Edward W. Said, (November 1, 1935 to September 25, 2003) was a famous Palestinian who taught English literature at Columbia, and came to represent a coherent and knowledgeable critique of global interconnectedness. Orientalism (1978) is Said's best known work and in it he tries to analyze how the views of the West toward the East are subject to the biases of those in power. This falls under the rubric of post-colonial theory. He uses the example of someone writing about a "fierce lion." His point is the feedback between readers and writers, wherein, once broached, a topic, can produce other books by others on a certain topic. Said's example is other people who would write on the subject of the origin of fierceness in lions. The situation is more complicated though, because as he points out---the expectations of readers also influence a writer's choice of topic. In an afterward to Orientalism written in 1994 Said tried to clear up what he maintained were &quo
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George Booth cover for The New Yorker October 31, 2011 . No words, just "gack," for this magazine cover, captioned: "Diner a deux," by George Booth.
We quote the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, regarding research, dating from days which include, October 30, 2011: The cameras captured photos of two snow leopards in October as they walked along a ridge in the Altai Mountains along the Russia-Mongolia border. “To get a picture is really a big deal,” said Dr. James P. Gibbs, a conservation biologist with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, N.Y. “The signs that the species is in this region are definitive but a picture is irrefutable.” The photos were taken between Oct. 26 and 30 at an altitude of about 4,000 meters at a location called Chikhachyova Ridge in the Altai Republic, a semi-autonomous region in southern Russia. Gibbs said the animals are probably part of a larger population that extends into Mongolia...... “Snow leopards leave clear signs that you see readily if you look for them,” Gibbs said. “You can find scat and places where they scratch trees with their claws. And
On October 29, 1887, at Faneuil Hall in Boston, a statue to Leif Erickson was dedicated. This was a triumph of intellectual persuasion, and one of the leading researchers into a Norse discovery, before Columbus, of North America, delivered a speech. This was Eben Norton Horsford. (July 27, 1818 to January 1, 1893) . This chemist at Harvard, published much evidence for Erickson reaching Long Island, though it is based on false etymologies of indian names and not well thought of today. More mainstream is Horsford's textbook: Chemistry, Theoretical, Practical, and Analytical: As Applied and .Relating to the Arts and Manufactures, Volume 2 (1860). One topic is the manufacture of perfume, and that section is headed by a poetry quotation: By nature's swift and secret working hand The garden glows, and fills the liberal air With lavish odors .—Thomson [One of the components of many perfumes is from] Civet.—The secretion of the civet cat, or viverra civetta; also, of the viv
"Sir David Dalrymple, 3rd Baronet, Lord Hailes" is the way the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography directs us to put the name of David Dalrymple. His dates are October 28, 1726 to November 29, 1792) and he was a Scottish judge, and writer. His histories are said to have been the first to try and convey a sense of a previous period, in its vibrant differentness. He also disliked Gibbon's idea that Christianity caused the fall of the Roman Empire. He disliked Hume's atheism but still let Hume borrow books from his library. Dalrymple's concern for the poor is poignant, even now, to read about, such a rare quality is it. Dalrymple "in 1790 published a play, The Little Freeholder , in which he holds up to criticism a landowner who wants to demolish a cottage in order to improve the view from his great house." And the fact this appealing historical personage also edited a volume of Scottish poetry, gives us a sense of why we call his era, the Scottis
Lady Jones, (October 27, 1889 to March 31, 1981) the wife of the chairman of Reuters, was a popular novelist. She used her maiden name, Enid Bagnold, for her writing. She remembered her father's wrath vividly, after a childhood event when she let the cat and kittens lick the butter on the table. The story would be told differently in one of her novels, The happy foreigner (1920): She slapped the gray cat tenderly as she lifted him off the table. "Tell them ... to hurry! ..." Yet she ate a little piece of cake, scolding the cat and the children with her mouth full... Enid Bagnold is best known as the author of the story "National Velvet" (1935). It was made into a movie.
