We are moving to two pony parties a day but I thought I would toss in a third just for today.

Tattoos. They aren’t exactly “underground” these days and probably haven’t been for a while. They do however, have a rich history.

According to this site, the oldest known example of a human with tattoos is 5,000 years old. There is speculation given the location, that they were thought to be treatments for arthritis.

If you look here you can see the tattoos on the “iceman” found in the Austrian Alps.

It was an exclusively female practice in ancient Egypt. There is debate about whether it symbolizes the wearers were low members in society or protection as amulets during crucial times like pregnancy.There is speculation that among ancient Greek and Romans the markings symbolized belonging to a particular religious sect.

Women in Borneo were said to use tattoos to indicate a particular skill to attract a mate.

According to wiki the word tattoo is derived from a Samoan usage tatau meaning to strike.

They were introduced to the west by those who were sailors and travelers. When Captain Cook returned to England after his forays  in the South Pacific he brought with him a heavily Tattooed Polynesian man and that may have helped contribute to the new trend. Thanks to the spreading empire and a navy that supported it it became a popular trend in 19th century Britain. It gained even more legitimacy when the Prince of Wales returned from a trip to the Holy Land and returned with a tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross. Others followed suit.

It also gained popularity in the United States and was assisted by some good old ingenuity when in 1891 a tattoo artist named Samuel O’Reilly invented a hand held machine that allowed the artist to do his creation more quickly by having the needles move up and down automatically. Art meets capitalism. Another heavy influence in American society was the popularity of the circus culture, every one of them had a tattoo man or woman on display.

Tattoos have morphed from being a counter culture rebellion to a completely mainstream indulgence in The United States from the since the post WWII era. Apparently,

36 percent of those aged 18-25 and 40 percent of those in the 26 to 40 age range claim to have one here in the United States.

And, many tattoos artists today have a background in fine arts/painting/visual arts prior to becoming an apprentice. Most of the people at the place where I went have some kind of arts degree.

I always wanted a dog when I was a kid. My mother was pretty reluctant being a cat person and told me if I got straight A’s, I could have one. It never quite happened.

To that end I adopted all my friend’s dogs. There was “Flip”, the sweet German Shepherd who had epilepsy who came along on all of my adventures around the neighborhood when Gail and I went exploring. There was poor “biscuit”, a happy mixed breed my buddy Susie had as a teenager. Biscuit sat around at several unauthorized parties shaking his doggy head at us. “Tiger” was a dachshund down the street. He hated people and bit my ass once when I was playing in a backyard. Another kid was teasing him and I was the closest. Thus, my life long avoidance of wiener dogs.

I used to house sit for one of my professor and walk his Husky,Satin. She also had diabetes and I had to give her shots. They lived in a not very good neighborhood because young academics don’t make much. One weekend the neighbor dude threatened his wife with a gun ( pretty rare at that time in Canada ) while Satin and I were walking by. I suggested to my prof and his wife they might want to think about moving elsewhere. They did and after that, the professor’s wife became my friend partially out of gratitude. She had been bugging him for months to put the house on the market and get out.

Bosley, the bull terrier belonged to my friend Susie. She asked me to come and house sit one weekend, Bosley knew me well so it was a good match. I was eager to get out of town having just had a fight with my on again off again painter/photographer boyfriend.

Bosley and I were having a good old time with belly rubs and the hockey game when my boyfriend showed up apologizing. He drove an hour to visit so I let him in. He seemed genuine in his intent but Bosley thought otherwise. Although my boyfriend had never been physically abusive to me the dog would not let him near me. He barked, snarled, and I had to leash him to keep him away. Ultimately, the boyfriend had to hop in his car and drive an hour back home.

My grandmother had a friend with a poodle who could growl what sounded like, “Mama” and she learned to drink water out of a bottle.

When I got married I told my spouse animals were a requirement of the deal. He had an adored Rhodesian Ridge back who was stolen from his parents while he was tenting it in the desert during Bush I. Lucky, the Rhodesian Ridge, back liked to eat popcorn and counter surf when muffins were concocted.

