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Recent Battles
Queen Victoria
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Juicing The Sheep
09 April 2009 11:11 AM | No CommentsThe Journal of Queen Victoria Thursday, October 21, 1868 “Juicing the Sheep“ At a quarter to twelve I drove off with Louise and Leopold in the waggonette up to near the “Bush” (the residence of William Brown, the farmer) to see them “juice the sheep.”...
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Queen Victoria’s Border Collies
26 January 2009 4:40 AM | 18 CommentsFor well over a century the “Collie” name has been co-opted by show breeders who have created a monster whose face looks like a door stop with beady eyes set in triangular slits. These same people have co-opted the notion that Queen Victoria was deeply...
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Show Me the Collie
22 January 2009 3:38 AM | 1 CommentHaving established that Queen Victoria’s direct influence on the proliferation of the show Collie is insubstantial at best, let’s explore what impact the Monarchy may have, in fact, had on the culture of dogs during her reign. Five. If the show Collie owes more to...
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The Queen and the Collie
20 January 2009 2:57 AM | 2 CommentsThe old wisdom on the rise of the show Collie is that Queen Victoria met them on a trip to Scotland in the 1860s, became infatuated, acquired them, sponsored them in shows, bred them, and her abundant trend-setting prowess lead to their bountiful rise to...
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The Victorian Collie Myth
19 January 2009 8:03 PM | 5 CommentsThe prevailing creation myth among show Collie enthusiasts is that Queen Victoria’s infatuation with the breed set the ball in motion, elevating the humble farm dog to aristocratic splendor. Queen Victoria saw her first Collies in the 1860′s, and she enthusiastically began to sponsor them,...
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Juicing The Sheep
Latest Headlines
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Ass Covering
Posted on January 9, 2010 | 5 CommentsYou didn’t have to be Nostradamus to predict that the Obama Administration’s policies toward the CIA were going to make us less safe and be directly responsible for assisting the success of a terrorist attack. In fact, you only had to be Robert Graham from... -
Kennel, Kibbutz, and Konzentrationslager
Posted on January 7, 2010 | 3 CommentsThe tools of Eugenics are very much alike: be it the dog kennel, the Kibbutz, or Concentration Camp. In philosophy, engineering, and practice the three institutions are highly correlated. While the modern sensibility would likely register disgust with the Concentration Camp and disinterest in the... -
A Family Affair
Posted on December 5, 2009 | 2 CommentsJust over a year ago, I brought you news of Dublin’s love children with that feisty red-head Mara: the “other woman.” In her bid to compete for the affections of the Astraean men, Mara couldn’t let Celeste hog all the lime light of celebrity so she and... -
We’re in DogJoy, TWICE!
Posted on October 10, 2009 | 2 CommentsMy dogs only subscribe to one magazine, and that’s The Bark. And yes, it comes in their names. I tolerate their subscription, despite the magazine being published by the dirty bears in Berkley … sssssssssss … and the rather granola overtones of some of the... -
Endings and Beginnings
Posted on September 24, 2009 | 6 CommentsThe rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, but the reality hasn’t been sunshine and roses. My father nearly died in March after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. If it wasn’t for my mother’s sharp eye and the world class stroke center 3 miles away,... -
Melatonin = Stress-Free 4th of July
Posted on July 4, 2009 | 2 CommentsNothing can ruin a 4th of July like a noise-phobic dog. You can’t leave your house to enjoy the fireworks because you’ll likely return to a distraught dog and a destroyed couch, and even if you stay home, there’s not much you can do to... -
Question & Answer Time
Posted on May 8, 2009 | 3 CommentsMore fun than keeping track of visitor traffic and subscribers (almost 90 readers and 20 followers now) is looking to see what search terms bring people here. The preponderance of image searches for dog !@#%ing makes me wonder about the state of humanity and my... -
Pacifist Hypocrite Shopping List
Posted on May 5, 2009 | No Commentsreprint I was out running some errands today and there were a handful of protesters at a busy intersection waving home-made signs like “honk for peace” and “no war for oil.” I laugh at the naieve banality of such idealists. First, that waving signs makes... -
If It Weren’t Cute…
Posted on April 15, 2009 | 4 CommentsIf inbred dogs weren’t cute before they were irreversibly destroyed, would traditional well intentioned idiot breeders still inbreed? For that matter, would you feel differently about your cute little pooch if you could actually see all of their inbred deformities, and they weren’t nearly as... -
The Easter EGGEs
Posted on April 10, 2009 | No CommentsThe Easter EGGEs, originally uploaded by AstraeanBorderCollies. In these tough times, it’s hard to keep up with the supposedly recession proof (read: you’re still going to spend a fortune, broke or not) pet toy industry. But I have a great tip for the best 5...
Queen Victoria's Border Collies