Whither Black Cats (Self Help Radio Halloween 2017)?

(Image from here - it's an interesting article, too.)

Every year Self Help Radio celebrates the spookiest of holidays (well, after Easter) with a special episode focusing on some creepy aspect of the event.  We've had shows about ghosts & vampires, about zombies & werewolves, about witches & mummies & monsters.  Scary places weren't neglected, either - there have been shows about haunted houses, graveyards, even hell.  Some terrifying concepts, too, have come under the show's scrutiny: nightmares & death have frightened a radio listener before.  (Let's not talk about the show about clowns, okay?)

This year, we will hear songs & discussion about the domesticated pet from hell, the black cat.  Oh sure, they're cute, they're sweet, they're cuddly & friendly, but what if they're really witches in disguise?  What if they're like Satan's spy cameras?  What if at night they're slowly sucking your soul out of your body & giving you toxoplasmosis instead?  These are all things that, while probably not possible, might freak you out if you're reading this while high.  Good lord, why are you reading this blog while high?  There are so many other cool things you could be doing!

Come join us tonight as we expose the evil black cat for the devilspawn it is!  Self Help Radio's spooky Halloween show is on from 9-11pm eastern, 8-10pm central, on 93.9 fm WLXU in haunted Lexington, & online at Lexington Community Radio dot org, which is probably possessed by the souls of deejays long forgotten.

& remember - if Self Help Radio crosses your path, it's bad luck all the rest of the week!

Preface To Halloween 2017 - Black Cats: Cats Are Just Too Fucking Cool

Oh yeah, I'm bad ass.

That image above is from an article I think I'll read from tomorrow night with the headline Cats Domesticated Themselves, DNA Evidence Shows.

Whoa.

The truth is, I was a cat person before I was a dog person, & the reason is that they're cool as fuck.  They love you when & if they're in the mood.  The rest of the time they're doing their own thing.

So tomorrow I'm going to be talking smack about black cats, about how they're bad luck, they work with witches & devils, etc.  But all the while I'll be secretly envying them.

Because while most of us are as emotionally sloppy as dogs, precious few of us can be as cosmically cool as a cat.  That's why we vilify them!

Hope they can forgive me!

My Black Cat

The show this week is a Halloween show, a show about black cats.  My mother believes that black cats are bad omens, & more than once in our childhood did she make us go a different direction because a black cat crossed her path.  This is true.

She's very old now, & forgetful, & she was talking one day about how scared she was of black cats, & she asked me, "Do you think it's bad luck for a black cat to cross your path?"

My reply was, "If so, I'm the unluckiest person alive, because a black cat crosses my path literally all day long when I am at home."

The truth is, I am lucky to have a black cat at home.  I've talked about him over & over, but I thought, in honor of today's show, I'd share a few more pictures of my wonderful black cat.

His name is Bolan.  Here he is as a kitten, over ten years ago, sleeping with Ringo:

Here he is as a kitten with Winston, whom he is a little bit bigger than now:

Here he is with his brother George, & if you met him, you'd realize he was raised by dogs:

Here he is with the mother who wanted him, whom he loves very much:

He is a rather large cat:

& sometimes he has trouble relaxing, his life is so stressful:

So we're lucky that, a couple of years after we adopted him, we rescued the love of his life, Bronte:

So, if you're scared of black cats, this week's show might be terrifying for you.  But at our house, Bolan will be the most brazen of cats, & will gladly come to meet you if you come over.  He might also eat your hair.  It's a thing.  We can't figure it out.

Dream Vacation

This week's show is about black cats, who are vilified as bad omens & unlucky - & sometimes downright evil - among the superstitious, but I own a black cat & he's sweet as can be.

I've been on the lookout for great black cat stories & today I stumbled onto this one (from which the above picture is taken):

Adventurous Man Quits His Job to Travel Australia in a Campervan With a Beautiful Black Cat By His Side

My black cat Bolan is not fond of being in moving vehicles but I wouldn't mind traveling the country with my animals.  It's very true, life is better with black cats around!

Self Help Radio 101817: Faces

(Original image here.)

