Less than 2.5 minutes of a vizsla stalking a wolf. All of my hunting dogs have done this. Gem used to go ballistic over a small black iron doorstop in the shape of a cat silhouette we'd drive past on our way home from the vet. Queen Dog went insane over a kitty-cat cut-out in the vet's garden. My mother's shih-tzu would slo-mo stalk her own metal water bowl from time to time, for no reason we could detect.

And my maternal uncle, a subsistence hunter, was once outfoxed by a neighbor and spent nearly an hour belly-crawling through the snow with his bow in pursuit of what he thought was a deer. I'll say no more, just watch, WITH THE SOUND ON:



My thanks to mckennl!

It fucking snowed here Monday. SNOW. Okay, for less than a minute, but STILL.

I'm fifty miles east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and I guess this was a little bit of their snow.

But STILL. It was supposed to go down to 33F/0C Tuesday night, which meant I had to drag everything tropical back into the house: orchid, clivias, lipstick plant, etc. and my flats of polkadot plants.

So I'm holding off on planting anything (our frost-safe date is allegedly April 1 or April 15 — I don't bother keeping exact track of a lie — we have learned it is really May 15). I dragged the lipstick plant and the orchid back into the house. I'm fretting over the safety of my petunias and unplanted herbs... bring them in, plant them, what?

I will shortly leave for a two-week trip and I can't find a plant-sitter, which is making this worse. I thought that without a dog, I could travel with a clear conscience but nnnoooOOoooooooo.

I have some dissectum Japanese maples which require the tenderest of loving care, i.e., copious watering. Dammit.

This boy died right by Nephew's base week before last, knocking out communications with Nephew until Specialist White's next of kin could be identified. What the press release doesn't tell you is that three other men were horribly injured as well and may die (or may have already died) of their injuries.

I am to see Nephew in Illinois in early May when he returns home for his brother's wedding (that's Nephtoo, if you're keeping track).

I got to see Neph-3, Savant's sister's son, this past weekend. He is ten. In eleven years, he'll be as old as Specialist Jeffrey White. I hope we're out of Afghanistan by then.

I don't know how Nephew's mother gets through the days. I really don't.

Have I mentioned that Nephew's mission is IED suppression?

Awww! Look behind the cut to see what fatfred found for me!

( language NSFW )

Oh, wait. That's my entire flist. Well, okay, here we are. I was about to slap someone for misspelling 'ampersand' when I decided to double-check before unleashing my wrath. Good thing I did, or I'd be typing this intro in blush-pink. Here's an explanation from someone called Dr. R:

Ampersand vs. Asperand

Ampersand: The sign: & This figure for the word “and” came to be created over time. It is a ligature (a binding of two or more letters into one) of the “e” and “t” in the latin word “et” (“and”).

Asperand: One of the many names for the figure @. More often, it’s called the “at sign.” Again it’s a ligature, created originally by accountants, from the first letters of the words “at” and “each” (the circle over the “a” stands for the “e” in “each”). There is some controversy over the origin of this sign, and the word “asperand” is so rare that you won’t find it in many dictionaries.

Some people say “asperand” when they mean &, and some people say “ampersand” when they mean @.

Oh. Thank you, Dr. R. If you want to geek all the way out, in addition to this info below, Wiki gives names for @ in over a dozen different languages.

The at sign, @, also called the ampersat, apetail, arroba, atmark, acosta, at symbol, commercial at, curlat, or monkey tail, is formally an abbreviation of the accounting and commercial invoice term "at the rate of" (e.g. 7 widgets @ $2 = $14). In recent years, its meaning has changed to also mean "at" in the sense of "located at", especially in email addresses. There is no universal word for this sign....

The Underwood Typewriter Company introduced the symbol on the keyboard of the "Underwood No. 5" in 1900, and continued the trend on subsequent models....

French: Its French name is arobase or sometimes arrobe or arobe (from the arroba, an old Spanish and Portuguese unit of weight)....

German: It is called the "at symbol" or "spider monkey" (Klammeraffe)....

Spanish, Portugese and Catalan: In Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan, it is the symbol for arroba, an archaic unit of weight, and in some Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries it is still pronounced this way, even when relating to an email address....

Go look at the other languages for fun. The names are cute: snail, worm, rollmop, doggie, elephant trunk, little duck, curled alpha, and more, especially variations on 'monkey.' Had it been up to me, I might have called it cat-curl or cat-tail, as in a cat curled up with the tail around (not the phallic ones which grow in swamps and ditches).

bkwrrm_tx are still kinda new to each other, so I'm doing their meme.

1) Is there a singer or musician whose complete works you absolutely enjoy, no exceptions?
2) Of all the vehicles you’ve owned, which was your favourite?
3) Who is your least favourite celebrity?
4) What are the last books you got from the library?
5) What’s was the first thing you saw when you looked out of your window this morning?
6) What was the highlight of your high school experience?
7) Would you rather drink with a friend or triumph over an enemy?

1. Yes, Santana & Pink Floyd
2. Esmeralda Element, Emma for short, my current car. Though Nessie Nissan, my first and only new car (which I kept 18 years) comes close.
3. Frank Sinatra; Carrot Top; any Kardashian or "Jersey Shore" person.
4. Secrets of the FBI, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Hemingses of Monticello: an American family, A Messenger of Athens (very very good), Hell is Empty (absorbing but not sure I liked the paranormal ending), The Moral Lives of Animals, Gabby: a story of courage and hope, Escape by Barbara Delinsky, three jewelry-making books, one health book, three "Mrs. Jeffries" mysteries (not very good), two Lyn Hamilton mysteries (one read so far, not very good), and three other miscellaneous not-so-good mysteries. I'm not kidding. I go with a shopping bag every couple of weeks.
5. sunlight on the teeny buds of a tiny Japanese maple
6. I got out. And my social studies teacher, Dorothy Jean Lewis, saved my life. And I met two good men: Herb Rangl (German) and Pete Insley (Physics). Good examples of what men could be; a standard to look for in the future.
7. Bottoms up!

I did. I went out with Abu and had the fattiest steak om nom nom and TWO drinks. Two! Whiskey sours, they were. I had tried to get one at a Thai restaurant the week before, and no lie, they didn't know what I was talking about.

I haven't done a thing for Black History Month this year, so here, a wonderful image from Girodet (Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, whom mousme was kind enough to identify as male for me before I tracked him down on English-language sites, doh!).

Portrait du citoyen Jean-Baptiste Belley, représentant des Colonies (1797) by Girodet (Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson) -- "c'est le portrait de Jean-Baptiste Belley, un député noir de Saint-Domingue qui a le plus retenu mon attention lors de la visite de sa collection à Montréal." The caption goes on and on at the original site, something about tight or revealing pantaloons, I think (feel free to tell me), and certainly about sex appeal, which are the only two words in English there. Whether Député Jean-Baptiste Belley was himself from San Domingue, or France, or some other French possession, I don't know. (Yeah, now I do, see under pic; more about the racial/racist implications of his pants, as well.)




EDIT: Okay, now I do. Belley was enslaved in Senegal at the age of two & shipped to the Caribbean. In 1793, after being wounded six times in armed struggle against the colonists, he was elected one of three delegates to France for 1794 seating of the French National Convention which abolished slavery, returning when he lost his seat in 1797, the year of this portrait. Belley is considered the first black man to have been elected since the other two were mulatto & white. One site claims Belley became "lost to history" in Haiti while fighting the Napoleonic army which was seeking to re-establish slavery there. However, Wiki says he returned to Haiti in 1802 as a gendarme, was himself arrested and returned to France, and died a prisoner there in 1805.

Though the portrait by a European shows Belley in aristocratic dress, leaning on the bust of an egalitarian philosopher, critics cited over at Wiki assert that the depiction of his apparently considerable personal anatomy is actually a slam, meant to portray him as an animalistic "noble savage" type, emphasis on the savage. I don't think I go along with that. Despite my bone-deep ignorance of most artistic conventions, nonetheless it seems to me in any age, most men, whether viewers or subjects of portraiture, would consider it, or interpret it, as a compliment to be painted with such a admiring & generous brush, whether it reflects actual anatomy accurately or not. OTOH, I am not known for my subtlety, nor do I personally consider a petite appendage proof of "civilisation."

My dear Art Institute of Chicago has Girodet's very complete pencil portrait done prior to the painting. It also shows certain folds in the fabric, though with a slightly different contour which you might interpret as not quite so immodest. Click the image there to see more clearly.

Okay, Canadians, remember, there is a re-run tonight! And probably in the U.S., also, I just don't have time to check. I still haven't reviewed the Terrier Group and Best In Show. All I have to say about that at this moment is that, natch, the Terrier Group is TOO DAMN BIG and needs to be split by height or something. I know the AKC and broadcasters aren't keen on adding another night to the show, but why not? Why not? They pull a strong audience every night and for the replays, too. Here are the links if you want to read along:

Hounds
Toys
Non-Sporting
Herding
Sporting
Working
Terrier
Best In Show

The only other thing I have time to say today is about a breed which doesn't compete at Westminster, a Hungarian shepherding dog called the Mudi. I'd never heard of them before an hour ago, but look! Look how cool! diggerlicious, LOOK! The pics are all clickety, and the third one takes you to a long illustrated roster of the allowed colors & merles. Right-click "view image" on the first to get a good look at those eyes.







More than three-quarters of Mudi are plain black, but isn't that merle dramatic? Whoo baby!

Working Group, here we go. There is some blur here with shepherding dogs (here, the dogs tend more to be "livestock guardians," in other words, killers), some sled dogs, draft dogs, fishermen's dogs, some rescuing & tracking, some big game hunting breeds (which should mean the Ridgeback is in here, but nooooooo), guard dogs, war dogs, and though they won't admit it, fighting dogs.

The AKC is an arbitrary deity, and is oft beyond mortal comprehension. But please, Dear Dog, couldn't you break things up and create an arctic / spitz group, as I was whining just a little while ago?

Fun thing: owners of the Tibetan Mastiff who went best of breed got married today in the grooming area. True Story. Dang, it looks as though they aren't going to broadcast the funny fashions show in its entirety. Dog costumes for as much as $500. Some of the bigger breeds look caparisoned, not costumed.

And speaking of costuming, the judge looks pretty snazzy herself, in a formal black gown which will take well to bending and stretching. Just one or two of the panels in her skirt are slightly sheer; sexy without being revealing. The opaque panels have the same sheer fabric floating over them. She looks as good in motion as a full-skirted black Cocker, and I know she wouldn't be insulted to hear me say so.

A daring V in both the front and back, many narrow horizontal gathers around her hips and waist towards a rhinestone ornament at left waist. Sheer but shirred long sleeves, again, modest and functional. And they'd hide the sin of loose old-lady arms if she had them, but I don't think she does. Dang, she looks good. It just floats around her. Whatever she spent, it was worth it. Jesus. Now I'm not just suffering from dog envy, I've got a case of gown envy, too? ( Now on to the fashionable dogs... )


My pulls: James the Great Dane; Crush the Neapolitan; Oz the PWD; Pilot the Rottweiler; Sylvie the Siberian; Snazzy the Newfie. The Giant Schnauzer will get pulled because of the handler; hiring such a luminary tells the judge the dog is something special. Maaaybe the Leonburger, the Bull Mastiff, and Scarlett the Boxer. Maaaaybe Zill the Black Russian.

The judge's pulls: the Malamute Ricky, Bernese named Ammet or whatever, Boxer Scarlett, Doberman Fifi, Rottweiler Pilot, Samoyed Candy, Standard Schnauzer Zorro, and the Tibetan Mastiff Major, DANG I KNEW I should have picked the Tibetan.

The judge's picks: Okay, I'm guessing the Sam, the Dobe, the Boxer, the Mal. What does she pick? She picks the Dobe, the Boxer, the Mal, and then the Schnauzer. Hmmm! Oddly, she chooses a fifth, the Bernese, and leaves the remainder unranked. I suspect she pulled the Tibetan for the same reason I nearly did -- to give his parents an extra thrill on their wedding day. Good dog, though, I'd have pulled him without that if I hadn't already pulled such a big handful.

Okay, I love doing this, I do, I do, but I cannot keep going tonight. I'll blog the terriers and Best in Show tomorrow, but I gotta stop sitting up now before my back snaps and my vertebrae roll across the floor like unstrung pearls.

Hounds
Toys
Non-Sporting
Herding
Sporting
Working
Terrier
Best In Show