"What am I gonna call you?" She asks us both. I go into full alert; the mean, stupid people fought about this all the time, and except for the few days when they called me Brainless (can you believe those two?), they could never agree.
Her house is huge, way bigger than the mean people's. There I slept on an old blanket that had some other dog's hair on it; here I have my thick bed right in front of the heater, and when She decides that it needs more padding, She takes a sheet right off Her bed and folds it on top. It still smells of Her! Then She lays down beside me, the length of Her body along mine. "You are such a good boy," She says, rubbing my stomach. "Who's the handsomest dog I've ever seen, huh? Who's gonna love you so much?"
The mean people woke at the crack of dawn, threw me out to do my business, then locked me in the basement all day long. She wakes up late, comes padding down the hall in Her pajamas and scratches my ears til I want to go out. I tromp in the field, and when I come back in She gives me food and water, and sits on the floor while I eat. "Never bite kids who take your food," She says, snatching the bowl away. Like I don't know this already. She goes through the Stop, Sit, Lay Down drill, tossing little cookies into the air for me when I do what She asks. Most of the time I pretend to misread the cues so She'll keep up the instruction.
Afterwards we play catch until we both ache, and then we go into Her office, where She lets me sleep under Her desk while She works on the computer. Her bare feet rest on my belly, and when I wake I lick Her red toes until She squeals with delight. Then She takes me outside and runs around the field with me, whooping and hollering till Her face is the color of Her toes.
I am allowed in every room of the house, except Her bedroom. When I walk up the hall and peer in, She holds Her arm straight out and says, "No, boy, you stay out." I don't really mind, but I am curious, so on the rare occasions that She leaves me alone I run right in there, smell all the carpets, sniff around Her pillow, and leave. It isn't that special after all.
At night She dances around in Her panties. "Where do broken hearts go?" She wails plaintively. I dance with her, jumping around on my back legs until She starts howling and I join in, and then She collapses on the floor with me and holds me until I fall asleep.
It's love, all right. So you can imagine my shock when Harry shows up one night, and he's allowed to go into the bedroom with Her. Before they go, I hear Her name for the first time------ Julia.

February 12th
"He's huge," Harry says every time he sees me, backing away. He does not say 'huge' as a compliment. "You know, Dobermans often turn on their owners," he tells Julia. I wait till she's out of sight before I show him my teeth. He runs screaming from the room.
For the next few days, Julia gives me the hairy eyeball. She cooks up some bones and holds them for me while I gnaw them. "You would never bite Harry, would you?" she asks. I act my most adorable, and cuddly.
When Harry comes over, he drops his coat on the floor by the front door. Even I know better--- Julia likes things neat and clean. Before she goes to sleep, she rounds up all my balls and bones and toys, and puts them into a basket by my bed. When I want to make her laugh I take them out, one-by-one, and spread them around the room. But Harry couldn't care less about our routine.
We try out King, Buster and Cookie, but none of the names stick.

March 6th
Harry turns out to be Mister Right, all right--- Mister always freaking right. Although he's never had a dog of his own, he is absolutely sure that Julia is doing everything wrong. "You’ll spoil him," he tells Julia, as if I'm a honeydew.
He wants me to sit in the heel position for three or four hours at a clip, wants me to go in and out on command, wants me to eat without dropping a nugget. Mostly, though, he wants me to leave Julia alone, for crying out loud.
But I've got Harry beat 5-to-1 in the precious department.

April 1st
I'm sure Harry is who he says he is, but still, I have to sniff his butt. This drives him nuts. Julia, too. She snaps my snout, and gives me her 'mad' look. "He never does that to anyone else," she tells Harry. "I think he really likes you." I am disgusted with her for even thinking this, but Harry knows better. He tries to avoid me, but I make it a point to smell every inch of him. When Julia's in the kitchen cooking, I lift my back leg, just a few inches off the ground, and Harry jumps up. "God, Julia, your dog almost peed on me," he whines. But when she comes to look, there's not a drop to be seen. She pats Harry's arm and runs her hand through my fur. She's not sure which one of us to believe.
Julia and I learn a new trick. She sings: Dah-da-da-da-da-da/ dah-da-da-da-da-da/ dada-da-da-da-da-da!, and holds a hula hoop about three feet off the ground. I sail back and forth through the hoop, trying not to let my legs even touch it. We do this trick for hours, but Harry is not impressed.
"Let's go to bed," he says. On the way down the hall, I hear him say to Julia, "Maybe you should name him Goofy."
I search out his wallet and hide it under the couch.

