Hello Dominic, I’ve always been attached to “The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People”.
Good old Oscar Wilde. Perhaps it reflects that I once took myself too seriously.
The best bit of the play is the character ‘Algernon’ … always loved that name …you’ll probably find a neighbouring cat by that name if and when you move to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea on your gold profits!
Many, if not most, people cannot relate to cat owners finding preciousness and other qualities in their beloved pets, including a non-humanly innocence, that make losing them someday such a horrible heartbreak. Even when the innocent animal has been made to greatly suffer needlessly, perhaps before finally being murdered, many people will instead think and maybe mutter, ‘It was just a cat’.
And many non-cat-fans don’t care for the seemingly-innate resistance by cats to heeling at their masters’ command. And their reptile-like vertical-slit pupils and Hollywood-cliché fanged hiss when confronted, in a world mostly hostile toward snakes, cause cats to have a seemingly permanent PR problem, despite their Internet adorable-pet dominance.
It may help explain why Surrey, B.C. (as one shameful example) allows an estimated 36,000 feral/stray/homeless cats to fester, very many of which suffer severe malnourishment, debilitating injury and/or infection. That number was about six years ago. I was informed four years later by the local cat charity that, if anything, their “numbers would have increased, not decreased” since then.
Their TNR program is/was the only charity to which I’ve ever donated, in no small part because of the plentiful human callousness towards the plight of those cats and the countless others elsewhere. But I was told by the non-profit via email that, “Our TNR program is not operating. There are no volunteers that are interested in trapping and there is no place to recover the cats after surgery” without a feeding-station site.
The city's municipal government as well as too many uncaring residents have done little or nothing to help with the local non-profit trap/neuter/release program. And then leave it to classically cruel human hypocrisy to despise and even shoot or poison those same suffering cats for naturally feeding on smaller prey while municipal governments and many area residents mostly permit the feral cat populations to explode — along with the resultant feline suffering within.
Perhaps not surprising, I've long found that along with human intelligence comes a proportionate reprehensible potential for evil behavior, i.e. malice for malice’s sake. With our four-legged friends there definitely is a beautiful absence of that undesirable distinctly human trait. While animals, including dogs and cats, can react violently, it is typically due to reactive distrust/dislike or necessity/sustenance. But leave it to us humans, with our higher capacity for intelligence, to commit a spiteful act, if only because we can.
Pet cats, on the other hand, offer reciprocally healthy relationships — many owners describe them as somewhat symbiotic — particularly for those people suffering physical and/or mental illness. It’s the pet's many qualities, especially its non-humanly innocence, that makes losing it someday such a heartbreaking experience.
Yet, human apathy, the throwaway mentality/culture and even a bit of public hostility toward them typically result in population explosions thus their inevitable neglect and suffering, including severe illness and starvation. With the mindset of feline disposability, it might be: ‘Oh, there’s a lot more whence they came’.
It’s likely that only when their over-populations are greatly reduced in number through consistent publicly-funded spay/neuter programs, might these beautiful animals’ potentially soothing, even therapeutic, presence be truly appreciated rather than taken for granted or even resented. Until then, cats likely will remain beautiful yet often misunderstood, prejudged and unjustly despised animals.
I once lived in a unit of a nest of duplexes, in a big city. Took in a would have been, best case, feral kitten. An irresponsible owner’s dog later killed her. Later took in a feral female & her two kittens. One of those kittens tamed down, but only with me.
Eventually the duplex complex was sold to be demolished & replaced with a parking lot. I was one of the last to leave out, move, so there were lots of empty units, & I started trapping cats & housing them in one of those empties.
Packing, moving, trapping … I had more than twenty corralled.
But somebody let them all back out.
And somebody stole my trap.
SPCA, or whatever my plan was for the captured cats (I can’t recall the organization I had in mind for them) never happened.
Irresponsible people throw away “their” cats, causing the feral situation. Same sort of people have caused some or much of the python infestation in South Florida.
The everglades snakes lead easy, for now, invasive species lives. The feral cats lives are very hard.
Ever harder times are overtaking people.
Couldn’t possibly be any connections between cats, snakes & people, could there?
Anti-cat complacency and contempt is even felt — and, far worse, publicly expressed — by a few potentially influential news-media professionals.
