I’ve officially become a Senior Jew because I can say the following words with great feeling: “OY! MY BACK!” (All I need to complete my transition is a few gold chains and a condo in Miami.) Yes, dear readers, I have badly re-injured my back, but in a good cause: trying to open the heavy lab window in my excitement after I spied a juvenile squirrel on the sill who looked hungry. I was in a hurry to give it a cracked walnut, and I paid the price. Now I’m sitting in my office with an ice pack on my back, trying to write a talk, and every small move feels like someone applied a firebrand about six inches above my waist. I suppose I’ll live, though.
All this is by way of saying that there will be no more substantive posts today, even though I intended to write about the new letter in which 145 PEN members protested the organization’s freedom-of-expression award to Charlie Hebdo. That must wait until tomorrow. For now I leave you, on this first day of the lusty month of May, with three cat videos:
The first one truly merits the title of “awesome”: a sartorially splendid “Pavlov’s Skinner’s cat,” who’s been taught to ring a bell when he wants a treat. That owner is well advised to put the bell away except at treat time.
Second, a fearless kitten versus a Doberman. The dog is amazingly indulgent. When I thought about this, and realized that most kittens are pretty fearless, it struck me that they shouldn’t be. They should, in fact, be more fearful than Mom, for their ancestors were solitary, Mom wasn’t always at home, and so they should be fearful of anything that could be a potential predator. I understand kittens are taught to be fearful, which does make sense, but why aren’t they instinctively fearful?
Finally, a determined cat crams itself into a fishbowl. Maru couldn’t do better! Reader Su, who sent this, noted that “A lesser cat would have given up.”
h/t; Melissa, Su
p.s. Maybe you want to give Kickstarter some money to fund what will be a great movie on Japan’s “Cat Island”?
I feel your pain! Well, not exactly, of course, but certainly in parallel. I was doing pretty decent this morning, but just had to retreat to the bed for a bit…and, in a moment, try to stretch everything back out to where it was a while ago….
Not fun!
b&
My guess is – ‘sloppy’ instincts. Like a duckling imprinting on a non-duck, once a kitten gets the idea that some other animal is part of the family through early contact, it has no fear of it.
I think the dog’s response is very similarly instinctual: once it accepts that the kitten is part of the pack, it tolerates rough play from it just as it would any puppy.
Yes, I was also going to point out that the dog’s body language probably signaled “in-group member” or “playmate.” A strange dog quickly entering a room would likely send the kitten flying. The default mode is fear — unless there’s some reason it’s classified as mate or play toy.
It doesn’t always make sense. There’s that famous video of a kitten put into panic by an orange, which was set to orchestral music by a talented owner.
I hope you get better really soon Jerry!
I am a fellow back-pain sufferer.
I am recovering from a lung infection (I frequently get them as the sequel to any cold.) As part of the prescription for the lung infection, my doctor finally prevailed on me to try prednisone as a (brief duration – just a few days) aid in opening up my bronchial passages. And it worked quite well for that — I think will actually recover more quickly this time.
Prednisone (a corticosteroid) can have a bunch of bad side effects. Happily, I have experienced none of them.
But it has had one happy side effect — major relief from my normal joint aches and pains. I could hardly believe it the first morning when I got out of bed. It felt like I had 30-year old joints again (instead of mid-50s).
As I told my wife, good thing they control this stuff.
I too suffer about once a year. Try the neutral position ie. lay flat on the floor with the legs resting on a chair above for five or ten minutes.
Read that many years ago in the book The Back Doctor. It usually relaxes the spine.
I’m giving that a try right now as I type, and it seems to be surprisingly effective. Thanks!
b&
There is a system called Alexander Technique that is about re-education of bodily habits and poor posture. One of its main ideas is that of laying in semi-supine position (similar to what you have described). There is an American organisation I have just looked at called amsatonline . org.
I tried Alexander Technique years ago and the practices still help me. I played Rugby Union and still ride motorbikes and suffer with lower back pain and neck pain. The technique really helps and is surprisingly un-wooey. F.M Alexander (the Australian developer of it), in my reading, seems to have been fairly scientific in his development of the technique. I am not a paid shill by the way
The Alexander Technique was big amongst the vocal faculty when I was at Arizona State. I meant to take a lesson or two when I was there but never got around to it. I’ll have to do some research….
b&
What faculty aren’t vocal?
Good point, alas…but at least most of the instrumental faculty had the good grace to shout their displeasure rather than sing it at us….
b&
😉
That used to work for me; but no longer does.
