Pyat, a Mouse
@pyat.bsky.social
Poorly curated personality advertisement for an actual mouse. Former reporter, sometime writer about orcs & rabbit samurai. Now Infosec bureaucrat. As seen on TV. Ponderous whimsy a specialty, sometimes factual. Squeak.
No worries, my comment about the Three Stooges was related to the earlier comment about historians assuming everyone in NYC was Al Sharpton etc.
November 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
No worries, my comment about the Three Stooges was related to the earlier comment about historians assuming everyone in NYC was Al Sharpton etc.
I dunno. Future historians might watch the Three Stooges and assume one in three men was named Moe.
November 28, 2025 at 10:36 PM
I dunno. Future historians might watch the Three Stooges and assume one in three men was named Moe.
I was actually just poking someone to read "Till We Have Faces," Lewis' retelling of Cupid and Psyche written conjunction with Joy Davidman. I feel it was ignored by the Christian publishing houses who preferred all Lewis in print to map to his "affable Christian apologist/Cambridge Don" era.
November 28, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I was actually just poking someone to read "Till We Have Faces," Lewis' retelling of Cupid and Psyche written conjunction with Joy Davidman. I feel it was ignored by the Christian publishing houses who preferred all Lewis in print to map to his "affable Christian apologist/Cambridge Don" era.
Absolutely, there were individual travellers regularly riding a horse from place to place - circuit preachers, lawyers and country doctors come to mind.
November 28, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Absolutely, there were individual travellers regularly riding a horse from place to place - circuit preachers, lawyers and country doctors come to mind.
Ok, in a larger context mostly country poor rode ON horses (necessity) and the gentry (who paid people to care for them), otherwise you had/hired carriages. The joke in this scene though, is the group of men out to experience country life realizing horses are scary and also "Haha, Londoners."
November 28, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Ok, in a larger context mostly country poor rode ON horses (necessity) and the gentry (who paid people to care for them), otherwise you had/hired carriages. The joke in this scene though, is the group of men out to experience country life realizing horses are scary and also "Haha, Londoners."
There's a bit in Pickwick Papers where the main characters (four middle aged men) take a jaunt to the country and not one of them has ever ridden a horse. In 1836.
November 28, 2025 at 7:43 PM
There's a bit in Pickwick Papers where the main characters (four middle aged men) take a jaunt to the country and not one of them has ever ridden a horse. In 1836.
Most of the noises I make in a given day wouldn't be made if someone wasn't paying me. ;) This doesn't mean the bird can't associate a noise with a category of noun, or even learn some words associated with actions, like all dogs knowing what "squirrel" or "walk" entail.
November 28, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Most of the noises I make in a given day wouldn't be made if someone wasn't paying me. ;) This doesn't mean the bird can't associate a noise with a category of noun, or even learn some words associated with actions, like all dogs knowing what "squirrel" or "walk" entail.
Random bird fact: The number of "dees" at the end of a Chickadee call indicate that bird's perceived threat level. A flock of Chickadees is constantly building a three dimensional heat map of their environs while foraging.
November 28, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Random bird fact: The number of "dees" at the end of a Chickadee call indicate that bird's perceived threat level. A flock of Chickadees is constantly building a three dimensional heat map of their environs while foraging.
Which is to say, absolutely associating words with items and actions.
November 28, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Which is to say, absolutely associating words with items and actions.
Our cockatiel request games (hide and seek, chasing a glider), tap on light fixtures he wants turned on / off, remembers the steps humans take in household tasks, etc. Larger parrots seem to have more general intelligence. Would not be surprised if their language skills could be toddler equivalent.
November 28, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Our cockatiel request games (hide and seek, chasing a glider), tap on light fixtures he wants turned on / off, remembers the steps humans take in household tasks, etc. Larger parrots seem to have more general intelligence. Would not be surprised if their language skills could be toddler equivalent.
His owners bother me. He does clearly have the ability to remember material characteristics associate them with a sound, sure, but birds already do that. I prefer videos of birds being smart in their own terms: solving environmental puzzles, playing games, etc.
