They give you no points for a summer cold ii

The expedient of the semi-

permanent handkerchief, as-

sociated as much with hos-

pital protocols as it is

with Lord Tennyson and the

pickup games of goodguys &

badguys in the walled gar-

dens of youth, comes natur-

ally to mind when entertain-

ing a black-masked English

dog between his merciful

naps. But surely it must

have been for the symptoms

of the summer cold, if not

a passing plague, that this

hoary improvisation in the

breathable properties of lin-

en made its historic debut.

It is a curiosity to me, how

the mask's properties of con-

cealment and prophylaxis are

entirely lost, in their mig-

ration to the countenance of

a dog, and yet how well the

species carries a contrar-

ian message of candour and

conviviality with this device;

while, one's own experiments

in projecting these unmenacing

qualities tend to prove incon-

clusive at best. Yet the rid-

dle has the scale, one could

say, to match the reduced cap-

acities of a summer cold, as

having flickered through the

head of everyman at one time

or another, muggingly lying in

wait for the full-blown coach

and four of antibiotic relief.