We are big fans of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show here at Dogster HQ, and today we’re even bigger fans because our longtime news editor, Maria Goodavage, is going to join Jon on the show tonight!
No, seriously, we fell over when Maria nonchalantly e-mailed us with the news. She’ll be talking about her latest book, Soldier Dogs (ahem, ahem, on sale at Amazon and bookstores near you), and she would like to give a Dogster reader the chance to win a signed copy. How do you win? The contest deets are at the bottom of this post.
Anyway, to celebrate this very cool occasion, here are five reasons for dog lovers to heart Mr. Stewart and his show:
1. He’s a huge pit bull advocate.
Jon has two rescued pitties: Shamsky, who lived in a small cage before the Stewarts took him home, and Monkey. In the 2008 election, when Sarah Palin’s memorable comment about hockey moms and pit bulls was circulating, Stewart made a comment that showed how he felt about the breed: “One is unfairly maligned in spite of evidence that it is no worse than any other dog, and one is an artificial demographic that is no better or worse than any other mom.”
2. He married a vet tech!
Jon’s wife, Tracey, went to school to become a veterinarian around the time he started hosting The Daily Show. The Stewarts are animal lovers, and Jon jokes that his wife likes to bring home the vet’s mistakes.
3. Behind the scenes, The Daily Show is a dog-friendly workplace.
We didn’t know this until we read this guest post by author Merrill Markoe on Regretsy.com, where she described preparing to be on Stewart’s show and was pleasantly surprised to see dogs backstage: “My favorite thing about the offices was the assortment of unleashed canines,” she wrote. “I saw at least four different ones, roaming around unsupervised. Apparently staff members can and do bring their dogs to work every day. If I didn’t already love the show, that would have done it.”
4. Jon had some choice words for a certain NFL dogfighter:
And he didn’t shy away from taking the media to task for downplaying Vick’s actions:
5. He has great choice in guests! Did we mention Maria’s going to be on the show tonight!?! That’s her sandwiched between Shaquille O’Neal and Rachel Maddow below:
CONTEST TIME!
To win the signed copy of Soldier Dogs, leave a comment below telling us why we should pick you. Maria will choose her favorite comment when she gets back from NYC and the winner will be notified via e-mail next week.
