your daily demon: beleth

Ruling from today until 25 May this thirteenth spirit is an infernal king who presents as a feline riding a pale horse with a retinue of bewitching musical instruments. The exorcist must accord this demon due deference accorded to his high rank and office and must maintain courage though Beleth will try to frighten the summoner. Citing the Pseudomonarachia Dæmonum, the first conjurer to call on him was Noah’s son Ham after the Great Flood, who then co-authored a treatise on mathematics. Beleth commands eighty-five legion and is opposed by the angel Iezalel.

dogs would be terrible poker players

Via the New Shelton wet/dry and introduced by the above irony that canine companions would have far too many tells to be successful gamblers, we are presented with the prejudice of our perceptions and the readiness of many to dismiss our feline friends as aloof despite a domestic bond—the only successfully asocial interspecies friendship we’ve managed—that’s endured for untold generations. Given the typical feline social structure and humans wanting to impose and expecting to imprint on our housemates, it’s little wonder that we misinterpret their signals and signs of affection. More relationship advice from the BBC at the link above.

when cats are maddened by the midnight dance

Based on a poetry anthology by T.S. Eliot, the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber premiered at the New London Theatre on this day in 1981. The two act narrative portrays one night in the lives of the members of a tribe of semi-feral felines cast their “Jellicle choice” and decide which cat—sort of echoing the 1976 cinematic adaptation of Logan’s Run—would ascend to the Heavyside Layer and be reincarnated. As the first mega-musical blockbuster, Cats introduced the strategy and template for productions to follow and arguable raise the bar for entry for less well financed endeavours.

married to the sea

Via Strange Company, we were introduced to the missionary felines of the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and the cats were delights in themselves of course, brave Bosun, Seaweed and her family and other seafaring companions, but the history of this organisation with its fleet of floating churches would be engrossing enough in itself.

Established in 1834 by the American Episcopal Church and still in operation, it is the biggest advocate for sailors, longshoremen and merchant mariners providing educational, legal, union representation, hospitality and pastoral services for the ports of New York and New Jersey, sending chaplains and sponsoring events such as Christmas at Sea (more recently shopping and arranging supplies through gangway exchanges for those stranded by COVID-19) and training and safety programmes and supporting studies on more effective ways to approach piracy, stowaways, refugees and shore leave. More at the links above.

the french word for hobbyhorse

Via Colossal, we are introduced to the extensive portfolio of Glasgow based artist and illustrator Lola Dupré through her didgitally distorted portraiture and other painterly compositions informed by the dadaesque movement of a century ago. Her cat Charlie is featured prominently in her repertoire, many impossible angles suggesting mirror reflections but other means of doubling and reduplication as well. More at the links above.

6x6

message in a bottle: researchers tagged plastic waste with electronic trackers to monitor their journey—from the same team that brought us Mister Trash Wheel 

pfizer-biontech: British nonagenarian first to receive the coronavirus vaccine  

wunderpus photogenicus: deep sea diver photographs an incredible infant octopus with a transparent head

toot your own horn: more butt trumpets and other bizarre imagery in manuscript marginalia 

catsa lander mark-1: a gorgeous space-age cat bed—though our feline friends would be more pleased with a shoebox

2014-076a: Hayabusa2 (previously) successfully returns its asteroid sample to Earth

⛩️

Reminiscent of this earlier modular feline environment, we are quite enjoying these cardboard shrines for cats in the Shinto style for the further deification of one’s worshipful beloved. With a variety of configurations possible, one can easily adapt the housing in a number of ways for the safekeeping of the sacred. Learn more at Spoon & Tamago at the link above.

meow, meow, meow

Whilst not much is known about the fifth century Cornish missionary and saint (see previously) venerated on this day who is often conflated with Saint Felicity or Felix of Dunwich, what is reputed to Felec of Cornwall, his miraculous ability to communicate with cats, lions and other felines more than makes up for his overall obscurity.  How would you limn out Saint Felec’s acta and vita?

vox in rama

First dispatched to Emperor Friedrich II and his son King Heinrich of Germany on this day in 1233, with many other furnished courtesy-copies later, the papal decretal, A Voice in Ramah (a village in Palestine with several Biblical citations), issued by Gregory IX established an inquisition commission to combat heresy and Gnosticism (which the Church defined as devil worship), eventually precipitating the Bosnian Crusade.
The letters patent which carried the legal force of a bull, a public decree, included detailed descriptions of initiation rites and the satanic familiars enlisted to do their dark master’s bidding and increase the numbers of the congregation—specifically shape-shifting toads and black cats. Not only did the directive sew distrust among neighbours and led to violence and plunder, the zealous prejudice against felines is strongly believed to be amongst the chief driving forces of the spread of the plague throughout Europe, with no cats to keep the rodent population under control, the fleas they bore were more readily able to infect human populations.

chain reaction

Via Pasa Bon!, we present a veritable Rube Goldberg montage of cats and dominos from Cat Navi Desk, an act, collective responsible for quite a few feline interventions well worth your time and attention. Find out more at the links above.

