The answer is obvious, she should start a flea circus.
Other options would be to shave the cat and have it tattooed. She could then rent it out to people making low budget horror and science fiction films or, and this is a brillant idea, she could have a luminescent gene inserted into some of the fleas - there are scientists who would love to try this - they would then breed and she would have a sparkle-in-the-dark cat which would also earn her large amounts of money from the tabloid press and certain kinds of magazine.
That's that problem dealt with. If only they were all so easy.
I'm using the extra hour gained from putting the clocks back to write the blog and read about some of the recent changes to the Arts Council before I arrange a meeting to find out more about what has happened in the West Midlands since I left to go to SOAS. I have spent the last two days moving boxes of 'stuff' back to my house in Newcastle under Lyme using PUF, the Morrss Minor that Viv has kindly lent me. Unfortunately PUF is suffering from a battery problem. The prostate of old cars it seems. Either battery or alternator, I need to test and find out. So there has been much recharging of the battery and searching for the root of the problem. Despite not being the best of cars to move house with, because of the tiny boot and having to pile everything on the back seats, PUF has done very well and the engine runs beautifully. As does mine.
I am house sitting again while Viv is off at the Brighton virology conference. The cat who usually wipes her paws on coming into the house when Viv is here becomes a loutish bullying tyrant as soon as she is away. I will have to spend most of today cleaning the muddy paw prints that are everywhere in the house. I also get hit on the nose at some ridiculous hour in the morning and forced to go down and open yet another tin of cat food after which I am forced to 'play', this means I have to thrown an endless series of tiny bits of platic and screwed up paper for the cat, name Georgie, not to fetch.
Back to the subject. Those of you who follow the Asian news will probably know about the hullabaloo (an interesting word and one I feel has something Hobson Jobson about it. But I have no time to follow that up, perhaps some of you have your own ideas on the matter.)... the hullabaloo about classic texts such as the Ramayana being studied in Indian schools. As with attacks on the teaching of evolution in America it is the extreme religious groups that are behind it. It is something of a tautology to talk about Hindu fundamentalists as Hinduism is so diverse and nebulous, but there are powerful lobby groups who are sure that they know exactly what Hinduism should be and this has led to the withdrawal of certain texts from schools and colleges. One of these texts is
Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation A. K. Ramanujan which you can find in the University of California ebook version of the collection Many Ramayanas. I find it hard to think of Western equivalents to the Indian classic texts perhaps because our classics are no longer rooted in religion. Imagine if Christianity had not spread and Europe had developed a religion and culture based on Greek or Norse myth and legend, then we might have had the same hotchpotch (another word like hullabaloo that sounds Hobson Jobson but I think comes from the Native Americans. ) and confusion as they do in India. Anyway... the essay is really interesting and even in translation some of the poetry is very fine and it mentions the above curse. Given by Gautama (Buddha) to the god Indra for taking his, Gautama's, form to seduce his wife. The old story. The role of Buddha in Hindu mythology is fascinating t but as usual I don't have time to follow it up.
Saya mau hidup seribu tahun lagi as Chairil Anwar said.