{"id":240,"date":"2010-04-28T15:43:56","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T23:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisabravermoss.wordpress.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2022-06-07T20:30:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T20:30:38","slug":"must-love-springsteen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/must-love-springsteen\/","title":{"rendered":"Must Love Springsteen"},"content":{"rendered":"

In memory of Florence Stern, 1916-2010<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been a dog person.\u00a0 No soft spot for slobbery panting beasts over here.\u00a0 No sense of humor about being barked at, sniffed at, or jumped by an animal nearly my size.\u00a0 And as for those teeny tiny dogs\u2014well, I guess I fail to grasp the appeal of a yapping bedroom slipper.<\/p>\n

So how do I come to be over-the-moon about one particular 16-pound poodle named Darjeeling, Darji for short?<\/p>\n

Darji came into our lives when Florence, the elderly mother of my BFF Ellen, could no longer take care of him.\u00a0 Darji seemed cute enough, was well-trained and good-natured, and wouldn\u2019t shed.\u00a0 Maybe this would be fun.<\/p>\n

That was two years ago, and even I am shocked by the extent to which I\u2019ve crossed over.<\/p>\n

How, for example, did I wind up with a book entitled Dress Your Dog:\u00a0 Nifty Knits for Classy Canines<\/em>, plus the necessary yarn and knitting needles for the sweater on page 47?<\/p>\n

How have I turned into the type of nutcase who watches her darling five-year-old nephew walk alongside the dog, and squeals \u201cIsn\u2019t he just adorable?\u201d\u2014about the dog?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve even been known to \u201cread\u201d a bedtime story to Darji:\u00a0 Once upon a time, YOU\u2019RE CUTE! \u00a0And they lived happily ever after<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And yet, I can\u2019t imagine answering a want-ad that stipulates, as the movie title goes, \u201cMust Love Dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it odd that we don\u2019t distinguish between wild enthusiasm for one specific member of a category, and a general affinity for it?\u00a0\u00a0 If you\u2019re a writer, you\u2019re thought of as a \u201cbook lover,\u201d though you may not like the vast majority of books.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a classical music fan, it\u2019s assumed you enjoy going to the symphony regardless of what\u2019s being performed.<\/p>\n

The French have the right idea, using the word gourmet<\/em> for food connoisseur and a different word, gourmand<\/em>, for indiscriminate or excessive eater.\u00a0 That distinction would come in handy in areas besides food.<\/p>\n

Take Bruce Springsteen, for instance.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been a fan, and in truth, I don\u2019t get the whole Boss thing.\u00a0 But when \u201cThe Fuse\u201d comes on at the very end of one of my favorite films, The 25th<\/sup> Hour<\/em>\u2014what could be more perfect?\u00a0 Likewise, I absolutely love the song \u201cAthena\u201d even though I don\u2019t particularly like The Who.<\/p>\n

Too bad \u201crock\u2019n\u2019roll gourmet\u201d sounds so pretentious, and \u201cdog gourmet\u201d sounds so\u2026 confusing.<\/p>\n

I guess I assumed that if I ever got a dog and went nuts over it, I\u2019d automatically become open-hearted toward all dogs.\u00a0 The truth is, I still don\u2019t respond to a lot of them.\u00a0 I still resent the smack of their wagging tails.<\/p>\n

But Darji\u2026<\/p>\n

Imagine this: the camera pans across a Western ghost town and zooms in on Darji in a cowboy hat, a red bandanna around his neck, a gun holster around his waist, as the narrator intones, They say he\u2019s the cutest dog alive…<\/em><\/p>\n

Published in the Piedmont Post<\/em>, April 28, 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In memory of Florence Stern, 1916-2010 I\u2019ve never been a dog person.\u00a0 No soft spot for slobbery panting beasts over here.\u00a0 No sense of humor about being barked at, sniffed at, or jumped by an animal nearly my size.\u00a0 And as for those teeny tiny dogs\u2014well, I guess I fail to grasp the appeal of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[111,112],"yoast_head":"\nMust Love Springsteen - Lisa Braver Moss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/must-love-springsteen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Must Love Springsteen - Lisa Braver Moss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In memory of Florence Stern, 1916-2010 I\u2019ve never been a dog person.\u00a0 No soft spot for slobbery panting beasts over here.\u00a0 No sense of humor about being barked at, sniffed at, or jumped by an animal nearly my size.\u00a0 And as for those teeny tiny dogs\u2014well, I guess I fail to grasp the appeal of…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/must-love-springsteen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lisa Braver Moss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-28T23:43:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-07T20:30:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lisa Braver Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lisa Braver Moss\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/must-love-springsteen\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lisabravermoss.com\/must-love-springsteen\/\",\"name\":\"Must Love Springsteen - 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