What is "updog"?

If these guys know, they're not saying. (Photo credit Spousal Unit.)

A meme is born

For someone who has been blogging for several years, I'm pretty behind on social media. One thing I have recently resolved to do is to learn to make memes for Facebook and such. I mean hard hitting social justice memes. But today, just to see if I could make one at all, I resorted to a gratuitous animal picture of Edith and her toys. Hard hitting social meme content to come. Just probably not today.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM. Here's more on possible conflicts of interest involving drug companies and WV's attorney general.

ANNALS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE. A while back the city of Charleston WV passed an ordnance allowing city residents to own chickens and such. Here's one nice success story. Meanwhile, the hens at Goat Rope Farm have either permanently retired from egg production or have gone on strike.

Games boxers play

I don't think they were bred for this purpose, but somewhere along the way boxers, at least those of my acquaintance, seem to have become the clowns of the canine world. For them, life should be a merry round of mirth, play, food and sleep, a combination that works for me.

In addition to entertaining others, some, like Little Edith Ann, seem pretty good at entertaining themselves. Edith seems to have come up with several discrete games, which include:

*The cynodrome (which is what I think the Greek word is or should be for dog race). This is a pretty simple game and consists of running madly in circles or figure eights with no purpose other than joy;

*Bowling for chickens. While she is much too well behaved to kill or even hurt chickens, Edith cannot resist acting like a bowling ball and scattering them like bowling pens by charging into crowds of the fowl;

*Losing and finding. This game is usually done with a ball or similar toy and involves "losing" it by putting it under something like a piece of furniture and then "finding" it by digging it out or by bugging a human to retrieve it. It actually seems like she is enacting a story about losing and finding something, which come to think of it is a pretty good summary of thousands of movies and stories; and

*The gravity game. This one shows at least a bit of thought and something of the curiosity of a budding canine scientist. At some point, Edith became aware of gravity, at least to the extent of noticing that toys roll down hills if you put them in the right place. Sometimes she reminds me of a quadrupedal Galileo as she experiments with rolling and falling balls like her illustrious forbear in Italy.

The world would be a better place if more people and groups of people were better at entertaining themselves.

This is what happens when boxer dogs watch The Godfather

Sometime this past summer, when the Spousal Unit was away, I watched the Godfather movies. Apparently Edith, our boxer, was paying attention. As said Spousal Unit put it in her Facebook page yesterday,

Dogs don't get that playing Godfather isn't for everyone. (ok so it's not a horse head but stepping out of the shower to this was pretty shocking).

However, it probably had less to do with mob vendettas than with the abundance of "gifts" that hunters leave in the woods this time of year, of which this deer leg is but one example.

OCCUPYING THE HOMELESS. Here's a look at the developing and sometimes bumpy relationship between the Occupy protests and homeless people around the country.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Here's a look at progressive victories in this week's elections and what they may mean going forward.

SHELLACKING ON THE RIGHT. Here's E.J. Dionne on the same.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Water wars

There have been many great naval battles in history that shaped the future of the world...

from the Greek defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480 BC...

to the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 when European forces defeated the Ottoman Empire...

to the Battle of Midway in 1942 that was a turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II.

This aquatic encounter between Little Edith Ann and a box turtle probably won't make the cut. The engagement was indecisive.

AN IMMODEST PROPOSAL. Here's an appeal from a labor lawyer and writer not to "save" Social Security but to actually raise it.

THERE IS A GREAT GULF BETWEEN US. Here's a look at the growing economic divide in the US.

AN INCONVENIENT UNTRUTH. Here's a look at the political denial of climate change and how it has impacted public opinion.

PLAYING CHICKEN. Economist Dean Baker calls for a tough line on a clean vote to raise the federal debt ceiling.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Day of the dogs

Prince Hamlet said it best: "Let Hercules himself do what he may, the cat will mew and dog will have its day."



The dogs around here have theirs on Labor Day, when a local wave pool holds a special dog swim each year on the day the season closes for humans. It was a big hit and there was lots of canine activity going on.



Some dogs took their swimming pretty seriously.



Others, like Little Edith Ann, were more about playing. But a good time seemed to be had by all.

Hillbilly health club, revisited

Our latest exercise equipment.

From time to time, this blog highlights offerings from the Goat Rope Hillbilly Health Club, which features such high tech exercise equipment as chain saws, sledge hammers, splitting mauls, dirty barns, pitchforks and wheel barrows.

On display now is little Edith Ann, one of our aerobic training devices. Longtime viewers of this blog will recognize her but may not realize that a dog might be better than a treadmill when it comes to exercise. A study in Great Britain found that dog-owners who regularly walk their beasts get more exercise in than the average gym-goer.

(Besides, I have a theory that it is an offense against whatever gods may be to use a treadmill on a pretty day.)

In little Edith Ann's case, it's two miles early in the morning and two more at night. At a year old, Edith is pretty high energy but we also have Arpad, a slower model for beginners:



It is not recommended for the same person to walk both at the same time as this can overstretch the arms.

"THE IDIOCY ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT" is shown no mercy here.

TAKE OUR JOBS, PLEASE! The United Farm Workers union, responding to immigrant bashing, is urging Americans to take some of these low wage, back-breaking jobs. Not too many takers have taken advantage of the opportunity.

ONE NATION. A new umbrella group hopes to counter the Tea Party.

SPEAKING OF WALKING, did bi-pedalism give early humans the edge they needed?

GOOD PARENTS/NOT SO GOOD KIDS. The author of this article suggests some unpleasant personality traits may be more a matter of genes than parenting.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED