East Village, Nation Mourns Death of Pretty Boy
June 20, 2009 1:39 PM   Subscribe

 
What would one see if one were a registered NYTimes reader?

I did some Googling and found another site.
posted by eye of newt at 1:43 PM on June 20, 2009 [2 favorites]


A most excellent use of the "whitecatscreepmerightthefuckout" tag, good sir.
posted by infinitywaltz at 1:44 PM on June 20, 2009 [4 favorites]


.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:44 PM on June 20, 2009 [2 favorites]


Pretty Boy watched me get my hair cut for seven years.
New York is special, but that block of Seventh Street is especially special. I miss Pretty Boy and it makes me miss New York.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 1:45 PM on June 20, 2009 [8 favorites]


Aw, I live just a few blocks away and though I'm an inveterate petter-of-street-cats I never met Pretty Boy. But I just put down my dear old cat last week, before liver cancer could make his life miserable, and I can certainly agree with the salon owner that [t]here is something about the unconditional love; they clean the blues off of you. I miss you Jack.
posted by nicwolff at 1:49 PM on June 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


Is there still someone on the internet who doesn't know how to log onto NY Times without registering?
posted by found missing at 1:49 PM on June 20, 2009 [2 favorites]


the question is will any cats be there when they put the new york times down?
posted by pyramid termite at 1:51 PM on June 20, 2009 [18 favorites]


Is there still someone on the internet who doesn't know how to log onto NY Times without registering?

Apparently.
posted by infinitywaltz at 1:52 PM on June 20, 2009


the question is will any cats be there when they put the new york times down?

Maybe if more people registered for their site that wouldn't be such a worry.
posted by stargell at 1:55 PM on June 20, 2009 [4 favorites]


What with constantly changing browsers the login is still a useless distraction.
posted by acro at 1:55 PM on June 20, 2009


Reminds me vaguely of Jenny The Cat in many ways.

.
posted by hippybear at 1:56 PM on June 20, 2009 [3 favorites]


Maybe if more people registered for their site that wouldn't be such a worry.

Registration is free. I can't see how adding more free users to their website will increase revenue enough to help.
posted by hippybear at 1:57 PM on June 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


Wow, is that the "I are serious cat. This is serious thread" cat?
posted by jquinby at 2:02 PM on June 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


This is a nice story. This part...

He spent his day purring, sprawled on the appointment calendar at the reception desk and in the laps of clients having their hair washed. The cat’s love of hair salons made Mr. Dolengowski suspect that he was a reincarnated hairdresser.

...is just, I don't know -- freakishly funny to me.
posted by heyho at 2:04 PM on June 20, 2009


Some days, Mr. Diaz said, he swaggered through a Swiss restaurant on the block.

Pretty Boy was one badass cat.
posted by grounded at 2:06 PM on June 20, 2009


Oh fuck.

I read the sentence about the rain and I started nodding.

My whole life I've been mocking the of-course-we're-the-center-of-the-universe schtick in the Times. But I'm spending the summer in New York with my girlfriend, and it has been awfully rainy, and we were just down in that part of the Village this afternoon, and MY GOD I'M BECOMING ONE OF THEM.

Cute story, though...
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:08 PM on June 20, 2009 [6 favorites]


Working cats are special. I just took a trip up to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and it was the first time in over a decade of visiting the festival that I wasn't able to visit with Orlando, at the Bloomsbury book store.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 2:08 PM on June 20, 2009


Is there still someone on the internet who doesn't know how to log onto NY Times without registering?

Apparently.


Why bother? I got the information I wanted (no thanks to the peanut gallery).
posted by eye of newt at 2:10 PM on June 20, 2009


Considering it's been COLD and RAINING EVERY DAY in JUNE, I think us Tri-State Area people get to feel a little grumpy and twitchy about the fuckingweatherohmygooditssowetandgreyohgodkillme
posted by The Whelk at 2:16 PM on June 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


I'm gonna cry and fart here.
posted by Dumsnill at 2:22 PM on June 20, 2009


Considering it's been COLD and RAINING EVERY DAY in JUNE

New York has hardly been unique in that regard. New Yorkers are like those parents who think everything their kid does is special and unique and has never been done before in the history of kids. Yeah, by the way, we also called Ohio/Pennsylvania/West Virginia the "Tri-State Area" where I am from.

New York is pretty cool, though, I'll give you that.
posted by adamdschneider at 2:27 PM on June 20, 2009


Corner of East 7th street and Avenue A?

