Dinner Party Talk – For your weekend
Dog toy. Florida paramedic Cindy Economou has served six months probation for second-degree petty theft. What did she steal? Hold onto your stomach and your foot… sweet Cindy showed up at a nasty car crash and stole a disembodied foot. Why, Cindy, why? Oh, she had good intentions. She wanted to use the thing to train her cadaver-sniffing dog. “It was an unrecognizable mass of flesh,” she said. “It wasn’t a clean cut. You couldn’t even recognize it as a foot. If I had thought it was somehow reattachable and usable, I would have gone to my commander.” Oh, that makes it better. Foot theft victim Karl Lambert is now suing her for an arm and a leg.
Speaking of dogs… An extremely rare Red Tibetan Mastiff named “Hong Dong” (which means “Big Splash” in Chinese) was just bought by a Chinese industrialist for $1.5 million, making Hong (or is it Dong?) the Lamborghini of dogs, the most expensive dog in the world. “Oh, how many shelter pups would that have saved?” my dog Westminster woofed.
Tick tock. This week we “sprang forward,” and I found out something I never knew. Before “Standard time,” each city in America had its own clock. Noon was when the sun was at its highest point. It was the railroads that set the Standard and created our modern time zones in America. I know what you’re thinking, Pine Bush still has it’s own time zone.
$ingers. Perhaps you’ve seen and heard the viral video smash, “Friday.” How about “My Jeans?” Well, let me catch you up. For an price, LA based production company Ark Music Factory will fly your child to LA, write a song for him or her, and record the “hit” and shoot a video. 13-year-old Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” has 17 million views on YouTube. Why? It’s hilariously bad, which means everyone wants to blog, Tweet, and Facebook it to a friend. But with the autotune and bubblegum video, it makes me want to record my own. So much so, I feel like Veruca Salt in “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory”—“Give it to me now!” Two things I’m sure of: 1) this is THE bar mitzvah must-have gift of the season. 2) Glee will do their version.
Speaking of Glee. In addition to a gay kiss, this week’s Glee featured Kathy Griffin as failed Tea Party candidate, Tammy Jean Albertson, who was brought in to judge the regional show choir competition. Griffin was a little bit Palin, a little bit O’Donnell. Tammy Jean announced before the competition that: “I am not a witch,” and says she “twittered” that “Obama is a terrorist.” When the judges discussed Kurt and Blaine’s duet, Griffin’s character declared, “Well, boys shouldn’t do a duet. The last thing we need to do is send a message to children that ‘gay is okay.’ It is not a legitimate lifestyle, and last time I checked, it’s not in the Constitution.”
Dateline Ellenville, NY. On 209 at the red light. A truck turns off Main Street with a sticker across the windshield that said, “REDNECK SEXY.” Oh, how I wish I could have seen the driver.
Now, eat your dinner!
This entry was posted in American Fun, Dinner Party Talk, Life 101, Talented Kids, Uncategorized, What I'm Doing and tagged #americana, #bruce littlefield, dinner party talk, friday, hong dong, rebecca black, rush limbaugh. Bookmark the permalink.
Weekend dinner party talk – if you are going to talk about dogs, you can also talk about dog books — just out, a long-awaited book on the discovery, history and culture of those Big Tibetan Dogs — ‘Big Dogs of Tibet and the Himalayas’ (Orchid Press; http://www.orchidbooks.com), by Don Messerschmidt.
TIBETAN MASTIFFS were first imported into England over 150 years ago, and only three decades ago to North America. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution these remarkable high altitude livestock guardian dogs were nearly annihilated, but they have recovered and are now in high demand, some for very high prices among the nouveau riche of modern China. Today, thousands of these dogs are found around the world, promoted by many breeders, raised as pets, guardians and faithful companions. Some have scored high marks at international dog shows. Interest in Tibetan mastiffs and related dogs–their history, breeding, temperament, function and future–has never been as high. This is a book of discovery of the exotic and relatively rare breeds of big dogs from Tibet and the Himalayas: the Tibetan mastiff, the rare KyiApso (the ‘bearded’ or ‘shaggy’ Tibetan mastiff), the Himalayan mountain dog, and the least known Sha-kyi (Tibetan hunting dog). Research on Tibetan dogs is contentious. This book challenges some of the conventional wisdom about the big dogs with evidence showing how some big dog fanciers have gotten it wrong. It questions the notion that there were gigantic dogs in history, an idea that has inspired some modern breeders to create enormous critters, mistakenly evoking a mythical past–and much more. Simply a ‘must read’ for all big dog owners and admirers.
One review has this to say: “The history-lovers version of Marley and Me, Messerschmidt’s memoir is an enjoyable dog romp through the Himalayas. I loved it.”
And another said this: “I am pleased with the book since it represents “the eye of a researcher” and it “kills” [some of] the beliefs [about big Tibetan dogs] we have taken for granted.”
And another: “Reading these pages, one wonders at times what sort of strange fetish Messerschmidt must have to pursue creatures that clearly want no part of him other than his leg in their mouths.”
Autographed copies are available directly from the author. Write to dmesserschmidt@gmail.com for information on cost of book and shipping.
Cheers, and good reading/storytelling this weekend! /DM.