Hey Colbert, Ecoutez!

My guardian got an unexpected Christmas gift...her own author page at Barnes & Noble! This, of course, is the result of her two new books in press, both available for pre-order!

This one, published by Corwin, a division of SAGE, is for teachers who are interested in remodeling their lessons for the new Common Core State Standards. The Table of Contents is here.

This one, published by University of Toronto Press, is based on her dissertation research about the inner-workings of politics of curriculum production. She hopes to have a few other books about this ready soon :)

Back in 2007, she co-authored a high school textbook for the Canadian market, published by Nelson. It was actually her third! This latest installment in high school textbook writing is titled Business Technology Today, and is the official, Trillium-approved book for grade 9/10 information technology courses in Ontario and beyond.

Of course, I make no secret of my interest in the work of Dr. Stephen T. Colbert - and my influence on her led to the inclusion of not only Colbert's important concept of Wikiality in this textbook, but even his full-color photo in the textbook! The significance of this is that Canadian teens will be exposed to Colbert's innovative commentary on social media!

"Reality has a liberal bias?" Feh!
Nonethless, we have been most disappointed that somehow this groundbreaking curricular inclusion has absolutely fallen through the cracks.
As I contemplate this oversight, I must get back to my holiday reading....

Happy 2012 to all from Humphrey!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Humphrey wishes all his friends in Willowdale and beyond a very merry Christmas!

He met some fuzzy polar bears on a pre-Christmas trip to Bayview Village.

He patiently waited by the door for the guests to arrive on Christmas Eve.

He admired the tree while lying on the sofa, so it was sideways
(or maybe he couldn't figure out how to rotate the image in blogger!)

   

There were lots of gifts for him, and that made him laugh.

 

The best gift was a plush gingerbread house filled with squeaky gingerbread characters made by Martha Stewart!
He had to stand up to open it, it was SO large!

And he had a wonderful dinner with many people he loves.
The candles on the table and the lights on the tree glittered while he enjoyed the sights, sounds, and tastes of the holiday.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

"I know that song!" Humphrey exclaimed as he heard Burl Ives on the radio. "Could it be Christmas is coming?"
Sure enough, he came home to a house full of wrapped gifts!

Sparkly packages, wrapped up in string, these are a few of my favorite things!

Please, could I open just one early??

 

One of Humphey's favorite ornaments...fleece Navidad!

 He hopes to blog more about the holidays soon, but his guardian is monopolizing the computer in an effort to finish her end-of-semester work and meet some editing deadlines.

Just in time for Hanukkah!

Humphrey is very excited that Hanukkah and Christmas will be here soon. He was kind enough to participate in a project with his Guardian to kick off the holidays.

The Saddest Dreidl by Dr. Laura Elizabeth Pinto | Make Your Own Book

Guys n' Dolls

“When men and women are treated the same, it means women are being treated as if they were a man; when men and women are treated differently, the man remains the norm, against which the woman is peculiar, lacking, different.”

Humphrey held his head atop his little squeaky doll as he contemplated that quote by Anne Philips. What could it mean? Usually, he liked to chew on rawhide on lazy afternoons, but now he would chew that idea. 
A very wise student tipped him off later that day.
"It's just like the Canada Post union negotiations about 'equal pay for equal work' not too long ago in the news," she explained. "At the time I thought to myself, 'of course, absolutely! Women should be paid the same amount as the men.' But you can see what this quote brings to it."
"What's that?" Humphrey asked.
"Why did I automatically think this meant women should be brought up to men's pay? Why didn't I think that the men were being paid less money, or that the men's wages should be reduced or increased to meet the women's wages.  Why did I think of the men's wages as 'normal,' and that the women needed to meet that standard? I've been programmed by society to assume that the women's wage is not the norm and I didn't even realize it."
"Thank you!" Humph said to the wise student, "I get it. Now I can get back to my rawhide."

