Knee Jerk Reactions and 10 Ways to Kill a Cat

Last week, I was greeted by an email from YouTube information me that one of my videos had been deactivated because it was reported to be in violation of community standards.  It went on to detail the consequences of further violations and informed me that I could appeal the decision, and appeal I did.

The title of the video was 10 Ways to Kill a Cat.  The video shows (with the aid of the FX Guru app) our cat being the victim of a flame thrower, a hand grenade, a rocket launcher, a cruise missile, and half-dozen other non-traditional euthanasia devices.

By now you are probably convinced the movie was rightly reported. Now, if you are saying, "No wonder it was reported" you are may be guilty of the same knee jerk reaction that probably resulted in the reporting of the video.  The fact is that I love cats and would never harm one.

It was obvious from some of the comments and the reporting of the video, that some people didn't read the description or watch to the end.  I made that clear in my appeal where I simply told the YouTube reviewers the video was NOT about killing cats.  It was about man's inhumanity to man. 

I then asked them to watch it until the end as I requested in the description. I'm pleased to say within a few hours of my filing the appeal I received the following message.

Thank you for submitting your video appeal to YouTube. After further review, we've determined that your video doesn't violate our Community Guidelines. Your video has been reinstated and your account is in good standing.
Sincerely,
— The YouTube Team

Since then, I have gone back to the video and examined the detailed statistics provided by YouTube.  It quickly became obvious to me that most people were NOT watching the video to the end.  Cat lovers were clicking off of it before they got to the end message, and cat haters were stopping as soon at the ending text screens started, and sharing it.

It appeared that my attempt at pointing out man's inhumanity to man was missing the mark.  In an effort to get more people to watch the video all the way through, I have gone back to the video and added more text along the way. 

You can make up your own mind as to the message and my success in getting it across.

My First Par

I want to tell you the story of my first par on the golf course. It was 1960 and our high school wrestling team had a vacancy in the 156 pound weight class. My good friend, Ben, fit the bill and I convinced him to join the team.

Over the course of the season, Ben helped us a lot. Even in losing, Ben netted us point that would have been taken away by forfeits, and when he won, which he did, it was a great boost to the team, but what does that have to do with golf and my first par? For that, we have to fast forward to the beginning of golf season. Ben was on the golf team and they needed a fourth player. It was payback time, and I became the fourth player on the golf team.

Believe me when I tell you Ben was a better wrestler than I was a golfer. I may have set the Guinness record for the most lost ball, even before our first match of the season. In that match, I spent more time looking for my balls in the rough and the woods than I did walking the fairways.

After a frustrating few hole of playing hide and seek with my golf balls, I teed off on a par three hole.  A big part of my problem was the fact that because of an eye problem, I have the depth perception of a one eyed man.  As a result, I often lost sight of the ball after it left the tee. This hole was no exception It looked like it looked like it hooked to the left. So after spending the next five minutes searching the rough and the woods, I was just about to give up when someone said, “Who has a Titleist 4?”

That was my ball and it was resting just six inches from the cup!!! Not only did I just miss a hole in one, I was set up for my first birdie, even before I got my first par.  With a big grin on my face, I walked up to the cup and if you remember the title of this blog entry, you know what happened next.  That's right. I TWO putted!

Well I never got a birdie, but I did get first and ONLY par.  Mercifully, a few matches later we picked up a fourth who was considerably better than me  Arnold Palmer breathed a sigh of relief as I slipped into retirement and ended my golf career.