Maligning Our Pets

MALIGNING OUR PETS

Man’s best friend is widely believed to be the dog.  Running a close second is the cat.

Dogs are faithful companions, great sympathizers, always up for a romp,  eager for road trips and there are so many more accolades that could be listed. Cats want to snuggle and entertain and keep themselves immaculately clean.

But for some reason dogs and cats get a bad wrap by the wordsmiths.

There are those “dog days of summer.”

There are those over read books that are “dog eared.”

Some people look like “dogs.”

But they also get a few kudos, too.

As in “he was dogged in his pursuit of the goal.”

And then there are the sly, slinky, nine-lives felines.

Somehow the idea of getting a “cat nap” just doesn’t seem reasonable to me. Long naps are good. Short naps are, well, short.

I have two cats. They nap all the time unless they are eating or mousing. No short naps for these cats. So where does “cat nap” come from?

Then there is one of my favorite descriptive words: cattywampus.

I was at a board meeting one day and the guy at the end of the table was wearing a toupee. Somehow it went cattywampus on his head, which means askew or not quite right. Of course he did not know he had cattywampus hair but you could see the smiles appearing on faces around the table and I feel certain he wondered what was going on.

The derision of being cattywampus comes into play in many situations.

Ever drive down a highway right after they painted the white line in the middle?  Almost always someone drives over the paint and skews the line, bringing it to a cattywampus state.

Then there is the perhaps more commonly used phrase: catty corner.  When houses are diagonally across from one another it is said they are “catty corner from each other.”

When the secretaries in the steno pool are whispering about someone’s bad taste in clothes we say they are being “catty.”

And how about the “catwalk.”

There is something sexist here because the catwalk is where the female models show off a designer’s new clothes. So it certainly does not refer to the actual stage, but rather sexily to the “cats,” or the models themselves (no “dogs” there!)

There are many examples of wordsmiths taking in vain the noble qualities of dogs and cats. It just isn’t fair. I think we need to stop it.

My Labrador Retriever Lucy and my cats Maggie and Toby think this could be a movement.

I challenge each of you who agree dogs and cats should not be used to describe unfortunate situations to go outside right now and dump a 50# bag of Purina pet food over your head while standing in a dog dish filled with water.

Have someone film this and put it online. It will go viral. And you will have made your statement.

Then go back inside and pet your dog or cat.

They will thank you for it.

And by the way, Lucy, Maggie and Toby send along their thanks, too.

HAVE WE NOT LEARNED?

NOTES OF CONCERN…

    …Jack Blair

                     Have We Not Learned

One cannot look beyond the borders of our individual communities without witnessing turmoil. Tumultuous events occur both within and outside the borders of our nation. Some of them will never touch us personally; others will be very personal.  Too many are cause for future personal concern.

Internationally, dictators and despots have learned how to push our national button. Most recently, a nice young man serving as a reporter was beheaded on film. It outrages us, as it should. But in that same month terrorists were beheading people all over the Middle East to show their determination that everyone would join their effort or be considered a spy.

Since our President’s speech on Syria, which seems so long ago, 190,000 Syrians have died.

People in Israel and those who follow Hamas are dying at at significant rate, but saddest of all there is no resolution in sight.

Over my lifetime I have always assumed our government held a lot of information back that would be scary to the common citizen. Yet this week the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said publically that we have never faced a greater threat of attack on the homeland and that our enemies were not only living abroad but were people from our own country and the countries of our allies who could easily return to conduct internal terror.

Well if my old theory is correct, I can only wonder what the government is holding back from us now as it would appear the answer might be nothing.

Internally, we continue to have a battle between big financial institutions and the regulating government. Neither the banks  nor the government has done a very good job, and it seems that the financial crisis is going to have, as they say in the insurance business, a long tail.

Race still plays a big role in America. In some ways, the election of our first black president has simply made it more obvious. These last two weeks I have heard arguments that the percentage of white and black police officers should represent the percentage of citizens of color in the town. Same for jury selections. Those suggestions set back what Dr. King sought, a race blind America. The number of people of any color, including white, should not be a consideration. The selection of the best-qualified people for police forces, juries or jobs of any kind should be the rule.  If a case can be made that prejudice exists and is proven then that is a matter for the legal authorities.

 I feel bad that the Reverend Martin Luther King and his associates, admired by so many people, would never and did never condone riots, pillaging and looting in response to what was perceived as white indifference to their plight. It is as if nothing was learned from the historic civil rights movement. Gandhi’s movement further informed minorities on how best to win equality.

Tear gas, smoke bombs, and riot clubs are not far removed from the powerful water hoses and snarling dogs from our civil rights history. But by protesting quietly and orderly the protesters brought to the attention of the American people just what was really happening.

Today, after all the successes that led to a black president and a black attorney general, what message is being sent by current rioting behavior? It will gain little sympathy. After all these years we need to remember the success of Dr. King’s approach and the gains made in all walks of life for minorities since then.

Have we learned nothing?

Have we not learned that America is safest when she is strong?

Have we not learned that unsecured borders become a welcome mat for the terror that some want to bring down on us?  

Have we not learned that protests can be peaceful and still bring about change?

Time to revisit the history books.