Mon 12 May 2008
Midnight Monday with Nicky
Mon 5 May 2008
Man Cat Monday: Nicky meets Maddie
Maddie the dog, who’s visiting our yard uninvited from next door, is large and strong. Our black Man Cat Nicky is much smaller than Maddie, but he isn’t running away from her either.
It takes more than a big dog to scare Nicky… a loud noise from the highway in the distance, well… a cat can’t be too careful.
Thu 1 May 2008
Thursday Thirteen #17: Things I Learned Last Month
Photo for Thursday Thirteen graphic from Free Image Gallery
(1) F-bombs away: If and when you get stuck in some company’s voice mail jail, using profanity may not only be good for blowing off steam, it may also actually get a human on the line. Just the same, Miss Manners begs of you, please don’t.
(2) In New York City, someone has been taking discarded plastic bags and turning them into street art. A creation is tied to the ventilation grate above a subway line, and when a train passes, the air inflates the bag-creation and brings it to life in the shape of an animal.
(3) For the past month, we’ve sponsored Black Jordan at Best Friends, but yesterday, they emailed me the good news that Black Jordan has been adopted. As a result, we are now sponsoring a special little cat who goes by the name of Scooter:
 |
 |
|
| Black Jordan | Scooter |
(4) How to write a song, and other mysteries: “We … proceed to vent and hash out our thoughts and feelings, our anger and frustrations, our longings and hopes and try to gently coax them into the shape of a song. And that song must have the three H’s in it…”
(5) Desktop video processing programs have allowed people around the world to release their inner Coppola. While the manual can help a person learn the technical side of putting together a little video for YouTube, the only filmmaking training most of these amateurs have had consists of what they remember from watching something else. That includes me — I try something I saw or heard somewhere, and if it feels like it works, it stays in.
When choosing music for the soundtrack, I know it’d be easy to rip something from a CD, but to stay on the safe side, I look for royalty-free music first. The music on this video, which shows our own little Nicky and his sisters, was composed and recorded by Kevin MacLeod, and posted at his website, Incompetech.com.
A newer site called SoundSnap seems promising for soundtracks as well.
(6) People who remember the Nixon administration will probably nod their heads at this phrase: “Mike Wallace interviewing Henry Kissinger.” Then comes the curveball: Mike Wallace interviewing Henry Kissinger during the Eisenhower Administration — in July 1958.
(7) I try not to be a fanatic about anachronisms and other movie continuity errors, but I notice things that stick out. A person could spend a lot of time learning what others have noticed and subsequently posted at Nitpickers and Continuity Corner.
(8) Here’s a light, green, and meatless recipe for spring rolls, courtesy of Diva Kitty’s Mom. I wonder whether she’s ever tried to crochet a cat hat for Diva Kitty Sophia?
(9) Rumble strips on the edge of the Pennsylvania Turnpike or other U.S. highways are called SNAPs, short for Sonic Nap Alert Pattern.
(10) In professional wrestling terminology, a good guy is a “Face”, short for babyface, and the term for a bad guy is the charmingly old-fashioned “Heel”.
(11) The federal Do Not Call Registry is proof that government can do good things for its citizens. Sign up, and telemarketers can’t call you without breaking the law. When the list began, there was a requirement to re-sign up every 5 years, but you don’t even have to do that anymore. It’s once and done for your home landline, and it’s also illegal to make junk calls to cell phones using automatic dialers.
(12) Kelly’s tummy problems have been much improved since we started feeding him only Stinky Goodness. We gave him a little dry food a couple of times since, but he had the same trouble keeping it down as before. One blogger must be nodding knowingly, because she has already learned six reasons not to feed dry cat food, one of which is euphemistically listed as “gastro-intestinal disorders.”
(13) And finally, speaking of food, a pavilion that was sponsored by the gas industry at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair was called “Festival of Gas.”
Now, I’m not the first nor likely to be the last to learn that there was a restaurant in that pavilion. Yes, you could eat at a place by the name of “Festival of Gas.”
Despite the name, the Festival was considered a good place to eat. No information on whether beans were on the menu…
Tue 29 Apr 2008
What is a Good Cat? Nicky, falling with style
Nicky wants to jump down from the deck like a Good Cat, but the little black cat hesitates because Kelly keeps getting in his way. (Watch also for cameo appearances from Caitie and Lizzie.)
Tue 22 Apr 2008
What is a Good Cat? Charming and disarming
Reaching back a few years, when Nicky really was un gatito…
We’ve never had a problem with the cats clawing the furniture, having trained them to use the cat tree in the living room instead. But after several years of daily scratching, many of the carpeted areas on the tree were pretty ragged and shabby — not the kind of thing you want in the living room when visitors arrive. It took several trips to area stores to find a replacement, but at last we found a nice cat tree on sale, and brought it home and put the old one in the basement. The new one has carpeted areas for the cats to lie upon, like the old one, plus sisal rope and cedar logs for them to sharpen their claws. At least, that’s what the cats are supposed to use. However, Pat came downstairs one morning and found Nicky vigorously clawing some of the carpet on the new tree. Without raising her voice, she said in mock exasperation, “Nicky, we just got this and you’re shredding it. If you keep this up, in a month this will look as bad as the last cat tree.” She paused in her extra-gentle chastisement and looked at the kitten, who had stopped clawing, but he didn’t appear to be feeling guilt or shame for his actions. In fact, he was purring contentedly. When Pat told me the story, the first thing I thought of was the line from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”: “It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens … that, whatever you say to them, they always purr.” |
|
Pat’s gentle chastisement was also about as effective as the quiet riot act Alice read her own black kitten in Chapter One of “Through the Looking Glass”. And, this being the Internet and all, here’s the whole book. So we know that cats purr (especially Good Cats). The next question is: Why? This page might have the best answer of all. But if you really want to know the answer to something, you need to send your question to Cecil Adams (and his loyal assistant Ed Zotti) at The Straight Dope. |
