Blog Posts

238 Mondays Is a Hard Time, #1

8/31/2022

Many a long year ago, I think while I was still in high school, I acquired a conviction that I was going to be rich, famous, and dead by the time I was twenty-five. So far, I’m batting 0 for 3 for that conviction. A bit later, I developed a serious belief that I would, at some point, write a novel which would establish my famousness, although not necessarily lead to my death. That hasn’t happened, either, and if I’m honest, at this point I have grave reservations that it ever will (or that I particularly WANT either of these to happen). However, even at that relatively early stage of my life, I had noticed that many (probably most) people in our society have something of an aversion to Mondays.

Even those of us (I include myself) who, much of the time, actually get (got) some pleasure from the work we do (did), seem to have at least a little harder time getting up and moving on Mondays. There’s really no rational reason to explain this except that Monday follows Sunday, and Sunday is, for a great many people, at least slightly less hectic and frantic than the “typical” working day. I think that’s a fairly weak excuse, but it could be all that’s necessary to explain this phenomenon. Anyway, the great “beatnik” novel I was going to write, which was going to set a new mark for literary brilliance on the model of Kerouac’s On the Road, is still waiting to produce even the beginnings of an outline of chapter one, but it DID have a title. That title was the name of this post: “Mondays Is a Hard Time.”

In any event, over the years, especially since I have retired and started writing these posts, back in 2014, I have made a habit of looking at the comics in the daily paper and watching email and web stuff for pictures, signs, comics, etc., which relate to various ideas which interest me. I’ve also noticed that Mondays don’t seem to be all that much of a problem to me anymore, but that the “Mondays Is a Hard Time” notion has occasionally surfaced into what I laughingly refer to as my conscious mind. Probably MOST often the strip which has occasioned that surfacing has been Jim Davis’ strip, Garfield, although occasionally something different (comic strip, poster, etc.) seems to catch the spirit of Monday pretty well. Garfield, however, perhaps because he is a cat, seems to have a greater than usual aversion to Mondays, so it is that strip which is most likely to bring the phrase to mind.

In any case, I thought I would try to get a post out of some of the material I have collected, especially since the school year is starting to get under way, which suggests that the “Monday” phenomenon will soon be even more common than usual across the country and reminds me that I DON’T have to be concerned about that anymore! I’ll admit that I ALMOST miss it, but every time that starts to happen, I remember all of those early morning meetings and eight o’clock classes, which makes it easier not to miss the start of school very much. Anyway, here’s some, hopefully amusing samples of things I have collected about Mondays (if that’s possible)!

This isn’t from Garfield, but from Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis. However I think it captures the Monday problem pretty well, especially if you have a “helpful” spouse, roommate, or “friend.”

I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, has an unusually strong aversion to Mondays, given the relative frequency of Monday references in Garfield. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites from among the ones I have collected.

This one goes back several years, before I discovered how to find strips I liked online, so I had to take a picture of it from the newspaper. I do think it captures the overall “essence” of Mondays quite well.

On the other hand, there HAVE been Mondays (especially in the last few days before opening a show, for example) for which this can be considered a perfectly reasonable and understandable reaction.

Tech Week Mondays, I should hasten to point out DO tend to be even less pleasant than most; which is not to say that Mondays are ever likely to be a high point of the week. Some, even if they don’t come during Tech Week, can be made worse than usual through circumstances which have nothing to do even with the fact that it’s Monday. AS they say, “Stuff happens!”

I will admit, just in passing, that the three conditions indicated above would be enough to make ANY day something of a “hard time,” at least for me. Of course, as almost any of my former students could testify, coffee has been a significant part of my existence for virtually all of my adult life. AND, it still is. Hmmm, there’s probably a blog post in that somewhere. I’ll have to give that some thought….

I have to admit that, while I don’t take advantage of it very often, being retired has the advantage (rather like that of being a pampered house cat) of not actually HAVING to get up if I don’t want to do so. Of course, being old tends to come with the need to take pills at various times of day, etc., so I really CAN’T just sleep in until I choose to drag myself out of bed. On the other hand, I AM somewhat likely to take an afternoon nap, an idea which I have learned from my cats, which probably does nothing to explain the strip below, but I DO understand the motivation behind it.

I could go on at considerably further length, but I won’t as I may want to return to this theme again sometime. It IS probably worth noting, however, that even Mondays do, on occasion, have some sort of redeeming value, as Jon demonstrates to Garfield in the strip below:

I suppose that one has to be as fond of tacos as Garfield is known to be for that to make much sense, but, the point still stands that, for many people, much of the time, Mondays IS a Hard Time. The grammar may not be the most correct, but I think it expresses the concept pretty well.

I think that’ll do it for this time. I expect I’ll be back in a couple of weeks, “If the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise,” as they say. On the other hand, between the recent floods in some parts of the country, the drought in other parts, and the wild fires elsewhere, who can predict what the situation will be by then. I do PLAN to be back about then, though.

