A Nation Mourns

After the deaths of James Brown and Anna Nicole Smith, the world must endure the greatest tragedy of them all.

Blanqui, cat of all cats, lover of milk products, hater of the sound of paper ripping, has left us for the Great Cereal Bowl in the sky. He was buried Saturday at his ancestral home in New Jersey.

Blanqui was the best cat and the only cat and now we must live in a world without cats.

Ethel Mertz, 1988 - 2007

Ethel Mertz, a dear friend of Blanqui's Blog, died Friday. She was 18.

Ethel Mertz was born into a prominent Boston Brahmin family in 1988. After a fierce argument with her father, she joined the Marine Corps, serving two years in the Philippines and Kuweit. (She is rumored to have been the inspiration for the character played by George Clooney in the 1999 film Three Kings.) After her tour of duty, she moved to San Francisco. Finding the spirit of the '60s replaced by Silicon Valley greed, she decamped to Manhattan. Among the many luminaries she is said to have scratched or bitten figure Tom Wolfe, Engelbert Humperdinck, Mariel Hemingway and Michael Musto. The latter was the first to call her "Firecrotch," a moniker the tabloids who chronicled her savage nights out were only too delighted to seize upon.

Of late, Ethel lived contentedly in the East Village, where she spent her days sitting under her Christmas tree, swatting at passersby. She is survived by her maidservant, CDP.

Blanqui's Blog will always remember fondly the time she objected to being fed and bit us. Rest in peace, Ethel.