Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Great pic with the tongue!

So what's Dr. ER's idea for a name?
 

Well, I can't reach her at the moment, but I'll bet it's Olivia -- isn't that the chick detective's name that works with Sideways Bobby?
 

But, I guess, to stay consistent, the new kitty's name should be Mariska -- for Mariska Hargitay, who plays Detective Olivia Benson.

'Cause Ice-T the cat's name is Ice-T, not Fin Tutuola!
 

Just say no, ER. Just say no. I do, and I don't have a problem with it. :-)
 

How could anyone say no to such a sweet face?
 

I'll be nice, Kirsten, but it's very, very, very easy.
 

She's cude!
 

What a cute little kitty. Is it all Black? I may need a Black cat.

Been reading during the interim about the Orisha and their influence on American religion.

Zora Neal Hurston was an anthropologist and writer. Looking into her own culture in the 1920’s she wrote a book “Mules and Men”. In that book she relates several of her Voo Doo (Hoo Doo) initiations.
Here is one:

BLACK CAT’S BONES

"Sometimes you have to be able to walk invisible. Some things must be done in deep secret, so you have to walk out of the sight of man."
First I had to get ready even to try this most terrible of experiences? getting the Black Cat Bone….
(for 24 hours I collected rain water, ate nothing, drank a “special” wine)
When dark came, we went out to catch a black cat. I must catch him with my own hands. Finding and catching black cats is hard work, unless one has been released for you to find, Then we repaired to a prepared place in the woods and a circle drawn and "protected" with nine horseshoes. Then the fire and the pot were made ready. A roomy iron pot with a lid. When the water boiled I was to toss in the terrified, trembling cat.
When he screamed, I was told to curse him. He screamed three times, the last time weak and resigned. The lid was clamped down, the fire kept vigorously alive. At midnight the lid was lifted. Here was the moment! The bones of the cat must be passed through my mouth until one tasted bitter.
Suddenly, (the doctor) rushed in close to the pot and he cried, "Look out! This is liable to kill you. Hold your nerve!" (They)…communicated some unearthly terror to me. Maybe I went off in a trance. Great beast? like creatures thundered up to the circle from all sides. Indescribable noises, sights, feelings. Death was at hand! Seemed unavoidable! I don't know. Many times I have thought and felt, but I always have to say the same thing. I don't know. I don't know.
Before day (light) I was home, with a small white bone for me to carry."
 

I probably could have gone forever without reading that, Drlobojo. Sort of wish I had.
 

I recall being given many tracts describing the evil rituals supposedly involved in the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.

The good religious folks who created these tracts and those who handed them out, and even those who claimed to have played the game gave just such turgid and revolting descriptions of the materials involved in the game.

Those accounts had nothing to do with D&D, and everything to do with the rediculous imaginations of the writers of the religious tracts.

I don't know anything about voodoo...but I cast a jaudiced eye upon most such writings. Perhaps understandably.
 

Ditto what Trixie said!
 

Sorry Trixie, forgive me FF. It is just that, well, I'm broken I guess. I saw the cat looking wide eyed at me with his tongue disrespectfully stuck out like that and I thought immediately about the Black Cat Bone story.

Teresa said: "I don't know anything about voodoo...but I cast a jaudiced eye upon most such writings."
Ah, a skeptic, all I can say is her mentor was Franz Boaz "the Father of American Anthropology".
 

The LOLCat caption for this photo would be:

Oh Hai! I tastes like kitteh!!!1! Nom Nom Nom Nom.
 

Okay, Drlobojo, you're forgiven. Can you be fixed? ;)

LOVE the LOLcat caption you suggested, Alan! :)
 

FF said: "Okay, Drlobojo, you're forgiven. Can you be fixed? ;)"

Before a venture an answer, just exactly which form of "being fixed" were you refering to?
 

Got so hung up on the concept of being fixed that i forgot to say what I originally intended to say. Given that the cat has an unknown spirit reflected in his eyes and in the spirit of the Black Cat Bone and commemorating the Ice-T episode on L&O about the Santeria I propose that the animal be named Dr. Mojo.
 

heh. Dr.mobojo. :-)
 

I'm glad y'all womenfolk scolded DrLobo for bein' callous about kitties -- and I know he LOVES kitties.

But damn. This is the saddest thing I've read in a long time:

"He screamed three times, the last time weak and resigned."

Sniff.
 

I guess, Drlobojo, that depends on just how (or where) you're broken! ;)

And I agree with you, ER. Sad, sad, sad. Especially with my affinity for black cats.
>^..^<
 

Growing up, we had a very fine black cat named Mickey who liked to play penny poker with us and sit up at the table after my brother (a picky eater) left half way through the meal. If we went out to eat, we'd come back to find Mickey sitting at the table looking expectantly at us.

Anyways, our UCC got one of those stealth Biblical Witness Fellowship types who tried to turn the church fundamentalist. We were still getting along OK with the guy (although he knew by then that my mother was pro-choice), but late one afternoon he stopped by our house to drop something off. Mom likes to burn incense and scented candles (she just likes the smell) and so when he walked in she had the kitchen lit with candles, and Mickey was sitting up on the gossip bench at the entrance of the kitchen looking black and mysterious and sinister. The minister took one look around, turned absolutely white, and got out of there fast. It wasn't until later, after he'd preached a sermon about feminists being lesbian, baby-killing, Satan-worshipping witches (I am not making this up) that my mother realized what must have been going through his head at the time.
 

Great cat tale, SW!

Sigh. There are downsides to democracy. An otherwise decent and carin' UC church that winds up with a fundy preacher is one.