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Question:
What is the collective term for a group of cats?
The usual word that's given as the collective term for a group of cats is clowder. I first found this out while I was watching the TV show, The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon just threw it out there, for no apparent reason.
You can find a comprehensive list of this sort of term in collective nouns for animals. There are far more of them than one would think -- some examples are: a muster of peacocks, a host of sparrows, and a pandemonium of parrots. Also, a blush of boys and a bevy of ladies.
Christopher Hitchens is reported to have said, "Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.
And a Garrison Keillor quote goes: "Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function."
Both or those quotes make sense to me. I am, and have always been, a dog person. I have a great affinity and affection for dogs.
I find cats repulsive.
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There are so many birds out here in the desert scrub that I find it hard to identify all of them. And my failing eyesight makes it even tougher. One of these birds was perched on a tree branch but it was so far away that I could not make out the details of its shape and coloration. At first I thought it was a dove, but then the long tail made me somewhat unsure of myself.
Mystery Bird In Tree
Tucson, AZ 6/8/2013
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TRIVIA
Napoleon III suffered from ailurophobia, which is a fear of cats.
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HISTORICAL EVENT
On June 8 in 1999, some 1.3 million copies of Hannibal, the final book in the Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris, arrived at bookstores around the country. Hannibal quickly topped the bestseller charts, despite, or perhaps because of an intensely gruesome plot.
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WORD FOR TODAY
trepid
adjective
- fearful or apprehensive
antonym
intrepid (fearless)
Trepidus is Latin for scared; and trepid is a word, as per Merriam-Webster. Trepid has decreased in use ever since the 1800s, but trepid was a word at one point, and still is (technically), but its popularity is continually decreasing; essentially, it's obsolete. For some reason, trepidation is still widely used, but that's one of the quirks of the English language; words are always going "out of style" or becoming obsolete.
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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Julianna Margulies is an American actress and producer. After several small television roles, Margulies achieved both critical and commercial success in her role as Nurse Carol Hathaway on NBC's long-running medical drama ER. After her departure from ER in 2000, Margulies appeared in the 2001 miniseries The Mists of Avalon and voiced the role of Neera in Disney's CGI film Dinosaur. In 2009 she took the lead role of Alicia Florrick in the American legal drama The Good Wife on CBS.
Jerry Stiller is an American comedian and actor. He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara. Stiller and Meara are the parents of actor Ben Stiller (with whom he co-starred in the movies Zoolander, Heavyweights, Hot Pursuit and The Heartbreak Kid) and actress Amy Stiller.
Jerry is best known for his recurring role as Frank Costanza on the television series Seinfeld and his supporting role as Arthur Spooner on the television series The King of Queens.
Nancy Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".
Other defining recordings include "Sugar Town", the 1967 number one "Somethin' Stupid" (a duet with her father), the title song from the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, several collaborations with Lee Hazlewood such as "Jackson", and her cover of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", which features during the opening sequence of Quentin Tarantino's (2003) hit movie Kill Bill.
Sinatra also had a brief acting career in the mid-60s including a co-starring role with Elvis Presley in the movie Speedway, and with Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels.
Don Grady was an American actor, composer, and musician. He was well known both as one of Mickey Mouse's original Mouseketeers, and as Robbie Douglas on the long-running ABC/CBS television series My Three Sons.
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In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.
--Terry Pratchett
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