Open Thread - Thurs 29 Aug 2024 - Dog Days of Summer

Submitted by Sima on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 5:00am

The Dog Days of Summer

The term 'Dog Days of Summer' was always interesting to me. I never thought it had anything to do with dogs laying around being lazy in the summer but more about sailing, for some reason. Maybe because the term is about celestial happenings? Or maybe I had some vague memory from a Hornblower novel about sailing?

So, why are the hottest days of the year (in the Europeanoid part of northern hemisphere) called the 'Dog Days of Summer'? I wanted to know, and I'm sharing what I found out because it was kind of interesting.

Some Dogs Aren't that lazy, right Nikko?

The term comes from one the Romans and Greeks used involving the name of the dog star; Sirius. Sirius is the brightest 'proper' star in the summer night sky (in the northern hemisphere). It appears during mid July, essentially during the beginning of the hottest part of the northern hemisphere's summer. The Greeks and Romans saw this time of year as one of 'heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs and bad luck'. Makes sense, doesn't it? It's still seen as the hottest time of the year in the northern hemisphere, which it generally is, but the timing can change and in some places, like in England and America, the Dog Days of Summer can extend into September.

This little poem from the almanac article about the Dog Days of Summer is neat:

Dog Days bright and clear
Indicate a happy year;
But when accompanied by rain,
For better times, our hopes are vain.

It's rained over 2.6 inches here in August, at least according to the farm's weather monitor, which is over twice as much rainfall than normal. August is usually a very dry month here. The slugs, which hid all summer, have noticed and are out wandering around and eating our vegetables! The plants are all happy, the berry brambles are going insane with putting on fruit AND growing, but the humans don't like the humidity! So hoping for better times, at least in respect to humidity, is in vain...

A Nikko Story:
A few weeks ago coyotes visited our compost heap. They dropped a couple of turds by Nikko's play area. (We put up a hog panel fenced in yard - its huge - for the little guy, for safety. You can see the fencing in the pic above). Nikko, out on a leash to walk around the property, found the turds and was very interested, not in their smell so much it seems, but in their contents. The turds were full of black berry seeds and skins and so on.

Now Nikko stops when we are walking up the driveway and eats every ripe black berry he can find! I swear he learned that from those coyote turds! He eats the berry right off the vine. I'll be up a bit higher, picking a berry or two for me, and he's down by my knees (yes, he's getting that big) eating berries from the same vine. He's so strange!

Anyway, thanks for reading! Here's the open thread - remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!

Tags:

Open Thread

#dog_days

#summer

#Nikko

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Comments

Submitted by Sima on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 1:18am

Thursday! almost Friday!

May it be a good day for everyone. Now that the rain has stopped, I am back to working outside, being with Nikko, walking with him on the beach and all kinds of things like that. The last weekend of summer, I guess, is coming up. I got nothing planned but relaxing! Hope you all have something fun and relaxing to do!

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 10:06am

So, Brits. How fitting. Huh?

Your quote:

'heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs and bad luck'.

Another quote:

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun

So, mad dogs and bad luck equates to mad dogs and Englishmen, cancelling the dogs leaves us with Englishmen are bad luck. To other peoples subject to their colonizing and impreialist behavior that would make perfect sense, if never intended that way.

OtOH:

So, time to get sirius, happy Thursday 8/29/24

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 10:17am

NOTA BENE:

@enhydra lutris

High in the sky in June, Bootes is up and about from March thru September, so shake your Bootes.

bwahago

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 10:21am

Not to be cornfuzed with Sheik Yerbuti

@enhydra lutris

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:13am

Good tunes!

@enhydra lutris
I always though 'mad dogs and englishmen go out in the noonday sun' referred to how silly englishmen, used to cold environs, are when in the hot sunbelts around the equators. Now I have a different interpretation to enjoy, thanks!!

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by Granma on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 10:48am

My son's dog

Ate blackberries straight off the vines. He loved them.

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:16am

Awesome!

@Granma
Glad to know Nikko isn't the only dog that likes/liked black berries! Coyotes like the berries, and bears really like them, at least, according to the scat I see from both animals.

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by QMS on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 11:10am

dogs in the sky

.
.
Canis Major (Big Dog) is part of Orion's hunting party. Sirius indicates his neck.

