Growing Up

Here's a video in which Ed reflects on growing up. He included scenes from his very damp burpday party interspersed with some memories from his first year. See if you can spot Ms. Sophie Brador and our friends Narra & Tuchuck and their foster bro Tucker.



(For the record, Ed would like to say that candy is as delicious as ever.)

Edgrr Goes Deep

Philosophical commentary:

Wall-o-sophy

The Grey Lady has an article about cloning dogs and the curious fact that clones are not identical to one another nor to the original, displaying physical and behavioral differences. And the owner of one of the first cloned dogs did not want the cloned pup her son had made saying this:

“I already have a dog — a real dog.”

If we are all variations on a genetic theme then what makes some of us originals and others copies? Which of us are real and which are fakes?

I wonder, when I am cloned (and surely there are organizations bidding on my precious genetic material now) which of my traits will they carry? The incredible intelligence? The stunning beauty?

Well, I guarantee that no dog--real or otherwise--will look up at my ma ape with this level of devotion. Never forget that, ma ape.

A Theory of Justice

My ape and Gus's ape spend a lot of time reading and writing about ethics which is quite silly because, as the news has been reporting, dogs have fairness entirely figured out.

Scientists in Austria report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that a dog may stop obeying a command if it sees that another dog is getting a better deal.

In this way dogs may be showing a sensitivity that is similar to, although perhaps more primitive than, that shown by chimpanzees and some monkeys. Until now those primates were the only nonhumans to show what is called “inequity aversion” in the absence of a reward.

Fairness? Sorted. I can haz tenure now?

Our House is Bugged

One of my apes sent this to me. Our house is so obviously bugged. Though swap out "Isaac Newton" for "Michel Foucault" and that dude for my ma ape. And also I am not a cat. These are all things meant to mask the fact that this cartoonist is bugging our house to steal my brilliant ideas.

And what is funny about this? Wally to the World: I Told You So will surely be a bestseller.

The Dance (a photo essay)

An Existential Question:

Who is leading?

and

Who is following?

Boooooks!

Maggie tagged me like a MILLION years ago to tell you about my five favorite books. I've been so slow because I am a bookish lad and I needed to think long and hard about what bookables I love to read. So I've made a list and to show my commitment to language I've decided to throw aside mathematical conventions of counting and will list some of my favoritest books. Not five. SOME. And if it bores you just scroll down 'til you get to the pictures of me as cow.

Here are some of my favorites:




This book is what it says it is! It is a HISTORY of PETS in AMERICA. It is awesome and talks about things like the evolution of dog food and our changing relationship with the naked apes and how that relates to historical trends. A little too focused on naked apes and talks about pets other than dogs (ewwww-goddamn cats!)



This book is by a feminist theorist and biologist named Donna Haraway who is so famous she gets to write books about hanging out with her dogs and reading listservs about dogs. That's what my ma ape does all day (or wants to) and she doesn't even get paid for it! She wants to get in on this gig. And also I like how it talks how apes form their selves through their relationships with US, the dogables. She has also written a book called Primate Visions that my ma ape is fond of. Because she's narcissistic and likes books about apes because she is one. Yeesh. Now back to dogs.



Ok, I'll admit I was a bit disappointed in this. I AM a philosopher's dog and so I thought this book was about me or, failing that, that looks like my pal BUSTER on the cover and that's got to be an awesome book, right? It's ok as light reading.



I admit I haven't read this book but I found it when I was looking for Donna Haraway on Amazon.com. I was curious because I thought philosophers WERE the dumb beasts (haha ma ape!).



This is Human, All too Human. by Friedrich Nietzsche. I like him because I am the ueberhund! And the title suggests being human stinks. Which it does!



This is a book called Zoontologies. That's a made up wordable! Awesome! I like the cover. And the editor's name is Cary Wolfe. Wolves are relatives of us.

Now, lest you think I am a non-fiction nerd I thought I'd share some of the fictionables that I like to read.



Ooooh. This novel has DOGS in it. Um, they don't always have a happy ending but it's still pretty awesome. It won the Booker Prize which is not nearly as prestigious as being a Wally Winner which this really is. It has some great things about ethics and animalables.

And now some less deep choices for light reading.



This book is about the Queen's corgis and how they are so awesome and the royal family (especially Charles) is kind of lame.



