Do you love your dog enough to keep him safe while you drive to the park?

Maybe you thought we over-reacted when we reproached drivers who permitted their dogs to stick their heads out of windows as the vehicles traveled to the park, freeway, Miami. The Seattle Times ran a wire story yesterday that highlighted the dangers of traveling in vehicles with unrestrained pets.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 5,474 people in 2009 were killed in accidents involving distracted drivers. Another 448,000 people were injured. While cellphone usage proved the number-one factor, travel with unrestrained pets represented the numbers involving driver distractions that include unruly children, applying makeup and reading.

Lawmakers in Hawaii made driving with a pet in your lap illegal. Oregon solons are contemplating legislation that would fine drivers who held pets while maneuvering vehicles.

The state of Washington has no such law. Legislators, crippled by massive budget shortfalls, probably won't address pet-safety issues.

I saw a big-wheeled vehicle travel down South Genesee Street. An object suddenly rolled out of the window and onto the pavement. Imagine our surprise when we saw the falling object was a little frou-frou dog. The nonplussed passenger stepped out the vehicle, scooped up the dog like it was a UPS package, and returned to the truck,

Don't wait until lawmakers act -- or after it's too late. Keep your dog safe when you drive.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2014002110_petbelts22.html

Happy MLK Jr. Day!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day from your friends at the Dog Denizens of Genesee Park (DDGP)!

Props to those who used their time off to volunteer for charitable organizations or community groups.

Some of us weren't so civically minded and used the day to schedule appointments with the cable installer, plumber or furnace cleaner. If we controlled Comcast, we would've scheduled a day of movies that addressed the civil rights struggle. Here are 15 films that we would broadcast:

• In the Heat of the Night (1967): Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Beah Richards. Norman Jewison, director.
• To Kill A Mockingbird (1962): Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Philip Alford, Mary Badham. Robert Mulligan, director.
• Glory (1989): Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick. Edward Zwick, director.
• The Defiant Ones (1958): Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis, Theodore Bikel, Lon Chaney Jr. Stanley Kramer, director.
• Do the Right Thing (1989): Spike Lee, John Tuturro, Danny Aiello, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis. Spike Lee, director.
• Sounder (1972): Cecily Tyson. Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Taj Mahal. Martin Ritt, director.
• Pinky (1949): Jeanne Craine, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters. Elia Kazan, director.
• Home of the Brave (1949): Jeff Corey, James Edwards, Lloyd Bridges. Mark Robson, director.
• Boyz n the Hood (1991): Laurence Fishburn, Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube. John Singleton, director.
• Carmen Jones (1954): Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll. Otto Preminger, director.
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967): Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Beah Richards. Stanley Kramer, director.
• The Great White Hope (1970): James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Lou Gilbert. Martin Ritt, director.
• Malcolm X (1992): Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Al Freeman Jr., Delroy Lindo. Spike Lee, director.
• The Jackie Robinson Story (1950): Jackie Robinson, Louise Beavers, William "Bill"Spaulding. Alfred El Green, director.
• One Nation... Divisible (2000). HBO-produced documentary about the 1971 heavyweight fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

It's 4:45 pm. Do you know where your dog is?

Of course you do... tethered to a "no parking sign" on Madison Street between Minor and Boren avenues.

Maybe you were cold and needed something to warm you up. The fleece half-zip pullover wasn't keeping you toasty enough in the 39-degree weather. So you thought nothing of stopping in at Starbucks -- one of two on the block -- for, perhaps, a Skinny Caramel Macchiato (gotta watch your boyish figure). You thought nothing of tying your black, medium-sized, mix-breed dog to a traffiic sign while you indulged in a caffeine reboot.

Never mind that you left your dog alone as rush-hour traffic whizzed by her. Never mind that your dog -- bored and tired -- had little to do besides lie on the stone-cold pavement while you sipped your beverage and called a bud on your Motorola Droid X. Doggie could wait a little longer.

You cold-hearted bastard.

Apparently, you forgot that the Seattle Municipal Code (SMC) 9.25.081(f) characterizes animal cruelty as to "tether or confine any animal in such a manner or in such a place as to cause injury or pain or not amounting to first-degree animal cruelty defined in RCW (Revised Code of Washington) 16.52.205."

Do your dog a favor and leave her at home when you stop for a late-afternoon latté

New day, new year, same hangover

Happy New Year from your friends at the Dog Denizens of Genesee Park (DDGP)!

If you partied last night like it was 2009, 1999 or 1989... you may have consumed too many spirits and are nursing a hangover the size of Skyway. While some imbibers advocate for Vietnamese pho soup or a coronary-artery-clogging breakfast (fried potatoes and eggs with melted cheese), a few daring individuals recommend menudo.

Menudo? you might wonder in horror. Wouldn't the musical stylings of the Puerto Rican boy group that rotated singers when an adolescent's voice changed cause increased headaches and gastrointestinal distress?

Yes, the music of the group Menudo (aka MDO) might make you more inclined to toss your proverbial cookies. But we're talking about menudo, the Mexican soup consisting of tripe (honeycomb-shaped stomach lining), a red-chili broth and hominy grits. Although your abeula would undoubtedly prepare a labor-intensive version. you may not want to ask your grandmother to prepare menudo if doing so would require that you tell her that you seek a hangover cure. Better that you prepare a quick-and-easy version for immediate relief. If only Goya or even Nissin made menudo.

