Business Cat is the CEO of a multibillion-dollar corporation and an enthusiast of belly scratches, catnip mice and batting objects onto the floor. He is the title character of The Adventures of Business Cat, a webcomic written and drawn by Tom Fonder detailing the life and times of the world’s wealthiest playboy business pet. The strip was conceived by Tom Fonder and Rachael Robins and began as an occasional interlude in the gag-a-day webcomic Happy Jar. The first Business Cat comic was posted on January 7, 2014 and so far there have been 20 comics in the series.
Business Cat as a concept reminds me of the cat who took a “business trip” and “had an especially good head for figures” in Amy Winfrey’s Big Bunny (2001) cartoons. You can’t really go wrong with a housecat in a suit and tie. Business Cat is one of my favorite characters of the many webcomics/web cartoons I’ve followed over the years (some of my previous 8-bit tributes include General Twobabies, Zach Weinersmith, The Oatmeal, SpaceBear and Strong Bad). Speaking of business, today is my 10-year anniversary as lead web developer/designer at Oregon State University. (I code and design the OSU Ecampus, OSU Summer Session and Open Oregon State websites, among other things.) Also, it’s nearly my 13-year anniversary as an Oregon resident. And my four-year anniversary (two years married) with my wife Heidi. These major life events all happened within three days of each other (November 8-11) in different years. I like this time of year.
Niall Ó Glacáin, or Nellanus Glacanus (c. 1563-1653) was an Irish physician during the time of the Bubonic plague. Of all documented plague doctors, Ó Glacáin was the most notable. He treated victims throughout France, Spain and Italy. Bubonic plague is commonly believed to be the cause of the Black Death that swept through Europe. Sometime before 1600, Ó Glacáin made his way to Spain, possibly to treat victims of an outbreak of the plague, which was rampant from 1595 to 1602. The beak doctor costume was invented around 1619 (during the second plague pandemic); the beak-like mask was filled with aromatic items for air purification. In 1627, Ó Glacáin moved to France to assist during another plague outbreak. In 1629, as a respected authority on plague treatment, Ó Glacáin published his most famous work, Tractatus de Peste, which contained his concise descriptions of the plague, its various effects on patients, and treatment and prevention recommendations.
I’ve been saving this 8-bit plague doctor character for a long time. I wanted Ó Glacáin to be No. 800, which meant waiting until this year’s All Hallows’ Eve. On that note, I have now drawn 800 of these primitive pixel art characters over the past four years. Here are seven other individuals that I chose to honor numerically: No. 100 (Benjamin Franklin), No. 200 (Johnny Cash), No. 300 (Leonidas I), No. 400 (Charles Darwin), No. 500 (William Gibson), No. 600 (Jeff Mangum), No. 700 (J. D. Salinger). Happy Halloween! Also, Ebola. As previously tweeted, the following is the plot of Absolute Zero, a book published in 1999: “A man with Ebola flew to Dallas and began the Ebola pandemic in America.” Creepy.
Snufkin is a character in the Moomin series of books authored by Swedish-speaking Finn Tove Jansson, appearing in six of the nine novels. He is the best friend of the series’ protagonist, Moomintroll, and lives a nomadic lifestyle, only staying in Moominvalley in the spring and summer, but leaving for warmer climates down south every winter. Snufkin wears old green clothes and a wide-brimmed hat he has had since birth. He lives in a tent, smokes a pipe and plays the harmonica. Snufkin has a great dislike for all symbols of private property and for authority figures such as the Park Keeper, and the many regulation signs and fences he erects. At one point he sabotages the Park Keeper by planting Hattifatteners in his garden, causing them to grow and drive him out. Snufkin prefers freely-growing foliage to fenced-in lawns. He keeps as few worldly possessions as possible, seeing them as a burden, and being happier keeping the memory of a thing than the thing itself. Tove Jansson based the character of Snufkin on her friend and one-time fiancé, Atos Wirtanen.
