…is in the eye of the beholder—and the AKC standards.
Malachy the Pekingese is best in show, Westminster, 2012:
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Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
February 15th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Well, no matter how you feel about Pekes that is a pretty fine specimen.
February 15th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
I thought the fix was in for Barry to win best of breed, to go with his Nobel Peace Prize, Cy Young Award, and Stanley Cup.
Who knew Westminster was so racist?
February 15th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Top ten wrong comments:
1. Ahhhhh. . . punt
2. Pekingese stew anyone?
3. Obama showed me how to chase my tail.
4. Who says good things come in small packages?
5. Poops with occupiers.
6. Come here, come here. Whack. Yorkie.
7. Don’t it make my dog foot long.
8. Bad dog. Bad, bad, bad dog!
9. Better hair than Wasserman-Schultz.
10. Tax the bitch.
February 15th, 2012 at 2:37 pm
It’s a dog with no snout under a haystack of hair struggling around the ring under bright lights. Physiologically, most of its snout is in its throat..
One of these days a show Peke is going to actually collapse in the ring. At that point the breed club may, may revisit the idea that it might beneficial to the breed for it to have a nose.
February 15th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
I love dogs, have had many over the years, and now have a couple, but I don’t really know what to say about this peculiar looking dog, it looks like, well… what? Some sort of alien? A variant of one of those cheapo plastic troll dolls with the big eyes and wild orange hair?
I’m guessing that this dog probably snorts, and is prone to respiratory problems.
Frankly , I think the dog is ugly, and a perfect example of how such dog shows have encouraged some breeders and dog fanciers to drift further and further away from the idea that dogs should actually be able to do some kind of useful work, and to be bred accordingly, with any traits that detract from that healthy and virogrous ideal weeded out, not encouraged.
February 15th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Khaaaaan!
February 15th, 2012 at 4:05 pm
It was bad enough that the Peke was the winner of the Toy Group. But Best in Show? WTH?
My Heinz 57 mutt is 100 times better looking. And she has an actual snout that allows her to breathe. (I know, I know, they are judging which dog best exhibits its own breed’s specifications. Since the spec calls for a flat-faced ugly dog, then I guess this Peke deserves the prize.)
February 15th, 2012 at 6:01 pm
I will never understand the judging at dog shows. Not that I care.
We watched because my wife wanted to watch. Well, I sort of watched. It was a good mystery. Certainly a surprise ending.
The Shepherd was awesome. The Setter gorgeous, and happy, like a dog should be. The Doberman regal. The Dalmatian fetching. Even the Terrier had a certain exotic charm. And the winner is… Oh, well.
February 15th, 2012 at 7:02 pm
There was a long, extraordinarily fascinating article published recently in the March, 2012 Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/) talking about how Czech scientist Juroslav Flegl had first deduced, and then–using a series of very simple and elegant experiments/tests–pretty conclusively demonstrated that the single-celled protozoan Toxoplasma Gondii, a parasite that uses cats as their primary host and is excreted in cat feces, can parasitize humans, and can change animal and human behavior to its benefit in subtle but, it turns out, very measurable ways.
Perhaps a similar dog hosted parasite can explain this year’s result at the dog show.
February 15th, 2012 at 8:04 pm
What can I say? If human beings haven’t the sense to spare their own offspring the ravages of inbreeding—and I have only to take a short trip to a nearby Arab village to know all about this—then it’s unreasonable to expect them to treat dogs better.
File under “Stupid Human Tricks.”
February 15th, 2012 at 9:01 pm
Good and tragic point, z.
February 15th, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Parasitize! I’m thinking of a word, I’m thinking, its, its, LAWYER.
February 15th, 2012 at 9:33 pm
If human beings haven’t the sense to spare their own offspring the ravages of inbreeding—and I have only to take a short trip to a nearby Arab village to know all about this
Energetic outbreeding in and of itself, however, is no panacea, as any urban resident can testify.
February 15th, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Good and tragic point, O.
February 15th, 2012 at 11:24 pm
Oldflyer, I didn’t remember to watch but looked at pictures afterward and have to agree with you about the Shepherd, the Setter and even the Terrier. But this thing? I like how Wolla Dalbo likened it to a plastic troll doll.
February 15th, 2012 at 11:45 pm
A plastic troll doll on valium.
February 16th, 2012 at 5:05 am
It’s a dust mop with a face. And my cat could beat the crap out of it with one paw tied behind his back.
February 16th, 2012 at 6:46 am
We watched pieces of that show on the TeeVee. In our house the voting was unanimous, Bingo T. Pug won the Best In Chair Award.
and, yes, he snores. It’s part of the charm.
February 16th, 2012 at 4:15 pm
“Energetic outbreeding in and of itself, however, is no panacea,…”
I don’t think anyone claimed it was, Occam. Nor is a marriage of cousins once in a score of generations a cause for worry. But the Muslims, they keep to it as a sacred tradition, just because the founder of their religion did it. He did it because it was Bedouin custom devised for the purpose of keeping power within the tribes (contrast the Frankish custom of dividing the kingdom among the offspring), but the Muslims don’t care about the history, as far as they’re concerned, if he did it then it has Allah’s stamp of approval for all eternity.
The exceptions they make are few. Sometimes, as in the case of Arab villages isolated by enclosing mountains or inaccessible roads, such as Tuba and Ayn El Mahel, exceptions to the custom of cousin marriage have been so rare—to this very day—that most of their newborns have at least one defect. Unlike the Samaritans, who, prompted by this very problem, have begun a custom of importing Eastern European (mainly ex-U.S.S.R.) brides to alleviate the problem.
A hechizado Spanish prince or Muslim villager or show dog is lamentable because it’s purely the fault of people who don’t know or don’t care.
February 19th, 2012 at 6:30 pm
The Pekingese had a beautiful smile. If you want to have a beautiful smile endorsed by the Kardashians, click this link http://mhlnk.com/A084000D