Christmas TV Trivia

Are you watching your old Christmas favorites on TV, VHS, and DVD? Do you sniffle when Santa sings with the little Dutch girl, Frosty melts, and George Bailey realizes he really does have a wonderful life? If so, you are ready for my first-time-ever Christmas trivia!

For each clue name the Christmas special/movie.

1. Mr. Gailey proves that Kris Kringle really is Santa.
2. Bob Wallace and Phil Davis save the Columbia Inn from bankruptcy on Christmas Eve.
3. Bing sings “White Christmas” for the first time in this movie.
4. Uncle Billy misplaces $8,000 on Christmas Eve.
5. We meet Father Chuck O’Malley for the first time.
6. Max pulls a sleigh full of Christmas cheer.
7. The Winter Warlock puts one foot in front of the other.
8. Scott Calvin becomes the new Santa.
9. Scrooge’s debtors sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and dance on his coffin.
10. Francis Xavier Cross produces the world’s worst version of A Christmas Carol, live, on Christmas Eve.
11. The misfit toys hope Santa find them new, loving homes.
12. Henry Travers (best known as Clarence the angle in It’s a Wonderful Life) plays selfish Horace P. Bogardus.
13. Skating to “Christmastime is Here.”
14. Randy can’t put his arms down.
15. Hocus Pocus runs away from Professor Hinkle, the world’s worst magician.

The answers are in the Comments section.

Tolkien on Film Nominated for an Award!

Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings (which contains an essay by yours truly) has been nominated for an award! Tolkien on Film was edited by Janet B. Croft, published by Mythopoeic Press, and is for sale on Amazon.

If I understand correctly, the awards will be presented at The One Ring Celebration: The Official Convention for Lord of the Rings Fans (Authorized by New Line Cinema) in Pasadena, CA, January 20-22, 2006. Convention Info

The One Ring is a fan site which is mentioned in some of the film documentaries included with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films.

Anyone can vote here. Item #2 is Best Tolkien themed book published in 2005. Tolkien on Film is #4 in the list of nominees. Vote early and vote often and thank you for your support!

Let it Snow!

It's a beautiful, snowy day in mid-Michigan. We're supposed to get 6-8 more inches of snow tonight.

Everybody sing along: Since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Blogging in the Library

I'm doing something I've always dreamed of: working in the library atrium (the coolest view on campus) on a wireless laptop!

Why the library atrium? Because it's got a wall of three-story windows overlooking the Flint River, with lots of trees, and nice view of the William S. White Building across the river. This beautiful view more than makes up for the lack of windows in my office. Over here I have the biggest windows and the best view on campus. If I ever find a good picture I'll post it on my blog.

How did this dream come true? The university had money to spend on on-line instructors. When my Department Chairman asked for my wish list I requested a laptop (12-inch Apple PowerBook G4), a 1 GB jump drive, and a puppy.

Yesterday the laptop and jump drive arrived. The Department Chairman assures me the puppy has been sent to the Foreign Languages department for housetraining. They have it hidden really well, since I can't find any signs of it.

In the meantime, I think I'll call my new laptop Spot, since it has a white Apple-shaped spot on the top.


Image taken from Apple's PowerBook specs.

Now I need to quit having fun and get back to my end-of-the-semester grading.

Christmas Kitties

It's not a Christmas tree, it's a lighted cat bed...

Giving Thanks

Have you received this info via e-mail lately?

• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
• If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world.
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
• If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the US and Canada.
• If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
  

It's posted all over the Internet on sites like Interesting Facts to Keep Life in Perspective. These sites also give statistics based on the idea that if a village of 100 represented the world population x% would Asian, x% would be Christian, etc. The idea, apparently, is to make people who live in first world counties realize how good they've got it and to feel thankful (and possibly guilty) about it.

I thought the numbers looked questionable, so I looked this data on the Urban Legends Reference Page, which confirmed my hunch that the data isn't quite right.

