Althouse: At the Black Dog Café...

December 6, 2012

At the Black Dog Café...

... curl up.

54 comments:

edutcher said...: Sherlock does that a lot.

He just doesn't take up as much space.; 12/6/12, 1:55 PM
Nonapod said...: I was hoping for a more libertarian view towards copyright and patent law pervading the GOP these days, guess not.; 12/6/12, 1:56 PM
Sydney said...: You are spoiling that dog.; 12/6/12, 1:56 PM
MadisonMan said...: The dog looks comfortably warm.; 12/6/12, 2:13 PM
David said...: That doggie is going to find it hard to leave Meadehouse.; 12/6/12, 2:35 PM
David said...: The dog is a house pet. You are supposed to spoil them.; 12/6/12, 2:36 PM
Lydia said...: Dogs either scare the daylights out of me or make me feel sad. Your comfy, sleeping dog does the latter.

Maybe because it reminds me of a friend who once told me that she came home after work one day and found her very old, frail dog -- who was under strict orders to never, ever sit on the furniture -- half on and half off an armchair, looking very ashamed. Poor old thing just couldn't finish the move to the floor.; 12/6/12, 2:40 PM
chickelit said...: Leave him lie.; 12/6/12, 2:43 PM
Hagar said...: It is obviously not about the money anymore, when Obama insists that he will not accept anything but raised rates on the top 2% at the same time as he proposes additional spending exceeding the estimated income from the raised tax rates.

So, how are the Republicans supposed to "work with" this guy and find "compromises" for a "bi-partisan solution"?

This is like the Russians insisting that the Finns "compromise" with Stalin.; 12/6/12, 2:47 PM
Hagar said...: Does that dog's owners permit him on the furniture?; 12/6/12, 2:48 PM
Lyssa said...: I learned yesterday that the baby is breech, so I will need to have a c-section.

People keep addressing that as a tragedy, as in, "Oh, I'm so sorry that you have to have a C."

Personally, I'm thrilled to death that I live in a time and place where a breech baby can be delivered with very minimal risk to me and him, even if it means that I never get to experience the thrill of pushing a large object through my vagina. When I think through history, it's a lot to be grateful for.

Plus, now we know that he will be here for Christmas!; 12/6/12, 2:51 PM
Herb said...: when there are pictures of a dog is that a signal that you can just make random comments that are completely unrelated?; 12/6/12, 2:53 PM
chickelit said...: I never get to experience the thrill of pushing a large object through my vagina.

That is a tempting set to spike but I will leave it to others of lesser scruple.; 12/6/12, 2:58 PM
Hagar said...: No, but when it says cafe, yes.; 12/6/12, 2:59 PM
ndspinelli said...: Do the dogs fart much? Some dogs are flatulent, some not so @ all.; 12/6/12, 3:06 PM
n.n said...: Ah, so peaceful. Secure in the knowledge that mommy and daddy will provide. Other than the loss of liberty, it a sanguine existence. Perhaps a reasonable exchange.; 12/6/12, 3:07 PM
kjbe said...: Lyssa - my one birth was a C-section b/c the baby was breech. You're right about the scheduling and avoiding the pushing - that was kind of nice, but...it's major surgery. And all that comes with that. The recovery is longer than that of the usual vaginal birth. Good luck.; 12/6/12, 3:10 PM
Lyssa said...: Herb: when there are pictures of a dog is that a signal that you can just make random comments that are completely unrelated?

Cafe (or related titles - hotel, restuarant, etc.) means talk about whatever you want. Althouse usually includes a picture of whatever she's into at the time, which has been this dog of late. So, in other words, yes.; 12/6/12, 3:13 PM
Patrick said...: Lyssa - hoping everything goes well. Haven't seen you commenting much, so I was wondering if the baby had arrived.

12/20 is a good day to be born, btw!; 12/6/12, 3:24 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Lyssa, good luck! Children are gifts, no matter how they come or who they are.; 12/6/12, 3:36 PM
MadisonMan said...: Lyssa, good luck! I hope you have plenty of help as you recover from the surgery.

My niece had a breach by caesarian last month, and all came out fine. Another benefit: No squishing of the baby's skull as it navigates the birth canal, so you get a round headed kid.; 12/6/12, 3:39 PM
Patrick said...: I admire your restraint, Chickelit.; 12/6/12, 3:44 PM
Alex said...: No squishing of the baby's skull as it navigates the birth canal, so you get a round headed kid.

Actually that squishing of the baby's skull is important to later development.; 12/6/12, 3:45 PM
Aridog said...: ndspinelli said...

Do the dogs fart much? Some dogs are flatulent,...

Our lovely female "Dera" is beyond a doubt the flatulence queen of the dog universe. Very healthy, hyper energetic, bull strong, more "wolfish" genetic characteristics than I'd like (prefers dripping bloody organ meats for example, plus yellow eyes, etc etc.) ...and farts in motion, at rest, in slumber, almost like a horse. Only more. No matter, we love her all the same....er, maybe a bit less if she's up sleeping on the bed with either of us.; 12/6/12, 3:45 PM
Lucien said...: Black dog, yellow dog: as long as it retrieves fowl it is a good dog.; 12/6/12, 3:46 PM
Alex said...: Dogs are disgusting creatures.; 12/6/12, 3:50 PM
Aridog said...: Hagar said...