I'm pretty sure I used to cop dope from Pretty Boy in the pre-Guiliani era.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:32 PM on June 20, 2009 [9 favorites]


“You get so hard living here,” he said in a gravelly, mournful voice. “But pets open up that heart center. There is something about the unconditional love; they clean the blues off of you."

Right on.
posted by subbes at 2:34 PM on June 20, 2009 [3 favorites]


New York has hardly been unique in that regard. New Yorkers are like those parents who think everything their kid does is special and unique and has never been done before in the history of kids.


I'm saying it's unique, I'm saying it's depressing and annoying.
posted by The Whelk at 2:45 PM on June 20, 2009


adamdschneider: "New York has hardly been unique in that regard."

None of the lifelong residents of Salt Lake City that I've asked can recall two weeks with as much rain in them as the last two.
posted by Joe Beese at 2:49 PM on June 20, 2009


I'm not surprised that many folks are sad at Pretty Boy's death. It sounds like he had a big personality.

.
posted by angiep at 2:53 PM on June 20, 2009


Meanwhile,

Hundreds of thousands of innocent people die in a stupid war. The NY Times is there - up to its neck.

Your right to privacy dies. The NY Times doesn't bother to tell you about it for a year.




Sorry about the cat.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:56 PM on June 20, 2009 [3 favorites]


*whew* Thank goodness the New York Times is able to keep so many thoughts in its head at once. Maybe it would be better if this thread were just about the cat.
posted by hippybear at 3:09 PM on June 20, 2009


I got the information I wanted (no thanks to the peanut gallery).

Sorry, I wasn't trying to hack on you or give you shit or anything. No offense meant.
posted by infinitywaltz at 3:11 PM on June 20, 2009


Ah. I think I remember the ghostly-white Pretty Boy (me = former resident of 7th & B, then 1st & Houston). 22 years is pretty impressive.

Really, as much as the NYT gets made fun of for acting like New York is the center of the universe -- it's not just a paper for international and national hard news, but it's also a local rag with very localized stories, with reporters trying to emulate the quirky, human-interest pieces Joseph Mitchell was so good at. (Yes, he wrote for the New Yorker and not the Times, but I think all young journalists are required to read "Up in the Old Hotel.") I could see a story like this in the fluff-news sections of any number of newspapers in smaller cities ... why the extra snark here? It was in the NYT's New York/regional section; it's not like this was getting placed above Iran coverage in the print edition.

Then again, they didn't do a story when my Bronx-bred kitty died, but by then she'd moved to Portland, so I'll cut them some slack.
posted by lisa g at 3:28 PM on June 20, 2009 [5 favorites]


Yay, is this turning into an I hate the rain thread?

I, too, hate the rain. It's fucking with Colorado's 300 sunny days a year boast.
posted by mynameisluka at 3:49 PM on June 20, 2009


I knew Pretty Boy well. He was a big old sedate, been-around-the-block-kind of cat (literally). I lived around the corner for 14 years and shopped at Mikey's. He was always just chilling out by the cash register or if not there, wandering over to the hairdresser's where he died. It always freaked me out seeing these city cats that are just so blase about pedestrians and traffic. Pretty Boy died just before I left NY (6/1), and for me, at least, felt like one of the signs that it was the end of a era.

It's doubly sad for Mikey, because he is going to lose his lease and shut down permanently. His landlord has a sweetheart 99 year lease and has decided to profit from the real estate market at exactly the wrong time.
posted by nikitabot at 3:56 PM on June 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


Yay, is this turning into an I hate the rain thread?

I wonder about the effects of this on the growing season. Constant darkness and rain can't be good.

So 1816, the Year Without A Summer was responsible for Bryon and the Shellys' staying inside during their Swiss summer vacation and writing scary stories, including "Frankenstein" It also precipitated the moves of Joseph Smith which led to Mormonism and inspired a good Rasptunia Song.
posted by The Whelk at 4:04 PM on June 20, 2009


Why the extra snark here?

Because the Gray Lady is so eminently snark-worthy. Because Mount Everest is there to climb. Because without the lifeblood of snark, Metafilter would be turned to ash and dust. Because the sun rises in the morning .....
posted by blucevalo at 4:04 PM on June 20, 2009


Why the extra snark here?

