Syllabus #177

The cat in the hat came back.

Apparently, we underestimated Lenny's deep, abiding love for us.  He FREAKED OUT and hid in a chimney when he arrived at what we believed would be his new home.  The people were unfortunately not up to the challenge of earning his trust.  Honestly, it wouldn't have taken much.  All you need to do is feed him, not make any sudden movements or loud noises, and possibly provide him with life-saving medical care.  

That last part might be why he's so attached to us.  It's like that book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  If you take a stray cat to the vet because his actual ass has been ripped open by another animal, and then let him live in your bathroom for a month while his wounds heal, and give him food and water an safety, and climate control and affection, he's going to love you forever and never leave your house.  That's basically what happened in the beloved children's book written to provide a humorous illustration of cause and effect, right?

I guess he's here to stay.  If anyone has any tips to help two cats stop beefing and learn to tolerate one another, please divulge.  We've tried everything you can probably think of, except drugs.    

Anyway.

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This essay about growing up with an absentee father really hits.  I still to this day remember the first kid who asked, "Where's your dad?  Like, do you have a dad?"  It was partly the question itself, but mostly the totally snotty, condescending way she asked it.  She may as well have been asking, "Do you know you just stepped in dog shit?"  I could conjure a highly detailed police sketch of that awful child, down to her gold hoop earrings and her weird curly mullet that so many little girls had in the early 90s.  I'm sure she has no recollection of this, or even of me, period.  And she's probably a perfectly decent human being.  But in that moment, I wanted to throw her into a volcano and watch the flesh melt off her skull as she sank into bubbling lava.  

True Life:  I am a sucker for documentaries about crackpot theories of ancient aliens and unknown civilizations.  At least, I was as an impressionable youth with a TV in my bedroom in the heyday of The Learning Channel and The History Channel, when they were just transitioning from quasi-educational content to straight up conspiracy theories and reality television designed to gawk at people who made questionable life choices.  It's a format that never truly died, apparently, because here's a new crock-umentary on Netflix that sounds just utterly unhinged.  

In another world, where I host dinner parties and no one complains about my cooking, I would love to unveil this dramatic-ass whole stuffed roasted pumpkin on my dinner table.  

Analog Reading:

Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry.  I loved the Lonesome Dove series, and Andy recently read this and said it might be some of the best fiction he's read in a long time.  I gave it a whirl, and honestly I kind of hated it.  Mostly because there was no real plot to speak of, and not much character development, and the only 3 things that did kind of happen in the book were deeply upsetting acts with no real closure or redemption.  Which is, I guess, an accurate reflection of life, but I expect literature to be a little more than a mere depiction of how much of a shitpile life can be sometimes.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.  I feel like I'm really striking out with books that other people have recommended to me lately.  I have read at least one other book by KH, The Great Alone, which was gripping and disturbing, but was a real page-turner.  This one leaves a lot to be desired.  Despite its length, it feels hastily slapped together, and like certain parts of the story were rushed through and under-developed.  The relationship on which the entire book hinges basically begins when a spinster, who sneaks out of her parents' house with makeup on for the first time, fails to gain entry to a speakeasy, meets a rando on the street, fucks him in the back of his truck, and then the rest of the events unfold from there.  It just seemed HIGHLY UNLIKELY and rather abrupt.