When it’s bad, I must rest on my side, with knees pulled up. I also rest on my beck, knees bent, and contract my abdominal muscles to roll my pelvis towards my chest (I know there’s a medical term for that motion or direction; but I don’t know what it is). Both of these help.
The main thing for me is:
1. Use good lifting technique at all times
2. Reduce the load on my back in any way I can
3. When I bend over, support myself with a hand and stick the free leg out behind me.
4. Keep doing crunches to keep the abdomen strong
I also used to have a lot of trouble with my neck; but I have 99.9% solved that with a pillow. It’s essentially two tubes (like a pillow case, sewn together lengthwise, slightly off-center, such that one tube is larger than the other. It’s filled will millet hulls. It’s quite, er, FIRM. Most people think it feels like a rock. But it supports my head, whatever way I choose to lie. It allows my neck muscles to relax all night — no neck pain.
Interesting with the pillow. I’ve settled on a memory foam pillow with a shape that pretty much matches what you describe….
b&
I had a bout of Bell’s Palsy completely out of the blue last Sept. Wasn’t sick or stressed or in pain or anything, and suddenly one side of my face sagged. In a panic I went to Emerg at midnight (noticed it while brushing my teeth) and they thankfully ruled out a stroke or brain tumor around 3 AM. Was prescribed prednisone for a week, and man did I feel terrific!! Yeah, no sore knees or anything at the gym, and a ton of energy! Lost 5 lbs. Yes, probably good they control the stuff. My face went 100% back to normal in a month (mostly normal after a week – just looked like I had been to the dentist). They also gave me horse-sized anti-virals. They think it’s related to some kind of herpes virus, like from childhood chicken-pox, but they really don’t know. I was just happy not to have had a stroke or brain tumor, and the straightened out face was a bonus!
That sounds so scary! Glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have been!
It certainly was! The docs said many people get it “idiopathically.”
Grrr–that’s a word that should be taken out and shot!
Pourquoi?
As you know, it just means the docs have no clue why a condition came about. Something like “provenance unknown” would say the same, without it sounding like the medics have actually figured out something, or that it’s somehow all the patient’s fault (which is how I tend to hear it).
No, I don’t take it that way at all. It just means that they don’t know…nothing fancy.
Well to me it’s overly fancy. Like the “-algias.” When I took my son, with seriously sore feet, to a sports orthopedist, he was finally diagnosed with metatarsalgia. Or, “sore feet.” But with the fancy terms you can charge the big bucks, I guess. 😉
Sorry, medicos, I’m mostly joking. What really gets me is how many doctor’s visits can result in no satisfactory diagnosis. (I’m sure the docs hate that too.)
Sometimes I think my IT background gives me just as much ability to troubleshoot my health issues as the doctor, with the exception that the doctor has greater domain knowledge.
@Diana
If by your ‘IT background’ you refer to the Internet, there’s a practical problem with that. Quite aside from the tinfoil-hat pages offering bizarre remedies, I find great difficulty in sorting out which condition my symptoms are relevant to. In fact I invariably find they point to about 50 different ailments, many of them life-threatening.
I think, rather, Diana means that many of those in IT have experience analyzing failures in complex system, and that it’s the ability to perform the analysis that matters most…assuming you’ve got a good handle on all the relevant facts.
It takes an insane amount of time to get all the relevant facts for any sort of useful generalization in medicine…but it’s actually often a manageable feat for a lay person to get just as up to speed on your particular condition. Remember, the doctor might have spent a couple weeks or even a month or more learning about your condition in medical school, but she also had to learn about every other condition. You, on the other hand, don’t have the distraction of all those other conditions…and you’ve got the luxury of time. You can go ahead and devote your life for the next few months (or whatever) reading all the texts and research papers and the rest, a luxury your doctor likely can’t even dream of.
…but, yeah. It’s also much too easy to get what used to be called, “Merck Manual Syndrome,” from a few injudicious Google searches….
b&
Yep – what Ben said.
No, by my IT background, I mean I work in IT and often have to troubleshoot why systems, applications and processes are broken.
I have written computer programs and debugged and maintained them. But I find that doesn’t help much in trying to make sense of the welter of conflicting ‘health’ information on the Internet.
