The Cat Ate My Homework

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

In case you guys wonder why this week the posts have been very late, and I haven’t updated Chapter House or my newsletter in two weeks…. I have an explanation. it’s not an excuse, but it’s an explanation.

One of three explanations is above. Let me give you more of the explanations:

That’s Circe and Indy.

And yet more:

This is muse on the isle, and you KNOW she’s too cute to be in trouble. Or at least, SHE knows.

All together now:

But, you’ll ask, how can these beautiful, loving creatures be the reasons I haven’t been posting on time? Am I just blaming them?

Well, they’re not the only reason. BUT–

Here, let me tell you about my day yesterday, so you can… taste the chaos:

I got up at a normal human time, around 7:30 am. walking downstairs, where we have Six FOOT TALL GATES on he doorways the kittens and cats aren’t supposed to go into, I notice Muse walking around on the other side of the gate.

To explain, on the other side of the gate we have: Plants we don’t want attacked, my sewing room where I don’t want the fabric peed on, and the living room which is a sea of boxes and construction stuff (a lot of it to go to the shed which figures in this story later.) The later is potentially dangerous to the raving idiots, hence the gates.

I run to check if I accidentally left the other gate open. Nope. it’s closed.

Freak out. Dan and I start getting cats out of there, which is hard, because Indy hides very well. Finally get them out and are discussing how they might have got in, when they…. show us.

So the living room and the family room share a fireplace. It’s huge, in the way of mid-century-modern construction, and just open.

Because we haven’t got around to try to find extra large screens you screw on, we have just iron screens blocking it on either side.

They managed to wedge to move the screens aside. So, get the weight lifting weights to put in front of it, so it can’t be slowly wedged way.

Which is when Indy shows us he can jump six feet from the floor to the top of the gate and get in anyway. There ensues a half hour of searching for him. Proving he’s evil, he was lying flat on the rug in the bathroom, in the dark.

Get him out of there. Put a baby gate in the little space above the gate so he can’t just jump in. (He’s still trying.)

Sit down to write yesterday’s blog. Get phone call. Our prescription insurance, sulky about my dressing them down till they covered our prescriptions, has made two inexplicable assumptions: 1) that my health is worse than Dan’s. Specifically that my diabetes (which I tested positive for once, but mostly test pre-diabetic, and which is fully under control with ozempic) is much worse than Dan’s (who is on three meds, eats like a teen girl and is still not under control sugar wise.) AND 2) They can solve it by phone, by putting me in consultation with an RN “because she can advise you on diet and exercise and stuff.” (Duuuude. We were hard core low carb for years, are still technically low carb, and I’m NOT a non-active person. Unless the RN is some kind of magician fixing genetic code and problems of auto-immune (I always gain weight when having a massive auto-immune flare. Doctors tell me this makes sense. It might but it’s unfair. I want to have chocolate cake, if I’m going to gain weight.)

I try to explain that I don’t think telemedicine is going to solve my medical issues when doctors over the years can at best patch them, and get told making the appointment will take me 1 minute.

An hour later….

And then I finally did the blog.

Which is when Dan told me we needed to go move all the moving boxes from the shed to the curb, because someone was coming in less than an hour to pick them up. The explanation on this: We moved ourselves, but we did it over six months, with multiple trips. Which meant we got A LOT OF BOXES. How many boxes? Thousands. Add in the end stage where we were packing things because we couldn’t decide whether to pack them or donate them or throw them away? THOUSANDS. (To illustrate, I recently opened a box that told me it contained glasses for the kitchen. It contained MASSES of wrapping paper and a serving plate. I did this. I can’t blame anyone else. But that is not worth a box. Also, really?)

The problem was that the boxes were taking over our entire shed, so I couldn’t walk in it. Literally. Which means some furniture that needs to be fixed/refinished, was just there, taking up space. With boxes all over.

Took me a while to convince Dan even if we move again (depends on where kids end up and if there are ever grandkids) we probably will have someone move us as we did the times before this last. We only did it ourselves this last time because it was lockdown, and we were trying to do it on a shoe string, because we were house-poor. And then he still, understandably, didn’t want to throw some barely used boxes away.

