What affects us affects cats
Ben Jonson is in the news today! On this day, 22nd September, in 1598, the English playwright Ben Jonson was charged with the killing of an actor in a duel. He was acquitted after reciting a Bible verse. He shot a fellow actor named Gabriel Spencer at Hogsden (Hoxton) Fields in Shoreditch, London. He …
The 18th-century phrase “he let the cat out of the bag” was used very recently by Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers in their efforts to convince a judge to block the release of documents which contained “intimate, sensitive and personal” information about Ghislaine Maxwell which she had divulged in a deposition taken in April 2016 for …
Cats don’t have nine lives and neither do dogs. Obviously they both have one life unless you believe in and include the afterlife or reincarnation which I am not doing here. “A cat has nine lives’ is simply a saying which means that inquisitve domestic cats take risks and often survive those risks because …
Witchcraft is the origin of the long held belief in many countries and cultures that black cats bring bad luck if they cross your path. Confusingly the opposite belief – that they bring good luck – is also a superstition in some places. It started in Europe in the Middle Ages and during three …
This phrase means no room to swing a cat-o’-nine-tails, the whip used to punish British sailors and soldiers from the 17th century until it was outlawed in 1881. The cramped quarters below deck on ship prevented the use of this long whip and so the punishment had to be carried out above the lower …
The words in the title were said by Sir Kingsley Amis (1922-1995). Sir Kingsley Amis was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels and six volumes of poetry and a lot more besides. Also, he was a cat lover. He associated gentleness in people who are the guardians …
There is an important difference between the meaning of the word ‘ailurophobe’ and the phrase ‘cat hater’. Some people believe that they are interchangeable. Strictly speaking this is incorrect. True ailurophobes (such a Napoleon) have a cat phobia – a deep seated fear of cats (ailurophobia). They may learn to hate cats as a …
‘Cathouse’ is slang for brothel. It has been used for centuries. The origin of the word is rooted in the perceived promiscuity of the urban female cat who attracts many tom cats when she is in heat and mates with them in sequence. Sentences: There is a cathouse down the road. The madam of …
