Cohousing: A New Kind of Community for Houston

quotes for the week: unity

 We hear many pleas for unity, so I thought I'd share some quotes:

A Speech Pathologist's View of the Inauguration and Baseball

With all of the impressive things about the inauguration, I was, not surprisingly, attuned to President Biden's presentation. Everyone knows that as a child he was a severe stutterer and was bullied because of his speech.  In the most important speech of his life before the nation and the world he was completely fluent.  I know he is an inspiration to every stutterer who listened.

Amanda Gorman, the lovely poet who read her poem "The Hill We Climb" also overcame a speech disorder.  She mispronounced the /r/ sound, but there's not a trace of that now.  She, too, is an inspiration.

And by the way, our resident stutterer, George Springer, has left the Astros for Toronto.  Here's hoping he continues to inspire kids who stutter.  He will be missed.

Today's Guest Blogger: Cassie Zirkelbach

Since 2021 has started out as chaotic as 2020, my pet human asked me to post for her as a distraction from these weird times.  

I'm a 4 1/2 year old tuxedo cat with an Iq high enough to qualify me for Cat Mensa, not I'm bragging. I have trained my pet to understand cat language.  After all her years as a speech pathologist, she is attuned to language and quickly learned to follow my commands.  For example, if I block her way out of the bathroom, then lie down and roll over, she will give me a treat.  I like Feline Greenies so she buys a nice supply from Amazon. Realizing how important treats are, she has maintained her Prime membership.

I have also taught her some tricks. For example, I have taught her to say, "Nosey," if she wants to rub my nose--I love that.  I have taught her to ask, "Want me to rub your tummy?" Then I roll on my back and let her feel how soft my belly is when she rubs it and when the rub is over, she says, "High five," and I touch her hand with my paw.  She's really good at that trick.  For a human, she's pretty smart.

She has also learned what I don't like, especially visitors and the vacuum.  I let her share the blanket on our bed and I often invite her to watch TV with me in the living room.

One year when her grandhuman was a freshman in college and could not take her cat to live in the dorm, she invited that annoying feline to board with us for a year.  It was the worst year of my life, but thank God, it ended.  Although that cat was also a tuxedo, she was not half as attractive as me.

By the way, my human was too lazy to take my picture for this column so that is a generic tuxedo cat which lacks some of my distinctive markings, but you get the idea.

Here are some interesting books you might enjoy:  Poetry for Cats,  Fur and Purr, Jobs for your Cat.  

Best wishes for a purrfect 2021, 

Cassie

quotes of the week: democracy

 In view of the events of the past week, I think quotes about democracy are what we need.

Books of December

 We Were the Lucky Ones.  The story of a Polish Jewish family who survived the Holocaust despite being separated during World War II.

The Convert.  In the eleventh century a Norman girl falls in love with a Jewish boy and converts.  Lovely descriptions of the surroudings but a strange juxtaposition of the author's research into this story and the story itself.  It read like a research paper rather than a novel.