On a long drive to an undisclosed location recently, I listened for the second time to British military historian John Keegan’s The Face of Battle, his first book for the more-or-less general public. I first listened to it probably 15 years ago, so my recollection was pretty fuzzy. I’ve listened over the years to many of his books, and never been disappointed. I expect I will revisit all of them in time.
One of the things I enjoy about John Keegan is the quality of his prose. It is just wonderful –clear, nuanced, with a dry wit underneath it all. Very Brit, the kind of writing that reminds you they invented the language.
The book falls into five parts. The first is easily skipped, as it is the most academic by far – an extended discussion of the history of battle literature, the various academic fads and literary approaches, etc. The approach he adopts is to focus (to the extent he can) on what the soldier’s experience of the soldiering and the battle would have been.
He then examines three battles: Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme (really, the first day of the Somme). His Brit-centricity shows in his selection of battles that Britain not only fought, but ultimately won (although the first day of the Somme was an archetypal defeat that struck very deeply into British society).
The accounts of Agincourt and Waterloo are very illuminating, with the account of the Somme being something of a letdown. In part, I suspect, because the fighting on the first day of the Somme was essentially decided, and not in the Brits’ favor, within the first half hour, although nobody had any idea what was actually happening until the day was over. Also, the very simplistic tactics of the Brits (an artillery barrage that was both enormous and almost completely ineffective, and then men walk in line across no-man’s land) are quickly comprehended and just don’t carry the interest of the back-and-forth at both Agincourt and Waterloo. Overall, though, he strikes a nice balance between giving a tactical overview of the fighting and a look at the experience of the common soldier and their officers.
The final section is a review of what we have seen and learned and an attempt to generalize. He addresses two issues.
The first is why men will actually fight in a battle, going beyond the usual “because their buddies are”. Historically, desertion and abandonment were always very present (providing a counterpoint to the standard narrative), with harsh penalties and soldiers posted specifically to keep men facing the front (such as Wellington’s positioning of cavalry behind some units of foot soldiers). At Agincourt and Waterloo, whole units left the battle by the simple expedient of hiding in nearby woods. In a modern-day battlefield, he concludes, men fight because the battlefield is so huge and deadly that front-line soldiers can’t escape it, except by fighting their way through.
The second question is whether modern warfare has made “traditional” pitched battles between large opposing armies a thing of the past. This is where I would have really like to see a post-script, as his answer here bounded by the Cold War face-off in Europe (recall, the book was written in the mid-70s). Between the insupportable demands on the fighting men of a battle between NATO and the Soviets, and of course the risk of nuclear war, he leans toward the conclusion that large scale battles may be a thing of the past.
Of course, in the decades since there have been a series of battles, mostly in the Middle East. I would have liked to read Keegan’s take on these. Just because they tend to be mostly one-sided probably doesn’t mean they aren’t battles, but much of the fighting I think would not qualify as a battle (which is an interesting question of its own). The Iraqi wars would have given him a chance to test his thesis that a modern battle could exceed the capacity of men to fight, given the intensity and the doctrine of continuous engagement over long periods of time.
Comments
193 responses to “The Face of Battle – A Book Review”
You can’t go wrong with Keegan. It’s been at least a decade for me as well.
I’ve always been fascinated with maneuver, tactics, and weapons, especially where a “fair” fight is decided by formal planning (rare).
Probably have written this before: Yorktown, San Jacinto, and, to a lesser extent, Agincourt are almost the same battle.
this is the cover of the edition I read.
That is the cover of my copy as well.
Indeed. Thanks for this, RC. Time for me to revisit Keegan.
My pleasure. I’ve got some of his other audiobooks teed up for relistening. Not sure which I’ll do next.
The Mask of Command was better. Yeah, I said it.
Fun article.
The Mask of Command is good as well. He has a bookshelf of good reads. I just noticed he wrote a book on the Iraq War in 2004. I have not read that one. Has any Glib a quick recommendation?
The IW changed in nature multiple times as the conflict dragged on. I still haven’t found a really good history over the start of the insurgency and into the rise of Sadr period.