Anyway, until next time,

🖖🏼 LLAP,

Dr. B

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
— Nelson Mandela

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
― Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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237 Blog Post Witch Hunts: Past, Present and Stupid

8/17/2022

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Almost exactly 330 years ago, I had a relative hanged about this time of year during what is known as “The Salem Witch Hunt.” At least that was the story in my family as I was growing up. Actually, that story is not quite true. The best evidence I am currently aware of (mostly from my sister, who has actually done a lot of work on the genealogy of our family through family and official records, “23 and Me,” “Ancestry,” and other sources), is that we had at least four relatives hanged on August 19, 1692, and a couple more who were hanged in September of that year. The small amount of research I have done and the evidence I have seen suggests to me that that list may well not be complete, but I have not actually pursued research into these suspicions in sufficient detail to be sure that is true.

However, based on the evidence we have, what seems to be pretty well established is that my family probably included numerous people who were involved in virtually ALL aspects of this, the most famous witch hunt in American history. This evidence suggests that at least three of the young women who formed the group of “afflicted/accusers;” ten or more others who were among those accused of witchcraft, but not executed; six or seven of the men who sat as members of the Court of Oyer and Terminer (which “tried” the cases); and several of the leading clergy members from Boston, who offered religious advice to the Court and community, were ALL related to my family in some fashion, albeit not always especially closely.

As my (almost) yearly posts on this topic at about this time each year suggest, I have become interested in the phenomenon of the Salem Witch Hunt and have spent a fair amount of time studying a good number of the various works dealing with it, including reprints of many of the actual records of the various “court” proceedings, etc. I do NOT suggest these as “light” reading, especially since these records are, obviously, written in what is now referred to as “Middle English” (much like the language of the First Folio of Shakespeare) and, having been created during the actual proceedings, are often rather ungrammatical (at least by modern standards); crudely abbreviated and inconsistently spelled. They are NOT easy to read, although I would not trust transcriptions into modern English, as the creation of such “transcriptions” would amount to a translation of the documents, with inevitable interpretation issues, which would, almost certainly, have an impact on their accuracy.

I think it is worth noting that ALL of the victims of the Salem witch hunt have finally been exonerated by the Massachusetts legislature (although it took until the end of July of this year (2022) for that to finally happen). Not too many years after the actual “trials,” however, many of the families of those who were executed were paid (token) compensation for their losses and the general thinking among modern scholars of this historical episode seems to be that the events of Salem were largely a result of personal disputes over land boundaries and local political squabbles, combined with established fears relating to wars with indigenous peoples, etc. That conclusion is not universally accepted, however.

To the best of my knowledge, only one of the accusers remained in the area for an extended period of time after the conclusion of the Salem affair, and she eventually “confessed” that she had wrongly accused some of the victims, although she claimed that “…she had not acted out of malice, but had been deluded by Satan into denouncing innocent people.” (I think this is known as “the Devil made me do it” defense.) Since she made this “confession” in order to become a member of the local church with which her parents had been deeply involved and which was an important center of the community, I admit to being unkind enough to have strong reservations as to the sincerity of this “confession.”

Personally, I suspect that this “confession” may well have been an attempt to quiet suspicions that this individual may have enjoyed the attention and power which being an accuser gained her. It’s quite clear that such attention and power would have been quite unusual for a teen-aged girl in that society. She was 13 when the “hunt” started, and it seems quite plausible that she lied to get and maintain the attention she desired, but, obviously, I can’t prove that.

So, why am I spending all of this time trying to establish some degree of credibility for my thoughts about the Salem Witch Hunt? Well, to be quite blunt, I have grown increasingly tired of a certain group of political figures (who MUST be described as being members of the Party they claim IN NAME ONLY, as they do NOT support the traditional values and ideas of that party) maintaining that OTHER political folk are engaging in what the first group insists on calling a “witch hunt” against them. That, of course, ignores the fact that it is this first group (the one who claims to be being “hunted” by others) who is using the exact tactics used by the accusers during the Salem Trials.

I suspect that they are attempting to use the “witch hunt” idea to claim the idea that THEY (of course) are completely correct in their beliefs and actions so that they are the ones who SHOULD be “hunting” the politically unacceptable characters who disagree with them, but, they claim that they are, in fact, the VICTIMS of a “witch hunt” engaged in by those “other” people. Of course, by claiming to be the victims of a “witch hunt,” they complicate the issue tremendously. Apparently, they would have us believe that the “hunt” is being staged by this undefined and unnamed group of citizens which THEY would like to call the “witches.” However, by claiming to be the innocent accused, they seem to be suggesting that THEY are actually the witches, but, of course, they are the innocent ones, in spite of the fact that THEY are the ones making the accusations. Are YOU confused yet? I have a strong suspicion that that’s the point of this verbal nonsense.

The point of this “witch hunt” talk, of course, is that ideas (other than those of this one group) must be stopped at all cost because they are “unsacred;” “unpatriotic; “unAmerican;” and, probably, fattening. This is, of course, hogwash, as the entirety of the Constitution and the other founding documents were designed to encourage debate, discussion and compromise, because we had had enough of authoritarian, “royal” rule. I am reminded that this same group wishes us to refuse to acknowledge the existence of slavery in the US, or the broken treaties with indigenous people, or the locking up of American citizens of Japanese ancestry during WWII, or a lot of other FACTS of American history because the truth “might make someone feel bad.” I prefer the old idea of “the truth will make you free,” but I guess I’m old fashioned.