P.S. This 8-bit Snufkin is based on his character design in the 1990 Japanese-European anime television series Moomin.
Hieronymus Bosch was an Early Netherlandish painter. His work is known for its use of fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious concepts and narratives. Very little is known about the artist or the intended meaning of his art. However, it is known that Bosch received many commissions to paint from abroad—and in response, he masterfully painted saints, demons and the life of Christ with profound creepiness. Notable works include the triptychs The Garden of Earthly Delights and The Adoration of the Magi, and many other paintings of various panel formats. The exact number of Bosch’s surviving works has been a subject of considerable debate. He signed only seven of his paintings, and there is uncertainty whether all the paintings once ascribed to him were actually from his hand. Bosch died on this day in 1516.
Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Real Madrid and captains the Portugal national team. Ronaldo’s contract with Real Madrid, under the terms of which he is paid €21 million ($28.5 million) per year (after taxes), makes him the highest-paid footballer in the world. He is regarded by some in the sport to be currently the best player in the world. In 2008 and 2013, he won the FIFA Ballon d’Or/World Player of the Year award for the best footballer in the world. He was awarded the European Golden Shoe in 2008, 2011 and 2014.
Note: In the recent 2014 FIFA World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal national team was surprisingly eliminated from Group G, with Germany and the United States advancing to the knockout stage. In fact, during the 2014 World Cup, Germany managed to take out both teams with the top two players in the world, Argentina (Lionel Messi) and Portugal (Ronaldo), en route to a fourth World Cup title.
Stan Wawrinka is a Swiss professional tennis player and currently world No. 3, which is also his career-high singles ranking. He first attained this ranking on January 27, 2014 as a result of winning his first Grand Slam event, the 2014 Australian Open. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wawrinka won a gold medal for Switzerland in the men’s doubles event with partner Roger Federer. Wawrinka’s powerful backhand has been described by John McEnroe as “the best one-handed backhand in the game today.” Wawrinka was born on March 28, 1985.
I was happy to see Wawrinka finally win a Grand Slam tournament this year. He joined Juan Martín del Potro (who won the 2009 U.S. Open) as the only men not named Federer (17), Nadal (14), Djokovic (6) or Murray (2) to win a Grand Slam title since 2005. I hope Wawrinka does well at the ongoing 2014 Wimbledon.
Dominika Cibulková is a Slovak professional tennis player. She is currently ranked No. 10 on the WTA Tour. Known for her quick and aggressive style of play and diminutive height, she has won four career singles titles. Cibulková has reached the quarterfinals or better of all four Grand Slam tournaments. The most notable achievement of her career to date was a finals appearance at the 2014 Australian Open. Cibulková became the first female Slovak to reach the championship round of a Grand Slam. She was born on May 6, 1989.
After the retirement of Kim Clijsters in 2012, I was looking for a new favorite women’s tennis player to root for. I can’t cheer for the insufferable shrieking banshees of women’s tennis (e.g., Sharapova, Azarenka, Serena Williams), as I am somewhat inclined to agree with tennis great Martina Navratilova that grunting or screaming during play “is cheating, pure and simple.” Some women’s players I like include Sloane Stephens (WTA no. 18), Australia’s Samantha Stosur (WTA no. 17) and Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard (WTA no. 13), but Dominika Cibulková is my favorite. Happy Wimbledon!
Dirk Nowitzki is a German professional basketball forward for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. He was chosen as the ninth pick in the 1998 NBA Draft and has played 16 seasons for the Mavericks. Nowitzki led the Mavericks to 13 NBA Playoffs (2001-2012; 2014), including the franchise’s first Finals appearance in 2006 and only championship in 2011. He is a 12-time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA Team member, and the first European player to start in an All-Star Game. Nowitzki has been named NBA Most Valuable Player (2007) and NBA Finals MVP (2011). He was born on this day in 1978.
