I'm reading "How a Family of 3 Lives on $500,000 on the Upper West Side" in The New York Times.

Excerpt:

Their household income is roughly $500,000 per year. While they make a good living, they try to be frugal and are saving money to buy an apartment. They moved into their roughly 800-square-foot rental eight years ago when it was just them and their dog, Peabody, a Maltese poodle. Now their son’s crib is steps away from their bed. They installed a curtain between the bed and the crib to keep the light out.... Since they share a room with their son, he often wakes them up around 5 a.m. 'In the sweetest and most adorable way,' Ms. Gossai said.

They make $500,000! $500,000 and they've got a makeshift curtain separating their baby from their bed and are resorting to framing the situation as adorable. 

I wonder how much thinking went into referring to the dog as a "Maltese poodle," rather than a "Maltipoo." Is this a sign of the great turn against the -oodle? Or is this run-of-the-mill resistance to cutesiness?

"The poodle community is particularly snappish about doodles. Doodle breeders help themselves to the poodle’s brain..."

"... and its low-shedding, hypoallergenic coat, temper the poodle’s supposedly high-strung personality with a mellower breed, and then sell their hybrids for twice as much as poodles go for.... Online, doodles stir darker emotions. 'I love all dogs and own the best dog in the world. But my god I hate those fuckers,' one Reddit commenter said of doodles. 'We have one in my close family and I’ve never met a more neurotic dog.' Many object to the prices that doodles command; Much Ado About Doodles, for example, a Virginia-based breeding business, sells pretrained goldendoodle puppies for some fifteen thousand dollars each.... 'My AKC registered dog was way cheaper and came from champion bloodlines.'... Groomers complain about owners who, instead of troubling themselves with the daily brushing and regular cuts that low-shedding coats require, allow their dog’s coat to develop painful mats that have to be shaved off, then yell at the groomer for denuding their fur baby. A common clarification in anti-doodle discourse is 'It’s not the doodles I hate, it’s the people who own them.' Wally Conron, the doodle dogfather, has apologized for his creation. '... I released a Frankenstein. So many people are just breeding for the money. So many of these dogs have physical problems, and a lot of them are just crazy....'"

From "How Doodles Became the Dog du Jour/Poodle crossbreeds have grown overwhelmingly popular, sparking controversy in dog parks and kennel clubs alike" (The New Yorker).

"Schopenhauer was a lifelong bachelor who had few friends and many enemies, who preferred the company of dogs..."

"... to that of his fellow men and women, and whose own mother, Johanna Schopenhauer, broke off ties with him, telling him in a letter, 'I am acquainted with your heart and know that few are better, but you are nevertheless irritating and unbearable, and I consider it most difficult to live with you.'... [H]e became even more so as he grew older, driven by the belief that solitude was the price of telling the rest of humankind two unbearable truths. First, that it is better never to have been born; second, for those of us unfortunate enough to exist, to expect nothing but suffering and sorrow.... It is curious to think that his beloved standard poodle, Atma, knew what men and women did not know: that his master believed in the care and concern for all living beings...."

Writes Robert Zaretsky, in "Compassionate Curmudgeon/Why we must root ourselves in the real world" (The American Scholar).

I have a tag for "dogs," but only one dog breed has its own tag.

ADDED: I'm looking at the Wikipedia entry for "Poodle." It begins: "For the political insult, see Poodle (insult). For the security vulnerability, see POODLE. For the archaeological site in Peru, see Kanichi, Peru."

So I read the entry for "Poodle (insult)":

In politics, "poodle" is an insult used to describe a politician who obediently or passively follows the lead of others....

In June 2001, Colette Avital unsuccessfully tried to have the term's use banned from the Knesset.

During the 2000s, it was used against Tony Blair with regard to his close relationship with George W. Bush, and the UK's involvement in the Iraq War. In July 2002, singer George Michael infamously used it in his song "Shoot the Dog", the video of which showed Blair as a "poodle" on the lawn of the White House....