In any event, this “witch hunt” notion crops up every so often to provide those who don’t like republican democracy a chance to “hoot and holler and carry on” about how “ONLY THEY” have all of the “correct” answers and the rest of us should just march in goose lock step to their tune. The last time this was tried that comes to my mind was in the early 1950s when the term “witch hunt” reemerged being used in relation to the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (which had been around since the late 1930s) and the investigations led by former Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin , who

… rose suddenly to national fame in February 1950, when he asserted in a speech
   that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring"
   who were employed in the State Department. In succeeding years after his 1950
   speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the
   State Department, the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the Voice of
   America, and the U. S. Army. He also used various charges of communism,
   communist sympathies, disloyalty, or sex crimes to attack a number of politicians
   and other individuals inside and outside of government. (Wikipedia)

I think it’s worth noting that, to the best of my knowledge, Senator McCarthy NEVER actually produced specific evidence of “spying” in his hearings or speeches, and it is worth noting that it was NOT a crime to belong to the Communist Party in the U. S. until 1954, so McCarthy’s charges related to someone being a member of such a party really had NO legal validity. I would suggest that his accusations had the same importance as accusing someone of being a Mason, for example. (Another “secret” society which has been accused of nefarious deeds over the course of history by a number of groups, despite the fact that a substantial number of our Founding Fathers, including nine signers of the Declaration of Independence, were members.)

I am particularly fond of a quote from Edward R. Murrow, the outstanding radio (later television) news figure, who, while discussing the antics of Senator McCarthy, once said, in part,

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that
   accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due
   process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by
   fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and
   remember that we are not descended from fearful men—not from men who feared
   to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment,
   unpopular.

As an individual whose family has been made to pay a price for the unsubstantiated claims and persecutions of an ACTUAL witch hunt, I find it unacceptable that the “McCarthy” types of the world should be allowed to attempt to glorify their crude attempts at forcing their opinions and beliefs on our entire society by implying that those they would destroy actually have done something wrong merely because they don’t agree with some particular group.

I find it especially unacceptable for a former President and his followers to deny the basic principle of law that, “Evidence: something legally submitted to a tribunal to ascertain the truth of a matter” is, or should be, required in order to have a meaningful impact on judgements. The current quibble, in some (especially political) circles, that unless something can be proved beyond all possible doubt, it is just a “theory,” just someone’s opinion, is hogwash. A career in teaching forces me to point out that: “A theory is a statement or principle devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.” Thus, a theory is something which has NOT been proven beyond all possible doubt, but which seems to explain a phenomena better than any other available alternative. An example might be the Theory of Gravity, which we find handy to explain why, if we jump out a window, we are going to fall until something stops us. It IS a theory, we haven’t proven (or disproven) it, but it seems to works pretty well.

To insist that, after filing many lawsuits declaring that the election was improperly influenced, illegally conducted, rife with fraud, etc.; and having lost every one of these suits due to an inability to produce ANY actual evidence to support these claims, except for the insistence of one of the candidates that “The election MUST have been stolen because that’s the only way I could have lost.” makes about as little sense as can be conceived. In fact, this argument would seem to be only explainable as essentially identical to the “spectral evidence” which was the basis for the accusations and convictions of the Salem trials, which would make these nutcases the perpetrators of the “witch hunt,” not its victims. So, it’s important to understand what is meant by “spectral evidence,” since it seems to be the only “evidence” being offered.

According to US Legal.com (http://definitions.uslegal.com/s/spectral-evidence/):

Spectral evidence refers to a witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or
   spectral shape appeared to him/her witness [sic] in a dream at the time the
   accused person’s physical body was at another location. It was accepted in the
   courts during the Salem Witch Trials. The evidence was accepted on the basis that
   the devil and his minions were powerful enough to send their spirits, or specters,
   to pure, religious people in order to lead them astray.

In spectral evidence, the admission of victims’ conjectures is governed only by the
   limits of their fears and imaginations, whether or not objectively proven facts are
   forthcoming to justify them. [State v. Dustin, 122 N.H. 544, 551 (N.H. 1982)].

I would suggest that this definition was accepted during the Salem affair to allow acceptance of the idea that, if I SAY you sent your spirit/shape/spectre into the world to do harm; then this should be considered as legally acceptable evidence that such an event did, in fact, happen. If that is accepted, then the entire notion of fact: (knowledge or information based on real occurrences) MUST be denied, as we are then defining “reality” as being whatever someone says it is, which seems contrary to the basic concept of law and/or logic.

I must also hasten to point out that the only people who would appear to benefit from the statement that they are the “victims of a witch hunt” would appear to be (as was suspiciously true during the Salem experience) the only people who say that they can “see” the “evidence.” It’s clearly established that only the accusers of Salem saw the “little yellow birds,” and the “black man whispering in the ears of the accused,” and such. In the same light, only those who have declared their intention to overthrow the Presidential election seem to be able to “see” the “clear-cut” evidence of “Massive voter fraud.” (NOTE: I am unaware of ANY challenge to ANY of the other elections which were held at the same time.) Obviously, ALL of the recounts, audits, and court challenges related to the Presidential election were fraudulent, but all OTHER elections were FREE of fraud, as they were never challenged. I suspect there are a lot of crooked politicians who would love to know how THAT was done. As my ancestor, Martha Allen Carrier said in 1692, during the trial which led to her execution during the Salem witch hunt “It is a shamefull (sic) thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits.” (From the official record of the examination of Martha Carrier, May 31, 1692. Document #235 in Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, Bernard Rosenthal, General Editor.)

As this post obviously suggests, I have little patience with the whole notion of the “witch hunt” argument. I think it ranks right up there in stupidity with the “alternative facts” argument as a pseudo-intellectual con. I have never seen anything to suggest that there has EVER been a “witchcraft” trial, from at least the time of Joan of Arc (1431C.E.) to the present, in which it could be successfully demonstrated that actual “witchy” magic was used in some nefarious way to damage someone else. And, considering the “miracles” of Jesus and other Biblical figures, I am forced to suggest that the only real difference between “miracles” and “witchcraft” is public relations. I certainly pray that we will reject the stupidity which the notion of a “witch hunt” represents in the future. After all, this sort of thinking is too reminiscent of the fascination with the occult of so many desperate despots. Such thinking “… is not healthy for children and other living things.”

I’ll be back,

🖖🏼 LLAP,

Dr. B

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
— Nelson Mandela
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” ― Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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236 Thoughts Inspired by Quotes I like, #1

8/3/2022

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Along with the cartoons which I collect from across the internet (and the daily papers), I also keep my eyes open for quotes I encounter which I find interesting, inspiring, or otherwise memorable and thought-provoking. So, for this post, I thought I’d take a look at some of them and just see what develops. I think it’s going to be interesting, but I’m not really sure where it will take me.

We sometimes watch various programs on PBS (we can get PBS programming from TWO different states [Iowa AND Nebraska], which gives us quite a broad spectrum and a variety of broadcast schedules). I was, understandably enough, I suppose, particularly interested in some of the programs which were broadcast related to the “rebirth” of Broadway theatre after the trials of the COVID pandemic. One of these was a “Great Performances” program called “Keeping Company with Sondheim,” which discussed the closing of the newly revised production of Company, just a few days before it’s scheduled “official”opening, and which then waited 600 days to officially “open.”

Christopher Fitzgerald, who played David, discussed his experience through the time of being closed and the pre-reopening. I think he said something rather profound about his experience which sheds some light on the meaning of doing theatre for many of us who have spent much of our lives in the service of that art. He said,

It was like a death, it was. It was. It was like, it was, it was a death of our connections, our,
     you know it is the…. Being in a room with a group of people and telling a story is so
     elemental to being human and to just like strip that in the moment of its happening was
   like, it felt like a death to me, and I think to a lot of us. And so, it really feels like coming
     back to life.

I think I understand that feeling, even though I’m no longer actively involved in producing theatre. The end (closing) of a show was always a bit of a “downer,” even if you were moving directly onto another one, as I did most of the time (and, sometimes, even before the current production actually closed). Just the idea of having a show in limbo for such an extended period of time, had to be excruciating.

Of course, Broadway (and the rest of the theatre world) has more, or less, managed to reopen after the worst depths of COVID, but I do strongly identify with Kristen Chenoweth when she gave a brief “curtain speech” at the reopening of Wicked on Sept. 14, 2021. Her first words were, as she stepped out in front of the (closed) curtain were; “There’s no place like home.” I think she expressed a feeling many theatre people were having about that time, and since.

While I’m discussing “theatre” quotes, a long time ago (sometime around 1970, as I remember it) I encountered the statement that; “Acting is the art of making an audience believe that real things are happening to real people.” I confess that, at that time, I was quite unsure that I believed that. In fact, I still think that not ALL acting necessarily has to have this as its ultimate aim, as not ALL theatre is about “human-seeming” characters, nor need it be. However, thinking about this led me to decide that the statement might be more correct if it read; “Theatre is the art of making an audience understand that the imaginary reality of the stage can help us to better understand the actual reality of real life.”

I suppose that that quibble is at least partially the result of my work in children’s theatre where characters may be animals or other fantastic beings, and I don’t mean to deny the commitment to honesty which is ALWAYS necessary in acting, but it IS hard to think of a squirrel, for example, as a “real people.” I also don’t think that Theatre is the only art which creates an artificial reality which reflects on “real” life, but I do think it is an important one. And that it was important enough to devote much of my life to it. And I am NOT (at least in my mind) in any way limiting the idea of Theatre to just acting.

I think the notion of assisting an audience to better understand “real” life must be a part of every mind engaged in the creation of theatre. That’s why I enjoyed the idea of having computers, etc., to assist in the control of lighting, sound, etc., as a part of live performance, but was always nervous about “automating” the performance too much, even on the technical side. I firmly believe that if theatre becomes too “mechanized,” “computerized,” or, otherwise lacking the emotional commitment of all of its creators each time it is created, it will cease to truly be theatre. It MIGHT be worthy of our attention, but it won’t be “Theatre.”

Some of my former students will probably remember my saying that; “Theatre is an art of pursuing perfection, in the face of the certain knowledge that it will never be achieved.” I don’t believe that I ever claimed that that was an original thought of mine, or that I was unique in feeling that way, but it IS an idea of which I have been fond for a long time. Needless to say, when I encounter a statement which seems to be closely related to this notion expressed by someone more eloquently than I think I ever achieved, I have tried to take note of it, so here are a couple of quotes which, I think, may help make this point more clearly than I have.

