Sports
I know there are people who spend lifetimes studying this sort of stuff, but I have to know why it is that people feel personally connected to a sports team? Did you hit the scoring run? The winning goal? Fumble? There's a tickertape parade for the Sox in town today. And while I understand that sports are fun, what I really want to know is why there is so much personal, emotional stock put into whether "your" team wins or loses? With the exception of cases like poor Steve Bartman, very rarely do fans actually determine the outcome of a game (and even the Bartman fiasco is debatable because the Cubs allowed themselves to get rattled and go on to lose). Just curious.
Is my cat insane, extremely stupid, or an evil genius?
Our cat Penny, aside from being extremely fat and shaped like a gourd, is also very strange. First of all, she doesn't really 'meow,' she says "MEEEE" or sometimes she barks. She eats all the fur off of her tummy, and then loves it when we rub the peachfuzz that's left. At first, we thought she was retarded and/or deaf, because she never seemed to respond to anything we said or did and always had this blank, empty stare. Turns out she was just re-adjusting to normal housecat life. See, before we had her, she lived with John's old roomate. She was so timid and shy (still is) that I only saw her a few times. Her favorite hiding place was in the air-ducts of the apartment - so we think she became semi-feral.
Now she's out and about and loves attention - but from us only. Guests at our house would swear up and down that we only have one cat because no one EVER sees Penny. She does a cute little 'pet me' dance when she wants attention, where she'll scrunch up her big, fat, orange butt and then walk backwards from side to side toward you, meeing for a petting. But the strangest thing she does is use tools. You know those cat toys that are a plastic rod about 2 feet long with a strip of stretchy, rainbow fabric attached to the end like a ribbon? She doesn't like to play with it much, but what she will do is carry it into the kitchen and then loop the end of the fabric into the water bowl and leave it there. She'll then remove the fabric and suck the water off of it.
Anyone else have a cat that does that? Maybe it's because she's a female orange tabby - which, from what I hear, is extremely rare. Most Orange tabbies are male. My vet even said that, like Calicos (I can't remember if male or female is the rare sex for calicos), they're a genetic mutation that is usually sterile.
28 October 2005
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11 comments:
Male calicos are the oddity. I didn't know about the sterile thing or that orange tabbys were a male thing. I learn something new every day! Thanks
The cat we used to have wouldn't come out when anybody else was there either.
BTW, thanks for stopping by the kid's blog. You gave him the putdown he needed, but you did it in such a kind way. And you say you're not good with kids; bull!
Bah. It wasn't a putdown... he's still learning. If he were 30, or like the Logic Monkey, the claws would have come out... I'm not good with kids - but I'm not an ogre either ;-p
My sister's cat (her name is Miss Shackelton Boil Bones) is weird. The cat gets "stressed out" and develops a mild rash around her mouth whenever she is "stressed". My sister and her boyfriend coddle this cat so I have no clue as to what she gets stressed about. Sarah says during one of her episodes, she'll get all spastic--darting to and fro. I like cats better than dogs.
No retarted cats. Just a black pug named Duchess that thinks she's a cat. Right down to meowing and sleeping on the back of couches.
Oh, forgot about the sports thing. I am a woman who is TRULY blessed; my husband hates pro sports! Nobody in our family can understand why the earth must rotate around whether one's chosen team wins. Who gives a ratsass?!
You ARE TOO good with kids! I promise not to tell anybody and ruin your rep. I'm the ogre, just ask my kids. ;)
I understand why people find sports fun to watch. I just don't get the deep, personal connection that creates such frenzy. "We won!"... no, THEY won.
Actually, I think that it's a personalization that goes back centuries. Back in the day, members of the crowd would cheer "their" knight. And if you go back enough, I'll bet they cheered on "their" Christian, too! I'll bet it's probably a social reaction to a basic psychological need to feel part of a larger group. Not that anyone would intellectualize (or analyze it) that far, but it makes the universe a far less scary and lonely place if you're "part of" a team -- whether it be a group of fans or a religion.
But I'm overintellectualizing, aren't I? :)
Also: Laura, as a rational personal observer -- you really are pretty good with the kids. Better than me. I won't tell anyone though.
r- you actually have analyzed it very well.
The thing is, sports teams, whether hs, college or professional, create a sense of community. You won't agree with many of your neighbors on religion or politics, you may have very different tastes and ideas of what is decorous or not, but everyone can root for the local team. They bind communities together by creating a group that everyone can be a part of no matter what your religion, race, politics or economic status.
When I was in high school, my friends and I from our well to do Detroit suburb used to love to go Tiger stadium and sit in the bleachers next to this little old black lady. She was around 70, and lived on social security only. Yet she was in her same spot in the bleachers every single day, and was excited when "her boys" came to the game and sat with her. She was a veritable baseball encyclopedia, knew all the players, their stats, what pitches they couldn't hit etc.
The last game we went to before leaving for college, we arranged for security to escort her to the lower deck box seat we purchased for her. She had the time of her life.
6 very white kids from the burbs would under no other circumstances have given a second thought to this little, poor, black lady from Corktown. But our Tiger fandom made us members of the same community! That, I think, is the thing that makes sports so attractive to people!
and by the way, all cats are eveil geniuses!
My cat was pretty normal, but I had a hamster, Max, who used tools. I gave him one of those big round mineral blocks to chew on, but he used it to bang against the bars of his cage when he wanted attention instead.
SME: that's funny! like a prisoner with his tin cup.jtp
Love football, but see it as an escape from reality. I get really into the games and one thing I can't stand about California is people here don't really get into the games like they do in the mid-west.
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