It’s a Felix-y Time

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: My fascination with these cards is at the root of starting this blog (as a summer project while recovering from foot surgery, confined to bed for weeks) as a way of organizing and recording my then nascent collection. It expanded to toys and eventually life, but the square one was folks with Felix in a parade of early 20th century photos.

If you consider reincarnation you might think that some time back, about 100 years ago, I decided to forego and opportunity to have my picture taken with Felix, or I was a small child and no one would listen to me, or it was taken and lost. I have found a tiny window onto my past passion and devote myself to the glorious fulfilling of it now.

*Margate photo. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

Romantic day dreams of Felix lost and found aside, I now own a pile of these photos – far more than I have room to display here in the apartment although I have started to think of what a series of them would look like in New Jersey and need to consider a spot without much sun which is more challenging there.

As postulated in my post last week about two somewhat different cards from the same negative, I now have a large enough collection to make some interesting (at least to me) connections between them. In that way I bring you today’s acquisition, a card recently purchased from England, the locus primary for these photos.

Today the breaking news is that this card, which was never sent, was taken in Margate, England, a summer resort town there. As you can see, it is the kissing cousin of another postcard in my collection, purchased back in 2022 and posted about at that time. That post can be read here. Ironically I evidently paid a lot for that card and this one was a bit of a steal. (It averages out I find and try to be philosophical about it.) Interesting to note that, like the one last week, the card above was unusual in that it came via a US dealer. It was identified with Margate on the back.

*Magnificent Kim Deitch original valentine depicting Margate. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

Margate! Where you could also have your photo taken on a giant black cat chair, was a swinging summer resort if having your photo taken on the beach was part of a good time. It lives in my imagination and Kim has brought it to life in these drawings he has done for me. Read about those here.

*Kim Deitch original drawing, valentine from this year. Proudly in the Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

These two cards share the singular vision of this photographer who liked to blur his (or her) background, bringing just the Felix and child into focus. The children are also remarkably similar, but a careful look shows that it does not seem to be the same day and the negative numbers are far apart as well. Still, this cheerful little boy and the sad small girl could easily be related.

I have more, different Felix treats in store although Kim and I are heading out for a much belated birthday celebration for me which includes a postcard show I haven’t been to since before Covid so who knows what else might lurk there!

Bum, 25 lbs Cat, Jackman, Maine

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I felt a bit hoodwinked on this card as I suspect that it was slightly enhanced on the listing where I purchased it. I share it with you slightly enhanced here as well – it is a bleached out, over exposed image on the top half where the puss is featured. This was probably due to the travails of indoor photography and the challenges of photographing Bum.

Having said that Bum does not give the appearance of being difficult, wishing to move quickly, or for that matter needing to relocate any time soon. He looks perfectly comfortable on his perch atop the scale which (in theory because we cannot really read it) is advertising his advanced girth. A careful look reveals that he is parked on a Miller High Life tray for the purpose of the weigh-in.

They are staging the photo with the little fellow on a scale in what seems to be the luncheonette type restaurant attached to the hotel, formica topped table with a metal edge to service a faux leather booth. We can spy a heat register under the table. Close examination reveals that a large ashtray and an advertisement for something called Irish Cream share the table. (The Irish Cream is advertised by a woman in a long dress, decorated with clover leaves.)

Bum is a fine specimen of enormous tabby. While he is certainly hefty he appears to carry it well and in all reality is also a really big kitty. He has a nice bloopy nose which I always like on a cat. His tail is curled around him. He does manage to look right at the camera, somehow intuiting the import of the moment. 25 pounds seems to be the general upper end for cats and I’m not sure I have had any that approached it – although our enormous orange stripe Persian mix, Pumpkin, may have gotten up there. I don’t remember weighing him in his prime, but maybe pushing 20 lbs.

*Feathers, 40 lbs of kitty! See post link below. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

Fat cats and recording their enormity is a sub-genre of cat photos in its own right. I have two in my collection I have written about previously, A Cat Named Boy (with the post which can be read here) and Feathers about whom a 2016 post can be read here. Meanwhile, Feathers claimed to be world famous and weighed in at an amazing 40 lbs!

