22_51bb7fcc@fidonet.org>   
   From: alexander koryagin    
      
   Hi, Roy Witt!   
   I read your message from 14.06.2013 15:29   
      
      
    DM>>>>> I wonder what the cats are thinking, when during washing   
    DM>>>>> suddenly freeze and a few seconds looking into nothingness?   
    RW>    
    ak>> I believe the correct version is this: With black humor: I wonder   
    ak>> what the cats are thinking when during washing THEY suddenly   
    ak>> freeze and for a few seconds look nowhere?   
      
    RW> I'd re-phrase it to:   
    RW> I wonder what cats are thinking while cleaning themselves, they   
    RW> suddenly freeze and for a few seconds, look stupified.   
      
    ak>> without black humor: I wonder what the cats are thinking when   
    ak>> while washing THEMSELVES THEY suddenly freeze and for a few   
    ak>> seconds look nowhere?   
      
    ak>> The answer is of course that nobody knows. But looking at the   
    ak>> cats' faces during such moments we certainly can suppose that they   
    ak>> are deep in thoughts.   
    RW> Deep in thought would go hand in hand with stupified.   
      
      But "while cleaning themselves" and "during washing" means quite   
   different things. And the verb must be as different. IMHO, "stupefied"   
   means absence of thoughts (because of amazement or shock). While "deep   
   in thought" tells us of thoughts.   
      
    ak>> If we consider the first variant we can suppose that when a human   
    ak>> washes a cat the whole life flashes through its mind and a state   
    ak>> of consternation is the aftermath of the washing process.   
      
    RW> The best way for a human to wash a cat is to pour some liquid soap   
    RW> into a toilet bowl, open the back door of the house, insert the cat   
    RW> and close the lid. When the rukus dies down, lift the lid. The cat   
    RW> will air dry on it's way out the door.   
      
      Until ruckus comes down? Well, only we must make, just in case, a   
   kind of lattice in the bowl. To make sure our cat would not go along the   
   sewage. Pay attention, that it can return back and smear the floor! ;=)   
      
      
    ak>> After all people are often deep in thoughts after scratching their   
    ak>> heads. ;-)   
    RW> I sometimes scratch my head while in deep thought. 8^) Afterward, I   
    RW> have a hard solution to a problem or a blueprint on how to deal   
    RW> with it...   
      
      An old Russian anecdote:   
      
      A son asks his father: "Daddy, why they say that clever people   
   scratch their foreheads, but fools, back of the heads?"   
   Daddy, scratching his nape: "Well son, let me think...."   
      
   Bye, Roy!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   fido7.english-tutor 2013   
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