Quote of the Day (James Thurber, on Naming Dogs)

"Names of dogs end up in 176^th place in the list of things that amaze and fascinate me. Canine cognomens should be designed to impinge on the ears of the dogs and not to amuse neighbors, tradespeople, and casual visitors. I remember a few dogs from the past with a faint but lingering pleasure: a farm hound named Rain, a roving Airedale named Marco Polo, a female bull terrier known as Stephanie Brody because she liked to jump from moving motorcars and second-storey windows, and a Peke called Darien: but that’s about all. The only animals whose naming demands concentration, hard work, and ingenuity are seeing-eye dogs. They have to be given unusual names because passers-by like to call to seeing-eyers — ‘Here, Sport’ or ‘Yuh, Rags’ or ‘Don't take any wooden nickels, Rin Tin Tin.’ A blind man's dog with an ordinary name would continually be distracted from its work. A tyro at naming these dogs might make the mistake of picking Durocher of Teeftallow. The former is too much like Rover and the latter could easily sound like ‘Here, fellow’ to a dog."—James Thurber, The Beast in Me and Other Animals (1948