Thanks to commentor Trollhattan for this temporary antidote to the mondays:
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What really pulls the video together is Maru’s lashing tail… he knows it’s a cruel trick, that he’s being yanked around for our monkey entertainment. And yet, he can’t resist — it’s a BOX, after all!
Incidentally, the Spousal Unit tells me that “Maru” is the Japanese word for “round”.
thalarctos
He almost had that slim box there.
Menzies
That kitty is da bomb. Perhaps, if I wanted to reach *really* far back into the slang dictionary, I might say he was da bomb diggity.
Not only is Maru the Japanese word for “round” (perfect description) but it’s also a popular name for cats. Slang for “demon” or “spirit.”
cs
Doesn’t “maru” also have something to do with the ocean or fish? I vaguely remember commercial ships often having Maru in their name.
magurakurin
Pretty much every ship has “maru” 丸 in it. I don’t know why. But “maru” does mean circle. Marui is round 丸い。Can’t say about the pet name thing, but I do know that “jon” or John is a common name for a dog. So, Cole has that going for him if he comes over here.
Man the GOS is really, really sad and gray today. They need to put Prozac in the well water there. I’m sure glad this place is on the Intertubes. Much more cheerful, in a nice gruff, grumpy old man kind of way. I really like this place.
I only visit the States once a year anymore. Is it really THAT bad over there now? I know it’s gotten crappy, I can tell by the state of disrepair of the bridges in Philly and especially the disgraceful state of the terminal at Kennedy in NYC(it looks like an East German Soviet work project that became a crack junkie…sad that place). But is it really the end of days over there? You’d think it was all over but the crying from reading the diaries over at the GOS these days.
stuckinred
You sure it doesn’t mean “mensa”, sheesh.
Lysana
Heck, I thought Maru meant “ship” from how often it’s used in ship names.
Fencedude
The meaning of “Maru” in any given situation would depend on what Kanji its written with.
Japanese has lots and lots of…homonyms, I guess. Though I’m not sure if thats the right term, considering how the language works.
Pet names however are frequently written in Katakana or Hiragana, so “Maru” could mean anything or nothing in this case.
JPL
The video made me laugh. When the boxes kept changing sides, Maru seemed to shake his/her head as if to express what happened, did I get bigger.
PeakVT
Maru’s reaction to the flat box cracked me up.
Entirely unrelated: My favorite show on public radio for a while has been On the Media. I think this week’s show was especially good. Give it a listen if you haven’t before.
Winston Smith
BTW, concerning that hotel that ABL wrote about, well, they’ve been TripAdvisor’ed:
tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g28970-d498949-r87006852-Hampton_Inn_Washington_DC_Convention_Center…
Winston Smith
@Fencedude:
The Hiragana in the title says “marumaru” — so it may just be a name.
It might be Japanese onomatopoeia for “meow-meow”.
Gravenstone
Loved the slim box, “I will get in this I will get in this, I will get in this – aw fuck it”
JPL
@Winston Smith: Nice job!
debit
I never cease to be amazed and envious at how clean and shiny Japanese floors seem to be.
Linda Featheringill
Good morning Maru. Maybe you can find a nice, snuggly hiding place today where your humans won’t think to look. That’ll teach them!
[scritch-scritch around the ears]
Skippy-san
Maru also means zero in Japanese, as well as being a reference to a ship. These videos are very popular in Japan-the owner started making them in her condo and was able to turn it into enough money to move to a better place.
Linda Featheringill
@magurakurin:
Good morning.
If haven’t visited the diaries yet but I can tell you that the country is probably not a whole lot worse than it was a couple of months ago.
A lot of people are just hanging on by their fingernails and so are feeling insecure.
Some of the insecurity you see at GOS might come from fear that the Republicans will only make things worse [I’m sorry you’re bleeding, Madam. Here, have a tax cut.]. Also, a number of community services have been at least partially supported by federal funds over the last year and a half. If this federal support dries up and community services shrink, the quality of life is likely to deteriorate throughout the country.
And yes, the physical infrastructure in the country REALLY needs some loving attention.
Triassic Sands
What a great cat!
There are lots of “Maru” videos on YouTube — apparently, he’s something of a celebrity in Japan.
magurakurin
On clean floors in Japan, even a rather filthy bastard such as myself can achieve relatively clean floors easily. We don’t wear our filthy shoes in the house. It really is one of the most sensible things to do.
On sad and frustrated people at the GOS, what I don’t get is why they think that Obama should have been able to do so much more than any other president has ever done. And in fact why they hang so much on the idea of some great figure, a leader, a hero who will somehow “fight” and make all the bad men go away. I find it strange that the ones who cry the loudest about how much they hate the so-called cult of personality around Obama are actually the ones who talk about him in the most religious of tones. Except they are disappointed that their hoped for messiah has “betrayed” them or deceived them. In the end Obama is only one person, one in a powerful office indeed, but still one with an enormous amount limitations both politically and personally. As would any person in his position be.
It blows me away, because I always saw Obama as a really straight laced, sort of square and much more conservative type of person than myself. I never saw him as an overly liberal figure. Certainly a liberal and a fine, even excellent, candidate for POTUS, but not the progressive leader that so many seemed to believe he was. I did, however, feel his calm demeanor and desire to get people to work together was what the country needed. Unfortunately, the Repugs pretty much have exceeded even the worst projections for their desire to continue and even widen the gap between the right and the left in United States. It sucks. And it doubly sucks that a fair number of people on the left seem willing to sacrifice Obama on some sort of altar of liberalism or progressivism even if it were to cede even more power to the obviously insane Republican party.
ellie
Giant kitty!