Elmo Shropshire was born October 26, 1936. He lives now on an estate in Marin County, one spacious enough for tame deer to roam. The path to this luxury was not all sunny. Shropshire worked his way through college and veterinary school (Auburn) after his parents were both killed in a head on crash. He wound up with a small animal clinic in San Francisco, a bit of a hayseed at the height of Haight-Asbury's fame. Shropshire's hobby was blue grass music and he and a friend wrote a song which against many odds became very famous: “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” What was meant as a gag gift for his friends became "No. 1 on the Billboard holiday charts in 1983." The song sold over 11 million copies. The result is a holiday classic. Lesser known is the story about the author of this song, a story told by Candice Michelle Dyer . a Georgia writer. We got the information above from her blog and also learn that Shropshire's only concern was "' some unsettlin
Anne Tyler (October 25, 1941) is one of the most famous American novelists, winning a Pulitzer for Breathing Lessons , in 1989. She was born in Minnesota and now lives in Baltimore. The author of The Accidental Tourist , which won a National Book Award, (1985) is averse to interviews. NPR felt honored to have the opportunity to do one in 2012. One thing we learned then was that she hoped when she died, it would be when she had a new cat.
Jean Duvet (1485 to sometime after 1562 ) was a 16th century French goldsmith and engraver. He left us a series of prints of the Apocalypse, a popular subject in his era. These attracted the attention of the art historian, Lady Emilia Francis Strong Dilke. (September 2, 1840 to October 24, 1904). First some background on the historian: Lady Dilke was raised in a home of affluence and enthusiasm for cultural endeavors. William Holman Hunt proposed to her. John Ruskin guided her career. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography account of her life, After completing her art education, Strong [her maiden name] returned to Oxford, where she became engaged to the 48-year-old scholar Mark Pattison (1813-1884), rector of Lincoln College, in June 1861, and married him at Iffley church on 10 September 1861. Despite her intellectual marginalization as a woman in Oxford, Francis Pattison entered upon a life of serious scholarship, focusing upon the study of French cultural his
Zane Grey is famous as the writer of many many books recounting wild west adventures. He died on October 23, 1939. Grey was not just a writer but the type of guy who really could have lived the adventures he described. (He went to college on a baseball scholarship.) His writing brought him fame and wealth. Which is a good thing because he had cats to support. At one time he had nineteen Persian cats, for instance, at his home in Lackawaken.
Morie Sawataishi was born in 1913, in northern Japan, a wild region of mountains, and few amenities. His wife found it a shock when he brought this city girl to live there, where he was an engineer for a power company. During World War II things were so desperate that people were eating their pets, in fact, the government official might shoot your dog if necessary, to enforce the laws. Of course the Japanese military valued dogs in the war effort. But they preferred German Shepherds. European breeds. Not the native Japanese bloodlines which had flowed for centuries and featured the product of breeding for certain qualities, not for looks. A quality that Morie called Spirit. The Akitas were the prime example. They were sometimes called cat-like for their quiet ways. By the end of the war, apparently sober estimates gave the number of 16. Sixteen Akitas, the national dog, were left in Japan. Before the war ended, for reasons he never could really explain, Morie had unexpectedly sought
Martin Gardner, (October 21, 1914 to May 22, 2010) is a revered name in scientific literature. He had a regular column in Scientific American for decades, in which he presented challenging mind games. And he is the author of many books, explaining science to a general audience. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science ( 1957) is just one of many books Gardner wrote. Gardner especially focused on false claims of scientific significance, as in the case of the research, of J. B. Rhine of Duke University. Rhine's research on which claims of paranormal powers were based, is held up as an example of sloppy research techniques. Nor was Gardner impressed with Rhine's claims to have demonstrated anpsi , a word Rhine used for animal clairvoyance and telepathic powers. What Gardner cannot account for is the documented cases in which a cat or other species finds their way home through geography they have never been in before, Before the use of implanted id tags, the standard resp
Ellery Queen is the hero of a series of detective stories. Ellery Queen was the fictional creation of two authors who also were cousins, Frederic Dannay (October 20, 1905 to September 3, 1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (January 11, 1905 to April 3, 1971). These author names are also aliases for the writers. Ellery Queen, following the classic detective profile, is sketched as a cerebral type, a writer himself. There were regular Ellery Queen books from 1929 to 1971, and a huge amount of media spin-off. Cat of Many Tails was published in 1949. There were many editions. Here is the cover art for some of them. If you saw this edition cover, you might think cats played a big part in the story. But no, this cover is by far the most common -- This cover is more about the city, always an important milieu for the detective story. And good reasons to forget the cat on the cover completely, since cats are not a big part of the story.
Kevin Drum is a blogger on politics at Mother Jones . He was born in Long Beach, on October 19, 1958. He is the originator of the trend of 'Friday Cat Blogging.' That means on Fridays he has a note and maybe pictures about his cats. Drum has a cat named Domino, a black (mainly) and white cat whose picture on top of the refrigerator also documents the trend of haphazard magnet decorating of appliances. Inkblot though is a WHITE and black cat. Both are lucky.
