Yup, that's what my googling has concluded.

If you are not intending to show your dane I would not bother to have the ears cropped. It is very painful, they need constant change of dressing and professional application of splints and bandages for several months to make them stand erect.

Banned in the UK and most of Europe.

My dog's half Rott so it's kind of a sensitive subject for me. I can't imagine putting an animal through useless, painful cosmetic surgery (and destroying those beautiful ears and that powerful tail) for - what? Vanity? It makes me ill.

I was googling to read up on whether the UK had banned Doberman docking, and got sucked into a wonderfully warm description of the breed which then went on to say that it's not a breed you can leave in your back yard.

I'm not sure what the back yard downside is, since ours was great. As seemed the pack across the street from us, although they were appallingly bad guard dogs--I think the family came home to find their place being robbed and the dogs frolicking on the lawn.

Timelies all!

Wow, a lot has gone on among the Buffistas in the time I was away.

Portland was great, and I wish I could have spent more time there. Although, considering how much I spent at Powell's, it's probably for the best that I came home when I did. It was nice meeting you, Cass. Sorry you had a migraine and couldn't do dinner with us.

RageGirl is home and took a nice long hot shower, which has cranked her down to irked.

Chicken cooking.

I'm going to sarameg's for dinner.

I don't know. Her irk gives me pause.

It was half a freaking HUGE chicken breast, in a ginger soy marinate. I have another half left. Some broccoli too.

Irk means I no longer want to stab people. Hit them, sure. But I'll use a nerf bat.

NOW on PBS is talking to Anna Devere Smith. I'd love to see one of her performances.

Interesting thought from her, that she attributed to Cornell West: “Optimism and hope are different. Optimism tends to be based on the notion that there’s enough evidence to allow us to think things are going to be better. . . . Whereas hope looks at the evidence and says it doesn’t look good at all, but we’re going to go beyond the evidence to create new possibilities.”

Interesting. I wouldn't say that hope creates new possibilities--if I did, I'd hope. Considers unsupported possibilities--that I agree with for sure.

I'm not reading it as tightly as you, so I can equate new with unsupported in terms of imagination. Basically, going beyond what the evidence allows for.

It's not really a comparison (hope vs optimism) I've looked at before. But it does resonate. I tend towards pessimism, but hang on like a pollyana. I can't really live any other way.