While this is an unarguably lousy photo, oddly enough I found it in the collection of the Penobscot, Marine Museum online. Same bum burned out photo, at least as bad as mine, no further information. It is the only reference to Bum I could find, his fame faded. Meanwhile, the Jackman Hotel appears to be gone, unless it has become the Jackman Motel with shingled, cottage-style buildings. The argument against that might be that it also appears to be contemporaneous with the writing of this postcard.

This postcard was send on June 8, 1954 to Beverly and Barbara Meyers whose address was quite simply Delta, Pa. We know it arrived the morning of June 10 as far as Delta as it is stamped there as well. It says, Mon. June 7th, Hi, We are having a beautiful trip. We drove through the mts today. We will be in Quebec around noon Tuesday. Bum, the kitty is a beautiful sight, we petted him or I wouldn’t believe he is a real cat. Isabel and Ralph. I am glad they recorded having giving him a few pets! As hotel mascot, and in deference to his weight, we’ll assume he lived a pretty good life as the feline denizen of the hotel.

Despite the quality of the photo postcard we are nonetheless honored to have Bum, another lovely fat cat, join the Pictorama archive of cat record and fame.

Esoteric Felix Photo Find, Seeing Double

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s post is a bit of Pictorama inside baseball as it were, with some coincidences which occurred nicely and a bit of a divergence down another tributary. If nothing else lots of eyeball kicks from my photo collection today.

Recently I jumped, as I do when I see them, to purchase this postcard of three children and Felix. It is a particularly nice one. Like virtually all of these souvenir postcards, this one was never mailed and on the back is only more contemporary writing noting, Felix the Cat.

When it arrived I realized that I already owned one from the same session or the very card. As it turns out, according to the number at the bottom it is a, more or less, identical image from the same negative. They are both originals and it is virtually the first time I have collected two contemporary copies of the same photo. Surprising to me on some level considering how many I purchase and how many people must have ordered more than one copy of a fun family photo. (The notable exceptions in my collection would be once or twice when I purchased a full lot of photos from one shoot – on two occasions I think once a batch of tintypes from Australia and a strange bunch of photos a a giant Felix at an intersection in Kuala Lumpur of all places – and ended up with a repeater in the group.)

*The photos side-by-side*. *The one on the right is the earlier purchase and slightly better version. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

Another interesting fact is that this one was purchased from a dealer in the UK as most are (some, tintype versions as far as I know, come from Australia), and the original one was that extremely rare occasion where it was purchased from a US dealer, whose card it happens I saved in the sleeve and just found. I have bought very few of these photos from US dealers, they generally don’t seem to travel far from their place of origin, at least until they travel to me. These do not ever appear to actually have been produced in the United States which always leaves me wondering what was wrong with the folks at Coney Island anyway? They missed a great opportunity.

So one wonders why one photo traveled far from its origin and mate. I guess a family member lived or moved abroad, or it was somehow separated and sold off to a dealer and found its way here. By way of comparison, it should be noted that today’s was developed poorly, a bit of overexposure – note that the wooden floor is bleached out as is the background a bit and the printing in general is lesser, chemicals a bit tired on that day perhaps. Although the one recently purchased is also a tiny bit larger meaning that there is a bit less information too. Pure speculation but my guess is that one of these was ordered subsequent to the first one when a copy was desired, perhaps to give away to a doting relative.

*One of the ones that may show the same windows and likely Felix. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

The post from March 2023 can be found here and investigates another coincidence which is that I have at least one other photo (possibly three now that I have a look around), taken at this very location and with this Felix. These were taken on the beach itself rather than near a studio so identifying the location is always a bit iffy. These distinctive windows are the key here.

*Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. I think someone in Australia selling reproductions of this one.*

Meanwhile, while on the subject of seeing double, I occasionally find one of my photos reproduced for sale. At top above is one where I have assumed that the seller scanned the image (shown above) at the time of selling it to me and another is one I missed at auction and now reproductions are being sold – a bit different admittedly.

*Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. Reproduction prints of this one turned up recently.*

However one (shown above) turned up after I had owned this photo for a period of time and I was curious. (Posts for these pics can be found here, here and here if you are curious.) I did wonder if somehow they had lifted them off of my post, but I doubt the fidelity would be good enough for an even halfway decent reproduction.

Of course the possibility that the seller owned another print of the same photo occurred to me as well. I reached out to them with a friendly and polite inquiry and their response surprised me. He had purchased a box of items and at the bottom was a disk and the image was on it so he was printing and selling them. Interesting!

While some less utterly compulsive folks might see duplicates as an opportunity to sell one off, at least in the short term I am just tickled to have these photos reunited once again.

Julian: Marvelous Cat Impersonator

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: One of the occupational hazards of being Pam of Pictorama fame is that researching a post occasionally leads you directly to purchasing something else and today’s card came into my possession while researching last week’s cat impersonators.

Like those two cards acquired from a single seller (those posts can be read here and here) today’s impersonator also hails from Great Britain. I don’t know if it is that animal impersonation as entertainment was better or more robust in England, but it did at a minimum produce more visual evidence which is jolly detritus for us to pick through a hundred or more years later.

*Another fluffy version of kitty from a post last week. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

Sadly there are no easily found tracks about Julian and his cat act. As Kim pointed out and I must agree, there is something still very much of him even when he dons his cat costume. I find that he includes a photo of himself sort of interesting and he’s a rather intense looking young man here. Under his picture it says, Marvelous Cat Impersonator and Anatomical Puzzle. I really do wonder about the anatomical puzzle part – what could that mean? Was he able to execute uniquely cat like motions and poses? Amazing dislocation of joints? Did he perhaps sport a tail? (Now that would be something!)

Julian is a very long haired cat (impersonators seem to lean to the Persian type), and he sports a big bow. As I noted above, while his mask certainly covers his entire face there remains something of his affect even with it on. His cat eyes are set a bit close and I can’t say there is anything endearing about his cat. No wish to cuddle this puss – or even meet him really. Still, it might have been a very good show.

The back of the card reveals that this was actually a Christmas greeting and (in red) reads as follows: Christmas and New Year 1913-14/Wishing You The Compliments of the Season. from “Julian” Panto, 1913-14. The Grand Theater, Byker, Newcastle-on–Tyne. The card was never used and there is nothing written on it.

There is nary a snippet to be located about Julian and his cat act – not even the sort of listing in an old theatrical newspaper like sometimes turns up in my research. He has left no tracks. However, the Grand Theater has a traceable history. It was built in 1896 and closed its doors in 1954. The building remained standing if derelict until a fire in April of 1964 when it was then demolished. (I would share a photo of it, but none of the sites wish to let me today.)

In 1913 it seems it got its film license was just starting to commit to showing films in advance of the live shows, as many theaters were. 1913 and ’14 would have been rollicking years with numerous large theaters in this downtown area of Byker, an eastern district of Newcastle-on-Tyne. The Grand originally seated over 2,200 people, a number of seats which was reduced by more than 400 when the equipment for showing film was installed.

Let the Cat Impersonators Cont. Part 2

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Day two of cat impersonator photo postcards! Unfortunately as over exposed as the last one was, this one is equal parts too dark. Both yesterday and today’s cards hail from a dealer in England and were purchased at the same time but separately.

Today we have a rather doggy cat in a more elaborate costume – I could go either way on this. One can imagine that this one might have had devices to make a tail twitch or a jaw open and close. He is more furry than yesterday’s model and if I had to guess I might say that yesterday’s was earlier and more primitive but of course it could have just been a cheaper production. The face seems to be a two part affairs with the snout separate.

Like yesterday’s card this one was never sent and has a layer of dirt helping to attest to age which is unknown. I am not quite sure I can guess why kitty is backed into a corner behind a chair for this photo – we will assume that it was part of the plot perhaps?

