Old Possum’s Macavity

Macavity: The Mystery Cat

 Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw –
 For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
 He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
 For when they reach the scene of crime – Macavity’s not there!

 Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
 He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
 His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
 And when you reach the scene of crime – Macavity’s not there!
 You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air –
 But I tell you once and once again, Macavity’s not there!

 Mcavity’s a ginger cat, he’s very tall and thin;
 You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
 His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;
 His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
 He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
 And when you think he’s half asleep, he’s always wide awake.

 Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
 For he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
 You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square –
 But when a crime’s discovered, then Macavity’s not there!

 He’s outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
 And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s.
 And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
 Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,
 Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair –
 Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there!

 And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty’s gone astray,
 Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
 There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair –
 But it’s useless to investigate – Mcavity’s not there!
 And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
 `It must have been Macavity!’ – but he’s a mile away.
 You’ll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
 Or engaged in doing complicated long-division sums.

 Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
 There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
 He always has an alibi, and one or two to spaer:
 At whatever time the deed took place – MACAVITY WASN’T THERE!
 And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
 (I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
 Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
 Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!

T. S. Eliot, 1939
Cover illustration by Edward Gorey, 1982

Jackpot

David Klein ~ Las Vegas TWA, 1965

INT. SERA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Sera wakes and Ben comes in and gets into bed with her.

SERA
How are you doing?

BEN
Very well... umm... I never
expected to have to ask you
this again... but how did our
evening go? I remember
getting to the casino... I
remember kissing you... that
was really nice but
everything after that is a
blank.

SERA
Well - I was prepared for
worse, but it wasn't so bad.
We were sitting at the bar,
talking about blackjack. You
seemed just fine, a little
drunker than usual, but
nothing really strange, but
then your head started to
droop and I put my arm on
your shoulder and then, wham,
you swung you arm at me, and
fell backwards off your stool
into a cocktail waitress. You
smashed everything on her
tray, it was a real mess. You
kept yelling and yelling.

BEN
Oh, and what did you do?

SERA
I tried to shut you up and
help you to your feet but you
kept swinging at me - not
like you wanted to hit me,
but more just waving me away.
Security came and when you
saw them you stopped yelling.
They wanted to carry you out
and dump you on the street,
but I talked them into
letting me walk you out.

BEN
That's impressive. How did
you do that?

SERA
I told them you were an
alcoholic and T would take
you home. I also promised
that we would never come in
there again.

BEN
We?

SERA
Yes, we.

BEN
(holds her hand)
What happened then?

SERA
You were OK for a while, so
we walked for about a block
and then you said you wanted
to go home and fuck, but I
think even you knew that
wasn't going to happen. We
got a cab and you asked him
to stop at a liquor store,
even though I told you that
we had plenty at home. In the
store you gave the kid a
hundred and told him to keep
the change. I asked you if
you knew it was a hundred.
You said you did, so I let
you do it. We got here, you
fell asleep on the couch and
I covered you up and came to
bed.
 Leaving Las Vegas, Mike figgis 1994

Taking Off

Ackerman’s Fine Art

Post-depression America was in desperate need of a defining iconography that would lift it out of the black and white doldrums, and it came in theform of Gil Elvgren’s Technicolor fantasies of the American dream. His technique-which earned him a reputation as “The Norman Rockwell of cheesecake”-involved photographing models and then painting them into gorgeous hyper-reality, with longer legs, more flamboyant hair and gravity-defying busts, and in the process making them the perfect moral-boosting eye-candy for every homesick private.