EPILOGUE: Kim Schaefer, CEO of Great Wolf Lodge was on Undercover Boss recently (this episode aired on W January 4, 2012). In the introduction, she was talking about her leadership style and getting to be in position. She mentioned that people are often surprised to see a female CEO. Quite astoundingly, she made a statement something like, “I didn’t let aspects of being a female affect my becoming a CEO” – wow.

Finnegan's Birthday: Memories of a Dog Busting Gender Stereotypes

Today, November 22, would have been Finnegan the dog’s twenty-third birthday. Humphrey often hears stories about Finnegan, many of which are very funny, and some touching.

Finnegan playing poker, 1991

Humphrey loves hearing the story of Finnegan’s ongoing social project that challenged gender stereotypes. Since he was a puppy, Finnegan was drawn to anything bright pink. Whatever it was, if it was fuchsia, he had to get his paws on it. Lucky for Finnegan, his accommodating Guardian obliged, and made a point of ensuring his possessions, when possible, were pink. That included leads, harnesses and collars.

Every so often, people in the park would stop, and say things like, “Pretty dog! What’s her name?”

“His name is Finnegan,” Guardian would respond.

On several occasions, the Guardian found herself scolded – “How could you put a boy in a pink collar! That’s terrible!”

You’d never hear such responses to a female dog in a blue collar! So Finnegan made a point of clarifying that he was merely expressing his preference for pink to challenge people’s gender stereotypes. Pink as a girls’ color is a Western construct. The opposite is the case in Poland, and even India! Moreover, the fact that North Americans believe it’s problematic for a boy to wear pink (and not a girl to wear blue) is an expression of how society continues to subjugate women. It’s an insult for a boy to do girl things, but certainly not the other way around. This reminded Finnegan of the opening lyrics to one of Madonna’s hit songs:

Girls can wear jeans
And cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots
'Cause it's OK to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
'Cause you think that being a girl is degrading

That was but one of the many important lessons Finnegan taught those around him. Humphrey encourages those who remember him to post comments!

Finnegan on the picket line, 1997 teachers' work stoppage

Finnegan consorting with his patchouli-scented hippie friends (without his guardian's knowledge!), 1990



Finnegan's portrait, which becomes more prominent at dusk when the contrast is enhanced in low light.

Humphrey’s Unpaid Labor

Unpaid household and care labor in Canada alone is estimated to be worth up to $319 billion in the money economy or 41% of GDP,and as high as $11 trillion worldwide!  

While most people (and dogs) do at least some unpaid labor – caregiving, cooking, shopping, household security (woof!) – in most mixed-gender domestic arrangements, women take on the larger share of household and care labor. Statistics Canada reports that in 2005 wives put in 46% of the total time couples spent at jobs and 62% of the time they spent on housework. Much of the gender differences in wealth (women still only earn about 0.75 on the dollar to men for the same job) can be explained by the gendering of work and family roles that restrictswomen’s ability to build up assets over the life course.

 

Humphrey is extremely sensitive to these gender inequities, and he always makes a point of pitching in to try to help his Guardian. Given his diminutive stature and absence of opposable digits, his contributions are limited – but he helps out every day in the hope that he can equalize the gender gap. He firmly believes that “the personal is the political” - if he perpetuates gender and species inequities at home, they will continue to exist in society. So, by taking action in his own personal relationships, he can chip away at hegemony little by little.

In addition to security, he makes a point of doing laundry….

 …and recycling…

Here's a video of him on the job:

 

 

Humphrey equates a dog gym with commodification

Rather alarmed, Humphrey saw a feature on the local news for something called "Woof Fit," a Toronto "boutique fitness studio" that specializes in "dog human workouts." Classes of four (or eight, depending if you're counting dogs) engage in a workout.
"You've got to be kidding me," Humprhey said to his guardian, who seemed rather intrigued by the news story. He lifted his head from the strawberries with home-made fat-free cheese he was dining on. "You're not actually thinking of subjecting us to that, are you?"

