Seconda and I were looking at the cute animal rescue kittens in front of Key Food last weekend and this middle-aged couple came over to look, too. Seconda told them, “No you can’t! This is MY CAT!!” and batted away their hands from the cages. Oh, that possessiveness will serve her well in future relationships, no doubt.
The man replied magnanimously: “We have our own kitty at home. His name is Mimsy.”
Since we’ve been listening to Poetry Speaks to Children in the car, I was inspired to recite: “All mimsy were the borogoves. . . ”
“Yes,” he said, “Everyone knows that poem.”
Just on the off chance that he’s wrong and not everyone knows that poem, it’s the second line of Lewis Carroll’s The Jabberwocky.
I'd like to highlight several points here:
A. How pretentious is this guy to name his cat after the Jabberwocky?
B. How pretentious and I to quote the Jabberwocky on the street to impress some stranger?
C. How even more pretentious is he to under-play my correction placing of his cat’s name and to assume that EVERYONE knows where the word “mimsy” comes from. Everyone? Really? I think someone’s been in Park Slope too long.
But maybe he’s right. Once, on a lark, I looked up the blog address O frabjous day! And guess what? Taken.
So this is just an FYI for when you get a new kitty, and you’re wondering what to call it. Forget Mimsy. Its so overdone. It’s like naming your kid Emma or Violet nowadays. Call her Mimsy and half the feline population of Park Slope will come running. I’m naming mine Frumious Bandersnatch. Let’s see if everybody knows THAT.
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