For Bobby

Sarah
Sponsored: December 13, 2006

In Memory of my beloved brother Bobby Vasy and to all our dogs here and gone.

Love your sister, Lindie

Myla's Dog

Sasha

Sponsored: December 13, 2006

For Myla, a beautiful and loving nice niece.

You do your mother proud.

Love 'Ant' Lindie

December 2006 Furry One

Petey

Sponsored: December 8, 2006

I'm a sleek and petite Italian Greyhound. I know that Linda likes to support older dogs and my buddy Solomon needs a lot of help.

He's not availalbe for adoption yet like I am, but thanks to the support of generous donors like Linda and the great care he's getting at WHS, he will be ready in a couple of weeks!

Lola @ Dane County Humane Society

Lola is sponsored by:
Roger, Ruby and Molly Roberts (3 fabulous huskies), We huskies have to stick together! Good luck Lola.

Name Lola
Gender Female
Species Dog
Primary Breed Husky Mix

The Making of Ruby

Photos are from the National Geographic Special on animals in the womb, early December 2006.

1. Ruby at 30 days in utero
2. Ruby at 45 days in utero
3. Ruby at 69 days if she were a golden retriever, but I am sure she had the sweet, baby puppy tongue.

T. Walenta and Drawing from nytimes.com

Lady - November Doggie Pal

Lady
Sponsored by: LR
Sponsored: November 8, 2006

I'm a 10 year old shepherd with lovely brown eyes. I pay very close attention to things around me - maybe sometimes a little too much attention! Take cats for example... I love to chase them. Therefore WHS has recommended a house without cats for me.

It's understandable. I also love to watch birds. If you love bird watching too, you might check out the bird watching seminar at the Wisconsin Humane Society's Wildlife Center!

October's Doggy

Buzzy

Sponsored: October 7, 2006

My angel, Linda, has a soft spot for older dogs. In my book that makes her extra special! I'm not what you'd call an "older" dog - I'm only four years old. Sometimes there are senior dogs at the shelter and sometimes there are lots of young pups - it depends on the day! Every dog is special though!

Black Fiction

This Saturday at the Rickshaw Stop Fell St.
b/w Van Ness and Franklin,

Black Fiction opens for Zombi (proggy keys.drums duo) and Supersystem (post-dance quartet).

Show is ten bucks and starts at 9 PM.

On a side note, Black Fiction has been nominated as best indie rock band by the SF Weekly for their music awards. If you so wish, pick up a copy of the weekly and send in the paper ballot or go to sfweekly.com, on the right side of the web page there is a place to vote, there are other nominees too don't worry.

September's Dog - Harpo

Harpo
Sponsored by: lindaR
Sponsored: September 7, 2006


I know, I know, I am quite a pretty lady! I think it's my sassy haircut! I am a 5 year old, American Cocker Spaniel. I can't wait to meet the perfect new family for me. It only costs $150 for you to take me home. If you have questions about any of our dog adoption fees or processes, check out our Dog Adoption Fees, Forms & Guidelines page. It's very helpful! A special thank you goes out to Linda, who is kind enough to sponsor me during my stay!

Café Du Nord Presents

"San Francisco's answer to The Arcade Fire if they took a time machine to the late 60's for a peyote-laced vision quest into the desert."
--Flavorpill SF

The mid-fi tsunami known as Black Fiction has taken the Bay Area by storm in the past year, with an electrifying performance at the 2006 Noise Pop festival and shared bills with The Dirty Projectors, Dengue Fever, Fiery Furnaces, Helio Sequence, Kelley Stoltz and Oranger.

Music: Indie Pop

Music: Indie Pop
Black Fiction CD Release
when: Sat 8.26 (9pm)
where: Café Du Nord (2170 Market St, 415.861.5016)
price: $10
details: Event Info

Black Fiction's music, like the Mission District 'hood that the band calls home, welcomes diversity. Casting its nets far and wide, the group hauls in a variety of musical components — a reggae bridge, a smattering of mariachi horns, a Pavement-esque guitar solo — and wraps it all in a package of easy-going pop. Like Beck, Black Fiction don't come off as indie-popster-gone-slumming; their songwriting and aura of good cheer are just too catchy. Persuasive percussionists Tussle open this party celebrating Black Fiction's new album, Ghost Ride.

