Once again I’m debilitated from lack of sleep, having slept for a handful of hours last night. I have no idea why my insomnia recurred, as I’m following my sleep hygiene rules pretty carefully. But the upshot is that my brain isn’t working well, and posting is a huge effort. It will be light today, and I’ll divert my minimal energy into preparing talks for my upcoming lecture cruise to the Galápagos.
But I thought I’d pose ten questions to the readers of this site to see how attentive they are. (Yes, this is a bit solipsistic.) To answer them all, you’d have to have been a reader for a while. Some are easy, others aren’t, but no Googling or searching the site allowed.
1.) What does PCC(E) stand for?
2.) Give two reasons why canids are usually spelled “d*g” on this site
3.) Why don’t I like WEIT to be called a “blog”? What’s the preferred term for the site?
4.) What is the name of my favorite duck, and how many years in succession have I taken care of her?
5.) How did this website get started?
6.) What was the name of my last cat, and what kin of cat was it?
7.) From what region does my favorite red wine come?
8.) What must all readers do before they put up their first comment?
9.) What is the name of Steve Pinker’s teddy bear? (This was the subject of a contest a long time ago.)
10.) What was the great insight I had on an acid trip when I was in college?
I would know the answers to only a few questions, so I don’t want to embarrass myself by doing this quiz. But I’ll enjoy learning the answers to the rest! 🙂
1.) What does PCC(E) stand for? – Professor Ceiling Cat Emeritus
2.) Give two reasons why canids are usually spelled “d*g” on this site A joke on the Jewish version of G*d and let’s face it, a disdain for canids.
3.) Why don’t I like WEIT to be called a “blog”? What’s the preferred term for the site? The word is stupid. The site is called a site.
4.) What is the name of my favorite duck, and how many years in succession have I taken care of her? Honey. I think around 4 years. Time has no meaning for me.
5.) How did this website get started? To promote the book, Why Evolution Is True.
6.) What was the name of my last cat, and what kin of cat was it? Does Dusty the lab cat count?
7.) From what region does my favorite red wine come? Somewhere in France
8.) What must all readers do before they put up their first comment? Proclaim fealty to the ceiling cat g*d
9.) What is the name of Steve Pinker’s teddy bear? (This was the subject of a contest a long time ago.) Wilfred
10.) What was the great insight I had on an acid trip when I was in college? The walls are fucking brown.
8. One must read the Roolz
I like mine better.
I am not sure there were roolz when we started commenting! 😉
I think I can get just half of these.
1) Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus)
2) Dogs are the opposite of cats and dog backwards is god, which is itself usually censored on this site.
3) I’ve read these on this site before but don’t recall now. I guess “blog” has a connotation of being solipsistic (as you put it here) and it’s sort of “hip” internet lingo. I don’t recall the preferred term, simply “website”? It is ironic WordPress refers to this as a blog in various headers.
4) I’ll just admit upfront I don’t have any pets or even plants and don’t generally enjoy taking care of pets/plants (I do like to go out and see wild animals/plants). My point here is I can’t really answer this or Q6 as I typically ignore those posts. I think the duck’s name ends in a Y, maybe Marley or something?
5) The website name somewhat gives this away even if I wasn’t aware already. It was started to promote your book of the same name and update with other news/evidence related to the premise.
6) See my answer to Q4.
7) Not sure I’ve ever seen this come up. Sicily?
8) Read the rules (Da Roolz!)
9) No idea (I will be very lucky if the bear’s name is “No idea”)
10) I’m pretty sure this was “the walls are fucking brown”, funny story.
I have been reading this << censored due to being the answer to one of the questions >> for some time but I don’t think I could answer even half of the questions, so I’ll not embarrass myself.
Edit: So I guess, in the attentive stakes I am “not very”. Also I learned a new meaning for “solipsistic” today – or rather I learned the actual meaning.
Ditto – I think that I did get a D on the standard percentage scale 🙂
Arrrgh! No one said there would be a test!
😉
1. Prof Ceiling Cat (Emeritus)
2. Dogs are heavily inbred vs wolves or cats, and the asterisk is a joke mimicking the unspeakable in Judaism.
3. Blogs are for opining. Website is the preferred term.
4. Honey
5. Outgrowth of the book Why Evolution is True
6.
7. Don’t know, but you enjoy Pedro Ximenez (Spain), Muscat, and Sancerre (Loire Valley)
8. Read Da Roolz
9. Don’t remember, but teddy bears spring from his second wife.
10.
