Tuesday's Truths WK 53: Mathilde is 101!

Hello, and welcome to the fifty-second week of my Tuesday's Truths series, which is being dedicated to Mathilde Freund who turns one hundred and one years old today. Mathilde can be seen in the image atop this entry and it is one you may recognize, dear reader, as I featured it in a prior entry here on Blogger.

I took the picture in July of 2016, when I saw her sitting on a bench in front of a store on NYC's UWS, near to the area where she lives.

In the aforementioned entry, I stated that Mathilde and I spoke about Elie Wiesel, the holocaust survivor who had died in his NYC home that past Saturday, July 2nd, 2016. I also mentioned that "Mathilde knew Mr. Wiesel because he was in the same camp (Buchenwald) that her husband had been in. She told me that she was in hiding at the time, but her husband was killed at Buchenwald two months before it was closed. She recalled that her husband was twenty-five years old at the time and that Elie Wiesel was much younger." 

In any event, this past Saturday, August twelfth, I saw Mathilde again. She was sitting on the same bench as the one in the image atop this entry. I sat and talked with her for quite some time. I had a camera around my neck, and could have easily taken a new photo of her, but the thought of doing so did not occur to me, as my attention was on listening to her as she told about spending the summer with her son who lives in a rural area of North Carolina.

WEDNESDAY'S WISDOM: "If cats could talk, they probably wouldn't ."

Halloween is a mere six days away (including today) and while it is a favorite time of humans, "who excitedly plan their costumes of spooks, vampires and monsters, in anticipation of (it), cats, particularly black cats, have little cause for celebration this month,", says Franny Syufy (in her article, October: Black Cat Month: The Perils of Halloween, which you may read in full by clicking here).  

If indeed the fate of some black cats  on Halloween is as bleak the aforementioned article indicates, this may explain why the painted cat rock in the upper-right hand corner has such a pensive expression on his face. It seems one never knows what is going on in the minds of cats.

My friends who have cats seem to be in agreement with a quote that claims, "If cats could talk they probably wouldn't, " which is attributed to Nan Porter.

Monday's Musings: MEOW!! MEOW!! Painted Cat Rock Reacts to Charlie Brown's FAMOUS "I got a rock" Lament!

Hello! Please allow me to introduce myself, I am one of the new painted rocks created by Phyllis and represented by Helen (at Gifts by Helen).  

Last November, one of my "comrade" rocks made her media debut on this blog, The Last Leaf Gardener, when it was allowed to come into Blogger and let readers know that the world as the novelty Pet Rocks were once known has changed! If you'd like to refer to that blog post, please click here.  

This particular painted-rock-spokesperson received such notoriety from her November 2010 blog post that a priest's cat, (named Ignatius), noticed it, and he implored the priest to have a custom rock made for him!

Ignatius's PURR-fect Posting

Hello, dear reader, My name Ignatius the Cat, and I belong to a priest (or should I say he belongs to me heh . . , heh. . . . heh). He  probably calls me Ignatius for Saint Ignatius, but I won't tell you what I call him. In any event, he is always taking pictures of me (for obvious reasons) so when I found out about The Last Leaf Gardner Blog's posting about painted rocks with cats as the 'subjects,' and that the artist who rendered them did custom rocks from photographs, I made sure I would look right into the camera when the priest took a photograph of me — for I knew, upon seeing my picture, the priest would not be able to resist having a custom rock made in honor of me.

Giving new Meaning to the Pet Rock: Portraits of Cats (With Rocks as the Canvas) As Noted by a Cool Cat

Hello there! Allow me to introduce myself, I am one of many rockin' cat rocks hand painted by an artist named Phyllis; to view others click here. We make great Chanukah gifts, stocking stuffers, or we are nice to give to your co-workers, friends or families at any time. 

You don't have to wait for a special occasion to let people know they mean something to you. As mentioned in a previous post, Helen (from Gifts by Helen) sells us cat rocks along with beautiful journals, photo albums and picture frames. We cat rocks are more fun then pet rocks if I do say so myself!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Helen, sole proprietor of Gifts by Helen, passed away in December of 2014, and at the time, I announced it on Facebook. Her business is closed. My entries about her will remain in honor of her legacy.

Nothing Small Minded about Small Business

Recently I read an article by Joanna Molloy and that article, Small-business owners say their plans can't be confined by city's tiniest work spaces, has caused me to I post this as a follow-up. Molloy writes,"Big-box stores may be all the rage in suburbia, but in this recession some canny business people have been running what could best be described as thimble stores."