Even so, Thanksgiving is a time for remember all the blessings we take for granted, like those listed above. I am thankful for these things. I thank God every day that I live in the United States of America, and I pray for our soldiers who are fighting for the freedom of people who have never known the blessings and freedom we take for granted.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Step into Christmas

Since Halloween, I've been ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the holidays! I love the music, the lights, the decorations, the food, the happy memories, buying and wrapping presents, the anticipation, the holiday TV specials and movies -- I love it all.

Some people find the cold, short winter days depressing but that doesn't bother me until after the holidays. For now, the dark just sets off the glow of warm, inviting indoor lights and the happy glow of outdoor holiday lights. What could look more cheerful or inviting?

Maybe I need the holidays more than usual this year. Since July, we've lost five friends or acquaintances and one family member. I feel like I've been living at the funeral home. I'm trying to keep my chin up, and I hope my pretty Christmas lights will cheer me up, as they always have. All the boxes are in the living room, just waiting for me to decorate. I usually wait until after Thanksgiving, but this year I might not be able to wait that long. Like the song says, I need a little Christmas right this very minute.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of happy memories, especially those who have recently lost a loved one. I know that the first year of holidays without that loved one can be awful. If you need a little holiday cheer, stop by and look at my pretty Christmas lights!

T is for Chicken

Since I'm not a parent, I usually don't tell cute kids stories, but this one is so good I had to share!

My dear friend Denise has a three-year-old, Joshua, who just started preschool. Last week they must have been learning letters because he came home with a paper cut-out of a turkey. Stamped on the back were a bunch of T's. He proudly handed it to her and said, "Look, Mommy. T is for chicken!"

I think Denise needs to send this to Reader's Digest, don't you? How could they not publish it?

Apostrophe Proselytizing

The other day my husband and I drove past a house that had a sign in the front yard which said:

Drywall Repair's
and
Odd Job's
Call 555-5555

Just typing that incorrectly nearly killed me! It's a good thing my husband was driving because I would have been tempted to stop and fix the sign, or, at the very least, to tell the owner that he was damaging his credibility by showing that he didn't know the difference between a plural and a possessive. I mean, I'm not hiring someone who can't tell the difference between "repair's" and "repairs," are you? It would only take me a few minutes to explain it, but that would be rude and obnoxious, wouldn't it, sort of apostrophe proselytizing? It's probably better not to say anything, but I can hardly stand seeing such a simple error go uncorrected.

I might have to sneak back some night with a can of white spray paint so I can fix that sign...

Thanks, Rosa

Dear Rosa,

I know you weren't the first black woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus, but you are the one who became the face of the civil rights movement. Thank you, brave lady.

Because of you I have never known a USA where white and black people could not sit together or eat together. I have never seen separate black and white restrooms or drinking fountains, and opposition to interracial marriage is only a faint memory to me.

I know the sexes and races still aren't totally equal, but maybe someday we will all really be judged by our character and not the color of our skin, as Dr. King dreamed. Thanks for starting the ball rolling. Rest in peace, Rosa.

Happy Halloween!

The newspapers have been full of the usual pre-Halloween articles lately: everything from parties, to the history of Halloween, to Fundamentalists proclaiming that all Halloween-related activities are Satanic.

The Fundamentalists need to get a grip. Halloween traditions are based on the pre-Christian harvest traditions of the people we now call the Celts. Apparently Fundamentalists think anything that happened before Christ was the same worshipping Satan. They ignore the fact that pre-Christians and modern pagans (Wiccans) simply want to worship the Creator through nature, much as Native Americans do, which is compatible with Christian beliefs and sure isn't the same as worshiping Satan. I wonder if those who claim Halloween is Satanic also celebrate Christmas? Don't tell them, but many of our Christmas customs are from the Celts, the same people who brought us Halloween.

In Mexico, this holiday is called The Day of the Dead. It's similar to our Memorial Day and at a much more appropriate time of year. Fall, with its change from summer's bounty to winter's severity, long nights, and a new year is a time for closure, remembrance, and celebration.

