I’m busy, busy, busy, but the least I can do is post an open thread. Here’s a pet shop I saw in NYC. I didn’t go in, but my kiddo did, and she came out with a golden high-five cat, which was fortunately made of plastic rather than a live critter.
Please feel free to discuss whatever. Hopefully someone stomps on this post with something more substantive soon. I apologize for the lack of coherent output, but hey, y’all are used to that.
Here’s the box the aforementioned golden high five cat came in. I have no clue what the hell it is. But its arm is battery operated and delivers high fives.
BGinCHI
Looks like a location for a John Cassavetes film circa 1975.
Punchy
Can I google this on a work computer, or is this slang for something that might get me fired?
schrodinger's cat
I am so glad you are still with us. I thought you were raptured along with the other FPers.
Tone In DC
Was he in the Seven-Ups? Helluva chase at the end of that flick.
Comrade Mary
@Punchy: Maneki-neko!
Amir Khalid
@Punchy:
I actually know what Betty’s talking about. It’s a good-luck charm commonly found in Asian homes, and it looks like a cat holding up its right front paw for a high-five. The cat is usually covered in gilt or depicted with white fur.
Betty Cracker
Updated with golden cat photo.
Waynski
@Tone In DC: An old friend’s Dad was the cinematographer on that film, Urs Furrer. He unfortunately, the Dad, died in his forties from a sudden heart attack on set in South America. He did some fantastic work though. The crash at the end of the chase scene was filmed about a mile from my house. Great movie. Another great movie of the same era was The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3. Pretty good chase scene in that one IIRC.
Rich (In Name Only) in Reno
The waving cat is “maneki-neko.” They’re sometimes called “good luck cats, ” and are a common sight in Japanese-run businesses.Their gesture is meant to signify beckoning to the customer.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Betty Cracker: Eek!
gbear
@Punchy: I think BC is talking about the little cat statues where the cat is sitting with either its left or right front paw up in the air. One side is for money and the other for relationships, but I can’t remember which side is which.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: A real cat would probably just claw you if you try to touch its paw.
Imaginary dialog with my Boss Cat.
Ohai, I is Boss Cat and I will call you Clawed. Kthxbai.
Comrade Mary
@Betty Cracker: Is your cat going on your third floor? That’s supposed to be luckiest.
OTOH, you may not have a third floor. I have a basement, a main floor, and a top floor. Can I count the top floor as the third floor?
beltane
@Amir Khalid: I’ve seen them in businesses to. I’ve always thought they were good luck/prosperity charms, very much like Americans us hroseshoes, four-leaf clovers, etc.
Cervantes
@Rich (In Name Only) in Reno:
Is that what the cat told you?
ranchandsyrup
going to begin my annual sequestration during comic-con. Used to go downtown for people-watching.
Trollhattan
Have wondered since a kid waz I, what the waving kitteh was about, and now I know. Braise Bieber, it’s another BJ miracle. Need to buy one for my kid, she’ll love it.
schrodinger's cat
@Trollhattan:
No, Canadians are our friends, not food!
Tone In DC
@Waynski:
The original Pelham 123 was on Retroplex, Reelz or IFC a few weeks ago. I only caught part of it, but it seemed like a good film. As I recall, Matthau glowered quite a bit.
Movies like these are why I keep adding to the old DVD collection. Might have to watch The French Connection this weekend, if it rains too much.
Roger Moore
@Comrade Mary:
AKA Beckoning Cat. It’s supposed to bring good luck or, when it’s holding a gold coin like this one, wealth. FWIW, Hello Kitty is supposedly originally based on the beckoning cat.
schrodinger's cat
Speaking of Nekos, I lubs me some Shiro Neko, reminds me of Tunch Neko.
Betty Cracker
@Comrade Mary: I only have one floor, so that will have to do. No basements here; if you dig a hole, it fills with water.
Nicole
I’m sorry you missed the pet store farther uptown on Broadway that downstairs has an enormous free-roaming tortoise.
Speaking of NYC pet ownership I am high-fiving myself for calling out a guy who let his little frou-frou dog (off leash) wander out of his sight, where it took a dump. As the dog ran back to him and they both headed toward home, I shouted to him he needed to clean up after his pooch. He wasn’t dickish about being caught, I’ll give him that, but seriously?
I hate conflict; it makes me anxious, but the number of dog owners I see here who do anything they can to avoid picking up after their dogs just brings out all my angries.
Also, again, off leash on the city sidewalks. Not cool.
SatanicPanic
Manekki nekkos creep me out. It’s the combination of that stare and the fact that they have only one limb that moves.
rea
maneki-neko is a big thing in japan.
also in some parts of Detroit:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/BostonFaninMichigan/manekipaws_zps49118927.jpg
Trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
Sorry, the alliteration was just too tempting. (Although, slow-simmering in a cabernet-based sauce might just suit him.)
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Trollhattan: Mmmm. Long pig.
