Yesterday, our cat (Santosha - Tasha for short) went through her morning ritual of racing about the house and then becoming an "ambush predator". Peg named her "Pounce a de Leon"; because she rarely misses a meal or a chance to gangster yoghurt from Peg, I countered with "Paunch a de Leon". I'd post a picture, but I haven't uploaded it yet.
Pets acquire many names in the course of our association. Yoda - our beloved Shih Tzu - was "Meat Buh Hee" (after Frank Baum's characterization of Toto in Tiktok - the mechanical man as a "meat dog"), "Mr. B.", "Mitter B.", "the Boy", and "Yeehoda" among others. Tasha is normally called "KK", and I will call her "Stinkpot" at least once a day (though she doesn't stink!) Pets are quite the comfort; research has shown that people with pets have fewer illnesses and live longer than people without pets. And pets live longer than their wild counterparts. Evolution would favor such an association, but I prefer to just enjoy it.
What I don't enjoy is reading ignorant comments on the internet. I was reading an article in the Pantagraph this morning about Michael Gammon and his successful battle against schizophrenia. The comments by people who know nothing of this situation were absolutely astounding in their ignorance and viciousness. Here's a tip - if you don't know what you're talking about - STFU.
Unfortunately, the internet has certainly decreased civility in our society. Anybody can say anything they want without fear of retribution or exposure. It's a lot easier to say cruel and ignorant things when you can do it anonymously. One hopes we'll get through this period and regain some of the civility we've lost. Or perhaps I'm kidding myself; there's certainly a tendency to regard past times as "better" and there were certainly some glaring cases of incivility in times past. Regardless, it seems to me that nothing is gained by demonizing folks with differing opinions.
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