I feel sorry for anyone whose beliefs prevent them from having fun on Halloween. I have many happy memories of trick-or-treating and watching my dad dressing up like a hunchback scarecrow to scare the kids who came trick-or-treating at our house. The kids loved it and so did we! What could be more fun than being scared while you are actually perfectly safe? I think on some level, Halloween teaches kids how to deal with fear in a safe environment.

Tonight while the religious right scorns our devil-worshipping activities, I'll be handing out candy to adorable kids in cute costumes, and remembering my dad and all fun the we had.

Happy Halloween!

Here are some fun Halloween links:

Halloween

Halloween on the Net

Halloween Online

You can find lots more via Google.

Big Brother is Watching!

I've been looking at my new site meter and I am amazed at what I can learn about those who visit my blog. I can tell what kind of hardware and software they are using, their ISP, and their geographic location. How scary! I knew this stuff was easy to track on the Internet, I just didn't realize how easy.

I'm also surprised at the number of people who visit my blog. People I don't even know have stopped to visit! Apparently I'm not a typical blog reader; I only read blogs of people I know (so far). I find it a little weird to think that someone I don't know -- on the other side of the planet! -- is reading my silly little musings.

Welcome to my little world... stop by any time.

New Hit Counter

One of my students, Amanda, showed my how to make my hit counter ignore my computer. Thanks, Amanda! I guestimated on the number of hits (not counting my own) and re-set my counter. Today it re-started at 150.

If you're interested, I'm using Site Meter and recommend it. It will do statistics, track where visitors came from, e-mail stats to you, etc. Best of all, it's free!

Traverse City

My husband and I spent the weekend in Traverse City enjoying the fall colors. If you've never been to TC, you are missing a treat. Yes, the outskirts look like every other overgrown mall you've ever seen, but the downtown is terrific! It's several blocks of turn-of-the century buildings with a variety of shops, several art galleries, and lots of restaurants, all on Grand Traverse Bay. There are two bays, actually, separated by a peninsula, East Bay and West Bay. We stayed at the Pointes North Inn on the East Bay.

One nice thing about Pointes North Inn is that all rooms face the bay. Our room was on the first floor and the beach was just a few steps from our porch. There are lots of seagulls, ducks, and swans on the beach and they aren't afraid of people. The hotel forbids feeding them. Don't worry, though. Judging by their size, they are not starving.

Speaking of food, Friday night we ate at Mountain Jack's on the East Bay Harbor Marina. From our table we could look out over the marina and see Salmon jumping in the water. Our waiter told us the marina was seeded with about 200 Salmon, so they always have fish there to watch. Very cool!

Saturday we had breakfast pasties at Cousin Jenny's. It's a nice little British-looking cafe that specializes in pasties. They don't have a web site but are mentioned in this article: Delightful Delectables. We didn't realize they are closed on Sunday so we were not able to bring home pasties to fill our freezer. For everyone who is not from Michigan: pasties, pronounced "pass-tees," are the local version of Cornish meat pies, filled with steak, potatoes, and rutabagas. They are especially tasty with brown gravy!

After enjoying the fall colors Saturday, we ate dinner at Amicale, a French cafe. They don't have a web site, but that's probably because they are too busy creating fabulous food (a new menu every season, apparently). They are usually very busy, so while waiting for our table we took advantage of the free wireless Internet at Horizon Books, one of our favorite bookstores just a couple of doors away from Amicale, and checked our e-mail on Roger's laptop. He even posted to his blog! It was the first time I've ever checked my e-mail on a wireless network via a wireless laptop (literally: no power cord or mouse)! I felt so technologically savvy.

The only downside to an otherwise wonderful weekend was the inevitable traffic backup on I-75 south on the way home. We got off at West Branch and made our way back to M-15. Usually taking the old roads is about as fast as the expressway, but this time it took us an extra two hours to get home, probably because of the back up and heavy traffic.

If you are looking for nice place to vacation that's not too far away, I heartily recommend Traverse City. Just avoid I-75 if you possibly can.

