I happen to be feeding a stray tom these days in addition to the permanent-resident felines. It is my practice to name everything, though, so the stray is called Timofey.One of my own toms is called Scipio on account of his uncanny facial resemblance to a particular bronze bust of that general, so there's an indirect link to Octavius and Marcellus. I don't suppose it's terribly common to name either cats or octopuses after figures from Roman history.Cat as a name has been in the sync stream in the person of Cat Stevens. I suppose a guy named Guy (Fawkes) is also not dissimilar to a cat named Cat. It's a pity he never got to meet the gal named Gal (Gadot).
That's actually an oversimplification of how Scipio got his name. When we first took him and his sister in, I immediately saw the black tom's resemblance to this bust of Scipio Africanus and wanted to name him after it. (Apparently, the bust is no longer believed to depict Scipio.)
However, my wife had already named his sister Arizona because of a dream she had had, so she thought the brother should be named after a state as well. Just then, the black tom started rolling around on the floor, which made me think of the Doobie Brothers song:
Old black water, keep on rollin'
Mississippi moon, won't you keep on shinin' on me?
And so he was named Mississippi. I didn't even notice at the time the similarity to Scipio (which we Americans pronounce with a silent c; really, Brits? Skippy-o?). Later, both cats' names were abbreviated. Arizona became Zoe, and my wife at first started calling Mississippi Missy. I insisted that was too girly for a tom, though, so his abbreviated name became Sippi instead, and this soon evolved back into the name I had originally proposed: Scipio.
After the mention of Scipio, my comment talks about a guy named Guy and a gal named Gal. After I posted that, it reminded me of the They Might Be Giants song "They'll Need a Crane," which I hadn't listened to in many years. The two main characters in the lyrics are referred to as Lad and Gal as if those where their names:
Lad's gal is all he hasGal's gladness hangs upon the love of ladThe love of ladSome things gal says to ladAren't meant as bad but cause a little painThey cause him pain
At that time I just thought this. I didn't listen to the song, didn't look up the lyrics, and didn't write or even say anything about it. Nevertheless, when I opened up the YouTube Music app this morning and put on one of the algorithm-generated playlists, the third song it played -- after "Norwegian Wood" and Eric Clapton's "Change the World" -- was "They'll Need a Crane." Immediately after that was Emily Linge singing "Proud Mary" by CCR.
I'm not really familiar with "Proud Mary," but once it started I recognized it as something I'd heard before. The chorus, like that of "Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers, says "keep on" and "rollin'" and is about the Mississippi River.
Big wheel keep on turnin'Proud Mary keep on burnin'Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
4 comments:
Firstly, I want to say that I believe I was somewhat too emphatic in my last comment concerning synchronicity and error. Obviously, chasing syncs involves seeking connections and that is somehow of the essence of logic. That being said, I think we'd all agree that synchronicity transcends reason in some sense-- such that it can even be styled "mystic"-- and I am myself persuaded that a misapplied adherence to "accuracy" has caused me to leave a few things on the table that I ought to have scrutinized further.
In the very comment that is cited to begin this post, William makes reference to Cat Stevens and I think puns on his name. Keeping in mind the era from which he stemmed (and its lingo) and of which he was a representative figure for a while, Cat was a cat in just the same way that Guy was a guy. In my own comment that precedes William's, I'd ventured the thought that to use a generic name for someone was reflective of a modest (i.e., somewhat deficient) degree of compassion. (Could the six-legged spider, et al. figurate that?) Of course, Cat Stevens was subsequently given a proper, specific name: Yusuf Islam, which I suppose translates to "Joseph Surrender".
One of the controversies that has dogged Mr. Islam is his support for the fatwa directing that Salman Rushdie be killed. He came right out in the beginning and endorsed it, had to retreat due to the backlash his stance provoked, but at various times has continued to signal his approval thereof. Given that his new non-generic, specific name is "Joseph", does he not bear comparison to the Biblical Joseph in that he is so righteous as to be naive in thinking that he can declare what he believes true without reckoning the repercussion?
I'm curious what the cat looks like.
I've just been reminded of the fact that Salman Rushdie's memoir was entitled "Joseph Anton", a reference to a pseudonym he adopted in the wake of the "... Verses" controversy. Thus both Cat Stevens and Salman Rushdie were re-nominated "Joseph". Was Rushdie, like Cat Stevens, Josephic in thinking he could express himself without need for politic reserve?
Missy is a nickname for Melissa, referencing the Honeybee again. Interestingly in your connection to a gal name Gal, is that Gal Gadot, through her playing the role of Wonder Woman, was symbolically tied directly on my blog to Eowyn-Izilba, and thus the Honeybee. Furthermore, this "Melissa" is the spouse of the Being I tied symbolically to Guy Fawkes (and seen in other symbols like Fawkes the Phoenix). So, your little phrase and connection between Guy and Gal makes sense.
Together they have been linked to the Holy Ghost, which makes the Missy / Mississippi connection, specifically the river aspect you landed on, pretty compelling. The Spanish, via de Soto when he came upon it, first named the Mississippi River "Rio del Espiritu Santo", or River of the Holy Spirit.
Which then further makes the name Scipio, as it is connected here, also of some interest. The name means "Staff, Stick", but also specifically "Walking Stick".
In my story, the Stones, and specifically the great rollin' stone emerging out of the Sawtooth Mountains, have been analogized and symbolically tied to sticks, with these sticks making it possible for people to go on a walk.
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