This is basically halfway to being a children's book pic.twitter.com/DjwUPHy9Wz
— Erin McGuire (@e_mcguire_) November 29, 2017
This is the Internet, so of course Max has an Instagram account, and also got a story in the Washington Post:
Meet Max, the cat who lost the library but won the Internet https://t.co/8xcSXXVEGM
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 30, 2017
… Max spent time on the streets as a young cat, so he learned to roam early on. About a year ago, he was adopted at a shelter by Connie Lipton, who lives across a small street from Macalester, where Lipton’s husband teaches religious studies. Max made very clear that he wanted to continue roaming, Lipton said in an interview Wednesday, so they let him.
And roam he did, making friends across campus. Last summer, Max hung out at a reunion event that featured live music and a large tent. He enjoyed spending time on a vast green where students play Frisbee. He frequented student housing down the street, entered the science building more than once, and stopped by the Spanish and Portuguese department…
“We’ve had multiple calls because his phone number is on his tag,” Lipton said. “He’s a funny guy. He loves people. He loves to socialize — with groups.”…
But when Max began entering the library, zipping by students whose arms were loaded with books, “he started getting in trouble,” Lipton said… An employee is very allergic to cats, and some people worried Max would get locked inside, Lipton said, so a handwritten sign announcing his banishment was posted about a month ago. It was replaced more recently with the version that went viral this week, which was made by an artist and library employee named Christopher Schommer…
The sign recently came down, Lipton said, because Max’s roaming privileges have been revoked. A major construction project is happening on campus, and she didn’t want the cat to somehow get stuck in its mess. He now has a red harness and a leash, not that he’s happy about it.
“He’s going crazy. He cries and howls and paces around, looking out the windows,” Lipton said. “I’m really hoping he takes to walking on the leash. Then I can just walk him over there and he can still see his peeps and have his social life.”…
Such sociability is a condition for which red tabby boys are known — by cat standards, they’re party animals. Our current redhead, Rocket the Viking, is a rescue we’re pretty certain escaped from his original home in search of a good time, and then couldn’t find his way back. He’s also inherited the Siamese genes that lead to a depraved appetite (term of veterinary art) for various inedible fibers. In the three years he’s lived here, his unnatural desires and burglary skills have cost us some hundreds of dollars in sweaters, t-shirts, socks, towels, jeans, dish scrubbies, etc. (We installed child-proof latches — which don’t always thwart him — on the cupboards, and keep the toilet brush container rubber-banded shut.) There is one room to which *none* of the pets are allowed access, because that’s where my clothes/hobbies/sewing supplies are stored; needless to say, Rocky thinks of this as The Big Sock Candy Mountain, and spends hours trying to work the doorknob & complaining in his meezer yowl when he’s once again rebuffed…
***********
Apart from sympathizing with a guy so cruelly deprived of his Feline Rights, what’s on the agenda for the day?
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
Elizabelle
#LetMaxRead!
ThresherK
is the kind of amuse bouche wordplay that makes a morning bearable.
I didn’t know that about orange tabbies. Torties and calicos are my thing, but I’ll keep. that in mind.
RedDirtGirl
Good morning! Last night I dreamt that there was a front page article in the FTNYT about Balloon Juice.
satby
Good morning! I was enjoying the Anderson thread below (everyone’s memories, not that he’s dead). A lot of us have gone through similar political evolutions.
On topic of wandering felines, there’s a semi feral guy belonging to the lax idiot across the street from me, and I have been trying to create little shelters for the cat to find as the weather gets colder. Yesterday he waited on the porch for his owner or the people downstairs to notice him and let him in, saw me sitting in my porch and came over to me instead. I fed him a bit, and he wandered off satisfied. I wrapped a rug around my porch bench as a shelter if he comes back, and also propped my shed door open so he can get in and out of the shed. I hope he finds either space because the weather is turning much colder starting today.
jk
Kudos to John Oliver for grilling Dustin Hoffman over sexual harassment allegations at a Wag the Dog Screening:
Fuck You Dustin Hoffman
h/t http://www.vulture.com/2017/12/john-oliver-reportedly-grills-dustin-hoffman-over-harassment.html
O. Felix Culpa
Good morning! I’m on my way to consort with goats. No, not like that…I’m helping to milk dairy goats. I get paid in yoghurt and cheese.