Self Help Radio has many faces.  One face is full of music.  Another face is full of talk.  Yet another face is kind of disgusting & you're repulsed even just by glancing at it.  In this way, Self Help Radio is a lot like a person, or perhaps many people, all with faces.  You get the idea.  I can torture metaphor as much as you like but it's really never going to make much sense.  I mean, one face per head, right?  Usually, that is.  I mean, there's always Edward Mordake.  But he's made up, you say.  Oh yeah?  If that were true, would Tom Waits sing about him?

We seem to have gotten off track.  This week's show was about faces.  Many faces were discussed, with a spiritual leader, a plastic surgeon, a psychologist, even a cyber-security expert.  & the music!  So much music about faces.  Oh my word.  It would be even more haunting than Edward Mordake.  Who never existed.  Oh yeah?  Would he be on American Horror Story is that were true?

Prepare your face to meet the faces you'll meet at the Self Help Radio website, where the show now resides.  Use your face to see information about a username & a password, information that's on the front (or front-facing) page.  The show is in two more-or-less equal parts, & what's in those parts is listed below.

Gotta go now & Face Time someone.  Enjoy!

(part one)

"Faces" TC Atlantic _Pebbles Vol. 3: The Acid Gallery_
"Faces" Harlem _Hippies_
"Faces" Jonathan Rado _Law & Order_

"Put On A Happy Face" Tony Bennett _New York, New York_
"Lose That Long Face" The Florentines _London Pavillion, Vol. 2: El 1987_
"Sad Voice & Mock Face" George Carlin _When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?_
"Break Your Face" Talulah Gosh _They've Scoffed The Lot_
"Faces & Names" Lou Reed & John Cale _Songs For Drella_

interview with the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently

"Broken Face" The Pixies _Surfer Rosa_
"I've Just Seen A Face" Ludella Black _Alright, This Time Just The Girls, Vol. 2_
"Touch My Face" Malcolm Middleton & David Shrigley _Music & Words_
"Violently Pretty Face" Close Lobsters _What Is There To Smile About?_
"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" The Clams _Close To You 7"_

interview with psychologist Allen Shariaty

"Always See Your Face" Love _Four Sail_
"Your Face Betrays You" Mysteries Of Life _Come Clean_

(part two)

"Shaddup You Face" Joe Dolce _Australian Pop Classics: Novelty Songs Of The 60s & 70s_
"Making Faces At Each Other" I, Brute Force _Confections Of Love_
"Look At This Face (Oh My God They're Gorgeous)" Handsome Boy Modeling School _So... How's Your Girl?_

interview with cyber-security expert David Fruchter

"Baby Face" Little Richard _The Essential Little Richard_
"Smiling Faces Sometimes" The Undisputed Truth _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 11A: 1971_
"Drugface" The Passage _Enflame_
"Your Silent Face" Velocity Girl _Your Silent Face 7"_

interview with plastic surgeon CJ Buchanan

"Face Cream" Simon I _Simon I_
"Faces Stay With Me" The Thermals _Desperate Ground_
"The Face Of Everything" The Ballet _Mattachine!_
"Faces Stay With Me" Drug Boyfriend _Faces Stay With Me_
"Pretty Faces" Nicki Jaine _Projekt Presents: A Dark Cabaret_

"Joker Hysterical Face" The Fall _Room To Live_

Whither Faces?

(I found this here.)

What can be said about faces that I can't say to your face?  I don't want you to think of this show as some kind of face-off - & certainly I'm not doing it to save face.  Let's face it - you're more likely to consider me a baldfaced liar than just another pretty face.  & I'm not interested in flying in the face of what some might call tradition - I'd rather fall off the face of the earth! - but you'd rather cut off your nose to spite your face than be discovered you've got egg on your face.  It's written all over your face!  But I can talk till I'm red in the face to your resting bitch face but I have to face facts: if I don't do an about-face, I'm gonna fall flat on my face.  I took you at face value & now I have to face the music.  I'm request some face time but you'd just get in my face & insult me, saying something like I have a face that can stop a clock.  & I don't wanna face that.  It would be just a slap in the face.

What can I say?  It's a radio show about faces.  Tonight from 9-11pm eastern, 8-10pm central on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington & online at LCR Online.  Please listen.  I promise it won't be so in-your-face.

