Look at this rotten little bastid whose oil portrait I saw in a museum today: 
He’s angry about having to wear that stupid dress and pantalettes, which is totally understandable. But he didn’t have to take it out on the poor dog!
Maybe he’s an ancestor of Pete Campbell from “Mad Men.” There’s definitely a resemblance. Look at that forehead — you can tell the hairline will recede like a lunar low tide before he’s 35 (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
I’m up late reading “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood. What are you doing?
Villago Delenda Est
I think that might be a she. Very hard to tell.
Perhaps it’s Pat?
Fred
He’s probably unhappy because he’s stuck in such a crappy painting.
I think he is stroking the dog’s ear. Remember the flack LBJ got for supposedly picking his beagle up by his ears?
Betty Cracker
@Villago Delenda Est: Nah, it’s a boy — the plaque next to the painting said so. There was a painting of a girl nearby that was his sister, IIRC. Some rich SOB’s brats, no doubt.
Ruckus
That lunar tide thing with the forehead, that’s funny. Not quite as much if you’re the one that had the tide roll out but hey that damn cookie crumbles.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Went a couple weekends ago to the Norton Simon museum and they have a whole wing devoted to rich people’s portraits. They don’t call it that of course but it fits.
scav
Looks like a he, but I’d hesitate to attribute the hand-ear action to intent by stiff child grumpy at standing for long time attached to similarly frustrated dog or to simple inability of conveying grasp by painter of demonstrated quality.
Linnaeus
Cheering for the Bolts in the Stanley Cup finals. Which I never thought I’d do.
opiejeanne
I have a photo of my grandfather wearing a dress, which was common in the late 1800s and into the 20th century.. The ones for girls were usually more elaborate and ruffly than the ones for boys, and usually the boys were put into short pants once they were housebroken.
On the agenda for this evening is a lot of coughing and sneezing and whining that my face hurts a lot because of my sinuses going on a rampage. Stupid allergies or cold. .
Amir Khalid
I remember reading that a century ago in your country, little kids’ clothes were unisex i.e. girly. I’m glad I wasn’t a toddler in that time and place.
@Fred:
Stroking the dog’s ear, in his clenched fist?
In case Little Boots shows up pining for Omnes Omnbus, some classic Malay pop.
Origuy
@Villago Delenda Est: The clue is the part on the side. Girls in that period usually had their hair parted down the center.
Edit: Google image search found it. Frederick Eugene Bennet by Joseph Goodhue Chandler. Not all of his portraits look like early Keane.
Tree With Water
@Fred: You beat me to the punch. I was going to post that the kid went far in life:
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/Johnson/archives.hom/FAQs/dog/JPEG/C311-7-64.jpg
PIGL
Watchin’ me some Justified, Season 5.
ixnay
The LBJ/beagle thing always amused me: it’s all in the technique and the personality of the animal. I have 4 large cats, one of whom has some sort of neuromuscular thing going on. I regularly pick up the next-largest cat by his tail, to his complete nonchalance. I would never try that with the neuromuscular guy. The other two are also large, but don’t seem to lend themselves to tail-picking-up. To be completely clear, the technique is to stroke down the length of the cat, and then raise it up (briefly) by the base of the tail.
I imaging the beagle-ear technique is similar.
– yr local online veterinarian
opiejeanne
@Amir Khalid: my grandfather insisted that his sons, born in 1916 and 1918, wear boys’ clothing. I think he hated the portraits of himself in a dress.
https://flic.kr/p/e6vnE
? Martin
Poor thing – such a large head. Probably topped over a lot. Clearly wasn’t named ‘weeble’.
Aleta
@Origuy: Now here’s a boy (same artist, top of the page) who knows his dogs.
VFX Lurker
I just got back from a subtitled screening of Studio Ghibli’s latest film, WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE. I should have brought tissues, because the end pulled genuine tears.
If it’s playing in a theater near you, go see it.
Anne Laurie
@? Martin: As I recall, portrait painters in that era frequently had pre-painted “stock” figures-on-ground canvases onto which a paying customer’s head could be added — especially for little kids, who couldn’t be expected to sit still long enough for more than a quickly-sketched in headshot. That would explain the bad-photoshop bobblehead perspective (which is rather more vivid in some of the other portraits at Aleta’s link. Not to mention the infant in the mother & child picture.) Since his Daniel Webster portrait & a couple of the other adult males are so exact as to seem to have been done by a different artist, I suspect the quality of his work was highly reliant on the size of his commission!
Major Major Major Major
Any word from Holoscene?
OzarkHillbilly
The Woofmeister loves to have his ears worked over due to a low grade yeast farm growing inside them.
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major: The Holocene called and said some of us are almost old enough to start dating.
Keith G
@Anne Laurie: Yeah, I doubt that that scene (toddler in “dress” with dog’s ear in her/his hand) would have lasted more than two seconds in real life.
NotMax
@Fred
Nothing “supposedly” about it. It’s well documented.
