↓ FROM THE EDITORW
4 May 2019 _ PopularMechanics.comRYAN D’AGOSTI NO
Editor in Chief
@rhdagostinoSome Silliness
E NEVER HAD a dog growing up. We had a cat for a while—my older brother was
walking home from sixth grade one day and passed a house where they were giv-
ing away kittens. Apparently the owners thought it was okay to give a kitten to an
unaccompanied 11-year-old. We kept it hidden for a week before our parents found
it. She was adorable and enjoyed puking and scratching people.
We wanted a dog, but dogs are more work, and my mother says she knew that even with
four kids in the house, she and my father would end up caring for a dog. (She can never prove
she was right, and we can never prove she was wrong. But she was probably right.)
A few months ago, my wife and I bought a puppy for our two sons. The older one helps out
a good deal, and the boys have a new best friend. Rocky has brought joy and silliness into our
house. He is cute and floppy and playful and can already sit and come when he’s called. But
oh my god puppies. People say puppies are
a lot of work. Like having a baby, even. To
which I say: Babies wear diapers. A puppy?
There’s poop on the floor. Pee on the rug.
He swallows rocks. He barks at 2 a.m. for
no reason. We can’t eat without him try-
ing to climb on the table. He tries to eat
the table.
Yeah, but.
I get it now.
The joy. The silliness.
In moments of weakness, when you’re
exhausted and late for work and you trip
over him and spill your coffee, you can yell
bad things at him and he just wags his tail
and licks your face.
Nothing’s easy in life. And some things
can seem so hard as to be unbearable. We,
all of us at one time or another, find our-
selves enduring pain that feels like it might
never go away. But I’ll tell you one thing
that is easy: watching a puppy flop on a bed
next to a little boy who’s been robbed of speech and mobility by a vicious cancer, and seeing
that boy smile—hearing him laugh—as the dog, oblivious to the dangers of eating rocks but
maybe somehow aware of this boy’s pain, plays at his feet. And later, watching the boy’s older
brother wrestle all over the kitchen floor with his new puppy, yelping with laughter, long past
bedtime but who cares, because he hasn’t been this happy in years.
Those things...those things are easy.
Get a dog.P.S. This is my last one of these letters. There’s a new guy taking over next month, but he’s not
really a new guy—his picture is on page 34, and I hired him four years ago, and he’ll do great
things here at Popular Mechanics. I’m fine—I have a great new job at the same company. I
want to thank the incomparable staff at PM for their dedication, loyalty, good humor, creativ-
ity, kindness, and hard work. And I want to thank you for continuing to read and appreciate
what we do, in print and on the web. You are the reason.Rocky