Von Trapping is the new planking.

in Random Crap

Conversation between me and Victor:

me:  Victor, get in here!  The cats are Von Trapping.

Victor:  What?

me:  Quick.  The cats are Von Trapping on the staircase.

Victor:  The cats have gone crapping on the staircase?

me:  What?  No.  That’s not even grammatically correct.  They’re Von Trapping.

Victor :  “Von Trapping” is not a verb.

me:  It totally is.  It’s when you pretend you’re the Von Trapp kids from The Sound of Music.

Victor:  Never saw it.

me:  Really?  I rather liked the first half, but the last half was a bit dark.  Surprising amount of Nazis for a musical.  The first half is all whiskers-on-kittens and spinning on mountains in twirly dresses, and then suddenly?  NAZIS.  It’s like the first director died during the intermission and Stanley Kubrik had to take over.

Technically I need many more cats for this to be historically accurate, but when I brought up adopting more cats Victor got all screamy because he hates history. Apparently.

Victor:  So.  Did you actually need me for something?  Because I have work to do.

me:  No, I just wanted to show you the Von Trapping.  Von Trapping is the new owling.

Victor:  Owling?

me:  Pretending to be an owl.  And owling was the new planking.

Victor:  Which is…pretending to be…?

me:  A plank.  Yes.  Also, it’s weird that you don’t know this stuff.

Victor:  Yeah.  That’s the weird thing about this conversation.

231 thoughts on “Von Trapping is the new planking.”

Read comments below or add one.

  1. Actually that IS the weird part of that conversation. Also, how did you manage to marry someone who hasn’t seen The Sound of Music?!?
    ;o)

  2. This is fantastic. Your description of The Sound Of Music is pretty spot on as well. I’m totally gonna make my kids Von Trapp.

  3. You have some talented cats. Really though I’d love to see the internet explode with the new Von Trapping trend.

  8. I totally got Von Trapp and Van Helsing mixed up and was expecting to see stakes and crucifixes, but it all makes sense now. Kinda.

  9. Oh man, now I’m going to have to watch Sound of Music because I can’t remember if this is the point in the song where 2 of the kids go off together. But if Ferris Mewler starts singing, “The sun has gone to bed and so must I” let me know, because then I don’t have to watch the movie tonight.

  11. Gasp! They’re totally Von Trapping. I feel a meme coming on. (Also, I have a new favorite verb.)

  12. That’s exactly why those cats are Von Trapping, too. So they can sing that exact passage to you as you’re tripping past them down the stairs. THUMP.

    …Sorry hon, Victor’s right. It’s worth your life having six cats and stairs. Trust me.

  13. Oh good. Now I’ll have that song stuck in my head for the foreseeable future.

    Glad Posey didn’t make a stuffed encore appearance, though.

  17. I totally knew what you meant by Von Trapping. I’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I am a crazy cat lady in training. Nope. Not one bit.

  18. “Surprising amount of Nazis for a musical.”

    That might be the greatest line describing The Sound of Music that I’ve ever seen.

  20. The Sound of Music was pretty typical childhood stuff. What was Victor doing during his childhood that he missed it???

  21. The first time my husband saw The Sound of Music, he was completely flummoxed that it wasn’t just a WAR movie. The singing and dancing just came out of no where for him, because the picture on the back of the dvd case (yes, he JUST saw TSOM for the first time in like 2001) showed Nazis.

  22. I remember when I was in middle school and watched The Sound of Music for the second time (the first time was when I was like 8). I got to the scene where the messenger boy and butler have their little club conversation and was all OH MY GOD THE SOUND OF MUSIC IS ABOUT NAZIS. Because I didn’t know about Nazis when I was 8. Mind. Blown.

  25. He’s at home. You have cats. You are you. How did he NOT expect to be interrupted with cat antics? Your husband is highly illogical

  26. OMG I died about the Stanley Kubrick part. And your cats are Totally Von Trapping. I need to make mine do that…

  27. I so get it, Jenny, and thanks for the laugh. FYI, I re-wrote the Sound of Music in elementary school, Jew-style, and called it The Sound of the Shofar (a high-holiday horn that sounds like a cross between a shriek, a fart and a heart attack). Needless to say, like the original, it was a huge hit.

