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I well remember the first time it happened. Surprised but not offended, I happily accepted the unexpected outcome. We were en route to Panama City Beach, driving the entire 750 miles in one day. So I stopped at a McDonald's restaurant somewhere in Mississippi for a cup of coffee to help battle sleepiness. I prefer their [...] As is often the case with people who've lived together for a long time, we've developed our own system of effective verbal shortcuts. These words and phrases effectively convey far more meaning than their staid and steady "plain English" counterparts–and they work. I'll share a few examples, sometimes writing the syllables in all capitals to indicate [...] "Never touch a purring kitten" had been my longstanding, firm admonition. But when the tiny black beast appeared on our doorstep on Morningside Drive almost 20 years ago, my wife buckled–and fed the little waif. Being maxed out with feline boarders, though, new quarters had to be found. The logical choice? The Foy Brown family just [...] Whoever says you can’t train cats just doesn’t know. Training involves establishing strong ties between cause and effect, and cats learn quickly. Training brings results. As creatures of routine, cats develop habits that may seem peculiar to us. Proper training demands that we identify those habits and exploit them to our advantage. Let me illustrate with a [...] I'll let you in on a funny story with a good moral if you promise not to "let the cat out of the bag." Deal? Regular readers well know our travails with the feline species. Though the two who rule our abode at present are rather low maintenance, they certainly impose demands. Brudderman, for instance, insists [...] With none of today's fly-weight materials, camping gear in the late 1950s shared one quality: heavy. Thus the drive to lighten loads spawned many a freewheeling innovation–until the beans exploded. From rain gear to foot gear, the character of camping was stamped in the military mold. Army surplus pup tents of stout canvas, reeking with the [...] Legend holds that everything grows bigger in Texas–even spiders. We spent the first three months of our marriage in Tyler, Texas. While I labored to establish myself as an engineer there, my wife whisked about, transforming our tiny apartment into a home. And we adapted to each other. Our first major adjustment came after six weeks via [...] These days, nickels accumulate in my pocket just long enough to pay taxes on real purchases. But the lowly nickel faithfully energized my boyhood economy in the mid-1950s. Two nickels became a magic carpet, transporting me spellbound to the Old West at the Saturday afternoon matinee. And a couple more bolstered the experience with a Coke [...] This week I offer a couple of examples–the first a decade old, the second a recent notation from my wife's journal–illustrating the unexpected lighter side of distress. —– In our old house, the front door chime faithfully invited our usually-indifferent felines, Wiggy in particular, to inspect all new arrivals. So the delivery of a bouquet of gas-filled [...] Why do cats do that? "Do what?" you might naturally ask. "Anything," I would reply. Anything that cats are inclined to do, from the routine to the outrageous. Why, for example, do cats turn in circles, making attempts to contort their bodies to fit into a box that's only half the size for comfort? The result–ample [...] |
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Copyright 2012 James McAlister - All Rights Reserved |
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