- MS

Note: The Dry Spells also open.

links: Black Fiction

Black Fiction take us for a Ride

Rock's black back pages
Black Fiction take us for a Ride
By K. Tighe

Tim Cohen sits at a table cutting up playing cards.

The Black Fiction vocalist-guitarist-songwriter has convinced himself that the meaty torsos of every jack, queen, and king are spelling out something big. He flings the disembodied heads into a pile and arranges the stately bodies to spell out Black Fiction Ghost Ride.

Across the table keyboardist Joe Roberts is gathering the heads. Arranging the sovereign noggins into a gruesome and fantastical pile, Roberts sketches out the story: it is Raphael the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle who has cut off these heads, and he stands over his trophies, his sais dripping red. Ghost Ride (Howells Transmitter), the debut from San Francisco's Black Fiction, wins points for whimsically macabre album art.

They've been called everything from "the Arcade Fire on a peyote-laced vision quest" (FlavorPill SF) to "pop music for little kids on acid" (an audience member). It seems that Black Fiction are simply too wriggly to rest under any thumb or umbrella. Online reviewers are drowning in genre jargon — psych-soul, freak folk — and struggling to wrap reason around the light that Ghost Ride emits.

I caught up with Cohen on his lunch break from Amoeba Music in San Francisco to get his take on the response. "I'd hate for someone to have an idea of what they are going to hear and not be open to us sounding like something else," he said. In one sweeping sentence Cohen nailed it. Black Fiction is "something else." Or to make it snarky, if you please, "else-fi." The plain truth is that it is difficult to speak for this album because it speaks so loudly for itself — though it may be speaking in tongues.

The apocalyptic "Great Mystery" plucks, bounces, and drags at once, ripening with lyrical delicacies like "Farmers in the fields will grow the world's weight in corn/ We will cream it for the babies that have yet to be born/ We will leave it in the sewers for the rats and the worms/ We will store it in the cupboards for the coming storm."

"Carry Him Away" feels as urgent and hopeless as rushing into a tidal wave before it slams down on top of you. The harmonica- and glockenspiel-laced tune taunts with the invasively ironic refrain of "music is a terrible thing." The phrase might not be so tongue-in-cheek, considering that Cohen, Black Fiction's primary songwriter, has some reservations about music industry conventions.

For starters, the notorious multi-instrumentalist has a flimsy history of formal musical training. "Basically, if I can figure out how to make a sound on an instrument, I can figure out how to play it," Cohen explained before deadpanning, "I can play the recorder as well as any eight-year-old."

Conservatory learning isn't the only grain Cohen is going against. October will bring a minitour stretching over parts of California, but the year-old band — which includes percussionists Jon Bernson and Jason Chavez, multi-instrumentalist Anthony Marin, and bassist Evan Martin — is being patient about planning a longer route. "If we are going to tour, we want to do it right," said the bandleader. "You need to know about the evils of the industry and guard yourself from them. I have a lot of apprehensions about asking people to help us out — I don't do a lot of schmoozing. I'm a musician at heart, and that's all I want to do."

The tracks of Ghost Ride were painstakingly recorded on a Tascam 388, a reel-to-reel eight-track. The idea was borrowed from local songwriter Kelley Stoltz, who recorded Antique Glow on the same machine. The 388 is unique because it is essentially an entire sound console complete with EQ built into an easily transportable recorder. "I appreciate the qualities of analog recording over digital," Cohen explained. "Digital recording isn't as challenging — you can just cut and paste your stuff together." As I upload the tracks of Ghost Ride into the inner sanctum of my iPod mini, my cheeks begin to sweat a bitter taste of shame — I can only ascribe it to the way an amateur wine connoisseur must feel after plopping a few ice cubes into a well-crafted sauvignon blanc.

Live, Black Fiction take the form of a whirling dervish minstrel show. Intensely cerebral and bubbling over with epileptic grace, the album projects a whimsical playfulness in full force onstage. They will melt off your musical preconceptions. You will run to the merchandise stand to buy this album.

They toppled Noise Poppers last year like a house of vandalized playing cards, leaving the audience with the same "what the hell just happened?" epiphany that early Velvet Underground and Talking Heads audiences must have felt. Black Fiction are laying down some new bricks. I can't wait to see where they lead.

