Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

T R E 4 5 O N

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

No one could have predicted…

I was promised a recession.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Come on, man.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

This really is a full service blog.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

You cannot shame the shameless.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    Ohio Mom

    You do yeoman’s work on this blog, Anne Laurie. Just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your posts.

  6. 6.

    Sab

    The golden is a really pretty boy, not one of those dome-headed ones that usually do well at Westminster. He looks like a real retriever.

    ETA Why are so many golden’s named Bailey? My ex’s favorite was also a Bailey.

    ETA I know the winner is Daniel. Thinking of Warren’s dog.

  9. 9.

    catclub

    @Sab: You did not watch the full 12-13 minutes. There was an Australian Shepherd, a border collie and a golden.

     

    I think that means an 8 inch, 12 inch, 16, 20 and 24 inch class.

  11. 11.

    LAO

    I love a golden retriever, my bullshitzbeagle*, not so much. I never noticed how many goldens lived in my neighborhood until Maggie developed an extreme fear/aggression reaction to them.

    *American staffy, beagle, shitzu

  14. 14.

    MomSense

    @Martin:

    In our neck of the woods there are lots of Goldens named for Bailey’s Island.  I know a pair of labs named Orr’s and Bailey for two neighboring islands.

    The alcoholics would pick Allen or Coffee or Brandy. Allen’s Coffee Brandy  is a whole thing in Maine.

  19. 19.

    Mandarama

    I still feel low, but I do have two real-life Goldens here who are trying to reassure me. Thank dog!

  21. 21.

    Kent

    Has a yellow lab ever won?   We are lab people.

    Our current lab Tucker is too much of a doofus to do this sort of thing.  He would probably find some dog poop somewhere in the arena to roll in right before the show.

  22. 22.

    tomtofa

    Memories of my Appenzeller/Entlebucher mixed with ? rescue dog Monet. Tried out agility courses at dog parks when he was young; he enjoyed them but could never have been a serious competitor. Come to think of it, I couldn’t have been as agile a companion as the folks in the video.

    He’s 12+ now; since I’ve put him on Carprofen, omega oils, and glucosamine his hip arthritis bothers him less and he runs in the fields almost like he used to. Not as agile: his specialty when young at dog parks was to get a dog, or dogs, to chase him. Monet wasn’t the fastest dog, but he could turn on a dime, over and over, leaving the chasing dogs rolling around in his wake.

    Then he’d choose a favorite dog and wrestle for an hour or so.

    Choose a rescue mix – they’ll be with you longer and be less prone to the inbred afflictions of purebreds.

  24. 24.

    Sab

    @Zelma: I’m  big dog person, so yay standard. Also my sister lost one of her two standards this year. Go standards. Really cool dogs inder that poodle exterior.

    I am a large mutt person myself, although I do love my inherited cocker (smelly ears though since always in his food and everything is his food.)

  29. 29.

    Martin

    @Sab: Yeah, only brushing. That’s a plus. Having your dog get high-centered on the curb is a minus, though.

    Can be barky. MIne is good – just a nice heavy woof when he wants to go out. One suffices – you can hear it everywhere.

  30. 30.

    burnspbesq

    The short hair makes that look more like a yellow Lab than a Golden.

    My soon-to-be bride has been agitating for a “purse dog” for months, but I may be off the hook. Last Saturday when we came out of the local sporting goods emporium, the truck parked next to us had a purebred Pyr and a Pyr/Anatolian mix in the back. Much oohing and ahhing ensued.

  31. 31.

    Sab

    @catclub: Thank you. I had not watched it all. Aussie and border collie were equally amazing.

    Damn. I always wanted to do agility. Never did. Too busy. Retired now, but any dog I get small enough to handle now would outlive me. That’s not fair to them.

  32. 32.

    Sab

    @Martin: The neighbor corgis are barky not yappy. They bark when we pee on their lawn, but they don’t yap continuously when they are bored, like some other neighbor dogs.

  33. 33.

    Martin

    @HumboldtBlue: The first time I flew on a little turboprop regional plane we were landing in a thunderstorm and maybe 50-100 feet above the runway there was a big gust and I found myself looking out my window straight down the runway. When we came to a stop, nobody stood up. We all needed a few more minutes. The pilot sounded a little rattled when he got on the PA.

  35. 35.

    TomatoQueen

    I want the golden to win Westminster just one time.  Also a Dal. Poodles and wirehairs win too often.

  36. 36.

    dww44

    @TomatoQueen: I would have been happy with one of the 3 breeds  that had never won, but, alas, the standard poodle wins again.  Apparently the Best In Show judge believes in the breeders and obviously poodles must have the best.  I’d have to say that I would have been happy with any of the other 6 over the poodle.

