37 thoughts on “Surprised by cucumber”

  6. One is left wondering how the cucumber managed to sneak up on the cat like that. I’d be surprised by a motile vegetable, too….

    b&

    1. It is an Evil Snake-like vegetable, so the story goes it had legs and lived in a tree just yesterday. (Or so I hear…)

  7. This site has now mentioned C.S. Lewis for the second day in a row.

    I suppose I should mention that the 100 page critique of him I noted yesterday by John Beverslius was authored not just by a former Christian but by a former teacher(!!) of Alvin Plantinga.

    It’s been reissued by Prometheus books and has gotten good reviews from both John Loftus (https://philosophynow.org/issues/74/CS_Lewis_and_the_Search_for_Rational_Religion_by_John_Beversluis) and Ophelia Benson (http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2008/review-of-i-c-s-lewis-and-the-search-for-rational-religion-i/).

    But honestly, I find Lewis to be among the most gentle and gentlemanly of Christian apologists. I really would not refer to him as a “windbag” (nor would Beverslius, who talks a lot in the forward about how much of his motivation for writing the book was an abiding affection for CSL.)

    1. “But honestly, I find Lewis to be among the most gentle and gentlemanly of Christian apologists.”

      Regardless of his manners, his arguments have never impressed me as deep nor convincing.

        1. I’d add that at least his children’s books are decently written. (I couldn’t get into Out of the Silent Planet though, so I don’t have anything to say about the adult fiction.) But his apologetics … ugh!

          1. Yeah, I think you’d better limit your praise to (some of) the Narnia books and maybe Screwtape. His sci-fi was awful.

          2. I found the third and last of the three sci-fi novels “That Hideous Strength” to be just flat out bad- a hodge-podge melange with everything but the kitchen sink in it.

            The first two have their moments, but are overly didactic and preachy in a manner that one of his heroes John Milton could kind of get away with (as also could humanist novelist Victor Hugo), but Lewis IMO doesn’t quite have the ability to pull you into the story to make it work. The preachy tone is stultifying (if not suffocating). The apologetic ax interferes with the story. The Narnia books are wayyy better, since the reader has a lot more breathing room to react to the story on their own terms.

      2. I knew the poet C.H. Sisson, who was a Christian of a sort, and a wonderful man. I once remarked to him on what a disappointing book ‘Surprised by Joy’ was. ‘Yes,’ he said at once. ‘No surprise, no joy.’

  9. Hilarious. My son and I are currently engaged in a similar ‘war’ with a rubber chicken. Last night i found it under my pillow. I am not yet sure where he will find it today.

  11. That is one seriously leaping cat. Actually, two seriously leaping cats. Almost makes it worth getting a cat and a cucumber. And a video camera.

  12. You’re in good company, kitteh, I have the same response to vegetables.

    Vegetables aren’t food, they are what food eats.

  13. The cat’s “snake reflex” reminds me of the late Denis Dutton’s frequent mention of keeping pigeons off his office window ledge in Christchurch NZ. The NZ pigeons hadn’t experienced snakes in many generations, he noted in The Art Instinct and elsewhere.

    Dutton’s TED lecture is still up, and well worth viewing for the delightful use of animated drawing to illustrate his ideas on the “beauty instinct”.

    [per Jerry’s recent request, I’ll try to use my full name from now on]

  14. I once reached for an extension cord that was lying on the floor. My cat sauntered into the room just as the cord began to move.
    I then got bits of ceiling tile on my head.

  16. Booker T jumped like that this morning when Poochie’s steps to the bed collapsed from too much kitteh tag. I know it was mean to laugh, but I just couldn’t help myself.

  18. The perception field of a cucumber is directly proportional to the intentionality of the camera operator divided by the length of the cucumber.

Comments are closed.