Sadly, one person for whom I’d earmarked a free ticket for the Cats vs. Dogs event is unable to use it, so I’m putting it up for grabs. It’s in Manhattan this Saturday, so you’ll have to live nearby.
The event is this one:
I was going to offer it to the first person who responded, but that doesn’t seem fair, as not everyone’s at their computers. So you have a few hours to win the ticket by entering a simple contest: tell me, in one sentence, why you would like to go to this event. CONTEST CLOSES AT 3 p.m. Chicago time, so you have a bit more than three hours. Check the site at 4 p.m. Chicago time to see the winner. And the winner must email me ASAP so I can put the name in at the “will call” office.
I have prepared an awesome argument for cats, though it’s only 8 minutes long. In fact, Team Cat will kick derriere.
I hope it will get recorded, this time?
I don’t know, but I don’t think so.
Any chance you can ask the winner to remember to use the “record voice memo” function of a smartphone placed in a shirt pocket?
b&
I would love to go because the look on the faces of the pro-dog side when they inevitably lose will be delectable.
Cats and dogs? What’s next, people living together?
I can’t go (because I don’t live in Chicago anymore), but I would like to because I am sure this will settle matter once and for all. (*cough* dogs)
It’s in NYC in Manhattan not Chicago, if that makes a difference.
D’oh! My mistake; read too fast, need new glasses, something…. I did think 37th St. In Chicago was an odd locale. Alas, it is equally far away.
I must attend because the PAWsibility of a dog being voted a suPURRior animal is too CATastrophic to contemplate.
Kenny thinks you should get to go!
CongRATS!
b&
If the debate was between wives and cats, wives would be in the lead. Contests won on whyevolutionistrue.
Crystal: 1 (this one)
Kenny: 0 (Cat confession contest)
Malcolm Gladwell? Please tell me he is playing for Team D*g.
Yep. He will get pwned by your host.
…I’m going to take a wild guess and suggest that the winner is responsible for travel and other accommodations?
Alas, I’d love to go and to enter the contest, but my conscience wouldn’t let me enter since going isn’t an option. But, since I can’t enter anyway, I’ll fake an entry that would, Shirley, win: “I would like to go because I’d like to personally introduce you to Baihu, who would accompany me.”
Cheers,
b&
I would dearly love to see innocent house pets enlisted into our culture of tiresome partisanship if only to enliven our disagreements by way of a heated debate that is genuinely warranted.
Barry, Upper West Side
As the first member of NYC Jerry Coyne Fan club, I’m so ready for the Cats. vs. Dogs show! Also, my book “Why Evolution Is True” couldn’t wait to be signed by its auther, professor Jerry Coyne. And, I love cats & dogs!
For LOLz you should’ve said you wanted to get your Why Evolution Is True book signed by Joyce Carol Oates.
I’m bringing a copy of Joyce Carol Oates’s children’s book about cats, Naughty Cherie! (her own cat is named Cherie) for her to sign for me.
Awesome. I’ve liked her poetry and I believe was exposed to it first while in school.
The best children’s books around the Bad Kitty” by Nick Bruel. A terrific combination wit and information and highly entertaining. I can’t believe that my granddaughter took all of them with her when she moved away
i would like to go (but can’t) because it would get me out of cleaning litter boxes for a few hours (sigh). (Staff to only 7 cats – less than half of Paula Poundstone’s caterie.)
I can’t go, but if I could, I’d want to go so that I could correct the inevitably wrong TP orientation in Manhattan. They think they’re so fancy but their TP betrays them.
Diana you’ve given me a complex. I caught myself spying the stalls in the public men’s room at Lake Worth Beach last Saturday checking to see what the TP orientation was.
Welcome to the OCD party. 🙂
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
If this isn’t recorded, I hope you will share your argument afterwards. My own goes something like this:
Dogs frequently are praised for their unwavering love and affection, while a common criticism of cats is that they can be standoffish, and seek love on their own terms. I struggle with feelings of doubt and self-loathing all the time, so I just can’t respect an animal that would love me unconditionally. But I’m totally on board with a pet that recognizes my flaws and acts accordingly. QED
Jay Lonner
Bellingham, WA
I think you should give the ticket to me because I will use the information presented to convince my intro bio students that dgs are better than cats.
Orly?
I didn’t even know there was a competition. Kick tail!
FWIW, cats win the evolutionary rat race, birds are happy and dogs are stuck in the backyard territory:
“Cats are at a crucial point in their evolutionary journey as they transform from solitary hunters to domestic pets, a study by the BBC and the Royal Veterinary College has revealed.
Our felines are adapting quickly to life in densely-packed cities, changing their behaviour to fit in with our 21st Century lives. They are time-sharing territory with other cats, killing less prey and learning to communicate with each other and people, research for BBC Two’s Cat Watch 2014 found.”
Can’t we all just get along?
Exactly: get along, little doggies*!
b&
The contest is closed and the panel of judges declares the winner to be . . . CRYSTAL, for her clever use of puns.
I will try to contact her (I’m assuming a female), but Crystal should contact me as well so I can get a full name.)
The winner has a talented answer! Those who want to buy “why evolution is true” immediately, may use Barnes & Noble “pick me up” service, first search the book at the website bn.com, then choose “pick up in store”, fill in your zip code, a lot of local stores will be available for you to choose, you may pick up the book at a local store after 50 minutes.
I know this comes late, but I thought I might as well try.
Why cats are better than dogs:
The obvious:
• They are more independent and can be left to their own devices more often
• Most do not want too much attention and make it obvious.
• It is rare to have a cat (as long as it’s healthy) that won’t use a litter box with little or no instructions
• They can immediately since anyone in the house that do not like or are allergic to cats and immediately attempt to show how wrong that attitude is.
• By adulthood, they require less exercise.
The more important:
• Ancient humans took in wolves, domesticated them creating a new species so as to be helpful for various chores. Ancient cats, on the other hand, looked around and saw the competition for prey and noted the size of the completion, and took themselves off to human settlements and offered us a deal. Your sources claim this started in Europe, mine in Abyssinia, but we know nothing only happens once. Portugal and a few other places have some data that this transition from wild cat to domestic cat may be going on still.
• Cats are the only animals that develop FIV and scientist have been able to get a lot of useful information and even a few great success in studying and treating HIV.
• They don’t hump you leg
For some reason that defies comprehension, the d*g side won. The decision was based on an “applause meter”, and apparently d*g people are louder than us refined folks.
Jerry put up one hell of an argument for the superiority of the cat though, with science on his side. The cats should have won this paws down.