Anyway, I spent an hour and a half carrying boxes around. And then we found out that the cats had found another route into what Dan is calling “The East Wing” or Forbidden Land. (It’s a grand name, for an area that was obviously an addition to a relatively small house, and consists of living room, Dan’s bill’s office, the guest room/sewing room and a bathroom. Most of it in states of still packed. BUT It makes it sound like we live at Pemberley, so I’ll allow it.)

AND THEN some family stuff happened. Including some administrative stuff that required a decision on my part. By which point it was 10 pm, and I sat down to write a chapter of No Man’s Land, because if I don’t it won’t let me sleep.

Which means I wrote till midnight (and still didn’t finish the chapter because inexplicably (ah) I was scattered and slow.

And then woke up late (9) this morning, with Dan saying “The cats were in the East Wing, and I had to grab Muse with one hand. I might have squeezed her too hard, because she tried to bite me, but she won’t let me near to check her.”

Well, we replaced the screens and put a baby gate inside the fireplace. Finding enclosures that fit this mammoth size… well…. And Muse is fine.

But by that point I didn’t feel up to writing a blog post, and it took a while to do the Mad Genius Club one and then–

So, here we are. See, I told you I had explanations, even if not excuses.

They’re adorable and fuzzy. And I wish they’d stop breaking into the East Wing.

94 thoughts on “The Cat Ate My Homework”

  1. Tell them that they should break into the West Wing and annoy Biden* & company. [Very Big Crazy Grin]

    Like

  3. When our previous border collie was a puppy, she’d want to get at the older dog’s toys. She was kept in the laundry room unless we could supervise her and catch potty signals. If the weather was good, she could go out to the sun room and rearrange the shoes. Not a chewer, but she had an odd sense of order. Very odd. She still wanted to get at Moar Toys, but the baby gate was just a bit too high for her to jump over. But, she could climb it. So, I stacked another baby gate above that one.

    The next day, I saw the puppy in the dining room, proudly carrying the other dog’s chew ring, with a puppy-grin on her face. The little imp was a great climber.

    At which point, we moved the baby gate to the junction of the kitchen and dining room, so she could wander a bit more. In a week, she could jump that one, so housebreaking became the priority.

    Kat-the-dog had a different approach to baby gates; if she ran hard enough at them, they’d fall over. She always thinks she’s twice her actual size.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. My Gravatar had a similar approach to gates, whether baby inside or fence outside: Ram them and they open.

      I’m always amazed by just how smart they are…. for their own furry purposes.

      Like

    2. We had a dog when I was growing up, I think he was a half springer/half mutt, best bird dog ever seen, named Socrates. We put him in a kennel one week when we went on vacation to a place that didn’t allow dogs. Well, Soc climbed a 12-foot chain link fence, and ran 15 miles from the kennels to our home, and was waiting for us when we got back. Dad had to have him put down when he got to running deer and couldn’t be broke of that, and nobody else would take him due to age.

      Like

  4. Kitty pictures are always welcome, with or without any reason.

    Our cats are very helpful too. This time the roofers didn’t have to worry (our current 5 are not allowed free outside roaming). But when we had the roof done in the ’90s we warned them that our cats climbed ladders. They didn’t believer us. Until the cats showed up on the roof to help. Then they watched the cats climb the ladders. We had to lock the cats in the house to keep the cats from helping.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. A note on cardboard boxes, they’re somehwat hydrophilic. Which means if you don’t use them for a while, they suck water out of the air until they’re not so good.

    Which rather sucks if you haven’t unpacked a large heavy breakable monitor from the last time you moved that you were totally going to fix and discover the box no longer holds it…

    Liked by 1 person

    2. I find cardboard boxes store best if in a slightly warm, dry place. Insulated attics, warmed from the rest of the house, are best; and when stacked with about an inch of space between the boxes, allowing air circulation.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. I sympathize. Jase is either clinging to me, or demanding to be played with. He’s supposed to be a settled, mature cat. Um, 0-2 on that one.