May 22nd
I'm not saying Harry started the fire, but he was the last one in the kitchen, so we'll never be sure. Which is perfect. I hate to save him, but Julia has moved to the inside part of the bed, and it's Harry's hand I have to push with my snout to wake them. My immediate thought is to get Julia out the back door, and leave Harry to use his brains. Which means he'll wind up looking like a burnt bagel. But of course Harry shoots right up, smells the smoke, screams, and runs out the back door. Naked.
Julia sails right over me and races to the kitchen, and within seconds she has the fire extinguisher going. I hear her yelling--- ‘Go outside, Big Boy’--- but I would never leave her. She has that fire out in five minutes flat.
Harry pretends he had rushed outside to do--- what, exactly? Drag water in from the creek? His face is red for the next month. "I swear, Julia, I wasn't running away," he says again and again. She isn't angry with him, exactly, but I am getting more of her attention.
"Maybe I should call you Sparky," Julia says, "because you're a great fireman." But the name reminds us both of that awful smell, and she never calls me Sparky again.

June 3rd
I pee on Harry's jacket. The putz left it on the floor again. And really, who wears leather when it's so nice outside? It dries, and Harry never notices. A few days later Julia points out the spot and Harry looks at me suspiciously. He sniffs at it but just can't tell.
We're getting a new kitchen, and Harry's paying everything the insurance company won't. I hope he doesn't think that makes him welcome for dinner.
Lots of different guys come to measure the kitchen, but Julia can't make up her mind. Then Rick shows up one afternoon, and the minute he's through the door, I know he's the one. He smiles at me right off. "God, he's huge," he says, meaning it the nice way. He scratches me and rubs my ears. "What's his name?" he asks innocently, but the silence that answers him is deafening--- this is getting embarrassing.

July 8th
Julia's best friend, Caroline, gets a little puppy. "I'm naming her Shadow," Caroline tells us, "because she never leaves my side." I'm humiliated that this ragged thing already has a name, but I like Shadow anyway. I drag her around the driveway, dirt flying up all around us, as if she's a veal cutlet and I'm breading her. She lets me do this for hours. When she gets tired, she snuggles next to me and licks my privates. I start looking forward to her visits.
Rick spends the whole day in the kitchen, measuring and cutting. He brings treats every day, which he hides in his pockets and waits for me to sniff out. He loves the hula hoop trick, and has Julia and I perform it for him every afternoon, while he sips his coffee.

August 15th
Julia and I go on a trip, without Harry, to see her family. "Don't worry," she tells me. "They'll figure out a good name for you." Their house is crazy. Almost nobody bothers to get dressed--- they just wear pajamas all day long. They sit around talking from morning til dark. About food. "What should we have for lunch?" they ask as breakfast is being served. Before the lunch dishes are cleared, they're cooking dinner. Bits of food are forever falling on the floor. Actually, I love it here.
Julia's little nephew runs around saying, "Hey, let's name him Snoopy!" and they burst into hysterics. As if I'd ever allow that. They're nice--- but they're partial to names like Snookums, Tweedy-Bird, Sweetie-Cakes. Don't ask. We come home the same way we left--- pining for a name.

September 9th
Rick likes to run in the field with us. We find out when he shows up early one day and catches us out there racing each other from end-to-end. He's also great with tennis balls and teaches me to juggle. He buys a pack that he wears around his waist, and fills it with doggie treats and only says "Good boy!", never, "Hey, dummy," like Harry does.
The kitchen is finished. Then, right when Rick is packing up his tools, Julia decides that her office could use some sprucing up. Rick is unpacked in two seconds.

