Tag: dogs

FC45 – Just the Tip

FC45 - Just the Tip
[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/skinner/FlashCast045.mp3](Download/iTunes)

Hello, and welcome to FlashCast episode forty-five – prepare yourself for dogs, Martians, sleep texting, Goodfellas, a monk powered airship, and Mulligan Smith.

Pulp-ular Press

  • Ferdinandia
  • Sticker contests for The Mob
  • JRD’s Movember Page
  • Loyal Dog Won’t Leave Owner’s Grave
  • Hungry Dogs Eat Owner
  • Moore & Lloyd talk about the V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask
  • Westeros Heraldry
  • Game of Thrones Blu-ray info
  • Some John Carter photos have begun to show up
  • The Prometheus trailer has been yanked at every source.
  •  

    * * *

    A Spot of Bother:

    Find Jeff at @PleaseLynchMe or at the Spot of Bother Blog

    Read more at his site.
    Sleep Texting

    * * *

    Fresh Fish, with Threedayfish

    Contact Fish at his Facebook Page or on Twitter.

    This week’s review, The Room

    [youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCj8sPCWfUw]

    * * *

    New York Minute:

    Find Barry at http://bmj2k.com or on twitter
    Goodfellas

    * * *

    Curious Tales of Vienna:

    Find Ingrid at Dancing Ella’s WordsViennese Legends

    The Flying Ship

    The Flying Ship

    * * *

    Mailbag:

  • Mobster David “Doc Blue” Wendt was mentioning his work on an RPG, Empire State, which looks like a lot of fun.
  • Colorado Joe mentioned
  • * * *

    Art of Narration:

  • Opop mentioned Skinner Co. Ink!
  • * * *

    Backroom Plots:

  • FP222 – Coffin: Food for Thought, Part 1 of 1
  • Mulligan Smith in The Master of the Wild Kingdom (Part 1Part 2)
  • * * *

    Also, many thanks, as always, Retro Jim, of RelicRadio.com for hosting FlashPulp.com and the wiki!

    * * *

    If you have comments, questions or suggestions, you can find us at https://flashpulp.com, call our voicemail line at (206) 338-2792, or email us text or mp3s to skinner@skinner.fm.

    FlashCast is released under the Canadian Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.

    CNN Asks: Hangin' With Mr. Cooper

    Trump real - or freak show?

    Not real. Since the suicide of the real Donald Trump, in 1992, his hollowed out corpse has been operated by a team of ex-Disney Imagineers. The increasingly ridiculous hairstyle is simply to distract from the puppet’s ever-deteriorating rotting skin.

    What's inside Mubarak's closet?

    I’m guessing gold-plated muumuus, but we’ll have to wait till next week to find out on a very special What Not To Wear.

    Why does murder go well with food?

    I don’t have an answer for this one – but, I do believe we’ve just discovered why Anderson Cooper spends so much time in minimally regulated disaster areas, as well as why he’s put on a few pounds.

    What became of dogs left in nuke zone?

    Dammit, Anderson!

    Lindsay Lohan to play Victoria Gotti?

    Absolutely; you’d be surprised how competitive the basketball games at the Los Angeles County Women’s Correctional Facility can get.

    FP152 – Canine, Part 1 of 1

    Welcome to Flash Pulp, episode one hundred and fifty-two.

    Flash Pulp

    Tonight we present, Canine, Part 1 of 1.

    [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/skinner/FlashPulp152.mp3]Download MP3
    (RSS / iTunes)

     


    This week’s episodes are brought to you by Mr Blog’s Tepid Ride.

    Love Conrad Bain? Of course you do.

    Find all of your Bain-related needs, and more, at http://bmj2k.com!

     

    Flash Pulp is an experiment in broadcasting fresh pulp stories in the modern age – three to ten minutes of fiction brought to you Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings.

    Tonight we present an airy consideration of companionship and danger.

     

    Flash Pulp 152 – Canine, Part 1 of 1

    Written by J.R.D. Skinner
    Art and Narration by Opopanax
    and Audio produced by Jessica May

     

    Kar'WickThe wind through the branches cast a whistling that had both man and dog on edge.

    Beside the small fire, the human gnawed at freshly singed deer-meat, occasionally throwing a scrap to the canine that lay at the fireside.

    It had been a risk to delve into the wildwood alone, but the gambit had paid off, and now the challenge was in dragging back the heavy bounty.

