Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

When we show up, we win.

Books are my comfort food!

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

We won’t go back.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Essential Distractions Open Thread: Puppy Bowl!

Essential Distractions Open Thread: Puppy Bowl!

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Tune in to the Puppy Bowl!
www.tvinsider.com/gallery/pupp…

[image or embed]

— Tea4Me (@tea-n-me.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 4:02 AM


… The Super Bowl’s cuter cousin has advertisers interested, as they can move a lot of product for less money. Ad slots for the Super Bowl will run close to $8 million. Puppy Bowl ads are less, but can still reach up to $7 million.

“While the Super Bowl dominates the advertising landscape this Sunday, the Puppy Bowl offers a unique platform for brands that cater to pet owners and family-conscious consumers,” said Y. Greg Song, assistant professor of emerging media at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

If you like the Puppy Bowl, you aren’t alone: 28% of Americans say they are more excited for it than the Super Bowl this year, according to data from tracking firm Ipsos…

“Puppies often trigger two key psychological responses in humans. First, they stimulate an oxytocin release, reinforcing feelings of love and connection, Second, they evoke nostalgia—many Americans have fond memories tied to puppies and their inherent cuteness,” said Michael Barbera, assistant professor of consumer psychology and the chief behavioral officer at consumer consultancy Clicksuasion Labs.

“Nonprofits and brands that emphasize emotional connections or community impact could find this event particularly aligned with their messaging,” Barbera explained.

Jennifer Glen, General Manager at Americas ad Squad, said the Puppy Bowl’s altruistic element also offers a nice contrast to the Super Bowl’s commercialism.

“You don’t have to pay $8M to advertise during the Puppy Bowl, and you get to support 80+ shelters (and 140+ puppies) in the process,” Glen said, noting that while the viewership will be significantly less, the long-term partnership and dollars make sense. She also said the viral elements last far beyond the event…

Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    First, they stimulate an oxytocin release, reinforcing feelings of love and connection, Second, they evoke nostalgia—many Americans have fond memories tied to puppies and their inherent cuteness,

    I’ve been told I have the same effect on people.

  3. 3.

    Phylllis

    @NotMax: So of course the first one he cites is from South Carolina. Like the man said all those years ago, ‘too small for a republic, too big for an insane asylum’.

  5. 5.

    p.a.

    IDK about broadcast animals, but I know I’d be in worse shape without GF’s cat & dog & their unconditional (at least re the dog 😉) love.  Even the usually dickish parrot is a comfort.

    No animals myself: barely responsible for me.

  6. 6.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @NotMax: That’s funny, but my dude makes one serious point– your rights are exactly what the first cop on the scene decides they are; the law is exactly what the first cop on the scene says it is.

    These vague laws serve to empower police– including the corrupt ones.

  7. 7.

    TBone

    @NotMax: I learned to drive on the NJ Turnpike in a huge, old 12 passenger van because Ugly Duckling Car Rental hired me as a youngun and I needed to take the van to auction.  It was an experience I’ll NEVER forget hahahaha!  Ugly Duckling did not have strict hiring practices, they only cared if I had a valid license and never asked how much actual driving experience I had (almost none).

  8. 8.

    stinger

    Anne Laurie, thanks for the respite from Government By Dipshit. Good luck to all the compupitors and their future families!

  10. 10.

    Professor Bigfoot

    I don’t know how anyone can handle Puppy Bowl– hae you ever seen a bigger collection of “cute,” “adorable,” “sweet,” “funny,” and did I mention ADORABLE?

    When the ad comes on, I, the hard bitten racist asshole, get a stupid grin on my face.

    ‘Cause ADORABLE, I tells ya!

    (I am a latecomer to doggy love; I was a cat person but Mrs. B long ago introduced me to her dog Gracie, I fell in love, and now I have 3 dogs and 4 cats and there’s that stupid smile again)

  11. 11.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Last night, on the car radio, on y’all’s hated radio station,

    there was a piece about the suberb owl.

    owls have been on the planet for x,000s of years. The Super Bowl, only since 1967. As a super fan of at least sports that aren’t football, this amuses me.

