Yep, Dana. In the story, the girl, whose mom had died and whose pastor father moves her into a new town where she can't make any friends, is followed home from the Winn-Dixie by this dog who she then names Winn-Dixie.

A very inspirational smiling dog, and it made me want to throw up.

Hmmm... smiling is even a little bit much. Would it make you feel better, ita, to know that the dog dies in the end? Cause that's what happens.

It's something, Kat, but I'd have preferred it at the beginning -- like the first time the fucker smiles.

Does it smile in the book? The trailer felt like a series of people going "Gosh! The dog smiled!"

Kat: Oh, of course it does. Man, you just never want to be a dog in a kids' book, do you?

Katie, yes! This book has both kid book tropes of dead mother and dead dog.

Does it smile in the book?

I don't remember it, but I wouldn't be surprised. When I read the book, that never stuck out at me.

But, I would have read a dog's smile, much like how I read Bear's smiles. She's panting and she has on her little Samoyed smile and you're left to decide "Is she panting? Or, is she smiling? And if she's smiling is it a result of her being so excited because she is planning on biting me?"

And if she's smiling is it a result of her being so excited because she is planning on biting me?

You should warn her that this is a tell.

One of my former's students had a mom who is a vet. We used to talk about the opaqueness of Asian dogs. A jindo like Kuma or an akita or a chow often get excited when they see people, not because they like people, but because they do plan on biting the person and the thought of that bite is overwhelmingliy exciting.

Unfortunately, little kids, especially those used to retrievers and labs don't get it and think the dog is happy to see them. But really, the dog is seeing them, but merely as an attack object.

Plus, ita, Bear's bigger tell is when she curls her lip and growls.

Bear's bigger tell is when she curls her lip and growls.

That's not a tell. That's an attack in and of itself. For the weaker.

You should warn her that this is a tell.

Note the absence of a Samoyed in this picture.

Frank, wow! I've never seen that much snow all at once. We got 20" here, but a lot of it blew off the top with the wind. We probably only have 13"-14" on the ground now.

Weird thing is, the 5 prior winters I've been in Salem (and most of the rest of last year), there was never all that much snow. I seriously hope this isn't a trend (either for this winter or for future winters).

In my experience, New England is like that. It just goes in waves--a few years of nasty cold winters, a few years of mild ones.