Whilst only expected to fetch about five thousand dollars at auction, a portrait of one of favourite canine companions by Jacques Barthรฉlรฉmy Delamarre (the eighteenth century painter whose portfolio limited to pictures of this dog with shaved hindquarters and few other studies of cats and rabbits and not to be confused with Joseph Ducreux—though equally meme-worthy) commanded over a quarter of a million. Not much is known about either the artist or the subject, that is believed to be a Cavalier King Charles—other than the French queen kept a menagerie of pets and this one is as elaborately coiffed as their human, though unclear if they shared the same political views, see also.
Saturday, 27 May 2023
pompon (10. 767)
Monday, 1 May 2023
8x8 (10. 711)
time in a bottle: individuals turning turning care and attention into currency
composition as explanation: daily it’s harder to decide if AI is a collaborative tool or a time bomb
zoonomia: researchers sequence the genome of sixty-five hundred species—plus Balto, the heroic sled dog of the 1925 Serum Run

occupancy rate: a tour of the empty City of London
so for you, it’s insects, tap-water and celibacy: examining how bad ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson was for the environment and speculation on who might take up that mantle next
deep dreaming: on chatbot hallucinations and the first usage of the sense in 1540 by the ryght rodolent & rotounde rethorician R Smyth
worth1000: a time capsule camera that composes a detailed written description of ones photos with a ticketed invitation to revisit them at a future date
Sunday, 2 April 2023
7x7 (10. 651)
spyvibe radio: The Man Called Flintstone and other cartoon-espionage crossovers

made to order: a huge font specimen of a wide range of borders—see previously
a1: a centenary of road numbering for the Ministry of Transportation
rather fetching: canine portraits at London’s Wallace Collection
sparkie williams: a very talkative budgie and other loquacious birds
rabbit hole: new Kiefer Sutherland secret agent film channels vintage intelligence dramas
Friday, 24 March 2023
jeff’s collie (10. 632)
Rather incongruously airing since 1954, the final, five-hundredth ninety-first episode of the Lassie franchise was broadcast on this day in 1973. Over nineteen seasons, the arc of narrative is broken generally into five segments—“The Miller Years,” “The Martin Years”—based on ownership with Lassie later the ward of forest rangers, on her own in 1970 without explanation traveling the country and helping out other animals and the final two years of programming in syndication—cancelled later that same year of wandering as part of the so called “rural purge” of network television to unburden themselves from still popular yet perhaps patronising, nostalgic shows set pointedly outside of urban and suburban settings, including Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, Hee Haw and Petticoat Junction—taking place at the Holden Ranch for troubled children.
Sunday, 19 February 2023
7x7 (10. 559)
wolf-whistle: the lexical corpus of canines and US supreme court justices
deportment: how to act around books
meres, lochs and llyns: regional variations in names for alleys and narrow walkways in the UK

official state crap: legislature of New Mexico introduces a bill to create a state aroma, the first of its kind
cher and charo: a duet of “America” from West Side Story—see previously
nachtrรคglichkeit: Jude Stewart on sticking with German and the pursuit on bilingualism
Sunday, 5 February 2023
9x9 (10. 527)
famous one hundred twenty-three metre spire of salisbury cathedral: Polish coast guard rescues divers near critical infrastructure who were searching for amber
macroagression: some GOP members in the US congress have switched their American flag lapels for tiny assault rifles—see also
backbox: watch composer and sound designer Suzanne Ciani, Diva of the Diode, create a soundscape for a pinball game

