Posts Tagged ‘Friday Dog Blogging’

Friday dog day with Mingus the Super Dog 8 Jan 2010

9 January 2010

A walk at the end of the day w Mingus the Super Dog cleared the brain and eased the soul. Here is the noble canine, after we’ve come down the hill. I spent most of the walk thinking about journalism and politics, and questions of balancing independence with strategic focus.

And just now, watched David Corn and Kevin Drum do a superb job talking with Bill Moyers, breaking down the story in our current issue on why and how the banking industry has “intellectually (as well as politically) captured Washington pols. A great show. Really feeling tonight all the pride and honor of working with guys like these – and the rest of the MoJo team.

Mingus the Super Dog: he’s back!

11 December 2009

And he’s wishing everyone a Happy Hanukah!

As for me – it’s been a slow time here at Maimonides Ladder the past couple of months – my attention/energy/thinking cap has been focused elsewhere. Particularly with changes at MoJo, with Madeleine Buckingham and me taking on lead management roles in early November as Jay Harris, after 19 years, stepped back. Not to mention putting a budget for next year together. And all that end of year fundraising. And a fantastic event in NYC with Mark Bittman. It’s not over yet, but it feels like we’re reached the top of the anxiety curve. Couple of posts in the works…

It’s been quite a year, though.

Hasn’t it, Mingus?

Friday dog blogging, 14 August 2009

14 August 2009

Mingus the Super Dog is looking at me with cross-eyed impatience: hey! when are we getting out of here for my walk!

Not yet, big guy. It’s a working day…

But here’s one version of dog heaven, from the vacation archive – the creek at the base of the Ashland dog park.

IMG00018

Meanwhile, I’m listening to Barack in Montana courtesy of The Uptake – he just finished his pitch, and is about to open it up to questions. “We haven’t pre-screened the questions.” The proverbial rubber is hitting the proverbial road, right now.

Friday Dog Blogging, 7 August 2009: Good food, big mouths, and the sublime

7 August 2009

The theme of the day: food, or maybe mouths, or mouthing off, or some combination therein. Part of the reason  food’s on my mind right now is that I’ve been working on an event we’re planning for November with New York Times food blogger Mark “Bitten” Bittman. It’s shaping up to be a really good time, Mark’s a real pleasure to work with, the food, drink and conversation is going to be terrific, and I’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do…Consider yourselves the first to know about it, so if you’re interested in joining us in November, let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

But speaking of things mouth-based (besides food) what would Friday Dog Day be without Mingus the Super Dog? Here he is on our NorCal/Southern Oregon (SouOr?) vacation last week, doing one of the things he does best: turning a simple rock into an oral object of pleasure. He’ll do this for hours, grab it, push it around with his snout, bury it, find it, and start all over again. Usually in a altered state of canine awareness: that rock, it’s aliiiive. P1030165 Read the rest of this entry »

Friday dog blogging 24 July 2009

24 July 2009

Mingus the Super Dog and I took a lunch break to walk over to the hardware store. One of his favorite places (can’t you tell?) because they let dogs come in, and give them treats. He’s very well behaved. DSC01661Well, MtSD and his parental units are headed up to Ashland, Oregon on Monday to get some culture at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We’ll see how the Dog does on an extended road trip. He’s not the only one looking forward to it.

Friday dog blogging 10 July 2009: one of those days, y’know?

10 July 2009

Ever have one of those days where, midway through, you realize, oh yeah, I shoulda spent it mostly like this:

DSC01608Yeah, that kind of day.

That big writing project?

Didn’t happen.

Anyway. One more thing to do tonight, and that’ll be that.

Tomorrow I’m headed down to #sppc09 at The Farm. Pretty amazing collection of people attending. More from that, later on.

Friday dog blogging 3 July 2009

3 July 2009

First things first: the main generator/switch at MotherJones.com’s Seattle “carrier hotel” (aka server farm) failed early this morning, which resulted in a fire, which triggered the sprinkler system, which took our site (and several others) off line. No indication of when it’ll be back up; we’re actively looking at a Plan B fix (if anyone has ideas for a quick solution, let me know). Silver lining, I guess: it’s happening over a low traffic holiday weekend. P1030129

That also means no Friday cat blogging from Kevin, no frog blogging from the MoJo interns. (It also means you can’t get a look at the digital version of the new issue of Mother Jones, which has a totally kick-ass special package, “Wasted,” on the failure of the War on Drugs (so go buy a hard copy over the weekend).

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Friday dog blogging 26 June 2009: walking the dog.

26 June 2009

Mingus the Super Dog and I are back from our early morning spazier up the hill and down again. Is there anything about walking (the dog) that is not virtuous? (Oh yeah: “hiking the Appalachian Trail”). That’s what I was thinking about while MtSD did his morning smell-everything-in-our-path routine.P1030115Two books came to mind:

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Friday Dog Day 19 June 2009: Squirrel! Plus: why money is like water.

19 June 2009

Mingus the Super Dog and I took our lunch break out the door and up past Marin Stables along Wood Lane Creek – here he is doing his best imitation of Dug (“squirrel!”) from the Pixar movie, UP! – and then over the ridge and back down again along Deer Park Creek (these out-the-door hikes being yet another reason I love this town…).

Squirrel!

Squirrel!

Those creeks got me thinking about today’s report from the conservative Philanthropy Roundtable (paid for by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation), which disputes the right of “governmental authority to regulate the activities of American philanthropists.” (h/t to @sharonschneider – you can read her stuff here). This is but the latest salvo in a spitting war ignited by a recent report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which had the audacity to suggest that foundations ought to straighten up and fly right or risk greater scrutiny from the federales. Imagine that: a watchdog organization that committed the inexcusable philanthropic faux pas of being impolite! Quel horror!

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Friday dog (and cats, and frog) days 12 June 2009

12 June 2009

You know this look, right? Mingus the Super Dog is doing his “get-yer-fricken-shoes-on-and-let’s-get-going” hairy canine eyeball thing…can I just explain that I slept a little later than usual today – the typical Friday morning reaction following a Mother Jones board meeting marathon? P1030101

Which by the way was a great couple of days, devoted to thinking about opportunities, new projects, how to respond to the crazy world of journalism, but also about what to do if things don’t quite work out the way we want them to…really good conversation with our board (unsung heros!) and terrific presentation from Ludivoc and Jim from Insight’s Closing the Wealth Gap Initiative.

Meanwhile, over at the mother ship, our new gang of incredibly overqualified interns are giving Kevin Drum’s Friday catblogging a run for the money with their “This Week In Frog.”  And we have a winner: the judges have determined that our frog’s new name is Mudraker.