The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Today's Daily Parker

Pacifica is quite a ways from the dog park, so I didn't get to play with Parker and the gang this morning. Still, I've puzzled over two phenomena about Parker's play group: first, the preponderance of male dogs whose names end in "-er," and second, that almost all the dogs are either black or yellow. Here's Parker with his friends Boo and Tucker:

(The surprised expression on Boo's face resulted from his mom stomping on his leash.)

The black dogs are all different sizes and shapes. For example, no one would confuse Boo with Tucker:

But the yellow dogs present a problem. Three of them are Labradors of similar sizes, and until Monday all three of them wore blue collars. (Buck, opposite, now has a lighter-color collar with a zig-zag motif.) At any distance greater than one's eyeglasses prescription it's nearly impossible to tell them apart.

In not-quite-unrelated news, today is Sesame Street's 37th birthday.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker appeared to have a good time at yesterday's (Wednesday's) play group. He's found two friends, Boo and Guster, who not only put up with him but appear to like having him around. Of course, they're both slightly larger than Parker:

For some reason, except for Boo and Erin, almost every dog in the group has a name ending in "-er." And they're overwhelmingly male; Erin is the only regular female attendee. I wonder why this is. On that theme, tomorrow I'll look at the limited color palette of the play group.

Yesterday's Daily Parker

This is not how he's acting right now. (Excuse me while I extract teeth from my arm.)

Also, my previous post reflects a certain "duh!" factor, since I actually had off-loaded this photo already. So, duh. He's still adorable.

Today's Daily Parker

Here's the deal: I forgot to download the photos for today's DP from my camera. I won't get to do it before midnight UTC (6 pm Central Time). So this isn't really a TDP. It's just an explanation of why there's no DP today.

On the other hand, I didn't figure to have a TDP tomorrow. So tomorrow's DP will be today's. Follow?

In other shocking news, Britney Spears filed for divorce today. Speaking of silly puppies.

Quelle suprise

The Baghdad court trying Saddam Hussein handed down its sentence overnight, just three days before the U.S. elections. Who could have predicted it? I mean, other than anyone paying attention?

Some Iraqis are dancing in the streets; other Iraqis are shooting at them:

Celebratory gunfire rang out over Baghdad as jubilant Iraqis expressed their happiness with the outcome by racing to rooftops, front yards and windows to fire into the air. National television showed smiling Iraqis dancing in the streets of cities around the country, including in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, which technically was under an all-day curfew.
In the Tikrit, Saddam's home town, thousands of people reportedly took to the street in defiance of the curfew, many crying and screaming and firing guns into the air in anger. "With the soul and blood we sacrifice for you Saddam!" some protestors screamed. Protestors in Tikrit attacked the local Iraqi army base with light weapons. No casualties were reported.

We've heard many reports of Hussein's antics during the trial; but there were American antics as well:

Today's session began with the eviction of former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark for insulting the tribunal as "a mockery of justice" in a memo he sent to Chief Judge Abdel-Rahman, a no-nonsense jurist with a perpetual scowl who ran a tight courtroom. "This statement presented by the American lawyer Ramsey Clarke -- how would I describe it? I don't know. He presented a statement ridiculing himself, not the country. He's a laughing stock. Get him out of the court."

I can't wait to hear what the Sabbath Gasbags have to say.

Today's Daily Parker (Bonus Weekend Edition)

There will probably be no Daily Parker on Wednesday, so I'm hedging. Anne took this photo today after Parker had a bath and a good nap:

We love our puppy, but after a couple of weeks without shampoo he gets pretty rank. Now he's soft and, well, only a little rank. We still love him though.