An experienced directing/producing team captured how each and every cat proved the catalyst for something special and unique in their companions’ lives, from adventure, to comfort, to a feeling of purpose.

“It’s about being ok for men to show their compassionate and vulnerable side and how that should all be part of the definition of strength and leadership,” said Hoang in an interview. “Cats promote caring for others, both animal and man. Now during a pandemic, we know very plainly how pets contribute to our mental health and wellbeing. In the end, this is a film about taking care of each other.”

The film’s page (link above) shows that it’s received a lot of awards and selections for screenings.  So far there are only three critics’ reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes site, but all are very positive. One compares it to the 2016 film Kedi (“cat” in Turkish), a documentary about the feral cats of Istanbul that is perhaps the best cat film I’ve seen (Kedi has a 98% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes; watch it even if you’re not a huge cat fan.)

Here’s the trailer for Cat Daddies, but, still on the ship, I can’t watch it.

h/t: Barry, Merilee, Robyn

Saturday: Hili dialogue

April 2, 2022 • 7:30 am

Where we are now: The ship’s real-time map shows us heading inexorably towards Valparaiso, the port city for Santiago, where we’ll disembark tomorrow morning (as crew, I leave the ship at about 11). From there it’s an hour by bus to the Santiago airport, where I spend one night, leaving on the evening of April 4 (after yet another PCR test to get into the U.S.).

A closer view showing us recently passing Coronel and Concepción (see below):

Since we’re passing Concepción and Coronel (red arrow above), I did what reader Pyers asked me, and saluted the shore from the ship:

Tip a hat to the 1,600 men killed at the Battle of Coronel which was fought on the 1st of November 1914.  It was the first defeat suffered by the Royal Navy in 100 years and was inflicted by Graf von Spee’s East Asiatic Squadron, which itself would be destroyed a few weeks later on 8 Dec 1914 at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, with the loss of 1,800.

Coronel is on Chile’s central coast, only 32 km from Concepción. Wikipedia says this about the battle:

The engagement probably took place as a result of misunderstandings. Neither admiral expected to meet the other in full force. Once the two met, Cradock understood his orders were to fight to the end, despite the odds being heavily against him. Although Spee had an easy victory, destroying two enemy armoured cruisers for just three men injured, the engagement also cost him almost half his supply of ammunition, which was irreplaceable. Shock at the British losses led the Admiralty to send more ships, including two modern battlecruisers, which in turn destroyed Spee and the majority of his squadron on 8 December at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

Greetings on the Cat Sabbath: it’s Saturday, April 2, 2022: National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. I’m willing to bet that of all sandwiches consumed in America on any given day, more of them are PB&J sandwiches than any other type. In fact, perhaps more than half of all sandwiches are PB&J, but I wouldn’t bet on that.

If you want to help out with “this day in history”, go to the Wikipedia page for April 2 and give us your favorite notable events, births, and deaths.

Below are today’s headlines from the New York Times, now compressed to the upper-right corner (click on screenshot to read):

The news summary:

Russian troops are in retreat from areas surrounding Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, military analysts and Ukrainian officials say, a stunning reversal in what could signal a broader shift in Russia’s assault in the sixth week of war.

It is unclear if the Russian troops are gone from the areas near the capital and further north for good or are trying to regroup after weeks of intense Ukrainian resistance and crippling logistical failures. But they appear, at least for now, to be following through on Russia’s stated intentions to focus more on the east where they already have a strong foothold and where military analysts said they are already scaling up their attacks.

. . . In the eastern part of the country, Russia’s main efforts are now focused on capturing the port city of Mariupol and solidifying control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to an analysis from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank. Local officials on Saturday said that fighting had intensified in some parts of the region.

The Red Cross convoy scheduled for yesterday, which was supposed to escort citizens out of Mariupol and to deliver supplies, was canceled as the Russians didn’t provide the needed security guarantees. They’re going to try evacuating again today but the convey keeps getting canceled over and over. Who can doubt that it’s the Russians’ fault—that they want those citizens trapped and starved?!