That Alexander is “the Great”, and Philip is “Alexander’s old man who boned a freaky chick into snakes and shit” says something about who we, as a culture, approach history.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
I’m sure it was fun at the time, but as they say – don’t stick it in crazy. And Olympias was the kind of chick who would have shown up in the Daily Mail on a regular basis, you know?
The Demi Rose of ancient times?
This review glorifies violence and ignores the valuable contributions of women! What about the women of Waterloo?
Are you talking about the camp followers? Because I’m sure they were the main vectors spreading toxic masculinity, if you know what I mean.
You jest, but amongst camp followers were many women who washed dishes and did laundry. They were a major force in keeping disease from ravaging the forces.
In VN, on a mountaintop, we had Montanyard KPs and hooch maids. They lived on site since the nearest village was a few kilometers away, down hill. Hardworking and reasonably honest, not any spoke English but somehow they undertood work resulted in money, money could be used in the village. Camp followers but not camp followers.
The Montagnards did no small amount of fighting, too, didn’t they?
We didn’t have any Montagnards that carried weapons, I think the village was too small and isolated to bother with, more Hmong towards the Cambodian border that worked with the clandestine (CIA) folks.
“Women have always been the primary victims of war”
HRC
When I was a kid, I got my hands on a pile of Sven Hassel paperbacks. In one of them, the guys realized Kursk was lost and took off. At a roadblock, the Gestapo tried to stop them from fleeing the battle. They killed the Gestapo MPs, then ran them over with a tank several times to make it look like the Ruskies did it. I should reread those books.
In Bluebeard, Vonnegut has a Pole who was in some German war camp. The Russians overtake, and, in the confusion, the Pole assumes a Russian’s military credentials and is absorbed into the Red Army. Thereafter, during the day, he gets to pursue and kill Germans (yay!) during the day and murder Russians (yay!) during the night whenever he finds them in vulnerable positions. Perfect Polish Life.
Sounds like Polish heaven.
I have read (the bare minimum I had to) about Agincourt. I was first introduced to it via this series , where the author’s note says he was inspired by it. Also, Shakespeare’s Henry V.
Fuck a duck. The Left Hand of God
I’ve read Keegan’s ‘Intelligence in War’ and ‘The Iraq War.’ Remember enjoying them. I may need to brush up though.
Though Intelligence in War seems to not be a favourite among reviewers.
Apologies for hijacking the thread, but I need to get some work done, you addictive freaks you.
From the comments on Yusef’s post amongst late-night Glibbers:
@l0b0t:
@GT:
@UCS:
The bodice rippers of old were also doorstoppers, easily outstripping mine for word count. Many of them were adventures of derring-do by a kick-ass heroine. What grinds my gears is that the woke romance readers only focus on how rapetastic they were.
There is no acknowledgment that the heroines were the strong women they want to celebrate.
Tangentially: I find I gained many MALE MORMON fans with my first book because they identified so strongly with one of the characters. It spoke to them that someone knew their plight, someone had noticed, someone had written it down, someone had put it out into the world.
@GT:
I updated the online version to reflect the changes. It’s not a noticeable change for original readers, but it is definitely significant. I found I had made my hero an idiot, and he is far from that. He just has a two-track mind: war and sex.
Also related:
@UCS, I will get to reading yours, but I have not read anybody else’s work in years. I know, I know, an author’s cardinal sin.
Tangentially: I find I gained many MALE MORMON fans with my first book because they identified so strongly with one of the characters. It spoke to them that someone knew their plight, someone had noticed, someone had written it down, someone had put it out into the world.
Their plight being that they couldn’t have multiple wives?
/ducking
Duck this.
“He just has a two-track mind: war and sex.”
So…me from 2003-2009 then?
*ducks*
Would you like me to write you into a romance novel?
Having met Swiss, I can assure you nothing less than the leading man would suffice.
I’m imagining Fabio in a pirate shirt.
You’re closer than you think. Think shorter hair, better clothes sense.
I can certainly do this. I’ve never written a (contemporary) soldier hero because I know nothing about being a soldier.
With historicals (i.e., navy captains, pirates, knights), I can wing it.
No hat tip for calling you a saint? I’m sad.