On CBS’ “Sunday Morning” a while ago the architect, Frank Gehry spoke about his idea of “creative insecurity.” He described this creative insecurity as a constant questioning—looking for ways to bring a fresh perspective, new idea, or different angle to the work. The reporter suggested that as he listened, he thought of the concept of having a “beginner’s mind,” which he described as a Zen Buddhist concept that maintains that only when you are a true beginner can you really learn anything. Through that lens, we discover without the weight of preconceived beliefs and thoughts. There is an openness to embrace something novel and the courage to take a journey.

It was suggested that Gehry’s creative insecurity didn’t seem to come from a tenuous place of fearing the unknown or of thinking little of himself, but from a place of wanting more to be revealed. That even as a master or expert in our field, we can approach situations with a beginner’s mindset. That constant questioning is a mainstay of curiosity, which leads to a creative impulse to seek out new information and experiences. I can’t be sure, but I think that’s much the same thing as my notion of seeking perfection while knowing that it won’t be achieved.

Peter Hall, the British director, in his book, Making an Exhibition of Myself, discussed the impact of theatre on a person’s life. Among the many things he said, he noted that,

The theatre keeps you humble and it keeps you young; you learn your job to the very end,
and always feel unsure with every new job: 'Can I still do it? Shall I be found out?'

Ralph Richardson defeated the fears; he liked long runs: he was able to go on practising.
     He often told me that he loved the nightly expectation of going down to the theatre. He
     felt like a woodcarver trying to repeat an ever more delicate decoration. He would re-carve
     his performance each night, making it a little finer, a little more economical. Some nights,
     the knife would slip and he would spoil a whole section. He knew that perfection was
     impossible, but the important thing was to continue carving. If the run was happy, the
     carving would improve, though the improvement might be hardly discernible from
     performance to performance.

Well, I’ve rambled on for long enough for now. Having reached my elder days, I’d like to think that at least some of what I have learned and thought about through my life might be useful to some others. I hope that’s the case. If it’s not, I accept that I should have followed Yoda’s advice: “If Stupid You Are, Speak You Should Not” and I’ll try to do better in the future.

🖖🏼 LLAP,

Dr. B

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
— Nelson Mandela

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”                                                                       ― Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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235 Thoughts on Felininity

7/20/2022

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Okay, so my dictionary insists that the word is “felinity.” However, that doesn’t really capture the quality which is stirring my thoughts at the moment. There’s just something about cats that I find fascinating, but which I’ve never been able to define. I’m quick to point out that I am nowhere near unique in suggesting the truth of this, but I’m right in there supporting it. There is simply some sort of “je ne sais quoi” about cats which I, like many people, find absolutely fascinating.
I guess that I’ve always been a “cat person.” I have shared my home with one, or more, cats for much of my life. I first remember having a cat when I was six or seven and our cat (name long forgotten) showed up at the back door with a dead blue jay in it’s mouth. Needless to say, my mother was not pleased and I have no clear recollection of what happened to that cat, except that the vast majority of my cats have been (virtually exclusively) INDOOR cats. That’s not to suggest that none of them ever got outside, but it was actively discouraged and, given concerns over fleas, disease, etc., I refuse to apologize for wanting MY cats to be “house” pets.

My family did have a dog for a while, as I was growing up, a golden Cocker Spaniel, with a penchant for running away if she got out of the house, and a need to be walked morning and night (at least) which became MY job. I didn’t really mind, as I remember it, but I hardly considered walking Taffy to be a treat, either, especially during the winter.

Eventually, she left us and my mother (my Dad was NOT involved with pets) acquired a cat named Perkins (or perhaps it was Purrkins, as I never saw it written out as I remember it). Obviously, she was not spayed, as she produced several litters, and it was one of her first offspring, Koko (who was dark brown and white), who came to live with Bonnie and me in our trailer in Bloomington while I was doing my Master’s work and was a member of the Indiana Theatre Company.

Since much of the floor of our trailer was tile, Koko developed the interesting habit of starting in the kitchen (tile floor) at one end of the structure, dashing across the living room (carpeted) and down the hall (tile) almost to the other end of the space, then trying (desperately) to make the turn into the bathroom (also tile). Needless to say, he usually did NOT make the turn and would entertain us with the sound of “scrabbling claws on tile” as he attempted the turn, followed by the sound of cat crashing into the wall. He never seemed to get injured, and he never stopped attempting this feat. During this timeframe, we also acquired a second cat, Marshmallow (all white), so, for a while there were four of us before we had any “real” children.

After I got my MA and we moved to Evanston (when I joined the Children’s Theatre) we had to give them up, a MOST unhappy circumstance, but necessary, as there was very little rental property (none we could afford) which allowed pets as residents. We were able to “adopt out” Marshmallow, but we had to turn Koko in to an adoption shelter. Bonnie and I both sat in the parking lot at the Orphans of the Storm adoption center and cried for a while that day.

However, a couple of years later, I started at Western and we moved to Sylva, where we first lived in a rental house and acquired a cat named Spook. She was an indoor cat (as was our practice) although at least two sets of our neighbors thought we were very cruel because we didn’t let him out. I think they changed their tune when both of them had cats killed on the road in front of our houses in less than six months, while Spook remained happy and healthy, but we didn’t rub that in.

