Jan 23 2012

THEY IZ NIBBLIN ON MY BRAIN!

Categories:

This has to stop. Other people have named cats after me: here’s PZ Meowers from Norway.

That is a fairly typical pose for me at home, but otherwise…I think the grammar centers of my brain are eroding.

P.S. These cat pictures better be worth it. I want to see a huge surge in traffic right away, or I’m going right back to spurious spontaneous controversy generation.

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66 comments

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1

nooneinparticular

23 January 2012 at 11:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I can haz controversy plz? Kthxbai.
2

Glen Davidson

23 January 2012 at 11:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I named my dead cat after you, too.

Glen Davidson
3

Brownian

23 January 2012 at 11:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

What an ego!

How can you be sure that cat’s name is PeeZee Meowers and not PeeZed Meowers, huh?
4

Ms. Daisy Cutter, Feral Fembeast

23 January 2012 at 11:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

ZOMG BIG FLUFFY GINGER KITTEH!!!
5

Larry

23 January 2012 at 11:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I sure hope you have a better privacy tail than that trollop, PZ
6

Ray, rude-ass yankee

23 January 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Why not both? Cat pictures aaaand controversy?
7

Second Cousin Ogvorbis, OM. Twice Removed by Request.

23 January 2012 at 12:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My, what an ego. Someone names a cat PZ Meowers, sends a photo to you, and you automatically assume that ‘Meowers’ is an intentional mispelling of ‘Myers’ when we all know that it is the Greco-Icelandic word for ‘Cute and Fuzzy.’ Sheesh!
8

unbound

23 January 2012 at 12:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Are you sure you aren’t trying to create a catroversy?
9

jstackpo

23 January 2012 at 12:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Can we not send Dr. Coyne a whole bunch of cute (?) octopi pictures, with darling names attached?
10

Kaintukee Bob

23 January 2012 at 12:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Felines invading the cephalapod center?

What a catastrophe.
11

Ray, rude-ass yankee

23 January 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

unbound@8, Yes, that’s it! A catroversy! That’s what we need.
12

amstrad

23 January 2012 at 12:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“You’re a kitty!”

http://xkcd.com/231/
13

bbgunn

23 January 2012 at 12:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“Soft kitty, warm kitty
Little ball of fur
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty
Purr, purr, purr.” – Big Bang Theory
14

janine

23 January 2012 at 12:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

In college, one of my friends had a cat named Mozart. He and his bother were movie buffs and loved the movie Amadeus. They learned that one of his past times was to shoot stray cats with arrows in the streets of Vienna from his apartment. So they named the cat in honor of that.

They were rather strange.
15

Russell

23 January 2012 at 12:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Catastrophists credence The Apocalypse of St. Felix of Catmos, which reports the genus Myers descends from squid- feline miscegenation in the bilge of the Ark after it ran aground on Mt. Aracat.

Ratastrophists ,on the other hand, think Myers’s and squid have a common ancestor in the now giant ratite of Sumatra, which swam across the Wallace line after devouring all the cats and hobbits on Flores.
16

eric

23 January 2012 at 12:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Tentacles? Check – five, four with claws.
Protective mimicry? Check – “I’m domesticated, trust me!”
Eats fish? Check.
Has trouble opening cans on its own, but never stops trying? Check.

Rather than fight over which critter is better, just call this one a pentapus and declare victory for both.
17

interrobang

23 January 2012 at 12:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Awww, squee! Adorable! (Just like our esteemed host, who is smallish, fuzzy, and cute when seen in the Big Blue Room.)
18

donny5

23 January 2012 at 12:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

PZ, next cat I get, I am definately naming after you. I think everyone should name their cats PZ, so when I walk down the street I can say: “Hey, there goes that cool Athiest Cat PZ.”
19

frog

23 January 2012 at 12:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

At least we can be fairly confident that cats are all atheists. I know mine doesn’t worship me.
20

evilDoug

23 January 2012 at 12:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

They iz nibblin on ur brain cuz o all the fishy squiddy goodness it has absorbed. Mmmmmmmmm!
21

Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel

23 January 2012 at 1:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

That’s it. I’m renaming my turtle. Emery is now Pauline Zacharita Turyers.

Hmmmmmm, needs work.
22

magistramarla

23 January 2012 at 1:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I for one am really enjoying teh kitteh pictures.
I think that cats are the perfect Atheists. They seem to understand that this one life is all they get (I don’t think that they believe all that nine lives thing). They enjoy their lives every single day.
23

Kaintukee Bob

23 January 2012 at 1:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

One important thing to realize is that thousands of years ago, cats were worshiped as gods.

They have not forgotten this.

Cat’s aren’t atheists, after all – they just think that they ARE gods…little fuzzy deities, ready to soak up adoration and dish out vengeance.
24

René

23 January 2012 at 1:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Pee Zee is an excellent cat’s name. All cats’ names should at least have one ee (/i:/) sound.

