Brainstorm names for two new cats we brought home on vacation, June 6:

Stickers Bruce Wayne Wolverine Zatoichi.
Guess which one is his main name. It's Japanese, pronounced with the O and I separate in the middle, like ZAtoh EEchee. He's gray with white patches on belly and legs and part of his face. The pattern on his face looks a little like Wolverine's classic yellow costume, gray splotches over his eyes but white nose and mouth, then a little gray goatee on his chin.

The mother cat is already technically named "Snow Angel Princess" aka Baby Cat, but we played with names that we like better: Kikujiro, Sonatine, Anh, Mrs Cheng the Pirate Queen, Tampopo.
I suggested "Florida" after the stern but loving mother on Good Times, but Melinda figured everyone would think we like the state of Florida. (She only dislikes Florida the state because everyone in Michigan talks about it like it's the Holy Land.)
Darth Mama.
Finally Melinda suggested Songlian, main character in Raise the Red Lantern played by Gong Li.



... We watched Raise the Red Lantern on June 9th so we would know the proper pronunciation of the name "Songlian" for our new cat. The movie is about the four wives of this rich man in 1930s China, all conspiring against each other to become the most favored wife in the household. The servants all call them "second mistress" or "fourth mistress" and the wives call each other "second sister" and "fourth sister." It focuses on the pov of the fourth wife, Songlian.

[This is leading up to a joke, I swear. It's not huge, but there's a payoff coming...]

I told Melinda it's a bummer that we only have the three female cats, because we could almost call this cat Songlian "fourth mistress" just like her namesake in the movie. Then I laughed and said, wait, she is fourth mistress! Melinda said, no, you can't count the boy cat.

I said, no, and I pointed at Melinda: "FIRST MISTRESS" -- then Lucky is second mistress, Lozie is third mistress and Songlian is fourth mistress.

Works out perfectly. Except Melinda said, "Ewww, that means you sleep with cats!"