While yesterday’s card screamed vaudeville act this one might make us think about film as well. I am reminded of my photo still of Nana from Peter Pan, one of my favorite examples of an animal impersonator although a dog of course. (That post can be found here.) Still, practically speaking, likely this was some sort of a stage act as well.

*Nana from Peter Pan. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

The range of design and assembly in these costumes fascinates me. This one, to the extent we can see it, appears to be professionally (very skillfully) made. Still, there’s often some thing a bit indeterminant about the precise species of animal in question on these images. Feline dogs, canine cats and a range of sort of bear like critters. Of course we don’t see them fully inhabited and in motion – their animation may have further described and defined them.

I believe I have commented before on the sheer annoyance of my cats when I plop a pair of cat ears on my head for Halloween. They all but shake their heads in disappointment and distress – like the kitty equivalent of a racist joke. One can only imagine their response to a furry full body costume! (As for fur, on the one occasion I remember an elderly friend wearing a mink in my apartment – my then cat Miss Otto Dix – a feral female feline – went nuts at the sight of it. She and the coat had to be separated by a closed bedroom door.)

*****

As I write this it is Saturday evening and I am in New Jersey with the five Butler cats. They are pleased with the attention of my being here and they have piled all their toys in the living room for a kitty party. These guys are gearing up for an all-night romp which I will be privy to through my bedroom door.

IV Miles to London: Cat Impersonator Part One

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: It’s a one two photo post punch today and tomorrow with two cards I acquired from Great Britain recently. Animal impersonators, fancy for folks dressed up to perform in animal costumes, are a Pictorama passion and are hard to pass up. (An impressive previous specimen post can be found here and a slightly more oddball one here.)

Today’s kit appears to portray Dick Whittington’s cat – an old wheeze based on the historic Richard Whittington who lore has it owned a very talented and scheming puss who helped him achieve significantly in life. The kit and the story are evidently apocryphal, as talking and elaborately world dominating cats tend to be.

To be honest, the purchase of these two cards was pretty marginal purchases based on their evident lousy quality (which was even worse in their listing), but in the end their rarified-ness won me. They are a bit better in person. However, this one in particular suffers from being some sort of wretched form of duped reproduction, but it would appear one at least roughly from the period. The card shows signs of real age.

This photo postcard was never mailed and there is nothing written on it. This is a pretty basic (if effective) cat costume. He represents a nice tabby, black and white stripes on his arm-legs. His mask looks sturdy to the point of discomfort and his chin sports some stripes below as well. Bristling whiskers jut out and one ear stands at attention while the other is folded over. The top of his costume ends in a sort of neckerchief as a transition (to hide his human neck) and I am sorry we don’t really see his tail. A good tail is everything in a cat costume.

There’s something a little scary about this kitty effigy – not sure how I would feel about taking advice from him. He perches on a mileage sign for IV Miles to London.

The woman leans on his shoulder. She looks like an acrobat or circus performer, curly hair with a large bow atop, slippered feet. Almost entirely faded from sight is a short pearl necklace, one earring exposed. She does not appear to be Mr. Whittington so not sure what role she played in the drama.

Hard to say how much we might have enjoyed this play as it unfolded. Based on this photo my guess is I would have at least wanted to give it a shot though.

This post a bit short and sweet today as I head to New Jersey early for the funeral for the mother of my friend, Winsome. As I get ready to post this (a largely pre-written post!) I will hop on a train shortly. Another interesting if poorly developed photo postcard – another on its way to me. It’s all about animal impersonators for now!

Spike

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This card wandered into the house last night, in a pile of interesting mail, especially robust as we hadn’t picked up our mail in a few days – more on that in a bit. It was nestled against a wonderfully long, newsy letter from our friends Pete (Poplaski) and Rika in France. Kim read the letter aloud to me while killing time before picking up take out. A delightful distraction, but resulting in my just having a good look at the card now.

I have a weakness for photos of men with cats (see early posts here and here) and a dog seems like a bonus round. Since Spike is the only name in evidence I will speculate that it belongs to the dog or the man? Neither disinterested kit looks like a Spike. This is a photo postcard and nothing is written on the back. The card was never mailed.

