Cat Thursday: Cats and Their People

A home without a cat - and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat - may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title? (--Mark Twain)

Mark Twain has always been one of my favorite authors - even before I went to a junior high school named after him. And since my husband has been reading the new autobiography this winter, lately I've been hearing a lot about Twain and his adventures. He was famous for being very fond of cats, and always had a few around him at home. He once said he could never resist a cat - "particularly a purring one." So, for this week's Cat Thursday, here are a few shots of Twain with some of his cats.

Cat Thursday is hosted by Michelle @ The True Book Addict

Movie Musings: Hot, Hot, Hot

M and I have been watching a lot of TV lately – a habit I'm really trying to kick. But since we "went digital" back around Christmas time, we've been blessed (surely that's not the right word) with dozens (nay, hundreds) more channels than we used to have back in the bad old pre-HD days, including a dozen or so that show nothing but old movies. And since movie-watching is one of M's favorite pastimes (he'll watch just about anything that flickers), it's very hard to pry him away from the tube in the evening.

Last night, we watched Body Heat, the 1981 neo-noir crime drama written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Hadn't seen this one in years – possibly not since the 1980s. It's a sort of updated take on Double Indemnity, with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner in the Fred MacMurray / Barbara Stanwyck roles. And early on in the film, Kathleen Turner delivers one of my absolute favorite-of-all-time movie lines:

"You're not very smart, are you? I like that in a man."

And William Hurt's character, the subject of her remark, really wasn't very smart – in fact, he was stupid, stupid, stupid! But I won't say any more about that – you should go watch it for yourself.

The movie had a lot more nudity and graphic sex than I remembered – and both Turner and Hurt were, of course, nearly thirty years younger and in great shape. So they were nice to look at. But there was a lot of coupling. And panting. And sweating. And soaking in tubs of ice (no, really!). All very hot and steamy. Well, it was set in Florida during a heat wave. And as I was watching, it struck me that they all could have saved themselves a whole bunch of grief if they had just invested in a good air conditioning system.