The Visitor

I’m sure you can see why the Butcher was so moved.

It Might Be Time for the Butcher to Find Human Companionship

I came home to discover that the Butcher was watching TV with…
Go ahead.  Guess.  Who was the Butcher watching TV with?
Yes, that motherfucking crawdad!!!!
It walked up to him in the yard and he… I don’t know… took it as a sign that the crawdad wanted to watch some Attack of the Show.
I made him put [...]

“Just a small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world”

I have been thinking more about class, which I think is difficult, in part, because it does so much depend on location, location, location.
I was thinking about how our church used to put together these Christmas packages for folks who were in hard economic straits.  It’d be a turkey and cans of vegetables and stuffing [...]

Guts, Forrester’s Got ‘Em

Just got this in my inbox:
“With 20/20 hindsight it was not my best decision to ask Bill Freeman to serve as Party treasurer. “
It takes real guts to speak frankly about your poor decisions and to do so quickly and with seeming transparency.
Still not giving money to these yahoos, but it’s nice to see.  Other [...]

Just Goes to Show that the Universe Has a Sense of Humor

Wasn’t it just last week I was joking about needing that army of gay men to follow Lowe Finney around and clap and cheer when he acts like a Democrat and cough loudly and attempt to wave him off when he gets too far right?
And who just was made Senate Democratic Caucus chair?
The world is [...]

Pretty Babe of Mine

Judging by the number of “What is that thing?  Are you trying to give me nightmares?” emails I received, I thought it was an appropriate moment to consider the lowly crawdad.  Here’s what I know about crawdads–no matter how much you might intellectually know that a tiny lobster-like thing can live in your yard, it [...]

Mystery Garden

There are a whole lot of weird things going on in my yard.  Join me for a tour.

For You Dog Lovers

My friend Liz, who gave me the awesome lilac in my front yard, just sent me a link to this etsy shop that sells neckerchiefs for your dog.  I think the best part is that they’re designed to not tickle your dog’s ears–an important consideration when dressing your dog up like a train engineer or [...]

In Which Our Hero Interviews Barry Mazor

That’s right, The 9513, I scored an interview with Barry Mazor.  Every day, I cry bitter tears in jealousy at all the cool stuff you do and today, like Bob Dylan says, it’s your turn; you can cry a while.  (Yes, I am taking a moment out of this important post to talk smack about [...]

Bitterly Funny News out of the Publishing Industry

The Justice Department has some concerns about the Google settlement.  That’s not the “bitterly funny” part.  That’s the “ya think?!” part.
Here’s the bitterly funny part:
While Google agreed to share the revenues with the publishers and authors, libraries are worried that Google would have solitary and overwhelming control over access to “orphan books”—titles whose authors and [...]

Just Stating for the Record

Lydia Lenker from the Governor’s Office never emailed me back.
Oh, you know how it is.  You email and don’t get an answer and someone says, “Oh, no, you should have called.”  Or you call and they’re all “Who the hell are you?” because the truth is that you already have to be someone in the [...]

Oh, Plants

It’s supposed to rain on and off for the next week or so and I am nervously watching the garden.  It couldn’t be better timing, of course.  Get the garden in and let the rains come.  But I’m still nervous for the transplants.  I want to run out there every five minutes and whisper words [...]

Three Things

1.  For the first time in my blogging career, I get to tell you that I am working on something so cool I about can’t stand it and ask you to be on the lookout for it, right here at Tiny Cat Pants.
2.  The poor dog has been suffering from allergies for days, then had [...]

One More Thing on Lila Rose

I thought this went without saying in my “evidence that the intake worker at the Planned Parenthood in Memphis would have immediately been like ‘This is weird.’” but Lila Rose is white.  And has a discernible non-Southern accent.  So, a white woman with a non-Southern accent and a weird baby voice walks into the Memphis [...]

Signs and Wonders

Last night, as I was coming home, Clarksville Pike was closed right at the dying Methodist church.  A big emergency vehicle was flashing and blocking the road.  I turned onto Echo thinking that I could cut back over to Stevens and around whatever was going on, but when I got to Stevens, there was a [...]

Bob Proehl, I Shake My Head at You

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine about book-writing and I said that there’s no reason to NOT try to get published, if you want to, because lord knows, any damn fool can get a book contract.
Take as a case in point Bob Proehl over at PopMatters.  He’s “operating No Radio [...]

We’re Number 2! We’re Number 9! When It Comes to Danger, We Think It’s Mighty Fine!

Via the wonderful folks at the Nashvillest and the charming Caleb Hannan at Pith, we learn that Forbes has ranked the most dangerous cities in the nation and Tennessee has made the list twice–Memphis at #2 and Nashville at #9.  As Hannan points out, we’re more dangerous than the city The Wire was based in.
And, [...]

Open Letters to Folks Who Need Them

Dear Times-News,
“Last month, the New York Times published a story examining the county’s economic troubles and its effects on both local and Hispanic workers.”  Really?
So, these Hispanic workers of which you speak don’t work locally?
Do they all somehow have giant robotic arms that allow them to live in, say, Nashville and work their arms so [...]

“But We Have to Be This Way in Order to Win”

I’ve been thinking more and more about this idea that a.) Obama lost Tennessee because Tennesseans are unrepentant racists (Though, let us note that at least the “Obama lost Tennessee because Tennesseans are unrepentant racist” argument at least gets us beyond the TNDP v. the Governor and his buddies fight which is “Obama lost Tennessee [...]

The Front Yard Irises

See what I mean?  In real life, that nandina is a crazy dark beautiful red, but you can’t really tell from the picture.

Hot Bee on B. action

At a less-classy blog than this joint, the title of this post would be a euphamism for masturbation.
Lucky for you, I’m just coming in to report that, while I was waiting for Rachel, I was lounging in the hammock and a bee landed on my toe.  Yes, my first instinct was to scream and shake [...]

Neither Here Nor There

It’s hard for me to talk about class.  I grew up on small Midwestern towns  and I felt solidly middle class.  My best friend for a while was the mayor’s daughter.  I ran around with the police chief’s son in another town.  (But I also ran with kids that “everyone” repeatedly told me were trash.)  [...]

Sunday Gardening Update

God, it feels like ages since we’ve had a good gardening update, doesn’t it?
Anyway, the garden is completely in.  The peppers transplanted just fine, but the tomatoes are moping around.  Though, I have noticed that tomatoes seem to like to mope around every time there’s a minor change.
NM has her tomatoes and she kindly pretended [...]

Poor Dog

It’s been the kind of weekend where, when the dog is standing there on the sidewalk seemingly undecided about whether to come in or go pee or maybe just lay down and die, you ask yourself–”Is it possible the dog is hung over?”
Poor Mrs. Wigglebottom, she could not look any more pitiful.  Her eyes are [...]

Grrr.

Does having a blog I know my parents don’t read in which I complain about them make me the queen of passive-aggressiveness or not?  I wonder, sometimes.
But that doesn’t prevent me from coming on here and saying that while at the same time I am irritated beyond words that they want us to drive up [...]