  28. Victor doesn’t get out much, huh? I mean, the Sound of Music was a bit snoozy, so I don’t blame him there, but HOW DOES ONE NOT KNOW ABOUT PLANKING? Has he been living under a rock (or ironically, over a rock) for the last few years?

  29. You have some smart cats! They managed to avoid the whole “cat bearding” meme by creating “Von Trapping”!

  34. Von Trapping is totally going to be the next thing!! I must admit I’m laughing harder about the Stanley Kubrik taking over in the middle because of all the Nazis. Why do musicals do that? The first half is all happy sunshine with some minor problems like telling your daughter she can marry the tailor when her mother thinks she’s marrying the butcher and then, BOOM, people are getting kicked out of their homes and fleeing the country. What the hell is that about?!?

  35. Yeah, The Producers tried to out-Nazi The Sound Of Music but they failed. Miserably. Also, I thought Von Trapping might involve your cats wearing lederhosen made out of your old curtains, but this is good, too.

  38. Ahhhh! Von Trapping! This is the best thing I’ve seen all day. Perhaps the taxidermy will play puppets so you can do that scene too?!

  40. My boyfriend’s very first job was as an usher at a movie theater in his home town that showed revivals of things. He thought he would get both get paid to usher (whatever) while seeing some surfing movie that was supposed to be coming to the theater but instead! They had a very special extended holdover “The Sound of Music” event. He estimates he’s seen that movie 100 times, and he quit that job before he got to see anything “cool”. So now, when I want to make him completely insane, I start singing about climbing every mountain or asking if whiskers on kittens are indeed some of his favorite things. It’s remarkable he’s still with me.

  42. I have to admit, I haven’t seen the Sound of Music, either but I’m familiar with that scene and Von Trapping is a great verb and will be the next big thing for sure.

  43. I didn’t know about owling, but ran into someone with one of those horse masks on, whatever that was called during the 5 minutes it was all the rage, on a dog walk. She completely freaked out my dogs. I love Von Trapping:-)

  46. By the end of the day, pictures of 7 random people dressed in the curtains and standing on a stair will be a thing. Mark my words.

  48. Jenny, Victor should thank you for providing him with knowledge of our culture!

  50. I *just* had a conversation with friends about “Sound of Music,” including its dark half. One friend said he’d been a ticket taker in an old movie house on the Upper East Side. They showed a run of ‘The Sound of Music’ and customers, late to the show, would run to the box office and say, “Did she twirl? Have I missed the twirl?” If he said, “Yes. She twirled.” They would leave and come back for another show because it was *that* important that they saw her twirl.

    Then my friend said that while working in the same movie house, Nicole Brown Simpson and OJ came to see “Sleeping with the Enemy,” while on a date. I do believe the second half of his story got much more Kubrick, too.

  56. Von Trapping is SO a verb but I’m getting a little suspicious of Victor…how on earth could you marry a guy who has never seen The Sound of Music? And Jenny, why haven’t you shown him the movie? Ugh. “Let’s start at the very beginning. a very good place to be…..”. Love, Laurie F.

  57. I totally tricked my husband into watching TSOM by telling him it was about “WWII and a family’s escape from the Nazi’s”…I had him convinced it was an “original version of Schindler’s List”…BREW HA HA!!! He did not catch on until there was singing in the courtyard and skipping. To use his indignent phrase….”Who the hell skips in a WWII history movie???” I simply tell him that I was raised by a very “OUT” gay man and to me TSOM was our history channel. I have not been able to pick the family movie in YEARS!!! Ahhh…Good Times and well worth it!!!!

  58. I wonder if Victor would get all screamy if you made him watch The Sound of Music with the cats? I mean, Von Trapp had a bazillion (or so) kids…another couple cats isn’t so bad, right?

    Ooh…except that’s a LOT of eyes peeking at you under the bathroom door…

  60. Heh. I von Trapp at the drop of a hat.

    One year a friend had the temerity to suggest I was being disrespectful to veterans by going to a production of The Sound of Music on Remembrance Day. My response? “The Sound of Music is the stirring tale of one family’s resistance against the Nazis through song, so the real question here is why YOU’RE being disrespectful to veterans, sir.”