    Yes, Indie does look as if he’s plotting how best to use the Marauder’s Map. (“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”)

    Liked by 1 person

  7. On a slightly different topic, my doctor told me about the Mark Cuban Cost Plus pharmacy. Lisinopril isn’t doing as much good for my blood pressure as desired, so I’m going to try something else. The new drug is supposed to: 1) lower BP, 2) improve kidney health, 3) and lower blood sugar by making the kidneys filter out glucose. No word if it’s a floor wax or a dessert topping, but I’m going to give it a try. FYI: https://costplusdrugs.com

    The MCCP pharmacy says they take prescription insurance (which I don’t have, so no idea how well that works), but they charge about $5 above the wholesale price for a 30 day supply. This drug (not going to state the name until I know it works) costs $47 a month, uninsured. I can live with that. I have a 90 day supply on order. We’ll see if/how it works. Still have to look it up for stray issues.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Sounds like Farxiga and this one are the same class of meds.

      It’s on order, will get it Real Soon Now. The brand name is Brenzavvy, with the generic name of Bexaglifozin. Works by mucking with the sodium/glucose filtering in the kidneys (apparently it’s supposed to be for diabetics, and though I’m now “prediabetic”, I’ve been type II in the past). The usual set of warnings, along with some spooky ones (higher chance of surgery to remove portions of legs or feet), and others. Wiki has a fair writeup. The doc wanted to select one that Cuban’s outfit supplied, so that drove his choice. (Medication insurance? Nope. I elected to skip Medicare Part D. So far, no regrets, and picking up Part D afterward is insanely expensive. Something about having to pay all back premiums from when Medicare started for me, presumably without any rebates from those meds bought earlier. Er, no.)

      I’m used to taking warfarin, with the attendant profound respect for drugs as a double-edged weapon. Gonna respect this one, and watch for adverse reactions.

      Like

        1. Oregon runs a prescription drug plan; IMHO the least transparent setup I’ve run across. Didn’t try to invoke it for the Cost plus prescription. If this stuff works well, I’ll have to figure out how to get that plan invoked.

          Like

      2. Medicare Part D penalty doesn’t apply if you get Medicare Advantage. Our medicare advantage is limited on some drugs and has an upper limit. But only one of the drugs we are on are limited, nor have we ran into the upper limit. We are flagged for “we don’t have prescription insurance” at Costco from before when we were still on the retiree insurance (because what prescription insurance there was, was worthless). Hubby is on Lipitor, Lisinopril, and two others, that typically go with both; copay $0. I am on eye drops for Glaucoma at $0 copay. But my anti-inflammatory light antibiotics for rosacea is 50% copay, < $20. The gel treatment (which quit working) insurance pays nothing, full Costco cost is around $80 (or was, not using now). What the insurance won’t pay is the new type-2 diabetes non-insulin treatments. This is true of not only our medicare advantage but the different medicare advantage insurance sister has. Haven’t researched like them, apparently none of the medicare advantage available locally covers these T2D medications.

        This will hit them in August as her husband is T2D (genetic) and is on one of them (I think the Obamacare insurance is currently paying part of the cost). Note, he has no weight to lose to get his numbers to pre-diabetic level, nor will changing his diet, more. His doctors are thrilled when his A1C number is 5.9, usually runs 6.0 or higher. Heck I’m thrilled when my A1C is 5.4, which is high for me. Kind of where the HRH comes in. Don’t test A1C as hypoglycemic, but happens often enough that the A1C is kept low in spite of being overweight.

        Like

        1. I went with basic. Before any retirement income was accessible, I was on Bi-Mart’s plan, then had to go to the state plan. I seem to be on the OR prescription plan, though I don’t think I have one of their discount (their term) cards.

          Most of my meds are pretty cheap, since I don’t bother with the fancy anticoagulants. The new diabetes/blood-pressure/kidney one is much more expensive (47 vs 7ish per month for the others, though Lasix is dirt cheap; $6 for a 90 day supply). So, I was willing to take the gamble on Part D. Waggles hand.

          I’ve been around 5.9 to 6.1 for an A1C, and it would be nice to be a bit lower.

          Like

          1. When we were paying for M’s meds for 90 day supply it was about $70. My eye drops ran $40/3 bottles (18 weeks -ish).

            We were on M’s retiree family plan ($300/month for 3 of us to start, as son was still < 26, to $450/month the last 10 months. Inexpensive. When M turned 65 checked what it would take to go open market. Then it was $350/month for two of us VS $700/one of us.) Had to keep with it after he turned 65 until I did (almost 5 years later); he had to be on the insurance. Finally qualified for Medicare.

