It’s Friday, April 28, 2017, and it’s National Blueberry Pie day. The best specimen of that genre I ever had was a lowbush (wild) blueberry pie from Helen’s Restaurant in Machias, Maine: a mixture of cooked and uncooked berries in an open-top crust, piled high with real whipped cream. If you’re in Maine and it’s blueberry season, go to Helen’s–no matter how far you have to drive. It’s also National Heroes’ Day in Barbados (is Rihanna included?).
On this day in 1789, the mutiny on the Bounty took place, with Fletcher Christian and 18 sailors set adrift, winding up settling on Tahiti and Pitcairn Island. Here’s a trailer for the 1935 film version starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable:
On April 28, 1923, Wembley Stadium was opened, and on that date in 1932, a vaccination against the yellow fever virus was announced (I’ve had the shot). On this day in 1945, Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were killed by a firing squad, and then their bodies publicly displayed and degraded. Two years later, Thor Heyerdal and his mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to determine if South Americans could have settled Polynesia (n reality, the Polynesians came from Southeast Asia). On Apri 28, 1967, Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army as a self-declared conscientious objector. He was convicted of a felony but never served time, and the Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
Those born on this day include James Monroe (1758), Lionel Barrymore (1878), Kurt Gödel (1906), Blossom Dearie (1924), Harper Lee (1926), Ann-Margret (1941), Jay Leno (1950) and Penélope Cruz (1974). Those who died on this day include Benito Mussolini (1945) and Francis Bacon (1992). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s quoting Hebrew from the Biblical story of Belshazzar’s Feast. Where does she learn this stuff?
Hili: Mene, Tekel, PeresA: What do you mean?Hili: It’s time to pay bills again.
Hili: Mane, tekel, fares.Ja: O co ci chodzi?
Hili: Znów trzeba płacić rachunki.
Out in Winnipeg, Gus got into mischief. The report from his staff:
Here’s a Gus pic from yesterday. Gus jumped into the laundry basket (clean laundry, naturally) and proceeded to clean his feet. That’s why it’s called ‘the wash’, isn’t it?
In Montreal, Linux Bernie, the new dog of readers Anne-Marie and Claude, WON the tape test. When I inquired whether the picture below was a setup, with the d*g put into the square, I was told that L.B. walked into the square, and then was simply told to “sit.” Does that count as winning?
Lagniappe—a tweet:
Recently discovered Wyman’s frozen Maine wild blueberries. Highly recommend.
This just in :
TJ’s frozen wild blueberries (Canadian) just as good as the Wymans.
There is a story about Thor Heyerdal, (apocryphal?) that he had been at the BBC for an interview, & was waiting for a taxi. A driver arrived & Heyerdal said, “I think you have come for me…”
“No mate,” said the driver, “I’m here to pick up four Airedales.”
Bligh was indeed set adrift, but it was a mutinous Christian who settled on Pitcairn.
Indeed; I’ll correct, thanks.
It’s still showing up wrong for me:
And most of the male descendents of the men who settled on Pitcairn have been sexually abusing, including via incest, most of the women for at least decades. Some have finally been convicted, but in many cases they just go back to the island and live the same as before. The only real way to stop it would be to destroy the community altogether.
Sorry to put a downer on a very cool Hili’s Dialogue.
All the animals are as cute as ever, and I love the giant squirrel!
I’m sure Gus thinks the washing was put there just for him, and who can blame him?
Do to instructions passed to the dog you probably need to disqualify. Speaking of where Gus is, just put some clean clothes down anywhere and that is where the cats will be.
5 ft squirrel? I’d hate to see its nuts.
A sometimes forgotten story of the Mutiny on the Bounty: William Bligh and his men navigated (rowed!) over 4000 miles to Timor, the nearest place Bligh figured they could be safely rescued. He did this with only a compass and quadrant, no charts or chronometer. And he lost only one man, that in a fight with natives as they stopped for supplies. Amazing feat.
The 1962 version of Bounty, featuring Marlon Brando’s affected performance, is something of a camp classic.
seems there was a lot of celebration of Mutiny of the Bounty but Fletcher Christian was not a good man
Wow, Ann-Margret came from the backwoods of Sweden, scrounged up against the Norwegian mountains. Valsjöbyn.
I have been south and north of there, but never passed to Norway in between I think.
I find it mildly ironic that instead Easter Island Polynesians visited South America (and made it back). Different results, different means.
Funny HTML fail, the second link is unintentional.