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Latte art
         
The Scream   Latte art   Peacock
 
         
 

March 30th 2017

James

The silent scream

The Silent Miaow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats is a wonderful book, written from the cat’s point of view, by Paul Gallico.  I first read it when courting Mary having realised that, if my intentions were to be taken seriously, I would have to show that I loved her cats – Big Cat and Little Cat – as much as she did (which was of course the case).

A silent miaow is described by the feline author of the book as a technique of ridiculous simplicity and one that is used to break down resistance: ‘You look up at the subject, open your mouth as you would for a fully articulated miaow, such as you emit if, say, you wish to leave the room and want the door opened, or are hungry or irritated by something, except in this case you permit no sound to issue.’  The description continues: ‘It appears to sum up for them such a burden of unhappiness and need that we are not able even to give voice to it.  It is an un-cry of despair and longing that pierces more swiftly and directly to the human heart than the most self-pitying miaow of which we are capable’.

A silent scream, on the other hand, is a human sign of extreme exasperation and is how I picture Mary’s response to certain aspects of my obsessive personality.  I hasten to say that I have never actually seen her raise her hands to her ears and silently scream but I can see from the set of her shoulders that she occasionally feels like doing so.  I have found that this response occurs most commonly when I rearrange all the plates and cups in the dishwasher immediately after she has loaded it.  I no longer attempt to explain my very good reasons for making sure that each item is placed in its ‘correct’ place; I simply wait until she is out of the room and put them where they should be.

The first two photographs opposite are self-explanatory.  The other two are further recent examples of my latte art, the second of which is clearly a peacock (or perhaps a whale).   

 

 





  © Copyright Thomas Jackson 2010