Punchy
I’m about to race a tri that includes a ~mile swim in a 55F temp lake. This is going to suck, even with a wetsuit. All exposed bodyparts will be numb.
I pity the foo’ who forgets their wetsuit….
Another Holocene Human
@opiejeanne:
Me too. Had to reach for the aspirin that I’m not supposed to be taking because I have to work today. I know it’s allergies because there was no fever/inception period.
Another Holocene Human
@Major Major Major Major: Proof of life?
Spouse’s grandmother still in hospital. Doctors (3 to 3) deadlocked on what blood thinner she can take for her pulmonary embolism (caused by the lung cancer) which won’t cause excessive risk of brain bleeding (due to the brain cancer). She’s on heparin but that’s a drip that she can’t go home with.
Was really sad, somehow that turned into getting really ragey. Trying to put a lid on it. Back at work but struggling. Fighting with migraines this whole time so go me. Grandma’s house was REALLY dusty and had old books and papers to further menace me. Then the South Florida sun made me break out in hives. Wife is fretting and dealing with her elders hiding stuff from her again. What a dichotomy, we’re more grown than grown but go there and get treated like kinderlach.
Valdivia
I’m seeing on Twitter reports that John Kerry had some sort of bike accident and had to be airlifted from France where he was to a hospital. Some kind of leg injury. I hope he’s ok. Yikes.
ThresherK
@Valdivia: I remember reading about Kerry’s cycling bonafides in an outdoorsy magazine, perhaps Bicycling. He’s not just tootling around like I do.
Valdivia
@ThresherK:
I have seen no follow up and CNN only says he was conscious the whole time. He is in Geneva for the Iran negotiations and apparently biked constantly in the previous round when they reached the preliminary deal. Hope it’s nothing major.
evodevo
@Anne Laurie: Yes, that makes sense – the head looks like it belongs on a 7-year-old, not a toddler! It’s a really odd portrait. Toddler heads are much larger in proportion to their bodies than this one.
debbie
Maybe he’s pissed off at being forced to hold that flower. Vicious.
JCT
One report says a broken femur – nasty injury in an older guy.
Gin & Tonic
@JCT: Broken femur in the same leg where he had a hip replacement a few years back. Being flown to Mass General to be treated by the guy who did the hip.
Botsplainer
@Punchy:
7 mm wetsuit, man. It’ll help, and give you some float, too.
Elizabelle
@Punchy: Good luck, Punchy.
Elizabelle
Weirdly, that painting looks a lot like Beau Biden.
Without the dress.
Tokyokie
Years ago, a Japanese friend and I took in an exhibit of French impressionists put on by some bank, where we saw this painting (or one similar to it): http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/citi/images/standard/WebLarge/WebImg_000267/183537_3187812.jpg
I told my friend that it was a portrait of arguably France’s greatest filmmaker, Jean Renoir, as a child by his father, Pierre-Auguste. My friend refused to believe me and insisted the painting’s figure was a girl.
Germy Shoemangler
Speaking of cruelty to animal poses, here’s a kid who posed next to a dead giraffe for his high school yearbook:
http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2015/may/29/guilderland-yearbook-picture-stirs-controversy/
This little shit will most likely live to a ripe old age, while the smart and funny young man who posed with his loving cat took his own life.
Iowa Old Lady
Hey, Betty. We were in the National Czech and Slovak museum in Cedar Rapids yesterday, and they had several of the molds for lamb shaped caked like you made for Easter. I’d never heard of it before I saw yours, but apparently, it was common.
Denali
Oryx and Crake is part of a trilogy- brilliant I think. Margaret Atwood should be a Nobel Prize winner, but Alice Munro used up the availability for Canadians.
ixnay
@OzarkHillbilly: re: the yeast farm thing: here’s the OTC recipe (available online, so I don’t have to fret about unlicensed veterinary advice): 1/2 cup warm water (because you would not like cold water poured in YOUR ear); 1/4 cup vinegar – white or cider, seems to make no difference). You could stop there, or you could add 1/2 teaspoon boric acid – a powder found in the foot-care section of your pharmacy), a couple or 4 drops of tea tree oil, and a drop or so of Dawn dishwashing liquid. Mix well, pour into the doggy’s ears, massage well (horrid squishy noises), let doggy flap the ears dry. (Best done in the shower or outdoors). Blot dry with a tissue – do not dig with Q-tips. Maybe follow up with people-type swimmers ear drops. Runny yellow gunk in the ears requires a visit to the vet, because that’s beyond what this formula will treat.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: I’d never heard of them either until I married into a Polish-American clan. Must be an Eastern European thing. Due to the success of my recent butter lamb, I am now the official family butter lamb maker for Easters to come. Oh well. It’s kinda fun!
@Denali: Atwood is a brilliant woman. Ever heard her interviewed? I hadn’t until fairly recently. She’s a hoot!
Elizabelle
@Tokyokie: Does look like a girl, but when you’re told it’s a small boy, you can see it.
Jim Kakalios
I think that IS an ancestor of Pete Campbell!
