Boris the dog is ill. Expressive diahrrea informs us of this, combined with his refusal to eat yesterday and this morning. Poor dog. Perhaps Saturday's drinking of filthy standing water at the dog park wasn't such a good idea. A vet appointment awaits him this afternoon, by which point hopefully he will have magically recovered.

***

Yesterday afternoon, while walking from the office to an off-site divisional meeting in the Governor Hotel, I noticed the Children's charity crew out in force again. This time in red windbreakers instead of blue. I suppose they could have been a rival gang.

One asked me, "Do you have a minute to help the children?" No, I said as I walked on by. And there's the main problem with their approach. This nation has a high rate of private charitable giving (over 2% of GDP in recent years). Many of us choose carefully to whom we give. We're not grasping selfish pigs who need to be shamed into parting with a few pennies for the poor ickle kiddies. So we don't need asshats pestering us with such manipulative opening tactics.