Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for July 08, 2021

What indeed are slap bracelets? Enquiring cats want to know!

OMG Jules was a member of the AV Club.

Careful, Mouse, those bite.

Baba Got Backstory

Just a kid.

Jules, is tripping the light fantastic and bringing to light Baba’s early work! So sweet to see her as a young cat-reporter-about-town! Female on air field reporters were rare back in 1990!

Sigh, people say the same thing as Tommy and Beatrix when they see photos of me from the ‘90s …. "Aw! Wow! She’s so young!"

The scarf she’s using as a belt is the one she was wrapped in as a kitten and now wears as a babushka.

We were all young once (except for my parents).

Well done, Jules. Well done.

The apparent July Bug is being helpful and calm.

Who are you and what have you done with Jules?!

That bug is clearly smarter than he appears. Or just lucky.

By Marcia Griffiths: Electric Boogie

Electronics!

You can’t see me (well not hardly!)

You gotta trust me (what I’m doing!)

Ooh, I’m gonna find it (real old footage!)

Way back in the day she was a real fine gal!

She’s reportin’ all the info

She’s a movin’ all the stories

She sure got the big scoop!

…….

She’s gonna know it!

All of the latest (Boogie Woogie Woogie)

You can’t hold her back

She’s the greatest! (Boogie Woogie Woogie)

And the story is there!

Here, there, and everywhere!

…….

I’ve got to move,

On this keyboard I’m gonna slide,

A July Bug has to groove,

And from this story I just can’t hide!

…….

Are you coming with me?

I’ll show you footage that just cannot hide!

And I’ll show you, show you, show you!

Let July Bug be your guide!

…….

Now we all know it!

All of the latest (Boogie Woogie Woogie)

You can’t hold her back

She’s the greatest! (Boogie Woogie Woogie)

And the story is there!

Here, there, and everywhere!

…….

Are you coming with me?

I’ll show you footage that just cannot hide!

And I’ll show you, show you, show you!

Let July Bug be your guide!

And why can’t they catch them?

A thin piece of metal covered with a colorful fabric. The metal was spring steel, so would stay rigid and flat, until you slapped it on your wrist, where the steel would coil around your arm. When flat the two long sides would slightly curve towards each other so that the metal would not coil. When you “broke” the rigid hold, it would have circumferential memory and curl.

I remember my older daughter having a few of these. I saw them before a design meeting for a Premium Seat on an aircraft, we adapted the curtain to use a similar spring steel design that would go from flat to coil – allowing privacy for the passenger. It was an early patent, now expired but a good design. I was still practicing medicine then, but I moonlighted with an Aerospace Company making ergonomic designs.

So today the privacy curtains are actually hard shells around the passenger in Business class, and not track seats anymore. The company I worked with invented the shells, but Recaro owned the seats.

That July Bug is awesome…for such a short time with us, he knew the exact whereabouts of the Baba Mouse Files…and how to Operate Burt’s Tech. Impressive.

Nice.

Baba was so pretty.

Oh, I remember those! All the rage the year they were prizes at the fair! My niece got one a few years ago and was clearly skeptical that her mother and I had also had them as kids.

Was that the 90s? Wow I’m old. I thought they were around in the mid to early 80s. I’ve never had one myself, but I remember kids playing with them on the bus and in the malls.

Baba Mouse (i think it is called that) looks so young!!!

Eh? I didn’t knews that there was colour footage in the 1890s.

I remember slap bracelets. I never cared much for them.

Wow indeed! Young Baba is so lovely! ❤

BOCH & BOBH! (plus toebeans)

Baba is so pretty, with her colouring and lovely outfit.

Baba was hot back in the day.

Wouldn’t most cats be happy just batting those bracelets around until they were hit under the frig?

Love the July Bug lurking at the edges of the frames. Must be very proud of himself for showing Baba when she was young.

Young people today are too young to know what slap bracelets were.

And I’m too OLD to know what slap bracelets were. Had to look it up.

I’m thrilled to see a story about Baba Mouse!

Memories

Light up Baba on the screen

Georgia’s watercolor memories

Of the way she was

Archived footage

Of the job she left behind

News on tape that Jules uncovered

“And that’s the way it is”

Can it be that life was all so simple then?

And can we just love how Baba shines?

If she had the chance to do it all again

Tell me, would she?

Could she?

Memories

May be beautiful and yet

What’s on tape we can remember

While bad times, we hope to forget

And it’s young Baba

We will remember

Whenever we remember

The way she was

The way one does

(Marvin Hamlisch – The Way We Were)

In her younger days she wore her babushka/kitten blanket like a grunge plaid shirt, tied around her waist. How very 90s!

Last panel – Beatrix is thinking, “Wow the 90s. That’s like eons ago.”

I imagine if a cat stepped on an unfolded slap-bracelet just right, it would suddenly pop up and curl back into its circular form, resulting in the cat leaping back in amazement.

nice work, Jules!

May I just say that I ♥ LOVE ♥ Georgia’s “new” lettering style – it’s so much clearer and easier to read than the digital version that was causing her such pain and aggravation. Sometimes “old-school” is the best school!

