(Some) Men and Their Pussies

Dear Clark Hoyt:

WTF? Your New York Times ran a story--albeit, in the pish-on-the-posh Sunday Styles section--about a "growing trend" of men embracing their fluffier side and owning more and more cats. Tip of the hat to Jack Shafer, over at Slate.com, who straps on the chest waders and mucks through the bullshit.

I'm a little too nonplussed right now to comment on this shitty, pseudo-reportage (see below), so I'll just plop some photos down. Me and two other literary cat-owning icons. Who gives a rip who owns what pet? Silly.

I had to, you know, since men are just flooding the internet with photographs and videos of their "little buddies." Disclaimer: I'm not the owner. He's just a friend :)

I like Jack Shafer's recipe for frothy trend stories:

How to write a bogus trend story: Start with something you wish were on the rise. State that rise as a fact. Allow that there are no facts, surveys, or test results to support such a fact. Use and reuse the word seems. Collect anecdotes and sprinkle liberally. Drift from your original point as far as you can to collect other data points. Add liberally. Finish with an upbeat quotation like "My cat takes priority over the new relationship. Realistically, unless there's something absolutely amazing about [the woman I'm dating], he wins."