Cat Dancing; Or, a Good Case Can be Made for Rigorous Training in the Close Reading of Poems

The World of Dancing Cats writes:

Cat dancing and dancing with cats is not a new phenomenon

The earliest written record of a cat dancing with a person dates from 1692 and evidence of the practice is clearly alluded to in the earliest versions of that rather strange nursery rhyme:

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed to see such craft
And the dish ran away with the spoon

In the original version, which is believed to have been a witches' chant, the opening line is, "Heigh diddle daddle". This is obviously an invitation to the dance; "heigh" being a call of encouragement and to "diddle daddle" meaning to shake or move from side to side in a series of jerks. ("Diddle daddle" was later changed to "diddle diddle" around 1760 when it was popularized as a nursery rhyme so as the first line would rhyme with "fiddle" in the second.)

The earliest version of the second line reads, "The cat's fiddle faddle" which is a derogatory reference to the nonsensical craze of joyful leaping about with cats. A later version of the second line reads, "The cat has the fiddle", which refers not only to the wailing fiddle–like sound the cat makes but also to the fact that it is possessed of a kind of musical power which is able to get us up and dancing. The use of the word "catgut" to describe what the strings of a violin are made of, when they are actually made of sheep's intestines, is further evidence of a belief in the musical or bewitching qualities of the cat¹s inner being.

"The cows jumped over the moon" tells of the way in which cats are known to "spook" cows in the fields at night and send them rushing madly about.However, there is a clear inference here that the cows are willing partners in this "dance" and even today being "over the moon" means being deliriously happy.

"The little dog laughed to see such craft" is a clear reference to Canis Minor or Procyon, the Lesser Dog Star in the constellation of the Little Dog. The suggestion here is that this "craft" or art has a far wider cosmic link and implies that the power of the universe is able to be channelled positively by dancing with cats.

"The dish ran about like a spoon". "The dish" here, is another name for a maid, usually a milk maid, and a "spoon" or spoony is an archaic term for a crazy person.So in this last line we have cat dancing making the maid rush about like a crazy person.

The verse clearly suggests that the practice of cat dancing can have negative consequences especially for females, leading not only to lunacy in cows, but in the case of maids, to a complete loss of proper muscle control. There is little doubt that this was precisely the message the verse was designed to convey and it is likely to have been vigorously promoted by the Church in the middle ages as it wished to encourage the belief that, "...those who durst jig by the cat do cavort with the devil hemself".

link: http://www.monpa.com/dwc/history.htm

Bored With Your Dumb Old Cat? Paint It!

link

Hard-Liners Complain of Ahmadinejad's VP Choice

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, already at the center of a post-election crisis, came under criticism from his own hard-line supporters Sunday for appointing a first vice president who once caused an outcry by saying Iranians were friends of Israelis.

Ahmadinejad has been under siege by opposition supporters who claim he stole last month's election from pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. The latest criticism was a reminder that while hard-liners have supported Ahmadinejad in the election dispute, they often criticized him before the vote, especially over his handling of Iran's economy.

link: Ahmadinejad Criticized By Hard-Liners Over Vice President Choice

Gays v. Mormons: A Kiss is Still a Kiss

Jennifer Dobner writes:

A mass-kissing protest near the Mormon church temple Sunday drew a shouting match between gay activists and a group of faithful Mormons.

For the second consecutive weekend, about 100 people gathered to stage a "kiss-in" to protest the treatment of two gay men cited for trespassing July 9 after they shared a kiss on the plaza owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both gay and straight couples exchanged kisses during the protest.

Demonstrators were greeted at the south entrance by a group of protesters carrying large signs that denounced homosexuality, prompting a heated verbal exchange.

Police say no one was arrested or cited, despite a large group exchanging kisses by a reflecting pool at the plaza's center.

"We didn't call the police. We didn't do anything," church spokeswoman Kim Farah said.

The church bought one block of Salt Lake City's Main Street to build a plaza in the 1990s alongside the Temple, where Mormon marriages and other religious rituals take place.

Matt Aune has said he and his partner, Derek Jones, exchanged a modest kiss at the plaza 11 days ago, but church officials contend their behavior was lewd.

"There was much more involved that a simple kiss of the cheek," Farah said in a statement Friday. "They engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language, and had obviously been using alcohol."

link: Mass 'Kiss-In' Protest At Mormon Temple Leads To Confrontation

Nunzio Capece, Artist

Nunzio Capece - Ultime Opere

Obama A Puzzle to African "Despots"

Allan Tacca writes:

If my memory is correct, the only time I have written about US President Barack Obama was in January this year, when I observed (among other things) that Obama is the first U.S. leader - and that there may be no other one for a hundred years - to be free from the racial baggage that prevents white Western leaders from confronting their African counterparts with more forceful moral authority.

In simple terms, the descendants of slave owners, imperialists and brutal colonialists could always be reminded of that history and intimidated into silence whenever they tried to "teach" democracy and good governance to Africa's despots.

But Obama presents special difficulties to Africa's tough guys. He can say that he has enough African blood not to entertain that old racial crap. And they need no reminder that he has enough communication skills to meet any rhetorical challenge from the continent. And yet, paradoxically, their biggest headache may turn out to be Obama's responsibility to the very identity of blackness.

continue reading at the link: allAfrica.com: Africa: Obama's Blackness Unsettles Despots (Page 1 of 1)

Congo Seeks Reconciliation Measures

On the last Saturday of each month, perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide can be seen in the fields and hills surrounding the southern city of Butare, working together to repair roads and build houses.

Participants in these projects are known as "tigistes", after the French acronym TIG for travaux d'interet general or community work, and they carry hoes, spades and picks to rebuild their country, which 15 years ago was ravaged by a genocide that killed nearly a million people.

Rwanda's neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, is also seeking ways to deal with the aftermath of a war that has caused the deaths of over five million people there since 1998.

A truth and reconciliation commission, TRC, is one possibility but a previous attempt in 2004 was riddled with political and financial difficulties. As a result, the commission did not hold a single hearing and was abandoned altogether after the DRC's first democratic elections in 2006.

But there are recent calls for a new commission, even from the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, ICC, where Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga is currently standing trial for conscripting and using child soldiers in the Ituri region's bloody inter ethnic conflict.

link: allAfrica.com: Congo-Kinshasa: Congolese Push for Reconciliation (Page 1 of 1)

Aziz Likely Victor in Mauritania; Opposition Say Result "Prefabricated"

Coup leader Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz looked headed to victory on Sunday in Mauritania's presidential election, but the opposition denounced the vote as a charade with "prefabricated results".

link: Pan-African News Wire: General Aziz Poised For Victory in Presidential Election in Mauritania

Built-In Telescope for Macular Degeneration Victims

Anne Eisenberg writes:

A TINY glass telescope, the size of a pea, has been successfully implanted in the eyes of people with severely damaged retinas, helping them to read, watch television and better see familiar faces.

The new device is for people with an irreversible, advanced form of macular degeneration in which a blind spot develops in the central vision of both eyes.

In a brief, outpatient procedure, a corneal specialist implants the mini-telescope in one eye in place of its natural lens. The telescope magnifies images on the retina, extending them so they fall on healthy cells outside the damaged macula, said Allen W. Hill, chief executive of VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies in Saratoga, Calif., the implant’s maker.

link: Novelties - Better Vision, With an Implanted Telescope - NYTimes.com