CSotD: Fur babies and other follies
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Emily Flake takes a swipe at the "fur baby" crowd, more observationally than judgmentally, but let's not pretend she's being neutral. There are three more panels to this piece, "Dogs: Are They The Same As Kids," over at the Nib, and, while I don't mind running a four-panel piece entire, if they go to the trouble of carving it up, I won't be so tacky as to re-assemble it: Go give them the hit.
She does a nice job but I'm not sure I'm any clearer on the answer to the question. I do see a lot of similarity between parent/child and owner/dog relationships where I happen to see both, and it's certainly true that we tend to be known by our dogs just as, when we were young parents, we were known by our kids, so that I've gone from being Gabe's Dad to being Vaska's Dad and that's okay with me, as it was then.
But we don't run with the fur baby crowd very much, because, whether it's "helicopter parent" or "helicopter owner," the common aspect is "hel" as in "hellion."
There are two fenced dog parks in the area, but my gang goes to another place which is larger, unfenced and where there is supposed to be a leash law but, well, we keep'em close and try to be cool about it and it generally works out because, much as we adore, dote upon and spoil our dogs, they are dogs.
The fenced parks are too full of fur babies who don't need the fence because they are well-behaved dogs who happen to have a tendency to bolt, but because not running away is only one of many things they have not been taught.
It's not just the two-legged crowd who feel like this: Several in our group say that taking their dogs to the fenced park full of fur-babies ends up with their dog standing by the gate wondering if it's time to leave yet.
Go see Emily Flake's take.
Anaphanancial Shock
Benjamin Schwartz in the New Yorker with a trenchant comment on the Epipen price increase.
I haven't dug into the nuts-and-bolts of this one,but I've seen enough arguments that I'm willing to believe it has more behind it that one company's greed. On the other hand, profiteering is certainly in the mix and it seems you could make a pretty good profit in a system that was more responsive to need.
This I'm sure of: It's only funny in the New Yorker, set in a nice restaurant.
The same gag on a lower-middle-class playground would not deserve a smile.
Speaking of which
Mr Fitz has been exploring the introduction of school uniforms, and the eye of the experienced teacher is always apparent in his take.
Today's, however, emphasizes a class element that well-intentioned reformers may have missed.
I'm going to assume the recent stories about schools installing washing machines so that kids could have clean clothing has influenced the strip, but it's a matter the majority culture doesn't think much about.
And should. When we all went to tiny schools in our own neighborhoods, maybe it was different. But if you're going to gather up kids from a variety of economic groups and put them together, you need to look beyond skin color and whether someone wears a hijab.
Unfortunately for us, both our educational and medical systems are tied up in financial aspects that make it very hard for everyone to get the same level of treatment.
Now, for an International conundrum
Also at the Nib, Andy Warner has a good explanation of why the Kurdish issue is so much more complex than most people think it is.
There was stuff here that I knew and quite a bit that I didn't, and, while he doesn't make me all that much more confident that it's all going to be solved tomorrow, he does help me understand why it likely won't.
The takeaway is that I don't plan to believe 100% of anybody's analysis of what's going on over there, but at least now I'll know why it seems so insoluable.
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