ABC, the kids and I made it back to WV in one piece. We took a different route yesterday, and went through NYC and crossed the GW bridge and then cut across PA using the PA turnpike, and I gotta tell you, the tolls are worth it. The drive was super easy, although I was driving into the setting sun for four hours which got a bit irritating. The traffic was light and there were no cops, and we figured that is because everyone is either where they want to be for the 4th already and those still traveling were headed to the beach, not inland. I also figured there were so few cops on the road because since it is July 4th tomorrow, they were running skeleton crews on the 2nd because they would be working so much overtime the next 48 hours. At any rate, it was pleasant and very pretty.
A friend sent this too me:
I’ll let Betty vouch for the boxers, but I can attest to the Jack Russel line. Thurston would be a combination of the boxer and the lab for maximum chaos and mess, while Lily, THE ANGEL AND TOP FILLY IN MY HERD, would be the blue line.
What is on everyone’s vagenda of manocide today?
Viva BrisVegas
The sun is far away and the nights are cold.
Happy Aphelion Day.
(I found out not so long ago that it’s pronounced with an AF not an AP).
Tim C.
I can verify the Labrador line, along with finding some half-decomposed mammal to roll over. Repeatedly. Then decided right then and there at maximum stink it was time to snuggle.
PaulWartenberg
I am currently fostering a feral kitten, 12 weeks old and with a gimpy hind leg, and I have him in a guest bedroom at my place.
Unfortunately one of my two cats does not like this new guest, and has avoided going into the adjoining porch area where I have her kitty litter box. As a result, last night Ocean apparently took a sizable dump in the front door hallway.
I’ve placed a kitty litter out there this morning, but I dread the possibility that Ocean is going to express her anger in other ways.
Bruce K
Since I’m an expat and don’t get the 4th off, just basic stuff for me. Work, get home, laundry, call Schumer’s office and see if I can get a live person I can beg to raise hell, call Gillebrand’s office and see if I can get a live person I can beg to raise hell, then maybe load up some Wolfenstein to burn off the anger that builds up from trying to stay on top of the news.
(Speaking of which: would it be a bad idea, airport-security-wise, to load Wolfenstein onto my laptop and then put a sticker on it saying “This Machine Kills Fascists”?)
Elizabelle
Have a wonderful visit with ABC and the kidz.
Is the easy chair stowed in your vehicle too?
Baud
John Cole has turned into rikyrah.
This may be more disturbing than Trump as president.
philpm
I’ll attest to the Basset Hound. Walks are always an adventure with mine. If he isn’t stopping to sniff something, he’s stopping to talk to every person we see on the walk. Mine has developed a fan club in our neighborhood.
geg6
As for my pups, Koda would be more on the “most dogs” line than on the Lab line. A few stops for very important sniffing, but generally in a line with whoever is holding the leash. Lovey? Well…I’m thinking more the Lab plus Jack Rusell lines. The Lab line most of the time with some quick dashes when least expected along the Jack Russell line.
Have to man the skeleton crew at work today. Going to be a boring damn day. I had one project I needed to finish today and I wrapped that up first thing this morning. Currently considering where to get lunch.
Bruce K
@Viva BrisVegas: Weird; given that the source is probably «από ηλίου», “apo iliou”, i.e. “away from the sun”, sounds like the pronunciation got corrupted somewhere along the line.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tim C.: Heh, most yes but not my Lab. He avoids the water like the plague and as far as my nose knows has never rolled in dead critter (going on 7 years now). Funny thing is we’ve only given him one bath (fleas) in all those years and he has never smelled “doggy”. I suspect his aversion to water is why he got abandoned to begin with.
Sayne
What other route would you take? I-80 across PA and then down 79?
80 is a horrible, horrible road. At least the turnpike is well-maintained for the most part.
Amir Khalid
@Bruce K:
Probably not a good idea to make people jumpy if they’re authorised to strip-search you.
TOP123
@Viva BrisVegas: Can’t believe I hadn’t heard my birthday called that before, but I’ll take it! Happy Aphelion Day to you, too!
Aleta
?
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Bruce K: Not much of a corruption: The transcription “ἀπό ἥλιος” is pronounced closer to apó hḗlios, the diacritics above the eta indicating a definite h-sound.
And I want a spotted hyena.
Roger Moore
@Tim C.:
And some dog people continue to wonder why cat people are unmoved by the appeal of canines.
Josie
Duncan, the oversized corgi, would follow the blue line until a squirrel is spotted, at which point his line would turn into the Jack Russell.
rikyrah
Glad you all made it to WV safe and sound, Cole.??
rikyrah
@Baud:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA ?? ?
ThresherK
The GW bridge?
I have no idea where in my fair state ABC is, but (any construction aside) the Tappan Zee has always been our choice if we’re that far south, or going south in NJ. If going west in PA, I-84 from Hartford gets to an easy enough crossing of the Hudson.
Of course, keep in mind I’ve never driven in Manhattan and can’t see any reason to start now. I’m one of those folks who takes the train in, while pretending I’m not as much a tourist as I am.
Bruce K
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I guess the silent “H” might be a casualty of the migration from ancient Greek to modern – in modern Greek, the “H”, “eta”, is pronounced like a short “i”.
gene108
In the picture in the OP there are six categories of critters and only 5 lines. Do we assume the Jack Russell and Lab take the same path?
Also, how the hell did you get through the Cross Bronx to the GWB without getting stuck in traffic? The only time I’ve ever managed that was, when I left my cousin’s in Boston at 5 am on Memorial day and hit the Cross Bronx at around 8;30 to 9;00 am on a national holiday.
Olivia
Glad your trip went well, did you tote the bookcase along with you or are you having it shipped? In my mind, I can see it strapped to the roof of a CRV.
DCrefugee
The rescue Doberman I used to live with would drag me at high speed for the first third of the walk, then more or less match my pace for the second third. The last third would be spent dragging his narrow ass the rest of the way home. The total velocity vector would start off like the Lab, but morph into the Basset as time went on…
Albert Z.
Typical experience with my Jack Russell: sharp line to the right: SQUIRREL!!!! Returns unexpectedly from the left. How did you? Wha? She’s not disobedient per se, she just doesn’t obey the laws of time and space.
Viva BrisVegas
@Bruce K: I suspect it’s more probably down to a form of rebracketing.
chris
The tide’s right so I’m off to one of my favourite beaches. I’ll walk a couple of miles and Bert will run and swim at least five.
Good to see you so happy, John Cole.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I agree, it is disconcerting. Curmudgeonly JC has been replaced by a person who squees at yard sale finds.
Laura
Happy Cole is a merry old soul.
Wishing BJ’rs near and far (Amir) and those on vacation or in transit a very good couple of days.
JCJ
So is ABC ever going to supplant Lily as the top filly in your herd?
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Bruce K: In ancient Greek, the H sound is not the same as eta (H), which is a long vowel version of e. (More than you possibly wanted to know about the history of eta and its pronunciation over time)
In Classical Greek, the h-sound is indicated by a diacritical mark called a rough breathing, which has an interesting history tangential to the pronunciation of eta in some dialects. It appears to have started out as a signifier for the h-sound and passed into Latin as such, but it was hijacked along the way and became the symbol for a vowel instead.
Interestingly (maybe?) the names of the Greek vowels reflect their pronunciation: omicron is “little o”–it’s a short vowels; omega is “big o”–it’s a long vowel. Epsilon and upsilon are “simple e” and “simple u”, to distinguish them from eta and the vowel represented by oi.
Next week we’ll cover the function and formation of the dual form in nouns, pronouns, and verbs!
Iowa Old Lady
“Jeers,” a version of Cheers, where everybody has no shame.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108:
There are 6 lines
The Pale Scot
@philpm:
Last year I was visiting sis and getting my dog on walking her charismatic Scottie Meggie. As I was running late one day I stepped out to see the street filled with school kids going home. I stepped back and asked Q what to do. “They love her and she loves them” So we made about 20 feet the first quarter hour. Interesting how the moms decided, “Oh that big ugly guy is with Meggie, he must be OK” Having your dog vouch for you, it happens to us all.