Preface To Faces: Confession Time Again

There are times when I am so lucky that Self Help Radio doesn't have superfans (or even average fans) who might nitpick things I say, might catch me in the off chance I re-do a theme, might grumble when I play a song that's really more fitting for a different theme.  In addition to that being weird - someone as interested in the show as I am - I mean, it seems freakin' unthinkable - such a situation would also make me more likely to be embarrassed about things that I am not usually embarrassed about, because no one really notices.

For example: Self Help Radio has covered the topic of faces before.

What?!?!

It's true.  It was on July 6, 2005, but it wasn't a show I was involved with.  It was subbed by a deejay named Danny Shiman, who was filling in for me becayse I had traveled that week to San Francisco with my girlfriend for to see an Indiepop Festival (I believe this was the one that had both the Lucksmiths & My Favorite!) & Danny gladly decided he'd keep the Self Help Radio format, if I gave him a theme to explore.  I gave him the theme "the human face."

The reason I chose this is because I knew it would be fairly easy to cover: he could play songs about eyes, nose, mouth, lips, cheeks, etc.  & so he did.  You can find his playlist on this page but you'll have to scroll down to July.  It's instructive if you want to do so, not only to see that he played a great mix of songs in the tradition of the show, but also because I won't be playing any of these songs.

It was common in those days - or it would've been if it had happened more than a few times - for me to give people themes that I myself would've found too easy to cover - no disrespect to Danny.  So too later when my friend Justin subbed the show, I told him to do a show about tools, where I might have done a show exclusively about, say, hammers.  I remember an April 15 sub when I asked my guest host, Art, to cover death & taxes.  Death is one of those subjects you could actually do an entire, lifelong radio show about.  It seems a cheat to do that just once.  For me, not for someone who isn't always doing theme-based shows.

Anyway.  Faces has been a Self Help Radio theme before.  I haven't covered it, & it wasn't covered in the same dumb, obsessive way that I would've done it, although, again. Danny did a fine job.  I was pleased when I saw the playlist.  & yeah, I thought he did it far better than I would've.

& we'll see how true that is tomorrow, won't we?

Going To The State Fair Tomorrow

(Image from here.)

Yes, the wife & I will be attending the Texas State Fair in Dallas tomorrow, so I need to get this week's show done tonight so I haven't any time to write in the blog, so you'll have to enjoy a picture of Big Tex & maybe read the link above, about a vegan trying to find food at the fair.  We might have that problem, too.  We're not really going for the food.  Or, as it seems safer to call it, the "food."

Fort Worth Stories No. 2

Way back here, I told a story about our then-new surroundings in the western half of the Metroplex, but for some reason I never told another Fort Worth Story.

This past week, I shared this on Facebook, so I thought it would make a decent Fort Worth Story, even if it's not much of a story as it a series of observations.

-----

At the Tom Thumb on Camp Bowie in Fort Worth, time moves very slowly. The Eurythmics song on the store speakers sounds like it's a 45 played at 33. A man named Larry, who most probably fought in the Korean War & who should be dozing on a porch in retirement bliss, unhurriedly works the register in the ironically entitled Express Lane. He has a plastic bag fetish; he never puts more than two items in a bag, he loves to pull each one up & out in a deliberate, even robotic motion, handing them over after each completed fill to the customer, so someone who's bought the limit of fifteen items now has eight plastic bags in their shopping cart. A man who looks older than Larry, if that's possible, waits ten minutes in front of me to buy a can of peas. He seems so proud to get his can in a plastic bag but then can't figure out how to exit the store, & is still wandering around when it's my turn. As I approach the counter, I tell Larry, "I won't need a bag," & this makes him drop my Tom Thumb discount card. "No bags?" he says incredulously. Then he spends a minute trying to find my card behind the register. When I leave, I feel almost as old as Larry, & nowhere as proud of my purchase as the man with the can of peas, who follows me out the door, but then seems confused about where he's now found himself in the strange outside world.

-----

Self Help Radio 101117: Memories Revisited (The Fifteenth Anniversary Show)

(Original image here.)

Ah, what a memorable night!  The fifteenth anniversary of Self Help Radio!  The wine flowed!  The music played!  There was laughter, joy, merriment!  I sure wish I could remember any of it.

You see, while everyone was celebrating, I was busy playing the songs & conducting the interviews, & making sure everything went smoothly so we could have fifteen more years of the show.  (Which means I'll be almost sixty-five when that happens - I think we can all agree it might be better to have died in World War III instead of that.)