Thomas Edison (February 11, 1847 to October 18, 1931) was mentioned when Newsweek wrote up the recent cat video film festival. "The juxtaposition of a noble, reserved animal with mundane tasks is inherently comical. Cats are good performers, they’re relatively easy to film (Thomas Edison captured two upright cats boxing circa 1894)..." Another on his list of remarkable accomplishments-- Edison's list, not the cats'.
October 17, 1864 is the birth date for Elinor Glyn, whose use of "It" for sex appeal was a part of popular culture in the early 20th century. Clara Bow became the "It" girl, for instance. Elinor was British and though well-bred, she had no money, and wrote novels to maintain her lifestyle. These were successful and considered racy at the time. Cats, said Elinor, have "It."
Frank Harris (February 14, 1856 to August 27, 1931) author and editor, details his attempt to get a petition signed, urging the authorities to shorten Wilde's sentence, in the quote below. We excerpt Harris's biography, Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions , (1916). The quotes are interesting in part because Frank Harris not only was willing to fight for Oscar Wilde, (October 16, 1854 to November 30, 1900) but throughout his life, Harris demonstrated an exceptional kindness to man and beast. Frank Harris found famous English writers refused to sign his petition. People like George Meredith. He had always been to me a standard bearer in the eternal conflict, a leader in the Liberation War of Humanity, and here I found him pitiless to another who had been wounded on the same side in the great struggle: it seemed to me appalling. True, Wilde had not been wounded in fighting for us; true, he had fallen out and come to grief, as a drunkard might. But after all he had been fig
P. G. Wodehouse, funny writer about the foibles of the particularly British upper class, was born on October 15, 1881. He wrote: There is something about this place [California] that breeds work. We have a delightful house-Norma Shearers'-...One of the stories I have written is your cat plot. The story of Webster..the artist and his dignified cat...California scenery is the most loathsome on earth..but by sticking in one's garden...it is possible to get by...Don't you find that all you need is a wife, a few real friends, a regular supply of books, a Peke, (make that two Pekes and a swimming pool.) I excerpted some communication of Wodehouse's to mention not just one of his anthologized stories, but give a sense of the author.
That beacon of sane feminism, Katha Pollitt, was born on October 14, 1949. I am quoting the initial lines of her poem, "Two Cats", assuming this falls under the fair use clause regarding copying. Her sensible approach to the world may have derived, (one wonders) from her observations of cats, as in: It's better to be a cat than to be a human. Not because of their much-noted grace and beauty— their beauty wins them no added pleasure, grace is only a cat's way of getting without fuss from one place to another— but because they see things as they are. Cats never mistake a saucer of milk for a declaration of passion....
Annie Proulx, in her nonfiction account of building a home on 640 acres in Wyoming, Bird Cloud: A Memoir (2011), has this passage- The air was stitched with ....hundreds of swallows... I found a dead pelican at the end of the island, the head completely gone, no other sign of injury. Gerald remarked that it was the habit of cats to eat the head first. I did not think the mountain lion would bother with a pelican, or, if it did, restrict its dinner to the head. But a well-placed shot with a large-caliber rifle or a shotgun could have blown the head off. Annie Proulx received a Pulitzer for The Shipping News (1993) and is the author of "Brokeback Mountain," which appeared in the October 13, 1997 New Yorker first, before being made into a famous movie. She still lives in Wyoming, but not all the time. Proulx was born on August 22, in 1935.
October 12, 1905 The Tate owns a watercolor titled Cat and Mouse . It was painted by James Lloyd (October 12, 1905 to 1974). This English artist notes about this work that it was "inspired by our own cats, we have three pure white cats among others, but I did get a little aid from a newspaper snap of a white cat which was an exact replica of one of our own cats. I gave it a pinky hue, I never like painting things pure white." James Lloyd was a self taught artist, who achieved fame late in life. He never even had a studio, but painted in the living room, among perhaps, the children (8) and his wife. And the cats. He said of Cat & Mouse, "I put the mouse or rat in entirely imaginary."
Jean Cocteau (July 5, 1889 to October 11, 1963) excelled in a wide variety of artistic mediums. From the outside it appears he stepped as a youth from a world of middle class affluence into the vortex of modern art with a singular aplomb. And he never left this central position. He is often quoted about cats. His cat Karoun figures in some. Karoun may be a Persian or Armenian name. One reads the cat wore a collar with this message: "Cocteau belongs to me."
