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I was in the living room puttering around a problem in databases and web page constructs that I've been working indifferently on for months (although I think I'm getting closer to a breakthrough) and watching some History Channel-class show explain World War II in detail. I wonder if you watched all the World War II documentaries ever made, would last longer than the actual World War II? If you estimate the war as starting at the German invasion of Poland and ending at the Japanese surrender aboard the Missouri, that runs a total of something like 52,630 hours, which would be long even for Ken Burns. (I have to hedge since while there seems to be pretty good agreement when Germany invaded Poland, I can't find a reference to when the surrender was signed in Tokyo Bay, and by what clock that was. Writers of popular histories of wars have got to learn the importance of specifying time zones.) Still, someday probably the accumulated documentaries will exceed the war's length, and I wonder when.
While thus occupied, I heard a sliding and crashing noise from somewhere around my bedroom, although the most I could say was it was in that quarter of the house. Shortly afterward, out stepped the white (young, eager) cat, taking very deliberate paces and avoiding looking at me. Clearly, she'd broken something and was now trying to pretend no such thing had ever happened. I may not have kids, and in fact I don't, but I know that behavior pattern.
What I couldn't find was just what she had knocked over. Everything in my room seemed to be in order, and the closet doors were still slid shut, which meant she probably hadn't broke anything in there. The cats have been making great progress in their understanding of how doors work lately, but the sliding doors they haven't got down. The things piled in the hall were still piled there, too, so apparently the cat had managed to knock over things and then put them back in order, which is a silly thought. What it turned out to actually be: she had knocked over the extra rolls of toilet paper in the bathroom. Probably she'd been jumping up to or down from the shower door and had a gravity-related incident.
Trivia: Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth 15 November 1577, with a secret commission. The sailors were not informed they were to pass through the Straits of Magellan. Source: In Quest of Spices, Sonia E Howe.
Currently Reading: Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, Caroline Elkins.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-15 08:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-16 04:55 am (UTC)You know, that's possible too. Although, really, she is a leaper. It's worth keeping moving when you're around, lest she jump up to your shoulders.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-17 06:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-18 05:29 am (UTC)I don't know if I noticed, but that's a fine leaper. The other cat likes to walk up to people who are sitting and then bump her head into their chin.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-18 07:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-19 05:31 am (UTC)I hope not the sharp parts of a beak.
now now now....
Date: 2007-11-19 06:16 am (UTC)Re: now now now....
Date: 2007-11-20 05:42 am (UTC)Ah, well, that should make it safer if you don't happen to see that wall in front of you. Shock absorption.
Re: now now now....
Date: 2007-11-20 08:49 am (UTC)Re: now now now....
Date: 2007-11-21 05:18 am (UTC)'Course, it would help more people if you got the whole wall padded instead.
Re: now now now....
Date: 2007-11-21 06:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-15 05:15 pm (UTC)The instrument of surrender (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/japanese_surrender_document/images/instrument_of_surrender_02.jpg) has the times noted as 'Z', (the modern +0000) if you look. 9am in London would be about 6pm that same day in Tokyo.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-16 05:06 am (UTC)Wow. It had never occurred to me that the surrender documents might be scanned and put online. I don't know why; I guess I just never thought about it.
I'm intrigued by how they had the form pre-printed for Japan's surrender, but left blank spots for the location and day and month of surrender, but pre-printed the year. Who typeset that, and when? -- It has to have been prepared after the Emperor announced surrender, since up till then the best guesses on western parts was that the war would last until 1946, but then wouldn't they have known the date and location in enough time to set and print up enough copies?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-22 03:02 am (UTC)I sense there's some sort of exaggeration of the sound involved here, because i can't picture toilet paper precisely 'crashing'. Unless your cat managed particular talent with it.
--Chiaroscuro