The Almost Daily

Aside from being 4:20 Eve, today, April 19, is not Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr.’s, Birthday, better known simply as Sylvester the Cat.  True, there are some websites that claim today as the iconic puddy tat’s birthday, but nobody seems to know why.  He never celebrated a birthday in any of his numerous cartoons, and it’s not the birthday of anybody who had anything to do with Sylvester, such as Friz Freleng, who created the lisping cat, or Mel Blanc, who gave that cat a voice.  It seems to simply be a day that was chosen at random. 

So, here at the Press, we’re celebrating March 24 as Sylvester’s birthday, for it was on that date in 1945 that Sylvester first appeared in the cartoon “Life with Feathers.”  But, alas, we missed it this year.  So today will have to do.

And just so you’ll have something to talk about tonight at supper... The name Slyvester is a take off of the scientific name for big cats:  Felis silvestris.   Though many automatically pair Sylvester with Tweety, Sylvester was in many cartoons without his small, feathery nemesis.  Some of our favourites here at the Press are when Sylvester was trying to live up to his son’s, Silvester, Jr’s, expectations while trying to catch the baby kangaroo, Hippety Hopper.  And we absolutely love “Tree for Two,” where Sylvester is being shadowed by an escaped panther while the two dogs, Spike and Chester, created even more pandemonium.  Good stuff.  In all, Sylvester won three Academy Awards.  Not bad for a cat.

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