While Tiny and Baby slept

"A glass apart" headlined the caption of this New York Times photo series of Bubba, Hillary! and Newt on the two-for-the-price-of-one couple's second inauguration day, a snail fisking (red noses say it all) from our dead-tree files dated January 16, 1997.

"It's like being handicapped," empathized Melissa -- the gal at Apple who told us our new iMac G5 was scheduled for shipment next Wednesday -- when we told her we were suddenly without a working computer, let alone internet access.  This happened after our post of the other day, when we reported the loss of our main computer, Gomer and our fallback on Tuck's workhorse computer Adele.  Remarkably, Adele chose that day to give up the ghost as well, so it was cold turkey.

We turned to our venerable snail files for sustenance -- see photo above of snail-fisked clipping. Fun food for thought when you can't read your favorite blogs. Take this one, from a Wall Street Journal Op Ed by Jeanne Safer dated May 31, 1996, that reminded us of why we never cared for ends-justify-the-means Hillary:

This week, Hillary Rodham Clinton informed Time magazine that she's hoping to have another baby, or to adopt one if she's unable to conceive at age 48. Dr. Joyce Brothers immediately pronounced that such a blessed event "will be good for the country."

We were rather amused with our own snail fisking of the above paragraph, where we presciently scribbled in the margin "Who would inseminate her?"

Tiny assumes the furball position on the kitchen counter this morning.

Meanwhile, as our blogging world of reading and writing teetered on the edge, the animals reminded us that the Hillaries of this world have it backwards.  Forget about ends. It's the means -- catnaps, for example -- that are worth pursuing in their own right.

Baby assumes the furball position on a favorite chair in the studio.

All fur all the time.

Update:  Carnival of the Cats -- #68 -- is up at That's Another Fine Mess. Big, beautiful kitty pix with lots of links plus witty asides. Not to be missed.