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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3309 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 5, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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My cats clearly don't understand how doors work.

They don't even understand that I open doors. One has learned that if she stands with paws on the door and looks at me and meows then the door opens sometimes, but I'm really not sure that she understands that it's I who opens the door, she just knows that "the door's open" tends to happen after "meow near the door". She doesn't understand "push on the door" leads to "door opens", I checked.

How would something like that work for humans? I mean, is it possible to imagine beings that are so above us as we are above cats and who affect our lives in meaningful (open doors etc) but incomprehensible ways? Like I have a literal guardian angel, I pray to it (like my cat meows to me), and then somehow things work out better for me, in an incomprehensible way. How could that work? How could an angel "opening a door" for you appear to a human?

I think it looks like someone complaining on the internet that something is BROKEN and BAD and they want it to be GOOD INSTEAD, and then having someone else fixes it through means they don't understand.

Anyway, on a completely unrelated note when I click "reply" on a comment that is at or past the depth limit (e.g. 8+ comments deep in the CW thread), and I click the button that says "comment", the button gets disabled but it never shows that it successfully posted (though it did successfully post). This is BROKEN and BAD and I want it to be GOOD INSTEAD.

Meow.

I have seen cats leap and grab onto doorknobs in a way that clearly indicates they understand their function. Can't speak for all of them of course.

As for the human example, I imagine it would be something like a cargo cult or old pagan religion. "If we build a runway/shrine and make the proper sacrifices the planes/gods will shower us with treasure."

cf:

When we were living in Colorado there was snowfall. Our cat—I'm a cat man—wanted to get out of the house so I opened a door for him but he wouldn't leave. Just kept on crying. He'd seen snow before and I couldn't understand it. I kept opening other doors for him and he still wouldn't leave. Then Ginny said, "Oh, he's looking for a door into summer." I threw up my hands, told her not to say another word, and wrote the novel The Door into Summer in 13 days.

Dammit, that's where the phrase is from.

Are you sure your cat doesn’t understand? Mine, when wanting to enter or exit a room with a closed door, would paw at the doorknob in a way that suggest he was attempting to get it to turn like a human would. I think he understood the mechanics.

I'm not sure if you are deliberately hinting at something or not.

Is this about religion?

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