            We have a number of Medicare Advantage plans available in the area. Stayed with regional Regence (we’ve been with Regence medical insurance since ’79, so why not?) and their Medicare Advantage Blue. $0 monthly, and it includes prescriptions. We both started the month I turned 65 (October). Were a bit afraid we’d have to keep the costing insurance until January, but my turning 65 triggered the qualifying event for both of us. Not under Part D. United Medicare Advantage is also an option and is more wide spread. Worth looking into.

            willing to take the gamble on Part D. Waggles hand.

            Us too. We were paying for medications anyway. But the insurance pays something. The expensive medications? Seems those are under “special categories” so they pay little to nothing anyway. See T2D medications. Not even sure Insulin is on the list of medications they pay for. Newer T2D medications are not inexpensive at all (least runs over $750/month).

            Like

            1. Check out the costplus site. They list the meds they carry and the prices for each (before insurance, so it’s a reasonable way to judge). It’s billed as a generic pharmancy, but my stuff was rolled out in ’23, so I assume it’s not. You don’t have to sign up to get the price info.

              I’m mulling over switching my regular prescriptions to them, the prices are somewhat better than the discount prices, and occasionally substantially better. No idea as to customer service, but the online site actually works. :)

              Like

              1. None of the T2D that also cause weight loss, are on the list. Not risking anything that will cause weight gain. Enough trouble dealing with that all by my lonesome.

                Liked by 1 person

  8. Time to type something timely and very witty. Reaches into box Muse keeps Timely and witty sayings in,
    ‘Back later Cookie Dough Ice cream is half off at Kroger’.

    P.S. Took Guardian Angel along she was looking depressed.
    Which means both will be cruising the Tequila bars soon.
    Sigh.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. There’s iz cat and there’s Miso baby iz cat! As bratty as C in particular has been the past two days I definitely consider it a good thing I didn’t add one or more to my bunch. And if that look from Muse doesn’t make me think of its sleepy “Aw, but your fancy coat is so comfy hoomin!” version of it I know so well…

    Liked by 1 person

  10. You have my sincere sympathy on this subject. In the past week, one of our cats learned she can jump over the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and thus come up to meow outside our bedroom door – and outside our infant daughter’s! Our daughter also discovered she can crawl through the cat door in one of the tall baby gates.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Sarah, once again I am impressed. You gave us an explanation the length of a moderate-sized post about why you couldn’t give us a post today. You should be writing funeral orations for Mark Antony.

    Your cats are beginning to remind me of a series of stores Jeff Kooistra wrote for Analog in the 1990s. A scientist fiddles cat genes to interrupt their maturation, so they will remain adorable little fluffball kittens for life. He fails to realize that he has frozen these cats into a phase of life when their brain plasticity is still high … so they start getting very smart …

    On that cue, allow me to refer to yesterday’s post, and how much I enjoyed seeing you use the word “eructation.” I do love a skillfully-deployed twenty-dollar word, especially when making mock of somebody who deserves it.

    Republica restituendae, et, Hamas delenda est.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. There are just some times when installing a screen door on the interior Doorframes is the only reasonable option.

    *has done this, fostering former-aunt’s cats, when my own cat would have objected to random boyish intruders running around in her space. Also, more importantly, eating her prescription kidney food.*

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “There are just some times when installing a screen door”

      “Breaking news: writer found gibbering in corner; suggestive markings indicate she encountered a yawning display of fangs at face height about 3 am”

      I don’t know the kitten size, but I might suggest a solid door not suitable for climbing….

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I suggest getting the better (sold separately) door-screen wire that cat’s can’t destroy. We’ve had our up over a year, and it seems to work with our three inside cats.

      Like

      2. Hardware cloth. Heavy steel mesh, which you fasten to the door frame over the bug screen. Leave at least 1/4″ space between, so they can’t claw the bug screen through the mesh.

        ———————————

        At my house, the ‘things that go bump in the night’ are cats.

