20 September 18

On this date in 1941, Warner Bros. introduced us to a mischievous alley cat in the cartoon "Notes to You." This unnamed "pussycat" annoyed Porky Pig's attempts to sleep. In 1945, the character was transformed into the cat-personage named Sylvester J. Pussycat, who went on to great fame as the "puddy tat" nemesis of Tweety Bird. As reported in Wikipedia, "the name 'Sylvester' is a play on Felis silvestris, the scientific name for the wild cat species" (even though Sylvester is a domestic cat). He and Tweety are prominent figures on my Looney Tunes® chaotic jumble tie. Also to note for 20 September: in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan started the first successful circumnavigation voyage; the patent for nylon was awarded in 1938; and it's the birthday for James Dewar (1842-1923), the physicist/chemist who invented the vacuum bottle, known to scientists as a Dewar flask but more commonly called a thermos.