Althouse: At the Black Dog Café...

November 26, 2012

At the Black Dog Café...

... come in and dry off.

60 comments:

Tim said...: The three best teams in the NFC seem to be the Niners, Giants and Falcons.

And, even at that, as a Niner fan, only the Giants scare me.

The Falcons seem, well, vulnerable sums it up best, I think.

The AFC?

Pffft.

Just like most of the'80's and early 90's.; 11/26/12, 8:53 PM
edutcher said...: Give that puppy a nice, warm throw to roll around in.; 11/26/12, 8:56 PM
sakredkow said...: Yesterday the world's arguably strongest chess player, Magnus Carlsen, lost a game with the White pieces to...Judit Polgar, the world's strongest female player ever. He came back to win the next game, however, and then clinched the finals victory in tiebreaks.

Hey, too freaking bad. I happen to believe some people LIKE getting chess news from time to time in the Althouse Cafés.; 11/26/12, 9:01 PM
pm317 said...: Poor, poor Zeus..He looks uncomfortable.; 11/26/12, 9:10 PM
Sorun said...: Wet dog smell. How do you deal with that? Are there covers on your car seats, or do you make him walk home?; 11/26/12, 9:14 PM
XRay said...: Hey, phx. Though I'll seem like a suck-up I agree that Chess news is cool, now I'll go google for more, thanks for the tip.

How is it that a guy named 'Magnus' is great in chess...; 11/26/12, 9:34 PM
madAsHell said...: He was swimming a couple of days ago, and now you pull him out of the water.

Full disclosure:
I had a dog named Zeus. He'd come home with chunks of flesh missing, and just about bled-out a couple of times. Welsh Terrier. The toughest son-of-a-bitch I've ever seen.

I don't keep male dogs anymore.; 11/26/12, 9:35 PM
sakredkow said...: XRay that's what I'm talkin' about. Ain't no left-wing right-wing shite in chess.

Magnus is very quickly becoming the strongest player ever. He's 21, from Norway, a complete and total serial killer on the chess board.

I shouldn't put it that way.; 11/26/12, 9:37 PM
Saint Croix said...: I sent an email to Nat Hentoff asking him to write a forward for my abortion book, and he called me on the phone. Twice! Really nice guy. He's reading my book this week. Fingers crossed.; 11/26/12, 9:48 PM
XRay said...: From the 'Wiki' entry Polgár sounds like a helluva player, not to mention person.

Well, Norway is close to Sweden, so in turn close to that asshole Larsson, so perhaps serial isn't that far off.; 11/26/12, 9:57 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: One son is obsessed with space right now, so I brought out lots of space books.

One said that Venus should be a lesson to us, our fate if global warming is allowed to continue.

Global warming is the cancer of science books and magazines. It is in everything. It spreads and spreads.

"Look at this animal."
"Oh, how interesting!"
"Yeah, well it'll be DEAD if you drive a car!"

What if every book told you to eat green beans. You'd say, "What the hell? Just leave me alone for a second. I'm trying to read about volcanoes." And the book would say, "Okay. But do eat green beans." So you'd put down that book and pick up a book about DNA, and that book would say, "DNA... but none of this matters if you don't eat green beans!" So you'd try a book about whales... and here you're thinking, "No, not the whale book. OF COURSE, that one will be almost entirely about green beans!" Whales are the political sandwich boards of the animal kingdom.

You might quit picking up science books and start reading novels because at least the characters wouldn't be talking about green beans.; 11/26/12, 10:02 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: That space book also had the obligatory Large Science Book's Science Versus Religion Segment.; 11/26/12, 10:04 PM
traditionalguy said...: Let Zeus shake off good and dry him off with a towel before admitting him to the room with his chair in it.; 11/26/12, 10:07 PM
XRay said...: Well, what I know about chess would fit in a small thinble... but Carlsen seems even more shit hot.; 11/26/12, 10:07 PM
sakredkow said...: LOL! That was a great argument Freeman.; 11/26/12, 10:08 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I cancelled a subscription to one children's science magazine because every issue was about global warming and environmentalism and green gardening. It was like Science Stuff That White Liberal Arts Majors Like.; 11/26/12, 10:09 PM
sakredkow said...: That was one of the most civil whallops I've ever seen around here.; 11/26/12, 10:10 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: You can buy a DVD set of Watch Mr. Wizard, the Mr. Wizard program from the 1950s. It's fantastic. Actual science fundamentals.; 11/26/12, 10:11 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I like the chess news, phx. I like the story of the the Polgars' upbringing.; 11/26/12, 10:15 PM
Bob Ellison said...: You can do it, Pimp Lucius.; 11/26/12, 10:16 PM
sakredkow said...: Well, if there's a chess headline worth mentioning, I will from time to time.