Check-up!

Since August two people I know in their early 40s have died from massive heart failure.

Even if you never go to the doctor, make an appointment for a check up. Your odds of dying young from an undiagnosed medical condition are probably pretty low, but why take a chance? Do it for the sake everyone who cares about you -- and that's more people than you think. Trust me.

Say Good-Bye to Scotty

Actor James Doohan, best known for his role as Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, died in July. He had a full, adventurous real life and was loved by many fans. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier this year. Photo and obituary courtesy of Star Trek.com.

Trivia: In addition to playing Scotty, Jimmy did many voice-overs in the original Star Trek series and in the movies. According to the Internet Movie Database, he also created the first Klingon dialog in Star Trek: the Motion Picture. His words were later expanded into a full language by others. In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Scotty gave a 20th century engineer the formula for transparent aluminum, something the military is working on. :)

Next month, as he requested, part of his ashes will be launched into space. Fans may send tributes (by Nov. 15, 500 word maximum) which will be "digitized" and put in the canister with his ashes. The canister will remain in orbit for about 10 years, then burn up in the atmosphere on re-entry. This is a nice, but puzzling, idea. What could I possibly say to someone I admire but never met?

My Favorite Scotty Quotes (non-Trek fans might want to skip this part):

• It's green. (Original series episode "By Any Other Name" and Next Generation episode "Relics" too drunk to identify liquor by its name)
• I can't change the laws of physics. I've got to have thirty minutes. (Original series episode "The Naked Time")
• Laddie...don't you think you should...rephrase that? (Original series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" right before he beats up a Klingon for insulting the Enterprise, not for insulting Capt. Kirk.)
• Captain, the engines can't take any more! (Pick any episode)
• McCoy: I'm a Doctor, not an engineer.
  Scotty: Now you're an engineer. (Original series episode "Mirror, Mirror")
• Scotty: I find it hard to believe I've traveled millions of miles...
  McCoy: ...thousands...
  Scotty: ...thousands of miles for an invited tour... only to be forgotten
  McCoy: Don't lose yourself in the role (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
• Hello, computer. (Speaking to an Apple mouse in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
• Admiral, there be whales here! (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
• What are ya standin' there for? Da ya not know a jailbreak when ya see one? (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, rescuing Kirk and Spock)
  
• Are ya daft, lad?! How long will it really take you to fix it? (Next Generation episode "Relics," to engineer Geordi LaForge who does not share Scotty's reputation as a miracle-worker)
  
• NCC-1701. No bloody A, B, C, or D. (Next Generation episode "Relics," yelling at the Enterprise-D's holodeck computer as he programs it to show the original Enterprise)

Godspeed, Jimmy. Our thoughts and prayers are with you as you boldly go into the undiscovered country. Give our best to Gene and De. Thank you for your brave service in WWII and the many happy memories you gave us as Scotty!

*****

Psuedo-related news Scotty would approve of: According to Sky and Telescope: Now through mid-November, Mars is closer and appears larger in a telescope than it will again until 2018! The so-called Red Planet (actually bright yellow) blazes high in the east by late evening, awaiting your telescope. It's 20 arcseconds wide, larger than it almost ever appears. A full guide to this Mars apparition, including a surface-feature map, is in the September Sky and Telescope, page 67. More about Mars

Oh Happy Day!

At long last, the overnight temperature dropped to freezing! It was two weeks later than usual, but a killing frost means an end to ragweed, bane of allergy sufferers. Hoo-ray! At last:

• I can turn off my central air conditioning (i.e., my friend the big pollen filter) and open the windows
  
• I'll be able to walk in the park and breathe through my nose at the same time
• My chances for sinus infections will decrease

As an added benefit, I'll have beautiful fall colors to enjoy... just in time for a trip to Traverse City this coming weekend.

I'm doing my happy dance!

Blog Advice from Hugh Hewitt

I recently read the book Blog by conservative blogger Hugh Hewitt. It's an interesting examination of blogs and how they are changing business and politics. My favorite part of the book was his advice for bloggers.

