How cats learn to mouse

August 2, 2016 • 2:00 pm

I couldn’t resist reproducing this tw**t sent to me by Matthew Cobb, another Twi**er user whom I parasitize:

14 thoughts on “How cats learn to mouse”

  1. I suppose getting pics and links from readers generally (not just from Twitter) is parasitizing the knowledge base of the readership. (PCC(E) is one of the smartest people I know. Now, if I could learn how to mimic some of his strategies and deploy them in public health venues, I’d be a happy critter.)

    Like the pic! 🙂

  2. I think it is earlier than 1700, the painting might be inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, 1450-1516.

  3. I think this painting depicts a cat directing a chorus and orchestra, playing music. They have instruments or the cats seem to sing, forming a chorus. And replacing the depiction of musical notes by mice with tails makes sense.

  5. What I want to know is what is going on with the winged creature above the book to the right of the owl? It appears to be playing a horn with its backside.

    2. That must surely be the the devil or a demon playing his “posterior trumpet” as Alexander Pope would say. And surely Hieronymus Bosch as noted below, but I’d bet that such iconography is much older.

      1. Dante’s poem “Inferno,” which was written around 1310, has a scene in which a demon “made a trumpet of his ass,” so the image is at least that old. I’m not sure what that has to do with cats, though.

  7. Jerry, we’re all stronger together and life is better sharing what we have and what we know.

    “Parasitizing,” at least to me, has an utterly different connotation than what you are up to, though I’m sure you meant it in a self-deprecating way.

    Keep sharing. We’re all better for it.

    Carl Kruse

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