Ask Luke’s Mother-in-Law: New Kittens, Beer Cupcakes and Kissing Cartoons

Luke’s mother-in-law is former LAPD, a licensed property appraiser and a self-described crazy cat lady. None of which has prepared her for TR readers. All questions and answers are real.

Happy after-the-4th of July for those of you who celebrate this holiday. This week has been hot and humid in the desert; temps have been reaching 110 degrees during the day and into the 80s at night. We have also been having afternoon thunderstorms and flash floods. Oh, such fun. Just love the monsoon season, but we do need the rain. LYT and Julia came for a visit after their trip to England, where they had way to much fun at Warner Bros studio and the Harry Potter exhibit and also seeing Thomas the Tank Engine park. At my house we celebrated LYT’s birthday early and I made the traditional lasagna dinner.

As you know, I an the crazy cat lady of Joshua Tree. Well, we decided to bring two new kitties into the house. The all-black one was named Pirate Luke and the gray one Love Bug. We think they are both little boys, and my other boy Frizzy has taken over parent duties. Boo and Felix could care less about the new additions, but Frizzy is taking full care of the babies. This week you all get cat pics from me. Have included a pic of Frizzy and love bug in a file box, LYT holding love bug and Julia with Pirate Luke. Community. Ahhhhhhh.

So now on to “how you are going to stump the mom this week.”

andre_morelo:
another question, how did old cartoons like woodpecker, bugs bunny and some other could have same sex kisses without anyone making a rufus about it, since in theory in the old days people used to to have more prejudice agaisnt gay people, and actions?

I know people were so much more uptight about about anyone who was different back in the “old days,” but as you have noted they did not seem so bothered about things in cartoons. Perhaps they just enjoyed the joy in a cartoon such as when Bugs Bunny kissed Elmer. I don’t think they read anything into it; it was just funny. Today everyone has to be so “Politically Correct” that we have gone overboard and see something sinister in almost anything that is printed or said today. Heaven forbid that someone be offened intentionally or unintentionally; people even lose careers over this today. It has gotten way out of hand.

severemile:
Thank you for answering my question back In January. It really helped me. I have another question for you. If you could time travel back to any time, where would you go and why would you go there?

Glad I could help – sometimes you never know when you give an answer. Travel back in time, where and when. That is a good question. There are so many times and places. The first thing that came to mind was 32 yrs ago to my honeymoon. We had a great time. We were both able to take a month off from work – between vacation time and comp time we got an entire month. We started with a cruise to the Bahamas, then time in Bermuda and St. Croix, then on to New Orleans and finally a train ride back to Los Angeles. Such a fun time, then back to policing the mean streets of Los Angeles.

Gallen_Dugall:
QUESTION! I bought two dozen cupcakes, I traded half of them for beer (I love barter) and ate the other half, which made me a bit ill, but happy. My question is since both products are made of grains and sugar why isn’t there a cupcake flavored beer?

True, I don’t know of any cupcake flavored beer, but you can have beer flavored cupcakes. I substitute beer (any brand you like) for the water in the cupcake mix. Beer cupcakes. Yum. Eating 12 cupcakes and depending on how much beer was consumed, I can see why you might have gotten a bit ill. Cupcakes go much better with milk.

andre_morelo:
first, thanks for anwsering my question on last week ALMiL, and now a new question!

as a self-described crazy cat lady, what are your feelings on the saga of the woman that live tweeted her being trapped inside her house by her cats?

Oh yeah, that was good. I have heard of 2 separate families being “trapped” by their cats. I wonder what they are doing to the kitties to get them so upset. The newest one is where they are trapped in the bedroom and are calling the police. The dispatcher can’t believe they can’t get out of the bedroom, as the cat is right outside the door and blocking the exit out of the house. Okay, how about going out the bedroom window? I have found that a good spray bottle works when the cat gets pissy. Also, I don’t know why they did not think of opening the door and tossing a heavy blanket over the kitty then make the escape.

I guess I am lucky my kitties just all want to sit on my lap all at once. I plan to keep it that way.

Gallen_Dugall:
QUESTION! Looking at the faux ’70s playset for the movie Alien in LYT’s post here
Isn’t it just a little amazing that the film “Alien”, one of the best and most truly scary horror films of it’s day, is something that today’s children nonchalantly watch on afternoon television?

I totally agree “Alien” had me on the edge of my seat when it came out. We do not have “Alien” in the afternoon childrens programing where I live, and if we did it certainly would not be on the TV when anyone under 18 could watch. Julia was never allowed to watch this type of movie under she was over 13. We did not even let her watch the Chucky movies until she was older.

However, I do know some parents who let the kids watch anything at all and even play M-rated video games. I think that this permissiveness is part of some of the problems that many kids and young adults have today. Fiction at many times is too real for a kids brain.

NebulaJack:
ToplessMomBot

What are your thoughts on musical adaptations of non-musical stories or characters? Things like Carrie: The Musical or Spider-man: Turn off the Darkand so forth. Is that something you find enjoyable? Are there any movies, TV shows etc. that you’d love to see turned into a musical?

No, I can’t see much point in turning a drama into a musical, unless it is a drama that has some connection to music such as The Sound of Music – it was about the VonTrapp family and their music. Carrie was a great horror movie and Spider-Man is a great comic book drama; keep them that way. There is no need to turn them into musicals. Sometimes franchises over extend themselves and instead of turning out good product they get greedy and start turning out crap like Turn off the Dark.

Most of the TV shows that I like to watch would NOT make a good musical. Somehow I can’t see Adam-12, TMZ or Hell’s Kitchen as musicals. So wrong.

Gallen_Dugall:
QUESTION! How is it that all those places that “people never return from” are uniformly considered bad and dangerous, when in fact it’s entirely possible that they’re just so wonderful that no one ever wants to return?

I agree. Maybe the places are so good that they don’t want to come back, and put out the word that they are bad places so the place will not get over populated and spoiled. It’s all a big plot to keep others away.

Well, that is all the questions that were sent for this week. It was fun as always. I have not heard back on my application for Contact in the Desert and it is about a month away. Hopefully I will hear soon. As always, be good to each other and HUGGS to you all. Keep the questions coming.

If you’d like to add your questions to the pile for Luke’s mother-in-law, leave them in comments below.

Also, be sure to check out her previous columns.