The key rules of success and significance are these:

• Post often.
• Link freely.
• Be generous in praise and attribution.
• Don't be long-winded too often, if at all. Brevity is the soul of blogging when you are getting started.
  
• Paragraphs are your friend.
• Profanity loses audiences.
• Avoid feuds and flame wars.
• At least at the start, skip the comments sections. You end up with the problem of nuts if you are any good.
• Keep the title short and easy to remember so that it is easy to recall and type into the space at the top of the page. (Hewitt Blog 151-152).

It's good advice for bloggers and other writers, but I wonder how many people actually know this or do it? I recomend this book for anyone who is interested in blogs, whether they blog or not!

Twinkies

Twinkies, the popular cream-filled tube-shaped shortcakes, are 75 years old. Incredible. My dad loved them, so we always a box of them handy. They're a little too sweet for me, so one or two year are plenty. I did always wonder why a box of 12 contains individually wrapped Twinkies, while a "single" serving package contains 2 Twinkies.

One of my friends has a cat, Mia, whose favorite food in the whole world is Twinkies. Mia is a cat of discriminating taste, however; she only eats the spongy shortcake, not the creamy filling.

After 75 years, Twinkies are part of our culture. The Interstate Bakeries Corporation, distributor of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, cites these examples:

• Twinkiegate: A grand jury indicted a Minneapolis city council candidate for serving coffee, Kool-Aid, Twinkies and other sweets to two senior citizens groups. The act led to the passage of the Minnesota Campaign Act, widely known as the Twinkie law. The 71-year-old candidate, George Belair, lost the election but the charges against him were dropped. The case was dubbed "Twinkiegate."
  

• Twinkie Hall of Fame: 89 year-old Lewis Browning of Shelbyville, Indiana, has been eating at least one Twinkie every day since 1941, consuming more than 20,000 Twinkies. James Dewar, who died at 88, is said to have consumed more than 40,000 Twinkies in his lifetime. Chicago consumes more Twinkies per capita than any other city in the United States.

• Twinkiejackings: In the late 1970s, reports of Twinkie hijackings began surfacing. In 1975, a Kennett Square, PA house twice was broken into and robbed of its Twinkies. That same year, AWOL marines from a California base were stopped on a freeway driving a truck full of "hot" Twinkies. In 1976, someone stole a bakery truck containing 1800 Twinkies. The truck was found; the Twinkies were not. In 1978, two Albuquerque men held up a delivery truck and made off with two large boxes of Twinkies, which at the time were valued at $16. Nothing else was taken and no one was injured.

• Twinkies to the Rescue: An elephant living in Sarasota, Fl refused food for days after undergoing surgery; Twinkies reportedly were used to end the hunger strike. When fifty baboons escaped from a wildlife reserve in an Ohio amusement park, Twinkies reportedly were among the treats used to try to lure the AWOL creatures back.

• The Twinkie Defense: After former San Francisco supervisor Dan White killed the city’s mayor and another supervisor, he argued diminished capacity as a result of excessive junk food consumption. The strategy was dubbed the "Twinkie Defense."

Disclaimer: the Urban Legends Reference Page says the "Twinkie Defense" is not true.

My favorite news item today about the Twinkie's anniversary were the recipes from Hostess. Heck, I never thought of making anything out of Twinkies, I just ate 'em! (They're great with milk or vanilla ice cream.)
My favorite recipe wasn't from Hostess, though. It was this picture of the "Hillbilly Wedding Cake," sent to me by a student. The Urban Lengends Page says the "Hillbilly Wedding" pictures are hoax but my students and I agreed that the cake is clever and funny! One student, a Hostess connoisseur, identified the layers from top to bottom as Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Twinkies, Cup Cakes, and Suzy Q's.

I suggested this cake for my niece's wedding. Although she has a great sense of humor, we just had regular wedding cake -- but my dad would have loved the Hostess version!