    Pulling his skins tight, the man lightened his load by another bite. The hound, its tail giving a slow wag, whimpered a request for more.

    “Bah,” said the man, but, with consideration for his companion’s efforts in the chase, he tossed the mooch the now naked bone.

    In response the beast lifted high its tail and let fly a wafting pungency which skirted the flames to fill the hunter’s nose.

    Bedding down, the man left the dog to worry the marrow, and the long night’s watch.

    * * *

    The backstairs of the house, whose construction had only been completed a year previous, had already begun to show the dips and scratches of wear, and the indications of the servants’ passage had been further compounded by the nightly roaming of the bulldog generally known about the grounds as the Constable. Although it was often remarked by the lord of the manor that the Constable, like most men of the law, spent his days napping, it was little understood how seriously the animal took its nightly duties.

    Not but two months into the occupation of the estate, a man of scarred visage and ill intent had come upon the south wing’s library window, scheming to wrestle it open and gain approach to the silverware displayed within.

    It had been the loud, and extended, response by the Constable – who’d been at his regular patrol when he’d heard the burglar’s ham-fisted ministrations – which had denied the thief access.

    This night, however, was calm. As the guardian left the recessed steps and trotted along the hall’s shadowed carpet, accompanied by the measured ticking of the grandfather clock, it determined it was a good opportunity for a brief rest.

    Setting onto the plush rug, the dog’s relaxation was punctuated by the release of a brassy, gassy, note.

    * * *

    The woman under the crisp white duvet thrashed about in an attempt to silence Neil Young’s assessment regarding burning out or fading away, and, after a moment, her fingers finally quieted the blaring alarm clock.

    The room smelled of dog fart.

    “I don’t know why I put up with you,” she said to the hound, as it followed her to the washroom.

    An hour’s preparation found the pair ready to leave the apartment, the animal with a bright pink ribbon in its hair, and the woman encased in a tidy suit and dark sunglasses.

    They were a half-block from their destination when the rumbling began.

    The beast, forgetting its generations of domestication, began to bay and howl, snapping at a threat the men and women on the streets had yet to perceive.

    There was little it could do, however, to fend against the return of Kar’Wick, the Arachnid-God – still, it was some small consolation that its blind master would not see the glistening spinneret which would be their doom.

     

    Flash Pulp is presented by http://skinner.fm, and is released under the Canadian Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.

    Text and audio commentaries can be sent to skinner@skinner.fm, or the voicemail line at (206) 338-2792 – but be aware that it may appear in the FlashCast.

    – and thanks to you, for reading. If you enjoyed the story, tell your friends.

    Dogged

    Dogs In A RowSpeaking of what you might do for your government, I meant to post up this little nugget regarding war dogs yesterday, but got side-tracked.

    From the wikipedia:

    1943–1945: The United States Marine Corps used dogs, donated by their American owners, in the Pacific theater to help take islands back from Japanese occupying forces. During this period the Doberman Pinscher became the official dog of the U.S.M.C.; however, all breeds of dogs were eligible to train to be “war dogs of the Pacific”.

    These dogs were accepted into service after being ‘volunteered’ by their human caretakers, or, if the movie Courage Of Lassie is to be believed, after being found stray.

    A “basic training” period was initiated where dogs were trained to carry out certain fundamental commands such as sit, stay, come, etc… They were also accustomed to muzzles, gas masks, riding in military vehicles and to gunfire. – qmfound.com

    After basic training, the dogs would specialize in a specific task, usually scout or guard duty, although occasionally in being messengers or mine-detectors.

    The scout dog and his Quartermaster handler normally walked point on combat patrols, well in front of the infantry patrol. Scout dogs could often detect the presence of the enemy at distances up to 1,000 yards, long before men became aware of them. When a scout dog alerted to the enemy it would stiffen its body, raise its hackles, pricking his ears and holding its tail rigid. The presence of the dogs with patrols greatly lessened the danger of ambush and tended to boost the morale of the soldiers. – qmfound.com

    Lessen the dangers of ambush, possibly, but not entirely negate them. I couldn’t find a casualty count for canine combatants during WWII, but I imagine being specifically used as the method of determining first contact would lead to quite a number of close encounters.LIFE War Dog

    At the end of the war the Quartermaster Corps put into operation a plan for return of war dogs to their civilian owners. Dogs were sent to a reprocessing section for the purpose of rehabilitation for civilian life. Dogs were trained that every human was friendly and tested for such things as reaction to people riding around them on bicycles or placed in an area with a great amount of noise. Before return, each dog was given a final check by a veterinary officer. Shipment of the dog to the owner was made at government expense. Those dogs which the original owner did not desire were sold to the public by the Treasury Department with the assistance of Dogs for Defense. By early 1947 the return of all borrowed dogs was completed. – qmfound.com

    Which almost seems like a more careful and tender-handed release process than most modern human soliders get these days.

