Monday, October 27, 2008

But enough about me

Let’s turn the microscope away from moi and ma famille -- French is so confusing; I’m male so I would think mon famille is correct, but it turns out the French don’t care about the gender of the person speaking, only the gender of the noun in question, and since famille is a feminine noun (and why that should be, nobody has ever explained to my satisfaction) a feminine adjective is required -- for a change and talk about...what?

Autumn? Every second blogger and her cousin are now busy this week showing you photographs of autumn leaves in their neck of the woods. Well, although the leaves are certainly beautiful in my neck of the woods also, I will refrain in the name of overkill.

Politics? Um, no. That’s all we’ll be hearing or reading about until this quadrennial thing of ours is over for another six months or so, and I wouldn’t add to the cacophany on a bet.

Literature? Not unless I want to put you to sleep.

Sex? Not even on a dare.

Jethro? Now there’s a possibility. He is an inexhaustible supply of joy. He keeps us laughing. Take, for example, his stash of toys. No hard plastic ones for him. His toys are all soft, plushy ones that he throws up in the air whenever the mood strikes him. And he always brings one to us in his mouth to indicate that he needs to go outside and do what dogs do. We are well-trained; we attach his leash to his collar and off we go. He doesn’t take his toys very far, usually dropping them just beyond the patio and retrieving them on his way back. I think some enterprising doggie psychiatrist should write a doctoral thesis on why Jethro chooses what toy he chooses to take with him on his jaunts, because it constantly changes. Sometimes it’s Whitey, the white plush doggie that is either a Samoyed or a Siberian Huskie. Sometimes it’s Croaky, the green plush frog. Sometimes it’s Charlie, the brown plush gorilla. Sometimes it’s the long, blue, plush, Smurf-like surfer thingie. Sometimes it’s Squiggy Piggy, which looks and feels like a lamb’s fleece (plush, of course) except that it has a curly little pink tail. But, as Gilda Radner’s character Rosanne Rosannadanna used to say every week to Jane Curtin on Saturday Night Live, “It’s always something.”

He also likes to ride in the car. He doesn’t stick his head out the window, though. He likes to stand between Mrs. Rhymeswithplague and me on the console and put out one paw to balance himself whenever the car makes a turn. Left paw on my right arm for right turns, and right paw on Mrs. Rhymeswithplague’s left arm for left turns. He usually winds up sitting in her lap and going to sleep. But if he hears the click of the turn indicator, he’s up on his feet again with paws at the ready.

There must be a doggie parable in there somewhere. I will have to think further on the subject.

And now for the official portrait, which is almost one year old (the portrait, not the dog -- the dog is four, and handsome as ever):

9 comments:

  1. my mother was half french and claims napolean won YES won the battle at waterloo,,,alos love your dog...looks jus like our sandy...have to publish her peicture on my post after all my recipies

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  2. Jethro is a very handsome canine. I can see why you might spoil (?) him a bit with all those plush toys. In the days when I maintained a doggy household (3), anything soft was fair game for ripping and shredding. I can't begin to count how many carcasses I had to discard. No, I didn't have Pit Bulls or Rotweillers; my dogs were Cocker Spaniel, Shiz-tsu and Schnauzer.

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  3. Thank you for refraining from autumn and politics. Your dog has you trained as well as ours has us trained.

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  4. Jethro is a handsome little fellow, isn't he?

    The Pirate loves his yellow stuffies. He doesn't take them on walks, but when we pick up the leads he has to go grab a duck or a chicken and shake it to death while he's waiting. And if we've been out, when we come back, even before he greets us he has to go kill a stuffie. Always a yellow one. He's quite disoriented if he can't find one!

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  5. AAahgh!! This is the second time I've sent my comment off before filling in the boxes today!

    That anonymous person is me. Sorry 'bout that.

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  6. Hello, again, putz and pat and dr.john and anonymous (a.k.a jay) -- it's good to hear from all of you.

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  7. What a very handsome fellow is Jethro! And, perfectly posed for his portrait. You chose a good blogging subject for today! I'm sad you're tired of autumn leaves, though.....boohoo.....

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  8. Jethro is adorable. My brother-in-law has a dog similar to Jethro, only his name is Spike. Smart little creatures aren't they?

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  9. Jeannelle, I may be tired of autumn leaves, but I'm not tired of reading your blog.

    Vonda, you said, and I quote, "My brother has a dog similar to Jethro, only his name is Spike." So what did your brother Spike name his dog? (I'm just pulling your leg; I know what you meant. It just struck me that your sentence could be interpreted two ways!) :)

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...