Oh, oh! I forgot to tell you The Story about why we haven’t named the new cat yet! …That does not sound like an exciting opening line, now that I have typed it out. ONWARD ANYWAY.
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| Hey, whatever, I’m just saying. Unthrilling. |
Do you read the comic strip Penny Arcade? I do, but through a Paul Filter (i.e., he emails me links to the ones he thinks I’ll like) because so many of the strips are (1) gory, and/or (2) distressing, and/or (3) about video games I don’t play, and/or (4) about programming/computer issues I don’t understand. So actually I guess I pretty much don’t read it. Here are some Swistle-Filtered samples, if you would like to see the comic I’m referring to without having to risk seeing something gory/upsetting:
2. An Avatar/Airbender joke I do get.
4. A DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince joke I do get.
5. This one has bad language, but Paul and I have been quoting the “rue” part for years.
So. Paul understands many more of the jokes than I do, and is much less bothered by the gory/upsetting stuff than I am, and I think he participates in that online community and SO ON. And Penny Arcade was doing a Kickstarter project to go ad-free on their site (Paul has the same Threadless squirrel shirt Gabe is wearing in that video), and Paul thought we should participate—more in support of Penny Arcade’s general awesomeness than because we care if they have ads on their site. And so we did.
Are you wondering how this can possibly tie in with the cat’s name?
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| Take your time—I’m riveted. |
WELL. I will tell you. The Kickstarter thing had little INCENTIVES at each giving level. Like, you give $x and you get a digital copy of one of their books, you give $5x and you get a print of one of the strips, you give $1000x and you get a personal comic drawn of you, OR WHATEVS. I’m just making up x-numbers here.
The only incentive on the list _I_ really wanted was that Tycho (one of the Penny Arcade guys) would NAME YOUR PET FOR YOU. I wanted this incentive SO MUCH, that Paul and I donated individually so that we would get TWO pet names.
At the time, we had two named cats, so we planned to file the names away for later use. But then, er, we were abruptly down one cat. I will tell you that in those very first hours of our grief, one of us turned to the other and said, “…Hey. Now we can use a Penny Arcade name for a new cat,” and the other one said, “I know, I thought of that too but didn’t want to say.” Joy in sorrow, etc.
PROBLEM: the Kickstarter email said that the incentives are scheduled to be distributed around December. We’re HOPING that this is a plenty-of-time estimate to get everyone to back up a bit on demanding their stuff, and that distributions will actually start much sooner, and that we might be in the first batch. For one thing, it’s entirely possible that we’ll get two pet names and be uninterested in using either one. (In which case I was thinking we should use “Tycho” or “Gabe.”) (Gabe is the name of the other Penny Arcade guy.)
Or name the cat Rue!
I hope they come up with your names much sooner than December! I can’t wait to hear what they are! That cat looks VERY much like one of ours, which I know I mentioned last time, but I just can’t get over it. Also? Looks like he’s settling in nicely.
I second Janet’s idea. Rue!
I used to date a guy that read PA religiously. He kept trying to get me to follow it, and I felt pretty meh about the whole thing. I don’t like feeling left out of the joke on a regular basis. I love me some Questionable Content though (which is a comic, not a general statement).
I love that you guys are doing this for the kitty’s name! What a great story.
I do not feel like A. and I have any little couple rituals like this. I am also jealous of Pickles and Dimes’ Cribbage Tournament and Plaque.
Anyway, I think this makes you and Paul cool.
Janet- Ha ha! YES, I’ll add Rue to the list of possibilities!
tycho is such a cool name for a pet! i’m mentally filing that one away.
hmmm. in my head i’m pronuncing it tie-kho. but maybe it’s tie-cho…
Penny Arcade and Swistle; two worlds of awesome collide. Happiness.
I think I vote Rue. But mostly I love you,
beyond- APPARENTLY, it’s TEE-ko, after some GUY. I know, right? This is the main point against it: the vet and EVERYONE LUCID would say it TIE-ko.
I am not familiar with Penny Arcade on their own, but I have been listening to a Dungeons & Dragons podcast where they are 2 of the players (Wil Wheaton is another, which is why I started listening). Those guys are funny. I have confidence your cat will receive a solid name. FWIW, their D&D names are Jim Darkmagic and Omin Dran.
So what do you call the un-named cat? Is there a temporary name?
StephLove- We call him “New Cat,” or “Newie.” (I wouldn’t be surprised if Newie stuck!)
I tested out saying “Tycho” in my head before I read the comments, and I thought it would be “tsy-ko” like “psycho.” ha!
I love that cat – look at him, all splayed out on that couch! He looks like he is settling in nicely.
what about naming the cat Penny?
The cat commentary is brilliant!
I love this post so very much! I love Penny Arcade but hadn’t run into the rue one, thanks for the laugh. I see I am super unoriginal, as Janet and everyone else has already clicked in to tell you to name him Rue days ago. It has a bonus Hunger Games connotation as well. Which is a positive or negative, depending on your Hunger Games stance.
Obviously since Fuck is my favorite word I totally loved the Rue comic the most. The rest of them I totally didn’t understand even a little bit.