    The wikipedia:

    Of the 549 dogs that returned from the war, only 4 could not be detrained and returned to civilian life.

    Were these four dogs put down – or were they the start of a secret, elite K9 combat unit?
    Pfc. Rez P. Hester, 7th War Dog Platoon, 25th Regt., takes a nap while Butch, his war dog, stands guard.  Iwo Jima, February 1945.  S.Sgt. M. Kauffman.

    The Dogs Of War

    Airedale Terriers in gas-masks I recently heard that Chows (AKA Chow Chows or Chowdrens), were once used to de-throat injured enemy combatants on ancient Chinese battlefields. I rather suspect this is another bit of historical urban legend, especially as I can find no reference to such brutality on the internet, but it did remind me of the somewhat more heroic real-life tasks given to Airedale Terriers.

    A sample, from the wikipedia:

    “The Airedale was extensively used in World War I to carry messages to soldiers behind enemy lines and transport mail. They were also used by the Red Cross to find wounded soldiers on the battlefield. There are numerous tales of Airedales delivering their messages despite terrible injury. An Airedale named ‘Jack’ ran through half a mile of enemy fire, with a message attached within his collar. He arrived at headquarters with his jaw broken and one leg badly splintered, and right after he delivered the message, he dropped dead in front of its recipient.”

    Canines, of course, have a long history with war – but did you know you can buy replica armour for your mutt?Replica Dog ArmourThis is based on a real Roman design, although I believe the original was made of metal and not felt, and is yours for the low price of $150 from Collars & Couture. My favourite part of the ad-copy?

    Helm and Greaves also available.

    Toss A Dog On It

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeltelling/69492277/There was a time when dogs, humanity’s most widely kept animal, were maintained as something more than a couch-warmer. Our historical association is so old, we’re not even entirely sure why we named them what we did:

    Due to the archaic structure of the word, the term dog may ultimately derive from the earliest layer of Proto-Indo-European vocabulary, reflecting the role of the dog as the earliest domesticated animal.

    wikipedia

    Interestingly, we’ve been chummy with canines so long, we (and by we, I mean humanity in general,) actually domesticated them multiple times, independently.

    From the Canadian Museum Of Nature:

    Genetic evidence suggests that Native Americans and Europeans domesticated dogs independently, and that North American pre-contact dogs were almost completely replaced by dogs that came over on European ships.

    […]

    The earliest probable dog remains found in North America are about 8700 to 14 000 years old. These dogs were medium-sized and likely used in hunting. Dogs of this time-period and region are not very common.

    • 10 200 year-old remains were found in Colorado, U.S.A., at the Jones Miller site
    • 11 000 to 14 000 year-old remains were found in Wyoming, U.S.A., at the Agate Basin site
    • 8700 to 9300 year-old remains were found in Wyoming, U.S.A., at the Horner site.

    Which, to my mind, leaves a question as to what these original North American dogs must have looked like. Something akin to Huskies is my best guess, but that’s derived entirely from the idea that they looked like the wolves common to the continent.

    While some of the uses the mutts were put to were common between all peoples, it seems to me the North American breeds had some novel roles to play.
    Dogwich found on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/toronjazul/1084010083/Again from the CMN:

    • they were draft animals in the plains as well as the high Arctic
    • they were bred for wool like sheep and their hair was used to make blankets
    • there were hairless dogs that were used as living hot-water bottles to ease achy joints
    • they were eaten
    • they were important in religion
    • they were buried in graveyards like people.

    I love the idea that the people of history might have rubbed a chihuahua-analogue on their shoulder while complaining about a hard-day’s hunt.

    That last item does concern me, however – the textbooks may say European disease wiped out millions of Native Americans when the tall ships landed, but I know better: I’ve seen/read Pet Sematary.
    Church from Pet Sematary