ain't nothin but a hound

[turney@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Jenn Turney)]

This is Julian, logging in.

Jenn and I were having our traditional late-evening telephone chat
on Saturday night, which involved as usual a fair amount of discussion
of Kate, Jane Siberry and related matters, and also, as is less usual,
synchronized playing of _The Sensual World_ (yes, all of it, yes) 
on both sides of the state line and considerable indulgence in 
Cabernet Sauvignon (mmm, yes) at both ends of the phone line.

Sunday mostly involved the rather more mundane acts of getting on with
life, preparing classes, and so forth, and not really so much staying
up late because I had to teach classes on Monday morning. Well, Monday
I got to work, managed my first class fairly well, then went to log in and see
if there were any messages waiting for me, including of course the 
latest issue of love-hounds! There was a message from Jenn, so I 
concluded that she was also in her office, and ready to start sending
e-mail. (We send each other about a dozen messages a day. I wonder if
the people at DARPA know about all this?)

Anyway, by the end of classes I realized that I really wasn't feeling
100 percent, so when I wrote to Jenn I complained that all the late
night imbibing was starting to take its toll on me, albeit with a
somewhat delayed reaction. She wrote back 

> The effects of the effects of the night before -- 
> I suppose a little "hair of the dog" wouldn't help too
> much in this situation.  Ah, well."

Ah, well, indeed. But I really didn't understand what she was getting at,
entirely, because I'd never heard the phrase "hair of the dog" before.
(Of course, I did realize that our perpetual lady of The Sensual World
had released a video album known by the the title "The Hair of the 
Hound". (I just have to say at this point that the _Cloudbusting_ video
is the best piece of celluloid ever committed to print, it really is,
and yes that really is Donald Sutherland too!))

So I reached for my handy dictionary (I always keep a copy of 
_Chambers 20th Century Dictionary_ handy at my desk. Several years of
solving difficult British-style cryptic crosswords (when I should have
been working on my thesis) have turned me into a lifelong fan!) to
see whether "hair of the dog" was in fact an entry. It was! Here's what
_Chambers 20th Century Dictionary_ had to say:

(Oops, I just realized that I don't have a copy of the dictionary handy.
Well, I'm not at my desk right now. But anyway, this can't wait now, so
it said something like:)

"hair of the dog that bit him": a small dose of alcohol the morning after
a drunken spree, a smaller dose of what ails one: a homeopathic remedy.

Now homeopathy, for those who have not been paying attention, is an
"alternative" medical system which takes as its fundamental underlying
basis the idea of treating the "whole disease" rather than just the
symptoms. It has a lot of advocates in Merry Olde England, it seems,
including just possibly our favorite English cantatrice, guess who!

Now, I'm not saying that Kate _necessarily_ chose this title,
"The hair of the hound" because it was supposed to be a reference to
a homeopathic theory of medicine. But isn't it _just_possible_ that
this was one of the possible interpretations that she had in mind,
maybe along with some other interpretations of course.

Maybe Kate had been to see a homeopath, and he (or she!) had used the
phrase "the hair of the dog" or even "the hair of the hound". I know
it sounds a little far-fetched, but there it is in the dictionary after all!
Does anyone have any idea how commonly used the phrase "the hair
of the dog (or hound)" is in homeopathic circles? If I remember, we
had a few homeopaths out there, so someone might know.

 Julian
just half of jenn&juli