I don’t think we’ve been without at least one cat any longer than we felt we had to at any point since then (1971), although we were catless for the time we lived in Married Student Apartments in Athens, when I was doing my PhD classes at UGA in the mid-’70’s and, after our return to Cullowhee, while we lived for several years in Faculty Apartments. Of course, having small children, (Maggi was born while we lived there) was a considerable compensation.

Shortly before we left Faculty Apartments, Bonnie “borrowed” a pregnant cat named Motley (who was eventually returned to her owner after producing several kittens [Kate had an interest in kittens and got a chance to be “involved” with the births]). One of these was Bilbo. Bonnie and I were both quite amused that our local vet’s office insisted on calling him “Bill Boy,” apparently not getting the LOTR reference, but we had him for only about a year, as Maggi was very small and had difficulty understanding how gently a small cat had to be treated.

So, again, we were catless until we got our first house in 1986. Shortly after we moved in, Bonnie found “Twilight Zone” up for adoption in front of the Sylva Public Library. She was so named because she always seemed just a little “out there.” A few years later, about 1992, Maggi earned her Girl Scout Silver Award and wanted a kitten, so we adopted “Crash” from the pet store in the Asheville Mall. She was so named because she “crashed” on Maggi’s shoulder all the way home, but she also had a habit of running full speed through the house and abruptly dropping into a heap, dead asleep, wherever she happened to be when she stopped.

Anyway, by 1994, the girls decided that I needed a MALE cat to support me as I was seriously outnumbered by females (three human and two feline by that time, so, for my birthday, I got a wonderful, big, neutered, male cat who looked like a Maine Coon, but who we did NOT believe was“pure bred,” (but who sure looked like he could have been.) The girls insisted that he be named “Fiction” because 1.) he was MY cat; 2.) I liked to read; and, 3.) he (the cat) had a terribly tall tail (sp.). Anyway, both of the girls (mostly) grew up with cats in the house and became aware of the “ups and downs” of parenting cats as a matter of course.

After the girls both had left home and the various cats passed on, we considered not having a pet, but in late 2008, we acquired two declawed, male, littermate “kittens” from a friend of Kate’s who needed to be relieved of them due to serious allergies, as I recall. So, we drove up to western Virginia to pick up these “kittens,” who turned out to be a year and a half old and BIG. This friend, and her kids, had called them something stupid like “Smokey” (all grey) and Chip (all black). We quickly changed their names to Fred and George, in honor of the Weasley twins, as they DID look a bit alike and they WERE littermates, etc. They lived with us during our last years in Sylva and moved to Omaha with us. Then, one morning in early 2018, we were watching the morning news and heard a “thud” in the kitchen.

Apparently, George had suffered a heart attack while looking out the window from atop a “cat condo” and simply fell over dead. It struck me at the time that, “If you gotta go, that might be the way to do it.” As best we can tell, he was alive and (apparently) happy, then he was gone. Not a “happy experience” for us, but he wasn’t the first cat we had lost and it is, after all, a part of life…. So, we were a one cat family again.

Then, about the end of March 2021, Maggi and Brian went to look for a cat to replace one of theirs who had passed. They found a pair of brothers, whom they named Sherlock and Mycroft, but also informed us of a pair of older, spayed sister cats who had had to be given up by their previous owner who was too old to care for them properly. However, they had been born in 2009, so they were not young, had been declawed (fronts only, of course) so they couldn’t be outside, and the original owner didn’t want them to be separated (which seemed reasonable, as they had always been together). So, we acquired Bellatrix and Narcissa (after the Black sisters), who had originally been “Pixie” and “Sweetpea.” (Passing thought: why do people insist on giving cats stupid names? I mean them, not us!) So we have been a family of five again for a bit over a year.

Anyway, thinking about all of this put me in mind of considering what it is about cats which I find intriguing. I CAN conceive of not having a cat (or more than one) about, but it’s not something I would rush to seek out. There’s just “something” about having a cat to curl up with, climb on your lap, purr in your ear, etc. It’s one of the good things in life, even if it’s true that, “Dogs have owners, cats have staff.”

Anyway, here are a few cartoons, I’ve collected which seem to speak to this truth…. I think this is from The New Yorker, but I’m far from sure that’s true. It does seem to me that I could well have gotten it from that publication, however.

Yes, cats can certainly be demanding, especially when they have decided that it’s time for food! On the other hand, they often appear to be very affectionate, which tends to suck people into the morass of assuming that their pet is actually reciprocating the emotion which the “owner” wants to believe exists. On the other hand, Wiley, in Non Sequitur, probably has a greater understanding of the actual situation than many cat lovers would care to admit.

It’s probably true that the majority of the problem is that cats tend to be thought of as “cute,” so people tend to “mother” them, tickle them, pet them, and, generally, spoil them. All of which speaks to the truth of this sign, which I encountered in a store(?), at some point.

Then again, it’s SO easy to fall into that sort of trap because cats at least appear to respond so pleasantly (at least most of the time) when we indulge them. I mean, just look at the expression on Jon’s face…, and his “present” to Garfield only cost a few minutes and a wee bit of effort! I hate to admit how common is this sort of reaction.

The problem here is that the “adults” in the room (yes, I mean us cat “owners”) are so easily suckered by our pets that it’s often hard to figure out who is REALLY in charge. After all, there’s a LOT of truth in THIS statement….

