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This week, I thought I’d take a break from writing about self-appointed AI overlords and the undoing of would-be politicians to write about something very important: dogs.
Sure, we’re a couple of weeks out from a consequential midterm election and the Trump administration is flailing dangerously between bread (as in literal cash payments for votes) and circuses (Pete Hegseth’s light entertainment for the end of times, a now-blocked livestream snuff film), but sometimes you gotta turn your attention to something light.
Indulge me, please. The next headline you scroll past will be absolutely awful, I promise.
This week, The New York Times ran a delightful story by Lauren Markham about Andy DuVigneaud, an eccentric Boonville wineseller obsessed with fox collies. The headline says it all: The Man in Search of the Perfect Dog.
Take one look at these handsome, bright-eyed boys and girls and you will understand this story’s appeal: Fox collies are freakin’ adorable. Markham (whom my colleague Cydney Hayes profiled last year when Markham co-created a newspaper called The Approach) sprinkled her piece with words like “cutest,” “enchanted,” and “perfect.”
I am in no position to refute any of them; you can judge for yourself on the dogs’ Instagram feed.
As coincidence would have it, I got to know DuVigneaud and his dogs myself in June while driving through Boonville on my way home from a camping trip in Hendy Woods State Park. Like Joshua Korbel, the lucky new companion of Morena, one of these wonder dogs profiled by Markham, I saw DuVigneaud’s puppy sign and ambled over to his backyard where I was confronted — bowled over, actually — by a dozen of the cutest, most perfect puppies I’d ever seen. Pace Markham, I was enchanted.
I spent a good long time playing with those goofy, gorgeous puppies and talking to DuVigneaud and his partner. They were quirky and charming and very informative about fox collies. They offered me a glass of wine, probably in an attempt to help me make up my mind about which of their beauties I’d be bundling into the car.
Reader, I did not buy one. I had a dog at home already and even when she drives me crazy, she’s perfect.
As you will no doubt see in the literal next thing you read, these are rough times. My advice: if you can, get a dog. Or find a friend with one. At the very least, drive up to Boonville and spend some time with a few of the best.
ONLY ON GAZETTEER SF
- HIZZONER: Joel Rosenblatt’s lunch with Willie Brown.
- PLUGGED IN: Joshua Bote meets the best dressed electrician in SF.
- VERVE CENTER: Olivia Peluso on unionized coffee workers who want AI out of their day.
- FREE AGENTS: Cydney Hayes on job cuts at Mercor.
- WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?: Competing union rallies for Chan and Wiener.
- FISH TALE: A fight over conservation in Bolinas.
- TEAM OFFSITE: A16Z booked an entire theater to screen You Can See Everything.
- SURVEY SAYS: Take Gazetteer SF’s reader survey and enter for a chance to win a prize.
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DISPATCHES FROM THE FOG
- THE LADY VANISHES: I Am (aka, R-Evolution) is gone from Embarcadero. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- A RISING TIDE DOES SOMETHING SOMETHING: The Bay Area’s actual sea-steaders are being washed away. (New York Times)
- SHOUTS AND MURMURS: “When you are in a Waymo, you’re powerless.” (The New Yorker)
- BRING IN DA FULK: Ferry Building admirer Zach Posen fully complied with the city’s requirement that he use Ken Fulk to decorate his “ramshackle” cottage. (Architectural Digest)
- BEST FEST: Don’t snooze on Potrero Hill R&B Festival this Saturday. And look for our colleagues at the Potrero View booth. (Potrero Festival)
