Subscriber Content Preview | Request a free trialSearch  
  Go

The Deal Economy 2013

Home    |    Event    |    Blog    |    Awards
Print  |  Share  |  Discuss  |  Reprint

A few thoughts on the Pekingese

by Robert Teitelman  |  Published February 17, 2012 at 11:47 AM
peking.jpgSo you came here expecting serious treatment of major brow-beetling issues: finance, politics, economics, the rise and fall of nations. Forget it. I want to discuss, well, dogs. This is a subject I admit I know very little about. In fact, what I know about dogs I've mostly learned by petting them and intermittently watching the Westminster Dog Show over the years, while flipping around to see what else was on. I've learned that some dogs can play with children and some dogs are better left chained up in the north 40 and fed from a helicopter. Scotties are way too smart and Great Danes are way too big, particularly if its handler is way too short. Many breeds seem profoundly neurotic, and others yap, but I may be over-interpreting the sanitized commentary. Some dogs have giant bobble heads on go-cart bodies; some dogs seem to spend more time at the groomer than Joan Rivers. Dogs seem to be judged, like people, by what distant relatives did for a living: sheepherders, ratters, hunters, accountants. Some dogs, I hate to say, seem more comfortable in teacups; others resemble courtesans or gigolos. There is much I do not know, perhaps because I had switched to the Knicks game watching Jeremy Lin do his thing. Like what's that business of flipping ears and hair over the dog's eyes? And what's the handler doing to those tails while the judge does a dental exam? It's mildly embarrassing. I don't blame Mary Carillo for not going there. This is a long way from tennis.

But mostly what I don't understand is -- the Pekingese. Now I have nothing against those of Asian descent; I was cheering wildly for Lin's three-point winning shot before I flipped back only to fall off the couch when the Pekingese won best of show. But, I know I'm running a major taste risk here, is the Pekingese a dog at all? What lurks beneath that shower curtain of hair? For all I know there's a cat under there. The Pekingese moves like some float that has lost all its people. The other dogs race across the fake-green floor, muscles and hair rippling like shampoo commercials (German Shepherd, Irish Setter, Dalmatian), bright-eyed, light-footed, grandly whiskered (Schnauzer, even the hairy Dachshund, its merrily aristocratic head done in by tiny legs); you half expect them to bound up the aisles for a beer or shove Mary aside for real commentary. Meanwhile, the Pekingese motors around in a small circle like a hovercraft with a bad engine, its only sign of life a tiny pink tongue that pops in and out of its flat black head. Maybe it's exhausted by its excursion. Maybe it's afraid to get too far away from its handler with the comb.

And yet the Pekingese won. In fact, a Pekingese seems to have won a few years ago too. This takes us into deep waters. What's "winning" in a dog show? Yes, I know, every breed has its standards and the imperial judge, stalking across the fake-green floor like someone auditioning for "American Idol," poking, prodding, giving terse orders, has carefully stuffed his or her ripened brain with long lists of must-haves and no-nos. And, I'm aware, that no one's perfect, that judges are fallible, flawed, occasionally prone to bad days and weird prejudices. I can even accept that. But what's the standard of what's essentially a hairy lap dog for ancient Chinese emperors and empresses who weren't allowed to leave the palace without a sedan chair? How do you compare a dog bred to occupy pocketbooks to dogs bred to kill rats in barns or swim the English Channel? Did the Pekingese win because it had hair like Cher? Or was there a tightly muscled little body with perfect little legs (how many? perhaps it's a centipede) under that shower of hair? Can you win if you are, well, perfectly ugly? The best ugly imaginable. The very apotheosis of ugly. Transcendentally ugly. Dialectically ugly. Can you win if your genetic destiny is to be waited upon?

We have arrived, I understand, in the land of deep relativism, which beauty pageants, dog shows, wine tastings and markets profoundly reflect. We watch; the judge judges; we crawl away to bed, put in our place. (I'm not alone in this, the blogosphere seems disturbed by the Pekingese too.) But we leave mildly disturbed by all of this. I'm sure I will now be set upon by Pekingese lovers decrying my defamation of the breed. (I suspect that they will have been given orders to attack by their Pekes sitting at home watching "Downton Abbey," all of which confirms another thought about the dog show: Isn't intelligence a trait you'd like in your dog? Why's that not part of the standard? If you said the Pekingese was the brainiest dog in the pack, or had relatively more brains than other Pekes relative to the rest of the gang, I'd say, no problemo. That's how life and college admissions go. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Hell, even beauty pageant contestants have to answer a question or two.) I will be told that I know less-than-nothing about the standards of the breed and how dog judging works and that I am being mean to carefully bred bits of DNA wrapped in hair. And I will say: You're absolutely right. Like everyone else in this TV-watching world, I have my own standards. I know squat about dogs. It's what Mary and I have in common. - Robert Teitelman
Share:
Tags: Dachshund | Dalmatian | Downton Abbey | German Shepherd | Irish Setter | Jeremy Lin | Mary Carillo | Pekingese | Schnauzer | the New York Knicks | Westminster Dog Show
blog comments powered by Disqus

Meet the journalists

Robert Teitelman

Editor in chief

Bob Teitelman, editor in chief and a member of the company’s executive committee, is responsible for editorial operations of print and electronic products. Contact



Movers & Shakers

Launch Movers and shakers slideshow

Goldman, Sachs & Co. veteran Tracy Caliendo will join Bank of America Merrill Lynch in September as a managing director and head of Americas equity hedge fund services. For other updates launch today's Movers & shakers slideshow.

Video

Fewer deals despite discount debt

When will companies stop refinancing and jump back into M&A? More video

Sectors