Just Some Weird Crap!

A New York jeweller briefly owned the world’s most valuable pet earlier this year when his golden retriever swallowed a $20,000 diamond by mistake. Sollie, the dog, had accompanied his owner George Kaufman to the latter’s jewellery shop where Mr. Kaufman and his partner were intending to inspect some gemstones. Unfortunately a diamond weighing 3 carats fell to the floor where it was immediately snatched up by Sollie and swallowed. After a vet recommended that nature be allowed to take its course, Kaufman spent the next three days carefully collecting and dissecting everything Sollie produced before finally retrieving the gem (Telegraph).

Perhaps he should have contacted Ireland’s first official dog-waste removal company, Mr. Scoopy-Poo. The brainchild of Irish entrepreneur William O’Brian, Mr. Scoopy-Poo (motto, “Business stinks – but it’s picking up!”) will clean up after your dirty dogs into biodegradable bags and hygienically dispose of them, for a price of course. After all, where there’s muck there’s brass, and occasionally diamonds (Irish Examiner).

But O’Brian may be missing a trick here, why dispose of faeces when you could be selling it as the latest must have fashion item? What sounds like insanity may be an idea whose time has come. How else can you explain not one but two manure-based products in the same week?

First up is London based artist and designer INSA, who has produced a pair of 10” stilettos incorporating elephant dung. And this isn’t just dung from any old elephant either, this is dung from the very same elephant family that produced the infamous extra ingredient for a series of paintings made by artist Chris Ofili in the 90s. Yup, in these shoes you are literally standing on celebrity elephant dung (Huffington Post).

And hot on the precipitous heels of INSA is Geneva based watchmaker Yvan Arpa, who has crafted his latest $11,000 wrist-candy from toad skin and dinosaur doo. The watches, to be made and sold by Swiss watchmakers Artya, feature a face cut from a 100 million year-old “coprolite”, or fossil faeces, left behind by an ancient plant-eater in what is now the United States. And the quality American materials don’t just amount to a pretty face as the strap is lovingly crafted from the hide of an American cane toad. The mechanism though is pure Swiss craftsmanship (Star Tribune).

Image: Maggie Smith / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Tue Mar 16, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Design and Designers, Fashion, Shoes, Pets, Dogs, Excrement

Just a Little Off the Muzzle

[From Life Magazine for May 21, 1951.]

Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 11, 2010 - Comments (1)
Category: Business, Magazines, Dogs, 1950s

Bill Willamson, RIP

Let us all pause to honor the memory of Bill Williamson, Nevada resident, deceased last week, who taught his various dogs to drive a car in the annual Nevada Day Parade. Read his obituary here.

(Nevada Appeal file photo)

Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 17, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Parades and Festivals, Regionalism, Dogs

A Familiar Fix

[From Harper's Young People Illustrated Weekly for May 21, 1889.]

Haven't we all been in this situation at one time or another?

Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 15, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Art, Public Humiliation, Dogs, Nineteenth Century

Globetrotters Costume Party

Here is a history of The Globetrotters Club, which is still in operation today.

Shortly after their founding, in 1947, they threw a costume party, pictured here.

I hope such events are still part of their activities.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 20, 2009 - Comments (10)
Category: Costumes and Masks, Eccentrics, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Pop Culture, Travel, Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Dogs, 1940s

Your Daily Jury Duty, Midwest Divison, July 14th

We have Adam D. Goff, just trying to sell magazines to pay for college. But will that dream be deferred with a detour through Indiana's Department of Corrections? Check out the mugshot and order your photo reprints. The story courtesy of The Greensburg Daily News. Unrelated mugshot and story from the same edition.

Posted By: qualityleashdog - Tue Jul 14, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Dogs, Your Daily Jury Duty

Dick Tracy Cartoon

When you read the down-and-dirty naturalism and noir in the early Dick Tracy strips, you have to ask yourself how the concept ever came to include a canine detective named Hemlock Holmes.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 12, 2009 - Comments (0)
Category: Comics, Cartoons, Dogs, 1930s

Dog Bikini

Order one here!

Thanks to Andy Watson!

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 08, 2009 - Comments (0)
Category: Fashion, Reader Recommendation, Dogs

The Burgler’s Slide for Life

This is kind of boring--until the burglar goes out the window, and the guard dog follows!

Posted By: Paul - Fri May 08, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Domestic, Movies, Stupid Criminals, Dogs, 1900s

Dog Armor

Custom-made dog armor. For the times when you plan to take your dog into combat. I wonder if I could order a suit for my parents' 200 lb great dane.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 17, 2009 - Comments (19)
Category: Animals, Pets, Dogs, War