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Massage Message

On a bulletin board in a Fairfax, Virginia, supermarket, my wife, Karol, noticed the business card of someone who specializes in giving massages to geriatric canines.

Talk about the division of labor! Talk about a wealthy society! We Americans are so wealthy that somone can specialize — or at least try to specialize — in being a masseuse for old dogs. Not for all dogs, young and old; not for old dogs, cats, and parakeets. No — for old dogs exclusively. Such specialization not only makes us wealthier, it also is evidence of our enormous wealth.

Our family dog — Priscilla the beagle — is 13 years old. (Incidentally, she shares a birthday with Hayek: May 8th.) Had Priscilla been born 25 years earlier, or in the Sudan or in Spain or in Senegal, she’d not enjoy the option of being massaged by someone devoted exclusively to her sort.

Life is getting less and less ruff.

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