By the admirable and entertaining Bob Eckstein (of snowman and bookstore fame, among other things), now appeared. My copy arrived today. Notable because my name is in it, in a long list of people who wrote Bob about naming cats. (I offered my Sanskrit cat Marjarah, which Bob seems, unsurprisingly, not to have found a place for; Scottish cats, Jewish cats, but no Sanskrit cats, go figure.) I don’t expect that my own name will ever again appear together with New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck’s, so I’m treasuring the moment.
The book is a hoot, and it’s got a lot of Bob’s cat cartoons, so I’ll probably be posting some of those eventually — but today, I’m just giving you the announcement, plus an appreciation of the book. (In a section on cat names for foodies, in a subsection of that on meat names, I found two superb names — Chorizo and Kebab — that almost made me want to get a cat. NO, NO, DO NOT give me a cat. I am, really, truly, just very barely taking care of myself and could not possibly tend to another living thing. Look, I’m seriously considering getting rid of my beloved cymbidium orchids, as I become more and more physically disabled. But I love the idea of having a sausage or grilled-meat cat. Or maybe one with a cheesy name, like Mascatpone.)
The lists deserve to be read out loud, as performance art:
Cheeto, Chocolate, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Fudge, Jellybean, Kit Kat, Lollipop, …
As for Bob, there’s a Page on this blog about my postings — 22 so far! — on his cartoons (and books).
Just in advance of the book’s appearance, Bob announced it in lots of places, including on Facebook, with two advertisements, the first of which reproduces the cover of the book, so I won’t have to do that separately:
(#1) Cats conquer the City
(#2) The Dude abides
Welcome to … the Hotel Catifornia!
August 5, 2022 at 7:20 am |
As far as food-related names go, one of the cats living with John when I first took up with him was named Applesauce. (Originally, so I was told, John’s then-wife intended to call the cat Athelstan, not knowing – or possibly not caring – that the cat was female; her toddler niece misconstrued this as “Apple-stand”, which John thought was a silly name for a cat, hence “Applesauce”.)
My favorite prospective (but as far as I know never used) cat names: “Pushpin” and “Underfoot”. I think I was credited with inventing one of these, most likely undeservedly.