A Michael Broad Blog
The answer that I have provided is simple and straightforward. You’ll probably see different answers to the question because the exact origin is a bit of a mystery still. I trust this one as it comes from Dr Morris writing in his book ‘Catlore’, although I knew this answer already. In the 1920s and …
In the context of the theft of your cat, there are three different types of stealing: plain stealing i.e. theft, robbery and burglary. What’s the difference between them? It’s quite useful to know because there’s lots of thievery occurring in Great Britain today not infrequently of dogs and cats. Stealing/theft: in essence, this is …
‘Floof’ is an onomatopoeic word. It originates in the way that it sounds when it is said. It’s also a version of the word “fluffy”. But fluffy is an adjective and “floof” is a noun. It appears to be a social media creation derived from the fact that many domestic cats have nice fluffy …
The unfortunate and unpleasant phrase used in government and business ‘dead cat strategy’ needs to be discarded and never used again. Currently, in the UK, there is an enquiry into how the UK government dealt with the Covid-19 crisis (very badly by all accounts). It will cost a staggering £200m! What a waste of …
You see it often: cat show judges and even Wikipedia describing the Maine Coon cat as a “natural breed”. In fact, Wikipedia opens up with the statement that the Maine Coon cat is “one of the oldest natural breeds in North America”. It seems to me that the phrase “natural breed” is an oxymoron, …
The term ‘ram-cat’ is an early name for a male cat. An alternative name at the time was ‘boar-cat’. Both these very old-fashioned terms were superseded by ‘tomcat’ in the 18th century. Today the word tomcat actually means an unneutered male cat; a street cat doing what tomcats do which is establish and defend …
Here’s how to translate a website into your language using Google Translate. It is a bit fiddlier on phones because of the restricted size of the device. But this is pretty straightforward for first-time users. Copy the website’s address by tapping it once. The website’s address is the ‘URL’. It is in the box …
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland readers encounter a large, grinning cat lying on the hearth. Alice is told that the cat is grinning from ear to ear because they are from Cheshire but there’s no explanation as to why cats from that county in England (see map below) should be predisposed to smiling …
