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Thursday, December 13, 2007

Have You “Seen” this Dog?

posted by on December 13 at 8:04 AM

It was the misuse of quotation marks that caught my eye—the dog’s really missing, right?—and perhaps I should send this pic along to the “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. But as the father of a kid who loves his itty bitty dog, I took this picture because I wanted to help get the word out.

Dog45Missing.jpg

These posters are up on Capitol Hill… and here’s hoping the coyote that’s been leaving little bits of cats scattered up and down my block didn’t pick off this adorable little maltese. So if you’ve seen this dog, or you’ve got this dog at home, give ‘em a call.

RSS icon Comments

1

Better hope there's no such thing as karma.


"All pit bulls should be boiled alive, like lobsters, and their owners should be forced to eat them."


Posted by Dan Savage | August 14, 2007 12:04 PM

Posted by heywhatsit | December 13, 2007 8:17 AM
2

My original version of that comment was more lyrical, heywhatsit:

"Pit bulls should be boiled alive, like lobsters, and fed to their idiot owners."

And I'd feel the same about 10 pound malteses or 8 pound toy poodles if those dogs were in the habit of mauling, maiming, and sometimes killing children, old ladies, and other dogs.

Posted by Dan Savage | December 13, 2007 8:22 AM
3

If Karma was at work here, Dan's Kid's dog would be eaten by a Pitty.

Posted by Mike in MO | December 13, 2007 8:24 AM
4

It is sad when any dog mauls a child, but it is ok when they maul old ladies.

Posted by Mike in MO | December 13, 2007 8:25 AM
5

Dog's already in California with its new owner.

Posted by Fnarf | December 13, 2007 8:41 AM
6

I don't know why people like to use quites for emphasis. I'm always seeing signs like '"LOSE" 10 lbs before Christmas!' What does that even mean? Are they quoting someone?

Also, that dog is "adorable"

Posted by ayarkay | December 13, 2007 8:45 AM
7

Poor puppy, poor kitties, poor Dan.

You can't even post a flyer for a missing dog without people wishing horrible things upon your family. Sigh.

Posted by jamier | December 13, 2007 8:48 AM
8

@1

It's not a Pit Bull, so we can care.

Posted by Mr. Poe | December 13, 2007 8:48 AM
9

I wonder how they lost the little guy? My dad and his wife have to go outside with their 5 pound Yorkie b/c otherwise it'll be easy pickings for a fox, hawk, owl, or coyote.

Posted by Michigan Matt | December 13, 2007 8:51 AM
10

If Dan deserves any karma, if for his less-than-sensitive posts of the missing cat fliers. He needed to be just as heartless with this one. "Hey, idiot owner, your dog is coyote chow!"

Which would be more just because little yappy dogs are annoying and cats rule. In your face, dog people!

Posted by Matt from Denver | December 13, 2007 8:58 AM
11

I think people overuse quotations heavily because they are used to seeing things in print with titles/subjects in quotations. They extend this to thinking that the title of anything, naturally, belongs in quotations (in this case the title, or heading, of the poster.)

Posted by Lake | December 13, 2007 9:03 AM
12

Fnarf, almost none of my hang-out buds here in town are into blogging. I'll probably go tonight solo. Wanna meet at the Comet beforehand for a beer then over the street for a gimlet or two? "Bear before Liquor, never fear!"

It might be shades of that Chinese dinner prior to the seattle-indiepop day of M's rooting from the bleachers.
I'm pretty sure you remember that thread in '99 that lasted days discussing the "Soul of Seattle." I forget what I had to chime in with (i think Appelstein has since blocked all access to the site), but you had? lots of cool history on the Frederick & Nelson building.

Oh, sorry Dan for butting in here.

Relevent comment: In grade school, a bunch of kids called this other kid "Seen" because his name was Sean. They loved seeing him steaming and irate. Kids will be kids.

Posted by June Bee | December 13, 2007 9:07 AM
13

This dog is "missing" like that cat that clawed and peed on my couch... I swear, he's "missing", honey!

Posted by meks | December 13, 2007 9:15 AM
14

Missing is in quotation marks because the owner suspects that the dog may have been abducted.

