September 16 marks the passing of Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit. Fahrenheit was a physicist and glassblower who invented the alcohol and mercury thermometers. He is also the person responsible for the Fahrenheit temperature scale.  This was a major marketing ploy, namely: invent a thermometer and promote a temperature scale which is incorporated into the device.  If you wanted his new device, then you had to use his new calibration scale.

Fahrenheit has widely been replaced by Celsius in most countries and for most applications. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the Celsius scale was phased in by governments around the world as part of the move to standardize on metric measurements.  The US effort was mainly voluntary.  As it turned out, The Yanks seem stuck (one might say “frozen”) on the F scale.

Today, the F scale is primarily used in the United States, which does not care what other folks do to measure temperature.  The US is not alone as the F scale is also used in such “major countries” as the Cayman Islands, Palau, Bahamas and Belize.  While other branches of science use the Celsius scale, U.S. meteorologists continue to use the Fahrenheit scale for weather forecasting and reporting. Canadian meteorologists sometimes use the Fahrenheit scale alongside the Celsius scale.

Supporters of the Fahrenheit scale note that a degree on the Fahrenheit scale is the temperature change that the average person can detect.  Personally, we doubt that the average person can reliably sense the difference between 70 degrees vs 71 degrees on the F scale.  Perhaps, we are just not “sensitive” enough.

Medical thermometers use the Fahrenheit scale. Normal human body temperature is considered to be 98.6 degree Fahrenheit, also known as ‘blood heat’.  Of course, it is otherwise if you are just a really “cool” guy.

 

Barking to excess! Stylish Chevy Chase locale in Maryland preclude excessively noisy dogs at new park who ‘are disrupting their peace’

According to a recent report in the Washington Post residents in the village of Chevy Chase, Maryland, have complained about the barking at a new local dog park, saying the noisy pooches have disrupted their peace.

Those of us at Doggedly Yours” have a vested interest in this story. The thing is we like to bark. In fact, we do lots of it. One might say we are experts.

Indeed, the issue is a classic one. It bits one group with particular desires against another group with different interest. My old economics professor might observe that one group is suffering the externality costs occasioned by a different group,s benefits.

It occurs to me that this case of Chevy Chase dog park controversy can serve as a teachable moment for us all. We can, and must, learn to communicate with others with whom we do not identify. After all, we all live in the same “dog park” known as society.

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Responding to the complaints, the village put up signs at the park warning, ‘no excessive barking’

Despite putting up the ‘no excessive barking’ signs, residents kept on complaining.

Residents living near the the dog exercise area at Brookville Road Park barked loud enough about the noisy canines that the Chevy Chase Board of Managers is now considering scrapping the park. A public hearing is scheduled in September

One the one hand….

As much I love to hate on the 1%, and as much as I adore dogs, I do feel for the lady… I wouldn’t want a dog park in my backyard either.  As another commenter mentions, many dogs are not properly socialized — the dog park is often their only outing, and can actually be very stressful for some.  The barking is a natural consequence of this.

On the other hand…

Where were the complainers when the park was approved?  Calling the police?  Try discussing it with the dog owners first.  Even the cops grow tired of petty disputes.  Yes, I consider this petty.  It is a big deal if you are living it and it bothers you, but honestly, adjustment and a little bit of change on all sides is quite achievable

On yet a different hand….

What do people think dogs do?  People talk, dogs bark.  

One of the most widely appreciated and imitated writers of light verse, Frediric Ogden Nash was born in Rye, New York, on August 19, 1902, to Edmund Strudwick and Mattie Nash. He came from a distinguished family; the city of Nashville, Tennessee, was named in honor of one of his forbearers. Nash attended Harvard College, but dropped out after only one year. He worked briefly on Wall Street, and as a schoolteacher, before becoming a copywriter. In 1925, he took a job in the marketing department with the publishing house Doubleday.

The New York Times said his “droll verse with its unconventional rhymes made him the country’s best-known producer of humorous poetry”. Nash wrote over 500 pieces of comic verse. The best of his work was published in 14 volumes between 1931 and 1972.

QUOTES

The door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.

Middle-age is when you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn’t for you.

Some tortures are physical And some are mental, But the one that is both Is dental.

Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.

Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.

Progress might have been all right once, but it’s gone on too long.

A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.

To love is an active verb.

Humor is the best means of surviving in a difficult world.

Humor is hope’s companion in arms. It is not brash, it is not cheap, it is not heartless. Among other things I think humor is a shield, a weapon, a survival kit.

Here’s a good rule of thumb; too clever is dumb.

My garden will never make me famous, I’m a horticultural ignoramus.

The dog is man’s best friend. He has a tail on one end. Up in front he has teeth. And four legs underneath.

“THE DOG

The truth I do not stretch or shove

When I state the dog is full of love.

I’ve also proved, by actual test,

A wet dog is the lovingest.”

“THE PORCUPINE

Any hound a porcupine nudges

Can’t be blamed for harboring grudges.

I know one hound that laughed all winter

At a porcupine that sat on a splinter.