October 31st
Julia opens the door and the Devil is standing there with a pumpkin in his hand! "Trick or treat," he says, but I'm not fooled. The growl that starts in my throat startles all three of us, but I only know I've made a big mistake when the devil cries, "Mommy, this dog is mean!" He's already running away.
Julia is furious. "Are you crazy?" she shrieks. "Scaring a little kid--- what's wrong with you?"
I've never seen her like this. I run outside, skirt the woods, and settle myself into the far side of the field, where I can just watch the house. A few times during the night I hear Julia whistling for me, but she's half-hearted at best. It's good that she hasn't named me; it would just make it that much harder to lose her.

November 24th
I stay away for three long nights, but eventually I break down when I hear Julia crying. When I scratch on the door she's there in a heartbeat, and she no longer seems mad.
"Thank God you're back," she says over and over, her tears settling on my fur like snow on a frozen lake.
A few weeks later Julia cooks a huge Thanksgiving meal, and lots of friends come over. As soon as we all get settled in the dining room Julia raises her glass and says, "I want to say that I'm so thankful for my good friends, my sweet dog, and all the wonderful things that have happened to me this year." As if we care, Harry gets up and tells us what he's thankful for--- a great ski season, his promotion at work, those last ten pounds he finally managed to lose. The idiot even snaps the waistband of his pants! Everyone is speechless. He does not mention Julia, or me, and while I'm looking around for his socks, I see Rick raising his glass. "I'm just so thankful that I got to meet Julia..." he says. Everyone laughs, although a little awkwardly. Then Rick looks over at me. "And I'm really so happy that you came home, boy."
It's like a flash of electricity, and it goes through me and Julia simultaneously. "Homeboy," she says, rolling the word around on her tongue. I'm so excited I could jump out of my skin. Rick starts clapping, Caroline starts hooting with laughter, and Shadow starts dancing around my head as if this is a Mexican Hat dance.
Harry, of course, is clueless.

December 25th
The three of us are laying on the floor, me between them. Their fingers are laced across my belly, and they scratch me unconsciously. "I love you," Julia says. We both raise our heads to see which one of us she's talking to, but it's hard to tell.
Julia holds up a sprig of mistletoe, and bends her head down to mine. "Merry Christmas, Homeboy," she says, and breathes her sweet breath right into my nose. Then Rick kisses me, too, and tells me what a fine, fine dog I've become. I'm so happy that it takes me a few minutes to realize that they have forgotten about me, and are using me as a pillow for their own kisses.
Humans, they're such crazy animals, huh? I lick at both their heads and drift off to sleep.

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Ali's Friend

            Leon says he always liked film. During our discussion he speaks very highly of the movie, On The Waterfront, about a guy who wants to be a somebody. Shot in Hoboken, New Jersey, "It's about the racket, It‚s on the waterfront and he‚s in the middle of it. The character is Terry Malloy. It‚s got heavy, heavy, heavy political implications. It was made when there were witch hunts in this country looking for communists."
The writer of the film, Bud Schulberg wrote a book on boxing called The Harder They Fall about that period.
            Leon describes how his family influenced him into enjoying the sport and lifestyle of boxing.
" My brother boxed in the navy," he says. "My father used to like to watch the Friday night fights and I watched and I was always drawn, as athletes, more to boxers than to football players or baseball players."
Gast describes how generous and more accessible boxers are than other athletes, specifically Ali. He saw Cassius Clay fight Doug Jones, and Frazier (the first, second and third bouts).
" I was always a fan of, first, his incredible athletic ability and then his politics also," Leon says of Ali. "There were times when he was really serious, but most of the time he would at some point wink. One writer said of him, "In your face with a wink in his eye.'"
            The last time Leon Gast saw Ali was just over a month ago in Germany. Ali is speaking less and less but seems to be in fine physical shape. Although he couldn't possibly be the same as he was when he beat Foreman, I imagine, from what Leon tells me, that Ali us still very charismatic.
   When We Were Kings, Gast's Oscar-winning film, has many beautiful details. One of my favorites is that of Miriam Makeba, a performer at a music festival that ran for the three days before the fight. Although the fight got postponed due to Foreman getting cut, the festival went on. During that weekend, Leon and his crew shot Miriam on a set for forty-five minutes, just as they filmed James Brown and BB King.
            Miriam Makeba was at the festival with her husband, Stokely Carmichael, the guy in the 1960s who started the Black Panther party.
" There was always something about that look that she gives in the close-up, it's always spooky," says Gast, reminiscing.
He adds that Miriam Makeba was like a good luck charm for Ali. She peeks out through the shadow of contrasting light and dark. A devil in heaven, a savior in hell.
            I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to meet with such a wonderful man who was so compassionate, wondrous, and down to earth. He leads an elegant lifestyle, here in the Catskills, with a getaway abode in the mountains and a place in the city, not to mention a wonderful wife with a passion for Pilates.