Tony Parker is a French professional basketball point guard for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. He played for two years in the French basketball league before being selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2001 NBA Draft. Parker helped the Spurs win three NBA championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007—and was the 2007 NBA Finals MVP. Employing his pace and high field goal percentage to great effect, Parker has been named to six NBA All-Star games. He was also named the FIBA EuroBasket 2013 MVP following his team’s victory over Lithuania in the gold medal game. Parker is also a music artist with his own music album TP.
Manu Ginóbili is an Argentine professional basketball shooting guard for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. Hailed as one of the finest international players to grace the NBA, he plays a high-tempo and intense game. He is one of only two players, along with Bill Bradley, to have won a Euroleague title, an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal. Ginóbili spent the early part of his basketball career in Argentina and Italy, then joined the Spurs in 2002. He made his debut on the Argentina national team in 1998, and helped win the gold medal during the 2004 Olympics.
My wife is not into sports, but she has developed a passing interest in tennis and the NBA because I will sometimes watch a major tournament match or playoff game. For a long time, she called the San Antonio Spurs “the Ginóbilis,” since Manu’s bald spot and noodle-like body maneuvers made him the easiest player for her to recognize and remember. She became a Spurs fan after watching part of the NBA Finals in 2013, and plans to watch the Spurs play the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals again this week.
Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska) was a Polish nurse/social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War II, and as head of children’s section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and provided them with false identity documents and housing outside the Ghetto, saving those children during the Holocaust. The Nazis eventually discovered her activities and tortured her, but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. Known as “the female Oskar Schindler,” late in life she was awarded Poland’s highest honor for her wartime humanitarian efforts. Sendler was born on February 15, 1910 and died on May 12, 2008 at the age of 98.
Note: Sendler was reportedly a candidate to receive the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, but that honor was awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) instead.
Grace Kelly was an American film actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, she appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. She starred in films from 1953 to 1956, including Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and The Country Girl (in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance). She retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Prince Rainier and enter upon her duties in Monaco. She retained her American roots, maintaining dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship. She was born on November 12, 1929 and died on September 14, 1982.
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 realms of the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations (the “Commonwealth”). She is also the head of the Commonwealth and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Upon her accession in 1952, Elizabeth became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries (since expanded to 16 realms). She is the longest-lived and, after her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, the second longest-reigning British monarch. Now 88 years old, Elizabeth was born on this day in 1926.
William S. Burroughs was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. A major postmodernist author, Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation. Much of Burroughs’s work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959). He was born on this day in 1914 and died on August 2, 1997.
Jim Morrison was an American singer-songwriter and poet, best remembered as the lead singer of Los Angeles rock band The Doors. From a young age, “The Lizard King” developed an alcohol dependency that led to his death at the age of 27 in Paris. Morrison is alleged to have died of a heroin overdose, but as no autopsy was performed, the exact cause of his death is still disputed. He was well known for often improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live. Due to his wild personality and performances, Morrison is regarded by critics and fans as one of the most iconic, charismatic and pioneering frontmen in rock music history. He was born on December 8, 1943.
Neil Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theater and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Neverwhere (1996), Stardust (1999), American Gods (2001), Coraline (2002) and The Graveyard Book (2008). Gaiman has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book. Gaiman is married to performer/musician Amanda Palmer. He was born on November 10, 1960.
I have many personal anniversaries between November 8th and 11th. This is the week each year when my life tends to change most consistently. I moved to Oregon from Pennsylvania 12 years ago. I started my current web developer/designer job in Corvallis exactly nine years ago. I met my wife Heidi three years ago. We have been married for one year (our anniversary’s on Monday). All during November 8-11.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell was an English naval officer. Rising through the ranks and fighting in many of the important battles of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, he became a popular British hero, whose celebrated career was brought to an end in a disastrous shipwreck in the Isles of Scilly. He also served as MP for Rochester from 1695 until his death. He died on this day in 1707.