Still, one hopes everyone had a nice time, & if you are one who did not, because you couldn't attend, you're in luck!  Because the show was captured for posterity & now is available for your listening pleasure at your listening leisure.

It's at the Self Help Radio website & you can access it if you know the username (SHR) & the password (selfhelp) that is also available on the website.  It's in two almost-equal parts (roughly an hour each) & what's in the parts - including the interviews - is noted below.

But I'm glad these anniversaries only happen once a year.  They are sure exhausting.  What?  That's the definition of an anniversary?  Oh.  Well.  You don't have to be so snotty about it.  Sheesh.

(part one)

"Memories" The Free Design _Heaven/Earth_
"Precious Memories" Sister Rosetta Tharpe _The Original Soul Sister (1946-48)_
"Cherished Memories" Eddie Cochran _Somethin' Else: The Fine Lookin' Hits Of Eddie Cochran_

"Mountain Of Memories" David Ruffin _David - The Unreleased Album_
"Memories" Slick Rick _The Art Of Storytelling_
"I've Left Memories Behind" Jay & Sam Clarkson _Stroke: Songs For Chris Knox_
"Memories Of Love" Future Bible Heroes _Memories Of Love_

interview with the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently

"Memories Can't Wait" Talking Heads _Fear Of Music_
"Memories" Clinic _Do It_
"Losing Memories" Bedhead _Beheaded_
"Memories On Memorex" Viktor Fiction _Memories On Memorex_

interview with former Self Help Radio apprentice Allen Shariaty

"Memories Of You" Lonnie Johnson & Elmer Snowden _Blues & Ballads_

(part two)

"Memories Are Made Of This" Dean Martin _That's Amore: The Best Of Dean Martin_
"House Of Memories" Merle Haggard _Down Every Road 1962-1994_
"Black Memories" The Growlers _Chinese Fountain_

interview with Radio Schools Of America founder & teacher CJ Buchanan

"Come & Get Your Memories" Martha & The Vandellas _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 3: 1963_
"Forest Of Memories" The Lovely Eggs _This Is Our Nowhere_
"Memories" Liechtenstein _Fast Forward_
"Memories" Noel Ellis _Jamaica To Toronto: Soul Funk & Reggae, 1967-1974_

interview with famous radio host David Fruchter

"Bad Memories" Ed's Redeeming Qualities _Big Grapefruit Clean-Up Job_
"Memories Fade" Bart & Friends _Make You Blush_
"Sell Your Memories" Fonda _The Strange & The Familiar_
"Memories Cabernet" Drug Boyfriend _Memories Cabernet_

"Memories" Leonard Cohen _Death Of A Ladies' Man_
"You Bring Back Memories" The Supremes _Meet The Supremes_

Whither Memories?

(Original image here.)

5,478 days of Self Help Radio?  That sounds like a horror story!

Luckily, it's been far, far fewer than that.  Even if there had been a Self Help Radio every week since 2002 (there hasn't), it would still mean a maximum of 780 days of shows, which, if they were all two hours long (they weren't), would be 1,560 hours of Self Help Radio.  That's roughly sixty-five days, or a little over two months, of Self Help Radio, which, I agree, is still worrying, but is nowhere near as catastrophic an idea as fifteen years.  But it's entirely understandable if you think that's way too much Self Help Radio.

There are so many people in so many radio stations to blame for this!

But instead of finding fault, let's just smile sweetly & congratulate this pitiful show on its longevity, as if that's a matter of rare achievement & not a lot of luck & not a little entropy.  & you can indeed celebrate by listening tonight, when we revisit a theme from the distant past, 2004, when we first did a show about memory.  Tonight it's all about memories (plural) & there will also be plenty of memories for me about the show & my life.

That's from (fingers crossed) 8-10pm central, 9-11pm eastern, on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington & online at LCR Online.  I hope you'll join in on the celebration!  Also, BYOB.

Preface To Memories (The Fifteenth Anniversary Show): Fifteen Years Of This?

Oy it's been a long day.  I had to put the show together & sent it off to WLXU.  Plus I am doing a show tomorrow (the Wednesday Morning Blend) so I spent the other half of the day listening to music to prepare for that.