*bows head in shame*
I am truly grateful for your Motley Crue offerings. 🙂
Also, I do not feel deserving of such an honor as saint or unicorn. I’m a mentally ill dilettante.
I know WWI has been a bit over done lately but I’m still fascinated by it. I’ve been digging through books, maps and other documents tracking a distant relative of mine who fought and died for the Germans. So far I’ve been able to pinpoint his regiments location during the first two days of action. Google Street view has helped me visualize the terrain.
I like the old joke – Grandpa died in a concentration camp, when he fell out of a watchtower.
I listened to those podcasts by Dan somebody-whose-name-I-can’t-remember and it was fascinating. I’ve forgotten all of it and am still confused about it, but for a minute there I understood it.
Dan Carlin
Countdown to Armageddon is a great series. I’ve been a Civil War and WWII student since I was a little kid, but I never really paid much attention to WWI until recently.
A friend at church homeschools. She’s dedicating an entire school year to WWII.
I was homeschooled for a bit. We spent two years on World History, and then another year on US. Never learned much about my State.
WWI is a fascinating and illuminating subject in a variety of ways. It’s unfortunate that most historiography in English deals with the first two years on the Western front, which is also the portion that dominates popular culture.
My university had a memorial for those that died in the Great War. The people that built the memorial didn’t know that the world was stupid enough to do it again.
The people that built the memorial didn’t know that the world was stupid enough to do it again.
What’s fascinating to me, and what I did not know until recently, was how not-peaceful the “peace years” between the wars were. Outside of parts of North America and Western Europe, the world was a boiling cauldron of conflicts. That these conflicts would coalesce and escalate into another world war is rather unsurprising.
Germany was stupid enough to do it again; France was unlucky enough for Germany to do it again; but almost everyone else did something different, including fighting for a different side. It’s not as if everyone wanted another taste of WW1.
Dan Carlin has an excellent series on the Eastern Front, Ghosts of the Ostfront, that I really enjoyed. I had no idea how much greater the death count and brutality was on the Eastern Front.
He recounted a narrative from a Russian soldier who wrote about marching along a slick road in winter, looking down, and seeing these blue eyes staring back at him. After encountering an impassable road, the Russians had apparently made some German POWs lie shoulder to shoulder in the road and then sprayed them with water until it all froze over and the road could be used again.
The description of the bone field outside Stalingrad (IIRC it was the opening of the first episode of that series) was chilling.
Definitely, that one stuck with me too.
Thanks. I’ll read this.
My immediate impression is that Creveld picks up where Keegan left off on this.
OT: Stossel interviewed Tulsi.
I hope she learned something.
Someone needs to hose down TGA.
He’s hosed himself I’m sure.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/det7rw/the_definitive_work_on_socialism_has_just_been/
Rebuttal
Rebuttal to the Rebuttal:
If you made 1$ for every day the universe has existed, you would only have enough money to pay down 25% of the National Debt, but it’s okay we can just keep spending money we don’t have.
A Rebuttal of Rebuttal to the Rebuttal
Game…
Set…
Match
The Omega of Rebuttals:
If Money isn’t the most important thing, then why do you care about billionaires.
Suck that Dick Socialists
Wait, why does have any income to donate? Is she charging people to come and call them pieces of shit? And that makes other people bad guys?
If you had instead invested that $5,000 at a very conservative 1.01% interest rate you’d have $1,051,116.67 today, as opposed to the $961,775,000 you’d get from earning $5,000 everyday. Give or take, I’m not calculating the extra days from leap years and trying to adjust for inflation would be a nightmare, but those figures are close enough.
if you invested it, then you’d have $1,010,961,385.75 in the year 1680 assuming 5% ROI.
oh wait, he said “every day” not “every year”. now i really really want to kick him in the nuts.
‘Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.’ — Albert Einstein
A quick thought – Taxation isn’t theft. It’s more properly considered extortion.
Wesley Snipes snipes agrees.
He is a hero.
True. Noice place youse got. Be a shame if you were to be kicked out.
I’ll go with implied armed robbery and the possibility of murder, thank you very much.
Hey, hey, it ain’t just the NBA
100% willing to help a totalitarian state boot-smash anyone who protests – as long as they keep making their money.