Kryptik
Maru means a lot of things. Like said, it means ’round’, ‘zero’ (most likely due to a 0 being round, and circles often used as censorship marks similar to our asterisks), ship designation, but is also used as a name suffix usually to denote a male name of some sort.
My guess from how healthy that kitty is though, that ’round’ is probably what they were going for.
Comrade Mary
DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN MARU!
So was I the only one who actually sighed with pleasure when it looked as if Maru was going to fit in the narrow box?
Steeplejack
The classic box cat Maru video is here. It provides the much needed subtext for the one above.
New Yorker
So why is it that all the great viral cat videos on youtube come from Japan?
Not just Maru, but this:
youtube.com/watch?v=fzzjgBAaWZw
and this:
youtube.com/watch?v=8KswnjMa-MQ
Do we Americans just not have as entertaining cats?
Scuffletuffle
@Comrade Mary: Loved it. One of the most satisfying things about taking in cats for me has been getting the boys neutered and watching the PLAYTIME!! attitude slowly kick in. About a month before he passed away from cancer, my Benvolio finally got around to playing “rough” with my Romeo and a great time was had by all, especially me.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Comrade Mary: I didn’t sigh. I said — out loud, to no one — “Aw, good kitty!” Because, you see, I am apparently emotionally invested in Maru’s box-entering success.
I would not like to admit how much this video made me laugh, frankly. (Especially the moment where he gives up and just sticks his face in the the “more more small box.”).
maya
I like Maru’s kewl markings. In some of the other vids from the top he looks like a Rorschach test.
IndyLib
This was my first introduction to Maru and a box.
My kids think I’m a youtube Goddess because I introduced them to Maru clips but I have to give credit to someone from comments here because I’m pretty sure BJ is the first place I ran across one.
@magurakurin:
.
I loved the custom of taking your shoes off at the front door and not wearing them around the house when we lived in Japan. I’ve desperately tried to keep it up in my house here in the States. I have an entire room for people to take their shoes off in and I have my kids trained but nearly everyone else still stomps around my house with their damned shoes on.
West of the Cascades
The word for “round” in West Virginian is “tunch.” Also slang for “demon” or “spirit.”
Roger Moore
@Winston Smith:
I don’t think so. My understanding from the disgustingly cute Japanese cat stuff I’ve been sent is that Japanese cats say “nya” or “nyan”. They’re sometimes even called “nyanko” instead of “neko”.
Menzies
@cs:
That’s the same meaning of “spirit.” The idea was that combining whatever name you actually wanted to give the ship with Maru would provide it with protection. Imagine if every Catholic ship were named Saint This or Saint That and that’ll pretty much settle it.
Seth 4:10
My research (really, I did research for this for an article on the shapes on PlayStation controllers) reveals that “maru” has its origins in ancient Japanese cartography. Circles were used to denote castles or fortifications, and that symbol then became short hand for ‘safety’ and ‘good (place).’ (boat’s use the suffix of maru for good fortune, though it didn’t work for the Kobayashi-Maru)
In Japanese versions of PS games (not localized for the US market) the circle button is used for confirmation, rather than the “X” button in the United States. Western culture denotes the “X” as a mark of confirmation (as in ‘marks the spot’) in absence of a check mark. Anyone who’s played the PS1 version of Metal Gear Solid recalls how difficult the menu system was, since the traditional O/X button switch/localizing was not performed.
asiangrrlMN
I love Maru with a passion only rivaled by my love for Tunchie. Maru is cute. Maru is round. Maru almost beats the slim box! Love that kitteh.
ETA: Shoes in the house? How strange. I don’t see the point.
Menzies
@Seth 4:10:
I was waiting for someone to bring up the ol’ no-win situation. Thank you!
And yeah, I’d also heard that etymology but I didn’t know which one was authoritative. Thanks for that as well.
Comrade Mary
Canadians almost universally take their shoes off at the door, too, even in the summer. You have to beg people to leave their shoes on (e.g. when I have a worker come in to check something in my basement) rather than take them off and do them up again to leave after a quick visit.
Darkrose
Maru always makes me happy. Thank you for posting this–I needed a happy today.
Mnemosyne
@New Yorker:
Some of us have film school graduate husbands who refuse to get out the video camera and make our cat the internet star I know she could be. Sigh.
I have a picture of Keaton in a very small box, but it’s on my other computer, so I’ll have to post it late tonight.
Mnemosyne
As promised: Keaton in an insanely tiny box.
We’re still not quite sure how he managed it because he is a larger than average cat (and not because he’s fat).
Triassic Sands
@Steeplejack:
I agree. I watched that video earlier and laughed. It reminded me of one of my cats, Yardley, and the expression “Look before you leap.”
I installed an extended window ledge on the sill in the bathroom so the cats would have a nice place to sprawl and look out the window, which is right next to the shower. Yardley, shortly after arriving, got up on the ledge and was fascinated by the space above the shower curtain. Apparently, he became convinced that it would be a great place to hang out…so he jumped. He went right past the curtain rod hit the back wall of the shower and crashed and burned more than five feet below on the shower floor. One down, eight to go.
p mac
LOLCat!
I can haz box pleaz?
drums
Exciting stuff, it really is lovely to see a couple of drummer sites on the internet. There aren’t all that many websites round about drums that I have located at least. I’ll subscribe to your feed then find out what you come up with next time!