Chapter 75 introduces us to a new member of the family, Dum-Dum! Many years ago we had to put down our dog, a beagle-pointer mix, due to kidney failure. After a few months, we decided to get another dog. When my wife and daughter asked my opinion I said that as a good ole boy from the South, I wanted either a small hound like a beagle, basset, or black-and-tan, or a hound mix, and she had to be free. They promptly found a family with puppies in the neighborhood and went to visit. They came back very excited.
When I asked what it looked like, I was told, “Just like a beagle!” Two weeks later they went back and I asked again. “A lot like a beagle.” Two weeks later it was, “Pretty much like a beagle.”
You can see where this is going. When they brought her home, I said, “That’s a beagle?”
Boxer-beagle mixes are known as bogles. The name is appropriate, in that it truly boggles my mind that ours generated enough brainpower to move around the room at warp speed. Most of the time I thought she was incredibly dumb, but my wife thought she was too smart for her own good. She was one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever owned. When you read about Dum-Dum’s idiocies, you are reading about the real-life Daisy Mae.
In other news, everybody writes that they want Carl to reconcile with his family. Well, that didn’t work out, did it? Everyone’s favorite character, Hamilton, crawls out from under his rock, cementing his place in all our hearts. I haven’t mentioned him since Chapter 69, and people still love to hate him.
There was an interesting correction I got. “Washington, D.C. shouldn’t be called a swamp. It is actually a marsh.” I must be getting old, because I don’t have a fucking clue what the difference is. I can state that part of the reason for the long summer Congressional recess was the desire by everybody to get the hell away from the malarial marsh at the height of mosquito season.