Starbugs, Hot Dogs, and Crossed Corgis

Keep the responses coming, especially when they are things like "You're too cute" (Thank you!) and "Are you famous?" (Not yet.)  Of course, topical replies are also great.  Very jealous of one reader's friend who is going to be in London for some of the Globe to Globe performances!  And maybe if you're lucky, a response will end up serving as a transition item to the next day's stories...

One reader continued the Moby Dick chain of thought established by the story of Iceberg (dead ahead!) the white whale, tying the story to Captain Ahab's first mate Starbuck, who was not named after the coffee chain.  (Rather, the chain was named after the sailor.)  Starbucks, too, has been in the news lately for a story related to both animals and unique coloring.  News broke recently that the famous supplier of caffeine addicts worldwide has been using some beetle-based food coloring to give its strawberry drinks that tasty pink tint.  Vegans are, of course, having a (completely unharmed, free-range, rights protected) cow.  (That was one of my favorite moments from the early reports.)  But the most interesting reaction I've seen yet has to be that of Daniel Stone, who suggests more consumers go the way of Starbucks and chow down on creepy crawlers.  Now, in my lifetime I've eaten a cricket, a packet of cheddar flavored little wormy things, and a worm in a tequila flavored lollipop.  But I'm curious:  How many of our readers have eaten bugs?

And Starbugs isn't the only piece of animal-eating news that's been in the spotlight lately.  President Obama is under fire for a passage in his book Dreams from My Father, in which he reflects on growing up in Indonesia, writing "I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy)."  Oh dear!  Given the choice between transporting Fido on the car roof or in the stomach, I think most people (and certainly most dogs) would choose to travel the Romney way.  But either way, we can all be thankful for the memes that have resulted.  So much visual wordplay with wiener dogs!   Reminds me of what I am told is one of the first jokes I ever told... "Why did the frankfurter jump in the pool?  Because he was a hot dog!"  Even from an early age, I recognized the power of the pun...

To close out today, more dogs.  Specifically, some long promised corgis.  More specifically, hybrid corgis.  Oh my.  I don't even know which one to choose... The dachshund is adorable, the beagle so perky, the chow regal (despite being the breed most likely to turn on its owner), the cockapoo precious, and as for the Australian Shepherd... I can't think of a word for the combination of stupid and cute that describes that face.  (Wordplay challenge!)  But, as anyone who has seen my recent canine Facebook post knows, my loyalties lie on the plaid couch next to that super-cute, sad-eyed, lovable German Shepherd.  But if anyone wants to persuade me otherwise, I'm all ears (not unlike the Jack Russell).

Enjoy the rest of Barbara Streisand's birthday!