It’s the sort of thing that happens past the level of the sorts of programs a single person is likely to write and maintain solo. It becomes much more relevant when you’re interacting with multiple disparate systems, none of which where ever designed with any thought for each other, each of which you now need to interact with in some cohesive manner.
b&
Oh, and “Merck Manual” syndrome – I can well imagine it. 😉
Kibble quibble. It’s a Skinnerian cat, not a Pavlovian cat. Bellness aside.
Fixed, thanks!
What is it about cats and ludicrously confined spaces? I know cavers on the “undernourished deranged dwarf” squad of the Cave Rescue who see such videos and go to eat a Guinness and old Peculiar pie because they recognise that they’re not even in the same competition, let alone league.
Thanks — that made me laugh. I had no idea.
They are a strange and peculiar breed. By the standards of the troglodyte in the mud.
Meanwhile, the cat posted the same video, but it’s about a human who’s been trained to produce a treat when he hears a bell.
Oh nice! 🙂
My thoughts as well, the cat has elicited a ‘Pavlovian’ response from the human!
Fish bowl cat had me laughing out loud.
Hope your back improves quickly Jerry. It sounds like your lower back is an on going problem? My lower back certainly is. It is my achilles heel for about the past ten years. No matter the lengths I go to it is always problematic, and I am bound to have an “incident” two or three times a year.
As a matter of fact, just last Friday. I felt unusually good starting my work out. My back wasn’t even stiff. Felt better than it had in months. But, my first set of squats at work out weight, and at rep number eight, . . . oops! Luckily not too bad this time.
Hope you feel better and yes you can spend the rest of the day watching cat videos.
I hope you feel better soon.
The kittehs are lovely, especially the one in the fish bowl. 🙂
Note the Dobe yawn. Yawning can be a sign of stress – the yawn acts as a stress reliever, dissipator, and sign to another dog that things are OK between them.
“”Yawning is a type of appeasement gesture, something also referred to as a calming signal.
Dogs yawn to deflect a threat. If a person or another animal approaches a dog, that dog may avert his gaze and yawn. It’s a dog’s way of saying that he feels threatened or anxious, but that he is not going to attack. Dogs use this type of body language to avoid conflict.Keep an eye on your dog, and you may catch him yawning. It could happen if two children are fighting close to where the dog is lying down, if a child hugs him, when someone scolds him, or in a variety of other stress-inducing situations. Being aware of what causes anxiety in your dog, can help you prevent him from being exposed to those situations. Some people even yawn themselves to “talk” back to their dogs. Many notice that yawning when their dog is stressed helps to calm the dog down.” (Google)
Get well soon! Hope you can find some comfort in the fact that our backs haven’t adapted yet to be weight bearing columns for upright primates and are therefore proof of evolution. Or so I’ve been told.
Your backpain combined with the status of Squirrel God does raise interesting theological questions. Has God ever had backpain while working for the good of His people?
“OY! MY BACK!”
More evidence against intelligent design. Or, perhaps, against intelligent use of an intelligent design.
Sorry to hear about your back! I know the feeling well–I got it trying to get something out of the dishwasher. It is sudden and intense. But it will clear up with rest and a little time.
I’m so sorry to hear that you *really* injured something in the back. A torn something or other, it sounds like. I’ve had that. You gonna need bedrest! Please follow these more generic suggestions for back pain (since it’s not your lower back as we first thought), Dr. C…. someone else will have to do the window feeding of your squirrel babies.
http://www.joint-and-muscle-pain-management.com/back-muscle-strain.html
(In future, strengthening the buttock (gluteal) muscles will help avoid this type of injury.)
Get well soon!
Firstly the kitten appears to be playing since there are no signs that it is clawing the dog. I assume that the dog would object if it was getting scratched.
Secondly, if “mom isn’t home”, what is the best strategy for survival if some other animal comes into the cave? Cowering in a cave corner or aggressively confronting the intruder? The answer should be quite obvious.
If the intruder is larger or more voracious than a tiny kitten, the corner had better be too tight for the predator to follow, or else it’ll make essentially no difference. Aggressive confrontation by fluffy ikkle kitteh is only going to scare off something that has no business being out of its own cave.
Back issues are the worst! I’m still not over my pull from two weeks ago. Get into a “child’s pose” (yoga pose) when you can.
Maybe cats want to feel independent from every other thing in the universe. This could explain the bowl attraction.
The need to be independent from other things in the universe is yet another affirmation of their God complex.
Great kitteh videos too!
No, not the gold chains!!
Ugh! I hate spinal pain. I hope you feel better soon. Go to your doctor and get some nice anti-spasm drugs. My favourite is Clobenzaprine. It makes you tired but used short term, it can be effective.
