1. Free Association? Hey, didn't they do Cherish?
2. My cat Monika is fuzzy and gray. Solid gray. When I had a house of my own, I literally painted the walls of the living room a solid gray, just to match Monika. Anyway, she's suddenly developing stripes. Very faint stripes, like the Shroud of Turin, but still, stripes. Where the hell did these come from? Twelve years of one solid color, now this?
3. It occurs to me that if I was fond enough of Monika to paint my walls in tribute to her, the fact that I left her in my Mom's care when I ran off to be with my then-girlfriend, later-wife, now-ex, probably makes me seem like a heartless bastard. I was looking for an apartment in Washington, Iowa, and the first one I found didn't allow pets. Why didn't I just keep looking?
4. On the other hand, after a few months in my own apartment, I just moved in with Sue Ellen anyway. She already had a cat, beloved Scotchie, and technically, she wasn't supposed to have pets, either. If I'd had Monika with me, we'd have really been pushing our luck. Plus, if Monika's been with me through the marriage, she'd have moved out to Maryland with us, and would probably still be out there. Anyway, I like Monika, and I'm glad, whatever the circumstances, that she's here with me again. Still--stripes?
5. When referring to my ex, I call her Sue Ellen, which is, after all, her name. Yet she's taken to calling herself Sudie, which sounds to me like a character from Where The Lillies Bloom. I remember her mentioning to me once that I could call her that, but I didn't take it seriously. (Heartless bastard, remember?) I told her she could call me Spats, but that didn't go anywhere, either.
6. The name Spats would be a reference to Spats Baxter, one of the characters played by George C. Scott in the very funny, now almost completely forgotten film Movie, Movie. It's a spoof of a 1930's double feature, half of it a gangster melodrams, half a musical extravaganza. It was written by Larry Gelbart and directed by Stanley Donen, two of the best at what they do. Man, I'd love to see it again, but it's almost impossible to find, and has never been on DVD. A crime, I tells ya, a crime!
7. I'm sorry...Did I really reference Where The Lillies Bloom?
