Animals
It's a cat day at Petfinder. I still don't know whether anybody's actually used Petfinder to find a pet, but some awfully cute animals are being awfully well photographed there. I searched for that buff and white color type that remind me of biscuits, and of my late lamented friend Bisquit, Heather's grandmother. What came up was a mad mix including some cats that were obviously gray and white, or black and white...or Siamese-crossbreed. Note that the humans putting "Banshee" up for adoption feel that she needs more love and attention than they can give. This is something I've noticed with cats of this color, especially. A certain personality type seems to go with the gene for partial albinism. As kittens they're pale, colorless, skinny, uninspiring little things that tend to hiss and spit, maybe even bite. Then if you persist in offering friendship and affection, about the time their pale drab coats start to turn buff and white, they bond with you and become clingy, "talky" pets who expect a lot of attention. They are the type of cat likely to find their way home across incredible distances, claim the spot between you and your mate as their sleeping space if they're ever allowed in the bedroom, and cry out loud all day if you leave them indoors while you go to work. Once they decide they like you, they own you.
In a social cat family...Bisquit was a very social cat. (Several of her close relatives, and her mate, shared her somewhat unusual color and personality type; all of her kittens except Candice, Ivy, and Shelly did.) In fact her personality was much nicer when she had another cat to love--first her freaky brother Spot, the male calico who didn't live long, and later her daughter Candice. She was close to her family...but if I ever noticed that she was pretty and clever and lovable, so far as to pick her up or anything, she'd become jealous and order the other cats to stay away from "her human." I had to act as if I didn't like Bisquit much in order to be able to live with her. As long as she thought of me as her sisters' human, she kept her demands for attention down to a tolerable level! She was, of course, dearly loved and sorely missed.
If you are a person who feels that most cats are too aloof to suit you, it may be worth your time to win the love of a peach-and-cream-colored cat. They're not a fancy breed, just a minority color type, but they're unusual and special enough for anybody.
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| Gregory from New Jersey: https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/36846341 |
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| Orange Crush from Arlington: https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/36634886 |
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| Banshee from Stone Mountain: https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/32419524 |
Rabbits:
http://thebookofbarkley.blogspot.com/2016/12/that-wascally-wabbit.html
Books
Wendy Welch recommends Slow Love. (I'm sure you can buy it online from her.)
https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/the-monday-book-slow-love-by-dominique-browning/
Amazon link for the day...I've been reading and thoroughly enjoying this book, and I'm glad it's not new and there's no great hurry to post my Amazon review. It's a cheerful leisurely memoir, not the political satire or wacky adventures we've come to expect from this writer. One thing I particularly like about P.J. O'Rourke's analysis of baby-boomers is his recognition that the twenty years that a human generation should span allow for four different "classes." He's in the senior class of Boomers; I'm in the freshman class. Presidents Bush and Clinton were in the senior class; President Obama was in the freshman class. This creates common ground and also differences.
Charity
Virginia has had plenty of rain, but the word from Tennessee is that some of the forest fires smoldered on through it. A TV news report showed how, under certain conditions, it's possible for smoldering logs to form charcoal and burn hotter than ever after the flames have been quenched by rain.
https://dollywoodfoundation.org/
Crime & Punishment
Identity thief gets five years in prison...what do you think? Personally, I think that might be about right if he has to work twelve hours a day to earn dry bread or a hot shower (preferably just one or the other).
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/nyregion/alonzo-knowles-celebrity-hacker.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
Fashion
After that post about shirts went live, in comes this link:
http://www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com/2016/12/make-christmas-memories-with-colorwear.html
Food (Yum)
Elizabeth Barrette reports on an exotic new fruit. Kiwi crossed with cucumber...could this be the next mango?
http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/4194080.html
Psychology
There's a very fine line schools and teachers have to walk, in between ignoring the diversity of their students and aggravating the sense of "group grievance" some students may use as an excuse to act out their mental problems...
https://pjmedia.com/blog/diversitys-killer-instinct/?singlepage=true
For instance...men probably can't help seeing women, or specific parts of women's bodies, as sex objects, as Dennis Prager claims. But they can power through it, act as if they were rational creatures rather than slaves to their hormones, and learn to recognize the behavioral indications that women are not interested in sex at a particular time...because that skill is part of the relational gestalt blah blah that allows women to perceive men as desirable sex objects. Because the world is full of male bodies and, even during the one-quarter of the time when young women are interested in sex per se, many of us are interested in only one of the billions of bodies out there. And that's the one that belongs to someone who has more than sex to offer.
http://www.nationalreview.com/node/442993/print
Women's Issues
And has this young "woman" ever got issues...Clearly, we're looking at a slippery-slope situation here. Let (some) teenagers have abortions, and they compound their sins by becoming horrible, hysterical, antisocial censors. This kid needs to finish her education in a nice safe padded cell.
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/12/pro-life-teacher-fired-after-mentioning-his-views-and-triggering-one-student/
Writing
Elizabeth Zimmermann said it more tersely, for knitters: "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises." As always with Terribleminds.com, language and images are anything but auntly...but aunts agree that writing, painting, knitting, etc., and especially singing actually help people get through hard times.
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/12/13/how-to-create-art-and-make-cool-stuff-in-a-time-of-trouble/
Soberly.
http://www.lauramckowen.com/blog/roller-skates
Or snarkily. (Google + plussed this one, and I can see why.)
http://tim-thingsastheyare.blogspot.com/2016/12/we-hire-new-supervisor.html
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