A reader has asked how Fasolt got his name. I'm to blame for that, because he was called "Marble" when I met him. He was living in a foster home in Minneapolis, after a woman had thrown out her boyfriend and his cat, but not before her bratty kids has smeared bubble gum in his (the cat's, that is) fur. "Marble" was a logical reference to his coloration but it's also cold, smooth and impersonal … in short, nothing like the friendly and gently inquisitive — albeit huge — cat to whom I was introduced.
Fifty bucks later (the best $50 I ever spent), the mega-kitty was mine but the name had to go. Casting about for inspiration, my mind fell upon Fasolt, the soft-hearted giant from Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold. In it, Fasolt has a surly brother, Fafner, who clubs him to death in an argument over some gold. Fasolt, to his credit, only had eyes for the goddess of spring, Freia, but once the brothers are persuaded to take mere money instead, they're at each other's throats in nothing flat. (Allegory much?)
Fasolt, the giant, as portrayed in the Bayreuth Festival's 1980 revival of Das Rheingold.
Since Fasolt is the only character in the Ring of the Nibelung whose morality doesn't come into question at some point, he made a perfect namesake for my new feline friend. It's been the despair of veterinarians, who always misprononounce his name "fasOLT," but they've come to love him so much, I no longer mind. He lives with two Norwegian Forest Cats, Shadow and Mr. Bit, so that's a lot of plus-sized felines lumbering around my little pied-a-terre.
Magic's a Drag: I was persuaded to see it last night and, yes, it is indeed a drag. How anyone can justify $50 a ticket for such a cheaptastic show is beyond me — especially when you can now get into Cirque du Soleil's Love for as little as $60.
Dix Nix Snix: Some gay-bar hanky-panky (third item) will cost Snick's $50K and a sex-, er, six-month loss of its slot route, unless the Nevada Gaming Commission overrules an already lenient settlement. Moral: Sex and slots don't mix.
Actually … I can think of some off-color variants of that lesson, but I'll spare you.
