Craig Koshyk writes a great dog blog. Also: psychic moment!

CCraig Koshyk is a terrific writer/photographer and author of a book that must be on every dog person's wish list — Pointing Dogs, Volume One: The Continentals. To quote from Craig's website [and I get nuthin for this, by the way]:

It is a definitive guide to the versatile gundog breeds of Continental Europe, an in-depth study of the history, development and current status of the pointing dog, and it is a remarkable travelog of an incredible journey.

Written by a hunter for hunters, this volume provides detailed descriptions of all the pointing breeds from Continental Europe. It is illustrated with stunning images of hunting dogs doing what they were bred to do: hunt.

Back in 2008 I wrote:

If anyone has ever taken better photos of sporting dogs, real sporting dogs, I have yet to see them. Professional photographer and teacher Craig Koshyk takes wonderful photos of gun dogs — working portraits that make a person covet a keen Braque du Bourbonnais, or a Deutsch Drahthaar, or a Perdiguero de Burgos. The photos show what the outdoors feels like: see, for example, the wind in the photo of Craig's Uma with a ruffed grouse. Yes, Craig hunts over dogs of his own, and he knows what to look for.
[...]
[He has reorganized his website of photos] in the last week or so, and I know this because I can't find his photos of a dog I had fallen in love with: a gray, good-sized, wire-haired Eastern European dog.

Happy discovery: that dog is a Slovakian Rough-Haired Pointer. Craig just blogged about it today. Does he discuss the breed's history and its current stage of development? Does he comment on its hunting style, health issues, its temperament at work and at rest? Does he share some of his wonderful photos of the dogs afield? He does. And he's spent time in Slovakia, where he interviewed the secretary of the national breed club and watched a number of SRHPs hunt, which tends to give one an extra bit of credibility in addition to making readers insanely jealous. Have I mentioned that I love Craig's blog?

Once again, a hat tip to Andrew Campbell of The Regal Vizsla [now including handsome Jake, a young Pointer] for introducing me to Craig Koshyk's blog and photos.

Upper left: my latest fave, the Slovakian Rough-Haired Pointer. To see Craig Koshyk's actual photo of this beautiful dog, click here.

I am thankful for Chet Baker

Puppy Chet wears his lucky [GIMPshopped] Lady of Guadalupe sock. Get your own pair here.

So I spent most of my Thanksgiving vacation with a 103F fever, wondering whether I would diiiiiieee, but actually I was more worried about Chet Baker. I worry about Chet a lot, partly because I'm a worry-wart border collie person but mainly because Chet Baker is the most terrific, handsome, charming, gentlemanly and doggish Boston Terrier in the history of the planet. [I rest my case. It doesn't hurt that his human is the most excellent writer/artist/photographer/birder/blogger Julie Zickefoose.] Chet Baker is, as Julie would say, totally ossum. Who wouldn't worry if he fell off a cliff or some such terrifying thing?

Chet, like your faithful blogger, was born on December 12 — a miraculous date any way you look at it, and I'm not even going to touch that impressive risen-from-the-dead business. Just let me say that I couldn't love and worry about Chet more if he were my very own, and here is proof, or at any rate proof of what certain border collie people mean by love: a tangentially related abstract from PubMed. I also worry something awful about coyotes, which snatch innocent Boston Terriers off porches; and when Julie didn't post a word for two days after his fall and recovery, I was curled up in knots [the fever didn't help], sure that Something Had Gone Terribly Wrong.

It hadn't. Chet is fine. And Julie loves him exactly the way she should. In fact, speaking of dog people who love dogs the way they should, here's a link to the best dog story ever written. [There's some white-man's-burden stuff in there, but dog people will push it off to the side for the story's sake. Also: Garm is what people today would call a pit bull.]

In a few weeks I'll be driving to San Juan Bautista for the Shepherd's Play performed in the old mission. It's wonderful. I will light candles in the mission church for Chet and for Lily who belongs to my sis and for all the dogs I love now and have loved over the years, and I'll think about how wonderful it is to have a great dog [several, in fact] waiting for me at home. Happy Late Thanksgiving and Happy Early Birthday, Chet Baker! May you have many more, and may each be happier than the last. And Chet? Watch out for coyotes, shorty. Also, did I mention you have more faithful admirers than you'll ever know? Because you do. You totally, totally do.

Weekend ephemera

The pink hearts and the orange hearts are the same color. Seriously: the exact same color. Optical illusion by Akiyoshi Kitaoka - see the uncropped version and more color illusions here. [Click for bigger.]