OT: As I mentioned I was assigned a course through my company with the title Diversity and Inclusion – Blind Spots.
Should I mention the title is problematic towards the visually impaired?
Wear some crazy coke bottle glasses to the class and act really butthurt.
“As a dyslexic, having to read this material oppresses me. It’s clear you’re not including my diversity.”
Donald J. Trump✔
@realDonaldTrump
I think that Crooked Hillary Clinton should enter the race to try and steal it away from Uber Left Elizabeth Warren. Only one condition. The Crooked one must explain all of her high crimes and misdemeanors including how & why she deleted 33,000 Emails AFTER getting “C” Subpoena!
Interesting choice of words that is sure to drive the usual suspects cray-cray.
Whatever smokescreen can be put up about her other activities, that one is completely cut-and-dried illegal. The fact that she wasn’t prosecuted for it is stone cold confirmation that the DOJ was giving her special treatment. She (and i believe her lawyers) should have gone to jail for that alone.
An update on my love life for anyone needing some entertainment.
The mistake and I have decided there’s nothing romantic there . . .well, she decided, but I can see it to. I was thoroughly friend zoned.
However, after brushing me away, she has set me up with her friend. I meet her tomorrow. I’m not sure I’m looking forward to it. She was very awkward via text and our phone call. I can also tell, she’s a lot more into me than I am her. She doesn’t seem to be my type physically as well. But my plan is to go out with her and see if there is a connection in person. She clearly has much less baggage, but that also makes her less interesting to me. She is younger, about ten years, a product of the 90s . . .I’ve never had that much younger . . . we’ll see how it goes.
Go the emotionally hurt and need a nursing rebound angle. Bang and move on.
She clearly has much less baggage, but that also makes her less interesting to me.
Such a disposition on your part would seem to set you on a course for troubled waters. But some people like riding the rapids, so you do you.
Let me phrase that better . . . she’s a little too innocent and naive. I think I’d like someone who’s had a little more experience than that. Baggage is a bad way to put it. But, I need someone who understands the types of things I’ve already been through so we can better relate to each other
Sorry to hear about your pooch. Ours will be nine in a month or so. When I think about the inevitable, well, that’s when the good bottle of Scotch gets a little lighter.
Life experience. Wisdom.
Well that’s much more understandable then.
DO NOT WASTE TWO HOURS ON THIS PODCAST !!!!
WeTheFifth.com Podcast: 155 – “Unforgivable, The Swampiest Swamp, DC Star Wars Bar”
Michael Moynihan Vice @MCMoynihan 1 points 0 LOL
Matt Welch Reason @MattWelcom 0 points 0 LOL
Kmele Foster Free Think @Kmele 0 points 0 LOL
• Opening nonsense
o picking fights in restaurants and threats on twitter
o racial loyalty in marriage
o what we’re drinking now
o mixing whiskey and opioids . . . . if you can get them
• 17:00 Botham Jean’s brother forgives Amber Guyger for murdering his brother: let’s make this about race? Or compare the case to official police business? a random walk ensues
• 0:29 Forgiveness vs. MORE HARSH SENTENCING; the massive failure of human trafficking as an enforcement target
• 0:42 Ukraine / Trump; 5D chess wargaming and counter-impeachment; Matt lacks the Xi-spot to laugh
• 0:47 Wider corruption; swampier than the swamp; We’ve been had (if we’re Obama or Trump supporters); Server-gate; the supercharged Obama Executive or the new power structures
• 1:18: NeverTrumpers should be Never Government people
• X:XX Impeachment check-in
• 1:44 People talk; If Bannon hates the elites, why is he the primary source for Michael Wolff’s book; Andrew Yang Hates Porn; Christopher Hitchens from beyond the grave
• 1:53 Don’t write “Orange Man Bad” and bad Scott Adams ideas; Don’t marry on a plantation
Recorded: October 3, 2019
Published: October 4, 2019
*The Fifth Column*
Welch: Only a partisan would question the intelligence community, Kmele
Moynihan: Preach
Welch: Who cares if the CIA was spying on the president? You don’t trust the CIA? That’s some partisan bullshit
Moynihan: Not to mention that if it weren’t for the CIA, there’d be 9/11s all day every day
Welch: Yup
Moynihan: It baffles me that anyone would even question the intelligence community
Welch: Not only that, but also…*loud gagging*….ehhhhh
Moynihan: You alright?