*From a very early Pictorama post, Men and Cats.* *Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

If we look closely this chap is posing on the flat roof of a house, the eve of the house next door confirming this speculation. (The house in Jersey has such a flat roof out the bathroom window, but no plans for us to climb out onto it in the foreseeable future. Given the roof issues I’ve had with that part of the house I would say likely never.) This is evidently an old house with tatty, long and worn wooden shudders that look like they have done real window protecting work, hence their dilapidation. A bit of a decorative railing appears to one side of that and I wonder if the actual balcony was in theory limited to that area.

Our human is sporting a suit and tie, hat perched atop his head, and a big grin. He is sitting on a chair of which there is very little evidence – I thought at first he was squatting in order to get everyone into the frame at first. The cats, a lovely little tuxie and a somewhat spotty white one, are obediently perched on each leg.

Bonus video of Blackie considering a water “fountain” a friend sent him as he demands bathroom sink water constantly. While entertained by it not sure he actually “gets” it yet.

The dog, who wears a hefty collar, is at his feet and has a somewhat concerned look if we peer closely. The trees behind him and into the distance have leaves but seem vaguely half-hearted, perhaps it is fall and their denuding has begun. A very careful look at the horizon reveals a few other rooftops and more beyond, but that and the sky are completely burned out.

*Evidence of our battle with the Afrin bottle. Bloody but now bowed.*

Zipping back to life here in New York City. Those of you who follow me on Instagram may have already seen allusions to Covid having come to visit Deitch Studio. Shown above is the evidence of Kim and I going to war with a bottle of Afrin whose childproof cap proved to be largely human proof. We ultimately scored a victory over it, but it cost Kim a bad cut on his drawing thumb and a less significant one on my wrist. (My thanks to him for his sacrifice to help clear my head!)

Kim, who was felled first, seems to have reached the shores on the other side of well while I am getting there, slowly. Cats are very spoiled, with a lot of me petting and treat time – all discipline with them out the window in my malaise. All this to say, there are some great toys waiting to make their debut, a belated birthday to ultimately celebrate. Hopefully I can tackle some of these with renewed tomorrow.

Pathways

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Pausing some wonderful birthday related acquisitions to show you this pair of cards I bought recently on Instagram from one of my favorite sellers @baileighfaucz.h. (She has a great eye and routinely offers wonderful pics – if money was no issue I’d be buying constantly.) This is a bit of an odd, one off post so apologies for taking this tributary today, away from my more traditional toy and feline exploits.

It isn’t unheard of, but a bit unusual for me as photo purchases go these days, although I always say it is about following your nose. Clearly no cats here, but these immediately caught my eye. They were not technically sold together but clearly, as is sometimes the case, just belong together.

If anything, these look a bit like photos I might have taken as I was deeply interested in landscape photos for a long time, generally taken with a variety of early cameras and processes. I would like to go back to it some day and now that I have the space in New Jersey I may convert a bathroom into a darkroom. Renting adequate space here in the greater Manhattan area just became too dear.

Timeless landscapes like these have a very calming effect on me – as did the hiking and outdoor time that it took to take them. I like my landscapes with no sign of modern life or human intervention – completely timeless. There is an odd calming response when I look at them.

It doesn’t take me to say that the photographer had a great eye. The one with the few puffy clouds and no fence is the one I spotted first. It is the more bleak of the two – there’s something about the other one which is more optimistic, hopeful. It is a better tended bit of land and the hand of humans is more evident. In that one there’s something about where the fence and path converge, with the trees visually just touching. I like the way the fence posts fade out into the distance too. It takes you with it.

However, the wilder one if you will, of the two is where the imagination roams a bit. A bit bleak yes, but also promising possibility and the potential for wonder around that bend. Together they make such a visually pleasing combination – I probably can’t really recreate it here but have tried my best.

I am somewhat curious that these are photo postcards. They are beautiful photos, but somehow don’t seem to fit that bill. (It seems unfortunate to think of them marred in the mail and not surprisingly, they were not ever mailed. They are fairly pristine if a tad darkened with age.

