I’m a dog guy. I mean, I like dogs. Always have, probably always will. I got my first dog when I was two or three years old. If you count the dogs our children have had while they were living at home, I’ve shared my life with seven or eight dogs. We don’t have one now, but we occasionally babysit our daughter’s two dogs, Jameson and Kahlua – that’s Jameson in the picture, wondering why the teddy bear (a toy bear) won’t play with him.

I hadn’t planned to write about dogs this week, but a few days ago I read a moving (creates strong emotions or feelings) story – Wonder Dog – by Melissa Green. It’s about Iyal and Chancer, a little boy and a service dog. And I decided their story needed to be shared.

Service dogs are trained to help people with disabilities (difficult physical or mental condition). In the past, seeing-eye dogs, which help people who can’t see, were the most common. Today a growing number of service dogs are being trained to help people with mental disabilities and severe depression (feel very unhappy and anxious). Some are even trained to help people with seizures (when someone can’t control their body) or similar problems.

Service dogs need to have a good temperament (personality), be healthy, obedient (obey commands), and trainable (able to learn). Some come from breeders (people who raise dogs), others from shelters (places for animals with no owner). Early seeing-eye dogs were often German Shepherds, but today many different breeds (kinds) or mixtures (combinations of breeds) are used as service dogs. Wonder Dog is the story of one of these dogs.

Donnie and Harvey dreamed about raising a family, but they couldn’t have children. So they did the next best thing: they adopted (became the parents of) a boy and a girl, Iyal, and Morasha, from an orphanage (a home for homeless children) in eastern Europe.

Donnie and Harvey lived their dream until, when he was three, Iyal began to throw tantrums (became angry and unreasonable) and try to do unexplainable things, like jump out of a fast-moving car. For more than a year doctors tried unsuccessfully to determine why he acted like this. A pediatrician (children’s doctor) finally concluded that Iyal’s brain and central nervous system had been seriously damaged before he was born. The cause was alcohol: his mother had been a heavy drinker.

Knowing why Iyal acted the way he did didn’t solve the problem, though. Few medications or therapies (treatments) can treat this disability. Donnie and Harvey wanted to help Iyal, but it was difficult. Even though they loved their son, they were often angry and frustrated by his strange behavior (actions).

Chancer, a service dog from 4 Paws for Ability, helped helped make Iyal’s and his parents’ lives much brighter (happier). Two weeks after Chancer arrived, Iyal surprised his parents by using new words and expressing new ideas. When Chancer is nearby, Iyal relaxes and acts differently than he did before.

As Greene wrote, “Chancer hasn’t cured (made the illness go away) Iyal.” He is thirteen but acts like someone much younger. He still can’t control his feelings and actions. But Chancer doesn’t care. He doesn’t know that Iyal is mentally impaired (damaged). He knows something more important: “that Iyal is his boy.” He “loves Iyal in a perfect way, with an unconditional (without limits) love….” And you can see it when they’re together, running, laughing, and sharing happiness – “just a boy and his dog.”

You can find the entire story about Ilya and Chancer here: Wonder Dog – A Golden Retriever Reaches a Raging Boy. It will be difficult for some, but it’s a wonderful story!

* “Not your ordinary…” – When we use this phrase, we are suggesting that there is something special about whatever follows. So “Not your ordinary dog” suggests that this post is going to be about a special dog, and it is.

~ Warren Ediger – English tutor and coach and creator of Successful English where you can find Lessons for better English.

Photo by W. Ediger.

Coit Tower isn’t very tall – only 210 feet (64 m). In fact, it’s short compared to some of the other buildings on the San Francisco skyline (the shape made by hills and buildings against the sky). But it stands on top of Telegraph Hill, so it’s hard to miss (avoid seeing) by day or by night.

Telegraph Hill, which is popular with many tourists, is an important part of San Francisco’s history. It gets its name from a signal (something used to send messages), located at the top of the Hill, that was used to identify ships arriving in San Francisco harbor (place near the city where ships stop). In 1850, the signal alerted (sent a message to) San Franciscans that California had become the 31^st state in the U.S.

Coit Tower was built on Telegraph Hill as a gift from wealthy socialite (well-known rich woman) Lillie Hitchcock Coit. She was a little eccentric (unusual, odd) – for example, she loved to chase fires (go where fires are burning) – but she wanted to add “to the beauty of the city which [she] had always loved.” The Tower was designed in the art deco style – with strong, simple shapes and colors – that was popular in the 1920s and 30s. It was dedicated (officially opened) in 1933.

Many people have seen the Tower from the outside; fewer, however, know about the art treasure inside. The interior walls are covered with fresco murals created by 27 different artists and their assistants. Frescos are works of art created by painting directly on the surface of a wall or ceiling, often when the surface is still wet, so that the painting becomes a permanent part of the wall or ceiling. Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper is one of the most famous examples of fresco.

A mural is any work of art painted on a wall or ceiling, often as a part of the design of the building. According to a recent report, more than 2500 murals were painted in post offices, schools, and other public buildings in the U.S. in the 1920s. The murals in Coit Tower tell a story of life in California in the early part of the 20^th century. They include scenes of “the grim (serious) reality (truth) of city life, the pastoral (peaceful) beauty of California’s agriculture (farm life), and the worlds of food and leisure (relaxing activity).” Famous Mexican muralist (someone who paints murals) Diego Rivera influenced many of the artists who painted the Coit murals.