    Super Bowl Sunday used to be a great afternoon at the ice arena, way less crowded, peaceful, even. I miss skating.

  12. 12.

    Rachel Bakes

    My daughter used to record “Too Cute” on some pet channel. Watching litters of kittens and puppies (usually, sometimes hedgehogs or something less traditional) from birth to adoption. Enjoyed many hours with that show

  25. 25.

    satby

    From the NYT (via BS), no link because I don’t have a subscription, but people, keep your cats inside:

    Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but then abruptly vanished.

  26. 26.

    TBone

    @Gloria DryGarden: when I have more time I will try to write you some ice skating poetry.  Thank you for sharing that you can do it!  Although I’ve done it many times in childhood and young adulthood, I am now back to adult novice status and, after my last abrupt contact between hip bone and hard ice, I gave it up!

  30. 30.

    TBone

    @satby: YOWLING AND HOWLING because Noah The Love Cat is now recovering from what I suspected all along was an infectious disease since we lost Josey the exact same way at Christmas.  The vet doesn’t want to hear it.  “Coincidence.”

    His nasal congestion is now almost gone and his appetite is returning – he actually presented himself in the kitchen for 8:30 Second Breakfast today!

  33. 33.

    Soprano2

    @Gloria DryGarden: I don’t hate NPR, I listen to a lot of their programs on podcast, but I cannot listen to “Morning Edition” or “All Things Considered” anymore. I miss stories like the one about the “superb owl”, but I can’t listen to them make what FFOTUS is doing seem in any way normal or ordinary. It’s better for my mental health.

  34. 34.

    Scout211

    Thanks for the sweet distraction with all the puppies, AL.

    I will be making the best of today by trying to stay off of the internet and avoiding all Trump/Musk administration news.

    It’s a birthday gift to myself. 😊

  35. 35.

    Soprano2

    @satby: It seems like they want another pandemic to happen, doesn’t it? They remove even non-political information even though it would be helpful for people to have it.

  36. 36.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: That’s FANTASTIC!

    We are so very fortunate in our vet— it’s a family affair. Mrs. B has been going to Dr. Dave for nearly the last 50 years; now there’s Dr. Stan, his son, and Dr. Dana, Stan’s wife, and they are simply LOVELY people— genuinely caring, considerate and thoughtful.

    And they listen.

  38. 38.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Professor Bigfoot: Speaking of guffawing, Hulu has Roy Wood Jr.’s stand up comedy special on right now. You might remember him from the Daily Show (yes, he talks a bout it).  Anyways, we watched it the other night and were crying/laughing it was so funny.  He gets into politics once or twice but most of the show is more general comedy.  Highly recommended.

  40. 40.

    satby

    @Spanky: I thought all regular SSA payments came about the 1 if you starting receiving them before 199(7?) and on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Wednesdays depending on date of birth after. SSD, SSDI payments I don’t know about.

  42. 42.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Soprano2: The vet that Mrs. B’s daughter used seemed to be just *hoovering up cash-* the kind of vet who would vaccinate a pet before he euthanized it.

    They’ve since come over to Dr. Dave ‘n’em.

  43. 43.

    2liberal

    @Spanky: Today’s the day my Social Security should hit my bank account. Not there yet.

     

    I’m expecting mine next Wednesday. Sometimes it shows up as a pending transaction a few days early.  I DID get my tax refund check so that’s good.

  47. 47.

    RevRick

    @Baud: While you are basking in your reflected cuteness during the Puppy Bowl, MrsRev and I will be basking in the audible delights of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra performing Mahler and Wagner.

  49. 49.

    satby

    @Professor Bigfoot: And a mercenary vet would probably have gone along with a “curable disease” assumption, like the terrible one our rescue cat Duke dealt with last year that robbed our rescue of $1400+ to “treat” [torture] a terminally ill cat, rather than recommending euthanasia.

    And that’s all I’m saying about that.

  50. 50.

    TBone

    @Professor Bigfoot: I wish we had such a connection here.  We had a wonderful older gentleman vet in a small town nearby but he retired.  And in DelCo I had a fabulous woman vet.  Here and now, the animal hospital team is basically our only option in an emergency because the more local place rendered some very slipshod care for a now also deceased cat (the cat that came with Hubby was Shake) and is only open during business hours.  They helped cause Shake’s demise through shoddy record keeping and she was only 4 y.o.

  51. 51.

    narya

    I will be spending Superb Owl Sunday preparing for a colonoscopy, which feels appropriate, somehow. In other colonic news, my brother’s doctor seems to think that, unless the cancer has spread (CT scan today), the doc will be able to excise the tumor, stitch it back together, and my brother will be out of work for 8 weeks or so. Surgery in the next week or two, regardless.

    In more devastating news, the organization I’m consulting for is going out of business, meaning 10,000 people who are experiencing homelessness won’t have anywhere to go for care, other than ERs. Everyone is gutted.

  53. 53.

    Old Man Shadow

    Not sure I can deal with all the faux patriotic bullshit the NFL usually does for the Superb Owl this year, so watching puppies might be on the docket.

  56. 56.

    zhena gogolia

    @satby: I had a similar experience. “But she’s 15 years old!” “Age is just a number.” I’ll never forget that one.

  57. 57.

    TBone

    @satby: goddamnit they’re everywhere I’m so sorry!

    At Noah’s most recent visit they said he was terminal and ordered a home euthanasia vet and I’m taking pride that it’s NOT THE FUCK YET.

  59. 59.

    RevRick

    @Scout211: Happy birthday, fellow February/Aquarian. We know what our parents did in the lusty month of May.

    Today would have been my older brother’s birthday. We were born seven years apart on the first Saturday of February.

  60. 60.

    kalakal

    Last night I made my bid for stupidest accident of the year.

    Had some friends over for dinner, fridge extra full. Opened fridge door, can of coke tipples off edge of crammed shelf and hits little toe.

    Now can hardly walk due to broken toe. Cans of coke pack quite a wallop when falling five feet

  64. 64.

    narya

    @satby: Not exactly. It’s a long story–the larger umbrella organization was terribly mismanaged, so this smaller piece had to hive off and try to stand up its own entity, while still encumbered by crap from the dissolution. They’ve struggled for 18 months or so to pull this off, and they just can’t make it work right now. I personally think that $2-3 million right now, that doesn’t have to be paid back, would save the place, but there’s no obvious place to get that. When my previous place almost went under, the LGBTQ community saved it with massive donations, but people experiencing homelessness don’t have that kind of fundraising community. I’m hoping to win the lottery tonight.

  66. 66.

    Jackie

    @kalakal: OUCH!!!

    Now can hardly walk due to broken toe.

    Hopefully you have medical tape so you can splint/tape it to the adjoining toe… not much else one can do aside from icing/elevating and Tylenol.

  71. 71.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @satby: I don’t have the words.

    Back during the lockdowns, we had a “neighborhood cat” who showed up on our porch.

    Pregnant.

    We couldn’t bring her in, we had four of our own already (plus the two Yorkies), so we set up a box on the porch, insulated as best as possible, and a few weeks later we were able to adopt out all of her kittens (yay).

    Sometime in the summer I was tinkering in the back yard and a neighbor ran up saying that our “porch cat” had been hit by a car.

    I ran out and there was Midnight, lying in the street. I picked her up, she was obviously very bad off.

    It was after hours but we called Dr. Dave’s office and he met us there… examined the poor kitty and knew there was nothing he could do, so he— we let her go.

    So we went home, then went out for dinner. As we were pulling into the driveway Mrs. B said, “hey, there’s Midnight!”

    “No way! Look, if that’s Midnight, she’ll come walking up to us before we get out of the car!”

    We got out of the car and there was that black cat, yowling that she wanted some kibble.

    So that was ANOTHER black cat, a genuine stray— oh, and Dr. Dave didn’t even charge us.

  72. 72.

    narya

    @Soprano2: See my comment at 64 . . . I’ve told them I’ll help as long as they need me–I know all the things about the major funding streams, from both the financial and grant management sides, so they want me to stick around a bit. Probably a month or so? The advantage in using me is that, in addition to knowing all the things, I am a consultant, so, even at my rate, I am cheaper than full-time staff. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out, too, from the federal side. It’s so heartbreaking, especially for the patients who are essentially going to be abandoned.

  74. 74.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @kalakal: OW! You got me there— yesterday I had my iPad in my hand, went to pet The Big Dawg, the iPad slipped and fell on my foot, not quite on my toe.

    Bruised, but ambulatory.

  76. 76.

    Ohio Mom

    @narya: I’m sorry, what a loss. And at the junction in our nations history, it’s hard to be optimistic about another group forming to pick up the pieces any time soon.

    Damn this living in interesting times.

  78. 78.

    TBone

    We are in the truck and Noah in his carrier has vociferously figured out our destination.  I was worried at first because he WASN’T complaining for the first 15 minutes…

  80. 80.

    Jackie

    FFOTUS is gonna explode!

    TIME magazine’s Feb cover shows Musk sitting behind the Resolute desk flanked by the American and Presidential flags…

    No caption. Good for TIME!

  85. 85.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Spanky:

    Of my 8 payments so far, one has hit on Thursday, the rest on Friday, all between the 3rd and 9th of the month.

    Mine consistently hits on the second Wednesday.

  87. 87.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … Dean Baker at CEPR.net:

    Since everyone else has given their two cents on the cause of Harris’ defeat, I guess I will weigh in with my two cents. This comes with the warning; I am an economist, so everything looks like a nail to me.

    First, there is one point that should be front and center in every discussion of the election results. Harris won overwhelmingly among more informed voters who follow the news closely. She got clobbered among less informed voters, people who, by their self-description, say they follow the news little or not at all.

    This is important because it is not plausible that a big factor in Harris defeat could have been positions she took long ago, like when she was running for president in 2019. Whether those positions helped her or hurt her, the fact is that Harris almost certainly won by a large margin by people who were aware of her 2019 presidential campaign.

    Rather, insofar as issues mattered in a very close election (Trump’s popular vote margin was less than Hilary Clinton’s in 2016), it had to be issues that the least informed voters could be aware of. This is where the price of eggs, or more generally the cost of living comes in.

    […]

    I will also add a point that should be obvious but has confused many of our elite pundits. It’s true that the people who voted for Trump in large numbers do not follow the major media outlets, but this does not mean their views were not affected by what the NYT, NPR, and the rest report.

    Contrary to what these pundits seem to believe, people do not live in hermetically sealed worlds. Even if people get their news from TikTok influencers or what their friend rants about over a beer, it’s likely that their sources views were in some ways affected by what appears in the major media outlets.

    If these outlets were regularly reporting on “pandemic inflation” and highlighting the many successes of the Biden administration (half-century lows in unemployment, record rates of new business formation, fastest real wage growth at the bottom since the 60s), some of this would have percolated through to the least informed voters.

    Instead, they were invariably hyping the negative. For example, last summer the New York Times told readers about a “two-tiered” economy highlighting a low-wage worker whose pay had not kept pace with prices, even as the piece itself acknowledged this person was atypical. The pay of most low-wage workers had substantially outpaced prices.

