Some readers might be wondering about how different and even wild we are. After all, Bear has some questionable sociopolitical aspirations and Wolf appears to be an unusually astute observer of the human scene.

In actual truth, we are both very quiet and domestic dogs, not much different from the pet at your feet or in your lap right now. We’ve included a couple of candid photos of the two of us relaxing in the evening, taking a brief pause from one of our favorite pastimes, reading ordinary books. As you can see, Bear, the comparative literature major, is keenly interested in the Shakespeare authorship controversy. (Perhaps that’s why he is such a rabble rouser–he likes excitement and controversy.) He enjoys the way the Shakespeare traditionalists and the Oxfordians go at it tooth and nail–in a refined and sophisticated manner, of course–and how the number of candidates continues to expand rather than narrow. I’ll have to ask him to give his opinion about the identity of Jack the Ripper someday. He really enjoys mysteries.

At any rate, Bear doesn’t have a favorite candidate for authorship of Shakespeare’s works at this point. He wavers about whether more than one hand was in the works. He is firmly convinced that the resident of Stratford on Avon was not the real author. However, he won’t admit it to many other dogs, because he knows he would get snubbed by some cute French poodle or English setter.

In Wolf’s candid you can see him thinking about Professor Kellert’s book on chaos theory. Professor Kellert defines chaos theory as “the qualitative study of unstable aperiodic behavior in deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems.” Wolf finds this to be a very sensible definition, differentiating chaotic events from algorithmic outcomes because of the essential unknowability of initial states. Most exciting so far, Wolf says, is the claim that “chaos theory not only argues against the predictability of certain systems, but that when combined with quantum mechanical considerations it leads us to grave doubts about the doctrine of determinism itself.” This claim is shockingly provocative and Wolf can’t wait to read more. Can it be that the unpredictability of initial states–perhaps the choice of initial states–means that free will can be a product of a deterministic system? No wonder Wolf trembles so much.

So you can see we are just ordinary, homebody dogs who enjoy a bit of light reading during those long waits between cookies and meals that our cruel master imposes on us. Yes, it is sometimes difficult to concentrate on the reading when our stomachs are cramping up with hunger. But we do our best. That’s all a dog can do.