Home » Open thread 5/14/22

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Open thread 5/14/22 — 28 Comments

  1. The (human) French have a saying: “Il faut souffrir pour être belle!” (En anglais: “You have to suffer to be beautiful!”) I don’t know whether this unhappy Gallic bulldog would buy that reasoning, but the owner could try.

    Full disclosure: I have an overweight cat named after Gabrielle (“Coco”) Chanel– which turned out to be an ironic name choice because the human Coco was always fashionably thin. The vet wants my Coco to continue losing weight, which she has done– grudgingly but successfully– for over a year. She does, of course, ask for more noms, but by giving me the stink eye rather than a vocal tantrum. What works is to call her “Angela,” after the former, um, corpulent German Bundeskanzlerin. Nothing like the mention of the “sale Boche” (“dirty Hun”) on the east side of the Rhine to get Mademoiselle to find new satisfaction in her portion of Fancy Feast.

  2. We have two female cats. They’re sisters – both adopted from a barn litter. One eats hardly at all and is rail thin. I call her Twiggy. The other is heavy and wants to eat constantly. I call her Miss Piggy. Both get a serving of wet food (mostly seafood in gravy) around 4:30 in the afternoon. At around 2, Miss Piggy begins her attempts to coax some food. She purrs, rubs up against your leg, and does anything she can to get your attention. We’ve never seen a cat so driven by her appetite. Usually, our cats have been finicky eaters. We have cut her rations of both dry and wet food, but when you’re feeding two cats it’s hard to keep Miss Piggy from stealthily eating any food that Twiggy hasn’t eaten. We try to prevent that, but sometimes get distracted and realize that Miss Piggy has eaten Twiggy’s leftovers.

    Both cats are equally active. They do a lot of running after little toys, climbing all over their cat trees, and playing together. Both seem quite healthy at this point. If Miss Piggy starts to become more sedentary, sterner measures may be in store.

  3. Clearly the dog is a democrat; despite being rather corpulent, the dog ( I am not a veterinarian , so I am merely guessing that it could be a dog) still refuses to take responsibility for its fatness issues.

    The owner however, to some extent , is being rude to the dog? cat? zebra? lion? 4 legged human? because she had the cohones, the temerity, to suggest that being overweight is not a good thing.
    Talk about micro (macro? blatant? ) aggression !
    Is the owner not aware that fat is beautiful?
    Does she need to dress up her dog? cat? zerbra? racoon?…. in some form fitting Danskin dance wear to demonstrate that fat is beautiful ??

    What a dysfunctional relationship.

  4. First, ice cubes are not a snack, although I have happily chomped my way through the Sonic ice fragments remaining after the cherry lemonade is gone.

    Second, the owner’s very kind, very sympathetic reasoning obviously works as well on French Bulldogs as on human toddlers: not at all.

    It’s like the futility of trying to teach a pig to sing: it doesn’t accomplish anything, and it annoys the pig.

    (Since RAH has already made an appearance, I note that he has been credited with that maxim, but he borrowed it from earlier sources.)
    “Never Attempt To Teach a Pig To Sing; It Wastes Your Time and Annoys the Pig”

    https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/07/10/sing-pig/

  5. JJ, so your cats are the same age (– litter siblings), & same activity levels. Have you had Ms Piggy’s thyroid tested?
    (Sorry if the answer is “Well of COURSE we did that.)
    My heart goes out to fat siblings of skinny siblings, especially when there’s no obvious reason, nor a good, not-too-painful solution!

  6. I love the Sufi story about Nasrudin and the Flying Donkey:
    _________________________________________

    The tyrannical King was mad at Mulla Nasruddin for being unable to entertain him. He shouted that he would cut off Mulla’s head. Mulla Nasruddin stepped forward and said, “I will do something that will surely entertain you.”

    “What will you do?” asked the King.

    “I will make my donkey fly!”

    “If you fail to make your donkey fly, you will be dead,” said the King.

    “I accept the challenge,” said Mulla. “But I will need ten years to do it.” The King agreed to give Mulla that much time.

    When the King left the court, all the friends of Mulla crowded around him. They said, “How can you make such a promise? You are a fool. The King will surely cut off your head!”

