Ember is 5 years old and very playful. She's an only cat
and was separated from her littermates very early, so she never learned how to "play nice." She's rough and tumble in her favorite game of ambushing me.

She always left her claws out when she tagged my legs during an ambush. I tried acting hurt to teach her to pull in the claws but it never worked ...until ...

One day Ember rushed out of her tunnel as I walked by and swatted my legs as usual. I was wearing capris and loafers, no socks. Her claws caught a surface vein in my ankle and it bled a LOT for a small vein. Ember froze in place and stared at the blood running down into my shoe.

I hobbled to the battroom to clean up. Used up a lot of paper towels staunching the blood flow. The whole time, Ember sat in the doorway staring at me. When the bleeding stopped, I put on anesthetic and a Band-aid, washed out my shoe, and sat down in the living room. Ember followed me, sniffed the Band-aid, and looked into my face. Then she disappeared.

About an hour later, I went to the kitchen, passing her tunnel on the way. She rushed out at me as usual, then paused suddenly and gently tapped my leg with her claws held in.

She still ambushes me, but now she always holds her claws in and taps gently instead of swatting. She's an indoor cat and has never hunted. It's as if she suddenly realized what lethal weapons her claws are and is afraid of hurting me again. So she self-adjusted her play habits.

What a sweety.

From the Garfield comic strip.

What do you call a cat after a 10 hour nap?

Sleep deprived.

It is not a news organization. It is a RW propaganda tool. Why legitimize their claim to offer real news by including the word "news" in their name?

Sure, we can say "Faux News," but that will never catch on outside of left wing circles. I'd like to see new terminology that is accurate, not inflammatory, and not obviously partisan, just accurate, so it develops mainstream usage.

Just call it "Fox TV." It is accurate, but does not support the illusion that it is a news agency.

I'd like to see Fox TV become the widespread, common usage term in everyday speech.

what would it be and why?

It's the 'what if' of turning points that I 'm thinking of.

I would go to the German Empire in 1888, and save the life of Kaiser Frederick William, son of Wilhem I and father of Wihelm II. Kaiser Frederick was married to Queen Victoria's daughter, also named Victoria. He admired the British parliamentary system and had great plans for political, social, and economic reforms in Germany.

But Fritz died of throat cancer after just 3 months as kaiser. His son, Wilhelm II rejected his parents' reforms and later led his country into the First World War.

If Fritz had lived, WWI might have been avoided. Without WWI there is no WWII, no Nazi regime, and no Holocaust.

I like to watch how pets react to new situations and solve problems.

My current cat, Ember, likes the fuzzy little wind-up toy chickens that stores sell in the spring, around Easter. This year I found a variation that looks similar, but is called a palm pet. When you hold it in your palm, it makes little peeps that sound exactly like a bird.

When Ember heard it she ran to the window to see where the bird was. I showed her the toy. She sniffed it, rubbed it, and looked out the window again. Each time it peeped, she jerked her head in a different position in the window, searching for the bird. She is normally very good at identifying the location of sounds. But, in her experience, the sound that the toy made could only come from a bird, and birds are only outside. Therefore, in spite of me holding the toy next to her to see where the peep came from, she continued to seek the source outdoors. She is normally a very clever cat, smarter than some I've had. But she could not believe new evidence before her eyes that conflicted with her previously learned experience.

A previous cat of mine, Leo, used to be fascinated with the cat in the mirror when he was a kitten. But, it didn't act like he expected another cat to act, so he was puzzled. Since he couldn't figure it out, he refused to look in mirrors after that. Turned his head away if I held him to a mirror. Would not let me turn his head to look. His attitude was like, "That does not compute, so I refuse to acknowledge it at all."

Then I realized how often people are like that, too. Indoor cats, with their limited experience of new situations, can be excused for sticking to set patterns of thinking. But what's our excuse as humans?

Just wanted this oppotunity to say thanks.

I could have missed it because I have not watched or heard every minute of the trial. But I believe this is a term that needs to be brought up during this trial and I wonder why it hasn't been. It describes so well what Trump did for four years leading up to Jan 6.

Trump's words leading up to Jan 6 amount to stochastic terrorism. His words and actions need to be identified with that term because that is what he is guilty of.

I have always been moved by emotional scenes in movies, but usually just got a lump in my throat, or had my eyes well up a bit.

But now that I'm older, I actually cry, with tears on my cheeks and a runny nose that sends me grabbing for tissues. Do we get more sappy with age?

I have a collection of old movies, some classics, and even though I have seen them before, and know the outcomes, I still cry over them. This includes West Side Story when Maria leans over Tony's dead body, Ghost when Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) is saying his last good-bye to Molly (Demi Moore), and Forest Gump when he stands at his dead wife's grave. I even cry when Dobby the elf dies in the first half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I can't even chalk it up to the stress of being cooped up during the pandemic because I noticed this tendency to cry more easily before covid. I thought getting older meant that I was stronger from life experience, but I'm apparently more sentimental than I realized.

Any one else feel more sentimental with age?

I have not found any source that identifies the woman or who shot her, or why. One person interviewed by NPR thought it was DC police who shot the woman as she pushed to enter the Capitol, but did not have confirmation of that.