SFBG
BLACK FICTION
With Tussle and the Dry Spells
Sat/26, 9 p.m.
Cafe du Nord
2170 Market, SF
$10
(415) 861-5016
www.blackfictionband.com

Teacher Arrested At NYC's Kennedy Airport

An individual later discovered to be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule, and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, the Attorney General said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement. He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," a Justice Department spokesman said. "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'There are 3 sides to every triangle.'"When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes".

Sounds like an Onion Headline

Bay man hasn't missed a daily run in 25 years — and is as passionate as ever

By LEE BERGQUISTlbergquist@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 8, 2006

John Chandler had been working on a puzzle with his daughter when an incredible blast of noise went off in his left ear.

Words came out in a jumble, and despite his garbled protest, his wife called 911.
Chandler was having a transient ischemic attack - a mini-stroke, a warning that a full stroke could eventually follow.

But on his way to the hospital in December 2003, Chandler wasn't thinking so much about the strange things happening to his body as he was about the fate of his running streak.

"See," he recalls saying to himself, as he recounts the story with obvious relish. "That's why I like to run first thing in the morning, because if you have a stroke later in the day, you got the run taken care of."

Today, Chandler, 51, a financial planner from Whitefish Bay, will have run every day for 25 years. He estimates he has run more than 54,000 miles since the streak began in 1981.

When he started, the hit song that summer was "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield. Newlyweds Prince Charles and Lady Diana were on the cover of Time magazine.

Chandler kept running despite a second mini-stroke. Months after his first episode, his motor skills went haywire again. This time he was standing in front of the bathroom sink and kept dropping his toothbrush.

He also hobbled for months on a broken ankle.

In 1992, a sympathetic doctor changed the time for surgery to remove a kidney stone so Chandler could squeeze in a run and keep the streak going.

And then there was the night when he ran through his neighborhood as his wife, Mary, was having contractions. He would circle back every few blocks to see if the bedroom light was on - a sign that it was time to go to the hospital.

Chandler has also weathered the usual assortment of colds and flu that force most exercise junkies to take off a day.

I remember talking to him at a Cub Scout meeting last winter. He looked ghostly pale, a shadow of the energetic dad I had come to know from Cub Scouts and serving together on the board of our neighborhood day care.
His back had been killing him. He had been sick for 50 days, missed four days of work and had lost 10 pounds on his whippet-thin runner's frame.
"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up," he rasped as a gym full of boys darted around us in overdrive.

What he meant by this, he later told me, is that he didn't think he could be sick and keep running for three or four more months. If it dragged out that long, he would have to quit.

Welcome to the world of the streaker.

Some athletes burst upon the scene with a sizzle and flash, and then like human fireworks, they burn out and are never seen again. Others are imbued with a special kind of staying power. Among runners, there is a subculture that runs every day, year after year, and implausibly, decade after decade.
'Part of my persona'

"Obsessive-compulsive?" asked John J. Strumsky Jr., president of the United States Running Streak Association, who has his own 22-year streak. "That's fine, you're right. I think then you have to take the definition to the next level. There can be two types of obsession or compulsion. There can be positive obsession, or there can be negative obsession."

Strumsky said most of the runners he's met are healthier and more disciplined than the population at large.

The streak is "something that has become part of my persona," Chandler said, "I guess the way some people wear a certain hat or drive a certain car."
When Chandler broke his ankle in 2004 - an injury he sustained, of course, while running - he dialed back to one mile a day. That is the minimum legitimate run in the eyes of the running streak association.

His personal standard had been two miles, but he has averaged more than six miles a day during much of the streak.

"I love to run - most days," he said. "There are some days that I will come back and Mary will dutifully say, 'How was your run?' And I'll say, 'I didn't feel like a runner today.' "

But such days are few. His passion for running is, well, much the way a lot of Wisconsin carries on about the Packers.

He remembers his first race, in fifth grade. He can show you the parking meter near the Summerfest grounds that is exactly a quarter-mile from the finish of Al's Run. His eyes glisten when he describes how Alyssa Beste, a junior at Waukesha West, where Chandler is a part-time coach, nipped another girl by less than a half-second to win the 3,200 meters at the state championship in June.

His best marathon time (from memory): 2:37:37 at the Lakefront Marathon in 1984.

When his pulse registered an ultra-low 45 beats per minute after his first transient ischemic attack, a paramedic explained to another that Chandler was a jogger.

An affront, even when you're sick. "I'm a runner," he mumbled in protest.
The streak began in graduate school in Madison when Chandler checked his running diary and realized he had run every day for 10 days.

"Then it turned into two weeks, and then two months and then two years," he recalled.

Now he describes the streak as this "intriguing little toy," and to keep it going, he plans out his runs a week ahead. He does most of his running at 5:30 a.m., at lunchtime and on Sunday mornings with a group of other runners.

The day after he broke his ankle, the orthopedic surgeon who examined him, a friend from college, wanted to know if he still had that "silly streak" going. But the doctor didn't veto going for a run.

He could barely put weight on it, but by 8 p.m. on a windy, rainy night in December 2004, he was getting on his running clothes. His final hurdle, however, "wasn't getting to the track," he said, "it was getting past Mary."

Did she object, that time or after the mini-strokes?

"Absolutely not," she said. "I just didn't feel like it was worth it."

She describes her husband as "your basic Type-A personality . . . and you pick your battles and this is what he wanted to do."

Yet because he's disciplined, Chandler's daily run is worked around the family, she said. The couple have a son who is 7 and daughter who is 5.

Mary Chandler, who is not a runner, and her husband have met good friends through the sport, and she said it has enriched her husband's life in ways few people experience.

"Running is John's passion, and I've been blessed by it," she said.
Longest streak in the state

In the rarefied world of streak running, Chandler is jogging in the middle of the pack.

He has the longest running streak of any Wisconsin runner, according to the streak association, based in Millersville, Md. But he ranks 61st nationally. No.1 is Mark Covert, 55, a contender in the marathon for the 1972 Olympics and track coach at Antelope Valley College in California.

Covert took over the top spot on July 29 from Bob Ray, a retired mail carrier from Baltimore. Both have streaks that go for more than 38 years.

Ray quit because he had rolled up the kind of mileage - 100,000 by his estimate - that sends cars to the junk heap. His once featherlike stride had disintegrated into a painful amble.

He can still move

Though Chandler has had flare-ups with his lower back, feet and legs, he doesn't believe that running has caused any long-lasting physical problems.

He takes a blood thinner to reduce the chance of another mini-stroke. He wears orthotics in his running shoes. And he visits a chiropractor for an occasional adjustment.

He runs about a minute a mile slower than he did when he was 40. But he can still move. He recently kept a 6:16 per mile pace at the Firecracker Four, a four-mile race in Hales Corners.

"On an average day, I don't notice that I feel any different than 10 years ago," he said. "In a way it's kept me young."

And what would happen if it all ended?
"Would I survive? Absolutely," he said.

"Would I be the same person? Yeah.

"But there would be a certain something missing."
From the Aug. 9, 2006

August's Dog & my Birth Stone

Opal

Sponsored by: LR

Sponsored: August 7 , 2006
Like a fine wine, I have improved with age. I've learned good canine manners and can roll with life's changes. Of course, it always helps to have caring people who look out for you. At WHS, I've got a ton of great folks around me who want the best for me. I suspect that Linda is crossing her toes for me too - hoping that I get a grand new family. I think it's awesome that there are so many people who love animals. WHS even has a club for people who support animals with substantial annual gifts. Four paws up for all animal lovers!

Our New House - not our furniture or dog

Christmas Stockings for the Unborn Nazis

In one of their usual confused efforts to daemonize Choice,
prolifers were hanging these
let's get one thing straight
those nazis were born
they kicked over headstones in the Indian graveyard
they torched Santa's workshop
they named names
they voted for bush

michael on his 56th birthday

Frozen Mackeral-Flavored Ice Cubes

Tasty ice cube : A polar bear refreshes with a giant mackerel sauce flavour ice cube at the La Fleche zoo, western France. This treatment was set up by the Zoo aides to help the animals to better deal with the current heatwave. (AFP/Jean Francois Monier)

Hot for the Big Furries

Polar bear blows bubbles as he lays in a pond, Monday, July 17, 2006, at the Cleveland MetroParks Zoo, in Cleveland. It took half a summer to get here, but Ohio is into its first heat wave of the year.