I often think of the 90’s as recent times, and then I think and realize that they were 30 years ago. Then I get sad.

The July bug is a lot smarter than the June bugs. I’ve seen June bugs fly into lamp posts, my face, and the ground. I don’t know how June bugs are able to survive if they have no sense of direction.

Nice new look, Georgia!

’ey! I was close.

Bee wise. Digitize!

The panel outlines look darker to me as well (compare to some previous months). I wonder if she is hand inking them too.

Could young Baba Mouse have been an inspiration of a different sort? Maybe a different Baba?! …

As in, BABA WAWA (a la Gilda Radner) perhaps?!! … :)

OT: Message from Georgia yesterday. I posted it so late I don’t think everyone saw it: It’s long. I had no idea what she was going through:“When the comic came to newspapers, for the first time I had to sit at a computer for longer than 20-45 minutes for part of the process. I used to scan it and post it, a little clean up, done. For newspapers, to get the lines dark enough I began to scan the inks and lay them on top. It took a while to line the lines up, but made them dark. A font from my handwriting was added too, which meant typing out each of the bubbles. I think for most people computers would make the work easier… for me, this all added about a day and a half my process. And it was the worst part, the only part I ever wanted to avoid. However, it looked great, the font was easier to correct, time went on. It all worked—until it didn’t. Hoping to get faster over time, if anything I began to get slower because I dreaded the computer time so much.About a year ago my arm began giving me trouble. I went to an occupational therapist, she was amazing, I highly recommend OTs! She had a gentle warning that working between two totally different set ups (inking/painting 4 days, editing 2) might over stress the muscles. I learned the exercises, adjusted my work stations to be more ergonomic, and it all worked…Again, until it didn’t. My arm began giving me new trouble a few weeks ago.I sat at my desk a few weeks back, late at night. My arm ached again. My edits were taking forever again. I felt very down. And I thought, “well… Maybe I can learn to color digitally,” and my whole heart sank. Digital is great for people who love it—but I love watercolors. Immediately this image came into my head of a round hole, and me trying to shove my square arm into it, literally shaving off bits of my arm (the parts giving me an ache) to fit. “No.

Lovely incorporation of the July bug this year!

And here I thought Cat News (CN) had begun when Lupin, Elvis, and Puck went on the air to discuss how everything was broken and they had no idea who did that. But Mouse’s CN microphone proves otherwise.

I am REALLY liking this side of Jules! I’m so glad Georgia is giving him a chance to express himself in new ways. He’s playful, he’s smart, and he’s even helpful! And I can see how Tommy and Burt could be friends with Jules — Tommy is so friendly, and Burt is so calm — it wouldn’t be any ‘fun’ for Jules to even try to mess with them … speaking of which, I expect he’ll make his annual visit with the boys soon, but how will Goldie react? Or maybe he’s an old friend from her outdoor days?

Is it weird that in July (the last couple of years) I think about the July Bug – Jules at least a few times during the month while doing everyday life stuff? There’s that and the Quote from the Good Place about the dot over the letter i in Jeremy Bearimy (Tuesdays, and also July and sometimes never).

After reading SunflowerGirl’s posts of Georgia’s troubles with her creative process, I’m worried about her getting carpal tunnel syndrome. It doesn’t matter whether it’s using the keyboard or working with your hands in some other way, it usually results from arthritis aggravated by repetitive stress. A similar condition can develop in the elbow, where it is much more serious. I’m glad she’s seeing an occupational therapist.

OT:

I told you Jules was a good guy!

If that tape is from the 90s, then why isn’t Baba wearing a flannel shirt?

Thanks, July bug!

Lot of prescience in yesterday’s comments. Do you have investment or sports betting advice? (I know, it’s really the same thing.)

Baba Mouse looks so much older now. “We were so much older then; we’re younger than that now.”

I bet Baba Mouse had a hyper-color cat bed in those days.

Elsa is coming NJ – hope everyone in her path stays safe!

Oh gods. I know cats age at a different rate from humans, but given how ancient Baba Mouse is, this is making me feel old to see her this young in the ’90s. I remember the ’90s! lol

OT

If you fast forward a couple of weeks, you’ll see reports on lacerations from worn-out slap bracelets. Thin steel and cheap fabric are not a good combination for children. (I’m sure Baba Mouse would be on top of it.)

I know them and HATE them. Always, ALWAYS there was something caught between!!

Bea is so excited to see such a YOUNG Baba Mouse. I have to admit it is pretty cool.

OT computers and cats

Wow, Baba Mouse looked amazing!

Thought they were and ’00s thing.

Baba is so young! I remember slap bracelets and never had one.

Beatrix looks cuter than ever, if that could be possible.

Thank you July Bug!

Thank you for the smile everyday!

Yay!

When I was young, I was looking at an old family photo album.

I ran to my grandparents—saying, “I didn’t know that Pop Pop had so much brown hair!”

Bea’s reaction to seeing a “young” Baba Mouse is just like mine was.

;-D

aaw! baba mouse so cute!

Wait what? A touchscreen television?! That’s crazy!