*In other news, the U.S. is going to deliver Soviet-made tanks to the Ukrainians (where are those tanks coming from?) and Russia has announced that it’s ending its cooperation with both the U.S. and Europe on the International Space Station.

*The Washington Post reports that Ukrainians are rushing to evacuate children with cancer. The stories are heartbreaking, as much of the treatment of these children was done in Russia, which is no longer possible, and treatment shouldn’t be interrupted. As we see so often, people are pitching in to help:

Even brief disruptions in the finely calibrated chemotherapy and radiation protocols of the young victims can be disastrous, oncologists say, meaning their transport has to be fast, reliable and supervised even in the calmest of times.

During this war, what has emerged is an elaborate network focused on evacuating some of Ukraine’s sickest kids. Doctors, nurses and specialized volunteers from dozens of countries have cobbled together a pipeline of way-station clinics, buses, ambulances and a hospital train to funnel cancer patients and their families out of the country, to a “Unicorn Clinic” in central Poland, and from there to pediatric centers around the world.

Those who make it out — more than 700 children so far — are becoming some of the most celebrated refugees. One flight to Paris was met by the French first lady. Jill Biden last week visited patients who had been flown to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

*The Hill, following up a report from Axios, reports that Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki will be leaving her position some time this spring for a job at MSNBC. It’s not a sure thing, but here’s what The Hill says:

Psaki’s upcoming departure was first reported by Axios on Friday, with the sources confirming it to The Hill. Psaki will leave the White House for the network around May, according to Axios.

The news follows speculation over whether the press secretary was looking for a job at MSNBC or CNN and while Psaki has been out of the briefing room this week with COVID-19.

Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has also been out with COVID-19. White House communications director Kate Bedingfield has held most of the briefings, which was seen as an opportunity to effectively audition for the post.

. . . Psaki has worked with the White House counsel’s office about her departure and no contracts have been signed yet, Axios reported. Additionally, she has talked to senior officials about the move but has not formally announced it to the press team.

Presidential Press Secretaries seem to last about a year these days. Is it a matter of a higher salary at MSNBC? I don’t blame her, actually, because the job of Press Secretary must be a trying one; you have to lie, dissimulate, or coddle the Chief Executive. As of 2021, Psaki was making about $180,000 per year, and you can expect that to be considerably higher if she becomes a correspondent for MSNBC.

*John McWhorter’s NYT column this week draws a parallel between two spontaneous but unfortunate incidents: Biden’s off-the-cuff remark that we can’t let Putin stay in power, and Will Smith’s infamous slap of Chris Rock at the Oscars after Rock joked about Smith’s wife’s baldness. McWhorter attributes the slap to a black “beef” culture which resembles the new “get personal” kind of discourse that Biden used:

In this vein I suspect that Smith was, on a certain level, performing for Black America, supposing that many of his Black fans would see him as going to a perhaps unideal extreme, but one that might be warranted when a man decides to “stand up” for his woman. Smith seems to have been trying for something vernacular, as it were, not unlike Biden letting go with his unfiltered personal take on Putin. But the Oscars incident was a smack seen around the world, where so many saw not “how we do it,” but violence, period.

. . [Smith] was correct to apologize, however awkwardly and self-servingly. Hitting somebody at the Oscars — or at all — cannot qualify as a valiant refusal to put aside what are widely thought of by people of all races as accepted norms. Anyone who harbors the idea that Smith’s actions are understandable should reconsider. There is no lens, including one that reckons racially, through which we ought process assault as a kind of permissible vigilantism.

We live in times when we are taught that authenticity, however defined, is the enlightened default. There’s something to that — at times. But both Biden and Smith would have been better off allowing that sometimes uptight is just right.

*Andrew Sullivan has just had a run-in with a once-popular comedian; an interaction Sullivan he summarizes in his latest Weekly Dish piece, “The problem with Jon Stewart.” I used to like Stewart, but, as Sullivan points out, he’s getting woker and woker. This was on full display when Stewart basically conned Sullivan to fly up to New York to do an interview on race. Sullivan agreed to the request so long as it would be a one-on-one and not a debate. Stewart’s people lied and said, yes, that’s it. But it wasn’t:

But just before the taping, as I emerged blearily from Dishing, I found out, in fact, that there would be two other guests, and that it would, indeed, be a debate. Surprise! As the show started, I also realized for the first time there was a live studio audience and that the episode was called “The Problem With White People” — a title I’d never have been a party to, if I’d known in advance. (I wouldn’t go on a show called “The Problem With Jews” or “The Problem With Black People” either.) At that point I should have climbed carefully off the stake, tamped down the flames, made a path through the kindling, and walked away.