The Max story is sweet. I wish I could have kitties, but allergies….
Kay
Yay! A year after he’s elected we finally find out something about the president’s finances.
We knew everything there was to know about the Obama’s finances, but for some strange reason Trump was given a complete pass on financial disclosures.
Kay
I didn’t know this- one of my past cats (deceased) was a red tabby and he was friendly. Tuxedo cats are supposed to be friendly though and my current cat is one and she has a horrible personality. It was two sisters at the shelter, I took the one with shorter hair, and to this day I think “the other one was probably nicer”.
debbie
It’s been 24 hours since a Trump tweet. What could be going on in that house?
Shalimar
Further comment on Adam’s questioning yesterday as to the divided messages re: Pence from the administration. I just saw a tease on Morning Joe about Pence thinking about a coup after the Access Hollywood tape last year. Pence is basically the mastermind of the potential Trump opposition in this narrative, most likely leaked by the same people who are trying to keep him compartmented from any complicity in anything the administration does. This runs counter to the narrative that Pence is one of Trump’s most loyal and important aides and is consulted on many major decisions that later turn out to be hilariously dumb. I have no idea who is in each group, but it seems obvious that the reason for the conflicted narratives is because the people leaking each one have different agendas.
Shalimar
@debbie: He went on a rant about Hillary Clinton for the cameras yesterday that sounded a lot like his tweets, so I’m guessing someone stole his phone and he needed an alternate outlet to let off that anger.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: Just leave the razors and Wesson oil at home.
OzarkHillbilly
@Shalimar: Dence couldn’t mastermind a coup over a children’s reading group.
Shalimar
@OzarkHillbilly: No, I don’t think so either. But the only common thread of all the leaks about Pence is they make him sound competent. Since he pretty clearly isn’t, he’s a figurehead for someone as a Trump alternative.
clay
@jk: I like John Oliver, but this…
… isn’t even possible. How could Hoffman provide evidence that something DIDN’T happen 30 years ago?
eric
@OzarkHillbilly: Are you subtly pointing the finger at Max?
OzarkHillbilly
@Shalimar: Oh definitely, and I knew you knew that. My comment was directed towards those putting forth that fairy tale.
OzarkHillbilly
@eric: Max? I don’t get the reference. (sucks having to explain a joke, doesn’t it?)
clay
@Kay: I don’t know about “complete pass”. The press asked for them, constantly. His opponents, Republican and Democrat, brought them up, constantly. It’s hard to prove, but the issue likely contributed to the distrust that most voters felt towards him.
He just stonewalled and lied about it until it was too late, then his team decided the election meant they could ignore it. Another norm violated.
The only ones giving him a pass are his voters and Congressional Republicans. Which, granted, is significant…
Shalimar
@Shalimar: The coup tidbit comes from a profile in The Atlantic by McKay Coppins, who is explaining now on Morning Joe how ambitious and calculating Pence is. I can buy ambitious and calculating and even backstabbing, but I can’t buy that he has any grand plan for anything other than himself or that he is the driving force in carrying out his own ambition.
rikyrah
@Shalimar:
It’s obvious that Race Bannon is delusional. Loyal, he is not to Dolt45. He and Mother have watched too much House of Cards.
Maddow, who has been on his lies pretty much from the beginning said that with the new White House story about Flynn, that they were taking care of Dolt45, but that Race Bannon’s previous lies no longer form a good cover, since they have changed the overall story.
Kay
@clay:
I feel as if there wasn’t enough work put into obtaining documents that exist, and from those documents making connections to other sources- people. Trump has intersected with thousands of people. He’s a real estate developer. That means records.
I’m impatient with this idea of “asking” him. Of course he stonewalled. Of course he lied. The whole “asking” exercise felt phony to me- like “we ASKED!” That’s not near good enough.
We KNOW he doesn’t want this stuff revealed. He had a fucking fit 3 months ago when he thought Mueller was headed in that direction.
If they want to run on “I’m a businessman” then they’ll have to start revealing information about their business, because that is their prior career and it is absolutely relevant to their current job.