Welch: *loud gagging*…ehhhhh
Moynihan: Dude, relax. Are you OK?
Welch: Yeah, I just took too much into my mouth
Moynihan: It happens
Kmele: What the fuck is wrong with you two?
I, for one, really enjoy these.
#mealso
Same here.
notice I keep listening
but it’s just for the buzz and emotional satisfaction
so I couldn’t recommend such an investment on the part of an innocent based on intellectual content
This is interesting take. I’m guessing this person’s not performing in Riyadh or Cairo.
When I was bouncing around the Arab lands, my impression was that most indigenous dudes there were gay, or at least not into their women.
Of course not – that’s what goats are for.
I thought that was what prepubescent boys were for.
Yes, absolutely. I’m certain you can find anything you want in a religious text by removing the context. In that sense, it’s just like the law.
Also, I had to put down the dog in my avatar. She was 14 and it’s been coming for a while, but it’s now insanely quiet at my house in the evening. Very unpleasant.
Man oh man, am I sorry to hear that. It’s inevitable but never easy. A toast to a beautiful pupper; no truer friend in man or beast!
I’m sorry for your loss. Doing the right thing for one’s beloved pet is the hardest best thing one can do.
I’m so sorry about your dog. The quiet gets to you the longer it goes on. Maybe another dog?
I’m not ready for that. Probably someday, but not today
Puppies can’t fill the hole, but they sure can fill the hours.
After my last cat died, I found that I could not be alone in the house without another soul in it. I didn’t have to SEE the cat. In fact, I could go a whole day without hearing a peep out of her. But I knew she was somewhere in the house.
So when she was gone it was awful. We got new kitties within a week of her dying. (We usually get 2, and they must be littermates.) We got lucky with these two. They’re sweet and adorable. One’s kind of tetched in the head and stand-offish, but she’s still a doll. The boy is very sweet and loving.
Maybe another dog?
Counter-point: I just spend $425 for heart/tick/flea for 6 months treatment for my 2 dogs. Spend that money on whiskey instead.
^^^^
Jugsy has 2 boxers, and between annual maintenance, and some surgery on 1 of them, she tore through almost a grand in 2 weeks.
Sorry about your dog. She was quite pretty, for what its worth.
Shit, I’m sorry for your loss.
The joy and pain of pets.
My avatar got cancer and had to be put down before he was seven.
I cried like a little girl.
Very sorry for your loss. It’s hard thing.
Terrible to hear about this. I always liked your avatar.
I’m very sorry. I’m glad you got as much time as you did with your gorgeous pup.
It’s never enough, though.
Sorry ?. Our doggie is 11 and not looking forward to losing her.
Man, we never get enough time in the world for our dogs. Not much to offer other than thoughts and prayers.
Losing a dog SUCKS. But I’m glad you got to spend 14 years with her!
That’s what I try to remember. 14 years and blessed enough that she was great health for 13-1/2 of them. Also, she died without any gray hair, which is a trait that also runs in my human family
Sorry for your loss
I’m sorry about your dog. I try not to think about the day when I have to do that to my own avatar.
I hear you. It’s been a week for me. I keep reaching into the biscuit bin, and have to put the treat back in. Coming home after work kind of sucks. I put an old photo of my girl on my phone, and then took it off. Then I told myself to deal with it, and put it back on.
Sorry for the loss.
I love me some Keegan but, as others have said, it’s been many, many years since I read him. If I may be so bold, no study of the Great War is complete without reading Count Ernst Zu Reventlow’s Vampire Of The Continent , wherein he lays a convincing case that the whole thing is Britain’s fault. Pure propaganda but contains nuggets of truth that Anglocentric works tend to disregard. It also has a great backstory – it was translated into English by an Irish nationalist (George Chatterton-Hill) and smuggled into the US via a U-boat landing in Lawn Guyland.
Niall Ferguson’s The Pity of War also lays the blame for WWI mostly at England’s feet.
