When Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere decided to have the Latin for "live without regrets" tattooed on her back, she was probably not expecting it to be a test of whether she actually would. Unfortunately her tattoo, which reads "vivere senza rimipianti" is misspelled, the correct phrase is "vivere senza rimpianti". Hayden is, to her credit, taking it all in her stride and told a reported from the UK's Daily Mirror "It is misspelled, whatever, vivere senza rimipiantic means live without regret in Italian. I just put my own spin to it." (Digital Spy).
Someone else who's - so far - taking misfortune in their stride are the family from Oldham in the UK who receive upwards of 60 phone calls a day from people hoping to reach the chart-topping rap artist Soulja Boy. This is down to the fact that SB's latest single, "Kiss Me Through The Phone", includes their 12 digit phone number as part of the chorus, causing many fans to try ringing out of curiosity. Given the near ubiquity of tie-in media in modern films and television programs (think of all the websites spun off from "Dr. Who" or "Lost"), this is perhaps understandable, if a little inconvenient for Gerry Matley and partner Catriona Smith. "It's easy to understand that, isn't it? When you look at me, I've got the perfect profile for a rapper," joked Matley, 54 (Guardian).
And surely if a 54 year-old Oldham man can make it as a rapper, a 1 year-old cat can be a political pundit? A woman whose cat had gone missing a few hours earlier was astonished find out that it had made an impromptu appearance on a weekly live UK political debate program. That week "Question Time" was being recorded at a community college in Newquay, close to where owner Jackie Ellery lives. She was wondering where Tango the cat had got to when he walked unnoticed into shot behind the host and his panel of MPs. "My friend phoned me to say, 'Have you seen your cat on the telly?' And there he was," said Ellery (Digital Spy).
Finally, it is with regret that I relay news of the death of the queen of the "pussy joke", Molly Sugden. Her most famous role was in the light-entertainment sitcom "Are You Being Served?" as the pompous, and frequently inept, shop assistant Mrs. Slocombe, who could not make an entrence without commenting on how the weather/busman strike/energy shortages were 'effecting' her pussy (BBC News).
You pay $9 for the privilege of spending an hour in a cafe begging some cats to pay attention to you. Apparently the concept has become very popular in Japan due to a combination of factors that make pet ownership difficult: people spend too much time at work, and many apartments have no-pets policies.
As someone who owns a 15-year-old cat that insists on spending a large portion of her time every day sleeping in my lap -- and instead of trying to move her I've just learned to work around this -- I'm not really in a position to make fun of anyone else's weird cat-related behavior. If I didn't own a cat, and I lived in Japan, I'd probably be one of the people hanging out at the local cat cafe. (Thanks to Cassie Sperry for the link!)
We all know that cartoon genius Tex Avery was an utter madman in his animation. But BAD LUCK BLACKIE strikes me as the most bizzare and surreal example of his art that I've ever seen.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.