Last February, a friend introduced me to this magnificent name (also spelled “Cloudisley” and “Shovel” by some sources). I managed to wait all year, until this very day of his untimely death, to make an Admiral Cloudesley Shovell pixel art character. On October 22, 1707, Shovell’s British Naval fleet became lost in stormy weather and steered into the uninhabited Isles of Scilly, off Cornwall. Four large ships were dashed against the rocks and sunk, killing at least 1,400 to 2,000 sailors. One legend is that Shovell himself made it to shore, only to be murdered by locals hoping to pillage the wreckage. Naturally, there is a psychedelic heavy metal band named in his honor. On that note, Sir Cloudesley is quite likely the name of my next cat. And I’m not ruling it out as a future son’s name.
Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London in the early 1890s. Notorious for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde was one of the best-known personalities of his day. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his only novel (The Picture of Dorian Gray), his plays, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. At the height of his fame and success, while his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), was still on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry (the father of Wilde’s lover) prosecuted for libel. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for the “gross indecency” of having had sex with another man. Wilde was ultimately convicted and served a two-year prison sentence with hard labor in England. After his release, he lived the remainder of his life in self-imposed exile in Paris. Wilde was born on this day in 1854. He died destitute in Paris at the age of 46.
I find it interesting that on Wilde’s 1882 trip to San Francisco, the Irishman declared the city “where I belong.” Wilde sometimes mused about relocating to the American West. In October 2012, my wife Heidi and I visited Wilde’s tomb in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris during our trip to Europe. The modernist angel depicted as a relief on his tomb was originally complete with male genitalia that have since been vandalized. In 2011, Wilde’s tomb was cleaned of the many lipstick marks left there by admirers, and a glass barrier was installed to prevent further marks or damage.
Thom Yorke is an English musician and artist who is the lead vocalist, principal songwriter, guitarist and pianist of the rock band Radiohead. Radiohead has released eight studio albums: Pablo Honey (1993), The Bends (1995), OK Computer (1997), Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), Hail to the Thief (2003), In Rainbows (2007) and The King of Limbs (2011). Yorke mainly plays guitar and piano, but has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the Kid A and Amnesiac sessions). In July 2006, he released his debut solo album, The Eraser, to critical acclaim. Yorke is also the lead singer of Atoms for Peace. He was born on this day in 1968.
I’ve been to a few Radiohead shows over the years. Having survived high school in the 1990s with the help of Radiohead CDs, their music will always be dear to my heart (particularly The Bends and OK Computer). I last saw Thom Yorke perform about a year ago. My wife Heidi and I were lucky to attend a Radiohead show at the Zénith de Strasbourg in France on October 16, 2012 during our 40 days in Europe. It was an amazing time.
Business Cat – No. 803
Business Cat is the CEO of a multibillion-dollar corporation and an enthusiast of belly scratches, catnip mice and batting objects onto the floor. He is the title character of The Adventures of Business Cat, a webcomic written and drawn by Tom Fonder detailing the life and times of the world’s wealthiest playboy business pet. The strip was conceived by Tom Fonder and Rachael Robins and began as an occasional interlude in the gag-a-day webcomic Happy Jar. The first Business Cat comic was posted on January 7, 2014 and so far there have been 20 comics in the series.
Business Cat as a concept reminds me of the cat who took a “business trip” and “had an especially good head for figures” in Amy Winfrey’s Big Bunny (2001) cartoons. You can’t really go wrong with a housecat in a suit and tie. Business Cat is one of my favorite characters of the many webcomics/web cartoons I’ve followed over the years (some of my previous 8-bit tributes include General Twobabies, Zach Weinersmith, The Oatmeal, SpaceBear and Strong Bad). Speaking of business, today is my 10-year anniversary as lead web developer/designer at Oregon State University. (I code and design the OSU Ecampus, OSU Summer Session and Open Oregon State websites, among other things.) Also, it’s nearly my 13-year anniversary as an Oregon resident. And my four-year anniversary (two years married) with my wife Heidi. These major life events all happened within three days of each other (November 8-11) in different years. I like this time of year.