MarysLibrary

. . . scurrilous remarks and muttered caustic comments . . .

There were free-range dogs, many of them of mixed ancestry, who ranged as they chose along the lake, and there was one small lean gray dog that looked awfully like a slumming coyote to me, although Edward had made it clear that I was not to mention coyotes in this dog's hearing, for reasons that were not explained. Mr Pawlowsky told me once that one of the many things he had learned from Edward was that most dogs were exquisitely sensitive about parentage and heritage, and that a lot of scuffles and disagreements started with scurrilous remarks and muttered caustic comments that were ostensibly offered as jokes but were neither meant nor received as such. 'Not unlike human culture,' as Mr Pawlowsky observed, 'where a great deal of what passes as social discourse is more verbal jockeying and snide commentary; you have to admire canine culture at least for the fact that you can respond to what clearly is a sneering dig by biting the speaker in the ass. We don't get to do that so much, and maybe we would be a better society if we did.'

-- Chicago by Brian Doyle

I'm not a feminist

"Let me take a moment to say that I loved this theme [of authority]. As I recently explained, for deep-rooted philosophical and theological reasons, I'm not a feminist. These days, standing up in support of traditional Christian patriarchy will get you shot full of holes in no time, even within the Church, and it's become trendy to talk about misogyny as something that's institutionalised in the Christian patriarchal church and family. I believe that's a false picture, partly because of books like this one: not being a feminist emphatically doesn't mean thinking a woman occupies a place in the food chain roughly between doormats and dog-fleas.

"And I loved, loved, loved the balance and beauty of the picture of familial authority given in The Last Chronicle of Barset."

From the blog of Suzannah Rowntree, Vintage Novels on Anthony Trollope's The Last Chronicle of Barset