The eccentricities of the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali were not limited to the canvas. Dali once took his pet ocelot, Babou, with him to a New York restaurant and tethered it to a leg of the table while he ordered coffee. A middle-aged lady walked past and looked at the animal in horror.
“What’s that?” she cried.
“It’s only a cat,” said Dali scathingly.
“I’ve painted it over with an op-art design.” The woman, embarrassed by her initial reaction, took a closer look and sighed with relief.
“I can see now that’s what it is,” she said. “At first I thought it was a real ocelot.”
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