Bits and Pieces (climate, shoes, floors and epileptic dogs)

[naamagatus]

Tabouli theorized:
>Anyway, to get to the point, I've long been convinced that cold 
>climates are much more likely to produce intellectuals and 
>highbrows. Why sit inside reading literature, drinking sophisticated 
>wines and coffees, conversing about art and politics and watching 
>arthouse films when you could be outside having a barbecue on the 
>beach?

You know, there have been anthropological theories that tried to 
explain differences in cultural development through climatic 
differences. It doesn't really work, though. Mesopotamia, Egypt, 
India – the greatest of the early civilizations developed in warm 
climates. Even ancient Greece and Rome, two other great 
civilizations, developed in a much warmer climate than that in 
northern Europe. 
The Greeks had the right idea, by the way. Socrates wasn't sitting 
inside at all – he was sitting outside, in the market place, quizzing 
the passersby (or else making immortal speeches while enjoying 
himself at feasts ). What a way to philosophize, huh?

David:
>My parents in law regard it as the norm to keep shoes on indoors - 
>friends of our own generation are much more likely to leave shoes by 
>the door, at home or visiting. We picked it up ourselves from 
>friends who had a fair amount of contact with the middle east, where 
>I believe keeping shoes on in the home is much worse than uncouth.

Depends a bit on what you mean by "middle east." Taking off shoes is 
mandatory before going into a mosque. Also when visiting a Bedouin 
home (the food is served on the floor so bringing in sand and dirt is 
understandably frowned upon). I don't know how it is in Arab houses, 
I'm afraid. However, In Israeli (non-Arab) homes it is definitely not 
the norm for guests to take off their shoes. You'd have to be fairly 
intimate with the hosts to do that. One of the reasons is probably 
that almost all houses have stone floors (that is, not exactly stone, 
it's a marbly kind of substance - I've no idea how it's called in 
English) and they're cold. In the winter, even the mild Israeli 
winter, the floor is too cold for walking barefoot on it, although in 
summer it's very pleasant to cool your feet on the floor.

Elkins:
>Oh, and as for shoes? I do wear them inside, but not in my bedroom 
>and not on the couch and *certainly* not on the bed. (Does anyone 
>really put their shoes up on the bed?) But then, I have a very old
>dog, not in the best of health, who has started to become a bit 
>incontinent, so eating off of my floor is utterly out of the 
question 
>these days. :(

So sorry about your dog. It must be awful to see him get old like 
this. 
Speaking of incontinence. My own dog, thankfully still young, is 
epileptic (did you know dogs get that?).  Not, the good thing is that 
His epilepsy attacks come quite far apart, about once every two 
month, so he doesn't have to take medication. The bad thing is that 
the attacks always happen when he's asleep. Now (because I haven't 
taught him any better) he sleeps mostly on the living room sofa, 
which means that every two months my sofa gets peed upon (I've heard 
that losing bladder control happens to human epileptics too). Oh, the 
stench! It takes hours to clean it up, soaking a large portion of the 
sofa in soapy water and sponging it up. 
I won't bore you with the story of how my cat peed on the same 
miserable sofa. You might be interested to know, however, that cat 
pee stinks even worse than dog pee. 

Naama