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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Jan. 18, 2007 / 28 Teves, 5767

Putting on the Dog

By Richard Lederer

Bill O'Reilly
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | We nearing the end of 4704, the Chinese Year of the Dog, a good time to explore the presence of dogs in our language and our lives.


The word dog trots, prances and scampers through our marvelous English language. We call a tenacious person a bulldog, a showoff a hot dog, a fortunate person a lucky dog, a man with an active social life a gay dog who puts on the dog ("makes a flashy display") and a rapscallion or cur a dirty dog. A dominant person is a top dog who can run with the big dogs, while his counterpart is an underdog. Some of us lead a dog's life going to the dogs in the doghouse. Others are young pups in puppy love.


Dogs were originally domesticated for their usefulness in hunting, herding and keeping watch. It may be difficult to "teach an old dog new tricks," but dogs have in fact been trained to perform highly skilled tasks, such as turning a spit holding meat over an open fire, guiding the blind, acting as companions for the disabled and sniffing out illegal drugs.


Unquestionably, one of their most endearing characteristics is faithfulness to their owners, which has made dogs valued companions as well. As long ago as 1150, the learned St. Bernard of Clairvaux said, Qui me amat, amat et canem meam." That translates to "Love me, love my dog" — an expression of unconditional affection that reposes in many languages.


Other canine proverbs yip and bark across centuries, In the early 19th century in American English, barker came to signify the person who stands outside a carnival or circus to shout (bark) out its attractions to passersby. From the same period in America arose the expression "to bark up the wrong tree," from hunting dogs that mistakenly crowd around the base of a tree thinking they have treed a raccoon that has actually taken a different route. The phrase is still used to mean wasting one's efforts and energies by pursuing the wrong path.


In Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century tale of Troilus and Creseyde, the poet writes, "It is nought good a sleping hound to wake," which comes down to us as "Let sleeping dogs lie." The title of my grammar-usage book puns on that proverb: Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay (and That's No Lie).


Another expression derived from literature is, believe it or not, "in the doghouse," which means out of favor with the powers that be. The first appearance of this phrase occurs in the James Barrie play Peter Pan. Mr. Darling, the father of the three children, is punished for his shabby treatment of Nana, the Newfoundland dog, who is also the children's nurse. And where does he spend his exile? In Nana's doghouse, of course.


A three-dog night is not only a popular music group of the 1970s, but a night so cold that one must sleep with three dogs in order to generate enough body heat to be comfortable.


"Dog eat dog" dates back from the 16th century, even though Marcus Teretius Varro in 43 B.C.E. reminded us that "Canis caninam non est" — "Dogs are not cannibals." Even older is the proverbial "dog in a manger," from an Aesop's fable written around 570 B.C. E. about a snarling dog who prevents horses from eating their corn, even though the dog himself doesn't want it.


In the days of the Romans, the six or eight hottest weeks of the summer were known colloquially as caniculares dies, or "days of the dog." The Romans believed that, during the period roughly from July 3 to August 11, the dog star Sirius rose with and added its heat to the sun, making it the hottest time of year.


Here's something I'll bet you didn't know: The Canary Islands were named after the large dogs (canes grandes) found there. Those familiar yellow songbirds, also native creatures thereabout, were named after the islands, rather than the other way around.


Hey, I could talk about dogs in our language until the last dog is hung. Here the reference is to the dirty dog of the human species who rustled your cattle, and the "hung" is to the vigilante lynchings known as "necktie parties" in the early West. Nowadays the expression most often points to the inevitable two or three people at every cocktail party who hand around everlastingly — until the last dog is hung and the host shows them to the door.


Dogs have inspired some of the most clever and luminous quotations in the Bartlett's collections. Here are a dozen of my favorites, which I dedicate to Bart and Mike, our sprightly and companionable black Lab mixes:

  • If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a man and a dog, — Mark Twain

  • The average dog is a nicer person than the average person. — Andy Rooney

  • Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. — Ann Landers

  • If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went. — Will Rogers

  • In Vic Lee's comic strip "Pardon My Planet." St. Peter says, "Pearly Gates are no big deal. It only became heaven after we added the doggy door."

  • There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~ Ben Williams

  • A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself. ~ Josh Billings

  • We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made. ~ M. Acklam

  • We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance palnet and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us. — Maurice Maeterlinck

  • Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~ Roger Caras

  • The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. -- Samuel Butler

  • My goal in life is to be as good of a person as my dog thinks I am. — Unknown

  • Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. — Groucho Marx

  • Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the Virues of Man, without his Vices. This praise, which would be unmean Flattery if inscribed over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the Memory of Boastswain, a Dog. — George Gordon, Lord Byron

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Richard Lederer Archives

JWR contributor Richard Lederer is a language maven. More than a million of his books, which have been Book-of-the-Month Club and Literary Guild alternate selections, are in print. His latest work is Richard Lederer's Anguished English 2007 Calendar: Bloopers And Blunders Comment by clicking here.


© 2007, Richard Lederer

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