    Then at the show during the concert scene, a bunch of guys dressed as Nazis turned up in all the concert hall doorways and swastika banners were unfurled, turning us into the audience at the von Trapps’ concert/escape, and I had fleeting second thoughts. Still a great show.

  61. Yeah, it is weird that he doesn’t keep up with internet trends. (By the way, I have more cats, but they refuse to do this…because I might photograph them doing it–and no evidence of that must exist.)

  64. I was just telling someone yesterday how I never watch the second half of the movie…that it’s too scary and dark…this is awesome!

  65. For the record, that was not too obscure at all! I totally got the whole Von Trapping is the new Planking bit, and knew what the cats were going to be doing before I saw the pic 🙂

  66. Ok I didn’t know about owling so I guess can’t complain about your husband not knowing about planking. The fact that he has never seen The Sound of Music is weird. How has he managed that?

  68. My husband was introduced to the glory that is The Sound of Music last Christmas. And my boys will be indoctrinated as well. Oh yes. Yes, they will.

  70. I have two cats, but no cat accessible staircase…
    I’ll have to fix this situation by moving… and getting a couple more cats!

  72. No. It totally works with two cats. One is ALL the boys. The other is ALL THE GIRLS. Especially Liesl. Now that I think of it, Liesl (Liesel?) may need her own cat. Three cat minimum then for Van Trapping with felines.

  73. I somehow missed the owling, but am happy to hear planking has gone out of style. Von Trapping is much more worthy of my attention.

  74. how many cats does it take for you to be the crazy cat lady….wait, I guess we all know that you ARE the crazy cat lady. 🙂
    and not seeing the “Sound of Music” isn’t that crazy, sure I’ve seen parts of it but have no desire to see the whole thing. I can’t stand musicals.

  76. Bless you, St. Jenny the Weird, for sharing the words that tumble out of your mouth. And Victor’s. And occasionally creepy search engine data optimizers. What would we do without you?

  77. Meow, a cat, a noisy cat.
    Paw, the thing you swat at me.
    Tail, a thing I swing around.
    Fa, where you want me to go.

    …..

    It’s probably a good thing for all of us that I have to leave my computer before I have a chance to continue this little ditty.

  78. After my mother died and my father was left to bring up six kids, he married my school teacher who had been a nun. It didn’t go at all like the Sound of Music (we couldn’t sing after all). Afterwards, Dad always maintained that the Sound of Music was the greatest horror movie of all time. It still frightens me 🙂

  80. Your conversations with Victor are epic. Well, at least the ones you tell us about.

    I hate to think you have normal conversations, too, like, “Hey, Victor, did you eat the last of the bread and leave the crappy ends for me?” “Of course, dear.” “Oh.”

    Because man, that would be disappointing.

  83. Hmmm…I thought Von Tripping was when you took acid with a German hunk named Von who speaks broken English and is only here on his almost expired VISA work card. Now you have to choose between just having great sex with strings or marrying him to keep him in the country. Decisions…decisions…

  84. So, I learned something because I had to look up both planking and owling (which, honestly, should be called gargoyling). I think another good way to Von Trapp would be to hang out of trees as someone important drives by.

  86. “Christopher Plummer hated working on the film. He referred to it as The Sound of Mucus or S&M”

    Sounds like he wasn’t too surprised about the second half . . .

  87. i’m from vermont. we don’t “von trapp” here; we have living von trapps.

    did i ever tell you about the time my stepmother was buying a pack of cigarettes and maria von trapp slapped her on the backside of the head because it’s “a filthy habit”?

    i should get her to tell you that story because you would find it totally awesome.

    maria von trapp. the real one.

  92. And then there’s Vadering. Which my friends and i had ENTIRELY too much fun with at DisneyWorld.

    Yeah, where one of you holds your hand up like Vader, and the other jumps in the air and holds their throats. The suspended animation in the picture is totally Darth Vader in action.

    So. Much. Fun.

