Category: Simon’s cat

Wednesday: Hili dialogue

February 15, 2017 • 6:30 am

Good morning on Wednesday February 15, 2017. It should be National Leftover Candy day, but it’s actually National Gumdrop Day and National Chewing Gum Day. It’s also National Flag Day of Canada, celebrating the adoption of its current flag in 1965:

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O Canada!

And can somebody tell me why the hockey team is called the “Maple Leafs” rather than the “Maple Leaves”?

On this day in 1923, Greece became the last country in Europe to adopt the Gregorian calendar. In 1946 ENIAC, described by Wikipedia as “the first electronic general-purpose computer” was “formally dedicated” at The University of Pennsylvania—whatever it means to dedicate a computer. (Did they break a bottle of champagne on it?) On February 15, 1971, British coins became decimalized, and, in 2001, the journal Nature published the first draft of the human genome. A Nobel Prize has not been awarded for that achievement.

Notables born on this day include Galileo (1564) and Jeremy Bentham (1748). Bentham’s real mummified head and skeleton, the latter dressed up in his clothes and sitting in a chair (with a wax replica head), are still preserved at University College London; see photo below.

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Jeremy Bentham’s head

Also born on this day were Susan B. Anthony (1820), Ernest Shackleton (1874), Art Spiegelmann (1948), and Matt Groening (1954). I highly recommend reading Spiegelmann’s Maus, a graphic novel using animals (mice, pigs and cats) to illustrate the Holocaust. It is a fantastic novel/artwork, and was the first such book to win a Pulitzer Prize (1992). This year is the 25th anniversary of the book, and you can buy a special edition at Amazon by clicking the screenshot below:

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Those who died on this day include Nat King Cole (1965), Mike Bloomfield (1981), Richard Feynman (1988), Martha Gellhorn (1998), and Howard K. Smith (2002). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili insists that the loving she gets from everyone is merely her due (below she’s getting fusses from Marta, Elzbieta’s daughter):

Marta: Hili, admit that you’re spoiled by everybody.
Hili: I will not admit it.
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In Polish:
Marta: Przyznaj, Hili, że jesteś przez wszystkich rozpuszczana.
Hili: Nie przyznam.

Out in frigid Winnipeg, Gus got a Valentine: a special arrangement of the crunchy, smelly dried shrimp that he loves so much. Here’s a video of him nomming his Valentine:

And here’s a new Simon’s Cat, just up yesterday for Valentine’s Day. It depicts the love between cat and staff:

Simon’s cat: Valentine specials

February 14, 2017 • 8:45 am

We have two Simon’s Cat specials for Valentine’s Day. In the first, Simon Tofield shows how he makes one of the pictures used in the second video.  I don’t think the cat’s inamorata is thrilled to get a box o’ mice.

And here’s the final product for today: “Dinner Date: Starters.” Note how the cat is startled by a cucumber, something I’ve mentioned before.

Two new episodes of Simon’s Cat

June 13, 2016 • 1:32 pm

I have a stack of stuff that I could write about today, but for once I don’t feel like writing about anything. It’s a big mess out there, there’s precious little any of us can do to fix things, or so I think, and it’s dispiriting. Politicians are making big noises about how we will not stand for terrorism, but offer no solutions. And everybody is using this episode to promote their favorite ideas, and I sometimes feel I’m among them.  That all pales in the face of the 50 young people whose lives will never be fulfilled.

I’ll try to leaven my mood by posting two new-ish episodes of Simon’s Cat.

 

“Fast track”

“Muddy paws”

Simon’s Cat Logic: on boxes (with added advice to staff)

May 19, 2016 • 3:15 pm

Simon Tofield, the talented creator of Simon’s Cat, has teamed up with cat experts to provide not only cartoons, but also useful information about cats. The new series is called “Cat Logic.” Here we have an episode on boxes with cat expert Nicky Trevorrow from Cats Protection:

h/t: Ken