My Manifesto: The Incoherent Ramblings of a Madman

Adam's Ode to the Black Dog

In ancient Persian folk etymology the word sag (dog) was derived from seh-yak (one third) because one third of its essence is human.

Islamic myths: Three distinct myths of the creation of the dog can be reconstructed from Islamic texts. According to a tradition related on the authority of Ali b. Abi Taleb, when Adam and Eve were cast out of paradise, Satan came to the beasts of the earth and encouraged them with violent cries to attack and devour the couple; his spittle flew out of his mouth, and God fashioned a male and a female dog from it. The male was sent to guard Adam and the female to protect Eve. The enmity between the dog and wild animals was thus initiated.

In a second version, God created the dog from the clay left over from His creation of Adam, which may lie behind the assertion in some sources that dog bones and tissue may be grafted to the human body.

The third myth may be deduced from a tradition about the taboo on eating the dog's flesh because the animal is "metamorphosed"; the implication is that human sinners are transformed into dogs and that eating the flesh would be a form of cannibalism.

A tradition about the domestication of the dog was related on the authority of Ebn Abbas: When Adam was cast out of heaven and attacked by Satan, God reassured him and sent Moses' staff as a means of defense; Adam struck a dog with it, but God commanded him to pat the animal on the head. The animal thus being domesticated, befriending Adam and his seed.

(http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/dog.htm)

The association of the dog with the devil may have motivated several attempts at eradicating the animal. The Prophet Mohammad (and later Yusof b. Hajjaj) was said to have ordered all dogs to be put to death but to have modified his order to only apply to black dogs, especially those with two spots (noqtatayn) over their eyes.

The black dog figures prominently in magic. Its satanic connections mean that harming it may bring injury or misfortune to the perpetrator. In Khorassan, it is believed that he who kills a dog will lose a child or seven years of bad luck. Such beliefs may at least partly reflect pre-Islamic taboos against harming dogs, reinterpreted to conform to the Islamic association of the animal with evil.

For example, by the 9th century, Zoroastrian concern for the welfare of dogs had already come to be viewed as an attempt to avert the evil eye. Nevertheless, according to one tradition, Imam Husayn was seen eating in front of a dog, to which he gave a piece of bread for each piece that he ate himself.

(www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/dog.htm)

Son of Sam Murders

August 22, 1977
When: July 29, 1976 - August 10, 1977

Why: The dog told him to.

The facts: It started when Donna Lauria was shot and killed as she sat with a girl friend in a parked car in the Bronx. By the time it was over, David Berkowitz had murdered five young women and a man and injured seven others. On August 10, 1977, he's caught — a parking ticket places him near the scene of the murder of the final victim Stacy Moskowitz. Berkowitz blames a thousand-year-old demon residing in a black dog owned by his neighbor: "Sam told me to do it…. I had my orders."

The sentence: 365 years at Attica.

(www.newyorkmetro.com/news/articles/03/03/35th/crazedcity/crimes/4.htm)

"Black Dog" was Churchill's name for his depression, and as is true with all metaphors, it speaks volumes. The nickname implies both familiarity and an attempt at mastery, because while that dog may sink his fangs into one's person every now and then, he's still, after all, only a dog, and he can be cajoled sometimes and locked up other times.

The man was in lustrous company - Goethe, Schumann, Luther, and Tolstoy to name but a few - all of them great men who suffered from recurrent depression. Who doesn't have at least a passing familiarity with the notion that depression sometimes acts as a spur to those of a certain temperament and native ability? Aware of how low they will sink at times, they propel themselves into activity and achievements the rest of us regard with awe.

(www.mhsource.com/exclusive/chanceth0196.html)

Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move
Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.
Ah, ah, child, way you shake that thing
Gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting.
Hey, hey, baby, when you walk that way
Watch your honey drip, can't keep away.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh, oh, oh
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh, oh, oh

I gotta roll, can't stand still,
Got a flamin' heart, can't get my fill,
Eyes that shine burning red,
Dreams of you all through my head.
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah...

Hey, baby, oh, baby, pretty baby,
Tell me what you do me now.
Hey, baby, oh, baby, pretty baby,
Move me while you do me now.

Didn't take too long 'fore I found out
What people mean by down and out.
Spent my money, took my car,
Started tellin' her friends she goin' be a star.
I don't know, but I've been told
Big legged woman ain't got no soul

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh, oh, ah
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh, oh, yeah

All I ask for, all I pray,
Steady loaded woman gonna come my way.
I need a girl gonna hold my hand
Tell me no lies, make me a happy man.

Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah...

Ahhhhhh!

Ooooh-ahhhh

Black Dog on My Shoulder - Manic Street Preachers

There’s a black dog on my shoulder again
Licking my neck and saying she’s my friend
Solitude the one thing that I really miss
Guess my life is a compromise

There’s a black dog on my shoulder again
I’m playing with it but it’s gone to my head
Like carlito’s way there are no exit signs
Freeze me there until I am numb

My mouth is so dry
My eyes are shut tight
There’s a black dog a coming tonight
Black dog’s a coming tonight

My dilemma but not my choice
Winston churchill can you hear my voice
Melodrama there in my kitchen sink
Double vision the way it is

Am I coming home to you again
Or am I stupid just by design
Does it matter if you really ever know
This black dog is out of control

My mouth is so dry
My eyes are shut tight
There’s a black dog a coming tonight
Black dog’s a coming tonight

Am I coming home to you again
Or am I stupid just by design
Does it matter if you really ever know
This black dog is out of control

My mouth is so dry
My eyes are shut tight
There’s a black dog a coming tonight
Black dog’s a coming tonight

The Evil Metaplot Plot
Black Dog Game factory has an evil plan to gather energy for the Wyrm through the frustration and anger of gamers. Its called a Metaplot. In the recent revised editions of their popular RPG games such as Vampire: the Hidden and Zombie: the Putrescence they have made some radical changes to their setting much to the infuriation of many of their long time fans. The books are carefully designed so that additional supplements are practically required to play due to the missing or wrong information and rules in the core books.

Flame wars have erupted on alt.games.blackdog and their own websites forums, some gamers have vowed never to buy their products again while others are claiming the new versions of all the books (they have revised just about every book they have ever printed, and made them all incompatible with the old versions) are way better than the old one, and people sticking with the old ones are sad losers.

Despite all this conflict their sales are better than ever. The reason for this?

The glue in the bindings.

Unknown to the poor saps buying the book the glue Black Dog puts into its bindings contains some rather dangerous, as well as addictive, chemicals. These have two effects. The first is that the potency slowly fades requiring the owners to get new books to get a new fix, not even realising why they crave them. The second is to make them more suggestible, this helps blur the line in the reader between fantasy and reality while reading the book, which is often done during a game. This helps the books violent, nihilistic messages sink in better. Enough negative energy has been developed by these books that a new type of Bane has formed around them.

(www.mants-lair.org.uk/Wyrm/black_dog.htm)

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