Category: festivities

It’s International Cat Day!

August 8, 2018 • 1:30 pm

Yes, August 8 is International Cat Day, except in parts of Europe and Russia, where it’s celebrated in March and February, respectively. You can see a bunch of cat-related tweets at the two hashtag sites, #internationalcatday and #InternationalCatDay on Twitter. The BBC has a short announcement with a video and a poll, and the cats are cleaning up at the poll (click on screenshot):

Bustle has some Instagram captions with puns, which aren’t all that funny, so it’s better to look at a few tweets. I’ve chosen a few for you:

An oldie but a goodie:

Taylor Swift’s cats are in on it:

and one more geology/cat tweet:

Be sure to give your moggie extra fusses and treats today, mindful of this quote from Terry Pratchett (via reader Paul):

h/t: Grania, Dom

 

Live long and prosper

December 31, 2017 • 12:00 pm

by Grania

Those in the eastern hemisphere are already in 2018, the rest of us are soon to be there. However your 2017 went, and there most likely highs and lows, here’s to a better 2018.

People don’t like fish

January 28, 2016 • 1:30 pm

Here’s a theory (which is mine) for which I’ll surely get shellacked.  My theory, which (again) is mine, is this, and here it is. It’s just below:

 In general, people don’t like fish near as much as meat.

My evidence:

  1. Catholics used to eat fish on Fridays as a penance, which means that foregoing meat for fish was considered a sacrifice. (This practice was also the reason why McDonald’s created the Filet-O-Fish sandwich, as hamburger sales fell off on Fridays.)
  2. The most consumed fish in the U.S. are #1: tuna, and #2 salmon. What do they have in common? They’re “unfishy” fish, with a meaty texture and flavor. In fact, I frequently hear people say that they don’t like “fishy” fish, which means that they don’t much like fish.

I know a lot of people will write in angrily and say they love fish, and love fishy fish like anchovies and herring. I recognize that you people exist, but I am making a general argument, one supported by the data above. (Another non-fishy fish that’s highly prized, by the way, is swordfish.)

Full disclosure: I am not much of a fish fan, and when I do eat it it, it’s tuna or salmon.

p.s. Be temperate in your remarks below: remember there are rules about calling people names. Try not to carp too much.

p.p.s. I am talking about humans here, not cats.

tunasalmon
Good “fish”

 

header-052010
Bad fish

Peyton’s Christmas

December 25, 2014 • 12:12 pm

by Greg Mayer

For Christmas, Peyton got a laser tower– a device that shines a randomly moving laser off a mirror. Peyton has long enjoyed playing with a laser mouse (hand held device, in the shape of a mouse). In fact, she seeks us out to play with it at about 8 PM each day, which is our regular time to play with the mouse. She let’s us know it’s time to play by assuming a crouched, hunting, stance in the living room, waiting like that till we get the laser mouse. Here’s her first reaction to the new laser tower.

She seems to be interested not just in the light, but in the device itself. She also notices that the device produces more than a single reflection, and she pays attention to the fainter reflection as well.

Here she is playing laser mouse.

Peyton’s holiday message to the world: “Meow.”

Easter in Poland

March 31, 2013 • 5:04 am

I have a deal with my friends Malgorzata  Koraszewska and Andrzej Koraszewski, who run the well-known Polish website Racjonalista, a beacon of secularism in that religious country. In return for letting them translate any of my posts they want without asking (it’s into the hundreds now), I get a daily picture of their young tabby cat Hili.  And it’s always in the form of a “dialogue,” in which Andrzej and Hili exchange quips. (They also own two dogs, Darwin and Emma.)

As it’s Easter in Poland, Hili got a special Easter treat: a “cat sausage” that she loves. Here’s today’s photo of Hili nomming her treat on the Good Book, along with the daily “Hili dialogue” (click to enlarge)

Hili: Would eating Easter sausage on the Koran offend religious feelings?
A: Yes, definitely.
Hili: And on the Bible?
A: Thank God, a bit less.

Hili on Easter

Malgorzata also explained the rest:

The strudel is a poppyseed cake, obligatory in Poland at Easter. I borrowed the Easter basket from the owner of Fitness [another cat who lives there, named after a health club where she was found as a kitten] and the tablecloth was embroidered by my mother. Our religious friends who got such a tablecloth from her are always using it at Easter, so we got it out for this picture. They will understand the meaning.