The Canine Review of Books

Recently I encountered a thriller called The Athena Project by Brad Thor, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The dust jacket made a pleasant-tasting, noisy palate cleanser and was a perfect set-up for the chewy, delicious boards that constituted the cover. What's more, the glue in the binding had a tangy, woodsy smell that was irresistible.  The paper was the true highlight, though -- dark, with inky undertones that blended perfectly with cellulose.  The only book that I enjoyed more was Hegel's Science of Logic, but that's probably an unfair comparison. Academic presses use more pungent glue.

To other reviewers, I leave such matters as the plot, the characters, the prose style, the underlying politics, and the alarming implications of the nonstop diet of bang-bang shoot-em-ups. Personally, I think adults can handle anything, if they have teeth that are strong enough.

A recent encounter with the adversary

This one has sharp claws, which, from a moral point of view, is cheating.  He's a tenth my size, and he's already slashed me a few times. He is unimpressed with my dignified bearing. Barking doesn't bother him.

I foresee years of trouble.

Penser a fauteuil

Everyone seems to believe that energetic work of real thinking demands a lot of effort, a lot of going to and fro.

Well, I'm here to set you straight.  Few locations are more conducive to sapient thoughts than an armchair.  If someone calls you an armchair philosopher, you should thank them.

A significant lack

Spinoza, in Proposition XXIX, says, "We shall endeavor to do everything which we imagine me (let it be understood in this... that we mean men for whom we have no particular emotion) to regard with pleasure, and, on the other hand, we shall be averse to doing what we imagine men to turn away from.

Not. one. word. about DOGS. What was thing guy thinking?

A pattern emerges

Sometimes he pours himself into the portals beneath his paws, passes through the threshold, and travels into realms unknown to those who simply walk upon the carpet without looking down.

Attack the camera

A canine celebrity shoved the cameraman attempting to document his movements. No charges were filed. No apologies.

More fingerpainting

Another fingerpainting

The philosopher sleeps...

Different media, same hound

A finger painting on my iPad, with the constant subject

The hour of the woof

The philosopher ponders a snow storm.

Zeno's paradox

I'm running towards you. But I always must traverse half the the distance. There are an infinite numbers of these halfway points. That means that I will never reach you because --

[Chain of reasoning interrupted by collision]

Dear colleague

I think you have underestimated the importance of recent neurological research for the so-called mind-body problem. In fact, everything we call the personality or the soul cannot exist without the the brain.

Guy's reply: I think I've found the weak spot in your argument.

A dialogue about the mind-body problem

Does the soul reside in the body, or is an incorporeal entity that exists in a different dimension to which we lack access. Or should I just bite you when you run by?

Applejack

Guy has just discovered the apple trees at one corner of his territory. He collects the apples one at a time, takes them to his observation post, and nibbles daintily at them. Picture taken just moments after a Wagnerian cider belch.

Base canards

You call them ducks, or migratory birds, or just plain birds. Guy calls them terrorists.

Standing on the surface

Why am I not sinking iinto the depths? Am I walking on water?

Eating people is wrong

Baby toes are so scrumptious that sometimes you have just to set aside the rules and take a nibble.

Armed neutrality

Attempting to slink by, willing herself to be invisible, but it isn't working. Guy knows that his recent paralysis and heartwarming recovery have not given him any additional rights to pester the cat, but the cat doesn't know that.

Maybe he'll go away

Dolly the cat watches Guy shimmy, and she thinks, "The audience whose intelligence your are insulting has had enough."

Song of the open road

Our patient is hitting his stride, although he hind legs are still a little wobbly and his endurance gives out earlier than before the paralysis. Still, an empty stretch teeming with smells, what could be better?