Monday, June 11, 2007

A Smorgasboard of Stories

It's hard to beat an evening of good conversation over steak and Portobello mushroom fajitas. I'm too drowsy and content to embark on a huge post. So, instead, I'm going to do a sampling of stories that interested me this week:

  • Ellora's Cave and Simon & Schuster are so satisfied with the arrangement they established last year to bring EC anthologies to print that they are going to expand the deal to single titles next year. See the story here.

  • NBC has decided to try live commercials in an effort "to fight the challenge posed by TiVo." According to The Wall Street Journal, "Tuesday's broadcast of The Tonight Show will air a live skit promoting car satellite-navigation devices made by Garmin International."

  • "Shares of Netflix Inc. jumped Wednesday June 6, 2007 amid a rumor the online video rental company could be acquired by Web retailer Amazon.com Inc.

  • Isabelle Marcoux, VP of Corporate Development at Transcontinental Inc., a major Canadian newspaper and magazine publisher as well as one of North America's largest printing firms (info courtesy of Wikipedia), spoke about "The Magazine in the Age of the Internet." She said: "The table-stakes of survival mean getting the fundamentals right: identifying a niche with growth potential, nailing the product delivered to the target audience, and then going one step further with a multi-platform strategy, which is often Web-based." (CNW Group)

And, finally, a story that just tickled my funny bone here. While I'm certain the purpose is noble and the intent sincere, the look on that cat's face says it all: "You'd better not ever go to sleep again because I'm gonna get you for this."

4 comments:

poetica in silentium said...

Over the weekend I noticed that my cat, Ms. Skittle, was, well, ignoring me when I called her. No real surprise there - she does that most of the time. She feels it beneath her station to give the impression that she feels compelled to respond to the calls of a mere Human.

My wife explained that it was because Ms. Skittle has changed her name.

Upon further inquiry into the matter, it was Ms. Skittle herself who informed me that the new moniker was "Her Royale and Divine Highness and Mysitcal Goddess; Supreme Ruler of the Known Universe."

I confirmed this by addressing her as such several times and she responded to it each time.

All things considered, and given that the lady in question still has all of her knives on her front paws, I'll pass on testing out the critter bib with her. I rather suspect she would take offense to it and claw my eyes out.

ASs of this morning, she is once again answering to Ms. Skittle, recognizing as she does, that I'm inclined to mess up the more formal title.

Maya Reynolds said...

David: I don't dare seek acknowledgment from my cats. I'm just happy that they deign to eat what I put in their dishes.

Stephen Parrish said...

My cat brings home mice and birds and if I left the back door open (which I'd prefer to do) she would bring them inside.

But if I made her wear that bib she'd die of embarrassment.

Maya Reynolds said...

I'm impressed, Stephen.

It would be worth my life to get one of those bibs on Bob, who is the only real hunter of my three cats.

Tribble, who is now twenty-one, resembles a paperweight and doesn't leave my desk except to use her litter box.

I don't know WHAT Dinah does with her days. It's enough that she comes home alive each night. She is not yet a year old and simply wild.