We Will Never Forget

It seems the media would like us to forget the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Look at this picture and this video and never forget why we are fighting a war on terror.

For more photographic reminders visit September 11 News.

Never Forget:
~ The horror of passenger planes used as bombs
~ The innocent passengers on those planes
~ The terror the passengers experienced in their last moments and the bravery they showed in fighting the hijackers
~ The 200 people who fell to their deaths from the World Trade Center
~ The hundreds of police officers and firefighters who died trying to save others
~ The thousands who died that day in New York City, NY; Washington, DC; and Shanksville, PA.
~ The senators and congressmen who stood side by side that night singing "God Bless America," all partisan politics forgotten
~ The strength and leadership of New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani and President George W. Bush
~ The thousands of families who are still grieving for their lost loved ones
~ The courage of a nation and its soldiers who continue to fight terrorism wherever it occurs

"I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people."

~ President George W. Bush
Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People
Sept. 20, 2001

New Year or Endless Summer?

The beginning of school usually feels like a new year for me: new students, new beginnings, and new classes. Not this year, however; it feels like endless summer!

I associate the beginning of school with fall, but since school started Aug. 31 temperatures have remained in the 80s. My classrooms vary from warm to hot, and that's with air conditioning.

I know I'm in a vast minority, but I hate summer. I love sunshine but hate everything else about summer: heat, humidity, mold, and pollen. I hate the effects of humidity: your clothes stick to you, you sweat while sitting still in the shade, and towels and sheets feel clammy. Thank God I have air conditioning!

It's not bad enough that the heat and humidity make it uncomfortable to be outside, they contribute to the mold and pollen levels. If you haven't already guessed, I'm allergic to mold and ragweed, so for me summer is just a long stretch of ever-increasing allergens. August and September are the worst because mold and ragweed are at their peak. Even prescription allergy medicine and air conditioning (which acts like a big allergen filter) don't completely alleviate the symptoms. Allergy sufferers won't get real relief until the first killing frost, usually the first week of October in this part of Michigan.

After that, fall is heaven: cool temps, sunny days, crisp nights, beautiful leaf colors, vivid blues skies, apple cider, pumpkins, college football, and the wonderful sound and smell of walking through fallen leaves... Come on, frost!

What's a Cat Bastet?

A couple people have asked about my screen name, The Cat Bastet. It's the name of the Emersons' first cat in Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries. Bastet is a distinct character in the early stories (which is no surprise to cat "owners").

The Cat Bastet is also my screen name or Nom de Clavier (Keyboard Name) on DorothyL, a discussion and idea mailing list for mystery lovers. Since one's nom is related to mystery stories, it adds an air of fun. According to the rules:

the nom may represent a person, either fictional or real, or an animal (e.g., Giant Rat of Sumatra) or a thing (e.g., Tailor Paul, a bell in Dorothy L. Sayers' The Nine Tailors) or a concept (e.g., The daughter of time, i.e., Truth from Elizabeth Tey's novel Daughter of Time) or even a word (e.g., the Latin word 'placet' by which Harriet Vane accepts Lord Peter Wimsey's proposal of marriage in Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night).

The name of a living person may NOT be chosen as a nom. You can choose to be known as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Dorothy L. Sayers or Ellis Peters, but NOT as Elizabeth Peters or Jan Burke or Sue Grafton or Sara Paretsky or Parnell Hall or Nancy Atherton. Only they are entitled to use their names, whether or not they are subscribed to DorothyL.

Those who know I wrote my Master's Thesis on Ellery Queen are probably wondering why I didn't use that as my screen name! Noms are limited to one person and someone already had Ellery Queen, so I had to choose another favorite character.

In case you don't know, Bastet was the cat-headed Egyptian goddess. So The Cat Bastet combines two of my hobbies: mysteries and Egyptology.

For those wondering why I didn't choose a Titanic-related name... come on, now. Would you want a screen name that means huge? I didn't think so!