It’s unfair that people who work in politics as a career have to reveal all financials and we just exempt the businesspeople/politician class. They are getting all of the upside of political power and none of the downside.
clay
Well, say what you will about Morning Joe, but he does a pretty good James Carville impersonation.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Good news this morning ?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay,
Have you been contacted about Cordray yet?
rikyrah
Max is a cutie pie ?
Kay
@clay:
One of the things transparency does it it forces sleazy people to stay away from political leadership, because they DON’T want this stuff revealed. That has to happen or there will be a whole line of Donald Trumps. It has to cause problems for them, complicate their lives, threaten whatever scam they’re running. They’ll stay away. That’s good.
d58826
I’m reminded of the StarTrek NG episode of Cmdr Data trying to train his cat spot. Seems only one getting trained is Data.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Yes, but it was just a gossipy email from an old man politico :)
So- not from someone who works for him. That’s my thing for the next while- I’ll do what I can for Cordray. I wrote him a letter once because he endorsed Obama early which was brave in Ohio in ’08. No one at that time thought Obama would win.
He’s intimidating in person but that was in his role as AG so maybe he’s not really that stern. He’s really smart and you feel as if he’s ahead of you, like you’re working very hard to keep up. Perfectly cordial but there’s something watchful about him, a distance, like he’s both acting and observing. It’s intimidating.
Quinerly
Baud picked a fine time to just abandon us.
Eric S.
Bonjour.
My morning commute has we walk past Wrigley Field every morning. This morning, the city was living up to its nickname with wind gusts that could blow a small girl and her dog to Oz. There are two new buildings under construction that parallel the Wrigley grandstands. I started wondering if and those will affect playing conditions going forward. They will certainly redirect the winds around Wrigley on sime fashion.
mattH
My guy I was asking for help with a while back is an orange tabby. quite social once he gets to know you, but still not the lover our other guy is. The other guy is part siamese (black cat with a huge white spot) and his quirk is he likes to eat large chunks of fabric. He’s had three surgeries now, but one thing that sates his appetite is grass. I go out at least once a week and buy some sprouts. He absolutely loves it, to the point if he sees new grass he’ll even jump down from being held, his other favorite thing.
Eric
@OzarkHillbilly: max the mischievous library cat
clay
@Kay: Completely agree. A lot of these “norms” are going to have to be codified into law if we’re going to move forward.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Quinerly:
You picked a fine time to leave us Lu-Baud,
With 4 hungry children and crops in the field.
I’ve had some sad times, lived thru some bad times,
This time the hurtin’ won’t heal
You picked a fine time to leave me Lu-Baud…
Eric S.
My Ozzie is an orange and white tabby. While he definitely has some wanderlust he is terribly shy around people.
OzarkHillbilly
@Eric: I’m a little slow this morn…
NotMax
Macalester. One of my alma maters. Long since changed, when I was there the common areas of Weyerhaeuser Library were peculiarly unattractive cornucopias of 1950s style blonde wood and blah, chunky utilitarian furniture, the stacks narrow warrens of gloomy industrial shelving, within which the chill of Minnesota winters never quite fully dissipated.
Campus proudly flies a U.N.flag beneath the U.S. one, a policy instituted in 1950.
Humboldtblue
Massive wildfire in Ventura county and it’s not good.
That’s where family is, and although they are currently in good shape, as we saw in Mendocino and the North Bay, that can change in an instant. Small town of Santa Paula in the foothills of the Santa Susannas is getting ripped by a wildfire spurred by 60 mph Santa Ana winds. This is not going to be good and we’re going to see yet another wildfire disaster as it burns down homes.
The fuel load is immense and that’s all scrub oak, chaparral and other dried vegetation. Santa Paula is home to the migrant and permanent field workers who harvest the strawberries, alfalfa, citrus and hundred other ag products grown in the county.
Sanjeevs
Seriously scary story about Erik Prince planning a privatized intelligence service reporting to Trump
https://theintercept.com/2017/12/04/trump-white-house-weighing-plans-for-private-spies-to-counter-deep-state-enemies/
I know it’s the Intercept but Malcolm Nance says the author has good Prince sources
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
????
low-tech cyclist
Anne – have you tried magnetic child proof latches on your cabinets?