Menudo

• 1 pound beef tripe, cleaned and cubed
• 3 minced garlic gloves
• 3 teaspoons salt
• ½ cup red chili power
• 2 tablespoons oregano
• 1 tablespoon course black pepper
• t teaspoon cumin
• ½ chopped onion
• 1 small can of hominy (yellow or white)

Put tripe in boiling water. Add onion, garlic and salt to pot.

Cook tripe and seasonings for one hour.

After one hour monitor tripe for desired tenderness.

Add oregano, pepper, cumin and hominy to pot, and cook for 15-to-20 minutes... longer if necessary.

Take the money from your tax cut... and make a charitable contribution (or five)

So you caught a break when Congress passed legislation that extended the Bush tax cuts -- and lucky dog that you are, you can keep more of the $205K that you earn each year.

With more money in your pocket, you have fewer excuses to make your end-of-the-year charitable contributions. There are dozens of local animal-welfare groups that can use the dough more than you need a new Motorola Debut.

If you use any of the Seattle-area, off-leash dog parks, you should feel compelled to toss a few bucks to the Citizens for Off Leash Areas (COLA), an organization that supports dog parks in town:

http://www.coladog.org/

Or, you can support any number of animal welfare groups in the Greater Seattle area:

http://www.seattlehumane.org/

http://www.paws.org/

http://www.thehumanesociety.org/

http://www.seattle.gov/animalshelter/

http://www.saveourdogs.com/

http://www.pasadosafehaven.org/

Baby, it's cold outside... but there's no snow

The media made much of a potential snowfall this week -- so much so that Metro transit issued a "snow watch alert" this week. So, was anybody surprised when nary a flake of snow touched the Lovely Rainer Valley.

O'Doul the Weather Collie would have told you not to launch into a snow-driven hysteria. If you only listened to him... and not the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or the hysterical television meteorologists.

Mount Baker resident Tony -- O'Doul's official spokesman -- reports that the collie's shedding of his winter coat is of an "average" amount and not indicative of the harsh winter that NOAA forecast. Tony estimates that the collie shed enough of his summer coat to fill a 20-ounce, micro-can garbage container.

By comparison, O'Doul shed enough hair in 2008 -- the winter of the Seattle's record snowstorm -- to fill a recycling container issued by the Seattle utilities department. While NOAA forecasted La Niña winter -- defined by NOAA as characterized by "unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Equitorial Pacific" -- the collie's hair fall suggested something less than a Little House on the Prairie climate.

How does Tony reconcile the difference between O'Doul and NOAA's prognostications? "Maybe they consulted the Farmers Almanac," Tony said of the federal agency.

While the streets of the Lovely Rainier Valley may be dry, the mercury could dip below 30 degrees. You need a heated beverage to keep you warm... like an Irish Coffee.

Irish Coffee

• 6 oz. fresh brewed coffee
• tsp. brown sugar
• 1½ oz. Irish whiskey
• heavy cream

Whip heavy cream and refrigerate to chill.

Combine hot coffee, brown sugar and whiskey in a Irish Coffee glass.

Stir mixture until sugar dissolves.

Top the cocktail with a dollop of heavy cream.

Christmas-time is here... time for a vanilla Zinger and your favorite holiday DVD

Merry Christmas from your friends at the Dog Denizens of Genesee Park (DDGP)!

We could regale you with the "story of the first Christmas" or provide an egg nog recipe to celebrate the yuletide. Or we could celebrate what some consider the best holiday program ever produced: A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Hard to believe now, but television executives in 1965 harboredqualms about the Peanuts-inspired Christmas special. Cartoonist Charles M. Schultz, producer Lee Mendelson and director Bill Melendez had to convince the network suits that the national audience would watch an animated Christmas program in which:

• Child actors provide the voices for child protagonists;
• A laugh track doesn't accompany one-liners;
• Characters cynically comment on the commercialism of Christmas;
• Linus quotes "the true meaning of Christmas"... verses from The Gospel According to Luke in the King James Bible;
• An original jazz soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi -- known for the album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus and the hit "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" -- was used instead of more traditional holiday tunes used in the Rankin-Bass special, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ("We Are Santa's Elves", "We're A Couple of Misfits", "Holly Jolly Christmas").

Credit Schulz, Mendelson and Melendez for sticking to their convictions and producing what is arguably considered -- with apologies to fans of Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the Boris Karloff animated program, and not the Jim Carrey movie) -- the best made-for-television Christmas special. People today -- 45 years after the program premiered -- immediately understand the reference to "a Charlie Brown tree." You don't have to read Downbeat magazine or listen to KPLU -- both good practices -- to recognize the opening bars of Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy."

No, the only complaint -- really, more of an observation -- one might have with A Charlie Brown Christmas is that Schulz, Mendelson and Melendez set the bar so high that any subsequent Peanuts television special seemed pedestrian by comparison. For every It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (1966), He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown (1968), or A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973), you have two other programs along the lines of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975), Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown (1985), or You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown! (1994).

As Linus once said in print version, "There's no heavier burden than great potential."