        Like

        1. Heh. These cats weren’t sufficiently adventurous to need hardware cloth. And I had to construct my own door anyway. Can’t buy standard size when your ceiling height is only 6’5″.

          Like

  13. Oh! Well! I never!

    Did you ever

    See a cat so clever

    As magical Mr. Mistoffelees?

    (Our last two cats have excelled at becoming invisible. More than once we have searched the entire apartment for them, gone outside and desperately called for them—once when it was below freezing and there were several inches of snow on the ground—and then found them later in some place where they blended in, or where we never thought of looking.)

    Liked by 1 person

      1. He likes to lie in the bureau drawer,

        But he makes such a fuss when he can’t get out.

        (Old Possum really did know his cats.)

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Right now our black/white tux is curled on top of the dog kennel on a dark gray pad. But the times we double check to be sure she isn’t under the hoop toy pad (cue floating toy). Or which heat vent has she decided is hers today. At least she’s outgrown the mattress box hammock (most the cloth is now torn down, most. But that just gives her a place to hide on that black cloth.)

      I am not sure of all of Buddy’s hiding places either. But at least he is, by choice, limited to one very large room. He doesn’t come downstairs. The other 4 no longer go upstairs. Eventually that will change.

      Like

      1. Kittens gonna kitten. Sometimes, they never quite grow up all the way. Nastycat is somewhat like that. No longer supposed to be a spastic coltish kitten, he still challenges the sticks to fistfights and loses most of them. Chased a squirrel up the flue and caught a bat instead. Let the very confused thing go, as Nasty didn’t quite know what to do with it.

        Cleaned up the ash from the flue. Plugged the hole the squirrel got in. Doofus just wanted a nap and gave us a nasty look before going to nap in the sink. The same sink that has a leak in it. Drip…drip… Doofus scowls at the faucet, then curls up anyway.

        Neighborcat deposited his rent today. Somehow found a hare in town. Not bunny. Full on wild hare. Now thoroughly deceased and gutted. Othercat is probably off visiting his girlfriend. She’s fixed now. Again. So is he, supposedly. Yet the wee fuzzballs did happen, regardless, last year.

        Weather is warming up, so don’t have to lift the hood to check for fuzzballs in the morning. New neighbors down the street have brought their own new fuzz to the neighborhood. Thinks he’s hot stuff. Or rather, he thought he was. Yowled out to the whole block about how rough and tough he was.

        Once.

        Now respects the boundaries of the locals quite well. Neighborcat just gives him a steady, level look. Newcat runs away. Even in his own yard. Suspect there was some discussion went on when I was at work. Now the neighborhood is stable and quiet once again.

        Except for old dog across the street. He’s very old. We forgive him when he has to warn off the 33rd car that turns around in his driveway today. The people neighbors up the street try to complain about him. Same ones that have regular meetings with the boys in blue, whether they want it or not. Old dog remains unbothered, save by strange cars. Can’t say the same about the idiot humans. 

        Brave bird is trying to make a nest in the big tree out front. I wish him luck. The cat clan are climbers, and unafraid of risks. Birdie would be much more like to survive in the old maple down the street. 

        But birds are just as territorial as cats, seems. Won’t budge. Like as not, this one’ll be lunch soon enough. 

        No mice, rats, moles or voles from the field across the way, yet. All spring so far it has been odder fair. Some weasel thing the other day. A starling. Several bugs. Once, a toy dinosaur, much mauled. No local kids claimed the thing. Nasty likes to chew on it sometimes, now. The dinosaur is not so fierce as the sticks in the yard.

        Like

        1. The starlings that nest in the eves in the house across the street have been getting a pass the last few years. While Hobs was alive, before babies would fledged, the parents would fall prey to Hobs. The neighbor was hilarious. She’d say “I’d complain about that dang cat but it is those stupid birds fault.” Birds would dive bomb him as he laid in our yard. Eventually he’d leap up and catch one, then the other. Never went into their driveway. Miss him. He has been gone now 14 years, he lived to be 20.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. “But birds are just as territorial as cats, seems.”

          Yes, they are. Saw a story on Twitter a while back about a guy who put a couple of owl houses up in his barn Jackdaws moved in instead, and nested in them for a few years. And then one year, actual owls got their first.