  39. 39.

    Jean

    @LAO: One of my little dogs, Milo, who has a canine good citizen certificate and well trained NOT to react, does not like Goldens at all!  And the ones in our neighborhood, like most, I believe, are gentle and non-threatening.  Milo, however, does not like the look of them, and  it takes everything he’s got NOT to go nuts.

  40. 40.

    Martin

    @Sab: Flying into HIA in PA. I think I originated at BWI. This must have been 35 years ago.

    The nice thing about HIA is that it has a massive runway, so there’s no hurry to wheels down.

  41. 41.

    The Dangerman

    I’m just glad I got a chance to land at the old Hong Kong Airport. Definitely E ticket ride.

    I wonder why the dogs all bark at the poles? Is that dog for “in your face, assholes”?

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    @The Dangerman:

    I’ve done that too. It’s amazing how the plane gets so close to those apartment buildings as it comes in to land that you can look at the clotheslines and see what everyone was wearing yesterday.

  43. 43.

    Anne Laurie

    @Sab: I do love my inherited cocker (smelly ears though since always in his food and everything is his food.)

    You can get, or make, a snood to keep his ears out of his food.  Basically, a tube or ‘sock’ pulled over his head, loose enough not to be constricting but fitted enough not to fall off.  The most common google images are designed for outdoor cold-weather gear, but lots of showdog people use lighter-weight versions 24/7 to keep those luxurious ‘feathers’ long & lovely.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    @dww44: Apparently the Best In Show judge believes in the breeders and obviously poodles must have the best.

    There’s a bias; judges have to ‘qualify’ for various levels, first on their own chosen breed, then on the group for that breed, and only then (assuming they care to put in the time & energy, all uncompensated) can they qualify for all-breed competition.  And, of course, only the “top” judges get to work the big national shows, like Westminster.

    It’s easier to find people with that kind of dedication if you start with a really popular show breed — like standard poodles.  And because SP breeders tend to be conformation fanatics, even by conformation-show standards, the SP breeders are more likely to progress up the ranks than someone who’s only really interested in, say, Sussex spaniels or border collies.   So, inevitably, the judges with the most experience, who get invited to judge the top shows… are gonna be biased, unconsciously or not, towards certain ‘always best in show’ breeds.  Like, say, Standard poodles!

    Not gonna go into further detail, but Westminster is an anomaly in about sixteen different ways, even apart from judicial bias.  It’s fun eye candy, and it means a lot to the people involved, but  it’s like the Oscars.    A lot of expense just to try for a nomination, and even if you win, it gets the owner (producer) bragging rights, the breeder / handler (writer / director) an income bump, and the dog (actor) more sexual access.  But professionals don’t count on an Oscar win for validation, because their peers know just how random & political it is when you win one.

  45. 45.

    SectionH

    @TomatoQueen:  Say what?

    @tam1MI: Thank you!

    The problems with poodles:

    the name
    the stupid show clip
    the owners in the past for the rep, esp. the toy version. Show clip is only a problem with um when dogs that perform Really Well win, I’m talking standard poodles.

    The cool stuff about poodles
    they’re totally non-shedding, basically hypo-allergenic
    they’re actually extremely intelligent, no, not just for dogs, I mean srsly bright, I mean cat-level bright. [ducking]  People who treat their poodles like the wonderful intelligent dogs they are have great dogs.

    Mumbles something about how many labradoodles etc are out there…

    — I have no idea how the formatting will work out here, except it will be fucked up. Sorry about that.

  46. 46.

    Anne Laurie

    @SectionH: Not only are poodles great dogs, they usually have a sense of humor — which is rarer than one might think, in dogs.   (German shepherds, for instance, are very bright, but they tend to sulk if they think you’re not taking things as seriously as they do.  Goldens would love to have a sense of humor, but they lack that acidic edge, so they mostly aspire to whimsy.  Frankly, if dogs could talk, most of them would be endlessly amused by knock-knock jokes and fart noises.)

    It makes them not only better companions (for people who want a companion, not just a pillow that requires feeding), it makes it easier for them to get along with humans.  One reason they are so popular for ‘designer’ crosses is that the sense of humor, as well as the smarts, tends to show up in the puppies.

  49. 49.

    dww44

    @Anne Laurie: Thanks, Anne, I learned lots from your post.  I have a bias because even when SP’s don’t win the Best In Show, they more often than not win Best in the Non-Sporting Group,  where my personal favorite resides,,, the Bulldog, or as I prefer to call him/her, the English Bulldog.  I hate that catch all category where all the leftover breeds are placed when they don’t fit in the other 6, so in a sense whatever dog wins there wins largely because it can only fairly be judged against itself.

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