What's an Ego Cat?

                Since I plan to use the phrase “ego cat” in conjunction with the thoughts of overfeeding and starvation, I figured that the least I could do is explain exactly what an ego cat is and where the term originated.

                It started with a Scholastic Bowl end-of-season get-together. M.G., H.B., D.K., and I met with our adviser for lunch at a local Olive Garden. We were just chatting when someone had the idea to make toasts. So we each made a personal toast to the people within our small little club. I was last to make my "speech" though I still hadn't made any plans as to what I was going to say. And so, I said the one thing that I could think of.

                Let me be the first to explain that I was not the first to tease M.G. for his black hole of an ego. It had been a joke that the club as a whole played on more than once on bus rides to matches, and fate was about to bring his ego to a new level of fame through 'ego cats'.

                So, back to the toast. A paraphrasing of the conversation that ensued is found below:

-M.G., you know those people who have cats? And they feed their cats waaay more than they should, so they just end up having these massive, fat cats walking around their houses?

-Yeah…

-Well, you’re a massively fat cat owner, except instead of a cat, you have an ego. And you just keep feeding it over and over again until it becomes humongous, so you have a fat ego… Cat…

            And thus, ‘ego cat’ was born. Today it is used as a regular vocabulary word in the daily linguistic habits of the Scholastic Bowl team and their friends. Be cool like the Alden Scholastic Bowl team. Embrace the Ego Cat… And then feed it, because it looks a little half-starved.