(Before reading other comments)
1.) Professor Ceiling Cat, Emeritus
2.)a.) play on Jewish way of doing G*d b) because they don’t need the attention on a cat-lovers’ forum
3.) The word “blog” is ugly & trendy. It’s a “website.”
4.) “Honey.” And time has flown since you began.
5.) You sat down at the computer and created an account at WordPress
6.) I don’t remember the name of your last cat, but its kin was the Felis sylvestris lybica & the family Felidae arose about 10 to 11 million years ago.
7.) Planet Earth
8.) Sit down at the computer, get on the website, read the Roolz, and find the Leave A Reply box
9.) Rebecca Goldstein.
10.) “This is interesting stuff.”
Typo, or sly allusion to the first words spoken by Hamlet (to Claudius) that, with the death of his father the king and the remarriage of his mother to the king’s brother, he and his uncle were now “a little more than kin, and less than kind”?
That question (#6) and #9 (regarding Prof. Pinker’s teddy) are the only two I’m drawing blanks on.
From memory only:
1.) What does PCC(E) stand for?
Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus)
2.) Give two reasons why canids are usually spelled “d*g” on this site
I don’t know the actual reason, but you are certainly a cat person and find dogs repellant (except for a few notable exceptions)
3.) Why don’t I like WEIT to be called a “blog”? What’s the preferred term for the site?
I don’t know
4.) What is the name of my favorite duck, and how many years in succession have I taken care of her?
Honey, 4 years(?)
5.) How did this website get started?
To promote the release of your book, Why Evolution is True
6.) What was the name of my last cat, and what kin of cat was it?
I don’t know
7.) From what region does my favorite red wine come?
I don’t know
8.) What must all readers do before they put up their first comment?
Read DA RULZ
9.) What is the name of Steve Pinker’s teddy bear? (This was the subject of a contest a long time ago.)
I think I recall that post, but I don’t remember
10.) What was the great insight I had on an acid trip when I was in college?
No idea
Like most of your regular commenters, I could easily answer about eight of your ten questions. [Surely everybody can name your favorite duck, and also repeat the profound insight you recorded during that acid trip!]
I remember that many years ago, Ophelia Benson opined that she found “blog” to be an ugly word, and regretted its contraction from the original term “web log”, which she said had a jaunty, nautical feel about it.
I’ve been a reader for quite awhile, but I’m also inattentive, so I would not do well on this.
1. Professor Ceiling Cat (Emiritis).
2. In reference to how G-d is spelled in the Hebrew Bible.
3.The name for the site is a Website. I can’t remember the exact reason but it seems more information than just a blog.
4.Honey is the favorite duck and she has come around 6 years I think.
5.The website started after the book “Why Evolution is True”.
6. I can’t remember a cat, but I remember a skunk.
7. I think your favorite wine comes from Rioja, not sure.
8. All readers must read da roolz before commenting.
9. Can’t remember Pinker’s teddy bear name.
10. The walls are painted brown!
Q7: I thought Rioja as well.
I got all the others, except the ones I didn’t know.
I suffer from the same type of periodic insomnia. The last two nights (and, I think, four of the last five), I can barely keep my eyes open after dinner. I’ll be asleep by about 9;00 pm, then be wide awake by midnight or 1, unable to get back to sleep.
I’ve had these bouts most of my adult life. In my younger days, I considered them a bit of a boon, since they gave me a few extra hours of reading in complete peace, in a quiet house with the family and pets asleep, and since I could carry the lack of sleep for a week or so (usually until a weekend, when I would catch up a bit). Now, they leave me enervated the next day.
1.) What does PCC(E) stand for?
Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus)
2.) Give two reasons why canids are usually spelled “d*g” on this site
It’s a satirical take on how some people use ‘G*d” for God.
3.) Why don’t I like WEIT to be called a “blog”? What’s the preferred term for the site?
“Blog’ doesn’t do your extensively researched and composed articles justice, especially the science ones. WEIT is a website.
4.) What is the name of my favorite duck, and how many years in succession have I taken care of her?
Honey, maybe 5 years, including this year?
5.) How did this website get started?
To promote the release of your book, Why Evolution is True
6.) What was the name of my last cat, and what kin of cat was it?
Teddy, a white domestic shorthair
7.) From what region does my favorite red wine come?
Portugal?
8.) What must all readers do before they put up their first comment?
Read DA RULZ
9.) What is the name of Steve Pinker’s teddy bear? (This was the subject of a contest a long time ago.)
No idea!
