Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Today, DJ Li'l Scratch is completely chillaxed from a vaca across the pond and so needs a bright and lively singer to shake him alive - but with joy, mind you, only joy. It's a singer we're all familiar with, but have perhaps taken for granted. She has, after all, been in most of our lives since the very beginning, yet look - and listen - closely, because she's an astonishment that keeps on giving. Tonight at the Manor's exclusive "Pitch-a-Tent" bar and grill, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing scads of her bestest tunes ever.  Are you surprised it's Pearlie? You shouldn't be. In 1957 alone, Pearl Bailey's self-titled LP was one of seven released under her name. That's seven as in s-e-v-e-n. Can you imagine any pop-tarlet even approaching that kind of output today?  Her career lasted decades, so let's just bounce-bounce-bounce around a few career and person...

Why this isn't celebrated on a Caturday, I'll never know, but today is International Cat Day, a day to bow down before our vicious furry gremlins, pray that they don't eat us should we die in our sleep, and give them extra treats. If your response to this is, "But I already do that every single day," then you're doing it right, but do better. You can always do better.  There are many fun facts about cats. And many cat celebrities. Post-Egyptian, the first modern cat megastar arrived in 1919 with the animated short, "Feline Follies," which introduced mere mortals to Felix The Cat just after WWI.  Then there's Carol Channing.  "Wait, what?" you say, "Was Carol a cat?" Could have been! But actually, she famously played a cat in "Archy and Mehitabel," a musical adaptation of the famed 1916 daily newspaper column by Don Marquis, which was published in The New York Sun.  The columns were later collected and published in se...