Rest easy Otis: One final ride for The Coughing Dog

Friends,

Since Otis was the inspiration for this blog, it makes sense that I write one last post to share the sad news that on Saturday, December 28th 2013, I put Otis to sleep. He was about 11 years old. Otis was an old dog with degenerative hip issues that made some of the most basic functions in his life painful, difficult and embarrassing.

Otis was my best friend, a truly loyal companion. He was by my side for more than 10,000 miles of walks, 10 winters, 4 cross-country trips, and many hikes up many different mountains. He would join me to go bouldering at the base of Mt. Crested Butte, to mountain bike at Hartman's Rocks in Gunnison, swim at Post Pond in Lyme, NH, and to tow my townie across town in Crested Butte to Peanut Lake Road for an off-leash run. Otis went to more cool places with me than anyone else I've traveled with: Red Lodge, Montana, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Moab, Utah, and Harpswell, Maine to name a few.

Otis also kept things interesting. He was quilled 5 times, skunked once and even caught a baby deer once - but he just licked it and tried to get it play with him. He also chewed through the seat belts in my car twice during thunder storms. There isn't enough page space for all of the things he did that made me laugh and gave me stories to tell.

Otis was a constant source of companionship, friendship and warmth to me. If you know me at all, you know what he meant to me. Thanks to everyone out there who shared an experience with us. They're some of the best of my life.

Best wishes,

Phil

From the archives: Client 9 and Phil Went Skiing

During the early fall, Client 9 and I decided to take a ski trip. Not one where we'd fly in some where, ski and fly out. And certainly not one within driving distance of our home bases on the East coast. We flew into Denver, rented the biggest car they had and set off. This is our trip.



Special thanks to Kinsman, Stevan, the Prospector's Hotel, the desert and Will for putting us up along the way and to Snipes, Nate, Katherine and Will for joining us for pieces along the way. It was memorable.

From the archives: What is this Russia?

TCD's baseball beat writers typically cover the Yanks and Sox. Our Mets guy quit in 2008. It's not often we talk about the Cubs - and this video isn't really about the Cubs at all anyway - but in the spirit of introducing diversified baseball coverage we give you a typical Cubs fan.

Opening Day: The Cubs biggest fan from WBEZ on Vimeo.

Unreal haircut...

And he owns a football team!

From the archives: Distinguished Middle School Dance Songs

Last week, while I was doing a little grocery shopping, I picked up on Chris De Burgh’s “Lady in Red” playing in the background. I grinned with amusement as it took me back to those semi-awkward, fully sober, Middle School dance days. I began to think of some of the prime slow dance songs from back in the day and recalled a few good ones:

Chris De Burgh - Lady In Red: The inspiration for this post. Not a nice guy - check out "personal life" on his Wikipedia page. What a dick.

Boys II Men - Bended Knee: Pretty much the gold standard for slow jams at the time. Now usually heard at the NH State Liquor Store.

Richard Marx - Endless Summer Nights: More of a feel good 80s song but I bet this was played at least once at a dance.

Bon Jovi - Always: This song wins the Cal Ripken award. Played at every single dance.

Bryan Adams - (Everything I do) I do it for you: Really cheap song.

Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven: No comment necessary other than your night is over after this.

Any others? Let us know...

From the archives: Weekend Inspiration

From the archives: Thursday Night Sweet Tune/80s Shredding Inspiration

I thank Frankie Ford each morning for this song and George Lopez each viewing for his cameo in this movie.

From the archives: Deconstructing the standard news segment

From the archives: Jobs

From friend of TCD, Manny.

From the archives (but still relevant): Health Briefing

The key takeaway from the health briefing about my upcoming school-sponsored Asian adventure.

From the archives: Ridiculous Sick Nasty Hockey Goal

For serious. Top dog on the drop.

From the archives: What lurks beneath

New York Harbor holds some deep dark secrets. New York mag dug a bit deeper into them this week with an online feature detailing the bizarre, valuable, scary and ugly.

Check out the whole article here, and some highlights below...





3. A 10,500-Mile Gas Main
That groove on the riverbed is a pair of 24-inch gas mains, laid down in the fifties, that—believe it or not—constitute the business end of a network of pipes that runs all the way from the Gulf of Mexico. (Gas takes roughly a week to make the trip.) This pipeline and another at 134th Street supplied 367 billion cubic feet of gas last year—about half of what we used. Since 9/11, the points where it comes ashore have been patrolled daily.

14. A Piano and a Dead Giraffe
The Army Corps of Engineers, charged with the task of scooping up floating debris, once fished out a grand piano. Another time, they found the corpse of a giraffe that had fled a circus.

23. 1,600 Bars of Silver, Weighing 100 Pounds Apiece
In 1903, a barge in the Arthur Kill—the oily, mucky arm of the harbor between Staten Island and New Jersey—capsized, spilling its cargo of silver ingots. It carried 7,678 bars; about 6,000 were recovered soon after. The rest are still down there. At today’s prices, they’re worth about $26 million. Every now and then, someone tries to find them. So far, no luck.

From the archives: NFL All-Criminal Offensive and Defensive Lineups

The fine folks at Infojocks put these two graphics together, you can find full-size versions by clicking here.

From the archives: Don't Ever Give Up

I won't be posting a lot of serious content on thecoughingdog but after watching the Georgetown game on ESPN tonight, they replayed Jim Valvano's memorable speech from the 1993 ESPY Awards. Sick with bone cancer and noticeably exhausted, Jimmy V spoke of the need to live life with emotion and the importance of making each day a "full day." Jimmy V died 8 weeks after this classically inspiring speech.

From the archives: Native American Style

Jared Allen is a sweet dude. Watch him kill this Elk with a spear. I wish this savage played for the Patriots.

From the archives: It is cold but nobody really cares

Well done, Matt and Kim.

From the list of 'things we should have all seen coming'...

It turns out there's no profit to be made from pouring sand into the ocean.

Now that the boom has gone bust, both in Dubai and in the United States, Dubai is stuck with a glut of real estate that no one wants to buy or rent. Creditors and markets had always assumed that when push came to shove, its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi would bail out Dubai. But that assumption was called into question this week, and the resulting fear that Dubai might not be able to pay its bills sent a wave of uncertainty rippling through markets just as investors thought the worst of the global financial instability was over.

Read the full article here if you want deeper anxiety about the global economic crisis:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/business/global/28dubai.html?hp

From the archives: ULTIMATE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ON WHEELS | THE 1970’s VAN CUSTOMIZATION CRAZE

This blog is outstanding...some of the funniest/best photos of 70s era vans. Go to it...

http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/ultimate-rock-n-roll-on-wheels-the-1970s-van-customization-craze/

Here's a sample...

From the archives: Free Tunes For Your Manic Monday

Nothing says "suck" like the Monday following the Superbowl. Fortunately the dudes at The Hood Internet have salvaged the day for us with their Mixtape Volume Five. I've posted a few individual hood tracks on here before, but this one is roughly an hour of continuous good times with hip hop/indie fusion. Enjoy and download here.

The Drake x Birdman x Delorean track is my favorite so far.

From the archives: No Mas Presents: Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No by James Blagden

This video is nuts! It depicts the day that Dock Ellis threw a no hitter with a head full of acid.