Yes, the Polgar's are a very interesting example of home schooling, Freeman.; 11/26/12, 10:17 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I like it because there's a guy who said he could do something, something people didn't think you could do, and he did it. "I can make prodigies." Pish posh, people say. And he makes three.; 11/26/12, 10:21 PM
sakredkow said...: Yeah, it's a rub-your-eyes story. First Sofi, then Suzan (the Women's World Champion in her own right), and then the prodigy who would defeat world champions, the youngest grandmaster ever at the time, from the 2700+ rating club, Judit.

And father's ring to rule them all.; 11/26/12, 10:26 PM
sakredkow said...: And Judit Polgar, as the precog Agatha.; 11/26/12, 10:30 PM
McTriumph said...: That puppy is going to sleep well tonight, happy dreams.; 11/26/12, 10:33 PM
Anonymous said...: The water is a lot warmer here in N Florida. Except they can only go in the ocean. Labs LOVE splashing out through the waves to retrieve the tennis ball. Can't swim in the rivers. Favorite gator food is dawg. Gators will scale a chain link fence for dog. Many Camp grounds (Ginnie Springs, et al) ban them completely. That way gators don't go wandering through the tent sites at night along the Santa Fe river looking for dinner.; 11/26/12, 10:42 PM
Patrick said...: Whales make great sandwich boards because they are so big. You can write pretty much all you want on those things.; 11/26/12, 10:48 PM
Unknown said...: Freeman
It's close to impossible to find a science book for kids that doesn't toe the environmentalist line. I keep trying, for the sake of balance if nothing else, but they are few and far between.
I'd settle for no mention of invironmentalism at all. You'd think someone could manage to just not mention it at all, but you'd be wrong.
There's a similar problem with mulitculturalism and American history. It's very difficult to find unbiased nonfiction.; 11/26/12, 10:58 PM
Palladian said...: I once started a chess game in a thread here with another commenter, which we continued for a while via email. But eventually the game Petered out and he never took his next move. I guess I was a boring opponent.

I think the intractable political disputes around here should be converted to chess matches after a certain number of back-and-forth comments.; 11/26/12, 11:05 PM
Tim said...: "Welsh Terrier. The toughest son-of-a-bitch I've ever seen."

Welsh Terrier.

I have a Welsh Terrier.

Great dog.

Little bastard doesn't know he's a small dog, lol.

Loves kids, people, other dogs. It's a riot when we patrol the neighborhood.

Every now and again, someone comments, "oh, look at the cute miniature Airdale!"

I hate ignorance.; 11/26/12, 11:13 PM
rcommal said...: There is no drying off.; 11/27/12, 12:07 AM
Joan said...: Sorry, Tim - I think a miniature Airedale would be cute as all get-out, but then I like the full-sized ones just fine. I am admirer of dogs but an owner of cats. I appreciate cats self-sufficiency in feeding, toileting, & grooming. They rarely get wet, and when they do, they don't reek.

Meanwhile, I have applied to teach at a school staffed exclusively by really well-educated people. I think it would be nice to work with people who don't laugh at me when I use words like "draconian", and it would be nice to work with students that can, say, divide 20 by 5 without having to write anything down. But admitting that makes me feel bad somehow, because maybe the not-as-smart kids need me more than the smarty-pants kids do? Being a square peg in a round hole gets tiring, though. My corners have been smoothed a bit, but just by comparing my grade book and lesson plans to my current peers, I can tell that we're operating from a different playbook. I want my students to learn and every day I battle their apathy and insolence, their educational inertia. They don't see the point. I have a recurring conversation with one peer who shares my frustration -- what happens when we care more than the students do? We get ulcers, they laugh at us for being chumps and working so hard.

All this will probably come to nothing -- I expect my application will get a glance, but I don't even know if I'll make it to the pre-interview telephone call stage.; 11/27/12, 12:21 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: Do you guys have really cool chess sets? Good boards?

I have the best. So simple and pure. The board heavy but nothing at all fancy or pretentious, the right size. The pieces store in a wooden box made for them.

