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You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / No Politics Open Thread

No Politics Open Thread

by Cheryl Rofer|  August 25, 20178:58 pm| 39 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads

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Ric and Zooey have more or less recovered from the humiliating vest sessions.  Here they are looking at SOMETHING outside last night. But there will be more vest sessions.

 

 

In answer to someone’s question on a previous thread (things were coming pretty thick and fast), yes, we’ll be here Sunday. I had a great lunch with friends flying their own plane through from Seattle. I’m planning a trip to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge with friends. You?

NO POLITICS! Betty Cracker is crafting some threads for that.

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Previous Post: « Arpaio pardoned, Gorka resigns, etc.
Next Post: One day the bottom will drop out »

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  1. 1.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 25, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    Shelter.

  2. 2.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 25, 2017 at 9:05 pm

    Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound.

    ETA: Just in case anybody need some ice for drinks.

  3. 3.

    indycat32

    August 25, 2017 at 9:08 pm

    I bought a new car! It’s a Honda HR-V – the CR-V’s little sister. The color is mulberry. Looks almost black until the sun hits it. I spent the morning reading the owner’s manual trying to figure out all the bells and whistles. Remember the good old days when you just had to turn the key in the ignition.

  4. 4.

    themann1086

    August 25, 2017 at 9:08 pm

    For a moment I swore those were my recently late cats. They look just like them from behind.

  5. 5.

    Iowa Old Lady

    August 25, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @indycat32: I read manuals too. People make fun of me for doing it though.

  6. 6.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    August 25, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    Related to news about a Joker movie: We all know that he’s the Joker, but how would’ve Mark Hamill in Burton’s Batman been received?

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    August 25, 2017 at 9:18 pm

    Porterhouse on the grill. Dodgers on TV. It’s definitely a no Politics night.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    August 25, 2017 at 9:21 pm

    So the cats are white with black spots, is that some type of metaphor?
    just kiddin

    I just spoke with the Houston family, and they are hunkered down. We’ll talk again tomorrow.

  9. 9.

    Cheryl Rofer

    August 25, 2017 at 9:23 pm

    @JPL: They’re actually white with charcoal-gray spots. But the gray often shows up as black in photos.

  10. 10.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    August 25, 2017 at 9:26 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
    I’ve never seen Hamill live-acting always voice acting. Was he still in movies by 1989?

    This is for anyone:

    I mentioned writing ideas here before. I have terrible track record of actually putting pen to paper. I get bogged down in details often. A new idea I have is perhaps writing a sort of homage to Lovecraft’s comic horror stories, only this time set in rural Ohio, a place I have some familiarity with ?. I wanted to orginally set my short story in the Outer Cape of Massachusetts, but it wouldn’t have worked for what I wanted.

    Do you think rural Ohio has horror potential?

    I do. Plenty of old, decaying barns, large dark woods, and rolling hills.

  11. 11.

    Heidi Mom

    August 25, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    Beautiful cats! In other cat news: After our cat Misty passed away several weeks ago, we debated whether to get one or more cats as company for our remaining cat Elizabeth. At first she seemed to revel in being the only cat and having to share our attention with only the dog (Heidi). Lately, however, she’s been racing back and forth and asking us to play with strings, etc., all the time. Enter Beth, one of the receptionists at our vet’s office, who takes care of a feral cat that has given birth to four kittens. Beth’s been giving the kittens lots of human attention, and they’re also well-socialized with her dog. They’re about 10 weeks old now. So, on Tuesday, Beth will be bringing all four in for exams and shots, and two of them will be coming home with us. I asked whether any two of them seemed to be a bonded pair, and she said that there are two who hang out together, one gray and one gray-and-white striped, so we’ll take those. Gender unknown, but it doesn’t matter — they’ll be spayed/neutered at the appropriate time, and they partake of the Great Essence of Cat, which is the important thing.

  12. 12.

    TaMara (HFG)

    August 25, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    I can say with certainty that having backyard ducks will lift any blues you may have on any given day.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    August 25, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    Having a quick dinner at Tender Greens before I head out to do some errands. I can tell there’s garlic in these green beans but I. Don’t. Care. ?

    (I’m supposed to be avoiding a whole list of foods for the next several weeks to try and resolve my tummy issues, including garlic. But these beans are very tasty.)

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 25, 2017 at 9:32 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    :Do you think rural Ohio has horror potential?

    I do. Plenty of old, decaying barns, large dark woods, and rolling hills.