Canis Major is next to its master, the hunter Orion. Along with Canis Minor, Lepus, and Monoceros, they belong to the Orion family of constellations. They represent a hunting scene: Orion and his dogs are chasing down the hare while the unicorn is prancing by.

https://starwalk.space/en/news/canis-major-constellation-guide

Thanks for the OT Sima!

—

question everything

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:34am

I was hoping you'd have some...

@QMS
info about the celestial happenings in the summer. Awesome!

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by soryang on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 2:14pm

August 29, 2010

The official date for annexation of Korea by Japan. It's arguable that sovereignty was actually lost 5 years earlier, when the Treaty of Eulsa was signed in Nov. 2005 making Korea a "protectorate" of Japan. You can go back further. Say November 1895 when the Japanese assassinated Queen Min. That was after the first Sino-Japanese war which resulted in Japan's annexation of Taiwan among other things.

The “loss of national sovereignty,” also known as the “Japan-Korea Annexation” or “Korea-Japan Annexation,” began with the signing of a treaty on August 22, 1910 by traitor Yi Wan-yong and the third Resident-General of Korea, Terauchi Masatake. And this treaty was promulgated a week later, today (August 29th). Since then, the Korean Peninsula has been under Japan’s illegal colonial rule for 35 years.

조국 “오늘 8월 29일은 국권 빼앗긴 경술국치 날”

Speaking of man's best friend, my 껌딱지 (sticks like glue) Smokey isn't doing well. He's terminally ill, I'm afraid. It's making us sad here. The only way to relieve that is to spoil him as best we can. He still loves to go outside on walks in the afternoon when it cools off some. He's basically taking me for a walk, I've been letting him pull me wherever he likes. In this heat we don't last that long.

I'm also in the dog house for spraying insecticide on the area where three large trees were cut down in the yard. Ms. So has never grown anything over there. There were huge colonies of red ants over there in the old saw dust so I sprayed them early this year. The other night, I was eating what I thought were garlic stems, and commented on how delicious they were. (this is a taste I had developed in the Yeoju area a long time ago, where garlic was a major cash crop). Ms. So said, that's not garlic stems, they're sweet potato stems. Oops, can't eat those!

This is a traditional trot style forlorn love/ break up song I like. I think it's from 1994.

송가인＆김소유 - 진정인가요’ Song Ga-in (on right) and Kim So-yoo (left stage)- Is it true?

Thanks for the OT Sima!

edit typo/mistakes

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by QMS on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 2:55pm

Sorry to hear Smokey is on his last legs

@soryang
.
.
Glad he can still take you out for a walk.

The official date for annexation of Korea by Japan. It's arguable that sovereignty was actually lost 5 years earlier, when the Treaty of Eulsa was signed in Nov. 2005 making Korea a "protectorate" of Japan. You can go back further. Say November 1895 when the Japanese assassinated Queen Min. That was after the first Sino-Japanese war which resulted in Japan's annexation of Taiwan among other things. The “loss of national sovereignty,” also known as the “Japan-Korea Annexation” or “Korea-Japan Annexation,” began with the signing of a treaty on August 22, 1910 by traitor Yi Wan-yong and the third Resident-General of Korea, Terauchi Masatake. And this treaty was promulgated a week later, today (August 29th). Since then, the Korean Peninsula has been under Japan’s illegal colonial rule for 35 years. 조국 “오늘 8월 29일은 국권 빼앗긴 경술국치 날” Speaking of man's best friend, my 껌딱지 (sticks like glue) Smokey isn't doing well. He's terminally ill, I'm afraid. It's making us sad here. The only way to relieve that is to spoil him as best we can. He still loves to go outside on walks in the afternoon when it cools off some. He's basically taking me for a walk, I've been letting him pull me wherever he likes. In this heat we don't last that long. I'm also in the dog house for spraying insecticide on the area where three large trees were cut down in the yard. Ms. So has never grown anything over there. There were huge colonies of red ants over there in the old saw dust so I sprayed them early this year. The other night, I was eating what I thought were garlic stems, and commented on how delicious they were. (this is a taste I had developed in the Yeoju area a long time ago, where garlic was a major cash crop). Ms. So said, that's not garlic stems, they're sweet potato stems. Oops, can't eat those! This is a traditional trot style forlorn love/ break up song I like. I think it's from 1994. 송가인＆김소유 - 진정인가요’ Song Ga-in (on right) and Kim So-yoo (left stage)- Is it true? Thanks for the OT Sima! edit typo/mistakes

