Squee-worthy.

Zabu just wants to play with the ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! I think I need to get a ball for my cat.

It's weird but I used to think the cute cat pictures all over teh webz was nice but didn't think much of it. We adopted a rescue cat two months ago and I'm not a certified crazy cat lady.

Hail cats!

Eww No

Yes, absolutely, though I haven't had it for many years.

I had a lot of fun narrating that video to myself. [SPOILERS!] "Oooooh, he liiiiiikes it. Oh, he likes it, too! OH, this guy doesn't like it so much. OH SHE'S ROLLING AROUND IN IT!"

I've never had Marmite and I feel strangely drawn to it. It seems like something I might REALLY, REALLY enjoy, but I'm reluctant to plunk down ~8 bucks to find out that I actually hate it.

My grocery store stopped carrying Marmite. (Weirdly, when they did carry it, they kept it in the baking aisle next to the jars of yeast, which indicates to me that they had no earthly idea how it's used. Yeast extract, people.)

I read that as "just like hummus" and thought I had learned TWO new things about big cats today.

I am consumed by the question: How can I find out whether I will love or hate Marmite without, y'know, putting it in my mouth?

Elsa, I think it might be quite difficult to determine that. I love Marmite and its salty vitaminy darkness, but my husband hates it, and we don't otherwise have any differences in our salty-food tastes.

If you like I can mail you a small pot from the UK, though there's the risk it might be seized by customs.

That video also serves as a useful Marmite instructional manual, by the way - it shouldn't be spread any thicker than the big cat wrangler spreads it there.

altolinguistic, what a sweet offer! But that's not necessary: I could certainly buy some Marmite at a specialty shop (probably our local British-goods shop, where I buy The Fella's Aero bars, has it) or order it online.

And someday maybe I will. I just can't really get my head around the idea of it. And I want very much to like it, but that's in tension with the desire to, um, never have to taste it. I don't think there's any getting around that.

Suddenly I'm remembering Roo's extract of malt in the Winnie the Pooh stories. I wonder if that's remotely similar.

As far as I know, extract of malt is sweet (at least, when my granddad used to read the Pooh stories to me I assumed it was!), and Marmite most definitely isn't.

Intrigued by the idea of a British goods shop. What else does it sell? Heinz beans? Walkers crisps?

Oh, sure, I suppose extract of malt would be sweet. (Aaaand then I looked it up and indeed it is sweet.)

The British goods shop sells a mixture of durable goods I've never really looked at: sweaters and teacups and books and I don't know what all --- but yes, there's a big wall of foodstuffs. Yes, Heinz beans (because the U.S. recipe is different) and biscuits (though as far as I know, the ones in the mass-market groceries are identical) and tea and Lyle's golden syrup and Horlick's and SO MANY CHOCOLATE BARS. I haven't noticed crisps, but I might have failed to notice them. Or maybe they get too smashed up to be a viable small-scale import.

In Houston, I vividly remember a childhood trip with Dad to the British import shop to buy my mother a nice cream & sugar set to go with her teapot. When I got a bit older, I would go there on my own to buy Smarties (and later still, Dunhills).

I suppose it does sound funny! Wherever I've lived, there's always been a British goods shop with a bustling trade from expats, Anglophiles, and pretentious teenagers. Some of my local supermarkets carry the same foodstuffs: certainly the cookies, maybe the Horlick's, but probably not the wide variety of candy bars.