Did you know I am a serial procrastinator?  I will literally wait until the last minute to do something that I could easily have done a few days early without any pressure.  Like, for example, I do this Arts Calendar for KFTW here in town.  I could knock out a month's worth in a couple of hours - it's not like there's an opera suddenly schedule with a week's notice.  But they're due on Thursday so I finish them on Wednesday.  I can't help it.

& you know what?  I long for the day when I can't get something that was supposed to be done at a certain time on time.  I want it to be something I promised that simply cannot be late.  & when I fuck up I want pretty much everyone mad at me.  I want to be so scarred by it that I do everything early for the rest of my miserable life.

It's amazing that that hasn't happened.  It will happen.  I hope it's soon.  But for fifty years (almost) I've gotten away with it.  & today, though I barely got four hours of sleep last night, well, I'm done with Self Help Radio & I think I'm prepared for the Morning Blend.

Oh, about Self Help Radio - I promised I'd tell you how I plan to organize the show for this week - I am narrowing the theme to simply songs about "memories."  It cut the number of songs I had to listen to in half!  It was amazing.

But I don't get to play the Mountain Goats' "You Or Your Memory."  & that makes me sad.

Blog-Navel-Gazing

You've been warned.

By now you're aware that I like to put barriers in my way, roadblocks, rules, restrictions.  I like to make things harder for me - at least as far as Self Help Radio is concerned.  I think it might've happened around the time Bob Dylan did his "Theme Time Radio Shows."  Not that I ever felt I was in competition with him - ha ha ha, no - but I think out of some personal sense of spite, I was like, "Oh if he's going to do a show about hair*, then I'm going to narrow my focus."

& yeah, I don't always do that - my upcoming show about faces could have thousands of songs - but I did feel like I needed to distinguish the show from all the other theme shows that exist & that pop up all the time every day.  (Do they?)

In 2008 I thought of revisiting an old theme - it's amazing that the show was only six years old at the time - when I celebrated an anniversary.  But by "revisiting," I didn't mean playing the same old show.  I didn't want to do that.  I wanted to play music I might have discovered in the intervening years.  So, for example, when I revisited my 1968 show, I didn't play anything that I played on the original show.

This week's show will probably play a few songs - maybe three - from the show about memory thirteen years ago.  But there will be a very distinct, annoying, Gary touch to it.

Which I will explain tomorrow.

Coming back to Dylan, though, I have to say: I'm skeptical that he picked all the music himself.  I mean, look at that playlist for the hair show.  Can you tell me with a straight face that you believe Bob Dylan listens to They Might Be Giants?

* Which he did in January 2007, while I covered a similar theme - & played at least one of the same songs - six months earlier.

Fifteenth Anninversary

(original image here.)

On October 9, 2002, Self Help Radio premiered on 91.7fm KOOP Austin, Texas.  It was 2pm.  The very first theme was "War," because at that time, one year after 9/11, the Republican administration was sending signals it really, really wanted to go to war with Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.  It was a confusing, sad time, & I am sad to report it remains the same.

Self Help Radio, though, has changed, & not just its location.  One thing is that I very soon began resisting "easy" themes like "war."  Maybe not within the first couple of years - I really didn't imagine that the show would last all that long - but when I realized I wanted to do the show for a while, I figured, what the hell, let's plan a little better & explore some really interesting themes.

Here's something else that's different: I would put the show together the night before.  I had so much confidence I could come up with a theme that I didn't really think about the show except less than twenty-four hours before it aired.  That meant I never knew what a theme would be at the end of the previous week's show - one time I remember thinking I'd do a cool theme where every song would be a song about another band, only to be told by a friend that another show on another station had done that just a couple days before.  How embarrassing it would be to seem a copycat or a plagiarist!

Another time I did do that, & the theme was "devils," I think (that would make it in 2003), & someone called & said another show the day before had done a show about devils.  I said it was purely coincidence - I didn't listen to that show - but the caller was convinced this meant something diabolical was happening in Austin.  I didn't know how to reassure him.

Anyway, the traditional gift for the fifteenth anniversary is crystal.  So please send your presents of crystal meth to the Self Help Radio offices in Fort Worth, Texas, by the time of the show.  Please note that the packages contain "timepieces."  That's a modern twist on the fifteenth anniversary present.  No one will be fooled.

Seriously, though.  Crystal meth.  I mean it.

Self Help Radio 100417: Foxes

(Original image here.)