Does that dog's owners permit him on the furniture?

But of course. Hell, we even have a large memory foam futon as their personal "furniture" in my little office room. Too big to fit any of our chairs & recliners, but the fit nicely on the couch, together. Yes, the couch has a cover for them, which we remove if people are visiting.

The whole point of having a dog or dogs is to let them be dogs and your companion. I think @rhhardin is the dog owner of excellence around here...he beautiful Dobe has more toys than our dogs do and he obviously spend a good deal of time with it...just like Meade does with his renta-pals, and Bagoh2o does with his rescues...many good dog folk seem to hang out here. And that includes some you'd not guess who appear to have affection for military K-9's and their handlers...but don't say anything about it here.; 12/6/12, 3:56 PM
Aridog said...: Dang...my dogs spell and type better than I do...repeat: preview is my friend. Duh.; 12/6/12, 3:58 PM
Hagar said...: After the 2000 census and re-districting the California Democrats bragged that they had practically eliminated the Republican Party as a force in California politics.

So, how has this worked out for you so far?; 12/6/12, 4:02 PM
Aridog said...: Alex said...

Dogs are disgusting creatures.

Sure enough...until one defends you or a loved one in a dangerous or life threatening situation. Ours have, over the years, and are trained for it.; 12/6/12, 4:02 PM
Alex said...: Aridog - a gun is simpler and cleaner.; 12/6/12, 4:05 PM
Robert Cook said...: "...it reminds me of a friend who once told me that she came home after work one day and found her very old, frail dog -- who was under strict orders to never, ever sit on the furniture -- half on and half off an armchair, looking very ashamed. Poor old thing just couldn't finish the move to the floor."

Awww.

My parents had an Alaskan Malamute named Buck--an Alaskan sled dog, and much bigger and "huskier" than Huskies--and he knew he wasn't permitted on the furniture, (mainly because he was so big and heavy). One day my parents returned home from an excursion to the supermarket or somewhere and as my mother waited for my father to unlock the front door, she looked into the glass pane that was set into the door frame and which provided her a partial view into the living room. She could see Buck asleep on the couch, and as my father turned the key in the lock, she watched as Buck, abruptly roused, swiftly moved from the couch down to the floor in front of the couch, where he lay when they entered, pretending to be innocent as a lamb as if he had been there all along.

My mother has laughed about that for many years.; 12/6/12, 4:11 PM
Aridog said...: Alex said...

Aridog - a gun is simpler and cleaner.

Are you presuming I haven't used guns in hostile circumstances? Nothing clean about it in my experience. However, a good dog, well trained, can defuse most civil situations better than a blaze of gunfire. In most cases they have better judgment that panicked people.

However, to each of us his own way. I carry a gun but haven't had to use it in over 20 years. It is the very last resort even for a 70 year old cote like me. I trust "Ari" the real dog, and his predecessors, far more.; 12/6/12, 4:27 PM
James Pawlak said...: I think I will take a nap.; 12/6/12, 5:06 PM
Palladian said...: Personally, I'm thrilled to death that I live in a time and place where a breech baby can be delivered with very minimal risk to me and him

He'll be eligible to kill Macbeth, so that's a plus.; 12/6/12, 5:17 PM
edutcher said...: Lyssa said...

I learned yesterday that the baby is breech, so I will need to have a c-section.

People keep addressing that as a tragedy, as in, "Oh, I'm so sorry that you have to have a C."

Personally, I'm thrilled to death that I live in a time and place where a breech baby can be delivered with very minimal risk to me and him, even if it means that I never get to experience the thrill of pushing a large object through my vagina. When I think through history, it's a lot to be grateful for.

Plus, now we know that he will be here for Christmas!

Good news, the best Christmas present of all.

The Blonde had some of your problem, but with major complications. Glad you appreciate how fortunate you are.; 12/6/12, 5:18 PM
Aridog said...: James Pawlak said...

I think I will take a nap.

When you awake, I'd suggest for that .308 you buy Silver Tip 180 grain loads.; 12/6/12, 6:14 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Men are funny.

I was walking down the sidewalk and my path brought me past a truck in an Arby's parking lot away from other cars. A man standing by the open truck door moved to intersect my path, another man dithered nearby with his phone. Good looking guy too, could have walked off a billboard. The man said something directly to me but I could not make it out. It was likely he needed cash. I do see a lot of that around here for some reason and so keep cash ready for that. It's a thing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

"mumblemumblemumblemumble"

"Do you have a problem?" (with your truck?)

"No. NO DUDE! I don't have a problem." (with you) "I was just asking howzit going. That's all. Jeeze."

"Looks like you're having a problem with your truck."

"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, mumblemumblemumble he had to charge his phone."

"It look like your truck has a leak."

"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that, we saw that. We gonna fix that too."

"Eh."

We can't even ask how it's going without potentially starting a fight. But that was odd, to intersect my trajectory like that just to ask me how I'm doing. And then later again twice the same thing. People greeting me much more than before. And it was a short deal outside today enjoying the global warming to the maximum extent in the time allowed. Young people all over the place, very engaging. People are friendly around here, yes, but not outwardly so. Not until the last election that is. It's something I noticed. People I meet have become noticeably more aggressively friendly. Everyone I meet seems to appreciate a flagging economy, they all say things along penny-pinching lines and yet appear impervious to national spending and revenues and the real problem of insolvency. It appears to me they like the idea of being married to government, they like that real well, and are all generally well chuffed with their recent engagement. Like nearby construction workers passing me by saying, "Hi there!" (here look at my ring); 12/6/12, 6:45 PM
William said...: If dogs knew the length of their life span, they'd be extremely bummed out. They wouldn't spend so much time napping. They'd want to devote every living minute to licking their balls and jumping in the lake. It's probably a blessing that they don't know how absurdly finite their life is....I'm up there in years. I have the life span of a newborn retriever. Bummer, and I can't even lick my balls.; 12/6/12, 7:03 PM
cf said...: 1. Every blessing, Lyssa
2. That picture looks like Heaven
3. The numbers time stamping this comment that will soon appear below Reflect a closing window that won't occur again until the next century. This will be the last month until 2101 that the number of a month will echo the number of the year. We have -- what? -- 24 more days of Twelve/ X / Twelve and then we have to wait 89 years for oh-one / X / oh-one.

No big deal, I guess, I know, but it's the little things sometimes. I love this sort of thing. Makes me be even more excited about Now.; 12/6/12, 7:11 PM
Emil Blatz said...: ndspinelli said...

Do the dogs fart much? Some dogs are flatulent, some not so @ all.

This is one of those "if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one for 100 miles,..." kind of questions, and the crux if it is do dogs have a concept of farting? My guess is that with an olfactory palette that is so incredibly much more capable than humans, that if they could conceptualize a fart, it wouldn't bother them very much.; 12/6/12, 7:12 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Chip Ahoy, I think I know what you mean, maybe.

I grew up in AZ and now live in PA. Here I'm going to offend people who read this. The people out west tend to be open on the outside, but closed inside. They don't let you in. The people east tend to be rough on the outside, constantly challenging, but once you're in, you're part of the family.

It seems like a tribal thing. Where the east has tribes, the west has none. They don't want them. They're all self-made, or want to think themselves so. "What do you mean by that?!" Maybe having the American Indian tribes around, with all of their special rights, makes citizens wary of tribal thinking.; 12/6/12, 7:21 PM
ad hoc said...: Lyssa,

Congratulations. Best wishes for an uneventful delivery and a quick recovery.; 12/6/12, 7:30 PM
edutcher said...: Looks like MI is going Right To Work.

Talk about in Der Fuhrer's Face. This is the Shot heard Round The World.; 12/6/12, 7:45 PM
Unknown said...: Lyssa
A Christmas baby is delightful. Congratulations.; 12/6/12, 7:51 PM
chickelit said...: William said...
If dogs knew the length of their life span, they'd be extremely bummed out.

Bloggers might be too if their ages were expressed in "blog years," the relative age of a blog compared to the age Instapundit. Here's a simple formula for calculating a blog's age in "blog years."

Divide age of a blog by the age of Instapundit in years and multiply by 100.

Example:
Althouse is 8/12 = .666 x 100 = 66.6 in blog years.

Instapundit is 12/12 x 100 = 100 in blog years--which is the upper limit in blog life expectancy.

Note that Instapundit stays the same age as time advances, while other blogs get older, asymptotically approaching 100.; 12/6/12, 7:58 PM
Methadras said...: Alex said...

Dogs are disgusting creatures.

What? You are out of your mind. Even as annoying as the toy dogs are, dogs are awesome by every measure.; 12/6/12, 8:43 PM
rcommal said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/6/12, 11:46 PM
rcommal said...: Nonapod:

Put that in a category of salvos having to do with the "'other' culture war'"--quite a pervasive one, really, not to mention one of profound implication--that most don't know about, much less pay attention to.; 12/6/12, 11:48 PM
rcommal said...: Lyssa:

All the best to you, Mommy and Daddy, and to your firstborn and the entirely new family and relationships the birth of your child will create upon entry into this world, even more than you would think given how much pregnancy changes everything and one tends to think that's the big transition: but it's not. It's the pathway, not the portal.

Good luck and Godspeed, Lyssa! Health and peace to you, your child and your family.

The birth of a child is the marker of many creations.; 12/7/12, 12:01 AM
rcommal said...: This one's for you, Lyssa! And a great good welcome to your child and to your expanding and changing family.

: )

!!!; 12/7/12, 12:06 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Very exciting, Lysaa. Fun to have a birthday near Christmas too.

And I agree with you, thank goodness for modern medicine.; 12/7/12, 6:31 AM
Lyssa said...: Thank you for the good wishes, everyone! Rcommal, that was delightful! I particularly loved the little kids trying to conduct along.; 12/7/12, 7:11 AM
Rusty said...: Lyssa,

Congratulations.

I stole that from adhoc.

Babies are the best. What a great gift.; 12/7/12, 7:23 AM