  93. A tip on how to get Victor to watch Sound of Music. We told a friend of ours that about halfway through aliens come down in a flying saucer. He sat through almost the whole thing saying “when do the aliens arrive?” before he finally realised he’s been suckered!

  95. @ Sunny: Apparently, Jenny is attracted to heterosexual men. Go figure, huh? 🙂

  97. Don’t forget horsemaning in there with the weird photographic trends….which looks like something you’d really have fun with, oh great and wonderful Bloggess!

  98. Are you sure Victor is native to this planet? The last guy I saw who got puzzled by such things wore a cape and bragged about being from some blown up hunk of rock.

  99. Victor needs to see the Sound of Music. It is one of those basic things you need to know because so many things in life refer to it. Like Shakespeare is necessary. ‘What light through yonder window… Out, out, damn spot… Life is but a stage… ‘ Julie Andrews spinning in an alpine meadow. “Doe – a deer, a female deer.” Von Trapping.

    At the age of 6, my hubby played one of the Von Trapp kids at a local theater. He still can do the whole good night song to the extreme horror of my 15 and 11 years old sons. 😀

  100. I would have thought Hunter S. Thomcat would have been Gretel, Being the youngest and all. Anyway, adieu, adieu, to you and you and you.

  101. toby the cat jump on the key board, trying to be included….. sigh…. he is musically challenged and didn’t realized was not part of the computer screen

  102. I have a lot of feelings about the Sound of Music, which can mostly be summed up by saying ROLF WAS A WHISTLE-BLOWING SHITHEAD.

  104. Every “domestic” cat is the Cat Who Walks By Herself, and All Places ARe Alike to Her.

  106. My Dad went to the drive in to see a war movie and was late. He was really confused as to why Julie Andrews was in a war movie. Poor man….

    “The hills are alive…and it’s pretty frightening….”

  110. Totally made me laugh and reminded me of that WWII USO song, Der Fuehrer’s Face. There was a Danny Kaye version in a movie, but all I could find on Youtube was:

  111. I strongly believe that there should be a rule in the English language that any noun can be turned into a verb by adding an ing at the end and that everyone should be okay with it. Yes!

  113. My 3 cats Von Trapp ALL the time. Sadly, my huzbo must have hated history as much as Victor did because he also refuses to add the other 2 for a full set. I just make my 2 kids stand in between the cats and harmonize howl with them. I’m having trouble getting the cats to wear those cute lederhosen and dresses I made out of some old curtains, though…any tips?

  114. My brother-in-law had never seen Sound of Music nor Mary Poppins until a few years ago (despite presenting himself as an authority on all things film-related.) About halfway through Mary Poppins, he’s all ‘this chick’s pretty good, she ever do anything else?’

    He was referring to Julie Andrews. And sadly, he was not kidding.

  115. The Sound of Music has a special place in my heart. My two sisters and four other neighbor girls would reenact it in my neighbor’s basements pretty much every month for years when we were growing up. Seriously, years. I’m 32 now, and we did this from when I was 10 through when we were like 14. We played out the scenes, we saying the songs, and we rocked. Good times 🙂 Although we were in the basement we didn’t use the stairs for the So Long scene. They had a low balance beam.

  116. Hi. My name is Rachael (Hi, Rachael). I’m 40 years old and I haven’t seen The Sound of Music, Titanic, or Harry Potter. (Stop sending me hate rays, judgers! They STING! I have perfectly good reasons that I will reveal when it’s time.) I’m addicted to movie spoofs. I hide and watch French and Saunders condensed versions on YouTube.

  118. Love it. Reminds me of being a first grader trying desperately to persuade my classmates to perform “So Long, Farewell”

  119. This is too weird. I just rescued a puppy dog and she came with the name Liesl. I didn’t know where that name came from at all. We went to the vet and all the vet techs and girls in the office were laughing and gigling saying they just “loved” the name; and I must love the Sound of Music to name her after the oldest daughter in the Von Trapp family! So, I found out where the name came from and now I have to see the Sound of Music…….! I spell it Leesel so at least some people can pronounce it. And, I learned this for the low low vet bill price of $250.00!!

