May 29, 1997
Dear Everyone:
Last Christmas, while “Alice” and “Kelly” and
“Park” were visiting, Mother and I took little “Park” to visit Mother’s
Cousin “Candace” and her 17 cats.
Yes.
17 cats.
The purpose of the visit was twofold.
One, “Candace” wanted to see “Park”.
Two, “Park” loves cats.
As does “Candace”. As
does “Candace’s” son “Perry” who, we discovered more recently, has seven
cats of his own. Between the
two of them they pretty much have the cat market sewn up as far as
“Oakley” is concerned.
Up until recently, Mother had three cats.
She’s down to one at the moment, but that could change any day
now. (And this is not
counting all the raccoons
who depend on “the big raccoon in the blue coat” who feeds them twice a
day.)
“Jeannie” has two cats.
Are we seeing a pattern here?
All of these people are descended from the same pair of
great-grandparents. Clearly
there is a gene at work here, probably recessive, since it doesn’t show
up in everyone; a gene that causes certain individuals to give off
cat-attracting pheromones and which also predisposes them to accept
every feline that comes their way.
Take “Jeannie” as a case in point.
One day she called me at work to announce that there was a cat on
our back deck. This in
itself was cause for wonder since we lived on the second floor at the
time and there were no known trees nearby.
The first thing I said was:
“For God’s sake,
don’t
feed it.”
“Jeannie”:
“Oh. Was that tuna
fish a mistake?”
Not if you want to keep a stray cat.
“Jeannie’s” next cat just came in through the
bedroom window. Every night.
And I feel it is important to point out that two of Mother’s cats
were adopted at a time when “Jeannie” was living with the folks in
Oregon. And during Christmas
a few years ago, when someone’s frightened kitten ran away, whose back
deck did she show up on?
Mother’s. While “Jeannie”
was visiting. “Jeannie”
definitely has the gene.
In other news...
“Marshall” came up for a visit last weekend.
We had champagne brunch and shopped for
Scandinavian
furniture. Didn’t buy any.
It has been my observation that “Marshall” and “Jeannie” can
spend whole days shopping without buying a thing.
Not even a cat.
Also saw
The Lost
World this weekend.
For those of you just returning from intergalactic travel, this is the
sequel to
Jurassic
Park. Like its
predecessor, it’s a really big picture.
It has lots more
dinosaurs. Big ones.
Little ones.
Really big ones.
Once again,
Jeff Goldblum gets all the best lines.
I spent the entire picture trying to figure out who was playing
the Big Game Hunter character.
Turned out it was
Pete
Postlethwaite, playing a much younger role than in his last few
films (the dying father in
In the
Name of the Father, the scribe/monk in
Dragonheart).
There are visual tributes to movies as far apart as
Godzilla
and John Wayne’s
Hatari.
Music by
John Williams, but it didn’t sound like he spent much time on it.
Just hauled out the scoring for
Jurassic Park and rearranged
it some. Great dinosaurs,
though. Worth spending a hot
summer afternoon in the dark.
Love, as always,
Pete
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