response 111 of 140:

Dec 19 18:53 UTC 2003

In Berkeley, a pet's former master is now known as the pet's "owner/guardian."
The original proposal before the Berkeley City Council, modeled on a similar
ordinance in Boulder (which is not in California...) was to have those who
take care of pets be the pet's "guardian," but that was seen as going too far.

That said, I've generally found it much easier to offend people in Ann Arbor,
where there enough conservatives around for conservative ideas to seem
threatening, and where there are enough conservatives around to make a big
deal out of how threatening various liberal ideas are.  I remember walking
across the University of Michigan Diag a few years ago, and seeing that every
ten feet or so somebody had chalked "gays are people too."  It shocked me,
not for the reason it was presumably supposed to, but because I was struck
by the sudden realization that I was somewhere where that needed to be said.