The Cat and its Body Image

The cat is up on the counter on the tube pillow when its hind legs slip off - she then uses her front paws to pull her hind legs up until its hind paws are again under its chin.  Nap resumes.  Something about this seems not quite right on the post-Cartesian account ...

Note: the in-door cat was staring for the longest time at the outdoor staircase - it cannot see the bottom of those outer stairs to the deck from its widow, but the orange intruder cat had fled in that direction.  Suddenly it flips its whole body a bit left - stares - and then flips back to staring at the head of the stairs ...

Note: the cat is "looking for" the mouse pointer where the cathode ray tube is fitted into its plastic case: the "mouse" disappeared in that direction ( to the other screen to the right) - it doesn't just try to get a claw into the gap - it tries to press its head up to the screen to peek in.

The cat is watching the spare DVD footage for some Antarctic (Cape Murdoe) expedition;  the spare film footage is of Weddell seals under the sea ice of the ice shelf.  The cat does not watch television, but it is watching these slow seals with interest - they leave the scene - return - they appear to perhaps be trapped ... is there no escape? Is that what the cat has noticed, that these large grey lumpen mice are trapped in the television screen?

But cat's do not imagine (I think I have that on Roger Scruton's authority.)

wikipedia and the teenager

This quote at anglo-american wp may be notable:

The series received generally negative reviews from most mainstream critics when it began broadcasting, but was extremely well received among viewers

My last teenager, a daughter recognized for her talent as a fantasy writer and art photographer here in Minnesota, will not watch the thing - not even to tell me about it.

The key word is mainstream.  It is the shibboleth of the resentful conservatives in America and their resentment of representative government without any form of proportional vote (they don't know that is their issue.)  I cannot imagine how the term could be used within Canadian media: try to envision a program for Cégep students filmed by the Vatican in Thunder Bay, running in a community channel on Rogers Cable and then it's critics as "mainstream".

Whether the term means more than "progressive" or "left-wing" or "liberal", I will not venture to say.  The appeal to this notion is the closing of dialog, debate or reflection - that much I will suggest.

Could it be less than "editorial" and does it require a reference according to wp rules?  How long will it remain unedited?

The sociology, psychology and anthropology of the adolescent has a troubling history.  I spent one year lecturing on "adolescent psychology" for a Canadian university, so I venture to have an opinion - not simply for having marvelled at my spouse for her gifts, inspiration and hard work in raising three children to young adulthood (herself a student of literature and often-times a lecturer) "Teenager" is a confused notion - confusion compounded with clichés in the public mind, clichés from novels, film and television.

In the Canadian context I would offer "Métis" as being as problematic a term in that culture as "teenager" in American culture (the attitudes of the Canadian poet Kim Morrissey, my cohort, with her derision for my great-grandfather brought this home to me most clearly.)

The history of childhood is interwoven with the history of religion and of law as it relates to family life.  For all their great literature, one might imagine Italy and Ireland - for their opposition to divorce - to be ignorant of the realities of women and children in the context of family life in an urban world.

As a child, I clearly recall that counter to the moral shibboleths: divorcée.  It was pronounced with the lewd accent.

Puerile is a failing we excuse in the young as is sophomoric excused in its turn.  But "mainstream critics" - will there soon by "mainstream film critics", "mainstream literary critics" and "mainstream professors of ethics"?

I pass on "extremely" as it seems to have occurred in a phrase conveying a tautology.