Other People's Posts Roundup

Remember in the old days when a blog was a weblog, a list of links to other things on the web? I swear that's how it used to work.

Do you need a dose of BABY LEMURS? Because I know I do.


This blog about a little walking tooth is the cutest thing I've ever seen that doesn't have animals in it.

A really good piece of advice, thanks again to Zoomar. And click around there for lots of wonderful weirdness.

This would be a title worth working for

We'd have a long way to go though. They've been disqualified on requirement 2 every day for as long as I can remember.

AKC APPROVES NEW OBEDIENCE TITLE

Requirements are as follows for the three levels of performance: B.D., B.D.X., and B.D.O.

All levels shall require:
1. Dog does not come on the bed unless invited
2. Dog does not get handler out of bed until alarm goes off
3. Dog takes up only his space
4. Once the lights go out, there is no activity from the dog such as bathing, scratching, chewing on toys, etc.
5. If told to get off the bed, the dog does so immediately.

The Bed Dog degree (B.D.) requires one handler and one dog in bed. It can be earned in a twin sized bed. Higher degrees require larger beds.

The Bed Dog Excellent degree (B.D.X.) puts one dog in bed with two handlers. At this level it is also required that the dog sleep at the foot of the bed, not between the handlers.

The Bed Dog Outstanding degree (B.D.O.) consists of two handlers and more than one dog. At this level it is required that the dogs do not bicker among themselves over space. (If you add a cat to the group, your dog can earn a Bed Dog Unbelievable. Cats can also earn any of these degrees, substituting C. for D. in the degree title.)

Non qualifying performance:
1. Dog anticipates the command to get on the bed
2. Any activity from the dog that requires the handler to get out of bed during the specified time period (when the lights go out until alarm goes off)
3. Knocking the handler out of bed
4. Soiling the bed
5. Not getting along with the other animals in the bed (B.D.O. level)

Major deductions:
1. Waking the handler, without getting him out of bed
2. Minor infractions of scratching, bathing, or chewing during night
3. Causing the handler's feet to go to sleep.



From a 1994 newsletter of a Maryland group called Pets on Wheels, which reprinted this piece by Joanne Barnes "from a Delaware Valley Wolfhound newsletter."

on creativity and complaining

From Hugh MacLeod, gapingvoid.com:

Human beings have this thing I call the "Pissed Off Gene". It's that bit of our psyche that makes us utterly dissatisfied with our lot, no matter how kindly fortune smiles upon us.

It's there for a reason. Back in our early caveman days being pissed off made us more likely to get off our butt, get out of the cave and into the tundra hunting wooly mammoth, so we'd have something to eat for supper. It's a survival mechanism. Damn useful then, damn useful now.

It's this same Pissed Off Gene that makes us want to create anything in the first place- drawings, violin sonatas, meat packing companies, websites. This same gene drove us to discover how to make a fire, the wheel, the bow and arrow, indoor plumbing, the personal computer, the list is endless.

Part of understanding the creative urge is understanding that it's primal. Wanting to change the world is not a noble calling, it's a primal calling.

We think we're "providing a superior integrated logistic system" or "helping America to really taste freshness". In fact we're just pissed off and want to get the hell out of the cave and kill the woolly mammoth.

I'm always saying this to the Technical Staff: if it weren't for people who complained about the way things were, we'd still be living in caves... without cooked food, books, indoor plumbing, the internet, you name it. Satisfied people don't do the hard work of trying to make things and make things better.

Food for thought

Last night I attended a heritage breed pig cooking competition. The photo above is from a butchering demonstration at the event. The pigs were special crossbreeds of traditional breeds, from EcoFriendly, the company run by Bev Eggleston, whose name may be familar if you've read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, but who really deserves a book to himself.

Eggleston told me about how he stops to give thanks to each animal before he slaughters it and how he will immediately fire an employee who approaches his job with the least bit of unkindness or aggression. If you've been fighting with your spouse all night and can't get your mind in the right place, he tells his workers, let him know, and he'll have you pack boxes for the day instead. He wants no one to cause the death of an animal on his watch without the proper state of mind.

"I want my customers to be aware that blood is shed, that the ultimate gift is given," he told me, but he's not about guilt-tripping, but appreciating that gift. He treats his animals well up to and including the last moment of their lives, and, he says "Happy pigs taste great."

He says that people call him progressive, but he feels like he was born too late, in the wrong century - all he's trying to do is get back to the attitude that people had when they lived close to their animals and respected what they provided.

And wow, it's a good thing they got more exercise in those days too, because look at the amazing delicious fat on these "old time old school fatty pigs":

Great literature and snacks

I am re-reading all the books that I have by Daniel Pinkwater and rediscovering why he is my favorite children's author: there is only a very little plot, and a whole lot of eating out.

Even better, the eating out happens mostly in odd, old-fashioned, pleasures-of-urban-decay establishments. The only way that these books could be better would be if the characters were always drinking egg creams instead of root beer. But I guess it's easier to suspend disbelief about multidimensional time travel and sentient earthworms than it would be to believe that you can get an egg cream outside of New York City.

the pug mind

Rose is looking with great concern at a hopping, yodeling, remote-controlled lederhosen we just got from Archie McPhee. It makes quite a racket and is obviously unnatural and disturbing to pugs. But here's the funny thing: as soon as we had finished playing with it and taking pictures of them being disturbed by it, they expected us to give them cookies. Somehow it was clear to them that this was the kind of annoying experience that, if they put up with it, the humans would pay them for it.

Everything old is new again

Today I went into Starbucks, and guess what I discovered is the latest beverage that they are pushing: Iced coffee. With milk.

I guess it's possible that there's a whole generation that doesn't realize that there is any other (and cheaper) cold coffee and dairy drink aside from a Frappuccino.

I am not only old enough to remember before Frappuccinos. I'm old enough that I remember one time in grad school, visiting the University of Connecticut, I asked my colleague where I could get an iced coffee and she looked at me like I was mad, like I was asking a small town to provide some fanciful big-city delight like, I don't know, a taxicab hailed on the street or a 24 hour store. Or like I had requested a unicorn sandwich.

So even if we can only afford simple iced coffees at the Starbucks on every streetcorner these days, it's still days of miracle and wonder to old farts like me.