Britain has a lot of blame for the extent of the War. I think the war would have happened without them, but they set up the French to be more belligerent than they would have been, and then did everything they could to bring the US into the war.
…they set up the French to be more belligerent than they would have been
How so? I always thought the French were eager for a fight to avenge themselves of their prior defeat.
They were all douchebags looking for a fight.
The whole continent was caught up in a war fever that is probably very difficult for us to imagine. Everybody had these huge armies with these awesome new weapons and very unrealistic ideas about what a war would be like. There was absolutely going to be a major war. Exactly when, who, and “why” were the only questions.
Yep. War was coming and it was going to be glorious.
Yes, when you die in war you die with dramatic poses, gasp out saintly wise last words to your bosom friends, and leave an intriguingly pale and beautiful corpse! No choking out your life from the mustard gas that is drifting in on you because you can’t run away with your guts tangled in the wire.
No one’s going to read this at this point, buttttttt……makes me think of Motorhead’s 1916
I heard my friend cry, as he sank to his knees,
Coughing blood, as he screamed for his mother,
And I fell by his side, and that’s how we died,
Clinging like kids to each other
And I lay in the mud, and the guts, and the blood,
And I wept as his body grew colder
And I called for my mother, but she never came
Thought it wasn’t my fault, and I wasn’t to blame
The day not half over, and ten thousand slain,
And now there’s nobody who remembers our names,
And that’s how it is for a solider.
They were in part, but they didn’t want to do it without a promise of British support. A promise that the British secretly gave them. The book “Guns of August” actually details it pretty well, though the author does seem to be in the “It was Germany’s fault” camp.
Germany lost : the war must have been entirely their fault. Russia also lost, but had been on the right side.
Well, until the US entered the war, it was entirely a battle amongst Queen Victoria’s relatives, right?
Sean McMeekin’s “The Russian Origins of the First World War” assigns considerable blame to Czarist Russia for starting the conflict.
It seems WWI was like “Murder on the Orient Express”, they all did it.
I would agree. Yes, a crown prince was killed but that could have been dealt with so much better diplomatically than it was by all sides.
South Park’s official apology to China.
“Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn’t look like Winnie the Pooh at all. Tune into our 300th episode this Wednesday at 10! Long live the great Communist Party of China. May the autumn’s sorghum harvest be bountiful. We good now China?”
This seems to be a good tell tale of where someone (company) stands. If they are willing to say what China expects them to say then you know who they are.
Imma guess that Comedy Central was less than enthusiastic about their tweet, but Matt and Trey DGAF.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/xinjiang-the-nba-is-running-a-training-camp-in-the-middle-of-one-of-the-worlds-worst-humanitarian-atrocities.html
The Nationalist Beijing Association runs a training camp in China. But, not just anywhere in China. They run the camp in the EXACT same town as where China has its reeducation camps.
FTA:
Doing business in an authoritarian country like China inevitably presents ethical and political dilemmas, as several tech giants and airlines have recently learned. But doing business right in the midst of a campaign that some human rights groups have described as genocide is another thing entirely—and most U.S. companies have unsurprisingly given Xinjiang a wide berth. Yet one of the exceptions is striking: the National Basketball Association. In Oct. 2016, the NBA set up one of its three Chinese training centers in, of all places, Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang and site of massive race riots in 2009 that left hundreds dead. The center, which houses roughly 240 student-athletes ages 14 to 18, according to its website, has kept a very low profile. That’s unsurprising—because the NBA presence in Xinjiang is shameful.
The NBA is not just cowering before China, they are literally complicit in washing away China’s crimes.
Or it’s Dennis Rodman strengthening his Nobel cred.
No way the 90’s Bulls would have cowered before China. No way. The Pistons on the other hand….
I mean,“I think that’s the key for anything in the world, basketball and music.”
One might think that the NBA would get crucified in Western media for this. But I doubt it.
The Nationalist Beijing Association is woke. They already have dozens of players and coaches saying “orange man bad”. What more do you want? Like they’re actually suppose to care about people getting murdered? What part of “orange man bad” don’t you understand?
I like National Beijing Apologists better.
