Friday, March 28, 2008

Dogs

This morning I ran across the street to catch the subte, only to find no one in the ticket booth.

(Why didn't I just use a ticket machine? For all intents and purposes, they don't exist. Though there are a very few out there, the subte workers union opposes them and sees to it that even those few never work. You're more likely to see Cristina in the subte than a working ticket machine.)

A few other passengers and I milled around for a minute before we saw an open gate and just walked through.

Which I'm guessing is exactly what went down with Fido here.


When a train came, he would run alongside it and bark.


When I got on the train, so did Fido. He ran around for a few seconds but then decided to chill out for a while.


Eventually a subte employee rousted him and chased the little guy back into the station, with the help of a few passengers.


This is a good time to mention this NPR piece that aired a while back.

The guy botches the name of the Perito Moreno glacier . . . and then compares dog-walking to dancing the tango . . . and then manages to fit in the old saw about Buenos Aires having more psychiatrists per capita than anywhere else.

But for all that, he makes a good point.

For me, the report had another important message: All this time, I was trying way too hard to think of story ideas.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man, that is what NPR has come to?

I was accompanied by packs of dogs in El Calafate when I was there in 2003, but I never considered doing a report like that.

I'm surprised Fido jumped on the subte. Good for him.

Esteban said...

I can't believe the reporter "visited Argentina to find out about its dogs." Writing about them as a footnote on a trip to see the "Puerto Moreno" glacier maybe, but all that way for the poochies?

As for your overexertion in pitching story ideas, boy you hit the mark there. Comparing what you've written about this past year with what has come out in the NYT, etc., I'm beginning to wonder if you've even been in Argentina this whole time. Just where the hell did I actually spend three weeks with you, anyway?

A word of advice for article pitches during your trip to Mexico: Tacos!

Dan said...

Guess you're just not NPR material, Robert.

Esteban, I also can't believe that this guy visited Argentina to find out about its dogs — as in, I refuse to believe it. There's no way.

Tacos in Mexico and sushi in Japan ... New York Times, here I come!

Anonymous said...

I'm ashamed to admit now that I've actually been on NPR before, talking about BsAs & Argentina. Rick Steves interviewed me... if you want to call it that. I still get people sending me emails from that. I guess it gets replayed from time to time.

I think your last article needs to be something original, like about the hordes of foreigners moving here because it's cheap. Or BA as the seductive city of tango. Just a thought.