  120. The scary thing is…that I actually KNEW what you were talking about at the first sentence and hoped you included photos.
    It’s a good thing you have the Victor you have. How boring would your posts be with Alternate Universe Victor?
    You: Come look! The cats are Von Trapping.
    AU Victor: Dude, they totally are! And it looks like Hunter S. and Rolly are doing that jump and twirl thing. Now, what did you want for dinner?
    End of blog post.
    Yay for Non-AU Victor!

  121. All I got out of this post is you have a staircase in your house.
    It is on my House Wish List; along with a secret passage opened behind a bookshelf, a fireplace, an attic, spiral staircase in the library, separate stairs up to the bedroom from the foyer, a secret garden, a sunroom with bay windows, a music room, a room for painting (sculpting and various other messy projects, etc). I’m thinking I’m gonna need a castle…

  122. Well I guess I found my new favorite activity. Owling. That’s the best thing I’ve heard all week.

  124. Sadly, I’ll never have Von Trapping cats, as I’m allergic. Do you think fish could be trained? Which reminds me, did you ever get a reply on your missing fish posters?

  125. “I rather liked the first half, but the last half was a bit dark. Surprising amount of Nazis for a musical. The first half is all whiskers-on-kittens and spinning on mountains in twirly dresses, and then suddenly? NAZIS. It’s like the first director died during the intermission and Stanley Kubrik had to take over.”

    This is the greatest review I have ever seen for this movie!

  126. I love Von Trapping. And seriously about the two different directors for Sound of Music, when we were little my mom didn’t let us watch the second half!

  127. I’m sorry, no offense to Victor, but like HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE SEEN THE SOUND OF MUSIC?!?!?!

    I mean, I guess being a male he probably wasn’t drawn by the sexiness of a stern Captain Von Trapp… but please. How could you just not watch a movie that combines happy singing children with a strong underlying political message?!?!?

    I’m just in shock.

  128. Looking at that staircase makes me think the rest of that house looks way too normal to fill with dead stuff.

  130. it bears repeating: Victor is one of my favourite characters on the internet.

  131. Now I’m desperate to see 100s of pictures of children and farm animals Von Trapping all over the world. Thanks.

  132. I have pictures from YEARS ago of my cats Von Trapping! I had no idea they were so ahead of their time…

  133. (psst, ‘Wiedersehen’ is i-before-e. Hope you don’t think I’m a dick for correcting. :] )

  134. Von Trapping would involve enthusiastic arm-windmilling in our house. The song most likely would end with someone putting an eye out.

  135. Loved the use of ‘screamy’. We’re partial to ‘yelly’ around here. I’m going to use them interchangeably.

  137. If Victor never saw “The Sound of Music” how does he know Von Trapping is not a verb?

  139. I love how you two are still married despite the fact you both work from home. 🙂

    And at least your cats were Von Trapping instead of Joan Crawfording. That’s a lot more violent and requires wire coat hangars (or does it?)

  140. I am totally going to steal, “got all screamy.” I will pull this out next time my husband reacts to the number of texts or when I mention wanting another dog.

  141. Am I the only one who things that “owling” should really be called “gargoyling” Because those humans are not turning their heads in nearly 360 degree turns, but they are lurking in an ominous manner on top of things

  142. I totally understood what you meant when you said that the cats were Von Trapping, before seeing the staircase. How wierd is that?

  143. Oh god. You and Victor are too much like my husband and I. Every conversation. It’s SOOO nice knowing He and I aren’t the only married couple like that! Thank you! LOL

  145. Your feeble attempts to artificially create a new meme are – oh, shit, now my cat’s Von Trapping – and we don’t even have stairs!!

    Everybody
    Von Trapp Now!

  146. The obvious follow up scene for your von trapping kitties is the one where they are hiding behind the tombstones in the nunnery! Nunneries might be hard to locate outside of vienna, so I would suggest a regular graveyard (as long as they have gravestones that aren’t flat–for easier mowing–because the kitties need something to hide behind) or you could combine that scene with halloween yard decorations and dress the kitties as von traps for the holiday.

  148. I’m going out with the gals this weekend and am totally going to suggest we Von Trapp it all out over town! Look out!