Temperatures of 90-95 were expected across the nation and throughout Ohio on Monday with the potential to break records of 91 in Mansfield and 93 in Youngstown, said Mike Dutter, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

July Furry

Jake
Sponsored by: lindaland
Sponsored: July 7 , 2006

You might be wondering what a handsome 11-year-old Labrador like me is doing at the Wisconsin Humane Society. I've been wondering the same thing. I didn't expect to be starting over again, but since I am on the lookout for a new family I am VERY grateful to be at WHS.

The staff and volunteers are taking excellent care of me. Like the other dogs here, I go for walks several times per day and I have a comfy bed to lay on when I sleep. I know that the Adoption Counselors will find me a great new family where I can live out my senior years in style!

Of course, sweet folks like Linda appreciate us older pups so I know that someone will choose me soon!

Jamie, this is for you!

Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) Antonia sticks out her tongue as she braves the hot weather at the zoo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Thursday, July 20, 2006, as temperatures in Germany reached up to 40 degrees centigrade (104 Fahrenheit).

WI Achilles Track Club @ Capitol Mile Run

Sponsored June 2006 Furry

Spock Sponsored by: LR Sponsored: June 7 , 2006

Join the Wisconsin and Ozaukee Humane Societies as we celebrate Mardi Paws June 9 - 11.

With summer quickly approaching, storms are brewing all over the U.S. Thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires sparked by drought all pose potential threats to animal safety. The devastating hurricanes of 2005 taught us to be more prepared for these disasters.

We here at WHS want to make sure that every companion animal is considered when making these preparations. One effort being made to protect our companion animals after disaster strikes is the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (PETS). This act ensures that beloved animals will be included in emergency preparedness plans throughout the country. We urge you to contact your representatives to ask them to support this important piece of legislation.

To get the word out to everyone about PETS, we're putting on our beads and dressing up Adoption Avenue. Beads will be available to all visitors for a $1 donation. For our animal companions, special Mardi Paws collars will be available for sale in Animal Antics.

San Francisco, Bump, and Big Chix Photos

SNL: If Al Gore were President

"Saturday Night Live," opened their show May 13 with Al Gore addressing the nation as if he was the President of the United States.

Al Gore Video

Fun Weirdness

The Great USA

PACK OF DOGS KILL GATOR IN FLORIDA

Not for the squeamish! Be sure you can handle the Raw Blood and Guts nature of this photo before scrolling down!

At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.

The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the "apex predator" in its natural ecosystem, can still fall victim to implemented 'team work' strategy, made possible due to the tight knit social structure and "survival of the fittest pack mentality", bred into the canines over the last several hundreds of years by natural selection.

See the attached remarkable photograph courtesy of Nature Magazine.

Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while the remainder of the pack prevents the beast from rolling.


Be sure you can handle guts and gore

---

Fridays vs. Mondays

What a difference

Delightful Maira Kalman

"New Yorkistan"
December 10, 2001
by Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz


"Dog Reads Book"
By Maira Kalman
February 1, 1999



©2005 maira kalman www.mairakalman.com

May Dog!

Brandy Sponsored: May 7, 2006

I am a ten-year-old husky/springer spaniel mix. My guardian passed away, so I am looking for someone with whom to share companionship and affection.

In celebration of "Older Americans Month," WHS wants to unite mature adults with equally experienced companion animals. WHS will be having special events the entire month of May to promote senior animals like me.

Any person over 60 who adopts any animal over 7 years old can enjoy special promotions and reduced adoption fees. Click here for details.

Senior animals are truly special. We don't have the training demands that younger animals may have, we bond quickly and will return your love tenfold. The health and emotional benefits of living with an animal are well-documented and extend beyond the companionship we offer. I can lower your blood pressure, help you recover from surgery faster and even renew your zest for life!

The First Official Portrait of TomRat

This if from The Gallery of the Absurd. Check it out!

This is a sneak preview of the "Celebrity Animals" project that Dlisted and Gallery of the Absurd collaborated on with ANIMAL magazine. ANIMAL challenged us to transform today's most popular tabloid celebrities into animals and you can see them all in the upcoming issue #7 due out in early June. See Paris, Nicole, Brangelina, Jessica, and Lindsay as you've never seen them before!

Pictured above is Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, aka TomRat, posing with their new baby girl. We wish them warm congratulations on their reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard new addition to the family. Medium: Acrylic, ink and coffee on gorgeous paper I found at a garage sale with just a splash of digital enhancement.