![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/7_quick_takes_sm1.jpg\" "\\"7_quick_takes_sm\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u2014 1 \u2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n My facebook friends are the kind of people who are patient with me when I post things like, \u201cOy, where is that quote about the problem with cat burning not being that it\u2019s bad for the cat but bad for the spectators?\u201d<\/p>\n But even their patience has a limit. \u00a0One friend supplied the quote I was looking for (\u201cMacaulay said that the Puritans hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.\u201d \u2013 G.K. Chesterton, All Things Considered.) but pointed out I had\u00a0repeatedly<\/em> asked Facebook to help me find the quote, and perhaps I should look into mnemonics or tattoos.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 2 \u2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n He guessed (correctly) that I kept mixing it up with Chesterton\u2019s quote about denying the cat:<\/p>\n If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two deductions. He must either deny the existence of God, as all atheists do; or he must deny the present union between God and man, as all Christians do. The new theologians seem to think it a highly rationalistic solution to deny the cat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He was mostly right. \u00a0Though I\u2019ve also somehow entangled it with David Sedaris\u2019s stor<\/a>y of his mother covering the cost of his cat\u2019s cremation and writing in the memo line of her check \u201cPet Burning.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet another friend chimed in with:<\/p>\n Atheists deny the Puritans.\u00a0Elliot\u00a0denies Chesterton<\/a>.\u00a0Leah Libresco\u00a0seems to find it a highly rationalistic solution to deny the bear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n At which point I had to do\u00a0something<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 3 \u2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em> readers and\u00a0Game of Thrones<\/em> viewers are probably already familiar with the song \u201cThe Bear and the Maiden Fair\u201d but I\u2019ve embedded it below.<\/p>\n