  149. Who is the fluffy cat? What’s his/her name and where did they come from? Hmmmmm you’ve been hiding cats on us!

  150. I loved the von Trap kids before Maria von Trap ruined them. Teens that don’t talk back DEVINE. I dream of having von trap or stepford children.

  153. OMG, I went through some of the planking photos from the link. The Planking Family (7 of them) were Von Trapping! Now that’s weird.

  154. I am new to Owling, but an old pro at Planking. My cats sit around only to sing Simon and Garfunkel. I don’t know which one is Simon and which one is Garfunkel, but Sound of Silence has never been so melodious.

    PS, love your stairs.

  155. I always do this, mine’s more of a one man show version with my kids being like “please be quiet Adventure Time is on.” Uncultured.

  157. You should totally get another cat. They do best in pairs. Doesn’t it bother your OCD that they aren’t in pairs?

  158. To be fair, it IS weird that he doesn’t know this stuff… It’s been the talk of the internet for like… a while!

  160. OMG… so totally got that before the picture even came into view!!!!! Poor Victor, so sheltered, can’t appreciate a good Von Trapping by his cats. It’s probably because he doesn’t know the song Whiskers on Kittens! Perhaps you should stream that song through the house!!!! I will have to send a photo on my 7 cats and a weenie dog Von Trapping! Now I will spend my days and nites waiting for that Photo OP! However, I will be singing whiskers on kittens all day, while I DO, RE,MI through the house!

  162. this is my new argument for needing a new puppy. because we only have two pets and we simply couldn’t stage a von-trapping with any less than three.

  166. Just re-read this post and your comments and realized that your new house look beautiful (and the stairs are really clean… you know… minus all of the cats Von Trapping or whatever.) I think I would sell one of my legs to get a staircase like yours. Of course, then I wouldn’t be able to use it…

  167. Maybe Victor would have got it if you said they were Brady Bunching – slightly more contemporary, especially with the movies.

  170. My children believe that Von Trapping and bannister sliding are the only legitimate reasons to have a stair case, ever since I nixed the indoor bob sled contraption. If they knew the word “buzz-kill” they would have said that to me.

  171. Yup, get the Von Trapping. But wanted to get the owling. I have to wait till I get home to click the link, as my office computer reports:

    The Websense category “Tasteless” is filtered.

    So at least you have taste, apparently, as you are not blocked.

  172. My 8 year old will be Von Trapping this weekend at her dance recital. She’s Gretl because she’s the smallest (and cutest).

  173. I think an intervention is in order, obviously, and I think it would be educational and inspirational for both Victor and your cats. Mandatory movie night–fun!!

  174. What’s weird is that The Sound of Music is based off a REAL family. Hence the Nazis. It wasn’t exactly like the movie (they didn’t go over the Alps, they went by train…like normal folk), but they were a real singing family, and Maria really did used to be a nun. It’s all on Wikipedia if you want to go learn about it! And I wasn’t entirely sure what Von Trapping meant…were they making clothes out of drapes? Singing together? Putting on a puppet show? Answering to whistles? I feel like there’s too many options…all of which would have been so awesome to see cats do. (Unless one of them was falling in love with a Nazi sympathizer, in which case, an intervention is necessary.)

  176. My childhood self apparently opted to block the second half of the film from my mind, which is why when I watched it again once I got older I was all “WHAT THE EFF! WHY DON’T I REMEMBER THIS BEING A NAZI MOVIE?”

    It was… A little like having you innocence shattered.

  177. OMG! I love it!! I would love my cats to Von Trapp, but they just look at me like I’m nuts (which I am) and then go back to either sleeping, or licking themselves.

  178. I saw The Sound of Music and I still don’t get it….maybe because I don’t have cats?

    I would get “mouse trapping”….am I even close?

  180. The only thing I know about this film is that my mother made my father take her to see it on a date and that now–40+ years later–he still resents her for it. I guess he hates Nazis. Or musicals. Or musicals with Nazis. Which sounds like an awesome combination, actually.