We used them when our kid was young, and as a long-time cat
ownerstaff, I don’t see how a cat could defeat them: there’s nothing on the outside of the cabinet door for the cat to grasp. You’ve got to put the magnet up against the cabinet to unlock it. (We found them very easy to use, btw.)Magnetic locks might make it a bit more challenging for Rocket to satisfy his ‘depraved appetite.’ (What a wonderful term, btw. Sounds like someone with a Victorian mindset commenting on someone else’s kink.)
rikyrah
@Sanjeevs:
This doesn’t shock me, which is why one of those indictments needs to be for Prince.
Anne Laurie
@mattH:
It’s a Meezer thing — they’ve been famous for it since they first became popular in the West, going back to the late 1940s. Breeders have eliminated the crossed-eye problem (mostly), and sometimes the kinked-last-tail-joint, but for some reason the Eating Holes in Sweaters propensity remains strong!
Sanjeevs
Funny how quite a few of the players (Kissinger , Stone, McFarlane etc) in this featured in Watergate or Iran/Contra. There’s a lesson there.
Anne Laurie
@low-tech cyclist:
I’ll have to look at those, just to piss Rocky off!
This is a cat who opens drawers by climbing up the back of the dresser and throwing his full 15lb weight against each one, so I’m not 100% sure mere magnets will stop him. (He still can’t manage round door knob, praise Murphy the Trickster God.)
satby
@Kay:
and so was wilmer. Funny how that worked.
Jeffro
My wife and I had two ENORMOUS orange tabby cats back in the good old days…one was 22 pounds and lanky and probably spent a good 1/3 of his life in my lap. The other was 25+ pounds and as you might imagine spent 2/3 of his life in front of his food bowl.
Excited to hear more about this whole “if the president* does it, that means it’s not illegal” retro-thingy we’ve got going on this week from Trumpov’s lawyer. Next thing you know, we’ll hear that he sent Iran a cross-shaped cake or something…
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly: He didn’t even bother to send Poco an email. Baud/Poco2020???? Poco wants Baud! to know he has The Atlantic on speed dial. Big paws, tiny keyboard, language barriers….I’m a bit skeptical.
Jeffro
@Kay:
Money-laundering/RICO charges, coupled with Mueller’s work with AG Schneiderman, are the hammer that will eventually get Orangemandias to resign and spill everything. But hey, thanks Republicans for having absolutely no standards or principles in the first place, so that we had to come to this point.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Tail wags and meows right back at you!
NotMax
@Quinerly
And then there’s still the lingering shadow of Dumpgate, both the crime and the cover-up.
;)
Quinerly
SAD! http://thehill.com/homenews/news/363256-three-obama-tweets-no-trump-posts-make-list-of-2017s-most-retweeted-tweets
Quinerly
@NotMax: Actually, DumpgateS. Including one dump, literally at the gate.?
tobie
@Sanjeevs: Wait…K T McFarlane was around at the time of Watergate? She’s a rabble rouser and a threat to world security, but I’ll give her this: she’s well-preserved enough that you could never tell she learned the tricks of her trade in the administration of Tricky Dick.
ETA: Oops, I see you say “Watergate OR Iran-Contra.” I read your post too quickly.
Quinerly
I really like what The Guardian does with its headlines: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/05/donald-trump-bank-records-handed-over-robert-mueller
James E. Powell
@clay:
It’s true the press/media did mention that Trump didn’t release his tax documents. True. But they did it with about 1/50th the frequency and intensity as Hillary’s Emails!!! When Matt Lauer interviewed Trump, he didn’t spend ten minutes hammering him on it and calling it disqualifying. And so on. You know this.