    I once came around a corner on a back road in southeastern Ohio and found five vultures feeding on a dead deer in the middle of the road.

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne

    August 25, 2017 at 9:33 pm

    @Heidi Mom:

    Yay kittens! They’ll drive Elizabeth a little nuts being all energetic and wanting to play, but she should adjust to them pretty well.

    Our oldest cat Keaton — who is a neutered male — always liked having kittens around. He was a very good “mommy” to all of them.

  16. 16.

    efgoldman

    August 25, 2017 at 9:38 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    I’ve never seen Hamill live-acting always voice acting.

    I don’t remember this many years later if it was Hammill or Tom Hulce, but if it was Hammill, we saw him in Boston in the pre-Broadway tour of Amadeus.

  17. 17.

    MomSense

    August 25, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    Definitely.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    August 25, 2017 at 9:43 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    On Hamill, I think it’s a combination of moviegoers being unwilling to accept him as anything but Luke Skywalker and the reconstructive surgery after a post-“Star Wars” car accident giving him a bit of an odd appearance on camera.

    And I think rural Ohio is perfectly fine for rural horror. Ever seen “Wisconsin Death Trip”? It’s not a real documentary since they tended to elide events and make them sound like they happened closer together both geographically and time-wise, but it’s a great slice of rural horror.

  19. 19.

    frosty

    August 25, 2017 at 9:45 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Ohio was one of our stops this summer. — Hopewell Culture NHM. We stayed in state park campground in the boonies near Chillicothe that had no cell service. We were the only ones in the whole campground loop. It was spooky. Yes, Ohio has horror potential. Set it in Chillicothe, just for the name. It sounds like some kind of body part, probably severed.

  20. 20.

    rikyrah

    August 25, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    the kitties are so cute

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 25, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    @frosty: Oddly, my vulture sighting was in the hills east of Chillicothe.

  22. 22.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    August 25, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I once came around a corner on a back road in southeastern Ohio and found five vultures feeding on a dead deer in the middle of the road.

    I wish I had a story but I can’t really remember anything out of the ordinary that happened to me. On my 30 minute drive to uni, I remember a year back a car parked just off the 2 lane road to these woods. I would pass it for several months while it sat there, never moving. Eventually it disappeared. I figured somebody either vanished or killed themselves in those woods.

  23. 23.

    Tracy Ratcliff

    August 25, 2017 at 9:54 pm

    @frosty: So you were camping about 5 miles from me. Small world. For Goku, I wish I could tell you the story of why the family Federalist mansion with the Adena burial mound in the front yard was abandoned, but those stories never made it down to my generation.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    August 25, 2017 at 10:01 pm

    Toni Morrison’s Beloved was based on the true story of an escaped slave woman living in Ohio who killed her toddler rather than bringing her back to Kentucky to live in slavery.

    There’s a lot of weird, haunted stuff like that in Ohio’s history because it was a border state that was a huge battleground over the Fugitive Slave Act.

  25. 25.

    Anne Laurie

    August 25, 2017 at 10:02 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    Do you think rural Ohio has horror potential?

    Most Michiganders — including my late father-in-law, who grew up there but fled as soon as he was old enough to join the Air Force — would say that Ohio is horror.

    For purposes of your plot, however: “Everybody” associates Ohio with the decay of the Rust Belt (Akron isn’t the only Ohio city that always announced itself on the thruways by the smell of burning rubber from the tire plants). But it also borders both West Virginia and Kentucky; the cultural pull of the feral ‘Scots-Irish’ Appalachian clans and the ever-treasonous ‘flower of Suthrun aristocracy’ remain very strong, especially outside the largest cities. And in those cities, there’s a lot of Slavic-Americans whose grandparents immigrated to work in the coal plants that fueled the tire factories, some of whom still haven’t really gotten past the whole Tsarist idea.

    In a lot of ways, the state is a microcosm of ‘America’, good & bad, minus the Hispanic/Southwestern influences. There are tons of good people, of course (hi, Kay), but there’s certainly plenty of potential for horror!

  26. 26.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 25, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    @Mnemosyne: There is a reason that the Underground Railroad Museum is in Cincy. It is definitely worth a visit.

  27. 27.

    Anne Laurie

    August 25, 2017 at 10:17 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    On Hamill, I think it’s a combination of moviegoers being unwilling to accept him as anything but Luke Skywalker and the reconstructive surgery after a post-“Star Wars” car accident giving him a bit of an odd appearance on camera.

