April 2002 Archives

Poor boy.

The card says he's only a year old, but to look at him, he's used up about three lifetimes. He doesn't have a tail, but I'm skeptical that he's a manx. His bones don't feel right down there. He has a cauliflower ear, all bent over and creased. He's dirty and smells bad, and he has snot streaming from his nose, a symptom of the deadly Town Lake URI of doom. He's a bag of bones, he's not terribly pretty, and he was labeled "fractious" on his very first day at the pound.

This one wasn't supposed to make it.

But he's home, hanging out in my tiny bathroom. It's not the most accomodating of living spaces, but it's bigger than a cage, and there's no one with a euthanizing needle around the corner. Whoever called him fractious should see the way he likes to sit in my lap and be brushed. He would purr if he were able to breathe with his mouth closed, but for now, I know what he means.

It'll be a while before I've been able to cure his URI, brush the dirty fur out and allow clean fur to grow back in, get him neutered, and fatten him up until he's presentable, but when I do...

you won't even recognize him anymore.

Once in a while, I think it's healthy to remind yourself how far behind you are.

At age 25:

The future mythologist Joseph Campbell decided to Woodstock to read the classics for five years, nine hours a day. Living on very little, he would make himself readily available as a dinner guest.

Orson Welles coscripted, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane.

By this age, Charles Chaplin had appeared in 35 films.

P. T. Barnum bought a "160-year-old" slave woman and began a career in show business.

Janis Joplin made her first recording, "Cheap Thrills," which grossed over a million dollars within a few months.

Chris Burden created "Painting Shoot," which involved the artist being shot in the left arm by a friend.

Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic, thus winning a $25,000 prize.

Fayette, N.Y. farmhand Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He claimed he translated the Book of Mormon from some golden tablets revealed to him by the angel Moroni.

Bavarian painter Aloys Senefelder invented the lithograph.

French engineer Benoit Fourneyron invented the first waterwheel turbine.

Sarah Bernhardt scored her first triumph, being asked to repeat her theatrical performance before Napoleon III.

Physician Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile. As he collapsed unconscious into the arms of his trainer, the loudspeaker announced, "The time was three..." The uproar of the fans drowned out the rest of the announcement.