I would say it has something to do with the ultra-snarky framing of the post itself.
posted by jbickers at 4:07 PM on June 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


To be fair to the NYT, the story was listed in the Region section, and it seems Pretty Boy was something of a regional icon for a number of years. That is a lot of wordspace for a cat, though.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:48 PM on June 20, 2009


It has rained a lot though.
posted by ob at 4:59 PM on June 20, 2009


(Just in case we hadn't mentioned it for five minutes.)
posted by ob at 5:00 PM on June 20, 2009


The NY Times is there.

Lemme guess, they called his meaow "adenoidal", right?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:02 PM on June 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


Constant darkness and rain can't be good.

Hey, the Belgians are still doing okay.

wait a minute, maybe you're right...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:05 PM on June 20, 2009



(Just in case we hadn't mentioned it for five minutes.)


IT HAS NOT STOPPED RAINING.
posted by The Whelk at 5:16 PM on June 20, 2009


Rain is bullshit.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 5:20 PM on June 20, 2009


He got to see Up, right?

Right?
posted by obiwanwasabi at 5:42 PM on June 20, 2009 [2 favorites]


Rain is bullshit.

Maybe in New York, it is. It's water most places.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:43 PM on June 20, 2009 [5 favorites]


He got to see Up, right?

Ha ha! Like the little girl who died of cancer! Good one!

Jerk.
posted by kamikazegopher at 5:51 PM on June 20, 2009


Pretty Boy was a very cool cat. I used to pet him every time I bought kitty kibble for my guys. Another change in a neighborhood that is now almost unrecognizable.
posted by hooptycritter at 6:33 PM on June 20, 2009


Why do people think it odd that the New York Times covers local stories in New York City? It's in their "NY/Region" section; if they'd put it in the "International" section there might be some point to the snark, but as it is this post seems pure WTF?
posted by yoink at 7:08 PM on June 20, 2009


"Unconditional" is not the word I would pick for the love of a cat*.

That's why it's so valuable when it does appear: you had to earn it, and even then it could be yanked at any moment.

*Unlike, say, a dog.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:01 PM on June 20, 2009 [2 favorites]


22 years old? Jeebus. Seemed to be a good few decades though. I always liked the friendly shop cats at delis...made me hopeful that there might be marginally fewer rats, if more cat hairs, near the food.
posted by emjaybee at 8:31 PM on June 20, 2009


We could use some rain here about now.
posted by blucevalo at 9:30 PM on June 20, 2009


Is there still someone on the internet who doesn't know how to log onto NY Times without registering?

Member name false and password false has worked since the Times started registration.
posted by JaredSeth at 9:56 PM on June 20, 2009 [4 favorites]


New York Times covers a local human interest story. BitterOldPunk is there.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 10:30 PM on June 20, 2009 [2 favorites]


Ha ha! Like the little girl who died of cancer! Good one!

Awesome. You totally got it. I hate it when I have to explain it.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 10:34 PM on June 20, 2009


Why the extra snark here?

Because everyone on Metafilter is COLD AND HAS NO HEART AND MEAN IT WAS A KITTY! ;_;
Admittedly a very old 'kitty' . . . but a cute widdle cat!
posted by Askiba at 11:22 PM on June 20, 2009


after death snarkers will go to a room filled with yip yappy chihuahua that will nip at their heels for eternity.
posted by hooptycritter at 3:33 AM on June 21, 2009 [2 favorites]


That's it, BOP... next time The Birmingham News runs a dead pet story, I'm posting it to the blue!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:51 AM on June 21, 2009


Thankful I'm not recently spoused to you, obiwanwasabi, I'd be filing right now.
posted by thinkpiece at 5:36 AM on June 21, 2009


...next time The Birmingham News runs a dead pet story, I'm posting it to the blue!

You may have a long wait for that opportunity. The Birmingham News doesn't seem to have run any such stories.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:08 AM on June 21, 2009


D'oh!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:27 AM on June 21, 2009


22 years survival as a semi-outdoor city cat is worthy of recognition. And white kitties have to avoid skin cancer on top of all the other dangers. Huzzah, late puss!
posted by Scram at 7:25 AM on June 21, 2009 [1 favorite]


.
posted by BillBishop at 1:03 PM on June 21, 2009


God... I wish it was Cold and rainy. That would be so effing nice. Another reason to miss NYC, I guess.

As far as the coverage of a neighborhood feline fixture in the NYT, it reminded me of the live news chopper coverage of a lost puppy running up 1-95 around Boca Raton in the breakdown lane. LIVE news coverage?!
posted by Debaser626 at 7:37 AM on June 22, 2009


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