Racing greyhounds work only for the first two to five years of their
lives. Once they stop winning, literally truckloads of greyhounds —
most of them healthy young dogs who might live into their teens — are
killed by
the tens of thousands each year at veterinarians’ offices, animal
shelters, and research labs, or simply left to starve. These are not
vicious or predatory dogs. They’re about the most sweet-natured, loving,
shy, sensitive, and breathtakingly graceful creatures you can imagine.
It’s a bit like having a fawn or a gazelle or maybe a unicorn for a pet.
Their resilience and forgiving nature are the more remarkable in that
their treatment during their racing years has quite often been what you
might euphemistically call suboptimal. The anti-racing Greyhound
Protection League has compiled an extensive website documenting the
abuses
of the greyhound racing industry; please don’t click
here unless
you’re braced for some upsetting images.
Sadly, even for the small minority of dogs taken in by
stretched-to-the-limit rescue organizations, there are never nearly
enough homes to go round. If you’re thinking of adding a dog to the
family, consider taking in a rescued greyhound. They’re an easy breed:
child-friendly, intelligent, docile and eager to please — not to
mention decorative as all get out. And they ask
only for warmth, good food, a safe place to run (a fenced yard is best,
else you’ll need to provide numerous on-leash walks), and plenty of love
and affection. The Greyhound Project
provides the basic information you
need to consider adopting one of these “gentle aristocrats,” as well as
numerous links
to local and
national rescue organizations throughout America and the world. And
check out the greyhound e-zine A Breed Apart.
The really groovy part is that even those of you who can’t adopt a
dog at the moment can still help. If you ever make purchases online,
there is an easy way you can make a difference in the lives of some of
these dogs that won’t cost you a red cent. You see, the Greyhound
Bookstore has recently
associated with Amazon.com. Now, not only the Bookstore’s own
thoughtfully chosen selection of greyhound-related items, but anything
at all you purchase at Amazon.com after clicking through from the
Bookstore’s webpage, will earn a commission benefiting Greyhound
Friends West. They are my local
greyhound rescue organization, and I, along with two of the most
beautiful, adoring and adorable dogs I have ever known, can attest that
its work is devoted, tireless, and worthwhile.
Once more: absolutely anything you buy at Amazon.com — which is
turning itself into the Wal-Mart of the Internet lately, offering more
and more types of products besides books — will benefit these
greyhounds. All you have to do is click through to Amazon.com from the
Greyhound Bookstore’s
website. I have just
replaced my Amazon.com bookmark (or “favorite,” for you Explorer users)
with a Greyhound Bookstore bookmark. I encourage you to do the same and
to pass the word along to your friends. Believe me, the dogs will be
grateful to you.
Print media getting antsy
In December 1998, the American Society of Newspaper Editors
issued “Why Newspaper Credibility is
Dropping,” the
report
on a comprehensive national survey on the credibility of American
newspapers. A separate
study on credibility,
based on a survey of journalists, was released in May 1999 by the Pew
Research Center for the People and the Press. Links to commentary on
these surveys’ results from newspapers all over the country are
collected here — pieces with
tense, jumpy headlines like “Newspapers’ credibility gap” and “Do you
think we know what we should be doing?” No, actually, we don’t think so.
Now on sale at eBay …
With every dot-com domain name being snapped up at light speed, and
considering that the eBay success story has
attained the status of a contemporary legend, perhaps it was only a
matter of time until this happened. Yes, folks, you can bid
right this minute at eBay on the rights to the domain name
“ihateebay.com.” Says the seller, “Did you get shut out last weekend?
Not too happy with eBay these days? Want to start your own site and get
millions of unhappy eBayers to come on over? Then this is the domain
name for you … Use IHATEeBAY.COM to attract millions to your own
auction site.” The auction ends June 24 at 3:50 p.m., PDT.
Baffle your friends,
annoy your loved ones
A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is an unopened
package. There is no other creature in the field. How did he die?
Puzzles like this one are solved by putting on one’s thinking cap and
asking the poser of the riddle as many yes-or-no questions as it takes,
until something clicks and the answer suddenly becomes clear — and,
often, absurdly simple. Normally it requires some form of lateral,
“outside-the-box” thinking to get there. You can test your own mental
agility at this lateral thinking puzzles
site.
Fortunately for my insomnia and perhaps for yours as well, the answers
to all of them are provided. Then you can enjoy them all over again when
you pose them to your baffled friends and family later on.