    Did you, um… forgot the persistent rumor about Hamill’s accident?…

    Hamill sought to get out of his contract on Eight Is Enough to take the opportunity to star in George Lucas’ Star Wars. His request was rejected by Lorimar Productions as he had signed a five-year-contract with them. However, in December 1976 Hamill had been involved in a car crash that resulted in his needing reconstructive facial surgery. By the time ABC had greenlit the series, Hamill was still hospitalized and unavailable.

    Back in 1976, the Star Wars fandom (I was never a member but a couple of my closest Trekkie friends were beguiled into defecting) was rife with the rumor that Hamill just might’ve intentionally crashed his car, to convince Lorimar that keeping him against his will was a bad bet. Whether or not any part of that theory was true, his recalcitrance with the agency ‘that got him his first big break’ was said to have turned a lot of the permanent Hollywood casting-and-producing businessfolks against the idea of working with him.

    And, certainly, the fact that he became identified as a Giant Blockbuster Celebrity Figure as soon as Star Wars took off didn’t help. If only because he had enough walkaway money/status that he didn’t have to put up with too much “standard” on-the-job abuse!

  28. 28.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 25, 2017 at 10:18 pm

    Speaking of spooky locales, I once spent a couple of nights on an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine, in an old house that belonged to the old owners of the island, that had bats flying inside the house at night.

  29. 29.

    jame

    August 25, 2017 at 10:24 pm

    Are you planning on attending the Crane Festival at the Bosque?

  30. 30.

    Martin

    August 25, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    Cheryl, Are you going to the BdA Saturday or Sunday? Just asking as I happen to live in Socorro, and we could maybe have a mini BJ meetup if it’s Sunday.

  31. 31.

    Cheryl Rofer

    August 25, 2017 at 11:09 pm

    @jame: I tend to stay away from large gatherings of people in nature. I made an exception in July to go to Yellowstone, because I wanted to go in wildflower season. The wildflowers were quite wonderful, and I managed to avoid most of the people by getting out early. I’ve been going to Bosque del Apache for probably forty years now, and I am not pleased that others have found it. I can recall when there was one motel in Socorro. Maybe two. I know the refuge well, so I don’t need to be carted around on someone else’s tour, and I’m not particularly interested in interpretive dancing to welcome the cranes or whatever other foolishness they present.

    What I like about the refuge is just quietly watching the birds, even the common ducks if I can’t find any others. And I take pictures, some of which are not too bad. It’s my way of being there, in the moment. I don’t even keep a life list. I pretty well know which birds I’ve seen and where, which is good enough for me.

    @Martin: Email me via the contact form at the top and let’s talk about it.

  32. 32.

    Another Scott

    August 25, 2017 at 11:13 pm

    @Anne Laurie: Did you see Corvette Summer? It seems reasonable to me that he could have had an accident then. Young guy, suddenly lots of money, lots of sudden fame from SW, etc., etc., and ended up doing something stupid in a car he couldn’t control. A story as old as the automobile.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 25, 2017 at 11:44 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: everything has horror potential.

    The Mountain Goats–‘Lovecraft In Brooklyn’

  34. 34.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 26, 2017 at 12:20 am

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: He did a bunch of cheesy science-fiction and horror B-pictures, often direct to video. He played an alien on “seaQuest: DSV” once.

  35. 35.

    workworkwork

    August 26, 2017 at 12:37 am

    @Matt McIrvin: I liked his work on “The Flash” as The Trickster. Funny and scary at the same time.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    August 26, 2017 at 12:47 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    Clint Eastwood actually did deliberately crash his car (with his then-wife in it!) to get out of a TV contract (I think on “Rawhide”), so if he did crash for that reason, Hamill wouldn’t have been the first.

    But Hamill’s crash was sufficiently severe that I would guess it was more likely drug and/or alcohol related and that got hushed up by the studio. He was a pretty close friend of Carrie Fisher’s and, well, it was the 1970s.

  37. 37.

    Wallis Lane

    August 26, 2017 at 1:59 am

    The vest sessions will continue until morale improves.

  38. 38.

    Zoe Johnson

    August 26, 2017 at 10:36 am

    When and what time for BdA? I am in Albuquerque.

  39. 39.

    RepubAnon

    August 26, 2017 at 10:43 am

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Check out “The Call of Whatever” (http://tcow.keenspace.com/d/20010903.html) It’s about a help desk for people who don’t get the incantation quite right and lose control of the primordial horrors that they summoned.

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