Lost In Greenpoint: Tina Turner

May 26, 2009 by
Filed under: Crazy Cat Lady, Greenpoint Magic 

You know, every now and then
I think you might like to hear something from New York Shitty

Nice and easy

But there’s just one thing
You see, I never ever do nothing

Nice and easy

I always do it nice and rough
So I’m gonna take the beginning of this post

And do it easy

Then I’m gonna do the finish rough
This is the way I do lost cat named Tina Turner proud!

This weekend I had dinner with some good friends of mine at Casanova Restaurant. Located on the Garden Spot of the Universe’s answer to the Champs-Élysées (READ: 388 McGuinness Boulevard), it has been my observation that many will not give this sorely underrated eating and drinking establishment a whirl. This is a shame: the food is good, the price is right, the service gracious, the wait staff courteous and the rear dining room is fabulously decadent.

What does my previous effusive endorsement of an Italian restaurant have to do with a lost cat, you ask? My answer is very simple: pleasant surroundings are conducive to enjoyable conversations. And enjoyable conversation was the main course this particular evening. Upon hearing one person’s encounter with a “rat-sized” tea cup chihuahua named “Vinny” we aired our respective opinions about pet names. One person present said he was amused by pets who have “human” names ( “Vinny”).

I told him I found pets named after inanimate objects fascinating. Especially food: “Tortilla”, “Chocolate”, “Pickles” (who I was told was dumber than a bag of hammers) and Uni, my very own calico, are examples to name a few. When I adopted Uni from her college student “parents” (who were, not surprisingly, Japanese) they said I could change her name. I didn’t want to: it suited her purrrfectly.

For better or worse what we are trained to answer to is not our decision to make. Speaking for myself my mother picked “Heather” for me because she thought it was “unique”. 30-odd years of hindsight (and being mistaken for any one of another “Heathers”) proved her wrong. But I digress.

What’s in a name? Well, in this case, quite a bit.

tinaturner

If anyone has seen Miss Turner please contact her person at the above-listed phone number or email address. And before you judge this pet owner for his choice of pet names I’d like to remind you I have a cat named Frances. As in Frances Farmer.

She has always been “cantankerous”, this I will confess. Shortly after I had her spayed— 15 years ago— I decided to go out of town for the weekend. When I came back home she hissed at me, climbed atop my pile of laundry, looked me in the eye and took a shit. As a senior kittizen she has slowed down considerably— but Miss Frances (AKA: “Stinky”) gets her digs in when she feels like: two weeks ago she pissed on Mister Heather’s head. While he was sleeping, no less.

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet?

— Williams Shakespeare

Miss Heather

Comments

4 Comments on Lost In Greenpoint: Tina Turner

  1. dc108 on Tue, 26th May 2009 9:33 am
  2. I’m thinking Casanova’s location is what throws people off of going there. Even with the front of the building recently renovated, it’s still across the street from a bodega, down the block from the shit factory’s property (and the possibly lesser-known studio where Busta Rhymes’s bodyguard was shot and killed a few years back), and in the shadow of my favorite speed trap, the Pulaski Bridge.

    Yet in spite of all this, never have I ever had a person I brought to this fine restaurant complain about the food or service or quality of people working there. Casanova’s is like a secret and I try to get there a few times a year if at all possible.

  3. d on Tue, 26th May 2009 2:20 pm
  4. The chihuahua’s name was Vince, but close! What a funny name for a teeny doggie. I adore Casanova’s and had a great time.

  5. ScottAstronaut on Wed, 27th May 2009 10:51 am
  6. Hi NYS! Thank you so much for noticing the flier and posting it. I am really surprised no one has heard her. I got her when she was already 12 yrs old at the ASPCA. I wanted a little black kitten to catch some mice in my studio, but she was the only black cat in the shelter. She meowed and meowed when I walked in and I think she actually mouthed the words get me the @#$% out of here. Her name was Tina and she sang, talked, went on and on with some more meowing I couldn’t think of a more fitting last name. Especially since Burt Reynolds, my other black cat had wandered off years earlier. if anyone sees her please let me know. Thanks Again Miss Heather.

    […] Tina Turner has been missing since last Thursday. She has however shown up on New York Magazine and New York Shitty If you have seen her Please let us know. We miss her. She’s an oldie but a […]

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