Remember the doggie quiz on Tuesday? Good try everyone!
Q: What does a dog have to do with a book?
A: They both have ears!
Yes, it's in the ear, or to be more specific, dog-eared. Dog ear on a beagle, or any other dog is exactly what it is - an organ used for hearing and balance. 
But, on a book, or to be more specific, a well-read book, "dog-eared" refers to the book corners worn or battered with use.
I do apologize I couldn't post a picture of a more "worn" book. My human is a book worm (no, she's not a worm - she just loves to read) and takes good care of her books. Her New York State Frommer's travel guide is the closest book with dog-eared corners. I suppose after travelling with my humans for 9400 miles on the plane from KL to New York City, followed by a 1000-mile road trip from NYC to Finger Lakes, Niagara and Adirondacks last summer, the book can be considered to be in pretty good shape. My humans definitely used the book extensively - referring to it for places to stay, eat and visit!
I must confess though that I couldn't see the resemblance between my beagle ears and the ears on the corner of the book. However, I suppose that whoever coined the word "dog-eared" must be referring to the more pointy ears of a dog like Benjy, my mixed pedigree buddy. 
There is definitely some resemblance there! I hope you enjoyed that little quiz.
Hakata Ippudo
12 years ago
15 comments:
Well done! That was a good quiz - bet nobody got that one right!
Dog eared - yes we like it.
love
Martha & Bailey xxxx
My Old Girl is a liberry-enne, and she hates when people dog-ear books! At first, I didn't see why that would be so bad (BOL!), but then she esplained it to me. Interesting post!
Very clever quiz!
In our house, free magazines are 'dog-eared' as I like reading them in the bath. In the bathroom, paper soon gets curled because of the high humidity, but it seems that is not what 'dog-eared' actually means...:-)
Oh, yeah! My mom (who IS a librarian!) is very bad about dog-earing books! Great quiz.
love & wags,
River
How clever! That's a good quiz!
Our mom, the Siberian, er we mean Librarian, hates it when people dog-ear their books. Great quiz!
Woo, Shiloh & Guinness
I have learnt something new thanks to you!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza
Dog eared. That was a good one. Hope all is going well. Dad was born in Western New York but was raised in North Central Ohio.
Essex & Deacon
Hi Kess
Thanks for dropping by our blog and saying hello. We have just got back from holiday and are catching up with all our friends.
Molly and Taffy
That was a good quiz! I have to admit we were stumped because it has been raining for almost a month straight here in NYC, and so we thought maybe the answer was "raining cats and dogs" except we figured that your Mama probably wasn't thinking of that when she posted her quiz!
(pee ess - not dog eared enough! your mama takes good care of her books)
(peepee ess - thanks for the award - going up on my bloggie today. Sorry I have been so out of touch. we had a lot of sad stuff going on)
What a brilliant quiz! Your mom does take very good care of her books, Kess!
Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch
That's a very good comparison, Kess! Maybe they were referring to Airedale ears. Ours kind of flop over most of the time...except when we're really excited...then they stand straight up.
Aire-hugs,
Poppy, Penny & Patches
H-Mom DOGEARS her paperbacks all the time. She has tons of pretty little bookmarks, and even some very fancy expensive ones, but she never uses them. She is afraid she will lose, them! Madison's ears are not "dog-earred" isn't that silly? Then again, she is NOT au naturel - she is a plastic-surgery-kind-of south florida dog!
We always thought "dog eared" meant folded over, which we objected to since husky ears stand up straight.
I have to admit a fair amount of dog-earing (and not the straight kind) happens to books around here. Dog chewing does, too. But that's another story.
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