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Ken's
Corner
What Happened to the Lady With Two Cocker Spaniels?
By
Ken Umbach
We
might never learn
the end of this story.
Rosa and I, in our regular walks around the neighborhood, often stopped for a
moment to chat with a nice lady with two cocker spaniels. (I think that is what
the dogs were. If not, then some similar breed.) They were rescued pups, one
of which was VERY shy (and undersized) as a result of abuse in the past.
Pretty nearly every day we saw the lady and stopped for a moment to pet the one
outgoing dog and to chat for a minute. But then, one day, the lady, accompanied
by her husband that time, told us that they (the couple plus the dogs) had been
attacked by a vicious dog on the loose a few blocks away (on our regular route).
The owner, when approached, was offensive and threatening, despite HIS unleashed
dog having bitten the couple and their dogs.
The attacking dog was rounded up by the police, the lady told us, and quarantined
to check for rabies. The lady was investigating other places to walk, although
she would have to drive a couple of miles and park.
And then, the couple and their dogs vanished. Did they simply move their walks
a couple of miles away? Or did the attacking dog prove to be rabid? If so, since
it had bitten all of them (wife, husband and both of their dogs), what happened
next? I know that people can be treated for rabies before the symptoms appear.
But could the dogs?
Meanwhile, we are very cautious. I think I had spotted the attacking dog on the
day of the incident, but from a block or two away. I am very wary of loose dogs,
having been bitten before (as a teenager), so on that occasion I turned around
rather than finishing my regular route. Maybe I dodged a rabid bullet.
• • •
Risks
notwithstanding, we have made the daily walk a firm habit. We’ve
doubled the initial distance, too. The day does not seem right
without that hour of brisk walking. My blood pressure has dropped noticeably
over a few weeks of regular walking. (I check it frequently with
a
home blood-pressure monitor.) An awful lot of daily life seems
to be made up of habits. Best to make them good ones.
And yet, I often recall the title of an essay by J. Edgar Park, a writer who
flourished around 1915, and for years after. The title of the essay is “The
Bad Results of Good Habits.” That essay was the lead piece in a book-length
collection of Park’s essays, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1920 under
the title “The Bad Results of Good Habits and Other Lapses.” I bought
my dusty, yellowing copy in a used book store many years ago ($1.50 for the hardback
copy).
It is a long essay. The theme is summarized in a few sentences: “The bad
result of every good habit is that you are so apt to fall in love with the habit
and to forget its end. So many of us good people are merely good habits gone
mad.”
After further thoughts on that theme, Park added, “The end of life, then,
is not obedience to principles, however good, it is the love of persons. Not
good habits, but daring, original, clean personality. Not moral probity, but
adventuresome goodness.”
Not to get off on a philosophical tangent, but still, Park seems to have been
a thoughtful guy with worthwhile ideas. Good habits may be a fine thing, but
we need to remember the purpose of each, and not be ONLY creatures of habit,
however good.
• • •
Is
it just me, or does this sound like a really BAD idea? In a major national
mail-order catalog, there it is: GASOLINE STOVES. I am not making this
up! “The Acme Gasoline Stove is made especially for us and is
fully guaranteed to be exactly as represented and to do everything
we claim … it cannot explode … it is impossible to have
an accident.”
Yes, an Acme brand gasoline stove. (Several models, in fact.)
You probably know Acme as manufacturer of all manner of devices so unfortunately
deployed against Roadrunner by his arch enemy Wile E. Coyote. OK, the Roadrunner
version is (probably!) imaginary. But the Acme brand gasoline stoves, THOSE were
real.
I am hopeful that the past tense is correct – WERE real, not ARE real.
I spotted the stoves in a reprint edition of the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog.
It was shown right next to “The Acme Gasoline Ovens.”
Gasoline is useful stuff for powering engines, for sure. But one cup of gasoline
has the explosive power of two sticks of TNT, according to one website I found.
That is enough power to blow up a lot of things. Big things.
I’m sure that Wile E. Coyote would have found an Acme Gasoline Oven just
the ticket for cooking Roadrunner’s goose, so to speak. But of course he
would have blown himself up in the effort.
• • •
On
July 27, 1949, commercial travel by jet-powered airplanes got
its start, with the first test flight of the British De Havilland Comet.
On July 27, 1953, an armistice agreement among United States, the People’s
Republic of China, North Korea and South Korea brought an end to the Korean War.
The three-year war has a continuing legacy in the form of American troops still
stationed in South Korea.
On July 27, 1974, the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives
recommended the impeachment and removal from office of President Richard M. Nixon.
The story of how that came about is too dreary and well known to repeat here,
but it made “Watergate” a household name, brought a host of strange
characters into the public eye and led to the “-gate” suffix for
any future scandal.
On July 27, 2003, entertainer Bob Hope died at age 100. Hope’s popular “Road” movies
also starred the legendary Bing Crosby. “The Road to Singapore” was
the first of seven movies in that hit series. Bob Hope was especially known for
his tireless efforts, starting during World War II, to bring entertainment to
American troops stationed overseas.
Have a comment or a
story to share? E-mail me at ken@umbachconsulting.com. or
write in care of Spectrum. Really!
• • •
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