As are RI or ‘Indo’ females’. :~

I just MAY have had one drink too many.
25

Alverant

23 January 2012 at 1:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Ginger and white FUZZ!! Someone wants a tummy rub!
26

Randomfactor

23 January 2012 at 1:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“You’re a kitty!”

Eurokitty.
27

charlesthornton

23 January 2012 at 1:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Apart from being written by a monk I would have thought you would find Pangur Ban agreeable.
I and Pangur Ban my cat,
Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will,
He too plies his simple skill.

Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur’s way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.
28

RFW

23 January 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

#3 Brownian says:

How can you be sure that cat’s name is PeeZee Meowers and not PeeZed Meowers, huh?

I’ll betcha a single TimBit™ that the letter “z” is pronounced something like “tsed” in Swedish.

#14 janine says:

In college, one of my friends had a cat named Mozart. He and his bother were movie buffs and loved the movie Amadeus. They learned that one of his past times was to shoot stray cats with arrows in the streets of Vienna from his apartment. So they named the cat in honor of that.

That just shows you the fine disregard that Hollywood has for those quaint concepts “truth” and “facts”. It was actually Brahms, about a century after Mozert, who shot rooftop cats – with, iirc, a rifle – but I may be wrong about his choice of weapon. Mozart as a child is recorded as jumping down from the harpsichord and running to play with a cat that had strolled into the room.

Brahms himself was (again iirc) actually a cat lover and was shooting rooftop cats because he knew they were strays destined for a short, unhappy life. He preferred to bring them to a quick end instead of a slow painful one.

Don’t depend on movies for your factual knowledge.

And don’t depend on blog commenters, either. I think I’ve got the facts right, but reserve, as always, the right to be spectacularly misinformed.
29

DLC

23 January 2012 at 1:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Well, we could combine the cats and controversy and have Kitteh Gate™ !
Dogs expect to be treated with a paternalistic attitude, whereas cats want to use your house to sleep in, your couch to scratch on and you to open cans of food and change the litter box. It’s not so much a partnership as it is a symbiosis.
Point of Controversy: I like cats, therefore I must de facto hate dogs. There is no possible middle ground, you’re either a full on cattist or a complete bugnutty dog rights activist. but what about teh puppeiz ? There. I’ve gone and hurt my fee-fees. somebody bake me a cupcake. Preferably without a porcupine in it.
30

Irene Delse

23 January 2012 at 1:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

One important thing to realize is that thousands of years ago, cats were worshiped as gods.

They have not forgotten this.

Well… According to some authorities, so were Cephalopods… ;-)
31

chigau (同じ)

23 January 2012 at 1:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

DLC @29
did you just bingo yourself?
32

feralboy12

23 January 2012 at 1:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

In college, one of my friends had a cat named Mozart.

I’m guessing they rejected Wolfgang for obvious reasons.
When I was in college, no cats were allowed in the little 5-room apartment building where we lived. So we made do with the 4-5 neighbor cats that routinely hung out with us; they all had dumb hippie names like “Jasmine,” so we gave them all new ones taken from the British sitcom The Young Ones. These included Special Patrol, Bastard Squad, Lord Snot, and Felicity Kendall’s Underwear.
We were considered strange, too.
Killed By Fish
33

Josh, Official SpokesGay

23 January 2012 at 1:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

That cat and the name is freakin’ adorable. Do admit, PZ.
34

janine

23 January 2012 at 2:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

RFW, two things.

First; the bit about Mozart shooting cats was not in the movie. They happened to both like the movie and the music of Mozart. They claimed that they that bit out when they did some research on him. (Pre Wikipedia.)

Second; I did not say a word about the story being factual. I do not know. All I said is that was the reason they gave for naming the cat.
35

Jason Thibeault

23 January 2012 at 2:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Because you need to drive MORE traffic, PZ. Shameful, shameful. Go back to creating spurious controversy so the rest of us can catch up to you in hits, please and thanks.
36

'Tis Himself, OM.

23 January 2012 at 2:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

From the post of Jason “Technoweenie” Thibeault:

please and thanks.

What Jason “Compu-nerd” Thibeault meant to say was:

kthxbye
37

carlie

23 January 2012 at 2:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Hm, my kitty still doesn’t have a name yet…
38

'Tis Himself, OM.

23 January 2012 at 2:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

carlie,

How about Genghis Khat? Or is that not Myersy enough?
39

eric

23 January 2012 at 2:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Public service announcement: remember to have your PZ neutered or spayed within the first six months. Also get them a flea collar or medicine – all that fur tends to attract parasites.
40

Brownian

23 January 2012 at 3:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’ll betcha a single TimBit™ that the letter “z” is pronounced something like “tsed” in Swedish.

Wikipedia says the letters’ name is “Zäta” in Svenska and random other sources say it’s pronounced like ‘S’.

Sour cream, please.

All cats’ names should at least have one ee (/i:/) sound.

Mine has two, one per syllable. Cats names should have only one or two syllables (three if you’re a cunning linguist) so you can work their names into pop songs.