And regarding pulling the dog’s ear – the King ordered it!
Mnemosyne (tablet)
We’re getting ready to head over to Pasadena for today’s CicLAvia. If we get bored with the short ride (it’s only 3.5 miles long when it’s usually about 7), we may bike over to the Huntington, which has a very fine collection of rich bastid portraits, including the famous “Blue Boy” and “Pinky” set.
Though reading the plaques on portraits of children can be pretty depressing since it seems that at least half of them died before they were 18.
Aaron
Kid is probably mad at having to wear two left feet shoes. Thats gotta be uncomfortable.
J R in WV
Well, lots to talk about…
No matter how many times I see that kind of belligerent ignorance and hatred in the extended comment copied in about how the Democratic party kills children via President Obama’s life-saving ACA Obamacare, I can never get used to it. It turns me to unbelievable anger instantly, in its blind stupidity and totally under-the-influence submission to Fox.
I can’t imagine the stress of Kerry working with Iranian “Diplomats” all day every day, and doing extreme Biking to get over that and sleep, and then crashing. I’m sure he was wearing a helmet and had many security guys biking with him, which is what they’re for, of course. Probably someone with them with extensive experience with trauma care, too. What a sacrifice he’s making to his nation, which he had worked all his life to improve!
Hoping the boxer girl gets better, she couldn’t have gotten much closer to total failure, yet was still affectionate, amazing. I grew up with a big leggy boxer, names Ginger, who would go to school with me (across a busy highway) and then meet me at the school house door at the end of the day, when I was allowed to walk. Maybe she could hear the bells ringing. But many dogs have a good sense of timing.
We have two lab-mixes, 55 lbs and 66 lbs, very affectionate. And then on work days, the best-friends neighbors dogs show up at 8:30, and leave at 6 pm to meet their people coming home from work. When they stop at the lumber yard of grocery store and are late, Gidget will come back and fuss at use for the uncomfortable change in timing. Dogs. What would be do without them, Alice, our younger larger dog, still is a puppy in many ways. They each got a rawhide chew this morning, and she took hers out into the woods to bury, so it can get ripe, or something. So Happy the older pup is happily and in-her-face chewing her chew, as Alice’s is out in the woods across the creek under some leaves.
Our only iris is water tolerant yellow iris I have heard called snake iris, around a little frog pond by the road, brilliant yellow, and now Mrs J has some purple that she can put in among the yellow, starting at the other end of the long narrow swale.
The pictures in the garden post were great, what a variety of colors! My yellow ones are pretty, but all alike, floating above the water alive with tadpoles. The water-tolerant ones don’t seem to have the variety the regular dry-land ones do, and we haven’t had good luck with the regular ones so far, deer and moles and what-not.
And finally, I have a really big cat with a muscular tail, and sometimes when I need to pick her up, she senses it and starts to run away, and I can grab her club-like muscular tail to stop her in mid-flight. I never pick her up with it, but I bet I could IF I could get her to drop a couple more pounds of fat, because she is one of those cats we feed in a room with the door closed while everyone else gets to finish up without her pushing them out of their bowl. She was a sphere as a little kitty, and so is named Punkin, for her shape back then. She is back to a healthy weight now, but still looks round from the extra skin. She lies beside me and purrs at night, which is nice.
Aleta
@ixnay: Probably too late to ask, but:
does one have to worry about the sterility of fluids put into a dog’s ear ? Also, are some vinegars more acidic than others, to the degree they might sting inside the ear ? ( I got some organic white vinegar to try, but haven’t yet.) Once a bottle is open, will it remain sterile or otherwise safe to use ? Total ignorance asking here. Have also been wondering whether a short exposure to uv light via those small sanitizer wands, or to mild infrared light (not just a red cover over a regular bulb) might kill bacteria and fungus w/o harming the skin inside the ear ??
Aleta
@Another Holocene Human: I want to apologize for making up a joke about the Holocene; it wasn’t intended to be about you but still was stupid of me (Working nights and days, I seem to be losing sense of appropriateness, esp around 4am.)
About 6 years ago I cleared out my mom’s super dusty old farm house after she’d gone into care for dementia, small strokes, etc. The blood thinner they then switched her to became an issue. I wish now I had looked for 2nd opinions, but the whole situation was so overwhelming that I couldn’t be on top of it all. So hard.
I now think I also have worn dust masks, or better yet a good allergen protection mask, while working on the worst parts of her house. Nothing super toxic like black mold or asbestos, but the accumlation of molds and dusts– old books, piles of old paper,– had a bigger effect on me than I ever considered. Migraines, hives, also. Combined with the stress, I ended up with some allergies and fatigue I stlll have. In hindsight, extra stress relief would have been smart for me, but there was time pressure, too. Really hard.
Sympathy to you and your wife. I think your presence must make a huge difference to the good for her grandmother.
(Again, I hope my stupid joke about the Holocene/carbon-14 did not offend or bother you. I should have known better, and I apologize.)