Check it out:



That's really something. I don't know if you can make it through the whole thing. (I couldn't.) But it's interesting to go back to the day — this video is less than a year after 9/11 — when George W. Bush was vilified as a dangerous war monger and a complete idiot.

"Inside I’m screaming. You can’t walk around screaming, you have to find a way to process all this information and go on with your day."

"During this time I shower and I fix myself up, as my mother would say. On the Upper East Side there’s pressure to look a certain way.... If my boyfriend is here, we’ll do an early dinner at 6 or 7 at Bar Italia or J.G. Melon. If not, I’ll order in Chinese or Indian, have a big feast of food and watch reality shows like 'The Real Housewives' or 'Below Deck.'... As I’ve gotten older I’ve become more solitary. This routine isn’t the routine I had 20 years ago. I wouldn’t have exercised. I would have had a boozy brunch with friends. There’s a shift I went through in my mid-50s where I made lots of changes. There’s less neediness. I feel more settled. I’m hearing my own voice as opposed to hearing everybody else’s."

From "How Candace Bushnell, Writer, Spends Her Sundays" (NYT). Bushnell is the author of "Sex and the City," which was published in 1997. I like the photo at the link — her in bed with 2 big poodles.

By the way, is it politically correct to say "I’ll order in Chinese or Indian"? Seems like you should have to add "food." I think I'm taking a pretty moderate position here. An extreme position would be to say it's cultural appropriation to eat the food of an ethnic group that is not your own. And isn't there something dismissive about grouping "Chinese or Indian" with "The Real Housewives" or "Below Deck"? It's like I'm doing a junk night with the lower foods and the lower TV shows. In that light, it seems anti-feminist to go low quality when the boyfriend isn't there.

The other thing that interests me about the part I've excerpted is the voice inside her head. Is it "screaming" or "settled"? That idea that your reaction to the world is screaming and you've got to process it to get along in life reminded me of that article we were just talking about, "The Decline of Yelling."

Hey, remember when Trump haters did that protest of screaming at the sky?

Do I have a tag for screaming? I see I have "scream," but maybe that was a commenter I frontpaged. (I do a tag for every commenter I frontpage.) I see I have a tag for "The Scream." (How many individual paintings have their own tag? That must be the only one.)

The internet is a cure for the delusion that you have originality.

I was just boiling water to make a cup of coffee and the dog followed me into the kitchen, because he always accompanies anyone going into the kitchen on the off chance that there's something in it for him. I said, "Dogs don't drink coffee," and added, "But if I did a Google image search for dog drinking coffee, I'm sure I'd get a picture of a dog drinking coffee." And the larger point is: Anything you can think of, before you get the idea that you've thought of something new, you check and you see that it's not new, and you never get puffed up about anything brewing in your head. Whatever you can think of, the internet is right there to tell you it's been thought, it's been done.



Drink up. Move on.



It's okay. You're okay.

"Apologies to my wife, but Penny, my miniature poodle, is my world."

"She’s been the inspiration for countless cartoons...."

Exulting in the gloriousness of blue.

It's Lily the white poodle, at one with white clouds.

More photos by Meade of Lily here.

Wispy clouds of poodle hair...

... and nostril billows everywhere... I've looked at clouds that way....

More Poodle Lily at The Puparazzo, here.

At Libby's Café...

... don't see that poodle. See me!

"Slamming doors, banging walls, bellowing strangers and whistling neighbors were the bane of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s existence."

"But it was only in later middle age, after he had moved with his beloved poodle to the commercial hub of Frankfurt, that his sense of being tortured by loud, often superfluous blasts of sound ripened into a philosophical diatribe. Then, around 1850, Schopenhauer pronounced noise to be the supreme archenemy of any serious thinker."

Yeah, that poodle needs to simmer down. 

iPaw.

(From Irene.)

ADDED: I've added the "poodle" tag. Having blogged about breed-specific dog food today, I'm interested in my breed-specific tag. But only for poodles.

At the Teacup Café...

... it's a coffee tea house, that is, a completely open thread.

At the Sleeping Poodle Café...

... relax!

(It's a silent movie. Silent movies are on trend this year.)

At the Poodle Café...

... we're having a delightful time!





ADDED: These photos are all by Meade.

Poppy, the puppy!

"Cheer up, everyone! Meet our 'Poppy.'"

Says one of our very favorite commenters, Irene.

Click on the "poodle" tag to find earlier appearances of Irene's poodles.

"We Will NOT Roll Over!"

We went down to State Street yesterday, and not much was going on, so we stopped into Fair Trade for some coffee and coffee cake. When we stepped back onto the street...



... we collided with a small protest march that had some interesting characters in it. A photographer standing on the sidewalk got a "This is what democracy looks like" cheer going. Look for the accordion girl — standing behind the trumpeter with the blue beard — at 0:40. A very skinny man in white with a white mask on the back of his head appears at 0:50. He's got style of walk-dancing all his own. At 1:00, you see normal life on the street, lolling about with pizza and observing the parade... as if it's a Madison tourist attraction... and it kinda is.

At 1:45, you get a good look at the pedi-bar. At 2:00, the march heads toward the Capitol, and we join a rally in progress. A woman is talking about the plan to restructure the University of Wisconsin. She's very opposed to the plan. Because of Halliburton. Halliburton is evil. You can tell because if you Google "Halliburton," the stuff that comes up on the first page is really awful. At 3:08, you can see Meade's entrancing smile. 3:55: "Halliburton serves contaminated water to troops." 4:23: "Do not let Wisconsin become Karl Rove's laboratory for PLUTOCRACY."

At 4:23, a man in a "Walker's a stealer not a Packer" T-shirt walks up to me and takes my photograph. At 4:53, we see the next speaker, Secretary of State Doug La Follette, and he speaks very clearly, explaining why Michael Moore was right and we are not broke. The problem is we have some very rich people who should be paying a lot more taxes. At 6:07, the Stealer-not-a-Packer guy makes a big show of taking Meade's picture.

At 7:33, we see the marchers as they come around to the State Street side of the square. There's no relationship between the marchers and the rally. Both are making noise. It's cacophony. At 7:58, there's a woman with a "We are a Gentle Angry People" sign.

At 8:11, we encounter a man with a flag depicting an angry badger and the slogan "Nemo Visconsinia Impune Lacessit," which he tells me means "No one screws with Wisconsin and gets away with it."

At 9:35, we see the Ragin' Grannies waiting for their turn on the stage. At 10:04, we hear La Follette pleading for support as Governor Walker and others threaten to reduce or abolish the office of Secretary of State.

10:34-10:40: The Stealer-not-a-Packer guy gives me the finger.

11:52: The Ragin' Grannies take the stage and sing "We Shall Not Be Moved," with lines like "We'll keep this rally rolling/We shall not be moved/Although we could be bowling/We shall all be moved."

13:43: Meade asks me if I've seen enough, and as we walk away we see a poodle. The poodle is wearing a sign that says "We Will NOT Roll Over!"

Poodles!

The top 10 American dogs vs. the top 10 New York City dogs.

American:

Labrador Retriever, Yorkshire Terrier, German Shepherd Dog, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Boxer, Dachshund, Bulldog, Poodle and Shi Tzu.

New York City:

Labrador Retriever, Poodle, Dachshund, French Bulldog, Yorkshire Terrier, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Golden Retriever, Havanese, Shi Tzu (tied for eighth) and the Bulldog.

See the way NYC shuns the German shepherd and the beagle. See the greater appreciation for the poodle in NYC? Should I get a poodle? Should Barack Obama get a poodle? Do these lists help answer those questions?

And by the way, are the names of dog breeds supposed to be capitalized? I see the reason to capitalize French and Yorkshire and King Charles, but why are we capitalizing "Poodle"?

"Former French president Jacques Chirac was rushed to hospital after being mauled by his own 'clinically depressed' pet dog."

The insane, vicious dog that attacked the 76-year-old ex-Prez was a Maltese poodle. What makes a dog "clinically depressed" as opposed to just an asshole? A fluffy little asshole?

***

This is not that dog.



This is an utterly charming, calm, sweet-tempered, all-poodle poodle.