An "Ask Auntie Lowan" Digression.

The so-called "Australian shepherd," I've heard, originates among Basque sheepherders in the mountains of California.

Now, Oz and Calif wines are similar, but I don't get the confusion of the dogs...

So what exactly is the diff between Oz cattle dogs and Oz shephards? I shared a house with what I think is an Oz cattle dog. He was a little bigger than Bootsie and white-orange speckled. Not like the little blues I think of when I hear Oz cattle dog.

Or this fat girl at Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue...

Prolly a mutt. The body type tends to dominate in crosses, but their sizes vary a great deal when another breed is involved. My guy, for instance, has a heeler body (stocky, short legs, high round but, stumpy tail), but he's got a German Shepherd coat and weighs between 60 and 70 pounds, depending on the time of year and quality of his diet.

Here's more info on 'em. http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/australiancattledog.htm They're a very recent breed, which probably contributes to the wide variation in morphology. They've got some dingo mixed in, too, which I'm convinced is where my boy gets his weird high-pitched vocalizations. (Generally very quiet workers, cattle dogs are. Good cattle rustling dogs.)

Dogs.Dogs,dogs.ALWAYS with the dogs.

Take it up with Deb. She mentioned the damn poodle. (You may notice that this is about dogs AND Oz, making it, I'm sure, doubly irksome.)


So, new topic.

I've decided I'm going to develop a meatless beef substitute called "Vegetabull." Whattaya think?

Alternatively...

Is there a recent generation at which people started processing information dfifferently? I've noticed in many of courses and with some acquaintances that folks over, say, 45 (probably not the right line to draw, but it seems about like that) want to make sure every piece of new information is completely digested and absorbed before moving on to the next, while folks in my generation tend to take it for granted that information comes at you constantly and that the best way to deal with it is to accept the fact that some of it is going to fall by the wayside and instead try to discern patterns and relationships that will make future information more easy to assimilate. Sort of an "accretion vs. syncretion" model...

Is this an effect of TV/computer/radio information inundation in the past 30 years or so? Is this more to do with the type of people who take college classes in their fifth or sixth decade of life? Or is this simply an anomoly in the froup I've been observing, or a figment of my imagination, the result of some deeply-held prejudice about older folks?





(Dogs are better than people, though; I'm not going to admit otherwise.)

Vegetabull sounds like a fertilizer.

Bovine fecal material, eh?

And good for the garden, too!

File it and forget it is my rule! Too much mental clutter slows down the libido.

Ya mean one has something to do with the other?

pdog- scroll down the page you linked to to the pic of the calendar. That's just what RF looked like. Except he was prolly just about 60 lbs.

One can get in the way of the other!

yeah, it's kind of an either/or switch. (can't say i've often had 'em both turned off at once.)

nice shades.

Actually, dem not shades, dem hooded eyes.

dem shades!

being, uh.....slightly over the age mentioned, 45 I would agree in principle with patiodog, that is as a generalization. But not about myself. And of course I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions among the younger crowd. An obsessive style is common for all ages. But perhaps it is more common in those over the age of 45 or so.

Thinking doesn't interfere with my libido........I've always liked them together.

I see

I also.

I dunno, PD - I used to be driven nuts by the thing you mention at uni - now? Being over the magical age, I do not THINK I have become a plodding thinker - but I would not notice, would I?

Love those heelers. I am convinced they all get together when we are not looking and go to the pub, down a few beers, and tell tall tales and yarns. They have a twinkling, laconic humour - don't like to talk too much - do not suffer fools at all, can detect bull **** at ten miles, play practical jokes, and love dirty stories.

Whaddayou think?