As a lifelong fancier of dogs and anobsessiveeaterofbreakfast,choosingthis piece of slang was a no-brainer.
Many of us willingly invite dogs into ourhomes,tohangoutwithusasweeat, sleep on a mat in the lounge room
or even snuggle up with us under thedoona,butitshouldneverbeforgottenthat at heart, dogs are filthy beasts
who love nothing more than gettingtheirsnoutsintomuck.Literally,‘adog’s breakfast’ is a reminder of the
limitless variety of feculent scum theywouldmerrilygobblegivenhalfachance. But it’s of course a metaphor for
random, messy stuff generally, andwhatthingslooklikewhentheygohorribly wrong. My dad employed slang
relentlessly – at times it was like he wasspeakinganotherlanguage.Acoupleof favourites of his were ‘get yourself
outside of that’ when he gave you somethingtoeatordrink,andifIaskedwhere somebody was, he’d say, ‘he went
mad, so we shot him’. I like to dropsimilarlyconfoundingslangaroundmy children – one of my cuter, more
well-known favourites relates to leavingsomeplacequickly:‘I’mofflikeabride’s nightie!’ My drawing doesn’t
need much explanation, except to sayit’saliteraldepictionofwhatIthinkadog would enjoy for breakfast, or any
meal, really. It’s based on the grossstuffmyowndogPlutohasenthusiastically woofed down over the years.
OSLO DAVIS
a dog’s breakfast
pretty pictures