Charles Mingus' Guide to Cat Toilet Traning

All my instincts tell me this is somehow fake but a solid 93 seconds of web research seems to corroborate that, yes, Charles Mingus, modern genius of jazz composition did in fact write extensively on the subject of toilet training cats in the 60s.

Link to the "Official Mingus Site" (via WizardIsHungry)

Comments

[plasket]

Nightlife (Mingus' cat) briefly showed up as a character in Achewood...

[illlich]

I picked up a Mingus songbook several years ago (new publication), and they reprinted part of this cat training book in it, along with a comic Mingus did about beating the bootleggers (I think it was actually an ad for his Candid Records, in comic form, that was maybe printed in Downbeat).

[Doug]

Hey, I tried to toilet-train my cats ... so why not Mingus? It would have worked too, but one of my cats was claustrophobic and wouldn't go into the bathroom ... hell, we had two of the cats perched on the seat and ready for the final step! But if you still have a litter box for the claustrophobic cat, you just can't pull it off.... Mingus ... multi-talented, must-say.

[K]

It's true. Also, while all cats _can_ be trained to do this, few owners have the patience to do so. The problem is overcoming their natural instinct to bury their poop, as well as the fact that every cat I have ever owned or lived with is fascinated by the goings on in the bowl and can't see the reason why we aren't, so it's a big distraction for them to overcome. I am amazed at Dougs comment; is there such a thing as a cat that doesn't like the bathroom? Did someone beat the poor creature in there, D.?

[Hell's Donut House]

The following anecdote has been recounted numerous times, in this instance by Chris Smith at Stylus Magazine:

"John Cassavetes, another raging iconoclast, despised “cuteness” from his performing actors. Though he pretended to know a lot more about jazz than he actually did, he had the good sense to approach Charles Mingus to score his first feature, Shadows. Mingus said he’d do the score on one condition: that Cassavetes and his cohorts came to his apartment and cleaned up all the cat shit that was littering his piled-up scores. He did so, then was notified by Mingus that it was too clean in there now, that he was unable to think, that he had to wait for some cat shit to accumulate again before any progress could be made. (The score ended up arriving about two years late.) From this anecdote we can derive one thing about Mingus’ psyche: it is perennially untidy."

[Reggie]

Here is a strip from the web comic Achewood which deals mentions this pamphlet:
http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06202003

[Dale Hazelton]

Is that one of those fuzzy covers on the lid, or does Mingus just REALLY need to make a trip to Woolworths for a new seat and lid?

[Thomas]

Lieber grumble!!! hoffe dir gehts gut da in der fremden weite... wenn man dich schon nicht persænlich besuchen kann...

[PERKINSTonia]

Do you understand that this is correct time to receive the loans, which will make your dreams come true.