What does it mean?I understand a certain Schroedinger had a cat whom he kept shut up pretty tightly, then lost track of. I just hope he fed that cat.
A “pig in a poke” may be closer to the point. Apparently, a poke is a bag once used for stuffing a piglet into when it was sold at market. People would buy a pig in a poke. Back in the day, say, London 1530, some nasty people would put a cat in a bag and sell it as a pig in a poke. I don’t like the implication, but there it is. I suppose the warning is, don’t buy a pig in a poke – unless you want a cat.
Hence the expression “let the cat out of the bag.” Who knew?
Whenever I go in a bag (I prefer brown paper – no handles), I leave it open. If the bag is lying enticingly on the floor, recently emptied of groceries, I approach from a distance and enter at a full run. The unique physics of the fact that I am in the bag yet crashing into the bottom of it and sliding across the floor (perhaps even colliding with a wall) are quite fascinating.
I try to make my time in the bag quality time. Getting in there with a catnip mouse or one of my favorite spherical objects can enhance the experience. A bit of hide-and-seek or crush-the-bag with my cat pal Alex playing along from the outside (she’s a box cat, herself) can be very entertaining as well.
When I’m in a bag, everyone in the house tends to know about it.
I’ve noticed humans mean something quite different when they say, he’s in the bag. They don’t seem to have as much fun in there as I do. Sometimes I hear them say, it’s in the bag. Yes, but…
Have you noticed, there are so few respectable occasions for the exclamation mark these days? Before I started blogging, my editors insisted on taking them out. In my opinion, “The cat’s in the bag!” is a sentence that just can’t end without an exclamation mark!
Coming soon: the cat's pajamas!