  181. Omg…I saw that movie so many times as a kid that you couldn’t pay me to see it now…unless…it starred cats – yes!

  185. This comment has absolutely nothing to do with your post, even though it is wonderful as usual. There is a letter on Google+ that I would love for you to read. It is posted publicly by Gaylene Froese, a Canadian author, and is an open letter to Stephen Fry on the subject of his last attempted suicide. What she writes is powerful. So If you go to Google+ and add her to your circle and look around June 7th for the letter. It will bring chills to your whole friggin’ body. She speaks from the voice of one who knows. It’s along the lines of your Depression Lies, so please do this. I didn’t know any other way of connecting the two of you except through this comment.

    Love your mind,
    Pat

  186. Well. I had no idea that there was a verb to accurately describe how I am forced (at the hands of a tiny despot) to spend my time. We have to von trap while watching The Sound Of Music (daily and repeatedly). When we listen to the soundtrack, (which is basically all the time) von trapping. Whenever a staircase presents itself, we have no choice but to von trap.

  187. My husband’s comment? “So, the cats are on the stairs.” As if it wasn’t completely whimsical and likely not coincidental at all.
    My husband also hates history, too. He’s yelling at me right now about “no more dogs”.

  188. Jenny
    I have really enjoyed your blogging in the last few years. And your book really touched me. It must be a real stress to know that so many people are waiting on your every blog post.
    That being said, i would rather have to wait thru a pause in your sharing than see some inane comments on what your cats are doing.
    Less cats, please.
    Love,
    Harry

  189. I don’t know who HarryO is, but screw him. I love the cat posts. Also, I’m thrilled to know what “owling” is and plan to use it in a sentence as soon as possible.

    Oh, and what I started to say before I read the cat-haters comment… Von Trapping totally sounds like something that should be in the Urban Dictionary.

    Oh, god, it is. But not nearly as cool as what you did there… http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=von%20trappin‘

    Sincerely,

    PostMoreCats.

  190. I will never be able to watch the Sound of Music without thinking about your description, which is really dead on. And it made my husband laugh hysterically as I read the post. His comment was “MY GOD OTHER PEOPLE HAVE CONVERSATIONS LIKE THIS??”

  191. I recently met someone who’d never seen “The Sound of Music.” I first asked him how long he’d been a member of Al Queda, and then wondered how he’d managed to grow up in America without seeing it even once.

  193. I need stairs in my one story house so my animals can do this… I only have 6 but maybe I can borrow one of my parents’ dogs or cats… hmmmm maybe I can just borrow someone’s stairs too… save myself money on installing a stairway to nowhere.

  195. actually, to me it looks more like they’re planning a coup…… i could be projecting here though…..

  196. This is so cute. I love your cat posts the best and really look forward to them so please don’t listen to anyone that requests fewer.

    I’m fifty and I’ve only ever seen the first half of the Sound of Music.

  197. @HarryO –

    Wait…are you actually telling someone what to post on their own blog?? Does the entire concept of a blog elude you? I am far too polite to tell you to fuck the fuck off, since this is not MY blog. So I go on record as not having told you to do that. Fucker.

  198. Hey Jenny,

    This should make you happy and really amaze Victor. You are in the same league with Shakespeare. It seems..he did this ALL the time. He , also , used adjectives as nouns. Nounification is easy but verbing can be complicated.

    “But verbing nouns has a long pedigree in English wordplay, as the greatest verber of all testifies. Shakespeare nouned verbs as freely as Pele goaled footballs: “It out-Herods Herod”: Hamlet. “Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle”: Richard II. Clever and audacious at the time, these usages are still striking and evocative today. But Shakespeare also verbed “dog”, “channel” and “season”, all now routine as verbs. A well-verbified word soon becomes fashionable, then unexceptional.

    Verbing is actually a pretty complicated process. Not everything can be considered do-able, suitable for verbification. You sometimes hear it said that “art is a verb”, meaning “art is something you do”. But nobody ever says “I arted for hours”. Or if they did, they probably pretensioned after that.