10.) What was the great insight I had on an acid trip when I was in college?
TWAFB (The walls are fuckin’ brown!)
(thanks to fellow reader carpevita for the formatting I borrowed)
**da roolz***
Changing #7 to France (as in Rhone).
I don’t know half these, but I’ll subscribe so I can learn!
1.) What does PCC(E) stand for?
Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus)
2.) Give two reasons why canids are usually spelled “d*g” on this site
a. That’s the way you spell d*g
b. See a
3.) Why don’t I like WEIT to be called a “blog”? What’s the preferred term for the site?
The Nooze Blog, no, wait, Not the Nooze Blog, no, weit …
4.) What is the name of my favorite duck, and how many years in succession have I taken care of her?
Honey. About 1000 in Duck Years.
5.) How did this website get started?
Delivered by a stork, of course!
6.) What was the name of my last cat, and what kin of cat was it?
Oh, Irony, I don’t think you ever partnered with a cat. Dusty the Lab Qat was his own Master, praise Bastet!
7.) From what region does my favorite red wine come?
The wine region.
8.) What must all readers do before they put up their first comment?
Send $100 (dollars American) to Ceiling Cat, c/o BR-549
9.) What is the name of Steve Pinker’s teddy bear? (This was the subject of a contest a long time ago.) Steve doesn’t know, either.
10.) What was the great insight I had on an acid trip when I was in college?
I shoulda been a Business Major.
Since I have just read all the comments above, it would be like cheating to answer the questions at this point. For me, on the other hand, the questions do bring to mind other questions.
2. Could “d*g” refer to the word pronounced like “dog” in Hebrew, which means “fish”?
4. & 6. I have to admit that ducks leave me cold, except the kind on a plate. But I am partial to cats, and have enjoyed the society of a succession of visiting cats, after my own last cat in residence passed on.
5. I presume the website’s origin relates to the fine book on evolution. The website discussion often relates to another book, our host’s excellent FVF which, by the way, should be counted with the now classic treatises on theism by Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris.
8. Da Roolz seem to work, making discussion on this site quite exceptionally civil and informative.
10. I cannot help remembering the great discovery of a different chemical voyager, which was:
“The banana is great, but the banana skin is greater!“
Ones not addressed, I knew. (And even scrolling down to make the comment would give me the answers anyway, I’m expert at skimming)
2.) Second reason: because it pleases you to do so.
3.) Because it annoys you. Website.
4.) 7 yrs? How long did you observe before you named her?
5.) You are a polymath, and post-retirement you had even more time to devote to it.
6.) Not really fair, as I believe you have several bearing your name! And all cats are your cats. (With the title comes Great Responsibility.)
7.) Don’t care about wine, but the bottles are pretty.
8.) Remember to follow Da Roolz.
9.) “Steve Pinker’s teddy bear.” Sorry I don’t remember the pronouns.
10.) That you probably would get more done if you stopped?
Not commenting, just wanted to see how others answered
1. Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus)
2. You don’t really like dogs because they can be obsequious, so it’s a bit of a dis. I don’t know two reasons…maybe it’s also a way to say you like cats better?
3. You didn’t envision WEIT as a blog, but as a place for science learnings, evolution in particular. I think the preferred term is just website.
4. Honey…I think this is year 4 and the first year without a brood on Botany Pond.
5. After writing “Why Evolution is True” you wanted to have a web presence to expound on the book (I don’t know if this is correct). Of course, it has evolved from whence it came.
6. I don’t remember the name, but I think it was a tabby?
7. Hmmm, not sure, but I think it’s La Rioja.
8. Read da Roolz.
9. I have no idea, but I know yours is Toasty.
10. “The walls are fucking brown”…iirc.
Re. 10, you alluded to this in today’s Hili with the book titled “I’m so High my Paws are Weird” (I bet the walls look brown, too).
I pass in my exam late, for what it’s worth:
1.) Prof. Ceiling Cat (Emeritus)
2.) a. D*gs are not as respectable as cats. b. D*g is just an o away from god, read in reverse.
3.) “blog” is a ghastly debasement of the English language, being short for “web log” which for all intents and purposes is a website – which in fact is the name of this website (he wrote in a circularity).
4.) Honey – gonna guess … 6 years including this year.
5.) Website started upon publication of the book Why Evolution Is True, as a sort of perk from the publisher.
6.) [ no answer given ]
7.) [ no answer ]
8.) give evidence for their religion.
9.) Patch (a guess)
10.) [ no answer]