Name Calling 101

I don't quite understand what the current usage of the word "elitist" means.  Can't refer to wealth as some of those who use it disparagingly have scads of money. Can't refer to the East coast where there are many working class and poor folks who enjoy living here and enjoy fishing and Nascar and motorcycles.  Education?  Politics?  Or just name calling? 

So-called celebrities used to be "elite," but now any reality show star and rich do-nothing can become a celebrity.  In Germany they are called the "Prominenten."  

I think the cult of the celebrity, aided by television, the web and those with little education and time to read the supermarket tabloids are doing this country a huge disservice.   Change those channels, don't buy that magazine or paper.  Use your head, people.  Become a little bit more elitist.  Be discerning.  Read Proust, read Thucydides, read Henry James.  Well, no, just read a good book.   

Actually, everyone SHOULD read  Thucydides.  Here are some of his quotes.  He is as current today as he was when he wrote about the Athenians and the wars of ancient Greece. 

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.   It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs.  They expect too much of ordinary men. Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought. Let's all go out and read Thucydides.  You need some food for thought with all that Thanksgiving food.

Grapeshot

My favorite four letter word

Lake Superior State University 2009 List of Banished Words

http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php

My favorite banished four-letter-word word is “Icon.” Icon has been overused to death and every third-rate entertainer is now an icon.

Columnists and writers who should know better just can’t stop writing it.

Icon icon icon icon.

Vomit.

Whenever I want a character to use a mouthful of cliches, I visit the lists of banished words. Someone should give Lake Superior State University a prize.

Grapeshot, who is reading Proust again this days. No seriously. Haven't seen one single "icon" in Proust.

Friday is Cat Blog Day

A well-behaved Proustian cat. . .

We seem to be getting the knack of the injections (Thisbe and I). The secret seems to be don' t
swab her fur with alcohol. I suspect she knows the smell of alcohol from the vet and the Proustian memories it calls up are not the equivalent of tea and cookies in cat.

No, the latest crisis, well, mini-crisis, is the Eating Of The Christmas Cactus. Our Christmas cacti almost never bloom at Christmas. We've already had the Halloween cactus and the Veteran's Day cactus and now the Thanksgiving cactus. I hope these plants save something for the Holiday they are SUPPOSED to bloom for.

We've been out of cat grass for weeks, and both cats decimated the Baby's Breath that was part of a bouquet. I put the Christmas cactus on the library table where said plant will be easy to admire. Ooops! Thisbe admired it and ate a blossom or two. Probably a spent blossom. Eeek!

I don't wish to gross anyone out, but the vomiting from this little snack was profuse and disgusting and lasted several hours. I was beginning to think "Call Veternarian on a Holiday" when the cat appeared to be all right and stopped tossing her cookies, or in this case her cactus. She actually came upstairs and slept on the bed last night, and seems fine this morning.

Today I will brave Black Friday at the pet store (how bad can it be?) and buy cat grass. Yesterday when I mentioned "Black Friday" on this blog, it immediately received a comment which was actually an ad in not very great disguise. I guess that's why some blog sites make you copy the crooked numerals and letters before you can post. Not a bad idea.

So Black Friday! Black Friday! yada yada.

Apropos yesterday's food contributions: The Brussels-Sprouts-Cauliflower casserole was a winner. I took it from the oven just a few minutes before we had to be out of the house, neglecting to take a picture. It was toasty and brown and a little cheesy (in the good sense) and the pine nuts had turned a golden hue. If you ever need a holiday side dish that is not lo-cal, this one is a winner. And the veggies tasted so good.

The cheese cake was to die for and we probably will, with all that cream cheese and eggs clogging ye olde arteries. I dare not get on the scale today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week. Maybe Jan. 2nd.

Shop till you Drop, but personally, I'm buying lunch and a couple servings of cat grass.

Meow!

Am I dreaming?

It's been a busy week, no a busy month, and September was crazy, too. The long simmering days of summer are gone and life has come to a boil.

So last night after dinner I was pooped, and with a post-dinner piece of that coffee cake, so comforting, I draped myself on the couch to watch the Red Sox. Ye Gods! Things went to hell in the first inning, and only worsened, until it was 7 zip in favor of Tampa Bay. Significant Other toddled off to bed with the remark that, "when I don't stay up to watch, they always win."

Yeah, sure. I dozed a bit, and woke up with the score still 7-zip and Papelbon was pitching, which means the end is in sight. Ate the last of the Halloween candy, chocolate being so comforting and fell into an apparently deep sleep on the couch.

Awoke and thought I was dreaming, because the score was 7-6, Tampa Bay, and there were two outs, and a man on second and Coco Crisp was batting. Red Sox fans know that there has been bad blood between Crisp and the Rays, rightly so, and how sweet it was, HOW SWEET IT WAS,
when Coco got a hit and tied the game. Wow, was I ever awake!

Thought about waking S.O., and decided that might bring had luck. While the Rays were batting in the ninth, I got ready for bed, and crept back downstairs--by now it was so late the automatic timers had turned off the lights.

The Red Sox got a man on and J.D. Drew batted him in. EVEN SWEETER! Then, of course, I had to wake S.O. up. In Boston, we take our baseball seriously in Red Sox Nation.

So revved up by the excitement and my ill-timed nap, that I had to read some Proust to get my mind and body in the mood for sleep.

Holy freakin' crap, who would have thunk it?

Cat blog day? Forget it. Annie barfed and Thisbe had lovey time and complained about everything. Same old. Same old. The cats are waaayyyy to portly for a hawk or an owl to carry off.

Grapeshot