Photos of cats dressed in clothes, posed like they’re playing the banjo, working in a photography studio, riding a motorcycle and riding a horse. I’m not referring to an Instagram account, Tumblr account, Twitter stream or blog. I’m referring to real life photographs taken by Nancy Hendrickson in the 1920s.
That’s right. A cat photo explosion worthy of internet fame but created nearly one hundred years ago. Civilized Cats: An Album in Words & Pictures takes the wonderful photographs of Hendrickson and pairs them with quotes about cats.
You can sit down and read Civilized Cats: An Album in Words & Pictures in very little time. But better would be to savor it and appreciate the pairing of words and photos. For me, a lover of cats who’s worked with thousands of them at the animal rescue at which I volunteer, my favorite part of the book was contemplating how Hendrickson got the cats into each outfit and posed for the photos. Specifically, in one, there is a cat in spectacles. HOW???
This is a sweet book that honors the photography of Hendrickson. I’m happy I had the opportunity to read it and would recommend it as a gift for the photography and cat lovers in your life. Depending on the size of your stocking, this could also make a nice stocking stuffer!
“You can’t make people care.”
That’s what Wonder Boy said when I was trying to tell him about In and Unlikely Event by Judy Blume and how I related that book to so much of what I see in current events. But I think Judy Blume can make you, the reader, care. This woman whose writing occupied so much of my youth… she knows how to make me care.
In and Unlikely Event is about a series of true events in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in the 1950s. I don’t think what follows will be too spoiler-y but it definitely leans in that direction. So, if you don’t like spoilers, stop reading now! You’ve been warned.
In Elizabeth, where Judy Blume grew up, there were three plane crashes within a very short time period. Blume tells the story from the perspectives of many people in the town, although she mainly focuses on just a few main characters. This rapid switching of characters and perspectives offers her a chance to do something very smart. As a reader, more than once we are introduced to a character whose story we get invested in and then who subsequently, and every suddenly, dies in a plane crash. At first I was very upset by this. After some thought, though, I decided that Blume deserved some kudos. She pulled me in by making me relate to the character. She made me care about the character. And then, by taking the character away from me, she made me care about the event.
Last year there was a devastating earthquake in Nepal. I’d like to think I would have cared no matter what, but it was certainly more personal because I’d recently visited there. It seemed more real. More relevant to me. The attacks in Paris hit closer to home because I’ve been to some of those places that were affected. I can (and yet can’t) imagine being there. I think this works in retrospect as well. I felt closer to some of the events in World War II after visiting a concentration camp or to the genocide in Cambodiaafter visiting the Killing Fields.
It’s the same thing Judy Blume did In and Unlikely Event. There’s a chance I can’t make you care about an event, because you only have so much care to give. But, I can make you care about something that’s personal. So how do I make it person. Blume accomplished this by connecting you to people.
And so while I actually think Wonder Boy’s comment is pretty spot-on: “You can’t make people care.” I do think there are some workarounds. If you need proof, read In and Unlikely Event.
Every morning during the work week, and I do mean every morning, my husband irons his clothes. Me? I use that iron maybe once a month. No, that’s not even true. Every other month. Tops. He uses it so much that even the best of irons only lasts about two years in our house. This morning I was watching him get ready when I noticed him ironing his sweater. His sweater!!! Which leads me to this question:
There are some trends here. Ransom notes that definitely refer to cats and also talk about either golf ball, or, potentially, cat testicles if this is some ardent non-believer of fixing cats.
After each of the notes, queried friends and family. Honestly, we never looked past friends and family. No one claimed it.
And now we’ve got another note, this time accompanied by two ugly raccoon statues. This one reads, “Cats, rats, freedom. Let them go, I’ll be watching.”
Once again, this leaves me wondering whodunnit. No one is laying claim. But I have other questions. Where does someone find so many raccoon statues? And are they spending money for them? I hope not much! And the notes… they take time. Who cares enough to take this time?
Reactions when we show people range from laughter to people being creeped out. I’m pretty entertained, though a little troubled by our growing collection of ceramic raccoons…
I don’t know about you, but when stories about ISIS come on the news, I tend to change the station. It’s all dark, depressing stories of beheadings, cultural terrorism and people being cruel to people. But.
What I’ve seen happen in Facebook during the past week about Syrian refugees makes it obvious that we as a nation can’t have civilized dialogue about the situation and instead need to polarize it into an us versus them situation: Democrat versus Republican, conservative versus liberal, good Christian versus bad Christian, good religious person versus hypocritical religious person.
