A miscellany of great cats

By great, I mean truly Great, as in very large, man-eating cats.

How I arrived at tonight's subject, however, is a bit of a tale, having to do with a soul-eroding printer/scanner problem. You see, one day a couple of months ago, my trusty Epson suddenly sat there, saying "Won't. Won't." Since ours is a throw-away society in which it costs more to repair an item than to replace it, twas time for a different printer. I thought that my b&w laser printer would do my scanning, so I bought a Cracker Jack box sort of printer-only for color. However, b&w laser printer couldn't be coaxed into doing my color scans.

Time for a new approach. Friend had inherited an HP 3-in-1, which she passed along to me. Oops, it needed printer driver, scan twain, etc. Went to HP's web site, where I located said drivers for the Mac, but couldn't connect to the site for a download. Had to order a set of driver software on CD. Popped CD into my computer, clicked on install -- and landed in an infinite loop. All consultations with HP, both in Mumbai and in the States, were totally, completely fruitless -- essentially, their experts told me to do what I had already tried. Finally, I did the intelligent thing: I went to Amazon and had them overnight me a 3-in-1. Not an Epson. Certainly not an HP. I finished putting it together and installing the software an hour ago.

In the meantime, while waiting for the printer to arrive, I cleaned the Stygian counter in my office. Lo and behold, I found a batch of pictures that I thought had gone completely missing. Which brings me back to the Great Cats.

We'll start here in town, where I would l guess that the lion craze is winding down. And rightly so. When the King of Beasts is relegated to adorning a catch-all box for magazines, knitting, etc., it is time for a change. And I don't mean parking him to guard the WalMart ice take-away, either (below). These lions are getting no respect! None. No wonder they look grumpy.

Tigers linked together as a belt? Better than decorating a doo-dad box. Actually, kind of pretty. I found it at a rummage sale last winter and couldn't resist. Reminds me of the tigers in Little Black Sambo who circled the tree so fast that they melted down into ghi (butter).

Here is a much more serious treatment of a Great Cat -- a large puma mask that was sold for a pretty penny at a Prescott College art auction two winters ago.

And now, the entire reason for this post in the first place -- the no-longer-missing picture of me and the gold (or gilded) lion in the Forbidden City in Beijing, back in the days when I had a career. That is not a cat to be trifled with.