Catz
The British Newspaper Archive tells me they have recently digitised a newspaper called Our Cats: “‘The only newspaper in the world solely devoted to cats,’ the first edition of Our Cats appeared on 1 November 1899 in response to the growing cat fancy community. Filled with reports on cat shows and ‘cat personalities of interest,’ readers could write to Our Cats for advice on caring for their feline friends.”
As I think it vanishingly unlikely that any of you have a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive, I will forbear to give a link. I must say, though, that new things are going online now at an amazing pace. More and more, I can sit in my garden plugging away on my laptop and do all sorts of neat original research.
That’s what I do with myself now: research local history. It’s rich pickin’s.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Posted: August 21st, 2026 under personal.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: August 22, 2026, 1:11 am
I’m guessing the “2d.” next to the “weekly” means two pence….
Comment from Uncle AL
Time: August 22, 2026, 9:51 pm
Our Cats
The only newspaper in the world solely devoted to cats
Direct ancestor of YouTube.
Comment from dissent555
Time: August 24, 2026, 1:57 am
Yep, the increasing availability of scanned newspaper archives (searchable!) is something that computers are actually good for. Beats the hell out of going through them page by page. Except when the scans are poor and it requires a human brain to interpret the data.
Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: August 24, 2026, 4:26 pm
Gonna raise this one more time. I mentioned Ron Hunt to some old baseball fans, and they recognized him immediately.
Definitely a celebrity, IMO. So LavenderGirl should win DP 199. If the decision is not made soon, someone else will go, and then there would be a contested outcome, which is never fun.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 24, 2026, 6:06 pm
Yes, but I have no idea who he was. Like most people who disdain sports, I’m inclined to be sneery about it.
The pick is dated to the day the Daily Mail announced he went into hospice (lavendergirl was frank about that, so it wasn’t a sneaky move). I don’t disallow this tactic, but I have to admit it’s not my favorite.
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