08.19.07
Adopting kitties
A regular reader writes to make an important point:
Please encourage your wide audience to adopt their next pets. It’s true that all kittens need a home, and I don’t pass judgment on folks who get cats from breeders, but… there are so many cats and kittens living hard, short lives on the street.
When we adopted our current brood, neither one of us had experience starting with adult cats. We were worried about inheriting neurotic, unmanageable animals. And I will concede that it’s more difficult.
Roscoe, our oldest, was around three when we got him, and he’d lived a tough, sad time. It took quite a while before he felt comfortable, but he’s the sweetest, most appreciative beast imaginable. Nothing could be more gratifying than when he finally learned to purr after nearly two years. Our youngest, Ajax, was barely weaned when he was found in downtown DC, but as soon as we got him home he immediately adopted Roscoe as a surrogate mother. He is the most laid-back, happy cat I’ve ever known. Sonja was just a few months older, but already street-savvy. Like many female cats, she’s a scrapper with the boys, though she’s a lap cat with us.
It’s true that adopted pets are sometimes challenging, and their genealogy is unknown. We “interviewed” nearly 30 cats and ended up choosing three. Many rescue agencies will let you “foster” animals in your home prior to final adoption. If you must have a special breed, there are single-breed rescue organizations; a friend drove all the way to upstate New York to adopt from a Maine Coon adoption agency.
It’s an interesting point. Some breeders have base motives and do not work to improve whatever breed is their focus—for example, they allow in-breeding, they do not cooperate to remove genetic problems from the breed, and so on. OTOH, some breeders have impeccable ethics and work hard to preserve and improve the breed of interest. It would be sad, in my view, if various cat breeds were allowed to vanish. We do neuter our pets, and we encourage others not to bring unwanted animals into the world. The idea of adopting a pet of the breed you want makes a lot of sense.
For the record, I wanted a British Blue for many years, and I’m very happy that I have one. Perhaps I should have looked for a single-breed rescue organization.
Wishing them absolutely the best
The NY Times today features the wedding of Donnie Andrews and Fran Boyd—”Omar” from The Wire and the protagonist of The Corner. Who would have guessed? Act as if your hopes will be fulfilled.
Don’t you love vertical chicken?
After watching this video of Christopher Walken roasting a chicken on a vertical roaster (along with roast pears), I immediately order this roaster and today am roasting my first chicken on it. The roaster is quite nice—the two uprights come out easily so it’s easy to store.
FWIW, my favorite Christopher Walken role is in Pennies From Heaven, where he had a chance to show his hoofer skills. (I still have to watch the original, with Bob Hoskins as the lead.)
Immigrants and the learning of English
I’m having an interesting discussion with a conservative, and one question that has come up is his belief that immigrants should learn English. He’s concerned specifically with Hispanic immigrants, chiefly those from Mexico.
What is interesting is that his attitude—that immigrants should learn English—is shared by the immigrant population. The Pew Hispanic Center has a three-page factsheet on this issue (PDF File).
Moreover, immigrants not only believe that it’s important to learn English, they actually do learn English. By Roberto Calderin:
The United States is not becoming a Spanish-speaking nation. Researchers at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center report that the facts do not support the increasing public image that millions of immigrants refuse to learn or speak English or do not want to assimilate. The researchers contend that census data shows that most Latino immigrants want to learn English and speak English well enough. Only 7 percent of the children of Latino immigrants speak Spanish as a primary language, and virtually none of their grandchildren do.
Breeder-recommended pet food
The breeder from whom we got Molly recommended Healthy PetNet food. That links takes you to a little intro screen, showing the breeder’s name, and then you can click either of the two links provided. In either event, you get to Healthy PetNet—directly or after one step. (By going this way, I think the breeder gets a little credit if you order the food—so why not?) [UPDATE: I have learned that Healthy PetNet food is sold through a multi-level marketing program --- similar to Amway. In case you're interested.]
Once you get to cat food, you can choose Life’s Abundance (kibble) or Instinctive Choice (canned). The first five ingredients of Life’s Abundance are (in order):
Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Natural Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E)), Dried Beet Pulp, Whole Egg.
Thus Life’s Abundance does not meet the rule of thumb that the first five ingredients of cat food should be meat products. Instinctive Choice looks better. Its first seven ingredients are: Organic Chicken, Chicken Liver, Chicken Broth, Turkey, Chicken Meal (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Shrimp, Fish Oil.