Paddington is a very smart little bear (from Darkest Peru) who is chub, loveable, and an eater of marmalade. He's a bit of a role model for me. My ma ape was a big Paddington Bear fan as a wee lass. She even had a Paddington costume that my granny made for her. Whoa. Sadly, she does not wear it anymore.



And Curious George! I picked this one because it's the one where he eats the puzzle piece and sometimes I have to see the doctor when I eat things I'm not supposed to (like bottles of Rimadyl). And then George huffs a bunch of ether--awesome! All I got was charcoal. And sometimes my ma ape says when I get into stuff around the house: "Wally was a good little dog. There was only one problem. He was tooooooooooooo curious."

Those are my bookables! I need to find some dogs to tag now!

animals and god

this is my best curious look--head cocked and eyes inquisitive.

MSNBC has a month-old story about pets in Saudi Arabia. Apparently the government has passed a seldom? enforced law against the selling of cats and dogs as pets, apparently as a consequence of pressure from conservative forces who say that pet ownership is excessively Western (amusing because the story beneath it is about "yappie hours," about yuppie pet owners gathering for cocktails and for their dogs to meet. mmmm...western decadence). I'm a little skeptical of MSNBC's reporting on international issues anyway since sometimes issues of great complexity get reduced down to fairly simplistic and formulaic arguments. like this article has a second-page teaser "Mohammed was a cat person." Um, ok. And Jesus was a fish fiend? Anyway, it does have some interesting discussion of hadiths in which Mohammed appears to have given the thumbs up to goddamn cats:

Once, he let a cat drink from the water he was going to use for his ablutions before prayers. Another time, Muhammad said a woman who kept a cat locked up without feeding it would go to hell.

and there's even mention of dogs who, though considered dirty, are still considered appropriate objects of charity:

Still, in another instance, he said that a prostitute who carried water in her slipper to a thirsty dog would go to heaven, her sins forgiven because of her kindness.

I have no idea how accurate or important these are, not being a religious scholar myself, but I am interested in the relationship between religion and animals because i am one. an animal, that is, not a religion. though i'd like to be one. (i've posted before about my sister's worship of me). anyway, i'm mostly familiar with the animal/religion relationship via eating--ie, shunning certain animals as sources of food. and i know some religions are more sympathetic to animals than others. and i know that all dogs go to heaven because i've seen the movie.

i've read some pragmatic arguments about animals and religion--that many of the prohibitions were based on practical concerns. animals that were more prone to carry or spread disease were to be avoided. and, at the time most religions were formed, i'd imagine animals were serious competitors for food and water sources and potential threats to human animal livelihood. though, interestingly, it appears pet ownership has pretty ancient roots since we know, for example, the ancient egyptians had dogs (and cats) who were dead ringers for my sister ethel (if their hieroglyphs are accurate representations). and i posted a few months ago about a site in south america where they found a very very old burial site where someone had been buried with their dog.

i've also read mary douglas's arguments (as an anthropologist) that the concerns were less practical in nature and more symbolic. now, i'm trying to remember what i read and my memory is imperfect but i seem to that recall that in examining the food prohibitions in the across a variety of cultures (including the abrahamic faiths), she argued that they were based on notions of purity--that things have a natural place (like on land or in the sea, or on two legs or on four) but those things that crossed boundaries were unacceptable because they were impure and idea that became clean vs. unclean--taboo things don't conform to the natural order of separation. i suppose this might also have something to do with pet ownership. you naked apes put a lot of time and effort into maintaining the boundary between human animal and other animals--always strutting your supposed evolutionary superiority and advanced language acquisition and civilization and what not. and you denigrate naked ape groups you don't like by calling them "beastly" or "animalistic" (often because of violent behavior which I really don't get since you are far and away the most violent animal on the planet. but i digress). in order to bring us into your homes as something other than meat you have to elaborately anthropomorphize us--give us human names, talk to us, make us eat from human-like receptacles, remove our bodily functions from your view and sometimes even dress us up, or give us blogs, or even give us voices as if we talk back to you (my editor is looking uncomfortable. i may have hit on something close to home). in order to bring us into your spaces you have to make us more like you which seems to be really messing with those natural boundaries.
egyptian god anubis? or my sister ethel?

but i digress. i'm curious if anyone knows any good texts on animals in religious traditions. it's interesting how we play an important symbolic role in your human-making laws (ie, how you're constantly reinventing "humanity")--whether in judging one another, regulating your behavior, or even as a sign of cultural decadence. a dog is never just a dog.