For one thing, it provides a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of a journalist whose job it is to travel halfway around the world and then explain to readers back home what is happening there. She submitted to the caresses of Andrei D. Sakharov, whose activism on behalf of human rights won him the Nobel Peace Prize. She purred sympathetically for numerous other dissidents who were caught on camera visiting our apartment. As for my cat s reported role in hastening the Soviet Union s demise, let me sound statesmanlike, I have looked thoroughly into these rumors and am in a position to neither confirm nor deny them. One story that Wren tells concerns the time that Henrietta, living in Beijing, developed a taste for huangyu or yellow fish, a delicacy so highly prized by local gourmets that it could be sold only for use at official banquets.
Yellow fish are available for official banquets only.
The yellow fish is required for an official banquet. The yellow fish is required for the official banquet hosted by the American newspaper The New York Times. Henrietta s finicky eating habits may well have earned us the unwarranted reputation as hedonists more obsessed with throwing dinner banquets for diplomats and other foreign devils than with reporting the great achievements of the People s Republic of China. The Cat Who Covered the World may not rank as a great achievement either. But it is a sunny, funny way to spend a few hours with some very nice people and their cat.