It was the whole 1619+ mishigass, and I’ll give one more excerpt:

Jon Stewart’s insistence that Americans had never robustly debated race before 2020 is also, well, deranged. Americans have been loudly debating it for centuries. There was something called a Civil War over it. His claim that white America has never done anything in defense of black Americans (until BLM showed up, of course) requires him to ignore more than 300,000 white men who gave their lives to defeat the slaveholding Confederacy. It requires Stewart to ignore the countless whites (often Jewish) who risked and gave their lives in the Civil Rights Movement. It requires him to erase the greatest president in American history. This glib dismissal of all white Americans throughout history, even those who risked everything to expand equality, is, when you come to think about it, obscene.

[The problem of black inequity] is much more complex than that. And it’s that complexity that some of us are insisting on — and that Stewart wants to dismiss out of hand in favor of his own Manichean moral preening. His final peroration ended thus: “America has always prioritized white comfort over black survival.” Note: always. There has been no real progress; white people have never actually listened to a black person; America is irredeemably racist. Those fucking white men, Lincoln and LBJ, never gave a shit.

It gets even more acrimonious and interesting when Sullivan is forced to debate the head of an organization called “Race2Dinner.” But I’ll let you read that for yourself. It’s a good column.

*Finally, Will Smith, who slapped Chris Rock during the Oscar awards, has resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after the whole world came down on him. (The Academy is in fact who gave Smith his Best Actor Award for his performance in “King Richard”):

[Smith] described his actions in a written statement as “shocking, painful, and inexcusable.”

“The list of those I have hurt is long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, all those in attendance, and global audiences at home,” he continued. “I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. I am heartbroken.”

Smith said he “will fully accept any and all consequences for my conduct.”

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Karolina is being a little overenthustic in her love for the cats. She tends to grab them and move quickly around them as she’s so energetic, and so the kitties tend to run away when she’s around! Andrzej is trying to teach Karolina to be gentle with Hili, Szaron, and Kulka. Here Hili objects a bit to being rousted:

Karolina: I love cats.
Hili: Can you do it more quietly?
In Polish:
Karolina: Kocham koty.
Hili: A czy możesz to robić ciszej?

First axolotls on Mexican currency, and now the new Scottish ten-pound notes have OTTERS on them! I like this trend. (From In Otter News).  I’m glad they’re not muskrats chewing on cheese.

An artist cat by Harry Bliss, sent in by reader Elsie:

There are tons of pictures of Ukrainians with cats, fleeing with cats, and Ukrainian soldiers with cats. Conclusion: Ukrainians love cats!

From Titania. She’s had a realization, and it has some truth in it. I can’t help but wonder if this signals that her satirical account might soon end. . .

i

Sarah’s tweet below got considerable attention, both pro and con. I tend to agree with her, but then what do you call your dentist—with whom you’re friendly but not on a first-name basis— when you meet him in the street? “Hi, Joe”?  Maybe just “hi”,or “hi doc”?   Using titles is fine in a professional context, though. Read the thread to see all the vehement agreement and dissent.

A tweet from reader Ken with some commentary (reader Andrew also sent this tweet):

Turns out, Ginni Thomas (wife of SCOTUS justice Clarence) was in another cult before Trumpism — Lifespring (although the embedded deprogramming video was recorded in 1986, not 1989):

From Dom. I’m not sure this is a real eBay item, but if it is, didn’t the seller wonder why the scoops would look so strange?

Tweets from Matthew. About this first one he says “This was in Oxford. Crick had his PhD viva in August 1953.” (Note that Crick’s highest degree at the time was a master’s.)

Look at the shiny butt on this bug!

A chemistry lesson with cats:

And some excitement in Dodo Land: