Goodbye to a Good Guy

Titan died this afternoon.

Prudence was driving him, Lacey and Silver down from Cincinnati to Houston. They reached Mississippi when the air conditioner in the van went out, punctured by a foreign object. Prudence stopped, got ice and a cooler, opened all the windows and continued down to Jackson and a Honda dealership to have the AC repaired.

While she was there, Titan's larynx became paralyzed. He began choking and, despite Prudence's frantic attempts to massage it into relaxing, he got worse and worse. The dealership rushed her and the dogs to a nearby vet, where Titan was euthanized in her arms. We knew that he was an old dog and wouldn't last much longer, but we're saddened that he didn't go from this world peacefully.

Titan finished his championship as a puppy at the age of 11 months, very rare in a slow-maturing breed like Borzoi. He, and not Lacey, was destined to be our special for campaigning but a foot injury suffered in a coursing event left him with a very slight limp. He was retired to stud duties, which he performed with gusto, earning him the name of "The Love Dog." Two of his children are group winners.

Rest well, big guy. Don't go chasing all the girls at the Rainbow Bridge.

Ch. Soyara's Titan of Blackmoor JC

April 14, 1998-July 2, 2009

An Idiot Speaks

Silly expatriate Gwyneth Paltrow disses her native country once more:

In a new interview which is sure to irk her best friend Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow has criticised Americans for allowing their Blackberries to interfere with family life.

Hailing her 'second home' of Spain for putting family first, Gwyneth complains her native New Yorkers are too concerned with their work to fully immerse themselves in their family.

Her comments come a year after her close friend Madonna admitted she sleeps with her Blackberry beside her.

Gwyneth compared Spanish culture to American during a recent interview she conducted in fluent Spanish.

In a new interview which is sure to irk her American fans, Gwyneth belittles her native country's 223 years of history compared to the older nation of Spain.

The Oscar winner fell in love with the country when she spent a month living with a family in Talavera de la Reina in central Spain when she was 15.

Speaking in Spanish, she said: 'When I was 15, I went to a small town outside Talavera de la Reina and I had the most wonderful experience. It really changed my life.

'Spain became a second home. It is so different from the United States. It seemed to have a history, and the buildings are years and years and years old.

'Here in the United States an old building is about 17 (years old), and over there it's from 500 B.C., it's incredible.

Oh the poor United States! It's only had its stupid Constitution since 1787, while Spain's historic constitutional monarchy stretches back to 1975.

But wait, there's more:

'Also, the way people live over there. They seem to enjoy life a little bit more. They aren't running around as much as in New York. They enjoy time with the family. They don't always have their Blackberries on.'

With 18.1% unemployment, of course, many Spaniards have a lot of time to spend with their families. Apart from this, there are other places in the United States besides Los Angeles and New York. In some of them, people actually relax and spend time with their families too. Perhaps she should visit them sometime. But I doubt that Miss Paltrow, the daughter of actress Blythe Danner and director Bruce Paltrow, knows those Americans except as insignificant insects her bodyguards push out of the way for her.

This isn't the first time that Fishstick has complained to the foreign press that her fellow citizens aren't to her taste. In 2006 she told a Portugese newspaper that "I don't fit into the bad side of American psychology. The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans. I love the English lifestyle. I'm not as capitalistic as America." She later backtracked, but said, "I always say in America, people live to work and in Europe, people work to live," revealing more ignorance about anyone outside her select milieu.

Well, at the age of 36, Miss Paltrow is past her shelf life as a Hollywood actress. She'll have plenty of time to relax in her Iberian paradise. Enjoy yourself, Gwynnie. Don't call us and we'll forget about you.

The World Suddenly Gets Quieter

Billy Mays is dead at the age of 50.

The Horse, the Saddle, the Man

A sad and avoidable tragedy:

Seven high-priced show dogs, including one of the top Akitas in the country, are dead after being left by their handler for several hours in a hot van in Jefferson County.

Police say Mary Wild, a 24-year-old woman who was caring for the dogs, left them in a cargo van early Monday and went to bed after returning from a dog show in Iowa.

The dogs likely died of heat stroke, a veterinarian said, although autopsies are pending. The purebreds included three golden retrievers, a dalmation, a Siberian Husky, a Malamute and the top-ranked Akita
named Jersey.

"I’ve never seen such a horrific act in my lifetime," said Dr. Laura Ivan, the veterinarian in House Springs whose office Wild brought the dogs to on Monday. Ivan is now caring for the lone surviving dog. "This was not intentional, but a horrible, tragic accident."

Wild, who is paid to handle the dogs at shows, did not return repeated phone and email messages from the Post-Dispatch requesting comment. She told police that, after returning from her Iowa road trip, she started to transfer the dogs in kennels into the garage of a home on Kroeck Drive in Arnold. But it was so hot, she later told police, that she instead decided to leave them in their portable kennels in the van.

She told police she put six electric fans in the van to keep the dogs cool. She also left a door open to the van and the van’s windows partly open, said Capt. Ralph Brown of the Jefferson County sheriff’s office. The van was apparently parked in the driveway, Brown said.

She left them in the van about 1 a.m. Monday and went inside the home to sleep. She told police that, three hours later, she went outside to check on the dogs. They were fine, she told police. Then, about 6:30
a.m., all eight dogs were in distress. She found five of the dogs breathing, but not responsive. The other three were clearly in distress, but could at least raise their heads.

She tried reviving the dogs, by hosing them down, then took them to a veterinarian in House Springs. Only one of the eight survived.

I've traveled enough with dogs to know never to leave them in a van, even with fans, when it's hot. Indeed, when we stop for the evening, whatever crates, food and equipment the dogs may need are moved into a comfortable and secure place, most often a motel room. The dogs are then exercised before they're put up. Only then do we attend to our own needs.

The lateness of the hour, the exhaustion that might be felt, the apparent safety of a situation can't be an excuse for not looking after the welfare of the dogs first. Negligence, "an error in judgment, a lack of common sense" in this case, led to tragedy.

Sad, and Sad, but...

Farah Fawcett died today, a long anticipated event after her long illness. The term "icon" is badly overused nowadays, but in her case it's quite apt.

Much more suddenly, Michael Jackson died this afternoon, apparently from cardiac arrest at the age of 50. I may not be the only one to think that it may have been merciful.

Jackson the musical talent died many years ago; the husk of the mortal form decayed into financial distress and increasingly bizarre appearance and behavior. A "comeback" tour was planned for this summer; it probably would have been pathetic.

We make the mistake of thinking that performers like Judy Garland, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were taken from this world too soon. Really, they lived too long. Dead, they are or will be more valuable commodities than if they had survived.

Update: Well, now I'm hearing on CNN speculation that like with Garland and Elvis, pharmaceuticals may have been involved.

Sad News

Dorothy Nickles, the great and apparently ageless and tireless all-rounder AKC judge, passed away this afternoon at the age of 99.

My lovely bride spoke with her at a show just a couple of years ago. Miss Nickles was complaining that she didn't have enough judging assignments to keep herself busy. Another time, a fat, loudmouthed steward was complaining that her knees hurt. Dorothy, well into her 90s and having spent all day on her feet, snapped, "Oh, just get them operated on!"

Quite a woman. Quite a life. Try to get some rest, Dorothy.

That Can't-Do Spirit

A plan is being bruited to knock down portions of cities in the Rust Belt:

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

I lived in Houston in the mid-1980's when it was devastated by the collapse in oil prices with all the attendant ecomonic problems: high unemployment, negative equity in housing, migration to other cities. Yet the political leadership of the city didn't give up then and hasn't given up now. Even with the present recession, driving around I see construction projects, new businesses, commericial vehicles on the roads, trains carrying goods to and fro. The region didn't give up then and isn't surrendering now.

Really, if Mr. Kildee wants to raze dilapidated portions of these cities, he could always start with the political classes whose policies have led to their continuing depressed estate.

The Future of Our Past

I came across this lovely site, featuring magazines from years long ago. As I'm a sucker for old articles about the cutting edge of future technology, the ones from Modern Mechanix, Popular Science and Popular Mechanics are a particular delight.

One thing I noticed: they really had a thing for death rays back in the '30s:

Popular Science, February, 1940

Modern Mechanix, October, 1936

Modern Mechanix, August, 1935

Modern Mechanix, August, 1936

Modern Mechanix, September, 1934