Gah. Now I'm remembering a friend of mine in DC who had another friend who was all hooked up with a sugar daddy but for some reason or other was moving. And, basically, asked my friend if she wanted to, you know, transfer into the gig.

Not enough ew in the world.

This is why we don't let the invisible hand of the market set our life preserver standards.

One thing I've learned in working in a regulated industry for 20+ years is that some of the people working in them damn well need to be regulated by something.

ewwwww Brenda.

I just got details on the Food Network show that I'm going to. It included the following...

We'd like you to dress in your best "hip" clothing. A bit edgy and "cool".

Eh? Hip, edgy, cool? In my closet? I doubt it. Ummmmmm.

I had missed that fact that Haddon Sundblom, the illustrator who gave us the Coca-Cola Santas, had also painted this [link] eta: Possibly NSFW.

Yo - a little NSFW warning, please.

Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl!

Chaser, a border collie who lives in Spartanburg, S.C., has the largest vocabulary of any known dog. She knows 1,022 nouns, a record that displays unexpected depths of the canine mind and may help explain how children acquire language.

...

He bought Chaser as a puppy in 2004 from a local breeder and started to train her for four to five hours a day. He would show her an object, say its name up to 40 times, then hide it and ask her to find it, while repeating the name all the time. She was taught one or two new names a day, with monthly revisions and reinforcement for any names she had forgotten.

Border collies are working dogs. They have a reputation for smartness, and they are highly motivated. They are bred to herd sheep indefatigably all day long. Absent that task, they must be given something else to do or they go stir crazy.

Chaser proved to be a diligent student. Unlike human children, she seems to love her drills and tests and is always asking for more. “She still demands four to five hours a day,” Dr. Pilley said. “I’m 82, and I have to go to bed to get away from her.”

...

It was hard to remember all the names Chaser had to learn, so he wrote the name on each toy with indelible marker.

Aha! Maybe the dog didn't learn all those words and instead just read the name printed on each item.

She can also learn by exclusion, as children do. If she is asked to fetch a new toy with a word she does not know, she will pick it out from ones that are familiar.

Wow.

“She still demands four to five hours a day,” Dr. Pilley said. “I’m 82, and I have to go to bed to get away from her.”

Aw!

Glad for the best possible outcome, amych. Enjoy your Prosecco, and whenever you want to tap into that local network, we're around.

What amyth said, amych. If you want to come to Philly for networking at ITSE (pretty sure it's here this year), you have a room at hotel del Sox.

Glad for good outcomes and ready Prosecco, amych.