Foul Deeds: Dog owners who drop their bags

As I stroll through our neighborhood I frequently confront the grim choice of whether I should pick up discarded plastic-bagged dog crap.

I mean really!

It happened again today. The fist-sized, misted bag next to the sidewalk.

Clearly some dog owners are missing the point. Perhaps one or two will read on.

The rest of you are excused.

Coming across these discarded bulging bags is nearly as bad as stepping in dog shit itself.

What could these dog owners be thinking?

I know that carrying dog shit in a plastic bag for a few blocks in full view of one’s neighbors is no one’s idea of being cool. But let’s face it, that little bundle of dog dung belongs to you, dear dog owner, not me.

Do you think that I’m going to be impressed that you have done the reverse-baggie grab and bag, only to leave the bundle for others to pick up? Talk about half-assed.

Leaving bag-sealed crap behind makes you a litterer most foul.

If you’d left the crap unbagged, at least the rain would flush it away. Bagged but discarded, the dog doo is there to stay until some good Samaritan begrudgingly picks it up and gingerly totes it home.

Come on people. If you are going to own a dog, you have to go the whole nine yards and pack the crap back to your own house.

Geez.

Out and About

Call me crazy, but I worry about the end of this weather.

The worse thing that could happen is a sudden warm spell. If all this moisture on the ground turns to water real fast, we’ll really have something to worry about.

Oh well.

We walked into Hillsdale today and the place was booming. A group was actually opening presents at the Hillsdale Brew Pub. Yes, it’s going to be that kind of Christmas.

The Food Front Co-op was the busiest I’ve ever seen it. We stocked up on essentials: chocolate bars.

Out in front, two patrons decided to have a picnic on the veranda while another put on his snowshoes.

The Bank of America was also attracting a lot of attention, but for the wrong reason. A pipe had broken and not one but two fire engines had responded to hack through the snow and ice to find the water shut off valve in the sidewalk.

Anyone notice how dogs go a little “beach-crazy” in the snow?

And when deprived of owners and a romp, boy do they sulk.

Front page dots ripe for connecting

Before they disappear into the fog of old news, here are three front-page headlines from the Wednesday, July 2nd issue of The New York Times.

Taken separately, they inform in a sporadic way. Taken together, they cast a laser-bright light on these times.

On the top right of the page:

DEEPENING CYCLE
OF JOB LOSS SEEN
LASTING INTO '09

WEAK SIGNALS PERSIST

Directly beneath it:

Stock Exchange’s Former Chief
Wins Court Battle to Keep Pay.

(The “pay” in question was $187.5 million paid to Richard A. Grasso.)

And then over to the left on the bottom of the page, this:

Helmsley, Dogs’ Best Friend,
Left Them Up to $8 Billion

(The Helmsley in question is the late hotelier, real estate magnate and convicted tax-evader Leona Helmsley. Helmsley left her own dog, "Trouble" by name, $12 million. It was Helmsley who famously said, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.")

There you have it. A journalistic snapshot of our American society on one summer’s day in 2008, the eighth year of the reign of George W. Bush.

I suppose I could throw into the mix one other story from the front page, but it is a dot harder to connect. Upper left on the page:

CHINA INSPIRED
INTERROGATIONS
AT GUANTANAMO

COMMUNIST TECHNIQUES

Military Used ’57 Study
of Steps That Led to
False Confessions