I came across a newspaper editor's column about courthouse protesters demanding justice for a cat that had been cruelly shot in the head 17 times with a pellet gun, destroying an eye. Within her piece, the editor rather recklessly declared: “Hey crazy people, it’s [just] a cat.” ... The court judge might've also perceived it so, as the charges against the two adult-male perpetrators were dropped.
Then there was the otherwise progressive national commentator proclaiming in one of her then-syndicated columns that “I never liked cats”. In another piece, she wrote that politicians should replace their traditional unproductively rude heckling with caterwauling: “My vote is for meowing because I don’t like cats and I’d like to sabotage their brand as much as possible. So if our elected politicians are going to be disrespectful in our House of Commons, they might as well channel the animal that holds us all in contempt.”
I search-engined the internet but found no potential reason(s) behind her publicized anti-feline sentiments. I also futilely asked her via her Facebook page. Still, if her motives were expressed, perhaps she'd simply say, ‘I just don’t like cats’.
The question seems to be how does the “one truly significant philosophical question” get “rephrased” by wo/man & then acted out in contravention to Camus’s conclusion?
Kill the currencies, kill the cultures, Kill Bill, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Just kill everything … & get it over with?
Death wish is strong … many too many want to push the Charlie Bronson obliteration-button.
May the farce be with you? Well, that’s the “free money” trade, isn’t it?
Instead alas too many play with the house money, the House MD money: “Everybody lies.”
And “Friends” is a ploy to steal your socks. And prescribe wallop doses of cat-amine to take into the hot tub with you.
Suicide’s the pact, alright. Just call it something else, is all.
Re Rare Trip to the Theatre . Just got back home from a brilliantly funny performance of The Thirty Nine Steps at the magnificent Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Live farce at its very best !
The perfect thing to eat your breakfast to. My goodness your voice is smooth and relaxing. Informative and useful as always.
Thank you! What a very nice thing to say
Hello Dominic, I’ve always been attached to “The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People”.
Good old Oscar Wilde. Perhaps it reflects that I once took myself too seriously.
The best bit of the play is the character ‘Algernon’ … always loved that name …you’ll probably find a neighbouring cat by that name if and when you move to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea on your gold profits!
I love the name Algernon! And I love that play.
‘Algernon Frisby’ - ‘The Man who Crushed the State’
Noises Off by Michael Frayn is very good but my favourite farce is Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw.
Both classics. I think Michael Frayn is massively underrrated.
What a beautiful cat to have visit you. Worth a few socks.
Indeed, it’s a fair trade
Many, if not most, people cannot relate to cat owners finding preciousness and other qualities in their beloved pets, including a non-humanly innocence, that make losing them someday such a horrible heartbreak. Even when the innocent animal has been made to greatly suffer needlessly, perhaps before finally being murdered, many people will instead think and maybe mutter, ‘It was just a cat’.
And many non-cat-fans don’t care for the seemingly-innate resistance by cats to heeling at their masters’ command. And their reptile-like vertical-slit pupils and Hollywood-cliché fanged hiss when confronted, in a world mostly hostile toward snakes, cause cats to have a seemingly permanent PR problem, despite their Internet adorable-pet dominance.
It may help explain why Surrey, B.C. (as one shameful example) allows an estimated 36,000 feral/stray/homeless cats to fester, very many of which suffer severe malnourishment, debilitating injury and/or infection. That number was about six years ago. I was informed four years later by the local cat charity that, if anything, their “numbers would have increased, not decreased” since then.
Their TNR program is/was the only charity to which I’ve ever donated, in no small part because of the plentiful human callousness towards the plight of those cats and the countless others elsewhere. But I was told by the non-profit via email that, “Our TNR program is not operating. There are no volunteers that are interested in trapping and there is no place to recover the cats after surgery” without a feeding-station site.
The city's municipal government as well as too many uncaring residents have done little or nothing to help with the local non-profit trap/neuter/release program. And then leave it to classically cruel human hypocrisy to despise and even shoot or poison those same suffering cats for naturally feeding on smaller prey while municipal governments and many area residents mostly permit the feral cat populations to explode — along with the resultant feline suffering within.