I love the bell ringing kitty. Usually animals in human clothes look somewhat goofy, but look how smart this kitty looks in that little shirt!
“Tra la, it’s May, the lusty month of May
That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray
Tra la, it’s here, that shocking time of year
When tons of wicked little thoughts merrily appear
It’s May, it’s May, that gorgeous holiday
When every maiden prays that her lad will be a cad
It’s mad, it’s gay, a libelous display
Those dreary vows that everyone takes, everyone breaks
Everyone makes divine mistakes, the lusty month of May
Whence this fragrance wafting through the air?
What sweet feelings does its scent transmute?
Whence this perfume floating everywhere?
Don’t you know it’s that dear forbidden fruit
Tra la la la la, that dear forbidden fruit, tra la la la la
Tra la la la la, tra la, tra la, tra la la la la la la la la la
It’s May, the lusty month of May
That darling month when everyone throws self – control away
It’s time to do a wretched thing or two
And try to make each precious day, one you’ll always rue
It’s May, it’s May, the month of yes you may
The time for every frivolous whim, proper or im
It’s wild, it’s gay, a blot in every way
The birds and bees with all of their vast amorous past
Gaze at the human race aghast
Tra la, it’s May, the lusty month of May
That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray
Tra la, it’s here, that shocking time of year
When tons of wicked little thoughts merrily appear
It’s May, it’s May, the month of great dismay
When all the world is brimming with fun wholesome or un
It’s mad, it’s gay, a libelous display
Those dreary vows that everyone takes, everyone breaks
Everyone makes divine mistakes, the lusty month of May”
Isn’t Ms Andrews’ laryngeal ring just the clearest, precious voice?!
And these lines of lyric — now this day and month — are darlingly soooo, so true:
i) “The time for every frivolous whim, proper or im” and
ii) “When all the world is brimming with fun wholesome or un”
and my very favorite, iii) “That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray” — O, don’t we though?!
Such the loveliest paean, Professor, with which to begin our most amazing month!
My thanks!
And FLOWERy baskets to All this May Day!
Blue
“Helping other people is always a great thing.”
— person in Kickstarter’s Japanese CAT Island – sequence.
No woo “necessary” — as .that. about sums .It All. up, not?
Blue
I am sorry about your pain, Professor.
Is the squirrel – feeding episode reality or … … might its injury actually have resulted from this progression, instead?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9YiTIYO-2A
At the very end, catch the response given back to the doc as re … … to what really happened here. Here … … in the lusty month of May.
Blue
“A lesser cat would have given up.”
On the other hand, a lesser cat would have fitted more easily into the bowl.
And on yet another hand, in view of PCC’s opening paragraph, do cats ever experience injuries when contorting themselves into small spaces?
It’s the lusty month of May indeed. Being a 20-something year old university student, I’ve sent out at least 3 booty calls so far in the last 24 hours. Now I wait.
Which makes me wonder: Do males have a cycle – any cycle – as well? Do male primates feel horny all year round, or only in some seasons?
Ouch!
Take it easy, PCC.
Another back-sufferer here.
I usually treat my pain by feeling very sorry for myself.
Go ahead, give it a try. It won’t work. Nothing ever works. And then it’ll just happen again some day when it’s inconvenient.
Listen to us, whinging about our aching backs like a bunch of old farts. Shouldn’t we be out on the lawn kicking the ball around instead? I mean, we had a good game going just last week, wasn’t it? Well, okay, a week ago this past weekend, maybe — but couldn’t have been any farther back than that!
b&
Sierra tells me that she knew the squirrel thing was always a bad idea “First they steal the bag of walnuts, then they trick you into a trick back– Don’t trust anything that can run DOWN a tree as easily as UP a tree. And don’t forget my kibbles…”
Try hanging by your hands from an overhead bar. Let your body weight pull your back out. I have done this a number of times and it provides relief. I am not a physician, but I wish you good luck.
John J. Fitzgerald
I hope your back feels better soon, Professor Coyne. The fish bowl cat is adorable!
Fishbowl Cat may have a lesson in topology for us, but I don’t know enough mathematics to figure it out.
Either lying flat on the floor or the yoga Child Pose works for me when I have low back pain, but mine is almost always simply the result of spending too much time at the microscope. Hope your back feels better soon, PCC!
Forgot to add that I love that Bell-ringing Cat is wearing a plaid shirt!