Davis X. Machina
The story I heard was that the cat isn’t beckoning, but warning off — the original warned its monk owners to get out of their temple just before an earthquake flattened it. But there are many stories.
mm
I was told when I bought my high five cat in an Asian store that it has to be displayed within sight of a window.
gogol's wife
A friend of mine who was an anthropologist specializing in Japanese religion had her whole house full of these, plus foxes. Plus live cats (but not live foxes).
Pee Cee
@gogol’s wife:
It’s been my experience that neko of the live variety want to kill the maneki-neko … particularly if said maneki-neko are the solar-powered ones that wave continuously.
Betty Cracker
@Nicole: I am also sorry I missed the tortoise! I was amazed at the number of dogs in Manhattan and wondered how people managed dog ownership with no yards. It must be a giant pain in the ass. My dogs are in and out all day. I’m guessing city dogs just learn to hold it and go at preset intervals?
Good for you for calling that dude out. We have a dog park nearby that has poop bag dispensers all over the place and cans everywhere, and some no-good rat-bastards still don’t bother to clean up after their dogs. It pisses me off!
schrodinger's cat
@Pee Cee: It would make a good kitteh toy. My BossCat loves to
“kill” stuffed toys and drag them everywhere with his teeth.
Roger Moore
@Pee Cee:
That’s not wanting to kill it, just to play with it. Of course the distinction can be pretty academic for a lot of things cats try playing with.
Amir Khalid
@schrodinger’s cat:
Mine doesn’t, but then we have an understanding.
Pee Cee
@schrodinger’s cat:
We have one cat who looks for any weak seam in a stuffed toy and then proceeds to remove every last bit of stuffing from the toy through that seam. He’s just like a Build-a-Bear workshop, only in reverse.
Tone In DC
@schrodinger’s cat:
Apropos of nothing, I thought you may want to read this review.
It’s for the Schrodinger’s Cat Executive Decision Maker.
Don’t blame me, blame amazon.com. And George Takei. ;-)
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: It depends on the mood of his highness. He can be very affectionate and a hellcat in turns.
Trollhattan
@Pee Cee:
Hopefully the Case version of Neko isn’t similarly inclined. That would be hard to explain (but entertaining, I’m certain).
MomSense
@ranchandsyrup:
I would love to catch the Outlander cast.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Ah, maneki-neko. Brings money. Tortie cats are lucky cats.
FlipYrWhig
This autoplaying ad is KILLING ME. Make it stop make it stop make it stop.
gbear
@Betty Cracker: I live in a neighborhood where an old brewery building was converted into a large number of artist lofts and a lot of these new renters have dogs. I was really happy to see that a doggie bag dispenser and disposal bin was installed on the corner up the street from me, and another just down the street from that one. I’m glad that the developer installed those dispensers to remind the new tenants that they needed to pick up after their dogs. They all seem to have gotten the hint (not to mention it’s the law to clean up after your dog in St. Paul).
Iowa Old Lady
@FlipYrWhig: I don’t get the autoplay on Firefox.
Betty Cracker
@FlipYrWhig: I wish there was something I could do about it, but I am powerless in this regard.
FlipYrWhig
@Iowa Old Lady: @Betty Cracker: I get it sporadically on Firefox and had just gotten it twice in a row, when I loaded this thread and then when I popped downstairs. But now it’s come up clean a few times. Unpredictable.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
Get Flashblock. It makes the web much nicer.
geg6
@Pee Cee:
That is my Koda puppeh, too. She loves nothing more than tearing out stuffing. But she also won’t give up the poor limp toys once all the stuffing is gone. One of the first toys we bought her when we got her was a porcupine. That’s been a year and a half and the poor porcupine has not a shred of stuffing. Just limp bit of cloth. But she loves the porcupine and won’t hear of it being tossed out. We got her this weird looking stuffed monkey right after she finished off the porcupine stuffing that has a body about three and a half feet long. Monkey lost his arms first thing, then his ears and eyes and now only has about four or five inches of stuffing at either end. On the other hand, we got her a stuffed chicken made from some very strong knitted material at the same time we got the porcupine. Whatever that knitted stuff is, it’s stood up to every attempt to find a weak spot so the stuffing is still as full as it was when we got it. Made by Martha Stewart’s pet toy line. Have been looking for other dog toys like it to no avail.
geg6
@FlipYrWhig:
I’ve been having the same experience.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker: As an NYC dog owner, yeah, your dog just has to learn to hold it, though a number of small-dog owners set up piddle pads in their apartments (ew). Some of the parks have off-leash hours, but that’s a whole ‘nother issue- owners overestimating their own dog’s ability to behave appropriately off-leash, and or their own willingness to keep an eye on their dog when it’s off-leash.
9-5ers have to hire a dog walker to get their pooch out for a midday pee break. It ain’t cheap- $15 if your dog can be group-walked, as much as $30 if it has to go solo.
geg6
@Nicole:
Are New York dogs special for some reason in that they must pee during the day? Because we leave our dogs at home all while we work and they pee before we leave and after we get home just fine. Is it something about NYC water, maybe?
I do not understand this dog walker thing at all, unless we’re talking about people working doubles or who travel for work. 8-5 without a pee break is fine for our dogs.