I think that may yet happen. At least with the smaller outlets. It was attacked by the local conservative radio talk show on my drive into work this morning. And look at the “apology” South Park made I posted above.
One might think that the NBA would get crucified in Western media for this.
Why might one think that? Haven’t you heard the paeans to Chinese authoritarianism from the elite press? Why assume they didn’t mean it or don’t understand it?
I was being somewhat flippant.
“Doing business in an authoritarian country like China inevitably presents ethical and political dilemmas”
A dilemma. It’s a dilemma. What to do, what to do? What a quandary. I mean this is a real pickle.
The real dilemma is why all the talk of basketball and China? What the hell have the Chinese got to do with bouncy ball? The average height of the chinaman is about 5′ isn’t it?
The ones that the state are not starving to death, harvesting for organs, or being forcibly aborted are getting pretty tall. Now that there’s actually food in China, their height has picked up.
The Nationalist Beijing Association is still a piss poor shit league, though
Average, sure, but pro sports don’t take average people, and with a population as large as China’s the long tails of the distribution still have a lot of people in them.
After eating the same dog food for 12 1/2 years, the food is now giving my dog the shits. The vet says “don’t feed the dog that food anymore”. That’s the kind of advice we pay the big bucks for.
Any recommendations on a good quality dog food?
table scraps?
My wife was big on the expensive natural food garbage. Dogs hated it and it didn’t settle well with them. Switched to Eukenuba and they love it.
Side note. We had an Aussie that suddenly had uncontrollable diarrhea. Vet told us to try different foods. That didn’t help. Then they finally decided to test her blood. She had pancreatic insufficiency. Put her on some expensive powder and it fixed her up. But we couldn’t take her off the powder.
Been through fecal tests and blood tests. Vet says, maybe you should try a different dog food.
Well, at 12.5 that dog is now a senior citizen, so the food might have become an issue.
My current dog started having issues and we changed her to some grain-free stuff (Nature’s Recipe) that set her right.
the engineer in me wonders who decided that the thing that has never been a problem is now the problem ?
As in, if all of the constants are constant there is an unknown variable that has snuck in.
My two dogs have a bad habit of eating bunnies. Both had a protozoa infection mid summer (confirmed by testing). Meds and special dog food solved the problem.
However, one dog has had three subsequent bouts of diarrhea. Last time, testing was negative. So the vet gave probiotics and special dog food. That solved the problem.
However, the problem has again returned now that we are trying to go back to the regular dog food. So again, we are back on probiotics and special dog food. Vet says stop giving the regular dog food and switch to something else.
Old dog, weakened immune system, need some food that will help produce better gut bacteria.
The Big Dumb One loves to kill snakes and lizards (including a trophy Gila Monster). I am extraordinarily grateful that he doesn’t eat them. I think once they stop struggling he just loses all interest.
They have a brick wall around their yard. If you were wondering if Gila Monsters can climb a brick wall, I can assure that yes, they can. I screwed flashing around the outside of their yard after he bagged his trophy.
What have you been feeding?
Can you introduce some sweet potato or pumpkin into the dog’s diet? Not the pie filling, plain unseasoned pumpkin purée.
You might also try high strength probiotics, especially in conjunction with sweet potato/pumpkin.
I’ll second the pumpkin. We buy many cases of it from costco every autumn and mix it in our 12 yo sheepdog’s food. We also switched to a grain-free premium product and he’s been great.
Third the pumpkin.
Third pumpkin. My wife makes up small containers of three days (once per day) out of a larger container and freezes them until ready to use.
For the regular kibble, we use 1/2 Royal Canin Ultimino (prescription GI kibble that we started using to try and narrow now a food sensitivity issue) and 1/2 Blue Buffalo Healthy Weight.
Really don’t need the Ultimino any more but she likes it, it works, and despite being more expensive than regular kibble, for our size dog and compared to everything else it’s peanuts.
FWIW, my cats love pumpkin.
What have you been feeding?
https://www.canidae.com/
I feed Nutro Essentials, chicken, brown rice, & sweet potato formula.
If some/most of the problem is supporting gut biota, brown rice is very helpful, but it takes a while.