Yay foxes!  It's about time someone gave them a radio show!  So glad it got to be Self Help Radio!

& already the reviews are pouring in: every fox with a radio or the internet loved it, while most hounds with access to the show are giving it mixed reviews.  How do the foxes get their reviews to me?  Like everything else, I learn what people think by reading the comments section.

There's also some indication that humans who find themselves "foxy" also enjoyed the show, so if you missed it but consider that adjective apt, by gum, listen now.  There are not only lots of fox songs, but there's an interview with a zookeeper, a report from a furry convention (where people dress as foxes), & my spiritual mentor talks about the deeper meaning of foxes.  It will also give you something to talk about with foxes in those awkward moments when you come across one & find they're immune to small talk.

The show is now at the Self Help Radio website.  You don't have to be sly as a fox to figure out the username & password needed for the show - it's on the website already.  The show is in two parts, & what's in the parts, as well as where the interviews are, is listed below.

Yay foxes!

(part one)

"The Fox" Odetta _At The Gate Of Horn_
"The Fox" A Certain Ratio _Early_
"The Fox" The Rondelles _Shined Nickels & Loose Change_
"A Fox (Maybe I'd Better Stay Me)" The Smothers Brothers _Aesop's Fables The Smothers Brothers Way_

"Hounds Of Love" Kate Bush _Hounds Of Love_
"The Old Fox" The Mekons _Natural_
"Arctic Fox It's A Setup!" Mike Birbiglia _Two Drink Mike_
"Foxheads" Close Lobsters _Foxheads Stalk This Land_
"Fox On The Run" Dondero High School A Capella Choir _Pop Concert 1995_

interview with the Rev Dr Howard Gently

"Fine Old Foxy Self" James Brown _The Singles, Volume 3: 1964-1965_
"Foxy Girls In Oakland" Rodger Collins _Bay Area Funk_
"This Is A Foxy World" Tom Tom Club _Close To The Bone_
"Foxy Lady" The Cure _Three Imaginary Boys_
"Foxy Boxer" Bearsuit _Oh:io_

"The Fox In The Snow" Belle & Sebastian _If You're Feeling Sinister_

(part two)

"Fox & The Hounds" Henry Thomas _Before The Blues, Vol. 3: The Early American Black Music Scene_
"The Fox Chase" Wade Ward & Bob Carpenter _Southern Journey, Vol. 2: Ballads & Breakdowns (Songs From The Southern Mountains)_
"Lonnie's Fox Chase" Lonnie Glosson _The History Of Country & Western Music, Vol. 5 (1935-1937)_

Marge Most reports from a furry convention

"Fox In Socks" Marvin Miller _Dr. Seuss Presents Fox In Socks, Horton Hatches The Egg, & Other Stories Including The Sneetches_
"The Bear & The Fox" Tim Yen Yen _Everything Beautiful Reminds Me Of You_
"The Fox & The Grapes" Joan Gerber _The Story Lady_
"Nice Fox" The Rosebuds _Life Like_
"Foxx & I" The Magnetic Fields _50 Song Memoir_

interview with zookeeper Tony Sharpetti

"Red Fox" The Choir Practice _The Choir Practice_
"Foxes Of Kalahari" The Search _Deranged Minds Unite_
"Find The Fox (Demo)" XTC _Coat Of Many Cupboards_
"Fake Fox Fur Pillowcase" The Wave Pictures _Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon_
"Faux Foxes Improvise Limelight" Drug Boyfriend _Faux Foxes Improvise Limelight_

"Reynard The Fox" Julian Cope _Fried_
"Fox Box" The Dirtbombs _Horndog Fest_

Whither Foxes?

(Found here.)

Damn, foxes are cute as fuck.  They make me want to just have every frickin' show be about cute things, just so I can put pictures of them on the Facebook page.  I mean, the theme of the show the week before was guilt.  No one wants to look at pictures of guilt!

& yet, their adorable nature was not the reason for the show.  No, the idea came to me because I was reading about another cute animal dear to my heart: beagles.  The story of the fox is often wrapped up into the story of the hound.  Not only are they closely related, but, you know, one hunts the other, thanks to human beings.  I bet otherwise they'd just hang out together.

Stuff I was reading talked about domestication, which I talked about yesterday, & which led to the show today.  That's sometimes how inspiration strikes.  It's often deliberate.