The top four runners for the Nobel Prize for literature, in 2013, are sketched below. Haruki Murakami was 5/2 odds for his Kafka on the Shore (English translation 2006) winning the Nobel prize. His book has cats that talk. Now that is realistic. Hard not to hope he wins, even if he is the front-runner. Alice Munro (4/1 odds). Her book Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories (2010) mentions a cat who gives a "baleful glance." Talking cats realistic, cats that sport baleful glances, not so much. Svetlana Alexievich (6/1 odds). One of her books is Voices from Chernobyl (English translation appeared in 2005). She references how the Russian authorities sealed the houses when they evacuated the area after the accident. Sometimes that meant cats were trapped inside. We'd give the prize to this writer from Belarus. Joyce Carol Oates (8/1 odds). A leading American author but not a great writer. Her literary territory has not changed, just become claustrophobic. Sh
It was on October 9, 1845 that the English academic, (and Anglican priest) John Henry Newman, was received into the Roman Catholic church, his action being both cause and effect of this Victorian trend. One reason he cited as leading to his conversion to Catholicism was his study of the English saints. He wrote on them in a book, "The Lives of the English Saints," (1843, 1844). Our quote below about St. Wulfstan is taken from Newman's book. Wulfstan died in 1096 and this different social setting is necessary to appreciate the context of this narrative: Wulstan lived to a good old age, reverenced by the stern strangers who so hated his countrymen. [Wulfstan as Bishop of Worcester, was the only English clergyman allowed to keep his post after the French conquered England in 1066. William the Conqueror said that it was obvious Wulfstan was devoted to those in his care.] Still these must have been mournful days for Wulstan. He had made the best of the old English syste
Frank Herbert (October 8, 1920 to February 11, 1986) is the author of the book some have called the best-selling science fiction title ever: Dune (1965). You might not think much would happen in a world where many have psychic abilities -- wouldn't you assume that surprise would be gone in such an outer space space? But no, Dune is the first in a series of books, and they feature cat cliches used millenia earlier by writers on planet earth, such as "feline movement", and "cat-footed" and "cat-stalking" behavior for warriors. Where these phrases could have come from, excluding a terrestrial origin, is a bit of a mystery, until we find that Children of Dune (1976) has Laza Tigers. These creatures are authentically fearsomely feline.
Vladimir Putin (October 7, 1952) treats democracy as a stage setting, but is not averse to being upstaged by those animal actors stagecraft warns against. Here is an news item that caught our attention: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may not come across as a big cat lover. But on his 56th birthday in 2008, when he received a two month old 20 pound pet tigress named Mashenka, the world saw the former KGB agent's softer side. The cub spent at least three days sleeping in a wicker basket at his home before being given to a zoo in Southern Russia. Since settling into her new home in the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik, Putin hasn't forgotten Mashenka. In 2009, he ensured she got a protein indulgent 10-pound meat cake to ring in the new year. But Putin's love for the endangered species also extends to his political maneuvers. Not only did he bring together 13 countries at a November conference endorsed by WWF last year, but he also raised over $330 million in fund
Oct. 6, 1660 Here are excerpts from a poem about a cat, owned by a woman, who dressed him up: ... About his neck she hung fine pearls. ..[A] little jacket and a skirt... ... made... old tom-cat into damsel gay. ... The cat who showed no evidence of.. joy for being by fool caressed... Whatever happened then took place because she failed to embrace Her cat as closely as she might. The good cat gained the stair, And then the attic, and from there Out upon the tiles he strayed. ...The lady prayed Her servants instantly to be Out after him assiduously: But in the country of the tiles Wary tom-cats show their wiles. ...The cat uncaged,.. Never returned; the Lady raged Less for the necklace's expense Than for her tom-cat vanished thence. This nicely pictured story was composed quite a while ago, and shows how some things don't change. It was written by Paul Scarron, who died on October 5, 1660.
Oct. 4, 1914 Brendan Gill, biographer, and longtime New Yorker staff writer, was born on October 4, 1914. He wrote a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the article, "The Faces of Joseph Campbell" (for the New York Review of Books ), both considered iconoclastic. He also wrote a biography of Charles Lindbergh in which Gill discusses Lindbergh's experiences of what he (Lindbergh) calls: "some secret opened to me beyond the ordinary consciousness of man. [Lindbergh goes on] Can I carry it with me beyond the flight, into normal life again? Or is it forbidden knowledge." About this Gill resorts to a cat metaphor; the puzzles Lindbergh's account presents are a "cat's cradle of hinted-at profundities."