How NOT to Give a Cat a Pill

The last time I had our Siamese mix at the vet, he told me that Siamese have more behavioral issues than other cats. After living with one for a year and half, we'd figured that out but I decided to learn as much as I could about Siamese cats.

After checking out every book in our local library on Siamese I was amused to find some of these books were really outdated. They include basic info about the breed (some more useful than others in that respect), and general cat care info. My favorite advice on how to give a cat a pill came from Marge Naple's books:

Open the cat's mouth with your left hand. You will note a little groove formed at the base of the tongue. Drop the pill or capsule into this groove and give it a push into the cat's throat with the index finger of your right hand. Transfer your left hand to the nape of the cat's neck and pull his head right back while supporting his back and his hind legs with your right hand until he is upside down. If all this is done quickly, he will be so surprised he will swallow the pill before he knows what happened.

This might work if you have an extremely docile cat, but most cats I know wouldn't tolerate this. It seems to me that flipping the cat on his back -- so all his claws can scratch you to ribbons -- is a good idea only if you are dying to visit the Emergency Room for stitches.

What I really want to know is: has any cat owner really seen that alleged groove at the base of the tongue? Whenever I've tried to pill my cats by forcing their mouths open, I don't have time for prolonged anatomical observation. It's more like open the mouth, shove in the pill, hold the mouth shut, rub the throat, and hope for the best. Repeat. Repeat again... and again.

Thank God our Siamese mix still falls for the crushed-up-pill-mixed-into-a-spoonful-of-canned-food routine.

Cool Conjunction

Sky and Telescope says that Jupiter and Venus will be in conjunction tonight. They will be low in the sky, visible at dusk. Don't miss it!

Titanic 20 Years Later

20 years ago today a U.S.-French expedition headed by Dr. Robert Ballard found the wreck of Titanic. I don't remember what I was doing when the announcement was made, but I was fascinated by the images of the wreck. One in particular touched me: a delicate teacup sitting upright on a massive boiler, as though someone had set it down for a minute.

For me, this was the second time Titanic touched my life. The first was when I read Walter Lord's A Night to Remember in junior high school. I never got over the emotional impact of that book, and seeing the wreck renewed my interest in this beautiful ship and her disastrous death. Now in addition to a tragedy she was also a huge forensic puzzle.

Today, 20 years after her wreck was found and 93 years after her sinking, she is most famous ship (and shipwreck) of our time. Titanic societies around world continue to study her and preserve her memory. Many who have explored the wreck say Titanic has a presence, that it seems as if she doesn't want to be forgotten, as if she wants us to remember her short life, and find clues to her tragic death. Even those who have only seen pictures of the wreck are touched by it. It may be true. I think Daniel Allen Butler, author of Unsinkable: the Full Story of RMS Titanic, said it best:

"Once the Titanic gets into your life she never, ever leaves."

Hurricane Katrina and the Influence of Blogs

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina is unbelievable. It's so awful I can't even watch the news.

I was surprised to see a link to Miles O'Brien's hurricane blog on CNN.com. I knew blogs could be influential, but I didn't realize news services now had them.

Speaking of the Blogosphere influence, it appears that today bloggers shamed Amazon and Yahoo! into hosting links to Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund. How? By encouraging blog readers to bombard these sites (and Google, which still does not have a Hurricane Relief Fund link on its main page) with phone calls and e-mail. The argument was that these sites supported Tsunami relief after the Dec. 26, 2004 disaster, but were not doing the same thing to aid their own country now.

Apparently it worked.

Why My Students Make Me Feel Old

Every year Beloit College publishes a mindset list to familiarize professors with what their freshman know and "to slow the rapid onset of 'hardening of the references,' in the classroom." All I know is that it makes me feel really old. Heck, I don't even understand some of the references on the list!