Still, while cats CAN be a bit frustrating and, much of the time, insist on being treated with considerable respect like the dignified people that they think of themselves as being, they can (at least sometimes) be conned. For example,

Don’t try THAT with a human baby, or even a dog. It’s unlikely to achieve any sort of RESPONSE, let alone success. But, almost any, non-sleeping cat, on the other hand….

🖖🏻

LLAP,

Dr. B

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
   — Nelson Mandela

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”                                                                       ― Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

P.S.   Our “guys” at a quiet moment after breakfast (and much of the rest of the time).

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234 A National Celebration

7/7/2022

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It’s Hot! It’s just a bit past Midsummer. Around here, people have been setting off fireworks at all hours in spite of the laws against such behavior, etc. It MUST have just been Independence Day (also known as the Fourth of July)! As the day we celebrate the birth of our nation, I suppose that that’s a day worth celebrating, however I think some people DO over do it a bit, especially in the light of recent developments in law and politics.

Too many people (especially among our political “leaders”) wish to claim a proprietary interest in the idea of “patriotism” and suggest that only their supporters can be considered as such. But, ideas like that suggest a complete misunderstanding of the real notion of patriotism. Personally, I’m rather fond of the way Mark Twain put it when he said that, “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” I like this because I believe it agrees with the belief which I developed during the Vietnam War era as I watched my government engage in activities which I was pretty sure were, at best, unwise, and probably should have been considered criminal.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my country. It’s a place where I can trace my roots back to about 150 years before the idea of the United States ever occurred to anyone. But, I am also aware that our “experiment” in democracy has not been without a good many flaws, often of a serious nature. Some of those flaws have cost me some friends in Vietnam and other places. Some of those flaws really deny my country any right to claim that it actually stands for what we have always SAID it did. Yes, I am fully aware that, as a country, we are NOT and never have been perfect.

Some would use that statement to suggest that I’m not a “true” patriot. I disagree. I do so because I firmly believe that only by acknowledging that we have not been perfect; that we have made mistakes; that we have not always done the truly “right” thing; do we have a chance of actually taking the steps to make things better. The fact is that you can’t “Make America Great Again” unless it’s been “great” before, and a close look at our history would suggest that while we, as a nation, have done a lot (some of it even pretty good), we still have some challenges to achieve the “greatness” we aspire to.

And, in fact, looking at history with the idea of correcting mistakes and righting wrongs is NOT all that uncommon a practice. Virtually ALL religions (I think) have some version of this concept, although they may call it different things and it may take a variety of specific forms. Politically, I would suggest that it is a necessary step towards resolving the challenges of creating the “more perfect union” which citizens of the US claim is the driving force behind our politics. How can THAT be “UNpatriotic?”

I’m sorry to say that the past half-dozen years of US politics have been disappointing to me. Actually, it probably goes back further than that, back to the point at which far too many people started to decide that politics was REALLY just about “winning and losing.” For those people, “Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing,” as Vince Lombardi is quoted as having said. I would suggest, however, that Lombardi was not talking about politics, but about the game of football; not the same thing, at all. I think the difference lies in the reason one plays the game. Of course everyone WANTS to win any game, but when the “game” ceases to be a game and becomes one’s validation as a person (or, perhaps, the means for one to accumulate money, power, and influence) then it’s not just a contest; and it may well become a need to destroy anyone who might “defeat” you. And, that does NOT seem to fit in with the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence and our other founding documents. After all, how does one accomplish destroying the opposition?

Well, short of actual violence, the lessons of history suggest it’s by making people afraid, then giving them someone (your opponent) to blame for causing that fear. Or, as suggested below:

Not a very clear picture, I know, but it says, “Support FEAR AND LIES.” History strongly suggests that the quickest, easiest way to achieve power is to make people afraid of someone, or something. Common choices usually are someone who can be identified as not being like “us.” There doesn’t have to be any real reason for it, but if I can make you afraid, I can then “save” you by telling you how to “fix” that fear (usually by telling you to support me and my ideas and oppose my selected scapegoat) because “Only I can solve your problems!” It’s worked like a charm in a lot of places for a lot of years. A good part of Twentieth Century political history was based on this idea.

Case in point, I’ve heard that our neighbors to the North (Canada) have become concerned about too many people from the US trying to emigrate to their country due to the mostly self-inflicted problems of the US, and they may be trying to do something to discourage such shenanigans, but I don’t know that for certain. Still, I did run across this picture of Canadians building a wall a while ago….

I confess, that I’m not sure this would be an effective solution, except, perhaps, for folks coming from, say, Florida, or Texas.

Other folks, from various places, seem to have decided that the best way to deal with the acrimonious state of US politics is to simply walk away and ignore the whole damn thing. In fact, some, apparently, had that idea back a few years back…

I hope that such folks have decided to give the USA another chance, as tempting as it may be to just ignore the whole situation. I think the “American experiment in democracy” is salvageable and worth the effort. At least I hope so. After all,

Call me stupid, if you wish, but I DO think this is a true statement, even if not the best grammar. I’m still young enough (at least at heart), naive enough, perhaps even Romantic enough to think that the ideals of our Founding Fathers are worth the effort it will take to confront, accept, and at least make an honest attempt to resolve our mistakes of the past and still retain an, essentially, democratic society. I can understand the temptations of Fascistic “order,” but I can’t believe that the result is worth the collateral damage to freedom.