The cat is training the human to respond to the bell. Its Pavlov.
Aw, crum, not a worse back?! And all in service to those poor hungry squirrels.
So many helpful suggestions here, I do hope one or more work!
It’s hilarious when the bowl cat just suddenly slithers into it after all the previous failures!
Hypothesis: the temperature was dropping, and at 1:50 reached the threshold for feline superfluidity.
Aha! I think you’re onto something!
Or maybe just, on something. 😉
Amazing, I would have sworn that cat would never fit into that bowl!
I’m so sorry to hear about your back Jerry, pain sucks.
http://reason.com/blog/2015/05/01/145-intellectuals-agree-dead-cartoonists#.wanceb:GaFI
If I were on the membership committee at PEN I’d have “Should we expel the 145 anti-free speech authors who wrote such an asinine letter of protest to us?” on the agenda for the next meeting.
From the PEN website
International PEN, the worldwide association of writers, was founded in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere; to emphasize the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned, and sometimes killed for their views. – See more at: http://www.pen.org/pen-world#sthash.m6BwI903.dpuf
Obviously these members do not support PEN’s goals, and I think expulsion should be at least considered.
You mean you are feeding “the thieving bastards” again??
Hope your back gets better, soon.
My sympathy, empathy and condolences on your back pain Prof CC.
Like many here, I’ve lived with a bad back for a long time (almost 30 years). The damnedest thing is that no matter how much you do to try to prevent back issues, all the exercises, stretches, proper form…once you have a “trick back” that damned thing is going to go out on you whenever the heck it wants to.
For me it’s rarely lifting heavy things; it’s almost always the teeniest move, a getting up from my chair, a slight jig of the hip to avoid something, brushing my teeth. That’s when it goes out, and it’s hobbling around the house with a hockey stick as a cane/crutch. It’s like the nerves in my back are in some alternate time or reality, independent of pleading efforts to get stronger and just play nice.
May your convalescence be s short one.
My little Carmen Dingle looks almost identical to the little gray tabby bugging the Dobe. She arrived from the Humane Society utterly fearless, after having been found with her mother and siblings in a truck wheel well. 4 months later nothing has askeered her yet. She runs right up to everyone who comes into the house, which is quite unusual for cats. She has never been remotely unnerved by Currie-the-Pooch. Her big lug of a brother, on the other hand, goes right under the bed if anyone but my bf or I comes into th house, and does not emerge, even for food, until the newcomer leaves.
She sounds like quite the character!
Probably just as well that Booker’s cut out of a different cloth! 😀
and sub
Cats are liquid.
That’s very good! 🙂
AHA! You spelled dog! Because he/she was so kind to the kitty. Maybe a mother who had puppies before? I am beginning to think there MAY be a soft spot in your heart for a few special canines…
As a physician and fellow sufferer-and from an evolutionary standpoint—I’m aware that back problems are the price we pay for walking upright. Another problem created by walking upright is the “obstetrical dilemma”. There is a requisite physical limitation of width of the pelvis in females– you can’t have too big a hole at the bottom of your body cavity. AND..we have giant brains. So we have extremely immature babies who grow their brains significantly after birth, and we have mothers and babies dying in childbirth with significant frequency (before the wondrous discovery of anesthesia and the C-section-at least in developed countries.)
The good news: we got our hands free! To do lots of more wondrous stuff.
But you already know all of this! Thanks for your website.. And Dinobat is THE COOLEST!
“AHA! You spelled dog! Because he/she was so kind to the kitty. Maybe a mother who had puppies before? I am beginning to think there MAY be a soft spot in your heart for a few special canines…”
It’s the back–he’s having trouble reaching the asterisk key…
One of my most memorable back issues occurred shortly after the birth of my first child. One day I leaned over the bassinet and then, for some time, could NOT straighten up. Something to do with how your tendons and what-all go all loosey-goosey around delivery time.
LOL re: back. Jerry never agrees that it’s a Freudian slip but then if it were, how could he?
😉
Er, congratulations on the ‘promotion’ to senior Jewry, Prof. CC!
(^_^)
More seriously, once you’ve recovered sufficiently, you may wish to consider evaluating the flexibility of your iliopsoas. Short or tight iliopsoas can arise from long periods of sitting — an occupational hazard for those of us who write all day — & can be a factor in several types of back pain &/or injury.
Of course, your back issues may arise from a completely different source. Nonetheless, it might be worth considering.
(Apologies if anyone else has mentioned this; I did not read every comment).