The Week-End Economists go to the dogs.
And not just because I took it upon my unworthy self to post it.
Haven't seen hide nor hair of Demeter, so I hope she's OK, and doing something enjoyable.
Up first, today is not just Barack Obama's birthday. It's Rosco's too! His second.
We don't have his birth certificate either, and we know he wasn't born in Kenya. They said Georgia, but he doesn't have the drawl.
Here he was at ten weeks, the day we got him.
And it will be Queen Sara's birthday on the 23rd.
And, we're supposed to be expecting rain later from a tropical wave, but they lie.
So, have at. When Demeter returns, she can have it back. It just ain't the week-end without the WEE.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Who knew she was into shades of gray? 
If you can't remember what Demeter wasn't doing, how am I supposed to? 
In Vegas? Whooda thunk it?
WSJ: Vegas Sands target of money-laundering probe
No indications that billionaire Sheldon Adelson is being investigated
updated 1 hour 19 minutes ago
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CHICAGO — Las Vegas Sands Corp., controlled by billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, is the target of a federal investigation into possible violations of U.S. money-laundering laws, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
The Los Angeles U.S. attorney's office is looking into the casino company's handling of the receipt of millions of dollars from a Mexican businessman, later indicted in the United States for drug trafficking, and a former California businessman, later convicted of taking illegal kickbacks, the Journal said, citing lawyers and others involved in the matter.
The transactions date from the mid-2000s.
The Journal said there are no indications that actions by Adelson, who is the company's chief executive officer and largest shareholder, are being investigated.
The Los Angeles U.S. attorney could not be reached for comment by Reuters on Saturday. A Sands spokesman was not immediately available to comment to Reuters, but spokesman Ron Reese told the Journal, "The company believes it has acted properly and has not committed any wrongdoing."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48505603/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?__utma=14933801.1241560900.1343198498.1343932251.1344111494.8&__utmb=14933801.1.10.1344111494&__utmc=14933801&__utmx=-&__utmz=14933801.1343198498.1.1.utmcsr=%28direct%29|utmccn=%28direct%29|utmcmd=%28none%29&__utmv=14933801.|8=Earned%20By=msnbc|cover=1^12=Landing%20Content=Mixed=1^13=Landing%20Hostname=www.nbcnews.com=1^30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20Mixed=1&__utmk=254531080#.UB2DmqPW_AE
A Chinese-born Mexican national. Adelson doesn't own casinos in the far east does he?
Please give Rosco and Queen Sara a hug, a kiss, a scratch and a treat for me will ya. My two dogs have passed on and I have yet to re-up (I need new fencing). There is nothing in this world like the never ending love from dogs. let me offer a toast and a story to mans best friends.
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the
scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He
remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for
years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of
the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was
broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing
before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like
mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure
gold.
He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a
man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"
"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.
"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.
"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought
right up."
The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler
asked.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and
continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long
walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road
leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed.
There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree
and reading a book.
"Excuse me!" he called to the man. "Do you have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in."
"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.
"There should be a bowl by the pump."
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned
hand pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then
he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was
standing by the tree.
"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.
"This is Heaven," he answered.
"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said
that was Heaven, too."
"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates?
Nope, that's hell."
"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"
"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave
their best friends behind."
These two are waiting.
This is Duffy, aka The Amazing Fudd, who was a legend around here for years. He was the scourge of racoons for 12 years.
And the black one was Stoli, who was 2 years older. We had her for 13 years too.
for Demeter. 
Angelos Tzortzinis/Bloomberg - A man looks out over the illuminated city skyline of Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011. Greece's budget deficit will also narrow thanks to measures already approved by lawmakers in October.
MOUNT PARNITHA, Greece — The gods lived at Mount Olympus, but the gamblers live at a casino on Mount Parnitha, and, lately, Greek leaders have been praying to strike it big here.
The Greek government owns an unusual half-stake in this mountaintop casino, the second-largest in the country, and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has vowed that selling it — along with dozens of other properties, buildings and companies across the country — will be a top priority in last-ditch efforts to save the Greek economy.
But with time ticking on Greece’s bailout, and the country’s future on the shared euro currency ever more in question, the odds are stacked against him.
Greece owns large swaths of sectors like gambling that in other countries are in private hands. The arrangement helped derail Greece’s finances in the first place, with powerful unions bidding up workers’ salaries to unsustainable levels and money leaking to politically connected contractors. Now, few investors want to bet their money on these properties in the middle of what Samaras has called “our version of the Great Depression.” And it is not politically attractive to sell off Greece’s crown jewels at fire-sale prices.
It eluded Franklin Roosevelt, Sir Malcolm Campbell and Errol Flynn, but now an explorer from Melton Mowbray could be on the trail of a multi-million-pound hoard of gold, silver and jewellery stolen by pirates and buried on a treasure island.
Shaun Whitehead is leading an archaeological expedition to Cocos Island, the supposed hiding place of the “Treasure of Lima” – one of the world’s most fabled missing treasures.
The haul – said to be worth £160 million – was stolen by a British trader, Captain William Thompson, in 1820 after he was entrusted to transport it from Peru to Mexico.
He is said to have been stashed his plunder on the Pacific island, from where it has never been recovered.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/british-explorer-closes-in-on-legendary-treasure-of-lima-2012-8#ixzz22fqAbZKj
Fuddnik, you couldn't have picked a more appropriate topic if you had tried! (And I know you didn't try. . . . . ) 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Days
In the Northern Hemisphere, the dog days of summer are most commonly experienced in the months of July and August, which typically observe the warmest summer temperatures. In the Southern Hemisphere, they typically occur in January and February, in the midst of the austral summer. The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, in close proximity to the sun was responsible for the hot weather.
The Romans referred to the dog days as diēs caniculārēs and associated the hot weather with the star Sirius. They considered Sirius to be the "Dog Star" because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog). Sirius is also the brightest star in the night sky. The term "Dog Days" was used earlier by the Greeks (see, e.g., Aristotle's Physics, 199a2).
The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true, owing to precession of the equinoxes. The Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.
Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time "the Sea boiled, the Wine turned sour, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became languid; causing to man, among other diseases, burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies." according to Brady’s Clavis Calendaria, 1813.[1]
The modern French term for both this summer period (and for heat waves in general) "canicule", derives from this same term. It means "little dog", again referring to Sirius
In Ancient Rome, the Dog Days ran from July 24th through August 24th, or, alternatively, from July 23 through August 23rd. In many European cultures (German, French, Italian) this period is still said to be the time of the Dog Days. Jeff Kinney's Dog Days The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year with the least rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere.
According to the 1552 edition of the The Book of Common Prayer, the "Dog Daies" begin July 6th and end August 17th. But this edition, the 2nd book of Edward VI, was never used extensively nor adopted by the Convocation of the Church of England. The lectionary of 1559 edition of the Book of Common Prayer indicates: "Naonae. Dog days begin" with the readings for July 7th and end August 18th. But this is noted as a misprint[2] and the readings for September 5th indicate: "Naonae. Dog days end". This corresponds very closely to the lectionary of the 1611 edition of the King James Bible (also called the Authorized version of the Bible) which indicates the Dog Days beginning on July 6th and ending on September 5th. A recent reprint of the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer contains no reference to the Dog Days.
Please note: Due to introduction of the modern Gregorian Calendar, 11 days must be added to each of the 16th and 17th Century dates referenced above for them to correlate correctly with modern-day dates as concerns astronomical observations and climate. First adopted by Southern European Catholic countries in the 16th Century, the Gregorian Calendar was not used in England or its New World colonies until 1752. This modern calendar accurately calculates the astronomical length of one year (the exact time it takes the earth to orbit the sun) to be 365.2425 days. This corrected the approximated 365 and 1/4 day year length of the previously used Julian Calendar introduced in 46 B.C. Because the length of each Julian Calendar year was 11 minutes 48 seconds too long, over the centuries, seasonal changes gradually occured on earlier and earlier dates. The Gregorian Calendar uses a formula to reduce from 100 to 97 the number of leap years (extra days) in a 400-year period thus cutting the average calculated length of a year to its actual duration. By 1752 when the Gregorian Calendar was adopted by England, the Julian Calendar had fallen behind by 11 days total since 46 B.C. Upon implementation of the Gregorian Calendar, those days were added back by jumping overnight from September 2nd to September 14th, 1752, thus catching the calendar up with the seasons.
The Book of Common Prayer would have provided the official liturgical calendar for Jamestown, Virginia, from 1607 so it may be assumed that the Dogs Days likely have been known in the New World at least since that time.
The feast day of Saint Roch, the patron saint of dogs, is August 16.
Painted and gilded limewood statue of St Roch, Rioja, Spain, 1540-50. Museum no. A. 66-1951
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/saints-suffering/
Certain saints were associated with certain ailments, and became known as patron saints (specialist intercessors) for people suffering from those ailments. Saint Roch, for example, who suffered from the plague, became the patron saint of lepers and plague victims. Traditionally St Roch is said to have been born in Montpellier, France, in about 1295 and devoted his life to tending to the poor and the sick. At Piacenza, Italy, he himself contracted the plague and was expelled into the woods. There, ill and starving, he was saved when a hunting dog belonging to a local nobleman found him and brought him bread and healed his wounds by licking them.
Novena In Honor Of Saint Roch (beginning August 7th)
http://www.stroccodipotenza.com/novena.cfm
***SNIP
Glorious Saint Roch, who, when attacked by the plague, wert driven from the hospital and forced to take refuge in a forest, where thou hadst no food but the bread which a faithful dog brought to thee from the table of his master day by day, until miraculously cured didst resume thy home-ward journey, obtain for us we beseech thee, from God the virtue of patience in all the trials of this life, that we may obtain the recompense and reward of them in the next. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, etc.
You're fortunate that you have a library that has a a computer that can access the Internets!
I worry the day when the entire electric grid goes down in America.
Sounds yummy, my dogs already love to eat these ingredients, and clean out the containers after we are finished.
But, how do your dogs eat these frozen treats? Do you use a large 8-oz cup, or a small 1/4 cup size?
I am fearful my dogs would eat the frozen treat in one gulp and I would need to do the Heimlich Maneuver to extract it from their throat.
