at work

I've been in the stage described in Tom Lehrer's "Lobachevsky" as "And then I write / by morning, night / and afternoon," except that I'm not plagiarizing anybody except myself. I'm writing about something that struck me in the gut when I came across it in the Tolkien papers when I was researching at the Bodleian 18 years ago. And then after it was published a few years later, I could finally write about it, but apart from mangling it up in an apa discussion some years ago and then giving my ideas at a conference last year, I never have until now. It's the perfect opportunity: a chance to honor the scholar who brought the stuff to light.

As of 10 pm last night I finally have something submittable.

cat show

The best cats this year were the ocicats - lively and playful as well as beautiful - followed by the Maine coons and, perhaps surprisingly, the Cornish rexes. No Abyssinians this year, but there were Balinese (long-haired Siamese, we were told).

One of the ocicats, awarded a prize at the judging, immediately started to play with the ribbon hung from its cage; first time I'd seen a cat play with its own award.

We came home with another year's supply of peacock feathers for Maia.