From The Memsahib: Lessons Learned from The Black Death

The following are some interesting quotes that I found when doing some of genealogy research. (One of my ancestors was a Norseman who died of the plague in Avignon in 1349.) In Parma, Italy, the poet Petrarch wrote to his brother: When has any such thing been even heard or seen; in what annals has it ever been read that houses were left vacant, cities deserted, the country neglected, the fields too small for the dead and a fearful and universal solitude over the whole earth?… Oh happy people of the future, who have not known these miseries and perchance …




Letter Re: Request for Advice on Dog Breeds

Hi, Jim. I wanted to reply to the thread about Advice on Dog Breeds. Here is my main point:  Dogs are are like guns, in that there is no one true “all purpose” dog breed.   The very qualities that make a dog a good herding dog will make for a poor protection dog.  Sometimes even, the qualities that make for a good watch dog will make for a poor guard dog.  (A watch dog’s purpose is to alert you to a potential intruder.  A guard dog’s purpose is to hold, bite and stop and intruder.)   As the former owner of …