"What? It looks like a good idea," she said.
He put his head down, wondering if she ever, ever listens.
"Don't you see, Guardian? This is yet another note in the orchestra of commodification."
"Refresh my memory, Humph," she said, not sure where he was going.
"Where do I begin?" he asked rhetorically. "So, there are lots of ways we can have a 'work out.'" He tried to use air quotes when he said work out, but his paws were too small for the effect.
"So, a work out can be scrubbing the bathtub well - that will work your arms, and you'll have amazing bicepts if you do it right! You can work your legs by walking me around and around the neighborhood - even jogging or running maybe, to get the cardio on! Then vacuum really well as a cool down! Daily!"
"Yes," she said, nodding.
"And you can carry me around for enhanced upper body strength."
"What are you getting at?"
"Don't you see, Guardian? People discount the things I just mentioned though they're really good work outs! Instead, people pay a domestic to do their cleaning (so the hired help gets the work out). Then, they get it in their head that the only exercise is exercise that you pay for - so they pay a gym to have a place to work out that has some kind of 'added value' when there's no value at all - other than they should be walking their dogs and scrubbing their floors with great enthusiam instead."
"Okay, so you're saying exercise can be free. And don't I do all that for you?"
"Oh, you do!"
"So?"
"Well, then there's the added thing of commodificaton of animals! Dogs, even! And this Woof-Fit totally commodifies dogs!"
"How's that, Humph?"
"I hope you read that article I gave you, Critical Pet Studies by Heidi Nash. Did you read it?"
"Sure did, Humph!"
"Well, what did it say," he asked.
"I can't quite remember - that was a while ago!"
"Okay then, I'll help you out. Now, Heidi Nash said a lot of things - too many for me to get into right now. But, relevant to this conversation is that people - now, I'm not saying you, but people - are getting into a habit of using pets as a conduit for narcissistic conspicuous consumption! Consumerism at its height! Really, all I want is to be on a walk, to follow you while you vacuum, and to visually assist you as you scrub the floors and bathtub. So please, please don't put me through the Woof-Fit workout."
"Not a problem Humph. I promise. I'd never drive out to The Beach for a workout." She winked and they went on their walk.

Common Sense

As Ben Levin once said in an article, “one person’s prejudice is another person’s common sense.”

On the surface, common sense is reasonable and steady, not hysterical and impulsive. It rebels against self-delusion whether by willful ignorance or hypertrophied complication. It chooses ease over hardship, and effort over ease when effort is rewarded. It pretends to be intelligent without being intellectual. Passing itself off as neutral and temperate, neither fevered nor austere, bright not shiny, modest, not vain. Common sense asserts itself with such a rapid absence of ambiguity and thoroughness, destroying any patently ridiculous notions of complexity. It depicts the views of the Right as neutral and natural, while opposing positions are constructed as ‘political,’ defective, and contrary to common sense.

Common sense can be a paradox, though. On the one hand, a positive conception is common sense as the cultural knowledge of the community; community wisdom. On the other hand, common sense is over-simplification, a distorted vision, or at worst, false consciousness of how things are. It can keep power in the hands of those with the “right” knowledge, the “right” solutions, the Right solutions. Don’t think critically, people, be practical, use your common sense. Don’t ever, ever make the mistake of over-thinking things. Don’t argue – you can’t argue with common sense.

“So, if everyone gets a good education, the country will prosper, right?” Harpo the dog asked Humphrey.

This happened to be of Humphrey’s favorite common sense myths.

“Harpo, that is the logic behind a lot of policies, like the new Race to the Top in the United States!” Humphrey responded.

“Yes,” Harpo replied, eyes as wide as saucers. “And that policy was made up by very smart people!”

“You’d think so,” said Humphrey with a smirk. “But what if everybody in Toronto went out and got an MBA?”

Harpo cocked his head in thought. “That would be great, Humphrey! Then we’d be the most prosperous city ever!”