Will always remember the little asian girl trying pulling away from her mom yelling “Weggie”
NotMax
@a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
It’s Greek to me.
;)
Betty Cracker
Boxer line looks about right, except it should intersect with the human line at regular intervals, with the dog stopping in front of the human, who will either trip over the dog or be forced to break stride until the boxer resumes its meandering.
Another Scott
@Bruce K: Who could possibly have a problem with you being a Woody Guthrie fan? First Amendment, amirite?
:-)
Do what you think is right. If people want to hassle you, they won’t need an excuse. Look at the way TSA treated too many women (and others), especially early on… :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@NotMax: GO TO YOUR ROOM YOUNG MAN
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Viva BrisVegas:
Dude, you’re in QLD. You’re generally warm…
Bruce K
@a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio): Thanks, but I worry that cramming ancient Greek into the foreign-language sections of my brain will crowd out the modern Greek that I kind of need to hold onto to do my job. :)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
My Tervuren would take the Golden Retriever line.
On a note about Greek, youngest daughter is in Greece on a couple of programs to enhance her applications to whichever schools she selects toward her doctorate. She’s on a break, and wife has joined her. They were in Heraklion, and have moved on to Chania.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Bruce K:
Youngest daughter is in the opposite position – her Ancient Greek is good, but her modern is getting polished up this summer.
She was a part of that team that found that Linear B shard in Pylos.
JPL
@JCJ: No!
NotMax
First year in living memory without the nights being punctuated with the sounds of pre-holiday fireworks being set off.
People are either wising up or becoming cheaper.
Kristine
Get-together/combined birthday party with a few friends tonight. Pretty quiet until then, because that’s how I roll.
Gaby, my terrier-husky mix, would follow the Most Dogs line, interspersed with boxer. Until she spotted a squirrel/rabbit/chipmunk/deer, at which point the JR line would be attempted, which is why she is kept on a lead at all times.
SiubhanDuinne
@TOP123:
Happy Birthday-cum-Aphelion-Day to you! Enjoy it while you can — the date of Aphelion Day (and it’s winter counterpart, Perihelion Day) varies a bit from one year to the next: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/perihelion-aphelion-solstice.html
NotMax
@Kristine
Have a happy one.
d58826
Well I can attest to the bassets. A more stubborn dog never lived than our basset hound, On his walk you moved when he wanted to move and you waited when he decided to lie down and rest, even if it was in the middle of a busy street. Once he was sufficiently rested then the walk would resume. He was very generous however, he only demanded one half of the couch. But at 4 feet long and taking his half from the middle it didn’t leave much on either end. He generally was very obedient when he heard the voice of authority, its just he never heard it very often. And when the fire siren went off he did his civic duty and lifted his voice ion song to help the firemen along. The mailman didn’t bother him at first. Then the next door neighbor got a little female and she went nuts whenever the mail man came along. So he felt that it was his gentlemanly duty to help her defend the neighborhood or her honor and he join in the barking/baying.
There is an ad on TV selling something for another. The guy is walking his basset. The basset is tired so he lays down to rest. The guy pushes and pulls and the basset doesn’t move. Once the spirit moves him up pops the basset and off they go. And it is typical basset hound pose – nose to the ground, ears, dragging and tail vertical and wagging gently.
Noncarborundum
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): In classical Greek the letter phi, transcribed in the Roman alphabet as “ph”, represented a P sound followed by an aspiration (H sound). This had developed into an F sound (as in the modern language) by the time of the Roman Empire. Presumably if the P of “apo” were in contact with the aspiration of “helion”, the same phonological process would apply and “afelion” would be the expected result. Not that this sounds right to me, since I’ve thought of it as “ap-helion” all my life.
Heidi Mom
Glad you had a good trip, John, and welcome to the Turnpike appreciation society. I live about a mile from a Turnpike entrance/exit, and tend to evaluate car travel not in terms of distance but in terms of how far the end point is from the Turnpike. “Right off the Turnpike” is high praise, in my book.
As for dog travel: Heidi is a rescued mixed breed, best guess as to heritage being rottie/lab/scenthound. Lacking the lab’s love of water, she generally travels the human path until a scent catches her fancy, then we make some wild zigzags before getting back on track.