Here are few of the items, seen from the point of view of the typical college freshman this year:

• Ricky Nelson, Richard Burton, Samantha Smith, Laura Ashley, Orson Welles, Karen Ann Quinlin, Benigno Aquino, and the U.S. Football League have always been dead.
• Paul Newman has always made salad dressing.
• Computers have always fit in their backpacks.
• Stores have always had scanners at the checkout.
• There have never been dress codes in restaurants.
• They have always been able to make photocopies at home.
• They have always been able to make phone calls from planes.
• Yuppies are almost as old as hippies.
• There has always been Lean Cuisine.
• Bert and Ernie are old enough to be their parents.

Scary, eh? Not only do I have nothing in common with my students, most of them don't read for pleasure, or out of curiosity. I learned this when, while trying to get to know my students better, I asked them to name their favorite book or series, and most couldn't. The did have favorite movies; unfortunately they were crap like Dumb and Dumber. Thank God for Jo Rowling. Some of them now read more, thanks to Harry Potter.

No wonder they have a hard time relating to their college instructors, even the younger ones. Ah well, at least my friends and colleagues are old, too, so we can understand each other. :)

Web Stats

Now that I'm getting vistors to my blog, I've added a hit counter at the very bottom.

Darn! I noticed that every time I post or edit, the hit counter thinks that is a visit. I wonder if there's a way to make it count visitors, but not me?

Hooray for Ray!

Today Ray Bradbury is 85 years young. Ray is one of my all-time favorite authors and probably the first sci fi/fantasy author I ever read. (Blame my brother for giving me a copy of The Illustrated Man when I was about 12.) His stories are creative, insightful, and deceptively simple; when you re-read them you'll find a meaning you didn't see the first time.

I associate his stories with autumn (probably because of The October Country, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Halloween Tree) so I like re-reading them at the height of Michigan's hot, humid summer as reminder that cool, crisp weather will come again. When it does, of course, I can't resist visiting my old friend by re-reading his books. The magic and the wonder are still there for me, even after all these years in The Martian Chronicles, R is for Rocket, The Golden Apples of the Sun, and others too numerous to name.

Ray, thank you, thank you, thank you for your magic and inspiration. May you have many more happy birthdays and write many more books. In the meantime, I'll see you in The October Country!

How to Pill a Cat

Our Siamese mix is on her second round of antibiotics for a bladder infection. For the first batch of pills we wrestled her twice a day for two weeks and she became adept at 1) knowing when we were going to try and hiding, and 2) projectile spitting the pill across the room. Even bribing her with a reward of canned food each time she swallowed a pill didn't help much.

There are all kinds of web sites about how to medicate a cat; they range from serious, like About.com, to hysterically funny parodies, to special treats to hold pills, but none of these were much help.

We tried to put the pill in a treat (not the expensive treats I linked to above; treats we had that I know picky Miss Sophie likes!). She ate the treat and spit out the pill, of course. We finally resorted to sneaking up on her when she was asleep and pilling her before she knew what was coming. Even so, the tendonitis in my left arm is back, thanks to two weeks of cat wrangling. Thankfully for us all, the two-week treatment came to an end.

Unfortunately, the infection returned. This time the vet armed me with three weeks of antibiotics and a pill-popper gadget to get the pill in the back of her throat with (theoretically) much less wrestling. So far, however, we haven't needed it.

Why? Because it finally dawned on me that whole pills can be hidden in treats and spit out, but crushed up pills mixed into canned food (yummy, smelly, fish-based canned food) can not. So far it's worked every time.

Now the only problem is making sure I give the bowl with the medicine to the right cat -- but that's much easier on us all than cat wrestling.

The Martians are Coming!

According to Sky and Telescope "Mars will be closest to Earth on October 30th," just in time for Halloween, and we all know what that means. Remember H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds? Get the chicken pox bioweapons ready!

In the meantime, my telescope and I will be looking for Percival Lowell's canals on Mars.

To Blog or Not to Blog

I've always wondered who the heck reads blogs. For that matter, who writes them? I guess I thought they were just an outlet for unpublished writers but now that I've started looking around, they look like fun!

I don't have any specific plans for this blog yet, just musing on whatever strikes my fancy. As you can see from my profile, that's likely to cover a range of things. Ad Astra!

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