“But Harpo,” Humphrey asked. “Who would give us a groom? Who check our blood for heartworms every year? Who would make us our vente skinny lattes (hold the espresso) at Starbucks?”

Harpo cocked his head to the other side, and scratches his chin. “People?”

“What people?”

“Well, I suppose the people with the MBAs?” Harpo asked.

Humphrey smiled a wide smile. He exposed the theodicy of a certain brand of common sense. The poor are poor because they didn’t make the right choice, or even more simply, that’s just the way the egg rolls. But it’s not the natural order of things – it’s the world people created, the one that they perpetuate, reproduce, year after year, generation after generation. Humphrey knew that some people had to remain poor so that dogs like him could afford his vente skinny latte (hold the espresso).

Media, reality, or chemicals?

Humphrey believes he may have experienced something that felt like an acid trip this evening. He's unsure if the media is filled with distortions, reality has gone wrong, or if there was something in his salmon.
"Area residents find live snakes in the toilets!" announced the local news, with disturbing video (Humphrey paraphrased). More than one! In different places! He put on his Groucho Marx disguise and lied down in despair, hoping that runaway snakes would not make their way westbound to his toilet.

He quickly changed the channel, feeling mildly freaked out.
"So there will be full employment for R2-D2 and for the Transformers, but the total number of jobs here, very speculative," said the man in the suit on CNN, who turned out to be Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Congress was talking about an Arizona mine.
Humphrey shook his head rapidly and tapped his ear. Was he really hearing this? Robots taking away jobs? This is worse than snakes!
Sadly, yes. That was precisely what he heard.
Now, he can only hope that reruns of the Big Bang Theory will start soon so he can regain his mental stability.

Finally, a sunny day!

Humphrey had a great day playing with Trooper, Pacey, Bijoux, and Keelo.

Not to mention Prince!

What should Humph be for Hallowe'en?

Humphrey is still trying to figure out the ideal costume for 2011, and he has yet to find a Guy Faulkes mask to fit his face. In the mean time, here are a few possibilities:

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Humphrey is thankful for so many things! Among them are...

....a Thanksgiving table with dishes designed by Barbara Barry and set in his honor
...then filled with braised prime rib, vegtables, crab cakes and pumpkin pie! Yum!



....a pack that loves him very much...

....every evening that ends with apples and toros...



...fantastic weather this holidy weekend....

....and all of his friends who bring him such joy every day of his life!
Thank you!
Happy Thanksgiving to all.

A visit with Keelo

Humphrey was so grateful for his recent playdate with Keelo that it inspired him to do a look-a-like (which doesn't include the obvious similarity to Disney dog Bolt). Here are some highlights from their time together...

Keelo?

Humphrey!



I missed you, man!

Hey, what do you think you're doing???

Agghhh! Catch me if you can!

So much pawlitics to discuss this week!

Humphrey has had a very busy week! Of course, Thursday's provincial election meant a great deal of attention to matters of representative democracy. The Liberals, as everyone knows by now, won for a third straight term, though this time as a minority government. Humphrey's sentiment? Rather indifferent.
Now, in our representative democracy, every vote counts....but...on Sesame Street, every Count votes (think about that for a second while Humphrey prepares his remarks).

