Putting This Here So I Can Find It Later

Posted on February 21, 2013    Posted by      37 Comments

Just in case I need an emergency laugh or two somewhere down the line. I call it “sail cat,” personally. It’s also how I found it with Google, so there it is.

Also, for everyone who is wondering, apparently the cat survived just fine. So laugh without guilt.

Category: Uncategorized    

37 Comments on “Putting This Here So I Can Find It Later”

  6. My cat has done this a few times – tried to launch off a slippery surface and …. well…. looking mighty embarrassed in the aftermath. (The best one was when she grabbed at the table cloth to try and rescue herself and hauled everything off the table)

    yes

    I larfed.

  9. Ah, cats. Long minutes of careful preparation, analysis, and butt-wiggling, followed by a moment of spectacular clumsiness. (Also followed by, inevitably, a cat licking its paws and saying, through body language, “I meant to do that.”)

  10. They’re both great, and the Superman version is particularly awesome, but it needs a warning attached to it; something along the lines of ‘Do not watch if attached to machinery monitoring blood gases’ would have worked for me. I suspect the computer programme is not designed to handle fits of giggles…

  11. Sad but undeniable truth of life: whenever a dog falls down or messes up in some way, it’s sad. When a cat does it, it’s comedy gold.

  12. This was so hilarious that I had to stop and think about why it was so funny. It looks like the first take of a music video shoot, and they won’t be able to film the next take until the cast comes off.

    And anytime they tell you in advance that the cat survived, you know you are in for a treat!

  14. Even if the cat was high, it would very likely survive. Cats have a very low terminal velocity, and have fallen from very great heights (32 floors in one documented instance) with only minor injuries (chipped tooth and a bruised chest). They do need time to assume the crash position (it turns to land on its feet, and spreads wide to slow the fall) — cats that have fallen from nine or higher floors have less injuries than those that fall from lower floors. 90 percent of the cats overall survived, with only 5 percent of those falling from the ninth floor or higher suffering fatal injuries. The study was done in NYC, and the cats fell by accident and were rushed to veterinarians. Nobody went around tossing cats out windows.

    This has been your true cat fact moment.

  15. Is it bad that, if present, I would have said, “Oh, so close! You almost had it.” After making sure the cat was alright, of course.

  21. @David Andersen says:
    “Kitty has seen some combat, judging by the ears…”
    actually that notch on his/her right ear is a sign that s/he’s been neutered/spayed. huzzah for fix our ferals and their ilk.

  22. The “Superman” version is even funnier. “Sail” I was, yes that’s funny. “Superman” made me actually LOL. Editing is great on that one.

  23. Kate: Have you seen “Grinding the Crack”

    Holy crap. I think he’s inside Dead Man’s Curve. Wikipedia says the fatality rate for BASE jumping is 1 death every 60 participants. wingsuitfly.com says 1 death per 500-1000 jumps

    I’ve skydived and flown various aircraft, but I don’t think I’ll ever wingsuit through a canyon like that.

  24. Greg: Dead Man’s Curve? Exactly. But awful. Awe-full.

    This is where I first heard Sail: “… This is how an angel dies {it’s really ‘cries’} … Maybe I should kill myself… ” It all fits so well. Corliss had his worst close call last year– filmed like this one. Word is he’s walking.

  25. Another vote for: The “Sail” version is funny. The “Superman” version is frickin’ hilarious.

  27. Cats always land feet down. Toast always lands butter-side down. So one of the great
    philosophical questions is, “What happens if you tape a slice of buttered toast to the
    back of a cat, and drop the cat?” A question that Mr. Scalzi, with his considerable
    cat-taping experience, is well-fitted to investigate.

    Will

  28. I think it’d be better to link to the original:

    “Kitty Corliss” version of Jeb Corliss’s “Grinding the Crack”: http://youtu.be/Veg63B8ofnQ

    The creator had to do some editing to match the beats up so perfectly, and deserves the views. :)

  34. I’d seen an animated .gif of just the last couple of seconds of this- I like this version better!

  35. Thanks for sharing. That was pretty funny! Our youngest cat is very good at jumping at something… and missing. Then we get the look of death as if we moved the breakfast bar on her!

  36. Bryan L – if I remember right, there was a problem with that study: it was a study of cats brought to the vet, and whether they died or how seriously they were hurt. Cats who were, um, not in good enough shape to be brought to the vet were not included. So it probably overstates survival rates (and may explain the higher survival rates for higher floors, if you think about it, for a rather grim reason I won’t go into).
    Sorry, I am torn about mentioning this at all because we’d all like to believe in flying cats. Anyway, the question of falling cat survival rates was addressed in two Radiolab episodes (and not really resolved):
    http://www.radiolab.org/2010/sep/20/taking-plunge/
    http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2010/nov/29/vertigo/

WHATEVER


Taunting the tauntable since 1998
John Scalzi, proprietor – JS
Athena Scalzi, editor – AMS
About the site

Whatever Days
February 2013
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
2425262728  
Whatarchives
The Big Idea

What's the Big Idea? Authors explaining the the big ideas behind their latest works, in their own words. See the latest Big Ideas!

Authors/Editors/Publicists: for information on how to participate, click here.

Translate Whatever
Random Whatever
Click this link -- and you'll be taken to a random Whatever entry in the archive. Which one will you get? Got me!
Subscribe to Whatever

%d bloggers like this: