Althouse: Fisheye. Dog.

March 15, 2009

Fisheye. Dog.

Dog. Fisheye.

29 comments:

Curtiss said...: Who is this devil-dog that keeps appearing everywhere?; 3/15/09, 3:44 PM
ricpic said...: Wendy And Lucy is about a young woman and her dog. If there's an art house in your town and it's showing please go see it. A real real film.; 3/15/09, 4:04 PM
J. Cricket said...: Bridges of Madison County....with an ugly dog.; 3/15/09, 4:10 PM
blake said...: rp-- I wanted to see that one but it seems to have gone away before getting to our local theater.; 3/15/09, 4:12 PM
Matt said...: What, no hat on the dog?; 3/15/09, 4:28 PM
LutherM said...: EITHER

http://www.boppin.com/poets/ferlinghetti.htm

OR

My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but oh my soul is white!
White as an angel is the English child,
But I am black, as if bereaved of light.
My mother taught me underneath a tree,
And, sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And, pointed to the east, began to say:

"Look on the rising sun: there God does live,
And gives His light, and gives His heat away,
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.

"And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love
And these black bodies and this sunburnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

"For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,
The cloud will vanish, we shall hear His voice,
Saying, 'Come out from the grove, my love and care
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice',"

Thus did my mother say, and kissed me;
And thus I say to little English boy.
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy

I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear
To lean in joy upon our Father's knee;
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me.; 3/15/09, 4:42 PM
David said...: The bottom picture looks like the dog swallowed itself.; 3/15/09, 4:49 PM
ricpic said...: A dog doesn't know if it's black or white,
Or if it knows doesn't care;
A black dog would gladly piss on Zero's leg
If Zero was standing there.; 3/15/09, 5:00 PM
PWS said...: Who is the mystery figure on the far right?

A new friend?; 3/15/09, 5:09 PM
traditionalguy said...: Cold nose and warm breath. God made dogs to enjoy us. Please tell the dog he is now a star of the blogosphere. He will miss you more than his owner will.; 3/15/09, 5:10 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: The Hound of the Teasleville.; 3/15/09, 5:30 PM
Ron said...: Meade's lookin' Satanic 'n' Sexy!; 3/15/09, 6:33 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Philosopher Martha Nussbaum in a conversation with Bill Moyers.

"It's the story of Euripides Hecuba the great Queen who has lost her husband, most of her children, and her political power in the Trojan war. She's been made a slave, but despite this she remains absolutely firm morally, and she even says she believes that good character is stable in adversity and can't be shaken.

She had left her youngest child with her best friend, who was supposed to watch over him and his money and then bring him back when the war was over. When she gets to the shore of Thrace, she sees a naked body washed up on the beach. It's been so badly eaten by the fish that at first she doesn't recognize it. She looks at it more closely and then sees that it's the body of her child, that the friend has murdered for his money and just flung the body heedlessly into the waves. Suddenly the roots of her moral life are undone. She looks around and says, "Everything that I see is untrustworthy". If this deepest and best friendship proves untrustworthy, then it seems to her that nothing can be trusted, and she has to turn to a life of solitary revenge.

We see her at the end of the play putting out the eyes of her former best friend and it is predicted that she will turn into a dog."

It seems to me that either our own sense of self has depreciated over millennia or we have discovered something about dogs we never knew was there... or maybe its both.; 3/15/09, 6:40 PM
chuck b. said...: Pretty brown eyes.; 3/15/09, 6:44 PM
traditionalguy said...: Lem... Try out a dog yourself. The loyalty gene is the dog's raison d'etre. Whatever that greek guy wrote was for his mass audiences in the greek cities who did not have indoor dogs. That queen lady sounded like she already had a dog's atitude if Betrayal by a man shocked her that much.; 3/15/09, 6:53 PM
Ron said...: Should be set to Zep's Black Dog!; 3/15/09, 6:53 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If I could have a dog I would have this kind.

I don't know what kind it is.. nor if its a manly dog. (it doesn't look like a manly dog); 3/15/09, 7:32 PM
Methadras said...: Lem. You won't find a greater loyalty than that from a dog bonded to his/her master. People's loyalty will come and go like the ebbing and flowing of a tide, but a dogs loyalty is absolute. They are loyal to the core and you won't find a greater companion when you need them most short of a husband/wife or one of your children. People will hate you, but your dog won't. People will scorn you, but your dog won't. You can beat your dog to with an inch of it's life and it will still crawl towards you to lick it's own blood off of your fingers in love and affection. That is what a dogs loyalty is worth. More than I can see for some people.; 3/15/09, 7:33 PM
The Dude said...: Good looking dog. I take lots of pictures of my dogs but I have to say that the fisheye picture where the dog's body is hidden by his head is awesome.

Nicely done...; 3/15/09, 7:41 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: When we were children a dog bit my little brother. There was never a chance for a dog in our family after that.; 3/15/09, 8:04 PM
David said...: "Please tell the dog he is now a star of the blogosphere. He will miss you more than his owner will."

Actually, no. One of the great survival traits of the dog is its ability to bond quickly with another human if its first human is out of the picture. Dogs do this all the time, knowing that they need the human. This is not a trait that a human female would likely find attractive in the dog's owner.

That said, it's one cool dog.; 3/15/09, 8:07 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Lem:
"We see her at the end of the play putting out the eyes of her former best friend and it is predicted that she will turn into a dog."

It seems to me that either our own sense of self has depreciated over millennia or we have discovered something about dogs we never knew was there... or maybe its both.

I think Euripides was thinking of the viciousness of dogs, something still looked for, in pit bulls for instance. The Brothers Karamazov had a child who wanted a dog that was big and vicious, so I don't think any change has happened over millenia. The change is probably over one or two generations. Dogs have become dumber, more dependent, and more civilized, just like people.; 3/15/09, 8:37 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Dogs have become dumber, more dependent, and more civilized, just like people.

You are asking for it Jason ;)

Althousia is a dog town.; 3/15/09, 9:31 PM
traditionalguy said...: Lem... Some of the Althouse folk are Alt-Housecat lovers too. The need to express love to something worthy of being loved is a common virtue among those who seek out Althouse for fellowship. I hear that Tigers also make good pets, but I don't know how to feed them safely.; 3/15/09, 9:49 PM
DaLawGiver said...: Ann,

That dog doesn't really like you, he knows you aren't a real dog person. I can tell by his expression he only tolerates you and would just as soon feast on your liver. Be very careful around him, I suggest you carry a firearm when on these walks. He's just waiting for his chance,; 3/15/09, 11:09 PM
Revenant said...: I like the second photo. It distorts the dog's snout so that its nose is the most prominent feature on its body. Which is likely similar to how the dog itself regards its senses.; 3/16/09, 1:27 AM
Joan said...: Yes! It's The Dog!

I wondered how long it would take until Ann's fisheye finally caught up with a dog curious (or patient) enough to be properly photographed.

I've tried to get similar shots of my cats, but they are completely uncooperative.; 3/16/09, 3:16 AM
knox said...: Bridges of Madison County....with an ugly dog.

tee-hee... but that is NOT an ugly dog. That's a very cool dog.; 3/16/09, 7:48 AM
Choppy said...: More dog posts!; 3/16/09, 8:22 AM