    The NYT also told readers that recent college grads couldn’t find jobs. This was at a time when the unemployment rate for recent grads was near a 20-year low. And the NYT, CNN, and the rest repeatedly highlighted the claim that young people were giving up on ever being able to own a home. They were doing this even when homeownership rates among the young were above their pre-pandemic peak.

    […]

    Lessons for the Battle to Save Democracy

    Trump is engaged in an unprecedented attack on our democracy, ignoring all sorts of laws and the Constitution itself. I would never tell people not to confront this head on in every way we can. This is absolutely necessary, but I would also talk about the price of eggs.

    Trump promised people that he would lower the price of groceries beginning on day one. While we know he has been busy making plans to take over Canada, Greenland, and Gaza, and sending Elon into our personal banking and medical records, we haven’t heard much about his plans to lower prices.

    Of course, Trump has no such plans. The claim that he would bring down prices was always a lie. And not only is he not bringing down prices, the cost of some items, such as coffee and eggs, is going through the roof.

    This seems a great point to drive home. There may be many people who don’t know about the Constitutional issues or take seriously Trump’s plans for his resort in Gaza, but they do see skyrocketing egg prices at the supermarket and the egg surcharge they pay at Waffle House.

    And, for what it’s worth, Elon Musk seems to agree with my political assessment. My posts on Twitter in the last couple of months had been getting very little engagement, however my posts on egg prices have led to a flock of outraged responses. Obviously, the site has some sort of algorithm designed to trigger responses to this sort of complaint about Trump.

    I will add that I know the criticism is not entirely fair. The jump in egg prices was due to an outbreak of Avian flu that occurred before Trump took office, although how he deals with the outbreak going forward is on him.

    But this is very similar to the story of the pandemic and Biden. The media kept telling us that people don’t blame the pandemic for inflation, they blame Biden. If Biden can be nailed for inflation caused by the pandemic, we should be able to nail Trump for soaring egg prices caused by Avian flu. After all, people don’t see Avian flu, they see high egg prices.

    Again, we have to hit Trump head on for his law-breaking and its consequences. But for my money, I’m listening to what Elon Musk is telling us. I’m going to talk about egg prices.

    +1

    Click over and read the whole thing, but then come back!

    We have to meet people where they are. If they don’t notice or care about facts and the real news about politics and government and the economy, hammer them on stuff they do notice.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  88. 88.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jackie:

    FFOTUS is gonna explode!

    TIME magazine’s Feb cover shows Musk sitting behind the Resolute desk flanked by the American and Presidential flags…

    No caption. Good for TIME!

    Indeed – that’ll practically shout “FIGUREHEAD!!!” at him.  Hopefully that’ll get Musk’s ass kicked out of there. Not that that would solve all our problems, far from it, but it would reduce the number of them by one big one.

  89. 89.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Another Scott:

    Dean Baker, from your quote:

    The media kept telling us that people don’t blame the pandemic for inflation, they blame Biden.

    And the media did their level best to make sure they did.

  91. 91.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @satby: Worse luck… as often happens, Middie just disappeared one day.

    That was three years ago or so; I have chosen to believe she’d found a real home. (we’d had her spayed after the kittens.)

  92. 92.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: Now Trump is saying that nobody actually cares about grocery prices and the important thing is eliminating trans people and immigrants and threatening other countries.

    A very cynical part of me thinks he’s right, and these concerns that were fatal to Biden and Harris are just going to evaporate now. Because what most Americans really wanted was an excuse to hate and destroy.

  95. 95.

    TBone

    Noah’s tube & its incision are in perfect shape, he got a clean, new neck bandage and another whole case of Science Diet high calorie food. And more Entyce appetite stimulant for when his nasal passages clear more fully (we’re getting there).  Onward and upward!

    I might have to change his name to Noah Two Miracles!

    (The first was 5-6 years ago when sarcoma tumor removal vet wanted to amputate entire back leg but I said no. The tumor was in the loose skin between leg and abdomen/belly. It grew fast from pea size to jumbo egg.)

    Feeding time again!

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