The Origin of the Name Penelope

You know from my intro that Penelope was the finest cat that ever lived. I got her as a kitten for free at the skanky pet store in the Oaks Mall in Gainesville in the late 80s. She lived in all my various apartments. She used to walk with me up to Kash and Karry.  She would stay in the bushes while I shopped. I would come out and make that kiss noise that cats like. She would come out of the bushes and we would walk back home. When I lived on the beach she would bring me dead fish as gifties. Delightful! I had a teacher in the 10th grade named Mr. Parton (new rule--teachers that have no business teaching get to keep their own names. And I was in 10th grade more than 20 years ago). We were reading Homer's Odyssey. Instead of pronouncing Penelope the right way he would say "Pen A Lope"-- lope rhymes with rope. It was bad. He was bad.I had forgotten the whole mythology around Penelope. Today I got a gmail account for Penelope and she needed a last name. The blogger me is now Penelope Perspicacious Web. 

Perspicacious:

adjective

-having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning: to exhibit perspicacious judgment.

-Archaic. having keen vision. Thanks to Polly for the middle name. Last name "Web" from Penelope's web in mythology:

Penelope is another of those mythic heroines whose beauties were rather those of character and conduct than of person. She was the daughter of Icarius, a Spartan prince. Ulysses, king of Ithaca, sought her in marriage, and won her over all competitors. When the moment came for the bride to leave her father's house,

Icarius, unable to bear the thoughts of parting with his daughter, tried to persuade her to remain with him, and not accompany her husband to Ithaca. Ulysses gave Penelope her choice, to stay or go with him. Penelope made no reply, but dropped her veil over her face. Icarius urged her no further, but when she was gone erected a statue to Modesty on the spot where they parted.

Ulysses and Penelope had not enjoyed their union more than a year when it was interrupted by the events which called Ulysses to the Trojan war. During his long absence, and when it was doubtful whether he still lived, and highly improbable that he would ever return, Penelope was importuned by numerous suitors, from whom there seemed no refuge but in choosing one of them for her husband. Penelope, however, employed every art to gain time, still hopping for Ulysses' return. One of her arts of delay was engaging in the preparation of a robe for the funeral canopy of Laertes, her husband's father. She pledged herself to make her

choice among the suitors when the robe was finished. During the day she worked at the robe, but in the night she undid the work of the day. This is the famous Penelope's web, which is used as a proverbial expression for anything which is perpetually doing but never done. So, Penelope Web is a play on words--at night I'm undoing the work of the day, on the Web!