On the one hand, I’m over it and it’s barely started. On the other, this is clearly going to be a big issue for all of presidential candidates so I don’t want to check out too quickly. I want to be an informed citizen who can intelligently engage in the sort of healthy debate that our democracy was founded on.
And so, last night I attended one of the Insights Lecture Series at the Cincinnati Museum Center: “The Fight Against Cultural Terrorism: Disrupting the Trade in Blood Antiquities.” There was a lecture by Marion F. Werkheiser, a founding partner of the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners. The goal of the talk wasn’t to inform people about ISIS in general. Rather, it was to discuss how ISIS makes used of cultural terrorism and racketeering to fund their efforts and make their mark in communities they invade. I learned a lot and wanted to share some of that.
One of the first things Werkheiser shared was this video from ISIS destroying a museum in Mosul. It’s s terrible video in terms of the culture and history being lost, but it’s safe for work and includes no violence.
Werkhiser also introduced me to a new label for ISIS: Daesh. This is an acronym for Dawlat al-Islamiyah f’al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham, the full Arabic term for what English speakers translate as the Islamic State. Doubly offensive to folks in ISIS. Acronyms are rarely used in Arabic so they sound ridiculous to Arabic speakers. AND, Daesh sounds a lot like the Arabic word “dais,” which means something that crushes or tramples. To folks in ISIS, that’s a horrible connotation.
Following Werkhiser’s lead, I’ll refer to ISIS as Daesh in the rest of this summary of her talk.
Because of my open-minded stance on news stories about Daesh, I was not familiar with what they were doing beyond terrorism to people. I had no idea that they were funding their work through the looting of antiquities. Shame on me for this because I was vaguely aware of hearing about the murder of archeologist Khaled al-Asaad a while back but didn’t put the pieces together on why he was killed. If you’re like me and need a recap, the overly abbreviated version is that al-Asaad had been leading work at Palmyra and was doing his best to preserve and protect that site. (Get more details about Palmyra and why it’s such a big deal.) Daesh doesn’t want to encourage dialogue between cultures or people identifying with an era before they were in power and so are destroying things pre-them and in the destruction of a place like Palmyra, they were able to loot antiquities, which they can later sell and fund their work (think weapons and ammo).
When Daesh takes over an area, they often charge taxes in the form of antiquities instead of cash. It’s more valuable. When they start looting a historical site (many UNESCO World Heritage Sites), one tactic they use is to build homes on top of the site and then do their digging through living room floors. Activities occurring in someone’s home are much more difficult to monitor.
All of this is terrible, but what does it have to do with those of us in the US? Guess where the stolen antiquities are being sold? Lots of places, but the US is high on that list. And the amount of antiquities being sold? It’s gross.
As one example, Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham “and her colleagues examined satellite images taken before and after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution of two major sites in Egypt, el Lisht and el Hibeh. The team measured the extent of looting holes in each image and compared the results. In a case study published online by DigitalGlobe, Parcak “found a 400 to 500% increase since the events of 2011.”
If you want an example that’s a little closer to home, how’s this? The FBI is investigating the owners of Hobby Lobby, who are in the process of building the Museum of the Bible. (Source, Source, Source) While I applaud the museum on a very clever logo, it’s remarkably irresponsible if the museum is filled with stolen items whose purchase inadvertently funds international terrorism.
Werkhiser proposed a few things that could curb this cultural terrorism and racketeering. The one I most understand is a move to referring “blood antiquities,” building off of the success around encouraging to buy conflict-free diamonds. By using familiar terminology, it will be easier to help people to understand the problem with buying antiquities that aren’t certified as being an authentic, legitimate sale. Another is to not purchase antiquities, which to me sounds obvious but apparently more people buy them than I know. The last, which is potentially the biggest and most effective, is for the Arab League members to form a regional coalition that calls on countries like the US where antiquities are sold and to ask them to assist in stopping those sales. I’d like to think that countries would be super cooperative with this, but getting issues like this through our government has proven harder than it sounds.
In the meantime, organizations like CyArk are making 3D scans of precious heritage sites so people can see simulations of them. It’s not the real thing, but it’s something. Another preventive measure being taken is that museums threatened by Daesh are being emptied with items being sent to safe havens to protect them.
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