Oh- I once showed someone a picture of my cat with my mom's cats- all of them black, and they were so shocked at all the black cats they physically jumped back from the picture in horror!

Seriously?? Seriously.

Left to my own devices, I would be a crazy cat lady, and have five or six. Pete keeps me from that path.

I want dozens of cats and dozens of dogs. And, goats.

I plan to retire one day to the country and have lots of land and all sorts of rescued critters. I have to get rid of my traveling bug, though, because it's really hard to take off for a couple of weeks when you've got acres of animals.

I had no idea that people didn't adopt black cats. I've known so many--indeed I've owned a fair number myself. Maybe there are more of them born than some of the other colors? Aren't calicoes relatively rare? So maybe black cats are just relatively a lot more common.

And, in one fell swoop, java ensures we will never grow old together.

Nancy, the 19th century stage automaton.

Less uncanny than most!

So maybe black cats are just relatively a lot more common.

I've never seen statistics on how common different types of cats are. But the shelter we volunteer at has quite a few black and tuxie cats. At least a couple of whom are very friendly.

Oz is the only cat that I've thought about the colour. And mostly, it was his sad face that sucked me in. My two previous cats just kind of happened. I actively disliked white cats before I got Pico, and with Clio it was a choice between brown tabby or brown calico.

The last two cats I got were supposed to be orange, or so I thought when I started looking, but neither of them are.

I would love an orange kitty.

Well, I really want a classic tortie and white - so there would be orange and black together.

Hee--How Chicago Can Beat New York's Total Snowfall.

Richard Daley could, in one of his last acts as mayor, seed the clouds over Chicago to create more snow. Oprah Winfrey could have snow airlifted in from the Swiss Alps and dumped on the city, thus simulating a major snowstorm.

"I'm sure we in the weather community could look the other way," Skilling said. "That would count."

Finally, we agreed — or at least I agreed — that the most practical way for Chicago to catch up to New York is to put Rahm Emanuel atop the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier and have him yell at the sky until it starts snowing.

"If there's anybody who can yell at the sky and get the sky to precipitate, it may be Rahm," Skilling said. "Hats off to him if he can get us past New York. We can't let them beat us."...

Bill Savage, a senior lecturer in the English department at Northwestern University and an expert on Chicago history and culture, said that in the absence of any more significant snowfall — either naturally occurring or candidate-induced — the city could fall back on its grand tradition of cheating.

"I'm pretty sure we could just truck some of the snow we've got from different neighborhoods, find the spot out at O'Hare where they do the measurements and just add some as needed," Savage said. "Just have a guy with a wheelbarrow out there. Instead of cooking the vote, let's cook the measurement of the snow."

Bingo.

Let those New Yorkers have their pristine, white, natural snow, delivered in blue Tiffany bags by tuxedo-clad weather butlers.

Chicago will always come out on top. Because our snow is as deep — and as dirty — as we say it is.