November 28, 2025 at 4:59 PM
His owners bother me. He does clearly have the ability to remember material characteristics associate them with a sound, sure, but birds already do that. I prefer videos of birds being smart in their own terms: solving environmental puzzles, playing games, etc.
Meanwhile Jack is frankin' it all day and no one cares.
November 27, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Meanwhile Jack is frankin' it all day and no one cares.
It's true. But he doesn't internalize that until he sails his coracle past the end of the world.
November 27, 2025 at 3:54 AM
It's true. But he doesn't internalize that until he sails his coracle past the end of the world.
Reepicheep only has high standards because he knows he isn't good enough for Aslan. :(
November 27, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reepicheep only has high standards because he knows he isn't good enough for Aslan. :(
Well, mice are like that.
*judging glare*
More seriously, in my upbringing Narnia (and especially the Cosmic Trilogy) was better than approved alternatives, but my upbringing is not universal and I entirely understand how for others it would feel like a constriction rather than a new freedom.
*judging glare*
More seriously, in my upbringing Narnia (and especially the Cosmic Trilogy) was better than approved alternatives, but my upbringing is not universal and I entirely understand how for others it would feel like a constriction rather than a new freedom.
November 27, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Well, mice are like that.
*judging glare*
More seriously, in my upbringing Narnia (and especially the Cosmic Trilogy) was better than approved alternatives, but my upbringing is not universal and I entirely understand how for others it would feel like a constriction rather than a new freedom.
*judging glare*
More seriously, in my upbringing Narnia (and especially the Cosmic Trilogy) was better than approved alternatives, but my upbringing is not universal and I entirely understand how for others it would feel like a constriction rather than a new freedom.
Well, have you read his last novel? Historically a lot of his works were controlled by publishers who knew people wanted to remember his Christian apologetics. (He also wrote some SF before his conversion.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till_We...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till_We...
Till We Have Faces - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 27, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Well, have you read his last novel? Historically a lot of his works were controlled by publishers who knew people wanted to remember his Christian apologetics. (He also wrote some SF before his conversion.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till_We...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till_We...
C.S. Lewis had Reepicheep, who was, like, the greatest thing in the universe ever.
November 27, 2025 at 3:10 AM
C.S. Lewis had Reepicheep, who was, like, the greatest thing in the universe ever.
I got HHTG when I was ten, but took a bit before I parsed it was beyond the broader jokes. Lewis was sorta dangerous for some Christians. Some of his works are mystical, he wrote calmly about same sex couples at his boy's school in his autobiography etc. Worse! He married a Jewish Marxist Atheist!
November 27, 2025 at 3:09 AM
I got HHTG when I was ten, but took a bit before I parsed it was beyond the broader jokes. Lewis was sorta dangerous for some Christians. Some of his works are mystical, he wrote calmly about same sex couples at his boy's school in his autobiography etc. Worse! He married a Jewish Marxist Atheist!
I've lived with dogs, I raised two humans to adulthood, and have lived with a parrot for seven years and damned if the dogs and parrot did not have emotional lives and senses of humour as intense and rambunctious as any three year old human.
November 27, 2025 at 3:04 AM
I've lived with dogs, I raised two humans to adulthood, and have lived with a parrot for seven years and damned if the dogs and parrot did not have emotional lives and senses of humour as intense and rambunctious as any three year old human.
Yup. And perhaps being well into adulthood when her books showed up was a thing. Maybe if she'd been writing in the 80s it would have had some resonance? But I discovered Moorcock when I was 10, Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy at 11 and Pratchett at 13 and was mainlining much more potent shit already. :D
November 27, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Yup. And perhaps being well into adulthood when her books showed up was a thing. Maybe if she'd been writing in the 80s it would have had some resonance? But I discovered Moorcock when I was 10, Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy at 11 and Pratchett at 13 and was mainlining much more potent shit already. :D
There are so many possible sit-com scenarios involving guys named Doc and old army buddies, too!
November 26, 2025 at 6:43 PM
There are so many possible sit-com scenarios involving guys named Doc and old army buddies, too!