    But nounification is pretty easy. Shakespeare also played “fast and loose” (Antony and Cleopatra) with adjectives. Your English teacher was lying if she told you that a noun is always a “person, place or thing”. Tell that to “reimbursement”, “regret” or “reticence”, none of which is a thing, really. A noun is simply a word that behaves like a noun. By definition, it is any word that behaves as a noun should; it can be used as a subject or an object in a sentence, for example. And English lets almost anything noun.”

    http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ideas/robert-lane-greene/adjectives-nouns

    And make sure Victor notices the “moreintelligentlife.com” part.

    And I still sing…………………….”The hills are alive………and it’s pretty frightening….”

  199. This is great! I wish conversations at my house were this interesting! And, you are correct about the Sound of Music…takes a weird turn…

  200. we LOVE the SOM in our house (ok me and my daughter love it–we generally watch it on nights daddy is out) However, I must admit that my daughter (now 10) was shocked to learn only recently that the movie did not actually end with the wedding (which makes a quite nice ending for the pre-school sect).

    I only have one cat so we would need to adopt a few more for a Von Trapping incident in our home. Maybe we can round up a few from the neighbors….

  201. Hey! The other day when Hunter had Ferris in a headlock – that was probably their version of West Side Story and nobody caught on.

    Your description of the director change in Sound of Music is hilarious. And spot on.

  204. In Dutch (where I live now) the stairs are called de (the) trap.

    They’re von Trapping op de trap!

  206. I have never seen the movie and now that I know there aare Nazi’s in it…never will.

  210. ” It’s like the first director died during the intermission and Stanley Kubrik had to take over.”

    You. Blow. My. Mind.

  211. I am sorry ladies, Harry lost his sense of humor yesterday. I should since I am his wife.

  212. I LOVE the Sound Of Music! One of my Favorite movies!
    Also, I visited many of the sites in Austria when I went on tour with the Empire State Youth Orchestra!
    We went to Hungary – spring 1989. Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    Oh, did I mention I gave Betty Friedan a piece of my mind once? Not sure she heard the message clearly.

    But I’m not above using a nice smile to winsomely get my way.

    I don’t think you are a terrible feminist – you, like all women everywhere use what you got to get what you got, the way you get what you get. Men need to learn a little about that. That’s my opinion. 🙂

  214. Um, need t-shirts and coffee mugs with Von Trapping themes, please. NEED.

  215. This made me laugh enirely too loud at my desk. Thank you, kitties, for that.

  216. I know this has been brought up many times before, but I think you need a like or thumbs up button for your comment section.

    #51 – Rebecca – Bravo!
    #153 – Marilyn – I thought the exact same thing.
    #202 – Anita – I’m singing along.
    #187 – HarryO – I’m not a cat lover, but I found this post hilarious. Sorry you lost your sense of humor yesterday.

  218. I think we’ve commented on this before, but you really should add a like or thumbs up option for your comment section.

    #51 – Rebecca – Bravo!
    #153 – Marilyn – I thought the same thing.
    #202 – Anita – I’m singing along.
    #187 – HarryO – I’m not a cat person and I found this post hilarious. I’m sorry you lost your sense of humor yesterday.

  219. As a child, I spent many a summer waiting for Marie Von Trapp to emerge from her quarters at their lodge in Vermont –

  224. Please please please post pictures of yourself planking and/or owling in Victors office while he works!

    In unrelated news, I love your staircase. I could totally VonTrapp the crap out of those stairs!

  227. Can’t gargoyling be the new owling? Those owlers look more like gargoyles. Owls don’t bend at the knees at all. Gargoyles could make better faces.

  228. That is owling huh? See I saw that and thought they were all pretending to be those creepy forest kids from that movie “Mama”. You know, where the kids were all dirty and they would “owl” on the top of the refrigerator and eat cherries because the ghost of their dead mother would bring them to them? Just me?

  229. All words should be up for nouning.
    Just yesterday I was wondering why we can say “look at the rain” and “it is raining” but we can’t say “it is winding”. We can say it is breezy or the wind is blowing. Makes no sense. Told my 14 yo son he should go out Von Tropping. He didn’t even bother looking at me.

  230. Holy crap that is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. And I you’ve totally changed my view on TSOM. I’ve been under the impression is was a lovely family oriented sing along musical for my whole life. Fucking Nazi’s.

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