Posted by raindrop | December 13, 2007 9:45 AM
15

I agree with raindrop. the implication is that the dog was found by someone who knows better who then kept it or that the dog was intentionally stolen. The use of quotes also shields such ugly possibilities from the awareness of possible young children in the family who would be very distressed to imagine that someone took their dog. A less likely possibility is that the owner knows the chances are that the dog was eaten but is going through the motions to satisfy said children rather than have to explain death to them. In that unlikely event the quotes would be a tip-off.

Posted by MSW | December 13, 2007 10:27 AM
16

Stolen or eaten, the dog is actually missing, so the quotes are unnecessary. If they owners suspect the dog was stolen and the poster said LOST, then maybe quotes -- because the dog wasn't lost, but taken.

Posted by Dan Savage | December 13, 2007 10:31 AM
17

Nonsense. People misuse quotation marks for two reasons - one, because they don't know that bold and italics are the way to emphasize text; and two, they misunderstand when someone uses quotation marks to indicate irony (Ex: ecce homo contributes "smart" and "insightful" comments to Slog).

Posted by Matt from Denver | December 13, 2007 10:34 AM
18

I hate yappy little dogs. Who breeds these things? Get a real dog.

Posted by SeMe | December 13, 2007 10:37 AM
19

Let me check my tires.

Posted by Will in Seattle | December 13, 2007 10:48 AM
20

Crap, didn't close out the html tags. Oh well.

Posted by Matt from Denver | December 13, 2007 10:58 AM
21

I "hope" someone "finds" the puppy, missing animal posters make me "sad." :(

I thought about the unnecessary quotes blog last week when I saw a sign taped to the Azteca salsa bar:

"Please try"
our new salsas

Posted by Kristi in Kitsap | December 13, 2007 11:15 AM
22

I love these mistakes. And that's a great blog. Another one of my favorites (favorites to ridicule) is when people (teenagers) use the ?! when really they just mean to have multiple exclamation marks. I know a girl who still does this at age 19, writing things like "OMG i am so excited to go see the Spice Girls?!"
Is she questioning her excitement? It makes me laugh.

Posted by C. | December 13, 2007 11:27 AM
23

Aw it's a little Havanese. Most adorable babies ever!

Posted by Amelia | December 13, 2007 11:53 AM
24

It puts the lotion on It's skin.

Posted by Buffalo Bob | December 13, 2007 12:10 PM
25

@ 17 Sorry, I can't help myself....

You're right about the quote mis-usage of course. But your quote usage for the "smart" and "insightful" comments would probably be a better examples of sarcasm than of irony.

Posted by Mike | December 13, 2007 12:42 PM
26

@ 25, you're right. Come to think of it, when quotes are used like this it's just as likely to be sarcastic as it is ironic. But I think in my use it's at least a little bit ironic, don't you think?

Posted by Matt from Denver | December 13, 2007 12:44 PM
27

'...the "smart" and "insightful" comments would probably be a better examples of sarcasm than of irony.'

So true.

The popular conception of irony has really taken a beating since that sassy dame from Canada misrepresented it for all of us back in the 90s.

Posted by Colin | December 13, 2007 12:47 PM
28

Tiny dogs are for fags

Posted by ecce homo | December 13, 2007 1:22 PM
29

Whenever one of my beloved pets goes missing, I'm always sure to attach a current photo and consult the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style before flier-ing the neighborhood.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | December 13, 2007 1:36 PM
30

When do you plan on getting rid of your tiny dog ecce?

Posted by Bellevue Ave | December 13, 2007 1:44 PM
31

@25,26,27

Are you fucking kidding me? There is absolutely no way that they intentionally used quotes for any other effect than what they thought was correct punctuation.

Posted by Lake | December 13, 2007 1:51 PM
32

NapoleonXIV posts make me laugh.

hey, that quote blog is great!

Random notes can be fuuunny...
I really like this one too:
http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

Posted by Jamey | December 13, 2007 1:54 PM
33

@ 31, exactly. I didn't say they used the quotes correctly. There is a correct way to use quotes (such as when being sarcastic or ironic), and people who misunderstood that started using quotes because they think it's right. That's probably what happened here.

Posted by Matt from Denver | December 13, 2007 2:04 PM
34

GODDAMN YOU, #32!! I CAN'T STOP READING THEM!

Posted by Ben | December 13, 2007 3:41 PM
35

@25,26,27

You are all tedious and deserve to be smacked about the shoulders with dictionaries and VHS tapes of Reality Bites.

Posted by Bison | December 13, 2007 6:38 PM

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