mastodon flock: find your following—via Waxy
cel-ray: a peppery, celery soda that one can still find for sale
rosetta stone: two trilingual ancient clay tablets rediscovered help scholars decipher a lost Canaanite script
brought down by the left-wing economic establishment: Liz Truss attempts to revive her political career with a long screed in the Sunday Telegraph
sรฆstrengur: Iceland developing contingency plans in case the undersea cables connecting it to the rest of the world are severed
Saturday, 4 February 2023
gassi gehen (10. 522)
After a long walkies to the top of the Hohe Schuhe—previously, along the prehistoric trail that leads through the woods from an ensemble of ancient burial mounds and along the former border for a perspective from the promontory overlooking Bavaria and Thรผringen from the puppy was treated to another surprise with her first encounter with the neighbourhood peacock.
It went better than expected with both looking fairly enchanted but glad it happened through a barrier however.Friday, 3 February 2023
6x6 (10. 519)
good boy: a thirty year old dog in Portugal beats a century-old record for oldest in the world

eternity’s pillar: late night variety show produced by Turiyasan-gitananda—see previously
studio fong leng: a look at the Dutch fashion designer who dressed Kate Bush and socialite Mathilde Willink
can’t do hands: an atrocious sign language guide imaged by an AI—see previously
catgpt: a feline version of the scarily smart chat bot—via Waxy
Monday, 23 January 2023
6x6 (10. 492)
zhengyue 2: the second day of the Lunar New Year is considered the birthday of all dogs

i shot the serif: US Department of State drops the typeface Times New Roman in favour of the more legible Calibri font
yellow magic orchestra: watch performances by the Japanese group that created some of the most innovative and influential acts in electronic music
odonymy: more open etymological street maps—see also
tet: a short, hand-drawn game about cooking and serving a Vietnamese holiday meal—via Waxy
Saturday, 21 January 2023
7x7 (10. 484)
between two ferns: chats with “historical figures” have been regrettable—see previously