une chatte connue pour avoir été envoyée dans l'espace et récupérée vivante

Via Mental Floss we learn that after nearly sixty years of languishing relative obscurity, thanks to a vigorous campaign, the contributions and the legacy of the first and only feline in space, Félicette, are finally being recognised and commemorated with a proper monument. Unveiled with fanfare last month and sharing an exhibition space in Pioneers’ Hall of the International Space University, l’Université spatiale internationale (though one might hope for a more public and accessible memorial) in Strasbourg with a bust of Yuri Gagarin—the first human in space, the bronze of the cat on a plinth represents more of the untold story behind scientific advancement. Much more to explore at the links above.

pavlovian response

Though sadly his predictions about being up to our necks in bugs did not come to pass and by losing the insects we are losing the song birds as well and we’d prefer this method of conditioning feline instincts, I think that it was a pretty noble notion on the part of inventor and erstwhile actor Desmond Slattery to save our avian friends from our domestic ambush by associating a poaching with a violent and memorable explosion through a treacherous decoy that did exactly that. Debuting his prototype in 1968, Slattery hoped that cats and birds would going forward coexist in harmony.

jovan musk

Weird Universe informs that one fragrance, Calvin Klein’s Obsession, has the particular endorsement of individuals of the feline variety, having near aphrodisiac qualities. Cats are keen on this scent due to one of its signature ingredients that make up the bouquet, a chemical compound called civetone, a pheromone originally distilled from the scent glands of the African civet that can be re-created synthetically with the chemicals found in palm oil. The cologne has allure for both domestic and wild cats.

hairball

Delightfully, we learn that from a candid picture of their cat regaled with its shed fur as a jaunty head-dress—the subjects might be humiliated but not distressed by it since it’s their own fur—has developed into a minor movement and phenomenon known as Nukege (猫 抜け毛, shed or dander) Hats. I’m sure it takes some practise and patience to get good at it—and a cooperative model—but the medium seems to be pretty pliable. See a whole gallery and learn more about the originators at the link above.

jennyanydots

I think we are all this film review of the upcoming “live,” demented deep-dreaming nightmare adaptation of the musical Cats. So many questions that dare not seek answers.
The 1981 piece is based on a collection of epistolary poetry that T. S. Eliot (previously) composed to entertain his godchildren in the 1930s—presenting a sociological tract on a tribe of felines and their nomination of one of their members to ascend into a paradisaical afterlife and be reincarnated, and the new production, starring an ensemble cast of screen and stage luminaries projected onto cat-sized avatars, is seemingly riding the coattails of attempting to revive old properties with live-actors aided by digital graphics, dispensing the need for imagination and suspension of disbelief, illustrative of what happens when creative outlets are not constrained by a budget and no one has the courage of conviction to say when a project is going in the wrong direction.

big wiggy bool

Revisiting an experiment from last year, AI Weirdness (previously) attempts to train a neural network to come up with cat names, ranging from the fussy and fancy to dark and foreboding. The new monikers (see also) were given to cats up for adoption at an animal rescue shelter in the Philadelphia area. Among our favourites were Beep Boop, He Glad, Elle Fury and Tom Glitter. Much more to explore at the links above.

free to use & reuse

Via the always resourceful Kottke’s Quick Links, we are directed once again to the growing archives of the Library of Congress (previously), whose curatorial staff—like any of us—appreciates a good image of the feline variety (go here to read about proto-meme-maker and cat fancier Harry Whittier Frees) and expects the readership to put these cats back out into circulation. This is also a good gateway and point of departure for exploring the stacks and discovering more of the library’s collections.

corrugator

My Modern Met refers us to a line of attractive and reasonably-priced modular feline furniture, conceived by a couple of human architects attuned to the shelter and comfort of the cats that share their living space. Not only is the design from A Cat Thing expandable and adjustable to hold one’s companion’s attention for longer, it is also expendable should you or your cat grow bored and dismissive of the whole cardboard ensemble and prefer a cosy sock drawer or a laundry hamper (here’s an award-winning thesis on the accommodating nature of the feline form), the material is fully recyclable.

feline fugue

Reflecting on the universal appeal of music, researchers at the University of Wisconsin wondered back in 2015 if a sliding set of parameters could be introduced to resonate with non-human animals for real human compositions. Adjusting tone, pitch and tempo, an audience of cats became visibly involved, as compared to works arranged for human ears, which elicited little to no notice. How do your companions, of any variety, react to this recording?  Learn more about the experiment and research at the link above.

felis silvestris

Scheduled to be bringing a cat into our lives soon, our gratitude goes to the always brilliant Nag on the Lake for bringing us word of Baloo the feline who retrieves outstanding leaves for his human. We don’t wish to countermand Nature or the instincts of our future companion but I did harbour worries, living at the edge of a forest, about the detrimental effect that introducing a domestic hunter might have on local wildlife but seeing that a cat can curb and re-direct their energies towards being a leaf-peeper or even  a rock-hound is a pretty exciting prospect.