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.

Does Obama have a pet? Does McCain have a pet?

Reading about Rush Limbaugh and his besotted fondness for his kitty cat, I realized we don't hear anything about the presidential candidates' pets. Usually, you hear about the pets... Socks this, Barney that. King Timahoe.

But I don't remember seeing any pet stories this time around. Do these men not have pets? Is this a new trend? Men without pets?

It turns out that Barack Obama, in fact, has no pets. McCain?

He’s got the usual dogs—four of them actually: two Yorkshire terriers, Lucy and Desi; an English springer spaniel, Sam; and a mutt, Coco—and a black-and-white cat named Oreo. But he also reportedly owns two turtles (Cuff and Link), three parakeets, and thirteen saltwater fish. And in the past he’s had guinea pigs, snakes, and “an iguana that Jack walked on a leash,” according to Vogue, plus a ferret. The ferret recently died of cancer, and though McCain called it “a very cute animal,” he also told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren in a joint interview with his wife that, “Rather than alienate the pro-pet constituency, I will remain silent about the loss of our ferret,” implying that perhaps Cindy was the impetus behind that acquisition. Indeed, Cindy seems to be more of an animal person than John. “She loves animals, just not always ones that I appreciate,” he told Vogue. It was Cindy who went out and bought the two terriers as she coped with their daughter Meghan's graduating college and leaving home. But McCain has proven his devotion to his pets: About five years ago, as the New York Times’ Caucus blog reported, Coco the mutt began choking (on either a treat or a piece of meat—memories differ), and McCain attempted a sort of doggie Heimlich. When that failed, McCain stuck two of his fingers down the dog’s throat and cleared the blockage, saving the dog.

***

Requisite ferret link. ("This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness.")

ADDED: What President had dogs named Sweet Lips, Scentwell, Vulcan, Drunkard, Taster, Tipler, and Tipsy? What President had, for pets, 2 tiger cubs? What President gave his dog the absurdly uncreative name Fido?

AND: Apparently, Obama promised he'd get his daughters a dog after the campaign is over, and the American Kennel Club ran a poll that determined that the breed he should get is.... poodle.

ALSO: I think poodle -- a large ("standard") poodle -- is a great dog choice, and it's probably what I would get. But I cannot picture an American male politician with a poodle. It doesn't have the right connotations... and not just because we associate it with a foreign country. (Bush has Scotties.) Mainstream Americans think bad thoughts about poodles, and the President has better things to do than to retrain our poodle-thoughts. Also, with poodles, you have to pick black or white. Obama can't do that! He could get 2, black and white, but that would seem as though he were trying too hard for symbolism. Yes, I know there are red poodles. Still... Maybe an American male politician could get a nice red labradoodle.

But wait. It's a dog for his daughters. I think those little girls should -- after all this -- get whatever dog or dogs they want. If they want to walk around holding little chihuahuas, they should do it. Or do they have their own image consultants, building their political careers, determining the precise dog that will say what's best to say?

So, I've been thinking of getting a dog...

Because, among other things, a dog can help you get more exercise. And thinking about what kind of dog to get, I'd been focusing on poodles. Don't you think you could exercise with poodles?



ADDED: Some info on the video. The artist, Nagi Noda died last month, at the age of 35.

"It ran sideways, like a crab, and all that."

Virginia Heffernan loves the Ricky Gervais podcast, but she struggles to convey why Karl Pilkington is so funny. Finally, she sort of gives up and transcribes a long thing:

"When me gran died, right, she had this rubbish dog, right? And that's all we got left. It's like this little poodle. It was rubbish, right. It's called Fluffy. And like me gran looked after it in a way like it was a human. Do you know what I mean. It had a little coat on when it went out, and all that. Anyway, so she died, we got left it, and me dad's like, 'bloody hell.' Before you know it, it only took about a month; it was a wreck. Because we weren't sort of bathing it the way she bathed it. If it wanted to go out, we took it out. It got covered in oil. It used to go under the car and everything. It went from looking like this fluffy, you know, poodle to just being a bit of a wreck. It got hit by a car. It ran sideways, like a crab, and all that. So it went from being overtreated to just being treated like a dog."

Still, if you're not hearing Karl's voice, are you getting why that is hysterical?