& so Self Help Radio's show about foxes is on tonight on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington & online of course at LCR Online.  It's on from 8-10pm central & 9-11pm eastern.

The show's not nearly as cute as that picture above.  Just warning you in advance.

Placeholder: 2,700th Post

This is the 2,700th discrete bit of writing on this blog, which began September 12. 2006, just a little over eleven years ago.  It has never really had much of a purpose & continues to in that vein.

Huzzah.  Celebratory music.  Confetti.  Toasts & cheers.  Revelry.  Regret.  Depression.  Acceptance.

"Here's to 2700 more," one drunken fool burps, & is promptly punched in the face.

Preface To Foxes: Domestication

There was an argument today on the morning dogwalk between me & the wife (not me & the dogs) about the domestication of foxes.  I had read that one of the more interesting things about foxes is that, despite their being related to wolves & dogs, they have resisted domestication.

The wife, who is a smarty-pants, said, "What about the Russian foxes?"

Sadly I had to confess to her that I hadn't heard about them.  When I quickly read about them on my  phone - probably while she was picking up dog poop - I was able to point out that this particular attempt at domestication has only been going on for a few decades.  In contrast, some researchers believes humans domesticated dogs like fifteen thousand (15,000) years ago.  That's quite a difference.

Luckily she doesn't notice things like this report, which is about a fox being domesticated, although it is a fox that has been bred for its fur, so it's not a wild fox.

None of this by the way dissuades me from wanting a fox of my own.  I don't know if I could handle a wild fox, but if you know of any douchebag fox fur farms around here, let me know - it might be worth planning a rescue.

Pictures Of Foxes

Over at the Self Help Radio Facebook page, I've been sharing links to pictures of foxes.  I will also share them here now.

These 22 Photos Will Make You Fall In Love With Foxes

7 Of The Most Breathtakingly Beautiful Fox Species In The World

The Foxiest Foxes on the Internet

You're welcome!

Maybe go over & like the page to see other stuff that's posted there?

Meet My Pets (Again?) # 8: Yoko

I adopted Yoko from my sister, who died two years ago, & who asked me - when I didn't think she was very sick & when she knew no one else would - to take her if anything bad happened.  I discussed that here, but that wasn't much about Yoko.

Yoko's a chihuahua mainly - some think she may have a little hound in her, maybe dachshund - but she's scrappy & yappy & definitely wishes she could be one person's dog - it used to be my sister, now it's me, although she does fine with the other dogs & with the cats & with the wife.

Yoko & I travelled from Texas to Kentucky over two day in the summer of 2015.  She was very needy when the car wasn't moving, & so I took her with me wherever I went.  If I left her in the hotel room, she'd claw at the door & bark.  So when I went for food, I took her.  I went to a pet store to buy her food, since my sister had told me she was finicky.  & I put her dog bed - taken from my sister's house - on the hotel room bed with me, so she could sleep there.

It might be that she bonded with me then.

My wife Magda was in Spain doing research at the time & she later told me she had intended to adopt Yoko out, but Yoko stole her heart within days.  Magda gave Yoko her name, too - she said the little dog "broke up the beagles."  She also advised me that Yoko wasn't finicky, just spoiled - she would eat, Magda said, when she was hungry.  She was right - & Yoko also took to walks right away, if only to bark at everything that passed.  She especially hates bicycles & mail carriers.

She weighed over twelve pounds when I brought her home.  She now weighs between seven & eight. She's healthy, she's happy, & she has, as I've said, fit it well with the other dogs.  But she does follow me around.  If I have time to nap, she will come very happily into bed with me during the day & burrow under the covers.

& she's mellowed out.  When we have guests over, she gets used to them quickly, & remembers neighbors whom she's already met.

Magda often says that she'd rather have Pat, my sister, back, but she wishes she could tell her what a gift Yoko was to us.

Maybe I should've talked about the night I met Yoko - when Pat was in the hospital, & she asked us, who were visiting, to let her out.  Yoko hated us.  She growled & cowered in a corner.  I tried & tried to befriend her.  It wasn't until we were there for a while, when the other dogs needed to go out in the middle of the night, that she just came along with us.

Well, that's the story.  There's more to it, I guess.  Just like there's a lot more to Yoko.  The youngest, newest member of our pack.