? Martin
Corgi goes with Boxer there, due to it’s incessant quest for food. You never know what might get dropped behind a tree – better search them all!
TriassicSands
Memories.
When I was in high school, my parents brought home a Basset Hound one day. The previous owners loved him, but their very young child liked to sit on the dog’s back and pull his ears. Not good for a Basset Hound.
Fremont had papers that looked like the Hall of Fame of Basset Hounds — one champion after another. He was the largest Basset Hound I’ve ever seen — 80 pounds when he was lean with a barrel chest and a wonderful disposition. We had a photo of him once dressed in one of my tee shirts and it was tight across his chest — and although I wasn’t a big guy, I had well developed chest and back muscles. He was a lunker.
I walked him at night and in fairness to him, he did follow a relatively straight path (the short green line ending in inertness is insulting — at least to Fremont, but it is funny) except on one occasion. My parents had given a party that night and there had been lots of alcohol. The end tables on the couch and living room chairs were quite low and afforded Fremont access to whatever was set upon them. Unknown to the humans, when the party was over, but clean-up had not yet begun, he made the rounds and lapped alcohol out of one glass after another, until, when I took him for a walk, he was drunk. Staggering drunk. I was worried about him — he was falling down and when I squatted down to see what was wrong with him, I caught a whiff of his breath. Yow!!! No one had noticed his surreptitious drinking and the poor guy didn’t no when to stop. Do many dogs like alcohol? I would guess that most of the drinks that night were whiskey-based, but there would have been some gin and vodka.
He’s been gone many years, but the green line made me think of him and what a truly great dog he was. And did I mention big.
d58826
@TriassicSands: Ours could find a piece of pizza or chicken in the dead of night. I was out walking him one evening and we both saw the kid’s brown lunch bag at the same time. Well when it came to scavenging treats he moved like a bolt of lightening. He got the bag, immediately lost interest in the rest of the walk and we headed for home. I wish I had a camera because there he is head up, tail up and the bag swinging from his mouth like some one going off to work. He was generally a good natured dog, except if you tried to separate him from his ill gotten gains. So he tore the brown bag open and wonders of wonder 2 p@B sandwiches. While he worked on the one I got the other one into the garbage.
Jeffro
Busy preppin’ some tasty stuff for tomorrow’s cookout while listening to Jason Isbell’s latest record…cooking and rocking out, what a great way to spend a morning!
geg6
@OzarkHillbilly:
Koda hates the water, too. But she loves to roll in whatever might be available to roll in.
geg6
@Sayne:
Ugh. I despise the PA Turnpike. I much, much prefer I-80.
Another Scott
@TriassicSands: Great story.
Our Colleen would sneak laps of J’s evening wine. It took her a while to figure out why there was always a little bit of a spill of wine on the bedside table… “Hey!!”
:-)
Colleen was never falling-down drunk though. She knew when to quit! ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ellen
Next time take the Merritt Parkway to the Tappan Zee Bridge. Much easier.
TriassicSands
@d58826:
I heard Fremont growl only once — my brother tried to take a bone away from him. Ordinarily, even that wouldn’t have caused him to growl, but it must have been an especially tasty bone.
Bassets are supposed to have the second best sense of smell of any dog — behind only the blood hound. Or that’s what I read many years ago. I just did a quick Internet search and came up with the same thing.
I wonder how they determine that? Which breed smells the P&B sandwich at the greatest distance, probably.
Heidi Mom
@d58826: Heidi is the same, and in fact it doesn’t have to be savory like pizza or chicken, any piece of dried-out breadstuff will do. She provided a good laugh to everyone who saw her when she trotted home one day with a small baguette in her mouth. Generally I allow her to bring things like that inside because she’s happy to trade it for a big Milk-Bone, so disposal is not a problem. She was a pregnant stray when she was rescued, so I guess the instinct to grab any possible form of food, however unappealing, is still there.
