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.

You (mostly)solid black cat owners are aware of the One Black Cat theory, right? That there is only one (all-)black cat, who like Schroedinger's cat appears wherever it wills, in one or more places at a time. A whimsical concept, but it could explain the occasional inexplicable wild hair--the OBC is reacting in one place to events in another.

Trochee fixation - explains about 30% of pop culture over the last 30 years.

aren't pretty much all 2 syllable works in the english language trochees? We rarely move emphasis off the first syllable.

I have a job interview on Friday!