Sanjeevs
@tobie: it’s Bud McFarlane who was NSA head in Iran Contra. Apparently is a player behind the scenes. Not related to KT McFarland
clay
@James E. Powell: Matt Lauer doesn’t count as “press”. Which, I know, is a big part of the problem — that an obvious hack was allowed such a prominent media voice.
rp
@jk: I don’t think that reflects well on Oliver at all. It sounds like he was preening for the audience and then got annoyed when they didn’t support him 100%.
low-tech cyclist
@Anne Laurie:
Just to let you know, the doors are kept from opening by a latch on the inside of the door. The role of the magnet (which is part of the kit) is you have to hold it against the door to release the latch. So the magnet isn’t what keeps the door from opening if Rocket launches himself against the door. The latch is what does that.
Waldo
@Quinerly: wow — if there’s anything incriminating in those records, Mueller’s probably not going to make it to the end of the week.
Bruce K
Okay, maybe Trump’s Deutsche Bank records aren’t the whole enchilada, but given that financial institution’s history and Trump’s, for Mueller to have access to that much …
…as the young punks, uh, whippersnappers, er, Millenials, say on teh intarweebs, dis gon b gud.
Quinerly
@Waldo: If Trump reads that headline, I’m not sure Mueller survives the day.
rikyrah
There are now 354 women running for US House in 2018 (291 Democrats & 63 Republicans, for 435 seats). In the 33 US Senate races at stake next year, there are 38 women running (25 Democrats & 13 Republicans). This is unprecedented (and long overdue).https://t.co/Y590u7i8oM
— Al Giordano (@AlGiordano) December 5, 2017
Bruce K
@Waldo: I suspect that Mueller’s got enough momentum going that the only way to effectively stop him at this point would have Schneiderman investigating under New York State Law, Penal Code, Article 125. (Obscure reference, and I apologize, but Google will explain it quickly.)
bemused
@low-tech cyclist:
We had to put child-proof knob covers on our gas top stove due to a cat somehow managing to turn one on in lite stage.
rikyrah
Just so folks realize, GOP embrace of Moore is a preview of GOP’s embrace of firing Mueller and and GOP’s embrace of idea Trump can’t be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) December 5, 2017
Quinerly
Let’s gossip about KT McFarland! I remember bits and pieces from this years ago. Did someone post the piece about her saying Putin deserved the Nobel a few years back? She wrote a glowing op ed slamming Obama and praising Putin. http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/12/05/the-real-story-of-kathleen-mcfarland-is-much-better-than-the-new-scandal
rikyrah
@Waldo:
Thing is…he did it WEEKS ago…
And, we’re just finding out…
rikyrah
It Ain’t Paranoia If You’re Really Being Investigated
by Martin Longman
December 4, 2017
Today, Darren Samuelsohn of Politico provides us with yet another article about how people in the White House are freaked out and worried that everyone they talk to is wearing a wire. There are a lot of silly things in this piece, including the dubious idea that no one can ever be surreptitiously recorded if they have a lawyer. Find me a mob boss who doesn’t have a lawyer.
But the main problem is with something that goes completely unstated. Yes, it would certainly be unnerving to go to work each day wondering if any of your conversations are being listened to by federal law enforcement officers. I get that, and I think you get that, too. But it wouldn’t make you paranoid for your own safety unless you’re in the habit of having incriminating conversations with your friends and colleagues at work.
………………………………………………………….
If we’re talking about Paulie Walnuts having a conversation at that bar in the Bada Bing, then I can see how a wiretap aimed at one crime might uncover another. But, is the White House the criminal equivalent of a mobbed up Jersey strip joint?
bemused
I laughed at the photo of trump reflection in russiangate thread below. So fitting that his reflection looks like Pinocchio.
Bruce K
@rikyrah: The Obama White House? The answer’s obvious: hell no. The Trump White House? It’s looking more and more likely.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/4/17
News gods signal busy holiday season
Rachel Maddow notes that the news in between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be quiet as audiences and newsmakers are distracted by the holidays. This year that does not appear to be the case, however.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
As the magic 8-ball would say: signs point to yes. That said, I can understand how people who don’t think they’re doing anything criminal could get paranoid that they’re going to get caught up in a mass arrest and incarceration of the whole gang as a criminal organization.
jonas
Calculating and ambitious are not terms I’ve ever heard applied to Pence, but ok.
Cheryl Rofer
I haven’t read this whole thread, so in case nobody’s dropped this long read on Pence yet, here it is.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
Not once upon a time in the sweeet long ago.
