NOSE TO THE GRINDSTAFF

RIP to Douglas H. Grindstaff, who I just learned passed on late last month, at the age of 87. Grindstaff was the Emmy-winning sound effects designer and editor for the original Star Trek, the man who created the unmistakable squeal of the phaser, the whirr of the transporter, the swish of the automatic doors, the snarling of the Gorn and the trilling purr of the tribbles, among countless other sounds you'd recognize at once if you heard them.

So, in honor of this insufficiently-sung hero of pop culture...

Monster-of-the-Week: ...our honoree is the giant cat...

...from the second season episode "Catspaw"(written by Robert Bloch), into which the witchy alien Sylvia (Antoinette Bower) transforms herself in the show's climactic minutes, and for which Grindstaff and crew provided the unnerving, deeper-then-natural meows and growls and hisses.

CAT ON A TAUT SKIN ROOF

RIP to my pal Barry’s cat Jimmy, passed on at 16. The gregarious Jimmy had a habit, when I was sitting on Barry’s couch, of gripping my head and licking the very top of my bald pate. Barry would scold him for it, but he would ignore him and continue. I didn’t mind. Jimmy was one of the more seriously cool cats I’ve ever met.

Be seeing you, Jimmy. If you ever feel like blessing me with a cosmic head-lick from above, go for it.