For comparison: Megs eats Innova Evo kibble, and its first five ingredients are Turkey, Chicken Meal, Chicken, Herring Meal, and Chicken Fat.
(She formerly ate Wellness cat food kibble, Salmon flavor. That seems to have been reformulated. Its first five ingredients: Salmon, Salmon Meal, Whitefish Meal, Rice, Ground Barley. Wellness now also offers a non-grain formula, Core; its first five ingredients: Deboned Turkey, Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whitefish Meal, Potatoes.)
OTOH, the breeder was very positive about the food and especially mentioned the human-quality ingredients (which Innova also uses) and the fact that Healthy Pet Net does not overcook their foods. Certainly we’ll continue Molly on that food for the time being—we don’t want to make too many changes in the kitty’s life.
For a supplement, the breeder highly recommended NuVet Plus from NuVet Labs. As with the Healthy Pet Net products, there are feline and canine versions. The product looks interesting and I’m going to give it a go, but note that the shipping charges are way too high. If you order, complain. They should make their profit on product price, not on shipping charges. That’s my view, anyway. Moreover, their Website doesn’t seem to list the ingredients anywhere. So complain about that as well.
UPDATE: The NuVet Plus just arrived. As noted on the invoice, I was charged $9.09 for shipping. Actual postage cost: $1.98 for First Class Mail. I’ll not order from them again.
Marking second imposition
Using a word in second imposition means using it as a word (unit of language) rather than in its normal use, as a signifier of something—e.g., “chair” has 5 letters. Clearly we’re talking about the word “chair,” not the object named by the word, which has (generally) 4 legs—that characteristic belongs to a chair, not to “chair.”
The normal way to denote that you’re using a word in second imposition is to use quotation marks, as above. Example: “How do you spell ‘quotidian’? And, while you’re at it, what does it mean?” See also here and here.
But in the post below, I note that the style guide apparently requires using italics to denote second imposition, which I find odd. But style guides are idiosyncratic. The New Yorker, for example, notoriously denotes book titles by using quotation marks than the more common method of using italics. So it goes.
The morality of the gourmet
A thought-provoking article from the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly, a review of two books: The Best Food Writing 2006, by Holly Hughes (ed.), and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. It begins:
For centuries civilized society took a dim view of food lovers, calling them “gourmands” and “gluttons” and placing them on a moral par with lechers. They were even assigned their own place in hell, and I don’t mean a table near the kitchen: They were to be force-fed for eternity. Not until halfway through the Industrial Revolution did the word gourmet come into use. Those who have since applied it to themselves have done a fine job of converting the world’s scorn to respect. The pleasures of the oral cavity (though we must say “palate” instead) are now widely regarded as more important, more intrinsically moral, and a more vital part of civilized tradition than any other pleasures. People who think nothing of saying “I’m not much of a reader” will grow shamefaced when admitting an ignorance of wine or haute cuisine. Some recent movies have even tried to turn banquets into heroic affairs. Advertising has abetted the trend, while political correctness, with its horror of judging anyone’s “lifestyle choices,” has done its bit to muffle dissent.
The sexual revolution went faster than this but not as far, which is why we can still call someone a lecher. Our common language no longer has a pejorative for those who live to eat. Gourmand has taken on an even fancier ring than gourmet, while the word glutton can be applied only to someone who eats an enormous amount of food at one sitting—usually cheap food, and with the standard of what constitutes “enormous” revised upward each year for obvious reasons. When discussing Kim Jong Il, who dines on imported delicacies while his countrymen starve, even our own journalists must describe his fixation in terms of connoisseurship. The last holdover of the old way of thinking is the Catholic catechism, which keeps gluttony on its list of sins and indicates—by using the word gourmandise in the French version, and by defining sin in part as “a perverse attachment to certain goods”—that the original meaning of gluttony is to be understood. No doubt this too will change. A French committee wants to convince Rome that God condones expensive multicourse meals; He just doesn’t like us getting extra helpings.
A bad law passed by the Democrats
I have to admit that the new FISA law would never have passed without Democratic votes. I am terribly, horribly ashamed of the Democrats who knuckled under—a cowardly lot lacking the courage of principles and convictions, or—even worse—a group of incompetent legislators who voted in favor of legislation that they did not understand. In particular, one must condemn the Democratic leadership that allowed this to happen. Where can we find the strength we need in the Democratic party?
