Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

Ocelopotamus header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'Pets'

January Catsitting

January 10th, 2011 · Comments Off on January Catsitting · Cats, Journal, Kiwi, Mr. Blue, Pets

I’ve been catsitting for my neighbor’s flock of five cats for the past few days: four Persians and one Maine Coon mix. Starting to dream about those sad-eyed, smashed-in faces, as I did the last time I was given the privilege of looking after them. They all look like they’ve been pondering the writings of […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Goodbye, Mr. Blue

February 9th, 2008 · 30 Comments · Cats, Essays, Journal, Kiwi, Meta, Mr. Blue, Pet Food, Pets

For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of cats … — Shakespeare, Richard II (if it had been about cats) I come not to bury Mr. Blue, but to praise him. — Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (if it had been about Mr. Blue instead of J.C.) … […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

May, 2005: The Arrival of Mr. Blue (and Kiwi, too)

February 9th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Cats, Journal, Kiwi, Mr. Blue, Music, Pets

About two and a half years ago, I adopted a big blue talkative cat named Mr. Blue (aka Barabajagal). Below the jump is the email I sent out to my cat-friendliest friends announcing his arrival. I didn’t have a blog in those days, but I wanted to post it here to document it, and provide […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Mid-January Frosted Mini-Roundup

January 17th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Adobe, Blogs, Cats, Comedy, Comics, Culture, Internet, Journal, LGBT, Meta, Mr. Blue, Music, New Wave, News, Online Communities, Politics, Roundup, Social Media/Social Networking, Tech, The Economy, Stupid, Theater, Video

I’m starting to worry that Ocelopotamus has become like that stock old-man character from sitcoms and things, who falls asleep for a while and then wakes up sputtering and tries to pick the conversation up wherever it was five minutes ago, as if no time has passed. On the other hand, it’s heartening that I […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Norman Mailer Yap Attack

November 12th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Blogs, Books, Culture, LGBT, Lit, News, Pets

The most entertaining Norman Mailer story I’ve read since the wake began: “The stories of his macho posturing are legion, from the time he dismissed America’s leading women writers as ‘fey, old hat, quaintsy and dykily psychotic’, to the day he encountered a passing punk while walking his poodles in Brooklyn. According to Peter Manso’s […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Roundup: Where All the Corn Cobs Are Edition

October 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Where All the Corn Cobs Are Edition · Advertising, Books, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Death Penalty, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Food, Health, Healthcare Crisis, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Internet, Labor, Law, LGBT, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Organic Food, Pets, Politics, Roundup, Science, Tech

In order to keep these roundups fresh as a spring daisy, I usually discard any links I’ve been keeping around that are more than a week old. But since this is OcPot’s first roundup in more than six weeks, I’m extending the freshness window slightly to include a few things that were just too good […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Update on the Movery

October 2nd, 2007 · 7 Comments · Cats, Chicago, Culture, Internet, Journal, Kiwi, Meta, Mr. Blue, Pets

OcPot is still on hiatus for at least a couple-few more days. But yesterday, down in the comments to the hiatus post, Miss Rubbery Nun asked how I was doing and I thought I’d repost my answer here for anyone else wondering how the move went: Survived. Just barely. No thanks to AT&T, who, in […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Observations on the Recent and Continuing Unpleasantness

September 20th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Cats, Culture, Essays, Journal, Kiwi, Mr. Blue

Disturbing changes are taking place in the world, and we do not know what they signify. We are afraid that something terrible is going on, some fundamental destructive process that is entirely outside of our experience. You can read this in our wide-eyed stares, our defensive crouches, our tendency to go into hiding for longer […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

The Nod: Wednesday, September 19 (with a Moving Addendum)

September 12th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Blogs, Chicago, Comedy, Culture, Fringe, Journal, Kiwi, Meta, Mr. Blue, Neo-Futurists, News, Performance, Theater

Next Wednesday, September 19, I’m going to be participating in a way-fun event called The Nod, in which some of Chicago’s best bloggers will be reading posts from their blogs live at the Uptown Writer’s Space. And for some reason they’ve asked me to be on the bill, as well. Possibly to make the rest […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Roundup: Dinosaur Corsage Edition

August 31st, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Dinosaur Corsage Edition · Activism, Advertising, Comics, Culture, Doctor Who, Energy, Film, Foreign Policy, Health, Healthcare Crisis, History, Human Rights, Law, LGBT, Media, Nature, News, Peace, Pets, Politics, Roundup, Science, TV

Scary stuff: There’s a lot of buzz and speculation that starting just after Labor Day, the Bush administration is going to be rolling out a major PR campaign to pave the way for war with Iran. See here and here for starters. Grand Moff Texan at DKos says the Bushies will be using the same […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Video: Fox’s War Drums, Colbert’s Water Fight, and Stewart on Bush’s Magical History Tour

August 26th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Comedy, Culture, Foreign Policy, History, Journalism, Media, News, Peace, Pets, Politics, TV, Video

A few video clips from the past week: First up, here’s a scary video compiled by documentarian Robert Greenwald showing how Fox “News” is beating the drum for war with Iran … watch them repeatedly engaging in the same kind of propaganda and scaremongering they used during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Roundup: Fantasy History Edition

August 23rd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Apple, Blogs, Books, Business, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Energy, Food, Foreign Policy, Health, History, LGBT, Macintosh, Media, Nature, News, Peace, Pets, Politics, Racism, Roundup, Science, Tech, TV

Bush has suddenly decided that the Iraq occupation is kinda like Vietnam after all, but of course he’s careful to draw the wrong conclusions from the comparison. The article quotes American University historian Allan Lichtman as saying that Bush’s spin on the situation “is not revisionist history. It is fantasy history.” On a related note, […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Mr. Blue and Kiwi: Exclusive New Photos!

August 17th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Cats, Kiwi, Mr. Blue, Pets, Photos

Haven’t posted any cat pictures in a while, so… First up, here’s Mr. Blue — who wants you to know that he prefers the way you look upside-down. It does so many good things for you. Really, you should just start walking around on the ceiling and save him the trouble of correcting your appearance. […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Yvonne Zipter: “A Canine Metaphysics”

August 1st, 2007 · 3 Comments · Books, Chicago, Culture, Lit, Nature, News, Pets, Poetry, Spirituality

As a sort of spiritual antidote to the horrible Michael Vicks dogfighting story, here’s a lovely poem by Chicago poet Yvonne Zipter (shared here with her permission). It’s from Yvonne’s most recent chapbook, Like Some Bookie God, which came out last year. A Canine Metaphysics In his meditative moments — nose to the air or […]

[Read more →]

Tags: