Markets in everything?

"The American Dairy Goats Association (ADGA), one of the United States' two major dairy goat registries (organizations that keep official lists of goats within a specific breed, provide registration certificates, and compile pedigrees), recognizes eight different dairy goat breeds... The other registry, the American Goat Society (AGS) registers only purebreeds and also recognizes the Pygmy as a dairy breed...  

Neither of these registries recognizes the mini crossbreeds that have captured the hearts of urban goat owners, so two new registries have sprung up: The Miniature Goat Registry (TMGR) and the Miniature Dairy Goat Association (MDGA)."

Raising Goats for Dummies, Cheryl Smith

I recently turned 22 (heaven preserve us), and one of the gifts I received was Ms Smith's delightful book on goat husbandry, which I have been rapidly devouring. Prepare for drunken musings on the capra aegagrus hircus in the near future. I have long been convinced that goats are among the best creatures, but this book is going quite a long way toward confirming said biases. I worry that I may yet turn into a crunchy con-- if ever I rhapsodize about the virtues of 'locavorism', please beat me down in the comments. I beg you.

Also, I have finally finished all of Ms West's truly phenomenal (if long) Black Lamb, Grey Falcon, and plan to write something of a 'and thus I have learned' post sometime this week, so stay tuned!

TS: BLGF V

"'Regardez la pluche!' he said before the pictures, making no secret of it that his mouth was watering. 'Le satin! La fourrure! Les bel-les fem-mes!' And before the faded photographs he mouthed the titles, 'Son altessse le Prince, sa majesté la Reine Impératrice,' and made each of them a sultan or a sultana, reclining on silken cushions under golden domes. 

Being Western and therefore obsessed with the secondary meaning, we wondered, 'What dreams have these substances and ranks evoked in this Turk that he is so enraptured?' But we were wrong. He was enraptured simply because plush has a deep pile, because satin gives back the light, because fur is soft and warm, because jewels flash coloured fires, because beautiful women are beautiful and women, and it is better to be a prince or an empress than to be a slave; and it was proof of his amiability that he was putting forth a special effort to feel such raptures in this room, because it had once been dedicated to pomp and elegance..."