The optical illusion above is from Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s awesome website, via COULORlovers. I embiggened the image on my own 'puter with GIMP to help wrap my brain around the whole thing - very cool.

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This is a nice kitchen, but what I love are these latches:



The cupboards up at the cabin have old latches like these, and they are the main reason nothing fell and broke during the 6.4 shaker of '92. [OK, the earthquake retrofit also helped.] "Chimney Falls," the valley was nicknamed in the papers after that little episode.

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Hot Water: Take That Final Gas Notice! What a shame I didn't see this last month, before I spent the big bucks on a new water heater:



Just one example of money-saving ingenuity from There, I Fixed It. H/T: Make Online.

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Found poetry: check out this paragraph from a NY Times article on TMZ's biggest scoop.

For more than an hour, TMZ was essentially the only outlet claiming that Mr. Jackson was dead. Television and newspaper journalists read the TMZ report but largely held off on repeating it, for fear of making a mistake. Still, the bulletin traversed the Web with remarkable speed, creating a stark divide: on the Internet Mr. Jackson was dead, and on TV he was still alive.

And as it should have been published:

Still, the bulletin traversed the Web
With remarkable speed, creating a stark divide:
On the Internet Mr. Jackson was dead,
And on TV he was still alive.

A golf clap for Brian Stelter, poet/journalist.

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Note found in an empty classroom:

Am I ugly

I answered that question already on myspace

I don't remember what you said

OMG!!
Well I said that you were alright.

I am.

Kids these days ;~)

The blog colors, they pop. Also: goat cheese is delicious

The blog background is now hex #191B1C, a cool dark gray that I love a lot. Was seriously tempted by FruJu. Check it out [click for bigger]:



But it felt too hot for a SoCal summer. Oy, COULORlovers can be such a timesink. And speaking of color, here is a [free!] tool that totally, absolutely rocks: ColorPic.

June 10 was Goatsday over at the Atlantic's Food Channel:
Why We Raise Goats, by Bill Niman and Nicolette Hahn Niman
The Growing Demand for Goat Meat
A New Use for Goat Cheese

And a shout out to the most excellent cheese artisans of the California Artisan Cheese Guild! I love you guys and gals.

Fun goat fact #1: goats were first domesticated almost 10,000 years ago, in Persia.
Fun goat fact #2: there are only three documented goat towers in the entire world. This one is in South Africa:

Photo by Peter Borcherds on Flickr.

"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave"

Andrew wrote yesterday:

In situations like these, peer-to-peer media is essential. Send all you've got to me. We'll do our best to assess, edit, and post. There is no neutrality in this. Every blogger is now an honorary member of the resistance. We are at war too - for peace and democracy.

Which seems very dramatic — except that today his site may be under some sort of digital attack and yesterday this site, this little dog-and-whatnot site, was getting hits from Iran.

So the world really is watching. It's nightfall now in Tehran, and there are reports of gunfire, but the crowds earlier today, marching for democracy — just incredible.



The title of this post is from a familiar speech, and it was no trouble to cut and paste the last two paragraphs into this post here in the peace and quiet of my California home. Yes, I'm very lucky. Would I be brave enough to join the protesters, if I were in Iran? I hope so. I don't know.

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable - and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace - but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

"Unlocking the Awesome Potential of Behavioral Disorders"

From the upbeat folks at Despair, Inc. comes this most excellent Social Media Venn Diagram t-shirt, available in sizes to fit every blogger.

H/T: evad over at COLOURlovers.

Lazy Sunday

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it: Smoke keeps the chair warm while your servant slaves away over the laptop. [Click for bigger.]

The Cuteness: Christmas Edition

Warning: graphic images of a polar bear attack. Witnesses were powerless to intervene, but not, apparently, powerless to take pictures.

These photos are all from the blog ZooBorns, a cuteness timesink that will make holiday-softened minds even mushier.

Go, baby Speed Hippo, go! I am so GIMPshopping this photo.

Dear little Upala's mother wouldn't care for him, so he was transfered to the Wilhelma Kindergarten for young apes. Wouldn't care for him...?! Who wouldn't want to care for such a precious little baby? Good grief, moms these days...!

All these and a ton more at ZooBorns, where everyone is above average on the cuteness scale. [H/T: MAKE Magazine.]

