Open Thread

“Well, they haven’t been on Court Street! And I don’t get into Chinatown very often.”

I get free delivery service.

“They’ve been under $4.00 a pound in Chinatown for quite a while.”

Well, they haven’t been on Court Street! And I don’t get into Chinatown very often.

one of my favorite memories from childhood was when i was 11 and my mother let me and my 7 year old sister rollerblade ten miles from our house to Disneyland (with a 15 year old neighbor). my first big taste of freedom – and it was marvelous!!

Algonquin Cat Hosts Posh Fundraiser for Homeless Pals

Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) — “Matilda is a gravy girl,” said Alice de Almeida, executive assistant at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan’s Theater District. “She does have her dry food and then she loves her wet food, but it has to have gravy.”
The hotel has catered to the city’s literary upper-crust since the 1920s, when Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and their friends traded barbed bon mots over drinks. De Almeida, however, was referring to her feline charge, the hotel’s ninth resident cat since a stray first walked through the front doors 80 years ago.
Matilda has free run of the lobby, along with a personal assistant, an email account, a kitty lounge and an annual birthday bash to raise money for an animal-related charity. This year’s party — her 15th — is on Wednesday; proceeds will benefit New York’s North Shore Animal League America, one of the largest no-kill shelters in the world.
The original Algonquin cat was named Rusty, a name the wits of the Algonquin Round Table found declasse. “John Barrymore was playing Hamlet so they changed the cat’s name to Hamlet,”
de Almeida said.
Matilda may stick with gravy, but there will be hors d’oeuvres, a cake and themed cocktails — Purrtinis, of course, and Pink Pussycats — for the biped celebrants.

Catty Runway

Broadway and cabaret performer Sarah Rice will lead the “Happy Birthday” caterwaul at the end of the night, but the main event will be the annual cat fashion show, where “mewdels” from the Westchester Feline Club will slink down the runway in elaborate outfits by Carla Reiss of Meow Wear.
Cat therapist Carole Wilbourn will be on hand to provide Reiki, a Japanese relaxation technique. In their dressing rooms, the privileged kitties will also be soothed by the music of Pet Acoustics.
Hosting the show and the party will be John Fulton, of Animal Planet’s upcoming cable TV series, “Must Love Cats.”
The event will be featured on the show, in which Fulton cruises the country showcasing airworthy cat stories. He also writes songs for them.
“I’m a musician first,” Fulton said in an interview. “If it rhymes with kitty I’ve probably written it.
“My message is definitely spay and neuter,” he continued.
“There are so many cats out there that are in shelters and they really do need to be adopted.”