Yip Yip

For years i've read and heard that small dogs make better guards than large ones.

The reasoning i've seen is that the ones that yip and make noise are a pain in the neck to burglars and robbers, where the large ones can simply be thrown a large chunk of meat and bribed into silence. A pack of small Chihuahuas, terriers, or similar that are set of by the smallest sound can foil the best laid plans for silence and stealth, or make a robber think twice.

Well, it turns out to be true, at least in the case of Paco, the crime fighting Chihuahua. He's a laid back neighborhood friend to all who pass, and he likes to make the rounds and visit the small tobacco store next to where his owner works.

It's a close knit community with low crime, so Paco had never had reason to show his sterner, less friendly side.

Then, into that store came armed robbers. He not only jumped on them, nipped at them, and kept after them over and over again, he chased them all of the way out of the store and across the street. They got a small amount of money before they decided they didn't want to be chewed and scratched by the little ball of fury, but would have gotten away with much more had he not been there.

So, if you want a guard dog, go for a couple of small furballs, what my Sweetie always calls the yip-yip dogs. It seems they can have an impact bigger than their pawprint.


Today is

Back-to-Front Yad -- Fairy Calendar

Bloomer Day

Central Maine Egg Festival -- Pittsfield, Maine (through the 23rd)

Fast of Tammuz -- Jewish (begins at dawn, a 3 week time of mourning for the Roman breaching of the walls of Jerusalem in the 1st century)

Feast of Thoth and Opet Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar

Festival of Honos -- Ancient Roman Calendar (personification of morality and honor)

Kokura Gion Taiko -- Yasaka Shrink, Fukuoka City, Japan (shrine festival that incorporates a taiko drumming competition with up to 100 teams; through the 21st)

Liberation Day -- Nicaragua

Martyr's Day -- Burma

National Daiquiri Day

National Raspberry Cake Day

Stick Out Your Tongue Day -- internet generated, do it just because it's fun

St. Macrina's Day


Anniversaries Today

Isis marries Osiris (year unknown, ask the ancient Egyptians!)
Adonis marries Aphrodite (year unknown, ask the ancient Greeks!)


Birthdays Today

Stephen Anthony Lawrence, 1990
Jared Padalecki, 1982
Angela Griffin, 1976
Anthony Edwards, 1962
Brian May, 1947
Vikki Carr, 1941
Arthur Rankin, Jr., 1924
George McGovern, 1922
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, 1904 (last direct descendent of Abraham Lincoln)
Max Fleischer, 1883
Charles Horace Mayo, 1865
Lizzie Borden, 1860
Edgar Degas, 1834
Samuel Colt, 1814


Today in History

A dragon more than 100 metres long was found dead on Yehwang Mountain in Henan province and was seen as a bad omen for Emperor Huan, who ignored it and died at age 35 (three years later); Xiang Kai, who had warned him of the omen, was released from the prison the emperor had placed him in, and lionised as a hero, BCE164
Moslem forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeated the Visigoths led by their king Roderic, 711
A hailstorm brings down the ceilings of the Papal Palace, Rome, 1500
Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after having that title for just nine days, 1553
Five women are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England, 1701
Australia's first recorded use of gaslight was commenced in a Sydney shop, 1826
The British Medical Association was founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary, 1832
The two day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York; "bloomers," named after developer Amelia Bloomer, are worn at this very early feminist convention, 1848
A meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kg explodes over the town of Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town, 1912
Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention, 1963
The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua, 1979
The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published, 1983