Many of the public murals in the U.S., including those in the Coit Tower, are in danger today. The U.S. Post Office, for example, is down-sizing (becoming smaller) and closing many of their buildings, including some with murals. The Coit murals, however, face a different peril (serous and immediate danger) – the San Francisco fog.

One of the problems with frescos is that anything in the environment that damages the wall or ceiling they’re painted on also damages the paintings. This kind of deterioration (becoming worse) seriously damaged Da Vinci’s Last Supper and required a major effort by art conservators (someone who repairs art) to rescue (save) the painting.

In the Coit Tower, moisture (small amounts of water) from the almost daily San Francisco fog penetrates (goes into) the walls. As it evaporates (dries), it moves through the wall to the painting on the face of the wall and leaves tiny white salt crystals (pieces of salt) that slowly destroy the paintings. This process causes the wall and the paintings that cover it to slowly crumble, or fall apart.

People in San Francisco have begun to raise money to try to preserve (save and protect) the tower.

If you’d like to learn more about the Coit Tower  murals and what’s being done to save them, you can read and listen to this story from the PBS Newshour.

*Peril = serious and immediate danger

~ Warren Ediger – English tutor and coach and creator of Successful English, where you can find clear explanations and practical suggestion for better English.

Photo by Thomas Hawk used under Creative Commons license.

A big shot is an informal adjective to describe an important person in an organization. When we say “big” we don’t mean they are physically big or tall.  But some new research suggests that people who are big shots really do think they’re bigger!

In a recent study, scientists measured the height (how tall someone is) of 100 male and female college students.  Then they gave them a test that (the researchers said) measured (indicated; showed) how much ability they had to be a leader (boss; manager). Finally, they asked students to role-play (pretend) that they were either managers or employees.

The students were assigned (put into a group) randomly (by chance) to play either a manager or an employee.  They were told that they were put into the manager or employee group based on (because of) their score on the leadership test, but in fact, their assignment wasn’t related to that score at all.

After they were assigned to a group, the students were then asked to give their own height.  There was no actual (real) difference in height between the two groups.  The employees gave their correct height, but the managers said that they were taller than they actually were!

Our perception (the way we see something) of ourselves psychologically is, according to the researchers, related to how we view ourselves physically.  Does this mean that if I imagine myself as being 20 years younger, I will be able to grow my hair back?

~Jeff

Photo Credit: Robert Wadlow, 1918; Wikipedia PD

In some ways it was an unusual musical event. In 2009, popular young Chinese pianist (a person who plays the piano) Lang Lang joined Herbie Hancock, an African American jazz pianist, and the Philharmonia Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall in London to perform (play) Rhapsody in Blue by American composer (a person who writes music) George Gershwin.

Several things set this performance apart (make it unique or unusual). Rhapsody in Blue is the first piece of concert music to blend (mix) classical music and jazz (If you want to know more about jazz and blues, read this blog post that I wrote several months ago). So I suppose it is fitting (appropriate) to have the piano part of Rhapsody played by classical and jazz pianists together, especially since it is usually played by only one pianist.

What makes this performance even more interesting to me is that the story of jazz in China did not begin until 1981, almost exactly one year before Lang Lang was born.  Before then, jazz, which began in America, was virtually (almost) unknown in China.

American jazz was introduced to the Chinese by two other African American jazz musicians, Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell, when they were invited to Shanghai to spend (use time to do something) several days with the teachers and students of the Shanghai Conservatory (school for studying music and other arts) of Music. William Zinsser, who also traveled to Shanghai, tells their story in his book Mitchell and Ruff: An American Profile (an article or book that describes someone) in Jazz.

Zinsser writes that Ruff and Mitchell explained jazz and the blues to their Chinese audience and performed (play their instruments) examples of what they are talking about.

The Chinese musicians in Shanghai had never experienced anything like this. Jazz is not written or planned. It is like an unplanned musical conversation. There is always a theme – like a topic of conversation – but every player has a different idea of what to “say” about it. A piece of jazz develops like an after-dinner conversation where we all talk about the same thing but have different ideas or feelings about it.

“The audience buzzed (made an excited noise) with amazement and pleasure,” writes Zinsser after one number (piece of music) when Ruff told the audience, “That is called Shanghai Blues. We just made it up (created it now).”

One of the older professors got up and asked Mitchell and Ruff if they had a plan when they started to play Shanghai Blues. “No,” said Ruff, “I just started tapping (make a quiet noise by moving your foot up and down) my foot and played the first thought that came into my mind…. And Mitchell heard it. And he answered. And after that we heard and answered, heard and answered, heard and answered.”

The old professor asked if they could ever play the piece again. “No,” said Ruff, “We never can.”

“That is beyond our imagination (we can’t imagine that),” replied the professor. “Our students here play a piece a hundred times, or two hundred times, to get it exactly right. You play something once – something beautiful – and then you just throw it away.” For those of us who enjoy jazz, that is part of its attraction (what makes it interesting) – it’s always new, always different.

If you want to experience part of Mitchell and Ruff’s Shanghai experience, including hearing them create a new jazz piece based on (to use something to develop something new) a song written by one of  the Chinese students, you can do it by viewing this YouTube video.

Thanks to Mitchell and Ruff, and many other American jazz musicians, jazz has traveled around the world and is enjoyed today by people from virtually every country. And musicians like Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock can share the stage (perform together) to create something new.

~ Warren Ediger – creator of Successful English, where you’ll find clear explanations and practical suggestions for better English.

Photo credit: cover of Mitchell and Ruff: An American Profile in Jazz from Amazon.com.