This week’s Thursday Threads is delayed, but for good reason. If you will indulge me with a personal note, this week saw the passing of our 20-year-old cat, Hickory, and the addition of a 6-month-old kitten, Mittens, to our family. Needless to say, when I would normally be putting together a post on Wednesday evening, I was otherwise distracted. The delay certainly wasn’t because there were not interesting bits to post in the past seven days.