Showing posts with label Shakespeare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shakespeare. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 July 2017

Not necessarily a compliment...


Did Shakespeare get it wrong?

I mean, to say:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

Is not necessarily a compliment in Northern Britain.

Hmm. The delights of July in Torridon. (And I haven't even mentioned the midges yet.)

You know what? I think I'll stay indoors...

Thursday, 13 July 2017

Today - something a bit highbrow

Never let it be said that videos of pets on YouTube represent a dumbing down of our culture.....



Fine speech by WFT Hamlet, don't you think?

Monday, 16 March 2015

Wire-haired fox terrier problems (2)


This is the second of an occasional series of short posts dealing with life problems affecting (but surely not unique to) my own breed.

  • Have you ever aspired to overtake a high speed train?
  • Are you convinced you really could bring down a Monarch of the Glen?
  • Winged flight - do you feel our feathered friends have an unfair advantage?

Todays today's topic is:

Excess of Ambition versus Realistic Goals…


I could run faster than that train if only I were allowed. 

The scent of a deer! I'm after it. Of course my legs are long enough...

One day I'll grow wings...

Writers more illustrious than myself have addressed this issue, and their words will, I hope, suffice.


William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on th'other. . . .


Ah, but a man's dog's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for? 
ROBERT BROWNING, "Andrea del Sarto"



Thursday, 5 July 2012

To Pee or not to Pee (the dogs' dilemma)


Sorry, bitches (I hope that is an acceptable form of address for my lady dog friends, one has to be so careful these days) but today I am going to tackle a topic which is primarily of concern to those of us of the leg-cocking gender.

Perhaps there are some readers who are unaware of the difficult bladder-related decisions that the male dog faces when out for his daily walk. To be pee or not to be pee, that is the question. 

You probably imagine we just stroll out of the house without a care in the world, no native hue of resolution...sicklied over with the pale cast of thought, and casually lift our leg against the nearest lamppost or tree, and that's all there is to it.

Oh how wrong you are.

Hamlet himself would have considered it outrageous fortune that we are confronted with such a sea of troubles when it comes to the business of urinating. Their currents turn awry doesn't even begin to describe it.

One one hand, we know that we are supposed, by the end of the walk, to have emptied our bladder. A full bladder being, of course one of the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. But on the other hand, who can tell how many times during that same walk, we will feel the compulsion to mark our territory? And we all know there's nothing make's a dog grunt and sweat under a weary life more than firing pee-mail blanks, as it were.

Ay, there's the rub.

It is, I admit, a bit easier when one has an established routine, and can carefully calibrate one's output.

The problem comes if, like me, you live with a human who enjoys exploring the undiscover'd country. So you have no idea when you set out, how long the walk will be, nor lie of the land. How then is a dog to determine his volume and frequency of releases?

Now please, girls, stop your sniggering!

I speak here of enterprises of great pith and moment.
Oh. Apparently I need to apologise to Mr William Shakespeare...


PS Many thanks for your amazing responses to my previous post. Boy have you set me some tough challenges!