    Mulla answered, “Look here. Ten years is a long time. By that time the King may be dead. Or, I may die anyway. Or, who knows, my donkey may fly!”

    https://inspiringstory.org/2020/08/20/071-mulla-nasruddin-and-the-flying-donkey/
    _________________________________________

    Or as John Maynard Keynes is reputed to have said, and apparently really did say (write):
    _________________________________________

    In the long run we are all dead.

    https://www.historytoday.com/keynes-long-run
    _________________________________________

    Very nice oil portrait of Keynes at link. Interesting discussion too.

  7. Hey, go easy on the ice cubes.
    There is a syndrome that causes anemia in kids who chew on too much ice (apparently kids chewing on ice is some kind of medically-documented obsessive-compulsive syndrome…)
    Not sure about older people, though.
    OTOH, it couldn’t be all that good for one’s teeth….

  8. Barry Meislin:

    I’ve heard of ice-chewing being caused by anemia, rather than the other way around. Apparently it can go both ways:
    ____________________________________

    Is constantly craving and chewing ice a sign of anemia?

    Possibly. Doctors use the term “pica” to describe craving and chewing substances that have no nutritional value — such as ice, clay, soil or paper. Craving and chewing ice (pagophagia) is often associated with iron deficiency, with or without anemia, although the reason is unclear. At least one study indicates that ice chewing might increase alertness in people with iron deficiency anemia.

    Less commonly, other nutritional problems may cause you to crave and chew ice. And in some individuals, pica is a sign of emotional problems, such as stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder or a developmental disorder.

    https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/iron-deficiency-anemia/expert-answers/chewing-ice/faq-20057982
    ____________________________________

    The Mayo Clinic, as I recall, used to be a gold standard of medical info. I wonder how reliable it is these days. For instance, how did the Clinic conduct itself during Covid?

  9. Well, at least you can get some vitamin B12 from chewing on soil…
    (With a side order of worms, perhaps).

    As for Mayo Clinic, I would assume they’ve been upholding the party line. (Hope I’m wrong about that—they’ve been “cutting edge” for so long.)
    – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
    In some rather fascinating news, the former Chinese Ambassador to the Ukraine chimes in:
    “….Russia ‘Has Already Lost’ the War”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/russia-ukraine-invasion-war/2022/05/15/id/1069935/
    Key phrase:
    “…in a speech that already has been censored off the internet in China…”

    + Bonus:
    “Britain Says Russia Has Lost a Third of Its Forces in Ukraine”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/headline/uk-russia-loses-one-third/2022/05/15/id/1069909/

  10. In the long run we are all dead.
    https://www.historytoday.com/keynes-long-run

    I’m sure it’s easy to find elements that are on both sides of Keynes’ short termism. I had heard that he was an active stock trader and liked to spend and live it up. On the other hand, one of the more amazing long term points about the young Keynes was that he thought that the Treaty of Versailles was a huge mistake.

    From Wikipedia:
    Prominent economists such as John Maynard Keynes declared the treaty too harsh—a “Carthaginian peace”—and said the reparations were excessive and counter-productive. On the other hand, prominent Allied figures such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently. This is still the subject of ongoing debate by historians and economists.

  11. What’s the over-under on the number of cosmetic procedures Kathy Hochul has had on her face? How about her teeth?

  12. One can’t help but wonder if the Groper Joe phenomenon embarrasses Democrats, or are they all so compromised that nothing fazes them anymore?

  13. Gentlemen, start yer…RATIONALIZATIONS!

    “Russian Lawmaker Says Poland Next In Line For ‘De-Nazification'”—-
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russian-lawmaker-says-poland-next-line-de-nazification
    Opening graf:
    ‘A Russian lawmaker has issued a fiery warning that Warsaw is next in line for “de-nazification” after Poland’s Prime Minister penned an op-ed calling Russia’s imperialist “Russkiy Mir” ideology a “cancer” consuming Russian society and a “deadly threat” to other countries….’

    I would think that the only “deadly threat” that Poland “presents” to others is exporting (er, weaponizing) kielbasa…oh-so-tasty! oh-so-irresistible! oh-so-carcinogenic!(?))… Just the thing to make anyone a vegetarian in self-defense…(at least a non-practicing vegetarian…)

    In any event, nice to know that Russia has lawmakers? Well…”lawmakers”, maybe.

    (Be even nicer” if they had a sense of humor….)

  14. Another existential 14 minute threat. You must walk 10 kilometers in his shoes (t
    o Katyn). Or he will nuke the polar bears, puppies, and the penguins. Justifiably.

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