A difficult matter

Amidst controversy over his name, First Cat India offered no comment (White House photo by Paul Morse)

Tim Blair discovers another enormity foisted upon the world by the hapless GW: "Indians are outraged over George W. Bush’s controversial cat-naming policy," writes the Aussie blogger, citing this Yahoo! Indian News story:

Thiruvananthapuram, July 2. Angry youths in this Kerala capital Friday burnt an effigy of US President George W. Bush, not because they are anti-American but because he has named his cat India.

"This is a disgrace to our great country and this has come from none other than US President George W. Bush. This is nothing but an insult to India because there are hundreds of thousands of Indians in US, and many who occupy key posts in the White House," said M.A. Latheef, president of the group.

"He should make amends," Latheef added.

"Meanwhile, to repair the hurt feelings of Thiruvananthapuram’s seething youth, a sensitive new name must be found for Bush’s cat," notes Tim, who has a few suggestions of his own. But don't be too hard on GW. After all, as T.S. Eliot wrote:

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES . . .

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover --
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

Comments

[goomp]

Any country should be proud to have such a handsome feline named after it.

[pam]

Holy mother of pearl. I've heard it all now.

I've never had such an overwhelming urge to pull out my DSL cables before...