Adorable pregnant Heebie cat-training! My day is made.
I judge that adorable. If you can't get them to use the toilet, at least you can get them to show some proper manners.
Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit! mrow Sit!
Also, I see who the good cat in the family is.
I like "kids grow 23 years in fifteen seconds"
3: Meowing and not sitting isn't the half of it.
Heebie, you should train them to ride on top of your roomba.
3: Sometimes I like to scold Gino by saying, "I would have expected this sort of behavior from Alex. But not from you."
Also I like to say, to either of them, "Look at you! You are just covered in cat hair. Covered!"
the best time of life i imagine, stay home, enjoy the quiet, read, play with cats, eat, sleep
nice
This is adorable, though I find myself resenting Alex a little on Gino's behalf. "Dude, just sit already so I can get my treat!"
"Yeah, yeah, you've got that right. But don't worry I'll be fine, although trust me, you'd have to be here to really believe it."
Also, I had a cat in college (whom my dad now has custody of) whom we successfully trained to sit and then to stand on his hind legs to get the food. More importantly, we had him trained to go to the sink when he puked, a habit he has sadly lost in dad's care. The hind legs trick has deteriorated, too, now that he's 15 some years' old. But he tries. He's a good kitty.
HG, you've probably gotten this advice already, but it's recommended to present the cats with something that smells of baby (like those cute little toques they give you at the hospital) before you bring the baby home.
trained to go to the sink when he puked
I sure would be happier if my cat did that.
The cats will descend on the newborn like the Maenads on Orpheus! Think of the box office!
13: I've been wondering about how to integrate the three. I hadn't heard that, actually. What's a toque , and why does it smell like babies before it's on one?
present the cats with something that smells of baby
Skip the toque; surely someone sells severed baby heads with this use in mind.
A baby toque? Should they really be near a stove at that age?
16. A knit cap. The idea is for the baby to wear it first, so it picks up that fabulous new-baby smell.
15: My thought exactly. (Or to be precise mine was "like the rats on Willard").
14: picking the little guy up and setting him in the sink immediately every time he began to wretch worked like a charm. Of course, he was practically newborn at the time, which I imagine makes it easier.
I trained the hamsters of my childhood to piss in the sink.
picking the little guy up and setting him in the sink immediately every time he began to wretch worked like a charm
Might work for the baby, too. Give it a try!
23: Sometimes it's spelled 'tuque', smartypants, to distinguish the chef's hat from the Canadian headwear.
25: I tried this with Rory, but found she had a much harder time leaping up onto the sink unassisted.
26: and which does one wear if one is a hamster pissing in the sink?
28 cont'd: and is it rude for a hamster to wear a hat while pissing in the sink? Unless it's an outdoor sink, I mean.
28: If it's the kitchen sink, probably a toque.
"I trained the hamsters of my childhood to piss in the sink."
One of the great lines that didn't make it into the final cut of Ginsberg's "Howl."
29: I made Halloween costumes for one of my hamsters that included hats. The witch costume (tiny conical brimmed hat with orange-bat-patterned hatband, cape, broomskirt) was a huge success, except for the skirt, which she just stepped out of whenever I got it on her. The pictures I took are pretty aww-worthy.
Somehow the phrase "hamsters of my childhood" is amusing me. Ou sont les hamsters d'antan?
I saw the hamsters of my childhood piss in the
sink, hat-wearing adorable furry,
dragging themselves out of the broomskirts I made
looking for a carrot
26: Not according to the Canadians I know! They just pronounce it 'tooook.'
looking for a carrotBrazil nut.
I don't know why, but she was crazy about them, and could pack two in each cheek pocket. Watching her cough those things out to eat them a little disturbing because it looking like she was trying to turn herself inside out.
Toque is apparently the most nonspecific hat name possible. Those knit things, those are definitely called "watch caps", though. Not toques.
The witch costume (tiny conical brimmed hat with orange-bat-patterned hatband,
Could you even seethe bat pattern without a magnifying glass?
It was a very small pattern, so it worked, kinda. I was just surprised she tolerated it as well as she did.
Re 40: This probably belonged in heebie's mushpot thread from last week, but I am sentimentally quite charmed about all the stylistic influence that different commenters add to this place. I don't remember the grammatical self-corrections in the pre-read era, e.g. The ||, |> thing from PK. Etc. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Di
['yes, the occasional max emulation, too']
Not according to the Canadians I know!
The unreliability of Canadians is well established on this blog.
Sit-for-the-ten-count Looking-Ass Kitties!
Woo. The first sign of a bored woman: her cats can do tricks!
Gino is pretty awesome. Holsteins are my favorite breed of cat.
The cats will be scared of the baby.
47 is correct.
They're called 'fraidy-cats for a reason.
The unreliability of Canadians is well established on this blog.
No, that's just JE.
the toque/tuque thing is regional, and english/french.
I am not Canadian! Nor am I unreliable!
I don't remember the grammatical self-corrections in the pre-read era
47: Have you seen the video of Alex all riled up? If not, you don't know what you're talking about. If you have, you're as crazy as he is.
46: Gino is HUGE too, just gigantic for a housecat. Also, he sleeps in a little kitty hammock!
There was supposed to be a link in 51.
53: God broke your link so you wouldn't destroy my sentimental warm-fuzziness.
53: We'll speak to the person responsible. Our customers deserve only the best.
52.1: Alex being scared of the baby and Alex acting on that fear by trying to shred the baby are not incompatible outcomes.
What is this madness?
Perhaps you should wear a hat to keep your brain warm to achieve link tao. Fu.
max
['The cats are awesome, Heebster.']
Everyone knows kitties don't kill babies via shredding; they kill babies by stealing their breath.
Cat and Levi seem like a good pair. Rfts knows what I'm talking about.
I am not Canadian! Nor am I unreliable!
No, you're just unreliable about Canadians, is all.
57: Way to go. Can't just leave my sentimental warm-fuzziness alone in this, my moment of grieving. You heartless beast.
I still maintain that the current conventions for typo correction have become decidedly readesque.
Forgive my crudeness, but did you apologize to your breasts at the end of that clip?
I still maintain that the current conventions for typo correction have become decidedly readesque.
Nah. People have always, at least pre-read, self-consciously and conscientiously corrected their typos, along with their grammatical snafus. It's the rare type who declines to do so.
Nah. People have always, at least pre-read, self-consciously and conscientiously corrected their typos, along with their grammatical snafus. It's the rare type who declines to do so.
But there's a pre-read-style correction, like "there s/b their" or "that should read X", and then there's the read-style correction of just writing a single context-free word to indicate that it was misspelled or omitted or whatnot, or maybe writing the word with a "^" in front.
66, 67: True enough, then, and boy is that single context-free thing weird.
68: STOP OTHERIZING READ, PARSIMON!
69: Oh, okay. Uh. It's a thing that read does, and that's fine; it's her style. If other people want to do it too, that's okay. You don't need to shout.
YES WE DO! READ IS THE BOSS!
Read has already touched our lives in so many ways - inspiring people to buy Mongolian Xmas gifts, inspiring me to read Yuri Rytkheu's engrossing novels of the Chukcha people...
Where is Ari? I want to grumble about Hofstadter.
Rytkheu was apparently popular in Germany. I just ordered one from the library.
Single word corections are also an old thing here.
You're such a contrarian, eb. I've always known that about you.
But under the read-style correction policy, #78 wouldn't say "corrections", it would say "+r".
The ^ is probably new, though I remember some more elaborate self-corrections that are not easy to search for in the archives (not that I'm going to search anyway) that were probably one-off things. There's precedent for unaccompanied single letters, though.
83: Um, no, read style is definitely to use a plus sign.
Shit, what morons elected God to the Senate of all places?
So this thread is about cats, huh? Most cats' breath smells like cat food, but what are you gonna do, that's just how it is.
90: But it's clear that it's a god, not the god.
THOU SHALT HAVE NOT OTHER GRANDMAS BEFORE ME!!!!
So this, uh, cat I know, lives in San Francisco and wants to know how to get some catnip. Just wander around the Haight trying to score some, or get a prescription for the medicinal catnip? Also, this cat wonders if it's a bad idea what with kittens in the house and all.
So there's this cat, lives in a hat...maybe you've heard of him?
96: Grandma, you're really digging yourself a hole here. How many Ds do you want in that comment?
DON'T ANSWER!
98: TWO. ONE GOES WITH "GOD", ONE GOES WITH "DAMMIT". WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM??
86: Sure. I'm just bored.
