The mask of Seessel

Once the tissues disappeared from the Kleenex box, Seessel took a peak inside and discovered a whole new world. What's odd is that he really seemed to like it, stuffing his head inside the box so many times I got worried and threw it away. Not before I shot a little video, though.

Home for the Howlidaze

We had snow flurries today as the weather finally dipped below freezing. With the bitter winter slowly approaching, I think I’ll look back at happier times -- the warmth that emanated both emotionally and atmospherically during my holiday.

• Six months after Kapone the pit bull was picked up by Memphis Animal Services and then disappeared, an anonymous tipster helped a Cordova family reclaim their pet 50 miles from home in Senatobia, Miss. I wrote about the happy reunion. December 20 Weather: Scattered showers, Hi  65°F Lo  50°F

• New church founders raised $10K and decided to give it away in gas at an East Memphis station at Poplar and Perkins. I went to the event and wrote on what may have been a case of good intentions gone awry. December 22 Weather: More rain, Hi  49°F Lo  45°F

• Police recovered a stolen truckload of holiday hams. Enough said. Christmas Eve Weather: Sunny, Hi  50°F Lo  35°F

• Tried eggnog AND boiled custard this year and discovered I liked them both. Especially with a helping of fireball whiskey. Christmas Eve Night: Clear skies, Hi  50°F Lo  35°F

• Dad came to visit after I covered Christmas services Downtown and cooked for me! London broil, asparagus, mashed potatoes and a couple bottles of wine from one of our favourite wineries in Sonoma. Christmas Weather: Sunny, Hi  53°F Lo  40°F 

• Wrote a special obituary on one of the only white business leaders in Memphis with courage to fly against the grain following Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination here. New Year’s Eve Weather: Sunny, Hi  66°F Lo  37°F 

• Traveled to Georgia for a quick visit with my mom. We shopped at the outlets and went to weight lifting and restorative yoga classes. I’d like to find something similar here; it's one of my many resolutions for 2012, which I’ll write about later, hopefully after accomplishing at least one. Maybe I'll start by breaking a world record… Or attempting with vigor like evangelist Telisa Franklin did with her Zumba workout. January 7-9 Georgia Weather: Light rain, Hi  70°F Lo  41°F

Bacon-cats journalism: Putting the theory to practice

Remember the oh-so-funny Op-Ed war between Gene Weingarten and Alexandra Petri in the Washington Post about bacon-cats journalism a couple months ago?

In summary, Weingarten, whose blast against "branding" begot this column, waxed nostalgic about how content used to be driven by more than grabbing eyeballs. He then lamented that online eyeballs seem to have an unquenchable thirst for bacon-strapped cats.

http://www.scalzi.com/cattapebacon2.jpg

Petri rebutted, saying journalism used to accommodate lengthy features on conditions in the corn market because, for decades, no one really knew what people were reading. Is it more noble, she asked, to give the reader what we now know he or she wants?

Principles aside, these writers have both proven it's a lot of fun to talk about writing about cats. But isn't all this talk about writing about cats a bit of pussycat journalism, after all? Check out the urbandictionary definition, which describes a cat that “no longer looks under bushes and hides in a tree. It is satisfied with the little effort, and enjoys snoozing whenever it can.”

So please, e-mail my latest cat story to your grandma, and remind her she only gets ten clicks before having to buy a digital subscription. (The CA is now assigning value to one's eyeballs.)

And if you didn't get your fix with the two cats whose lives were saved by a kidney transplant, then check out my coverage of last year's cat show.

<^_ _^>

P.S. Here's a sneak peak inside my cubicle. Not even staged:

Christmas crime and adult onesies

Sometime after Snuggies and before the Forever Lazy, my mom mailed me a present. She was REALLY excited about it and asked me to call her as soon as it came in. The box was small, unassuming, and the labels seemed insignificant. Nothing breakable, nothing perishable.

It may or may not have been Valentine's Day.

Crime is spiking about this time, and the Memphis Police Department urges citizens to be hyper-vigilant about personal safety practices during the holiday season. The Memphis mayor will address concerned residents in Cooper-Young tomorrow about a recent rash of break-ins. He said he wants to hear from folks before prescribing possible remedies. What areas do police need to target? What practices might be most effective?

What other rising trends could make for correlations?

Hmmm.

Not saying this is causative, but there has been a noticeable rise this holiday season in "lounge wear" that resembles prison uniform.

Adult onesies are criminal.

Half-Marathon Jitters

I'm too nervous about the race tomorrow to write anything yet, but I'm hoping that after the race I'll have lots to post. Today, I will stare at the course map, think about spaghetti, go through my music playlist...I haven't really trained, so I am just hoping to make it to the finish line.

Wish me luck!

A local connection for World AIDS Day

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, and in advance, I wrote about a Memphian who has lived with the virus since the early 1980s. I met with him Tuesday morning and wrote the story Tuesday afternoon before going out on another assignment.

Some of what we talked about is still processing. I wish I'd had more time to think, and to write, and to think about what I was writing.

What I like most about my job, I think, is meeting these people that, whether they know it or not, have the ability to heighten our sensibilities. And they're trusting enough to let someone else (like me) write about them, without conditions, and to open themselves up for public scrutiny.

Comments are rarely disabled on CA pages, but they were for this story, and I think it was the right call. The man I interviewed agreed to tell me about his HIV/AIDS status, and in so doing, he opened that secret part of his life to our world of readers. I didn't want him to be punished for it in the anonymous commenting section.

A couple stories for the ladies

Thanksgiving week so it means those in the office are loading a little more onto their work plates to compensate for holiday scheduling.

I'll be at the paper every day but Thursday, and then, thanks to my mom's outrageous cooking skills, I will redefine gluttony. A Turducken stuffed with crawfish etoufee, green bean casserole and some sort of cajun wild rice are menu items I know of off-hand. Ahhhhhh I cannot WAIT.

Hunger aside, Saturday I went to a community baby shower in Frayser and wrote about the goodies given to about 500 expectant and new moms, as well as some of the infant mortality outreach being done here.

And earlier today I did a write-up based on Self magazine's list of healthy cities for women. Guess what spot Memphis came in.