This brings us to Humphrey's special interest this week: Occupy Sesame Street. Given recent statistics indicating that 1% of Monsters consume 99% of cookies, Humphrey could not be more concerned about matters of carbohydrate distribution. He recognizes, of course, that he is among only 1% of dogs that consume 99% of Cheerios alloted to dogs, and that this may be equally unjust. So, a number of muppets have allegedly occupied Sesame Street to protest, though they've received little mainstream media coverage. Humphrey wanted to take part, asking everyone he met all week, "Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?"
Unfortunately, nobody offered a coherent answer, so he has not joined that protest.
In the mean time, he's also followed the media coverage about the copy-cat Wallstreet Occupation, and the impending other occupations of financial districts elsewhere.
To him, these occupations speak to the very sad absense of democracy (especially public forums for good discussion, and the civic skills to listen and learn). Obviously, the protesters are frustrated with several things. And obviously, the financial sector has a very different opinion about the matters at hand. But are they actually engaging in discourse? Are they making any effort whatsoever to give due consideration of the other's point of view?
Humphrey doesn't know for certain. But from his vantage point, it doesn't seem like any true civic discourse is happening.
He wishes that everyone would just invest in a book or two by Chantal Mouffe. The primary problem with a liberal democracy model, she writes,
…is its incapacity to come to terms with the nature of the political[i]. In one of its ver­sions, it reduces politics[ii] to the calculus of interests. Individuals are presented as rational actors moved by the search for the maximization of their self interest.
Mouffe asserts that “one of the main tasks of democracy consists in envisaging how it is possible to diffuse the tendencies to exclusion that are present in every construction of collective identities.” In Mouffe's ideal, which she calls agonistic democracy, everyone would just chill out and listen to one another. Talking is NOT persuading, listing is NOT blindly accepting. The idea is to come to an understanding of where the other person is coming from, and agreeing to disagree, but coming to compromise. Mouffe, interestingly, believes that consensus is just NOT possible for many public issues, so temporary compromise is the best we can hope for.
Humphrey has too much to read to get into the details of how these sorts of agonistic modes of communication would actually happen, but suffice to say they involve ground rules and civic skills. Humphrey learned the most about this via Simona Goi's published research in which she tested out agonistic communication among people on opposite sides of devisive issues, and it seems to work.
Now, he must seek out cookies before any elitist Monsters get their hands on them.

---

[i] Mouffe defines the political as “the dimension of antagonism that is inherent in human relations”

[ii] Politics “consists in domesticating hostility and in trying to defuse the potential antagonism that exists in human relations”

They know how to throw a party in Massachusetts

Humphrey's Massachusetts poodle friends Teddie, Gibbie and Robbie routinely send him photos of their celebrations, and he has concluded that there ain't no party like a MA party! He looks longingly, wondering when he'll have a chance to wear a fabulous hat and frollick on the lawn near a giant cake.

Humph's Yankee Friend Lyric

Humphrey was delighted to receive this great look-a-like from his virtual friend Lyric.

Citizen Humphrey During Election Week

With the Ontario provincial election only a week away, Humphrey is thinking a lot about democracy and citizenship. He invites readers to view his book on this very subject! You can read it online below, click on the link below. Give it a moment to load and you should be able to flip the pages with your mouse...and it helps to click on the "full screen" button to enlarge the text.

My Citizens and Me:A Dog's Eye View of Democracy by Humphrey Chimpden EarwickerAs told to Dr. Laura Pinto | Make Your Own Book

*REDACTED* [Humphrey] wants an anonymous shell corporation!

Last night, in jaw-dropping awe, Humphey watched as Dr. Stephen T. Colbert signed his name to a Delaware anonymous shell corporation whose details will be disclosed six months after the US presidential election. At present, the anonymous shell is said to be an educational organization devoted to educating the masses on how LGBTTQ people cause earthquakes. But of course, the side benefit is that (like Carl Rove's anonymous shell), it allows Dr. Colbert to obtain anonymous donations which can then be donated to a Political Action Committee without disclosing donor's names (instead replacing them with "redacted"). Dr. Colbert describes it as a money-laundering scheme, a characterization not disputed by his lawyer, Trevor Potter.
Humphrey imagined all the fun he could have with an anonymous shell. Too bad he resides outside the US :(

Humprhey's summer 2011 bucket list

How did Humphrey's summer stack up, you ask? As usual, he had a full agenda planned....

Check!

Check!

Check!

Didn't happen this year....

...but this did!

Sadly, not in 2011. But he reminds his guardian that the bluffs are a fine autumn outing, too!

Oh yes! Many times!

They keep promising this new friend...but Humphrey has yet to meet him.

For the most part, Humphrey got to experience some great summer fun.

But there's always next year for more adventures and new friends.