          The Jackdaws wanted the nesting spot back, but couldn’t compete with an actual owl. So after the owl eggs hatched, the Jackdaws started stacking up twigs in front of the owl house to block off access to and from the nest. Owls can’t get out, owls starve, Jackdaws get the nest back.

          Or at least that appears to have been the plan of the rather nasty birds.

          Fortunately for the owls, daddy owl was out hunting when this happened. The pile of twigs wasn’t quite high enough to keep him from feeding mommy and babies from his hunting catches. And then after feeding his family, the Twitter user reported that he disappeared for several hours.

          And then he came back.

          But the Jackdaws didn’t.

          Liked by 1 person

  16. I call the “used to be a garage and is now a very large sitting room with three couches, a freezer, and nine bookcases” room in my house “the ballroom,” plus we have a dining room, as well, and a front hall foyer, so obviously we also live in Pemberley or something very akin to it.

    It’s a big house, with lots of space. Empty space, with no storage. But I’ll miss it if/when we leave, because SPACE. For six kitties and two adults (one of them not your average Bear-size).

    Like

    1. the wife is allergic to cats so the daughter keeps the door to the guest room in her house closed all the time to keep the cats out.. Watching the cats watch the door when we go down there is extremely diverting. it’s a rare morning we come out of the room without the cats sitting in front looking for an opening,

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I swear “What part of we will call you if we want to teledoc?” I get not only calls for me but for hubby too. He gave them my phone number. We have different policies because that is how Medicare Advantage works. I mean he isn’t wrong, the odds are he is playing golf. It is hard enough dealing with someone in person. At least then I can tell I am not getting across what is being difficult. Over the phone? Forget about it.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Perhaps you should have insisted they use a speaker of the dialect of your childhood, slang and all. ( grin ) Make the current DIE insanity work -for- you for a change. Waste -their- time.

          I like the above suggestion to bill them for your valuable time.

          I get a crap-ton of annoying sales calls. Really getting the hang of Klingon pronunciation. If I have to wipe off the phone, I said it right. !?nuqneH!?

          Liked by 1 person

          1. On a tangent about DIE/DEI: I think that DEIsney is the right name for a certain company with theme parks and bad, money-losing movies.

            Like

              1. They are powering all of the theme parks by Walt’s corpse spinning in it’s grave. at least it is a green path to hell for them.

                Like

      2. Thing is, Sarah, and many of you, as writers for profit, are effectively independent manufacturers and these unsolicited sales calls, which is precisely what that ‘tele-nurse’ sicced on Sarah was, are depriving you of work. Now I know you need insurance, but at some point, you need to tell these folks that interrupting your work means you won’t have money to pay them for the service you hired them for, and tying up your time to sell you services you don’t want isn’t helping.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Sarah definitely.

          Me? Medicare Advantage $0/month cost. Retired. Don’t normally answer unknown number. Occasionally weaken, sigh.

          Like

          1. I only answer those kinds of callers if I have a wild hair up my butt at the moment and want to seriously screw with their minds.

            I’m really kind of surprised that polling companies haven’t removed my number.

            Like

  20. Watching Fallout. Three episodes in. The writers appear to have at least some familiarity with the setting, which is good.

    And got a nice little bit with some idiots who would fit right in with our current TPTB, and the show suggesting that they’re morons.

    Liked by 1 person

    3. Also, Schrodinger’s Box – a particular container that vanishes as soon as you look at it. Primary tripping hazard in cases where no cause for the trip can be found. Schrodinger boxes are rumored to contain all the socks that disappear from dryers, but no one has succeeded in seeing if they are actually in the box due to the box vanishing before they can look inside.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Chekov’s Razor: Just because a razor was introduced and used to shave someone doesn’t mean it can’t also slit someone’s throat.

        Or vice versa.

        Like

  23. Our German Shepard, Mia (had her birthday yesterday, seven years old) is Dad’s dog. But…

    …every once in a while, she bangs me on the shin when I’m sitting at the computer, and herds me over to her food bowl. Mostly so I can watch her eat, I’m assuming that she leaves the leftovers for me so I’m not hungry.