TriassicSands
@Another Scott:
Thank goodness we found out about Fremont in time and didn’t have a full-on alcoholic Basset hound on our hands. There can’t be anything worse than a drunk Basset hound, can there? Sloppy drunks.
randy khan
@JCJ:
I would assume that it would be ABC’s herd and Cole would be the top . . . I guess I should stop there.
Cephalus Max
@philpm: Yep. A friend once asked me if I went jogging with my Basset. One of the funnier questions I’ve ever been asked. I can barely make it 3-4 feet walking him before it is time for another sniff stop.
randy khan
The cat line is a little circle back on the bed back at the house, as it settles in for a nap.
philpm
@d58826: Ours love veggies and fruits for some reason. He’ll drool over an orange, and knows instinctively when I’m cutting up potatoes. He managed to snag a whole potato from the bag once and ate the whole thing, which made him sick. Now he just waits for me to give him slices.
He is also quick to find food laying on the ground on our walks, which makes things tough because there is a Burger King up the street that he has made friends at. I have to be quick to move him away from any discarded food, but quite often he sees it and has it in his mouth before I know its there.
philpm
@Cephalus Max: Mine actually ran halfway down the street one time on his own accord. I’ve never found out what possessed him to do so. Needless to say, it has never been repeated.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Bruce K: It’s a risk! My mother found that eventually the French, Latin, and Spanish in her language storage all ran together,
Mnemosyne
G always knew that if it came down to a choice between him and my favorite cat, the late great Boris, there was a good chance that G would be drawing the short straw. Fortunately, they were able to make their peace and live together quite happily.
Luthe
@TriassicSands: Our Lab once got drunk on fermented apples in our yard. We couldn’t figure out why she was acting funny until we noticed the rotten apples from the neighbor’s tree had fallen into our yard and become a tasty doggy snack.
Kristine
@philpm: a story of a veggie-loving pup.
philpm
@Kristine: Okay, that was hilarious! And totally something mine would do.
Karen
@Tim C.: yes, and if you hose down make sure you lock in kennel otherwise will have to go out and renew the smells you were so cruel as to get rid of
Skepticat
I’m pleased–and envious–your trip went well. The last few times on my Maine-Florida/Florida-Maine trek, I’ve spent two weeks in an afternoon on the GW Bridge.
Karen
at this point have a red nosed pit bull, she has four white feet; when we walk she avoids water, mud, anything that will dirty her feet. she is major change from my black lab, who would have been in and out of water a few times coming close enough to share water before dashing off again
Kristine
@philpm: Glad you enjoyed it. It’s an internet classic–the link makes the rounds every so often.
SWMBO
@TriassicSands: I groomed dogs to put myself through college. There is NOTHING worse than a hung over Old English Sheep dog. Pogo could drink anyone under the table. Plus he loved popcorn and boiled eggs with his alcohol. Dear God, one belch could render you blind or unconscious. And he was a lovey, wanting to cuddle while he sobered up. The food stuck into his hair and trying not to cut any off while he tried to wrap his front legs around “my goodest bestest old fren” was an exercise program in itself.
steverinoCT
I’m going from Groton CT (on I-95) to my hometown of Ridgefield Park NJ (longest-running Independence Day parade in the state) which is essentially at the intersection of I-80 and the head of the NJ Turnpike. The “Baby Parade” starts at 9AM, and in order to make it we have to leave at 6:30. For once due to the hour/holiday we will be able to take the Cross-Bronx and GWB; normally I’ll take the Tappan Zee and the PIP down to the local roads. The Merritt Parkway (Rt 15– the Hutchinson in NY) is iffy– never in rain, rarely at night, and because it’s only two lanes each way, sometimes the congestion is worse than I-95. Home is always the TZB: the tolls are in that direction and it’s a 10-dollar difference for an added 15-min drive.
AnotherBruce
@randy khan: They don’t call it cat nap for nothing. When I’m off work, I take several naps with my cat during the day. BTW, I went out on the public sidewalk with my cat on a leash, it was dusk and no one was around. We walked a long block and returned, the cat stopping occasionally to check things out. He’s a scaredy cat, so I don’t think he’d react well to a dog or another human. But it was a fun walk.
cleosmom
Yep, that’s my Lab all right.