Out of the ruff
I'm glad to see the back of the 15th, so we can get on with a real celebration (irrespective of nationality) on the 17th, St. Patrick's Day. The patron saint of stag parties.
St. Patrick was, of course, Welsh and not Irish, or at least Welsh speaking. But a Celt none the less. Although, Celts do come in at least two distinct forms, Welsh is P-Celtic and Irish Q-Celtic. Which, in a way is more fitting as in 1856 Arany János used the Welsh as an allegory for the plight of the people in his own nation in a poem entitled The Bards of Wales (A walesi bárdok). It was, of course, about Hungarians, still recovering from the events of March 15th, 1848 and unable to talk about their grievances.
Anyway, I thought of all these tenuous connections (and found the Kuvasz dog coaster for St. Patrick's Day - beauty, isn't it?) when I was looking up some info on Hungarian dog breeds such as the Puli, Kuvasz, Viszla and Komondor.
Pretty early into my search I realised that all is not well with the world. Dogs, would you believe it, now have their own blogs and social networking sites. I kid you not.
You could enjoy the social networking site set up for dogs called dogster ('For the love of Dog'), what else. Where you can let your Puli meet Kubi, Chauncey, Buddy... Who knows, they may have the same interest in rare livestock breeds to chew over.
There are quit a few Komondor blogs out there, as well as those dedicated (or in pathological cases written by) Pulis (Pulik), Kuvaszes and Viszlas.
Basically, I was just dreaming of the day when I finally escape to the country and have the space for at least one or more Komondor to roam around.
That's my piece, have a great St. Patrick's Day!
Words for the Day
- Kutyaharapást szőrivel: 'Hair of the Dog...', could be useful in the aftermath of St. Patrick's Day.
- Amelyik kutya ugat, az nem harap: 'His bark's worse than his bite'
- Pásztorkutya: 'pastoral' to describe the class of dog, to which most Hungarian breeds belong, unsurprisingly.
- Ősi magyar : 'ancient Hungarian' to describe the breed's origin. Most arrived with the Hunnish tribe of Magyars that settled this land.
- Egyik kutya, másik eb.: 'Same difference', though literally it translates as 'one's a dog, the other's a dog.'
For more, there's a great list of animal expressions and phrases in Hungarian over at gportal.hu.
p.s. The full range of Kuvasz paraphinalia can be bought online at Maggie Ross Dog Art. Don't spend too much.