—

question everything

Submitted by soryang on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 3:22pm

Thanks QMS

@QMS

He's been with us for 10 years. He's been a great companion.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 5:55pm

soryang,

@soryang I am amazed how little I was taught in world history courses about Asia. Thanks, as always, for the lessons.
I will say I learned what little I know about China from a 3 week tour through the country about 15 years ago. Japan? Almost nothing about it. Same for Korea. Never made it to those countries.
Now about those ants...I will use commercial poison on wasps and ants. However, a friend has a whole crew of Mexican immigrants working on her ranch. Their system for killing ants is to pour human urine on the beds. Lots of men can collect lots of urine, but it is just me and Dear One, so I haven't tried it. Ant bites/stings can send you to the er. I know that for a fact.
The bigger the dog, the shorter the life span. Seems Smokey is holding a steady course to the Rainbow Bridge, happy every step closer. You are both lucky to have each other as Best Friends.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by soryang on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 6:20pm

Yes, I do too

@on the cusp

...for wasps and ants. Ms. So is sensitive to ant bites. Don't want to make any trips to the ER. We had to once for her late Mom. We took her right away when we noticed what was happening to her after an insect bite of some kind. The doctor in the ER talked to us like we had neglected her, which was absurd. She was just having a serious allergic reaction.

Didn't know about the urine angle. Don't know that using that would make me feel better about eating the sweet potato stems, the vines are now growing all over the old saw dust. I'll keep it in mind though. I generally would not use any insecticide in the back yard, but I thought I was far enough away from the gardens. When I saw her planting over there, I didn't know it was for food. Can't let Ms. So get bit by insects, she reacts like her mom did.

I read the Asian news virtually every day. I like the wave media channel, (Chinese media) more for its translation than anything else. The reports in English, obviously targeted at the west, but if I have time, I try to learn from the simplified Chinese subtitles. I've noticed a lot of videos (in English) reporting on China don't have Chinese subtitles. Ms. So and I have been watching a South Korean public tv travelogue on Xinjiang. It's amazing.

Thanks for the kind words, chinju ya.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 6:41pm

I will try out those news sources.

@soryang I despise ER docs who blame the patient and family for the problem, but the real shit his the fan when you reject their recommendations.
I was requested to take a scan requiring iodine infusion. I am highly allergic to iodine, and I refused. I was told someone would be on standby to revive me if I flat lined, so no worries. I was thinking, of course not, everything will be hunky dory, no brain damage, heart damage, la la la la la... I walked our with the dr. screaming I was too stupid to be helped. Turns out I had a pinched tendon that numbed my arm, not a stroke. But I am stupid?
I also refused an antivenom for a snake bite that if wrongfully given, has to be paid by the patient, not the er dr. who gave the order. I refused. Later, I discovered the anti=venom is NOT approved for the copperhead snake. That is the snake that bit me.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by soryang on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 6:55pm

Iatrogenic

@on the cusp

I think of this every time one of us is getting some kind of invasive study or surgery. I was on a risk management committee of a government hospital once. Worked for a personal injury firm for a couple of years mostly just covering depositions. Most of that was products liability, diet drugs.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by QMS on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 7:15pm

insect bites and patient rights

@on the cusp
.
.
the medical profession has become a mafia
because they still think they are 'know it alls'
we get better info online and are forced to self
diagnose as the medical mafia is only covering
coding and profits for the insurance overlords

have called out my primary on this several times
she won't deny any of it, just says her guidelines
only permit certain treatments. The enshiiffication
of health care is driven by profits period! Either play
along or find another provider (in the network). They
won't touch you. It is a closed system. Screw us.

—

question everything

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:48am

'enshitification of health care'

@QMS
Boy, ain't that the truth. Just spent 5 months trying to get a dental appointment to look at an old root canal that got badly infected about 6 months ago. The good dentist who treated the infection referred me. That was ignored, and ignored, and ignored. Then I finally got an appointment, which was cancelled 3 times. Finally saw this root canal specialist and he came into the room smirking, it seemed, and told me nothing was wrong (he never examined my teeth) but he'd have them do a cat scan just to see. Well, the cat scan showed there IS something wrong. His smirk was gone when he told me that. So, do I get him to work the tooth, or just say 'f* it' and suffer another infection some time? Bleh.

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:50am

Urine for ants?

@on the cusp
I'm gonna be trying this! Why not?