nuscale for scale: US authorities approve design for the first generation of small, modular reactors
all things bright and beautiful: a compelling argument to enjoy the All Creatures Great and Small reboot
circular sun house: Frank Lloyd Wright’s final completed project (see also) on the edge of the Phoenix Mountains Nature Preserve goes on the market
closed captioning: as a bilingual family, we always relied on subtitles and appreciated this primer on why we’re not alone
content mill: CNET magazine suspends automated articles after an embarrassing disclosure
Saturday, 14 January 2023
this is fine (10. 416)
Via Waxy, we are directed to portfolio of webcomic author and cartoonist KC Green and their reflections on a decade since the “On Fire” featuring the dog (Question Hound he’s called) panel first appeared—originally in a series called Gunshow—and how when something becomes a meme, an idea that usually does not age well (anniversaries are bad for the internet, like cheugy was for a class of aesthetic) unlike other aspects of culture that become more refined with time, and as pervasive as this image and its statement, it’s become something for history and not a single byline any longer. Though at times harrying and overshadowing, Green is still able make a living doing what they prefer. This is fine.
catagories: ๐พ, ๐ณ️, networking and blogging
Sunday, 8 January 2023
if only they could talk (10. 397)
Based on the title novel by Glasgow veterinary surgeon Alf Wight (writing under the pseudonym James Herriot), Bill Sellars’ comedic drama series All Creatures Great and Small premiered on the BBC on this day in 1978. Running for a total of seven seasons and then rebooted in 2020, the show is set in 1930 Yorkshire uplands, it portrays the triumphs and challenges of a rural veterinary practise of Siegfried Farnon and the pseudonymous author.
Sunday, 1 January 2023
oh don’t be stupid, darling—i’m sure they could send over a selection and i could pick one (10. 378)
There’s been a paucity of posts lately, but for a good reason: H and I adopted a New Year’s Baby from the animal shelter after a couple of weeks nearly daily visits to the Tierheim for walkies and a couple of day-excursions to get used to her new home. Animal welfare authorities in Germany take this business seriously and inspect future living arrangements to make sure they’re appropriate for the type of canine and decide by panel on prospective human parents.
She’s a rescue originally from Romania—my Mom made a reference to that episode of Absolutely Fabulous where Eddie threatens to adopt a Romanian baby to call Saffy’s bluff and forgets to stop proceedings—and we’re keeping the name the home gave her since it fits and she seems to respond to it, at least the cadence—but we’re not, in the interest of not having a future password breached, disclosing it other than to stay the staff picked a Street Fighter character as namesake.
Monday, 14 November 2022
antecedent and order of precedence (10. 304)
Having speculated on this oddly ridged yet unwritten rule on adjectival order in English which is not always intuitive for non-native speakers, we were quite taken with this obvious exception to the rule juxtaposing “big dumb hat” and “dumb little dog” posed to the Help Desk at Language Log. It’s a nuanced and complex answer to why “little dumb dog” sounds so out of place having to do mostly with stress and syllable count and constraints of subjectivity, a speaker’s tendency to want to distance more biased terms from what’s being described.
Sunday, 21 November 2021
8x8
turnspit: eccentric, utilitarian canine breeds that have passed out of fashion but could be revived—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links (lots more to see there)
ball-and-chain: this leashless ankle weight system to control one’s toddler will only make baby invincible—via Super Punch
miss spirit world 1960: a pageant sourced in spectral photography of the departedsomething—that if true, you couldn’t handle it: a close reading of the recently indicted QANon Shaman’s manifesto
on รฉcrit aussi ielle: the authoritative French language Petit Robert adds a third, gender-neutral personal pronoun—a concatenation of the masculine and feminine forms (see also)
the midnight special: eight hours of footage from David Bowie’s television programme the “The 1980 Floor Show,” an episode guest-curated by the artist
hocus-pocus: the hidden overhauls happening the faรงades of Russian construction sites (see also)
yes, this is dog: a video phone that allows apartment-bound dogs to call their humans
Saturday, 28 August 2021
8x8
letraset press: a collection of instant lettering dry-transfer sheets (see previously) from Coudal Partners’ Fresh Signals
the woman who stared at the sun: the circumstance and contributions to astronomy of Hisako Koyama who helped hone our understanding of solar cycles
a good walk spoiled: an in-depth look at how golf course exacerbate the housing shortagecouch gag: a clever individual shares their construction of a miniature replica of the Simpsons’ purple television set that plays random episodes
one week supply: a podcast discussing Damn Interesting’s curated links section
the china syndrome: a super-tunnel simulator that illustrates the quickest, shortest routes to connecting points around the globe—see also
tartu snail tower: the spiralling skyscraper in Estonia’s second city
the art of letters: a typographical study from Mark Gowing
Friday, 9 July 2021
animorphs
Before the internet came along to satisfy one’s past-life regression curiosities and fulfil other needs of course, there were toll hotlines such as the one featured from 1992 which, by answering a few basic questions on one’s telephone keypad, promised to reveal what historical personage one’s pet was the reincarnation of. What a delightful theological view on the transmigration of souls. More bizarre 900 number advertising spots to be found at the sub-reddit Obscure Media at the link above.
Thursday, 1 July 2021
the starlight barking

Thursday, 10 June 2021
pups unlimited
Having recently learned about one individual’s ahead of its time efforts to create an all puppy cable channel for relaxing active viewing or comforting background noise that unfortunately never had its day though has been later realised a hundred-times over with a sorts of niche sites and moments of indulgence, we could appreciate arriving at this one venue via Pasa Bon! that fulfils the original vision. The platform allows one to cycle through the looping footage of dozens of dogs and puppies behaving in characteristically cute and charming ways. Below was the proposed station identification jingle for the sadly never established Puppy Channel.
catagories: ๐พ, ๐บ, lifestyle, networking and blogging
Wednesday, 12 May 2021
dogs would be terrible poker players
Via the New Shelton wet/dry and introduced by the above irony that canine companions would have far too many tells to be successful gamblers, we are presented with the prejudice of our perceptions and the readiness of many to dismiss our feline friends as aloof despite a domestic bond—the only successfully asocial interspecies friendship we’ve managed—that’s endured for untold generations. Given the typical feline social structure and humans wanting to impose and expecting to imprint on our housemates, it’s little wonder that we misinterpret their signals and signs of affection. More relationship advice from the BBC at the link above.