Hm, my kitty still doesn’t have a name yet…

Have you considered ‘Zit’, carlie? As in, “That’s my puss, Zit. I named her/him after PZ Myers.”
41

Brownian

23 January 2012 at 3:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

all that fur tends to attract parasites

Lemme guess: you’re neither a biologist nor a vet.
42

chriscox

23 January 2012 at 3:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Cute Cute. His PeeZee peepee is showing. Must just have done a “special” cleaning.
43

Brownian

23 January 2012 at 3:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Must just have done a “special” cleaning.

Weird! That’s almost exactly the excuse I used!

In hindsight, I should have just asked to speak to my lawyer and left it at that.
44

cicely (Free-range! 100% Organic!!)

23 January 2012 at 4:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Ah, the dreaded Kitteh Belly Trap!
-
45

Russell

23 January 2012 at 4:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Atheists should devote more effort to persuading cats who look up to them that they are not gods.

As the creatures abound in the Mid-Atlantic region, some Maryland publisher should invite PZ to author a short refutation of feline divinity, or Baltimore anti-catechism
46

DLC

23 January 2012 at 5:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Chigau @31 : I certainly tried. got a B – I – N and G.
Perhaps if I had closed by saying “I’ll prey on you” or something.

Tis Himself @36 : dood. it’s kthxbai. nub. /peed-aunt.
47

csmiller

23 January 2012 at 5:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Russell said

Atheists should devote more effort to persuading cats who look up to them that they are not gods.

When was the last time you say a cat look up to someone (figuratively)?

“Dogs look up to you; cats look down on you. Give me a pig! He looks you in the eye and treats you as an equal.” — Winston Churchill
48

evader

23 January 2012 at 5:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

+1 to the namer of that cat.
PZ Meowers, that’s awesome!

Norway fighting!
49

stubby

23 January 2012 at 5:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

His resolve is weakening. I volunteer at the animal shelter in a county adjacent to PZ’s and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him amble in looking for a cat.
50

piranhaintheguppytank

23 January 2012 at 5:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Just wait. One of your critics will name their cat “Puss-Z Myers”. (BTW Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.)
51

a3kr0n

23 January 2012 at 6:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Gay pron seems to have no effect on you, but this?
52

Celeste

23 January 2012 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Awwww, KITTEH!

The resemblance between you is uncanny.
53

Pierre Le Fou

23 January 2012 at 7:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I was going to ask a friend to make me a wristband with
the letters “WWPZMS” on it (What Would P Z Myers Say).
Just to keep me grounded in reality. And as a way to deify
our overlord, here.
54

magistramarla

23 January 2012 at 7:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

DLC @29
Being a cat lover does not necessarily mean hating dogs.
We live with two cats, and we both adore them. Recently, I was lucky enough to acquire a German Shepherd service dog to help me to get around. He has quickly become just as adored in this household as the kitties. My husband’s cat is still not too friendly with him, but my cat has become buddies with him – lots of mutual grooming going on.
See, cats and dogs CAN get along!
55

piero

23 January 2012 at 8:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“The resemblance between you is uncanny.”

Are you kitting? Meowers is much better lo… I mean, Myers is much better looking.
56

Russell

23 January 2012 at 11:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

csmiller:

Get back to me after you persuade a cat that it is not Winston Churchill.
57

Ichthyic

23 January 2012 at 11:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Can we not send Dr. Coyne a whole bunch of cute (?) octopi pictures, with darling names attached?

I even have some to contribute of my own:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ichthyic/5063593863/

What should we name it in honor of Jerry Coyne?
58

JohnnieCanuck

24 January 2012 at 12:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Ichthyic,

Name it Mark. As in Deutschmark. As in German coin.

Okay, okay. I can find the door myself, no need to help me out.
59

Ichthyic

24 January 2012 at 12:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

yeah… a wee bit too… subtle, there, jonnnie.

;)
60

Ichthyic

24 January 2012 at 2:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’m terrible at this.

What about:

JC Inkers?

Jerry Coynetopus?
61

birgerjohansson

24 January 2012 at 7:02 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

You know, if you count the individual whiskers as tentacles, this is one hell of a cephalopod!

Note the display of the “cute” rear paws. Any cat owner knows it is the strong rear legs that really can hurt you. This cat is trying to lure you close up so it can disembowel you.
62

Olav

24 January 2012 at 9:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

On the question of cats being atheists or not, I have this in my quote file (don’t know the source):

“Cats make poor catholics. They refuse to accept guilt, and it is almost impossible to make them kneel without force.”
63

Jason Thibeault

24 January 2012 at 7:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Tis Himself @36: I prefer “techdouche”.
64

'Tis Himself, OM.

24 January 2012 at 7:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Jason,

You would.
65

anniem.

25 January 2012 at 11:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Oh, but he’s so very cute! Reminds me of my roomate’s cat – he had such expressive big eyes. Cats rule!! :D
66

Second Cousin Ogvorbis, OM. Twice Removed by Request.

25 January 2012 at 11:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

How about “Coyne of the Realm” for your kitteh name? After all, it is well known that cats are royalty and we mere peons (dog lovers are slobberons).