Nutrish Turkey & Potato works well for my Aussie and my Viszla mix. Fur doesn’t smell. No bad breath. No digestive issues. I avoid giving them anything with grain fillers.
I avoid giving them anything with grain fillers.
New vet, new opinions. Vet says the food we use, which does not have grain fillers, is contributing to the lack of proper gut bacteria.
My dogs graze on grass like cattle. I guess they figured it out 🙂
How can dogs not have proper gut bacteria? Everything in the house or the yard or the park seems to pass through their gut eventually.
Two courses of anti-protozoa meds and three courses of antibiotic meds.
Well your dog eats furniture, for cryin’ out loud.
Maybe couches taste good. Maybe he knows something we don’t!
Well, the Little Fat One is going on diet chow. Its from Nulo – no grain fillers, etc. I forget the current brand. I have asked Mrs. Dean to not tell me what we spend on the Dean Beasts – between the poshy food, the dog sitters (even when we’re in town during the summer if Mrs. Dean isn’t there to bring them in) and the Big Dumb One’s ongoing treatment for valley fever, I would be surprised if the yearly tab wasn’t well north of $2K. Well. North.
Worth every penny.
Victor dog food has been great for my Lemmy. He had lots of gastro problems with other foods (pits usually do). It’s expensive, but I never had to pick up a greasy mess during a walk or get hit with an awful fart since then.
https://victorpetfood.com/
This is the one I give him. It smells like it’s made from fish, because it is.
https://victorpetfood.com/products/grain-free-yukon-river-canine
I did not know this show existed: That time when Mos Def helped Bill Cosby solve crimes.
+1 Rita Moreno
If you want the complete series, let me know and I’ll put it up on Mega for sharing.
Thanks for the review, RC!
Where the fuck were you at 2am when I couldn’t sleep and none of my books interested me in the slightest?
I read a lot of war books when I was a youngster. Not sure why I stopped but this may be a good jumping in point.
The last war book i read was “We were Soldiers Once and Young”.
I was thoroughly disgusted with the attitude of the commanders from the writer and up.
Yeah, that could absolutely be part of it.
You’re welcome.
Honestly, I like Keegan as much for the prose as for the content. The opening of Six Armies in Normandy is just wonderful – he describes his life as a kid in the English countryside during the war, and watching the armada of aircraft leaving for D-Day. He can be kind of a homer, but that doesn’t bother me.
For a little mid-afternoon levity:
https://babylonbee.com/news/progressive-parents-sit-their-kids-down-for-talk-about-the-birds-and-the-bees-and-the-birds-who-want-to-become-bees-and-the-bees-who-identify-as-birds-and-buckle-up-kids-this-might-take-a-while
Goddammit.
Levity, ffs.
I just survived the smarmiest, most condescending, cringy video training on my empoyers’ revised employee handbook.
And the worst part was that nothing was written down. You had to play each video in order, no rewinding or fast forwarding, with quizzes that depended on the audio you listened to in the previous module.
I think the Catberts in HR are hoping to drive 5% of the workforce to psychotic breaks with the damn thing.
I want that twenty minutes of my life back.
They can’t all be good.
Tangentially related to work. I’m getting ready to injury my head hitting it against a desk when one of my coworkers has been sitting on a simple change for three weeks without touching it. No notes, no updates, nothing. And he’s asking me to help him with it now…
I feel your pain.
From the “How Stupid Do You Think We Are” files;
Only one problem: the contract.
Now, leaving aside the issue of a government agency providing direct support for a political campaign, I think the Mayor may have a problem of his own, here. It would not be hard at all to convince a judge and jury that he tried this solely for partisan political purposes, which leads directly to a government official violating the First Amendment rights of . . . Donald J. Trump. This is a pretty clear case of conspiracy to deny civil rights. Siccing the DOJ on the Mayor would be perfectly justifiable, IMO.
Well “We” keep voting them in. So, not an entirely unwarranted position.
You do know that if the DOJ went after the Mayor that would be spun as Trump trying to undermine democracy by going after a political enemy.
Sure. Probably not a good idea to actually enforce the law in this case. “Justifiable” and “ill-advised” aren’t mutually exclusive.
Hate speech isn’t free speech
Q.E.D
Managed to omit the link.