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SHARP Shakeout

 SHARP, the Shandaken Area Revitalization Project, founded in the late 1970’s and incorporated in 1982, is a not-for-profit entity that administers Federal and other grant money on behalf of Shandaken, Olive and occasionally Woodstock.
“Of course I never said what (Gardner) accused me of saying,” said Hoyt last week. “They’ve done this because I publicly talked about the conflict-of-interest between Jane’s role as executive director and disbursing Federal funds and her being an elected public official. When somebody’s got to come to you for a check for a new roof or a new furnace, do you think they’re not going to remember who arranged for that check? That’s why for anybody to run against Jane Todd is political suicide in Shandaken. This is just common sense. My concern is that people DO understand this, and that it reflects very badly on SHARP. So if I point out this conflict of interest, it’s because I want to protect the organization, which helps a lot of people.”
The Gales, two of SHARP’s original three founders over 20 years ago, learned of the board’s intent to dismiss Hoyt in a phone conversation with Gardner. Both immediately submitted their resignations in protest. Hoyt later submitted hers at the Dec 16 board meeting.
“I call it a conflict when you administrate town grants and serve on the town board,” said Lonny Gale. “I’m against a not-for-profit becoming political. That is not what we set out for it to be, and that’s what they’re turning it into. We’re lifelong Republicans but this is too much. I think SHARP has become a political pawn.”
Todd, recently re-elected to the Town Board, draws an annual salary from SHARP in addition to her town board salary. Her assistant at SHARP is Joan Munster, wife of newly elected town board member Joe Munster who succeeded Jane’s husband Ward Todd, as Shandaken GOP party chairman. Ward Todd, also formerly chaired the Ulster County Legislature, now serves as the president of the county Chamber of Commerce.
SHARP’s board has long been split over conflict-of-interest issues surrounding its executive director, as detailed in Hoyt’s published letter, which contained no remarks critical of SHARP at all, but did raise two other possible conflict-of-interest issues pertaining to Todd. One was her purchase of land adjacent to the proposed Belleayre Resort, and the other her failure to notify the town it had been offered Pine Hill’s water system free-of-charge, enabling developer Dean Gitter to purchase and later divert some of it for the resort in 2000. Todd at the time had been in charge of acquiring the system on behalf of the town.
“I’ve served this community for over fifty years, and I’m certainly convinced there are conflicts here” said Hoyt. ”That’s just my opinion, but people know that I tell the truth. It’s not my reputation that’s in question over this whole thing, “ she said. “It’s SHARP’s. I don’t know who they think they’re kidding.”
Called for comment regarding any possible conflict of interest between her two posts, Todd said she thought the issue “had been put to bed forever.”
“I went to the US Office of Special Council and got a determination that I am not prohibited from running for or holding public office,” she said.
Todd also said, “I would like to thank Lonnie and Peggy and Edna for their many years of service on the SHARP board. For that I am grateful.”

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