At last, a CEO you can believe in

He's on the move —

Jingle is with me and he has activated the cooling system that sprays the reindeer team with cool water. They are doing well.... it's amazing how well they handle the dramatic temperature changes. The weather has been good so far...though the launch was a little rough as we had high winds. Overall, its a great start.

Anyway... I'll be keeping you posted on my route tonight. I have my laptop with me and am using the same satellite connection I use to stay in contact with Mrs. Claus to post updates to my blog. Keep checking in. And don't forget, NORAD is tracking me as well.

See you soon!

How cool is that - he's a techie.

Link Liberation

I added falling snow [for a few hours on Sunday] in honor of the Winter Solstice, to go with the sparkly red date effect, the night sky, the Christmas tree in the corner and the odd ornament. I am trying to be tasteful here [sound of hysterical laughter], so there will probably be no Santa's sleigh crossing the blog, etc. Probably not.

Topic. In recognition of the solstice and the gift-giving season, here are some links. First things first: to give credit where credit is due, Janeen of Smartdogs is responsible for that fine Winter Solstice post [with its Cahiers du cinéma-worthy video].

The revolutionary border collie poster shown above left is from Obey the Pure Breed. [You'll note that some breeds are more equal than others.]


These Creatures of Seattle came up with a slick new idea for a raised feeder. [H/T: GrassrootsModern.] Easy to clean underneath, and the designs rock.

Over at the green-design-is-good-design blog Inhabitat, Cooper the border collie/Lab mix checks out Ruff Wear's eco-sensitive gear for dogs, and Bridgette Steffen kindly translates Cooper's review into English.

Carol of [beautifully designed] Frogdogs provides a most excellent video of gifts to avoid giving. Though I agree that the gift at 1:57 would make me very, very happy.

Heather at Raised by Wolves recently posted one of the best working-dog vids ever, and I'm not just saying that because a certain border collie of my acquaintance would snap at any stranger foolish enough to interrupt her when she was working. [I snap at people who interrupt me when I'm working.]

Kat Urbigkit has a wonderful post on LGDs at Querencia, with super photos.

Sam will turn 20 — 20! — in March. Read Maureen's beautiful post about her old dog at Raven's Nest, and enjoy [sniffle] the beautiful photo of Sam with his dear kind face and grey muzzle.

Further afield: in celebration of 25 years publishing great reads, 4th Estate [a division of HarperCollins] commissioned an animated video from Apt Studio. It's called This is Where We Live, and it's wonderful — absolute book city.

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Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, which gives me an excuse to bring up the concept of tzedakah — often mistranslated as "charity." Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater writes:

Torah calls on us to "appoint judges and magistrates in all our gates, the places that God gives to you, and you shall judge the people with righteous justice (mishpat tzedek)" (Deuteronomy 16:18).

What does "righteous justice" mean?

Commenting on this verse, the great 19th century master, Chatam Sofer, says it relates to a verse from the prophet Hosea [...], a line about God betrothing us with justice (tzedek), law (mishpat), kindness (chesed) and compassion (rachamim), which we say while putting on tefillin in the morning. According to a midrash, God provides the world with kindness and compassion, and we provide justice and law, thereby creating a balanced and holy alliance. It's a tangible and beautiful way of conceptualizing the covenant between divinity and humanity. Chatam Sofer goes on to say that "God gives us space to create homes, societies and communities, out of love and compassion, and it is up to us to create them with justice and righteousness, by creating laws that are fair and just for all members."

This is the true meaning of tzedakah: not charity, but justice.

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There may be no blessing greater than the opportunity to help feed a hungry child, and Menu for Hope, brainchild of the most excellent foodie Pim of the famous web site, feeds thousands:

Last year's Menu for Hope raised over $90K. In case you're wondering about what happened to that money, here's a little report from the World Food Program.

It bought 388,000 meals in Lesotho schools, which fed over 19,000 poor hungry children with school meals for a whole month. The children received food in primary schools across the remote mountainous areas of Lesotho, which are the poorest and hungriest parts of the country.

Some of the money was used to buy food from local small scale farmers practicing sustainable farming methods in remote areas, providing them with guaranteed market for their products. In 2007, the WFP bought 8 tons of maize from local farmers. In 2008, with the funds from Menu for Hope 4, we bought 36 tons of maize from small scale farmers, four times as much as the year before.

You have until December 24 to buy raffle tickets for these great items, including cookbooks, cooking lessons, food, wines, coffees, food tours of Florence and Milan and Nice, a vacation in Napa Valley, terrific meals in restaurants from Europe to Australia, and much more. Everything is donated, which means all the money raised can be used to buy meals for hungry children. Don't think of it as charity. Think of it as justice.

Once Upon a Midnight Clear

From the irreverent souls at Wondermark. [Click for bigger.]

I [heart] penguins

Young penguins in love. [Photo from the Daily Mail.]

I have loved penguins [and especially Adélie penguins like the ones above] ever since Mr. Popper. So I'm having a good time following biologist John Carlson's latest trip to the Antarctic, where he is probably counting penguins even as I blog. John usually writes the terrific Prairie Ice posts from his regular stomping grounds in Montana, but he's presently somewhere near Cuverville Island, which is... somewhere south of Tierra del Fuego.

Prairie Ice has great photos, too, and addictive links: I got hooked reading Arctic Auks, for example, and now I want to visit the Far North. How beautiful! No, wait — there are polar bears in the Arctic [and I'm not so sure about that "bear-proofing" thing]. Maybe the Antarctic would be better. What — no showers for how long...? Noah Stryker can tell you. Check out his Scott tent after a storm.

"Scott tent" — how reassuring is that. I think I'll stay here by the 'puter in SoCal and gear up for tomorrow's chilling 64 degrees F.

Blessings, I haz them

Colors of corn, by my fave Ilhuicamina.

From The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form: a poem for the day, by Richard Stehr.

Blessings

When you're facing that Thanksgiving spread
And the plentiful feast you'll be fed,
It's a time not for counting
The calories mounting
But counting your blessings instead.

May everyone enjoy a happy Thanksgiving holiday, and a safe and satisfying Black Friday [and Cyber Monday!].

[Hat tip to the most excellent Barbara Wallraff.]

This is insane

So my beautiful California is burning up — and both Laura and Heather claim it's... snowing. And they have photos — gorgeous, amazing photos — to prove it. Unreal.

Check out Laura's scary post on the worst South Dakota blizzard in 30 years — photos here. And the weather went all Andrew Wyeth [did I mention how much I love Heather's writing?] over at the most excellent Raised by Wolves. I swiped the photo above from Heather's blog because I love the colors. More of her snow scenes here.

Blog love: Worms & Germs

How can you not love a blog with posts like Stupid things done with bats and Woman pecked by magpie loses leg and Cleaning up raccoon latrines? Worms & Germs is one creepy fascinating website. Smart, too: it's brought to us by the Ontario Veterinary College's Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses and the City of Hamilton Public Health Department, and the focus of the blog is zoonotic diseases. [Check out their Resources page.]

Today the W&G post is about dog bites. Excerpt:

A study was recently published in the Veterinary Record (O'Sullivan et al, 2008, volume 163) describing 234 dog bites in people in Ireland. Dog owners and victims of dog bites were interviewed to characterize the incidents. Bites were divided into 2 categories: bites to the dogs' owner(s) and bites to someone who didn't own the dog. Here are some parts of the study that I found interesting:

*A large number of dog breeds were involved. The breeds most commonly involved in bites were also the most common breeds in the country, indicating that higher bite numbers for certain breeds were a reflection of the breed popularity, not a breed-associated propensity to bite.

Read the rest of the post here. Weird trivia: "24% of owners and 22% of non-owners were bitten on a Wednesday." Unreal. Forget BSL -- Ireland needs to ban Hump Day.

W&G now has a sibling-blog devoted to horses: EquID Blog. Thanks to Drs. Scott Weese and Maureen Anderson for coordinating these often cringe-inducing and always informative websites.

I've found my people

Library of the Abby of Saint Gall, the oldest library in Switzerland.

"My dear Selena,” I said, “to be always right is the claim of the charlatan, not of the Scholar. The mark of Scholarship is a fearless and unflinching readiness to modify theories in the light of new evidence.” [ Sarah Caudwell, The Sybil in Her Grave.]

I was no more than half a dozen lines into Lisa Gold's new blog, Research Maven, when I knew I'd struck pay dirt:

“The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.” — Samuel Johnson

I thought this famous Samuel Johnson quote would be an appropriate way to begin my blog. The problem is that Johnson never actually said this, despite the fact that you’ll find this attributed to him on a number of different quotation websites. None of these websites identified the original source of the Johnson quote, so I decided to dig a little deeper.

"Research is like treasure hunting, and to do it well you must be skeptical, curious, discriminating, persistent, and willing to look beneath the surface," writes Gold. Amen. Research Maven looks like a keeper.

"Write on coffee, rewrite on scotch"

ZOMG, I would give anything, anything, to have a workspace as perfect and minimalist and spotless as that one up above, which belongs to an actual designer who creates cool stuff for Sony and Nike and Coca-Cola. Check out his portfolio here. The office photos in this post are all from WhereWeDoWhatWeDo. Art at left by Ron Barrett, from the NY Times.

But more about me.

This is my real fantasy workspace. How cool the way the mirrored doors make a small space seem larger. Three monitors...!


No, wait. Actually, this is my favorite, the absolute best workspace ever:


I totally want six monitors. OMG, when I look at that photo I could just scream. If that were really my workspace I would write 50 blog posts a day, just like Andrew Sullivan. [I wish.]

I love Andrew's blog, and I love his recent comments about blogging:

The Dish is a portal as well as a blog - to all the information and ideas percolating out there. And my role has evolved from purely an opiner to a web DJ of sorts, re-mixing and finding and editing the thoughts and images and facts of others.

The blog Politics of Scrabble replies:

As blogging evolves there may very well emerge different classes of blogs, some of which may be more generalist within a given sphere[...], some of which may drill down into very particular issues and topics, offering very specific and nuanced insights. That the latter isn’t currently available in large numbers doesn’t mean that more and more expert blogs won’t continue popping up as the medium marches forward. And as they do start popping up, generalist blogs that enjoy high readership can both point readers in the direction of those expert blogs, as Sullivan notes about his own blog, acting as portals to the vast fields of information out there to be harvested, as well as house the continued conversation about that information, acting as second-by-second synthesizing plants and clearing houses.

There's a mission statement in there someplace.

Over at Ask MetaFilter a poster, who is not I not me, wants to know:

"How do I kill the perfectionism, the precious and fearful impulses, and the self-doubt that keeps me from completing my creative writing projects?"

Fave response: "Trust me on this. The best thing you can strive to be is competent." Also: more caffeine. I'm off to brew more CTC fine Assam.

Blog love: dogs in art

James Buddenhagen and his wife Esther Buddenhagen live in the Mexican state of Veracruz. They are talented writers, photographers, and miracle workers. Here's proof: Giaco before —


Giaco now:


How about that?! I rest my case.

James loves art [no surprise there], and posts lots of interesting and wonderful art and design on his blog. Check out the candid shot of Frida Kahlo from this post:


James is dad of Rita, who created a blog of her own and, after a heart-to-heart with James, took over the dog art blogging. Only reasonable, since the topic is near and dear to Rita's heart [/humanization]. Here is Rita's blog, filled with a terrific selection of dogs in art. I wish I could write as well as Rita.

Thanks to Rita and James, I discovered Dog Art Today.

"Dog Art Today is devoted to daily dog art from around the world. Features include contemporary dog art, the history of dogs in art, dog art auctions, books, posters, fashion and decor. It's the perfect place to find an artist to paint, sculpt or photograph your pet. And there are lots of great gift ideas for the dog-lover in your life."

Ye Gods, the books alone...! Hello, foreclosure...

Last, but not least: over at Today's Arthur there are sheep. Sheep! [Let's not talk right now about the depressing sheep ailment that is CL, kthnx.]

This past June, Arthur's Dogsitter posted about some "real deal," terrific, professional photographers who specialize in pet portraits. [Just ignore Dogsitter when she disses her own work. She's a wonderful photographer, and I love her blog.]

Lots o' cool links: enjoy.

Certificated

OMG, it just doesn't get any better than this.

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In other blogging news, I am using a new Firefox 3 feature to eviscerate all quotes from Associated Press.

Download Day! The launch of Firefox 3 is set for June 17, 2008!

OMG, the latest version of the best browser evah is finally here! Pledge now! Join the ecstatic multitude and help set a Guinness World Record!

Firefox really is faster [much], better and safer, and if you've never tried it, now is the time to switch to this most excellent browser. Downloading Firefox is a snap, and it's free. It won't mess up your computer, you'll still have all your Windows stuff, the new browser is easy to remove if you decide you hate it [you won't, I promise], and if Windows Internet Explorer has been your only browser to date, once you've tried Firefox you'll never, ever go back. Firefox for the win, people!










I love it. Firefox is available in dozens more languages, by the way. And so many cool buttons...! [Green or pink? Hmmm...]

Oh, and web pages will display properly. [Web standards and all that.] Folks using Safari and Opera — good on you. Internet Explorer users — try Firefox. You'll be so glad you did.