    I’m going to assume that since she’s a rescue dog, had at least two litters with her baby daddy, and we did kind of adopt her by accident, she’s just herding me around because I’m clearly not smart enough to do these things on my own.

    The worst part is the days when I think she’s right…

    Liked by 1 person

  24. In an unrelated matter, I just realized seances are pretty serious stuff. I mean, I always assumed it was just con artists ripping off the feeble-minded with ghost stories and sleight of hand; but contacting spirits is necromancy…

    As in Sauron kinda stuff…

    Okay, Sauron is a fictional character; but his nickname was The Necromancer and he hung out with the Nazgul, also fictional but less cartoonish in the books than Jackson or Del Toro portrayed them in those six magnificent films.

    Now I’m upset at the old Charlie Chan movies for encouraging those beliefs.

    Like

      1. Never, ever mess around with necromancy.

        You never know what you will be attracting when you toss your hook into that dark sea, and there are far too many things that consider “come to serve me” in the same way as “come and devour everything.”

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Yup. You never know what will look back from the abyss. I refuse to have anything to do with Tarot and other divination tools after seeing … something very dark … look out of the card reader’s eyes, and then seeing the effects messing with magic had on someone.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. Yes, indeed. Add to it that magic seems to be very bad for one’s health. I have known several practices and they all have health problems.

            One was a Wiccan priestess who definitely used her position for personal power (on a very petty scale). Before we lost track of her she was an utter invalid, broke and friendless.

            Like

    2. Tolkien’s Middle Earth had a lot of undead in it. The Nazgul for certain. Barrow wights, the spirits in the Dead Marshes, and of course, the spirits from the Paths of the Dead. Aragorn’s commanding the Dead at the Stone of Erech could be considered a form of necromancy from a certain point of view.

      You can find a couple of non-malevolent characters in a few fantasy books or series, but they are few and far between. But none of them would I consider to be all good. At most, Lawful Neutral.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m very fond of the Abhorsen series. Abhorsens are a hereditary lineage of anti-necromancers: They use the seven bells that are the standard tools of necromancy, but their job is not to call up the dead but to send them back. Very well written and have a quite original treatment of magic.

        Like

          1. I suppose they may be. I bought the first one before e-books were a thing, and I’ve bought everything since clothbound, so I haven’t looked at the e-book prices.

            Liked by 1 person

      2. “Aragorn’s commanding the Dead at the Stone of Erech could be considered a form of necromancy from a certain point of view.”

        The actual necromancer was Isildur, before he encountered the One Ring, because he’s the one who cast the curse that transformed them.

        Aragorn simply happened to have the power, once he had the reforged Narsil (and Arwen’s banner, in the book), to lift the curse.

        Liked by 1 person

  26. Just because:

    William Blake:

    Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 

    In the forests of the night; 

    What immortal hand or eye, 

    Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

    In what distant deeps or skies. 

    Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

    On what wings dare he aspire?

    What the hand, dare seize the fire?

    And what shoulder, & what art,

    Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

    And when thy heart began to beat.

    What dread hand? & what dread feet?

    What the hammer? what the chain,

    In what furnace was thy brain?

    What the anvil? what dread grasp.

    Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

    When the stars threw down their spears 

    And water’d heaven with their tears:

    Did he smile his work to see?

    Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

    Tyger Tyger burning bright,

    In the forests of the night:

    What immortal hand or eye,

    Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

    Like

    1. MI was a great tv series. The movies with Tom Cruise aren’t bad either. However, the biggest slap in the face of the original writers and the fans was the execrable decision to have Jim Phelps turn bad in MI:1. Chalk it up to lousy producers, directors, and writers who have been corrupted by the Marxist principle of destroying all heroes.

      Like

      1. That was almost 30 years ago. If you just pretend it wasn’t Jim Phelps, the movie works fine. And it’s not especially anti-Patriotism or anti-hero, the writers simply had to justify the government turning on the hero, and having his mentor be a traitor was a direct way to do that (and was also, if I remember correctly, pretty much a Hollywood trend at the time), so I didn’t take it as an attack on heroism as such.

        Plus, one of the main writers on it, Steven Zaillian, also wrote Schindler’s List and several other movies that suggest that, while he may have a complicated view of heroism, he’s not bent on undermining it entirely.

        Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.