But now? Certainly it is. And I hope they’re looking at all the peripheral scams the outside players are running to stay well to do enough to live the high life with society parties. Like Roger Stone, who is the only one I can pull the name of our of my old storage mind.
Icedfire
My alma mater <3
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Good. About damn time.
J R in WV
OK, back to topic: CATS !!
We were taken over by a really big white cat (with big red spots) way back in the 70s, who appeared one day in the neighborhood. Close to 25 pounds, and no fat. Outgoing and friendly to everyone around. Then one day we came home from work for lunch around 5 pm, working second shift, and giant happy cat was IN THE HOUSE>!!
We had a little cat, your 8-10 lb black cat model, who was scarce for a while but soon realized that giant cat was not hostile. Giant cat moved in when an appliance guy came to work on the washer, he reported when we asked that “Well, he was on the porch, and walked in like it was his house…”
After a few days, we realized that giant cat’s name was Ralph, because his primary utterance was “rrrralff” in a low growl kind of purr. He lived with us for a long time, eventually out to the farm where he could be in charge of so much. So much confidence, he faced down giant dogs just by refusing to run, instead standing up on both hind legs, spreading out his front legs and screaming with fangs displayed!!
He actually attacked a fox one day who was sneaking up on the chicken yard bird roost, in his old age. Mrs J heard the commotion and ran out with a post hole digger handle kept handy by the kitchen door, and brained the fox, who was trying to drown Ralph in our little ice water creek.
The tool handle was longer than a baseball bat, but nearly as stout. Fox staggered off while she pulled Ralph out of the water. He retired then, shivering and cold, but lived for many more years, quietly enjoying the wood stove and people who visited.
Not long after he passed away by his food dish late one night, I was driving to work one morning, stopped for gas at the neighborhood Hardware store, and a young \ cat, all white with red spots, walked up and rubbed against my leg. I asked inside and they said he just showed up a couple of days ago. As I drove off, I thought hard about the young red and white cat.
I turned around and went back, and he was happy to jump into the VW with me… I took him back to the farm, and called work to tell them I would be a little late. The spots were a little different, but he was a ringer for Ralph. His head was covered with one big red spot, so I decided to call him Rufus, like a Rufus-breasted Hawk (I’m making that up, don’t go crazy searching for it in the bird guides).
He grew up to be nearly the size of Ralph. And was just as confident and outgoing. It is nearly enough for me to believe in reincarnation!
I’ll tell as many of the stories of Ralph and Rufus as I can… they were amazing cats and we were blessed to have their company for nearly 40 years. I even have pics of Rufus I can share. He would go for walks all across the farm with us, hiking with the dogs. I may be able to find photos of Ralph I could scan, we’ll see.
Really, we’ve had so many amazing cats, have been so furtunate [sic (on purpose)] to have had their company making our way through life. I want to thank Mrs J for insisting that we needed to have cats in our lives, I didn’t ever have cats growing up, and didn’t know what I was missing!!
I hope Max, the star of the Original Post, finds happiness in his college town. They will have to invest the time necessary to allow him to meet and greet people and keep on top of his college town!
sukabi
@debbie: straitjackets and thorazine if they’re smart…but since we know they aren’t it’s probably hidden phones and boxes of big Macs.
mattH
@sukabi: Great story, thanks J R ^_^
stinger
Thanks for the follow-up on Max the library cat — I’d seen the sign on FB or maybe here and wanted to know more — and for the stories of Juicer cats.
sukabi
@rikyrah: it wasn’t until Jan 20, 2016…since then? Mobbed up is probably the least of it.
sukabi
@bemused: Pinocchio behind bars, if you squint…
No One You Know
@J R in WV: Loved your story!
We seem to be in the process of adoption by a little “blue” female who’s been sleeping on our porch.
Our senior cats are of two minds. The male loves to hang out with her (yes, he’s neutered; and very social with other cats). Boss cat will walk past her and occasionally touch noses.
For now, we’re referring to her as “Earl [Gray]” And I’ve been giving her limited exposure indoors…she’s rather be cold, but had explored the house. Gonna go over to Werebear’s blog to get the skinny on how to facilitate this.