Our friend and regular WCB'er whaleshaman posted this great story as a comment on the Waldorf Pulse and cats. I thought this was worth bringing forward as it's own article. Enjoy!
few know that robert “moog” really was a cat! his name is more correctly spelled “mewg,” but changed to hide his real identity.
he had a cute little sporty car with the license plate “moog,” which he parked on broadway near columbia university in the riotous good old days [late 60s, early 70s].
people used to stand around and stare, and through the fog of “herbal” smoke, proclaim knowingly: oh, man, he is SUCH a cool CAT. and btw, end the war but sieze the dean's office first.
i suppose you're wondering how he got away with being a cat and having a drivers' license.
apparently there was a motor vehicle office back in the 60s, on central avenue in white plains [near the county center where i went to music camp in the summer of '59]. the employees in that particular office were unusually corrupt [driven insane by the music camp's awful band rehearsals] and would license “anybody” who showed up.
so that's how bobby the cool cat got to drive a car on broadway.
true story — parts of it anyway.
I can vouch for the DMV office on Central Ave. in White Plains, NY. That's where I got my first driver's permit and then license!
Maybe Toonces should try them for his license as well…
hi, i just got here and am ROTFLMHO!
i was out test-driving taboo's car, because she complained it made "a funny noise, like Walter [now Wendy] Carlos playing his/her [i]Brandenburg Con No.3 in G: II. Adagio (First, 1968 Version)[/i] while trapped in the right, rear-wheel well."
as usual, she'd been into her stash of catnip but since she's sometimes spot on when it comes to identifying odd sounds [she's the "go to" girl when you have an auditory "what was that?" moment], i had to check it out.
i didn't hear anything "funny," but i did peer into the trunk, where i found an old box under a pile of oily rags. lo & behold, in it was a battered 8-track tape of [i]Switched-On Bach[/i], with the signature "robert mewg" on the label.
i went back into the house swooning with joy from the memory of having heard it the first time [in a north carolina cabin, giddy from home-brew, etc., a fellow tripper popped some headphones on me, as he insisted, "you won't believe this!"] and told her she was hallucinating again about the sound but must have picked up on the vibes emanating from the treasure in the trunk.
she patiently listened to my aging mind's ramblings, concurred that one never does forget how and where and when you heard bach on a synthesizer for the very first time. [yeah, madonna.]
and then she suggested we sell the tape on e-bay. what a cool cat.
also, you wrote:
[i]That's where I got my first driver's permit and then license![/i]
me, too, really really — in 1963. 😉
have fun today, i did. now i have to drive taboo to the vet to check her hearing.