Perhaps not surprising, I've long found that along with human intelligence comes a proportionate reprehensible potential for evil behavior, i.e. malice for malice’s sake. With our four-legged friends there definitely is a beautiful absence of that undesirable distinctly human trait. While animals, including dogs and cats, can react violently, it is typically due to reactive distrust/dislike or necessity/sustenance. But leave it to us humans, with our higher capacity for intelligence, to commit a spiteful act, if only because we can.
Pet cats, on the other hand, offer reciprocally healthy relationships — many owners describe them as somewhat symbiotic — particularly for those people suffering physical and/or mental illness. It’s the pet's many qualities, especially its non-humanly innocence, that makes losing it someday such a heartbreaking experience.
Yet, human apathy, the throwaway mentality/culture and even a bit of public hostility toward them typically result in population explosions thus their inevitable neglect and suffering, including severe illness and starvation. With the mindset of feline disposability, it might be: ‘Oh, there’s a lot more whence they came’.
It’s likely that only when their over-populations are greatly reduced in number through consistent publicly-funded spay/neuter programs, might these beautiful animals’ potentially soothing, even therapeutic, presence be truly appreciated rather than taken for granted or even resented. Until then, cats likely will remain beautiful yet often misunderstood, prejudged and unjustly despised animals.
I once lived in a unit of a nest of duplexes, in a big city. Took in a would have been, best case, feral kitten. An irresponsible owner’s dog later killed her. Later took in a feral female & her two kittens. One of those kittens tamed down, but only with me.
Eventually the duplex complex was sold to be demolished & replaced with a parking lot. I was one of the last to leave out, move, so there were lots of empty units, & I started trapping cats & housing them in one of those empties.
Packing, moving, trapping … I had more than twenty corralled.
But somebody let them all back out.
And somebody stole my trap.
SPCA, or whatever my plan was for the captured cats (I can’t recall the organization I had in mind for them) never happened.
Irresponsible people throw away “their” cats, causing the feral situation. Same sort of people have caused some or much of the python infestation in South Florida.
The everglades snakes lead easy, for now, invasive species lives. The feral cats lives are very hard.
Ever harder times are overtaking people.
Couldn’t possibly be any connections between cats, snakes & people, could there?
An interesting thought
Anti-cat complacency and contempt is even felt — and, far worse, publicly expressed — by a few potentially influential news-media professionals.
I came across a newspaper editor's column about courthouse protesters demanding justice for a cat that had been cruelly shot in the head 17 times with a pellet gun, destroying an eye. Within her piece, the editor rather recklessly declared: “Hey crazy people, it’s [just] a cat.” ... The court judge might've also perceived it so, as the charges against the two adult-male perpetrators were dropped.
Then there was the otherwise progressive national commentator proclaiming in one of her then-syndicated columns that “I never liked cats”. In another piece, she wrote that politicians should replace their traditional unproductively rude heckling with caterwauling: “My vote is for meowing because I don’t like cats and I’d like to sabotage their brand as much as possible. So if our elected politicians are going to be disrespectful in our House of Commons, they might as well channel the animal that holds us all in contempt.”
I search-engined the internet but found no potential reason(s) behind her publicized anti-feline sentiments. I also futilely asked her via her Facebook page. Still, if her motives were expressed, perhaps she'd simply say, ‘I just don’t like cats’.
Serious here as Bill Bowerman, but remember him as Oddball?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2JxZp0lq5M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IatwoA00E0
Camus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KC1YrxJma8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk8cENmTttA&t=30s
The question seems to be how does the “one truly significant philosophical question” get “rephrased” by wo/man & then acted out in contravention to Camus’s conclusion?
Kill the currencies, kill the cultures, Kill Bill, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Just kill everything … & get it over with?
Death wish is strong … many too many want to push the Charlie Bronson obliteration-button.
May the farce be with you? Well, that’s the “free money” trade, isn’t it?
Instead alas too many play with the house money, the House MD money: “Everybody lies.”
And “Friends” is a ploy to steal your socks. And prescribe wallop doses of cat-amine to take into the hot tub with you.
Suicide’s the pact, alright. Just call it something else, is all.
What a beautiful cat, you are blessed to receive such a visitor! Yet here was me thinking you were allergic to cats?
Re Rare Trip to the Theatre . Just got back home from a brilliantly funny performance of The Thirty Nine Steps at the magnificent Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Live farce at its very best !
Mr Delingpole is a difficult customer, even a bit alienating. Although he means well. Anyway you survived!