Trollhattan
Did somebody say UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH?
http://www.sacbee.com/capitol-alert/##storylink=cpy
wasabi gasp
Firefox users can disable autoplay by going to the plug-ins section of the add-ons screen and setting the Flash plug-in to “Ask to Activate.”
Chrome users can disable autoplay in the settings. There’s a toggle in the plug-ins section of the content settings: chrome://settings/content
Good luck.
geg6
@wasabi gasp:
I suppose we could if we had any idea what any of that means. ;-) I’m sure I’ll be flamed as a trogolodyte know-nothing for admitting to this, but it’s truth.
wasabi gasp
@geg6: Tools menu > Add-ons
Randy P
@Tone In DC: The French Connection has a famous chase seen with a car chasing a subway, running through Brooklyn at high speed.
THEY DIDN’T CLEAR THE FRICKIN STREETS FOR THAT SCENE! THEY DID IT ON THE ACTUAL STREETS! WITH ACTUAL CARS AND PEDESTRIANS!
jayjaybear
“Aqua Star Pet Shop”…and takeout.
Bill ORLY
Funny story… I was in Tokyo several years ago with a British coworker. As we walked around he said that his neighbor asked him to bring back “one of those cats with their paw up in the air.” Neither of us had any idea what they were talking about. As we turned the corner into the shop row in Asakusa, we walked directly into a store that sold NOTHING BUT these things.
Nicole
@geg6: Certainly dogs can do it, but it doesn’t mean they’re comfortable. Maybe you regularly do not urinate for nine-hour stretches of your waking hours, but I certainly can’t, at least not without extreme discomfort the last few hours. Dogs are better than we are at hiding discomfort, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t experiencing it. Ergo the midday pee break. Not to mention, for many dogs it minimizes destructive behavior when left alone because it’s nice to get some exercise and stretch their legs.
NYC owners can be loons about their dogs, absolutely, but in the case of hiring a dog walker to give the dog a break when it’s left alone 45 hours every week, I think it is money well spent. Which doesn’t make it not frickin’ expensive. But every owner and every dog is an individual, ymmv.
Jamey
@Comrade Mary: Whenever I see one, I say to my GF, “I think that cat just waved at me!”
seaboogie
@geg6: Among my favorite memories of my late beloved Golden Seamus, was arriving home at the end of my workday to discover some toy that he had found on an outing with his walker.
Whenever he found something, he would
a) turn immediately around to go back home with his treasure
and
b) wait patiently for me to get home, show it off to me – and then proceed to destroy it. I think he must have felt like a little kid at Christmas with a stash of presents under the tree, waiting until he could tear into them.
John Doe Walker
Governor Scott Walker (Ranidan Kochsucker, Wisconsin)
Walker told reporters Mitt Romney did not run for president based on his business experience.
Before I forget; During WPR’s morning show, reporter Shawn Johnson played a clip of Scott Walker answering a question about the Wall Street Journal’s criticism that he’s using the same argument against Burke that Obama used against Romney-outsourcing to overseas countries.
Walker answered by saying Romney didn’t run on his business experience.
Walker: “Mitt Romney did not run his campaign on the basis of his arguing his experience in the business world as a reason to vote for him. If he did, than I think it would be fair game to look at all the experience.”
Clips and the rest of the story at http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2014/07/walker-told-reporters-mitt-romney-did.html
Mnemosyne
@Randy P:
That baby carriage they almost run over? Real mother. Real baby.
There’s a reason William Friedkin has a hard time getting work in Hollywood: he’s a frickin’ loon who has absolutely no regard for on-set safety, and producers became afraid of another “Twilight Zone” incident.
Talentless Hack
@Amir Khalid: Usually the cat is a calico. Those are especially lucky. We have one who will actually do the thing with the paw, which is soooo cool.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bill ORLY:
Reminds me of the proliferation of Manneken-Pis replicas in Brussels. There are shops there that literally sell nothing but this kid.
g
It’s a maneki-neko, and it’s for good luck. The gold ones are supposed to be focused on luck that brings money.
Nikolita
@Amir Khalid:
In the West, when you want someone to come over, the palm is up. In Japan that is considered rude (or so I am told), so the palm is down.
Richard Bottoms
No sooner than I ding Pando for lack of garbage collection in their comments section do they slice Reason to ribbons over it’s love affair with Holocaust deniers:
http://pando.com/2014/07/24/as-reasons-editor-defends-its-racist-history-heres-a-copy-of-its-holocaust-denial-special-issue/
Shows even flawed progressives are better than the best GOP’er and Teahadist.
schrodinger's cat
@Nikolita: I don’t know about Japan but in India, the raised palm signifies a blessing.
Arnie
The cat is not high-fiving, but washing its face. A cat watching its face signifies you will have visitors, which is something a business would consider lucky.
Armadillo
It has nothing to do with the color of the cat. Or rather, the color of the cat may reflect its purpose, but do not determine it. The characters written on the banner the cat is holding say “Summoning Wealth, Summoning Luck.” That’s how you know what it is doing. Sitting on a giant pile of gold coins is another clue. They are common throughout Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam. Maybe other parts of Asia as well. There may be other variations, but the ones I’ve seen in China are all summoning wealth.