"Bob. (and his dog)"

Okay, Bob-- I gotta ask. You moniker says "Bob. (and his dog)", singular, but your oft-cited picture of them, and your text, "Royals want treats too.", suggest that there are two canines. So, do you have one dog or two? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Now, if I parse the text, "Bob. (and his dog)", with the same determination that one might do with Phil Barker's literary prose, I might reach one of the following possible conclusions.

1) There are two dogs, but only one is Bob's dog. The second dog is a friend it met and is facing the same direction. Ownership of the other dog can be found in some other discussion on a different page. Somewhere. Only Bob and Bob's dog are actively speaking. The other dog, may be in edge contact, but will not take part in speaking.

2) There are two dogs, and both are Bob's dogs. They are a group as both are facing the same direction and in edge contact with another. Only one canine is engaged in speaking. The vagaries as to which hound is actively speaking will consume countless pages of discussion on this forum and others --for years.

3) There is only one dog, and it is not Bob's dog. The intended antecedent of the word "his" in "Bob. (and his dog)" can be inferred from a clause found three sentences prior. In reply to numerous questions about the apparent second dog, Phil has replied that he assumes that players will work that out among themselves.

4) There are no dogs. They were deleted in DBA 1.1.

[ January 18, 2006, 08:54: Message edited by: Paul A. Hannah ]

Paul.
That all makes perfect sense to me. I await Bob's answer. But first I better go lie down.

Personally I thought the moniker appendage referred to Bob's active status as our society's Everyman (ie. "every man...etc.")
Richard.

[ January 17, 2006, 22:20: Message edited by: Cremorn ]

Surely from the context this must be read as, "Bob.(and his dog ELEMENT)".
In the manner of; "Bob.(and his Spear)".

Dog(s) of this breed are clearly Psiloi -

"fought in a loose swarm hanging around (onto?) enemy foot...rarely caused serious casualties...useful..to hamper enemy movements"
[Page 4 para6].

and as such, have two figures to the base, placed -

"irregularly...in small random groups"
[Page 5 para 6?].

Yet another case of obsessive word counting causing lack of clarity!

Alas, you gentlemen are too witty for me to compete with! I will just tell you the facts.

Bob has two dogs, Prince and Duke, so "the Royals"
Both are Cairn Terriers, like TOTO in The Wizard of Oz
The older, smaller one - Prince, is reddish and keeps to himself.
The younger (by 6mo) bigger one - Duke - is the color of the dog in the avatar. He follows people around, hoping for them to drop some food. He is, afterall, a hunter.

So it is Duke and I that travel the pages of the Internet together, me looking for and responding to interesting discussion, he looking for a treat. However, when it comes time to review something, Prince wants to get into the act also.

They are like the Fox and the Hedgehog. Duke knows many things but Prince knows one big thing.

So it is Bob and his dog (Duke) that look at and for things but it is the Royals who rate what we find. A dog's view of the world is so much more creative.

I am very releived to read Bob's answer. The rumor going around this part of the country was that Bob is a lycanthrope, and that one of the dog's pictured was "Bob" and the other was "Bob's dog," making the picture "Bob (and his dog)."

I do use lots of lycan in my games, especially recently as I have been doing jungles, am I then a lycanthrope.

Bob, does your other dog get as much excercise as the dog that appears in your Avatar? I know Cairn Terriers are energetic dogs, but the pooch in your Avatar, aka "his dog", has running a steady trot there for a couple years now. One might worry that your other dog could be getting soft, sleeping away the while. Gamers and pet-lovers need to know...

What is the fox and hedgehog reference? I have asked around a bit and nobody seems to know.

[Chris Brantley]

The Wiki explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog_and_the_Fox

Popularized by Tolstoy's writings on history and a famous essay by Irving Berlin, but derived from a line by the Greek poet Archilochus who said: 'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing'.

In Philosopher-terms, Plato was a hedgehog...Aristotle was a fox.

[QUOTE=Bob. (and his dog)]The younger (by 6mo) bigger one - Duke - is the color of the dog in the avatar. He follows people around, hoping for them to drop some food. He is, afterall, a hunter.

QUOTE]

Would that not be more like a scavenger?

Also, leash laws are not being observed here.

Jeff