And another one that's awesomely pissy. Napoleon. With rampant horses. But for all that the board that comes with it is flimsy and the pieces are not heavy. Their bases are hollow I could easily weight them and when you pick one up you think, "This should be heavy."

A friend plays felons using a book with paper pieces that fit into slots. His book has several games going simultaneously. Had, I should say, I don't know what he's doing now. We played. He kicked my ass all over the place and when he explained things I didn't understand what he was saying. He showed Belgians in conformation. He was the worst obedience trainer I ever met, and still his dog made up for it.; 11/27/12, 2:02 AM
SCOTTtheBADGER said...: I saw this over at Theo Spark today. It explains A LOT.
http://clashdaily.com/?s=James+Carville; 11/27/12, 2:18 AM
Deloras said...: Ann , I ruined my Golden Retrievers back in one session by having him retrieve a ball from the water too often. Do this only in moderation. Your dog won't know any better.; 11/27/12, 5:58 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: A guy I know overdosed on heroin the other day.

He was 48 and pretty much a psychiatric invalid for the last 15 years or so.

But, hey, at least he died doing what he loved.; 11/27/12, 6:14 AM
pm317 said...: Chip Ahoy said...

---------------
yes! We have a good chess set which I bought for my MiL when she was visiting us. It is actually a square table with the chess board painted on top and has a nice side drawer to store the pawns.; 11/27/12, 6:35 AM
Rusty said...: pm317 said...
Poor, poor Zeus..He looks uncomfortable.

That's the, "Hmmmm. What is that down there? It looks interesting. I think I'll put it in my mouth."; 11/27/12, 6:57 AM
rhhardin said...: Woody Allen chess by mail.; 11/27/12, 7:16 AM
sakredkow said...: The Woody Allen piece is hysterical. "As you can see, your king is trapped, unguarded and alone in the center. Best to you."; 11/27/12, 7:22 AM
rhhardin said...: Chess-playing Doberman.; 11/27/12, 7:33 AM
Michael Haz said...: @Freeman Hunt - Your comments had me laughing straight away. Green Beans! Ha!

Then I thought "Saaay...do you suppose there's a green bean blog??"

And lo, there is!

I used to subscribe to Scientific American until it became a shill piece for the theories of Al Gore. Cancelled it.; 11/27/12, 7:37 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Wet dog smell. How do you deal with that? Are there covers on your car seats, or do you make him walk home?"

He walks home. (And is dried off with a towel.) "Make" him walk home is a funny way to put it. The dog wants to go for a walk.

The lake is 1 mile from here. So that's a 2 mile walk, with a swim in the middle. Meade is good at knowing what fits the dogs capacity.

Some people do make mistakes overexercising their dogs (apparently). I've heard Meade criticize the practice of biking while having a dog on a leash trot alongside. (Or walking a dog from a car.); 11/27/12, 7:39 AM
Ann Althouse said...: When we take him in a car, it's a Honda CRV, an SUV with a back area for the dog. He's not on a seat.; 11/27/12, 7:40 AM
Ann Althouse said...: But he's never coming out of the lake and into the car.; 11/27/12, 7:40 AM
Meade said...: Rusty's right: Zeus is intensely focused on the tennis ball in that picture. At the moment, he is lying on the floor between our two desks, intensely focused on the peanut butter inside his Kong. It's a beautiful day in Madison. When it warms up a bit, we'll go for a run/swim.; 11/27/12, 7:48 AM
Bob Ellison said...: I have three dogs. Two of them are getting on in years, and one of them has arthritis. She still climbs up stairs (down is no problem), but she obviously doesn't like doing it.

But she does it anyway, and she loves nothing more than a walk. Well, maybe a small slice of lamb.

We're all living on borrowed time. These dogs, who give out so much unconditional love, don't usually complain about the hassle of having a good piece of that borrowed time.; 11/27/12, 8:34 AM
MadisonMan said...: That green bean blog has too many not bean articles. Ginger-lemon tea? How does that relate to my favorite legume?

There is also a lima bean blog, but it apparently is not about lima beans.; 11/27/12, 8:35 AM
MadisonMan said...: When it warms up a bit, we'll go for a run/swim.

The bike ride in was glacial today. Not many bikers on the SW Bike path.; 11/27/12, 8:38 AM
Meade said...: Maybe city council could install warming cables under the SW Commuter Path. It's only money.; 11/27/12, 8:52 AM
Aridog said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/27/12, 8:53 AM
Anonymous said...: Blogger Palladian said...

I once started a chess game in a thread here with another commenter, which we continued for a while via email. But eventually the game Petered out and he never took his next move. I guess I was a boring opponent.

I think the intractable political disputes around here should be converted to chess matches after a certain number of back-and-forth comments.

11/26/12 11:05 PM
_________________________________

for your typical D voter the conversion would have to be to checkers; 11/27/12, 8:58 AM
Aridog said...: Althouse said...

I've heard Meade criticize the practice of biking while having a dog on a leash trot alongside. (Or walking a dog from a car.)

Number one, Meade is absolutely correct about anyone trying to lead a dog from a car window alongside. Idiocy and dangerous to both dog and people.

As for those who use a bicycle, criticism is only warranted when they over do it...e.g., exceed the dogs capacity and ability. It is also nuts to use a bicycle in any kind of congested area, be it automotive or pedestrian...e.g., you do not have proper control.

The same knowledgeable common sense Meade uses to determine canine capacity applies to the bike thing. If it isn't suitable for the dog and serve a dog oriented purpose, it is nuts, too.

As for any long distance bicycle dog leading, it is only appropriate if a breed is suited for it and the individual dog is suitable for it. That means appropriate fitness built up over time. It, then, is no different than leading a dog off leash from horseback...however few cities and towns would let you gallop through them on a horse with large dog off leash.

The "AD" (Ausdauerpruefung ... endurance) title in Schutzhund, under USCA or German SV, is a breed-test title of achievement. It is a twelve mile *run* at at a trot, with handler jogging alongside all the way. Few handlers can *run* twelve miles consistently, but I've known a few. It is a title, part of a series of breed-tests, once earned it is unnecessary to repeat frequently, if ever.

The AD title is difficult and many a German Shepherd are not up to it, let alone their handlers. Similar to the Herding titles for German Shepherds, utilizing one or two dogs tending a 3 figure sized flock with no fences, it is an epitome title.

Any handling of the dog that indicates lack of handler awareness of the dog's condition or welfare is disqualifying in any legitimate USCA or SV trial setting.

Finally, some dogs, German Shepherds or others, do not know their own fatigue levels. Our pair of GSD's exemplify the difference. The big male knows when to take a break and cool off, in any weather. The regular sized female is witless regarding her own fatigue and will run herself in to heat stroke if not carefully monitored, especially in summer...even if she's just playing alone and amusing herself. "Ari" will just lie there and watch her go nuts with a toy. My better half sometimes calls her "Ditz" instead of "Dera."; 11/27/12, 9:01 AM
Meade said...: "If it isn't suitable for the dog and serve a dog oriented purpose, it is nuts, too."

This principle should be microchip-injected into every dog owner's brain. "If it isn't suitable for the dog..." And by "it", we should mean "everything" we impose on the dog: food, environment, activity, inactivity...

Through domestication we created Dog. That makes us entirely responsible for their welfare in every way.; 11/27/12, 9:05 AM
Aridog said...: Meade said...

This principle should be microchip-injected into every dog owner's brain.

Agreed, including the "everything" aspect.; 11/27/12, 9:26 AM
Tim said...: "Sorry, Tim - I think a miniature Airedale would be cute as all get-out, but then I like the full-sized ones just fine."

Hi Joan,

Yes, a "miniature Airedale would be cute as all get-out," but the thing is, there is no such thing; more to the point, the Airdale is the one that looks like an enlarged Welsh Terrier, as it resulted from the cross-breading of a Welsh Terrier and an English Otter Hound. The size disparity is, uh, notable.

Anyway, good luck changing schools. Long ago I thought of teaching, but the idea of teaching apathetic and insolent kids was just hateful.; 11/27/12, 9:29 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Poor, poor Zeus..He looks uncomfortable.

I think you are wearing that dog out. Give it a rest.; 11/27/12, 11:15 AM
ken in tx said...: Pekingese don’t know that they are small either. Supposedly they are down-bred from ancient Chinese military dogs. They think they are still big. They will attack anything and anybody that comes in their territory.; 11/27/12, 12:02 PM
Baron Zemo said...: The Giants should scare you.

They have exposed the Niners and the Packers as the over rated losers teams that they really are.; 11/27/12, 12:46 PM
Tim said...: "The Giants should scare you."

Much less so now that I know Brown's injury leaves him sidelined for the year.

That will compromise Eli's ability to throw off of play action, which, well, you can figure out the rest.; 11/27/12, 5:56 PM