Oh, well, then, sort of on-topic, my roommates' cat got in a tussle with a chihuahua today. I heard it but didn't see it. The cat threw an uppercut but retreated, according to the roommate reports.
Not that I condone cat-dog fighting, just sharing.
102: I want a catdog. Not for fighting, ya know, just as a pet.
Well, screw Ari.
Hofstadter pisses me off.
64, 105: I couldn't tell how to what extent I might have flashed the camera. These newfangled giant boobs are hard to keep track of.
I hear there's a neat pedometer feature that lets you track how far they bounced. Like Tigger!
Hofstadter seems to be having a sort of revival. I can't tell if it's just people engaging with his work, but disagreeing or people saying a lot of his stuff was right. There was a period when he was mostly not considered engaging with as far as academic work went. Don't ask me why; I wasn't around for a lot of it, didn't get interested in political history until late and dropped out just as the (seeming) revival seemed to be starting.
I'm unsurprised to learn there is, in fact, a booble website.
I'm tracking the "conspiracy theory" meme, and I only had to read about three pages into the first book I got to find it. The introduction to "The Age of Reform" is this mumble of "The Populists and Progressives weren't as good as people think, but they weren't entirely bad, but they're a lot like a lot of bad people, but that doesn't mean that didn't do a lot of good too...." for 20 pages.
Why does there have to be two famous intellectuals with the name Hofstadter? It's soooo annoying. I keep thinking Emerson's ripping on Godel, Escher, Bach.
I always mix him up with Heilbroner.
Not the soap Heilbroner, the economist.
The soap guy is just Dr. Bronner.
I don't remember Age of Reform very well, aside from wishing it for more depth of detail from some of the late 19th century. Lots of people spent lots of time pointing out empirical problems with his view of the Populists. There's apparently a whole book called "Tolerant Populists" about how wrong Hofstadter was about their social views.
I can't believe you guys are all talking shit about John Brunner. Shockwave Rider is a fantastic book, and his early space opera stuff is totally credible and fun.
Tweety-bird makes me laugh with 117. Yee-haw, and all that! And good night.
107: I couldn't tell how to what extent I might have flashed the camera.
Trust me, not even close, 'cuz I watched it all evening a couple of times. I just thought it was your "snort it up your nose" moment.
This looks like an interesting recent book on populism. But I guess Emerson has gone to sleep.
it's recommended to present the cats with something that smells of baby
Backtracking to say: This worked quite well for one couple I know with a dog.
My sister's cat, in contrast, is currently sulking mightily and having conniptions because it turns out that when you have the baby in the middle of the night and come home barely 12 hours later, there isn't time for the hat-sniffing routine.
In related news, I'm an aunt again. Yay new niece! Yay fit soccer-playing moms who power through labor in three hours (!!).
121: Charles works just up the road, at Sac State. The book won a Bancroft, which, you know, is nice. But I haven't read it yet.
I must correct myself or the NSA will be all up my ass! I said:
['Help me Osama ben Laden, you're my only hope!']
I, of course, was not referring to Osama ben Ladin, the famous rock critic, nor was I referring to Osama bën Laden, bass player of the metal band Stëël Häjj, nor was I referring to his bandmate, drummer Osama B Leaden, nor the guitarist Osama bin Wolfsën (although their new album I Coulda Had a Haterade! is quite terrorizing), and I was absolutely not referring to the famous producer Bsama O Laden, or the somewhat obscure concert promoter Osama bean Laden who later went into the wholesaling fine foods. And while I doubt anyone could be that confused by my error I was (obviously) not referring to osama.bën.wolfsen@terrorist.hats.org, famous (in that set) demo coder. I was, of course, referring to Osama ben Wolfsön, the number three disc jockey of the Al-Queda organization, audio terrorist and baseball turban wearer. The New York Times regrets any confusion.
max
['I'm pretty sure I read about something like this happening in a John Brunner novel.']
You should take that act on the road when the cats can count along with you.
"It's the ... ARITHMOCATS."
I want you to come train my cats. So far, the only one doing training is Is, and she trained us to toss her stuffed squirrel for her by dropping it on us and looking cute. She keeps talking to us, but we are dense, so she eventually gives up and wanders off, muttering "stoopid hoomans'.
Sac State
The image presented by this abbreviation -- of a college campus suspended above the valley floor in a gelatinous fluid, surrounded by a glistening membrane -- is less than appetizing.