Probably, the first step towards resolving the issues which face us may be to consider if Sherlock Holmes, as pastiched by Loren D. Estleman, was correct when he complained about the lack of criminal imagination in England, saying, “There isn’t a criminal with imagination left on our island. They have all emigrated to America to run for public office.” If this observation is true, we have to find some better people to fill these positions.

Whether Holmes was right, or not, however, the first thing to actually do is to resolve to become better voters during the next election. That would seem to require each of us to seek out candidates willing to look beyond name-calling and “trust me” sorts of policies and accept the fact that issues are NOT always all that simple and that progress may require making difficult and, sometimes, unpopular choices. The important consideration is whether our selected candidate will support the rule of law and the principles of our Constitution even when it’s uncomfortable to do so. I can think of no better way to celebrate our nation than by VOTING. Make sure you are registered, get informed about the candidates and their principles, and VOTE. It’s the patriotic things to do! And, it’s probably the most meaningful way to celebrate our Independence!

🖖🏼 LLAP,

Dr. B

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
— Nelson Mandela

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
― Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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233 Accepting Getting Older #1

6/22/2022

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More and more frequently I find myself having to accept the fact that I’m getting older. Most of the time I still feel like I’m as alert, awake, and aware as I ever was, although I know that’s probably not really true. There’s also the fact that I don’t seem to have either the desire, or the energy, to just go full tilt all day and into the night, like I once did. And, I have to admit that there are the general aches and pains which remind me that the human body, remarkable piece of engineering that it is, wasn’t designed (nor built) to last forever. Hence, I have one “rebuilt” knee and (given the advanced arthritis in the other one) I’ll probably need my “mechanic” to rebuild the other one before too many years. And, there are other signs of age which I COULD complain about, but I won’t because it wouldn’t get me anywhere, anyhow.

This “Funky Winkerbean” comic a while ago really hit me hard.

Mind you, I’m not really complaining, I think I’ve had a pretty good life, all things considered, and I have no plans not to have it continue a good while yet. There is the fact, though that I am more aware of getting older than I used to be, all of which is just a long-winded way of getting around to the fact that this post is going to include some of the stuff I have collected which seems to relate to the idea of getting older. I find much of it a little ironic, but mostly amusing, and I hope you will, too.

Society, generally, loves to make fun of us “olders.” Our health, our memories, and the fact that many of us (myself included) aren’t considered to be really “with it” in terms of “modern” trends, seems to be a constant source of amusement to “youngers” (who are getting older every day). (Revenge is SO sweet!) Anyway, here’s a few things which relate to the fact of aging which I actually enjoyed.

Yes, I identify with that as I can remember being referred to as a “Hippy” back in the day because of my “long” hair. Of course, I would never have been described as such by those who actually were…. And, of course, it’s certainly not a problem now.

Of course, a major difference between MY generation and the current one was the lack of “social media.” The more I think about it, though, the more I doubt that we ever felt the loss.

Social media is, of course, a product of the ABSOLUTE NEED for INSTANT CONNECTION to EVERYONE at ALL TIMES, brought to us by the “magic” of the cell phone. Am I the only one who isn’t convinced that this is not necessarily a positive trend? After all, there’s a good deal of truth in THIS picture!

Go ahead. Call me “old-fashioned,” but I don’t go into a rest room to listen to your phone call and I’d really rather that you conduct your “phone business” someplace else!

I don’t think of myself as a complete Luddite, but I also don’t think that something is automatically better just because it’s new(er). I DO have (and actually use) a GPS device in my car(s), although I have to admit that I sometimes find it unnerving in it’s vocal comments. For example, I ran across this statement somewhere not long ago: “I felt uncomfortable driving into the cemetery. The GPS blurted out ‘You have reached you final destination.’”

Perhaps it’s just the choice of phrasing, but I think the GPS makers MIGHT be able to find a better way to have their devices phrase this.
Then there’s also the fact that I can do (at least have done a good many times) things which those who want to hold my age against me are apparently not able to do. Witness THIS sign, for example.

How can you claim to be even remotely competent to serve as a valet parking attendant if you have no ability to drive a stick shift? I realize that there are fewer of them on the road today than there used to be, but really.

Oh, well, I know I’m getting old, and I’m TRYING to accept it with some amount of grace, but it’s not always easy. Life has a habit of sneaking up on you when you don’t expect it. I mean, this (below) is what they say is supposed to happen, but it hasn’t worked for me yet, at least not reliably…

I do have to admit that, whether you believe him or not, Dumbledore did understand one thing about growing older.

After all, “One can never have enough socks.”

There’s also the fact that, like many “olders,” I do (on occasion) catch myself (as I do something foolish) wondering…

Still,

I’ll be back…. And, I’ll probably do this again sometime.

🖖🏼 LLAP,

Dr. B
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
— Nelson Mandela
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” ― Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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238 Mondays Is a Hard Time, #1

237 Blog Post Witch Hunts: Past, Present and Stupid

236 Thoughts Inspired by Quotes I like, #1

235 Thoughts on Felininity

234 A National Celebration

233 Accepting Getting Older #1

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