As you surely recall, I feed about an ark's worth of animals in my backyard including four feral cats. One of the felines we named "The Stranger Cat" for reasons that escape me at the moment. They certainly aren't applicable these days as he's one of the friendliest creatures you could ever hope to meet. He's old and near-deaf but he wants everyone to pet him and he spends at least half of every day napping in one of about twelve spots in my yard. One of these lately has been my back step, near where I put out food for the entire menagerie.
Yesterday, I tossed out some peanuts for the squirrels and bluebirds. Each descended on the buffet and began carrying off nuts to eat or hide. One squirrel in particular was torn between grabbing peanuts and snacking dry cat food out of a bowl I try to keep filled. Then along came The Stranger Cat.
Oblivious to the squirrel and the bluebirds, The Stranger Cat plopped himself down on the step such that his foot was about one inch from the last peanut. The squirrel came back from secreting or downing a peanut and found this challenge: He wanted that remaining goober but he was afraid of the cat.
It was a groundless fear. I know The Stranger Cat and there's no more chance of me sprinting across the yard in pursuit of a squirrel than there is of him doing it. Nevertheless, I watched (and took photos) for about five minutes as the squirrel approached, an eighth of an inch at a time. Every time The Stranger Cat twitched or scratched in his sleep, the squirrel leaped back a foot or two but finally, he got that nut. You can see the second before he grabbed it in the above photo — which, by the way, will enlarge if you click on it.
So now the last peanut was gone and Mr. Squirrel was still hungry, I guess. Once he'd disposed of it, he snuck back onto the step and made his way to the bowl of dry cat food. With one eye on The Stranger Cat, he nervously wolfed down one nugget after another of Friskies Seafood Sensations. Here's another one of those photos you can make bigger with one click...
Every time T.S.C. made a move in his sleep, the squirrel head for the hills, then crept back when he realized it was safe. In the above pic, The Stranger Cat is awake and looking at me as if to ask, "What's he so jumpy about?" Then back to sleep he went while squirrel went right on stuffing himself...and someone came to my door so I had to stop taking pictures. I thought it was a nice moment that oughta be shared.
The Pew Research Center did a poll to find out how informed people were about recent news developments. What they found was that Americans have a lot of faulty or missing info in this area...but interestingly, there wasn't much difference between Democrats, Republicans and Independents. They were about equally wrong and right.
Jay Weston is a movie producer who has a second career as a reviewer of Los Angeles restaurants. I know people who are reticent about dining anywhere that has not received the blessing of Weston. In this article, it goes to the place he's decided has the best pizza in this city and I just know he's right. It's the same place I said here, here, here, here and, here has the best pizza in Los Angeles.
Here's what I believe is the first Captain Crunch commercial. The cereal and the advertising campaign were both introduced in 1963 with the Jay Ward Studios producing the latter. That's the great Daws Butler voicing the Captain. William Conrad did the opening announce and I think the whispers of Seadog were supplied by Bill Scott, though who can tell for sure? In the years to come, the cereal would be a big hit, leading to infinite variations in different flavors and to many clever commercials as long as Jay's outfit did them. The ads took a noticeable plunge when they were taken over by others.
August 11, 2010