The New York Times reports that broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping. The legislation may allow, without court approval, certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records. More:
The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.
It also offers a case study in how changing a few words in a complex piece of legislation has the potential to fundamentally alter the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a landmark national security law. […]
Several legal experts said that by redefining the meaning of “electronic surveillance,” the new law narrows the types of communications covered in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, by indirectly giving the government the power to use intelligence collection methods far beyond wiretapping that previously required court approval if conducted inside the United States. […]
For instance, the legislation would allow the government, under certain circumstances, to demand the business records of an American in Chicago without a warrant if it asserts that the search concerns its surveillance of a person who is in Paris, experts said.
Spicy grilled turkey burgers
And she uses coleslaw on the burger. They sound (and look) quite yummy.
More kitchen toys
I’ve already mentioned Big Tray, and now from the post linked to below, Fante’s Kitchen Wares Shop.
Peppergrinder
Do you use a pepper grinder/pepper mill? Sure, you do. Which one? I really like the Unicorn Magnum Plus pictured: great capacity, can produce extremely fine or coarse grounds, and it grinds a lot of pepper very quickly.
It does, however, have two drawbacks. First, the band that covers the loading port twists to open—so far, so good—in the same direction that your turn the top to grind pepper—very, very bad. When you’re grinding, your hand can easily turn the band and open the pepper reservoir, and if it’s full, it will dump peppercorns, which make a little raining sound as they hit the kitchen floor. The sound is not unpleasant, but still.
Naturally, I contacted the maker about the problem, and I was told that they are looking into making a change. Of course, when I earlier contacted them about the other problem—that the top affords no purchase for a greasy or wet hand—they told me the same thing. No changes yet. I’m going to wrap the top with rubber bands to take care of that problem.
I’ve already read good things about the Peugeot pepper grinder, which I’ve never owned. I’ve had a couple of Perfex pepper mills—quite good. They have no problem with greasy hands or the reservoir door opening unexpectedly, but they don’t grind at the volume of the Magnum Plus.
Shaving note
No shave today, and tomorrow I’ll used QED’s Bathtub Gin shave stick, a limited edition fragrance. But a reader pointed out that I wasn’t doing right by the 7 AM blades. First, my own advice:
If you try a new brand and get a terrible shave, discard that blade and try another blade of the same brand—it may have just been a bad blade. (Rare, but it does happen.)
Second, the matter of the lather: I clearly did not get enough shaving cream on the brush, so the lather I had was inadequate, which definitely affected the quality of the shave and was not the fault of the blade.
So tomorrow, I’ll get a good lather, and I’ll use my trusty HD with a new 7 AM blade.
Shakespeare, the thinker
This review caught my eye. Note that the reviewer is Russ McDonald, not Ross Macdonald. Significant difference.
Shakespeare the Thinker
by A. D. NuttallA MAN OF IDEAS
A Review by Russ McDonaldShakespeare the Thinker begins and ends with a reminiscence about a meditative walk to the English village of Shottery. Late one afternoon, A. D. Nuttall flees the tedium of the biennial International Shakespeare Conference in Stratford to go off on his own, wandering down a country lane “looking for the boy who would grow up to become the author of Hamlet, King Lear, As You Like It, and all the other amazing plays that bear his name.” The anecdote nicely captures the spirit of the author, a beloved Oxford don who considered himself a maverick, an independent reader impatient with the triviality and dead ends of academic squabbles. Nuttall died suddenly in his rooms at New College this past January, and Shakespeare the Thinker stands as a fitting tribute to his learning, his humane values, and his pedagogical talents.
Nuttall permits himself a few preliminary and marginal swipes at current (and by now not-so-current) fashions in literary theory, especially the solipsism of poststructuralism and the “absurd” New Historicist view that “Shakespeare was locked into an undeveloped, savagely hierarchical political philosophy by the period in which he lived.” Leaving these sterile ideas and methods to those “in the airless lecture-room,” Nuttall sets out to help readers find their way into the plays (he does not consider the sonnets or narrative poems) and to account for their distinctive intellectual power after four centuries. To this task he brings exceptional learning (especially in the Greek and Latin literary traditions), a grounding in European philosophy, a lifetime of studying and teaching the plays, and an accessible prose style.