Although there is not much room on the walls here in at Deitch Studio I would like to frame them, together and put them at eye level somewhere so I can gaze at them once in awhile and take myself to wherever and whatever time that was.

A Cat Hole

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: As I write today, I continue to try to get past this nasty cold (which Kim is now in the early stages of) which has dogged my holiday this year. In addition, we plan to pack up kit (cat) and caboodle on Saturday and head back to New York. In some odd way therefore, a cat house photo postcard seems like an appropriate post for you all to be reading as we are making our way back on Saturday.

This is an oddball card I ran across right before the holidays and which was delivered to New York before we left for Christmas. I purchased it on eBay which is was posted for sale for just a few sheckles so I was pleased to be the first to claim it. Not to say that I think it has very broad appeal – it could be said to be a card that only I (and a few other cat lovers) might find of interest.

Frankly, it is a bit dirty and tatty – the lower left corner has been torn – and was poorly printed as well, a wide white strip along the left side. For all of that, it is a great composition with the cat house dead center and those vertical trees bringing you eye right to it. There is the big house, back porch in evidence, behind it and a small additional shed that is similar to the house, on the right side. A long pipe chimney comes up from that roof which makes me wonder if it was perhaps a smokehouse. A tree runs up the right side of the card, closing the composition on that side.

This man and woman (proprietor and proprietress?) stand proudly on either side, their hands atop the cat house and his other hand pointing to it. Both look rather pleased with themselves and a dog is in evidence, although the proverbial (housed) cat is not. Some farm equipment is in evidence (pails, some sort of cart and a machine I cannot identify) are scattered about the yard. From the leaflessness of the trees and the coat sported by the woman I assume it is late fall or winter.

It was mailed on December 12, 1912 from Neosho, MO to Elizabeth Hitchcock, East Chatham, Colubmbia Co, New York, Route 1. It says, Helloo Sukey, Say this is a picture of Martha’s dog houses and cat house. I’ve been sick aint well yet, had pnemonia. I about coughed my head off. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all. from Grandpa.

Where are these dog houses? Do they produce them for sale?

Right up to Grandpa signature I thought it was a woman writing – don’t know why. Well, with the cat house, the coughing cold, Christmas and New Year’s greeting – I think this is spot on for a post-holiday post today. Back to toys tomorrow!

In with the New

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s card was purchased in advance for this pending holiday purpose. When I bought it I had no idea we would celebrate the holiday with snow on the ground as we haven’t had this much in several years. Still, not enough to make our own snowman – or maybe just a mighty tiny one.

This card was mailed in France in 1913. We’ll assume that the snowman this kid perches on the shoulders of is made of sterner stuff than snow. He looks pretty pleased with himself as he, snowball in hand, lords his position over his presumed siblings. Potted fir trees are on either side and there is a painted or photographed scene behind them, snow and ice – perhaps for skating. Everyone is in their holiday best attire.

Although the fall always brings a certain back-to-school mentality to my perspective, there is no question that putting the end point on one year and starting another is a moment of reflection. To top it off, my birthday is in February so I will remain somewhat on this introspective jag for a bit.

Last year this time I was closing the chapter on my time at Jazz at Lincoln Center after almost seven years and heading into the unknown of a new job. As someone who has only changed jobs a scant three or so times in my life, this caused understandable fretting. (Last year’s post can be found here.) It saw the dawn of my dental woes which have remained with me into the coming year. However, I am more resigned to that mess.

*Long cold hallway of our current offices.*

So it is with somewhat less trepidation than last year that I commence the New Year. The job is more familiar now as I round the bend of one year in January. However, that is not to say that I in any way have it under my belt. More like I have taken stock over the past year and now I have to map a plan for growth and change – in a sense the work has just begun!

Meanwhile, my office is moving on January 6 and therefore an additional sense of turning over a new leaf. Our current offices, which have the sense of being temporary but where they have been housed for about five years, will not be missed with its leaks, mice and noise. The new offices are nicer – not perfect, a bit squeezed, but cleaner and nicer.