I adopted a cat as a “pet” for a now deceased dog. Roxy was a gentle chow/shepherd who loved cats. My cats hated her, so I went out and got her a kitten, Sawyer. The problem is Sawyer is that he likes dogs and doesn’t see them as adversaries. He and Arno, my Dutch Shepherd like to goad one another on in chase matches. Arno learned how to jump through an open window to get back into the house after watching Sawyer. We don’t actually like Sawyer getting out, he is an escape artist. Sawyer suddenly developed a like of getting belly rubs after watching Arno get extra attention rolling on his back.

The house is always chaotic because one of the cats hates Arno, and the other dog hates him to. Our other dog was stolen from my brother in law because he neglected her. She likes killing things outside but never even looks at our cats.

Tell me about your animal friends past and present.

Please don’t rec pony party, hang out, chit chat, and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

In my mid and late twenties, I wasn’t in a good place. A combination of bad decisions and bad luck landed me in emotional and financial ruin.

And yet in that time when I was hardly equipped to make meaningful connections, I met two people who are today very dear friends. They met me at my worst. One was the girlfriend of a friend, and the other I met while taking prerequisite classes to get into nursing school, and they have taken two very different paths.

D was a successful office manager who fell in love with a man, had a child with him and seemed well on her way to a nice middle class Canadian life when the cracks in their relationship and within her led to am emerging manic depression. She says now she thinks she was depressed her entire life and did not recognize it. She fought for years to try and hold on to her version of a “normal” life and now exists on a small disability pension. Her teenage daughter has chosen to live with her father, a bitter alcoholic, her daughter is behaving in ways that make us think she might head down a similar path as D. D was one of two friends who really reached out to me when I went home to visit my mother and grandmother and knew things with my grandmother weren’t going well because she lives in the same apartment building and speaks to her all the time. d is currently going into another manic phase. She is compliant with her medications. She is moving in with a man who I met and seems quite nice. But I wonder if he will really be able to support her in her peaks and valleys. I have a hard time with it and I have plenty of experience. When she is truly manic, she just cannot listen to anybody. She feels good and is frustrated when those around her express concerns.

P is a vivacious, charming, and hilarious woman. She works as a counselor at a community college helping students with various disabilities/challenges cope and navigate college life. Until recently, her obvious intelligence helped her get several jobs, but they were always on “contract” and at age 45 for the first time in her life she has a decent paying, permanent, union job and has bought a house. P has a tendency to try and “fix” people and has been taken advantage of many. She got quite angry with me years ago when I told her that there are some people with whom you have to cut your losses with and move on, because she firmly and deeply believes people have the capacity to transform their lives. She abhors fatalism and is a committed atheist.

The world is a better place when I am hanging with P. It doesn’t matter what we are doing, the world is a better, more interesting place. She is endlessly curious and inspires that in others. She can walk into any place and make a new friend.

When I am with D, I am amazed by her capacity to reach out to others when she herself carries so many burdens.

This is for friends I have drifted from, friends I have lost, and friends I perhaps did not recognize…..

Please don’t rec pony party, hang out, chit chat and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

The late Pat Tillman, a former Arizona State linebacker who gave up a professional football career to join the military, is among 19 players up for election to the College Football Hall of Fame for the first time this year.LINK

Yahoo!News link

If Eliot Spitzer resigns his governorship, David Paterson will take his place.  

If David Paterson becomes governor of New York, he will be the first african american governor for that state, as well as the first blind governor in America.  Wow.

a brief history of america..

Tuesday and Wednesday…Leafs/Flyers “home-and-home”.  If you dont know what that means….the 2 teams play back-to-back nights, tuesday in toronto, wednesday in philly.  These things get ugly anyway….but these 2 particular teams hate each other already….

I auto-publish, but as of this typing, the flyers are in the last playoff spot in the east by 4 teeny tiny points..and need to keep winning to stay ahead of buffalo (and staring down the barrel of nj as a first-round opponent…yikes).  I wont get into the specifics with toronto…lets just say theyre playing for pride right now  😉