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:40am

Dang about Smokey...

@soryang
I'm sorry Smokey's doing so poorly. It is awful when beloved companions die, awful. I hope he improves and has a few more years to go, but it not, being with him and taking him on walks and loving him is the best thing.

Garlic stems! I love them. So, you aren't alone in that. Never have eaten sweet potato stems though.

I knew that Japan annexed Korea in the early 1900s. Didn't realize it was on 29 August though. Thanks for the history and the music, and have a great weekend with Ms. So and Smokey.

The official date for annexation of Korea by Japan. It's arguable that sovereignty was actually lost 5 years earlier, when the Treaty of Eulsa was signed in Nov. 2005 making Korea a "protectorate" of Japan. You can go back further. Say November 1895 when the Japanese assassinated Queen Min. That was after the first Sino-Japanese war which resulted in Japan's annexation of Taiwan among other things. The “loss of national sovereignty,” also known as the “Japan-Korea Annexation” or “Korea-Japan Annexation,” began with the signing of a treaty on August 22, 1910 by traitor Yi Wan-yong and the third Resident-General of Korea, Terauchi Masatake. And this treaty was promulgated a week later, today (August 29th). Since then, the Korean Peninsula has been under Japan’s illegal colonial rule for 35 years. 조국 “오늘 8월 29일은 국권 빼앗긴 경술국치 날” Speaking of man's best friend, my 껌딱지 (sticks like glue) Smokey isn't doing well. He's terminally ill, I'm afraid. It's making us sad here. The only way to relieve that is to spoil him as best we can. He still loves to go outside on walks in the afternoon when it cools off some. He's basically taking me for a walk, I've been letting him pull me wherever he likes. In this heat we don't last that long. I'm also in the dog house for spraying insecticide on the area where three large trees were cut down in the yard. Ms. So has never grown anything over there. There were huge colonies of red ants over there in the old saw dust so I sprayed them early this year. The other night, I was eating what I thought were garlic stems, and commented on how delicious they were. (this is a taste I had developed in the Yeoju area a long time ago, where garlic was a major cash crop). Ms. So said, that's not garlic stems, they're sweet potato stems. Oops, can't eat those! This is a traditional trot style forlorn love/ break up song I like. I think it's from 1994. 송가인＆김소유 - 진정인가요’ Song Ga-in (on right) and Kim So-yoo (left stage)- Is it true? Thanks for the OT Sima! edit typo/mistakes

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by soryang on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 1:13am

Thanks Sima

@Sima

Yes, we're hoping for a miracle too. We've had a lot of good times together.

the first time i went to the field in South Korea, the farmers were growing peanuts and garlic. I don't think I had ever been on a farm before that.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by earthling1 on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 10:18pm

Had some potato starts

left over after planting a 50' row, so I threw them in the compost pile just to see if they come up, and then to determine if the deer would eat them.
Well, they come up (without any watering) and the deer didn't touch them. Leading me to want to try planting them outside the deer fencing next year along with some corn.
I can't imagine what you threw in your pile that the coyotes would dig up and eat as I thought they were meat eaters.
Apparently they are omnivores that eat fruits and berries too.
Anyway, thanks for the OT.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:54am

Potatoes are poisonous..

@earthling1
At least, the plants are. Kinda like tomatoes. So many animals will not eat them. We often plant our potatoes outside the rabbit fencing (we now have rabbits here, didn't 20 years ago, but they have invaded. Not native species) and the rabbits leave the potatoes alone!

Coyotes are mostly meat eaters, I think, but they are omnivores at times too. I heard them calling outside the dog fence one night, found the scats the next morning. So weird. And weirder still that the dog eats the blackberries, but who knows, maybe he's just being smart or strange

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 10:42pm

sima,

thanks for the OT. Nikko is so beautiful!
My dogs were mostly hounds. No, thanks, on the berry offers, for them.
Aahrooh!

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:57am

Love the howling!

@on the cusp
Nikko does that at times, but his main thing, like other Finnish Spitzes, is barking. He's getting a low pitched growly bark now. It's nice!

Hounds are good dogs. Hubby wants to get a pit bull puppy for himself. We'll see how that works out Doubt the puppy will be just for him!

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 10:59pm

There's this

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 1:01am

So, I'm crying...

@on the cusp
Makes me think of this song by Sturgill Simpson: Sam.

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 11:10pm