Wow! Two wonderful admired songwriting friends and a prize-wiener blue ribbon Wonder Dog to send a boatload of best wishes to! It's a glorious historical MudHoliday, so let's all raise a toast of your beverage of choice to the celebrated celebrants!

Everybody, that is except the canine well-wishers who, being unable to physically raise a glass, will have to lap their round-on-the-house of Arf & Arf from their doggie dishes and hope that Mudcat Jack doesn't drink them all under the table. The great thing about being a wiener dog, though is that you never have far to fall as you prepare to em-bark on another dog-year.

So, salutations to two who have come through for me in the past and a storied dog who has never had the chance to, but is no less a Lesser Dane for it.

Peace is eternal and can keep his exalted name (I love it when Mudchat announces that "Peace is in the room"), but for this day, Peace, may WE be with YOU.

Dan, however, has to be designated as "olderdude", if only for a day or so. He's not ready to be "ancientdude" yet, or at least not THIS year. Only time will tattle on that and he has plenty of it to go.

There's a great future to be chronicled by these two when in a chronicle condition, lots of time to inspire before they expire and compose before they decompose.

So everyone gets their pointy party hats, but nobody gets to sit in the corner like a "duntz", and the dogs don't have to wear their cone hats around their neck swith the wide end facing foreward like RCA's Nipper gone inside out. They just get to listen to their masters' vice and, when the mood strikes or a fire engine passes, whichever happens first, harmonize.

Let the celebration begin!