SOPHIE'S HAVING FUN

We won't lie: We miss Sophie the yellow Lab, who's now frolicking joyously in Syracuse, N.Y. We miss her stentorian bark, which could be counted upon to rattle the farthest windowpanes. We miss the way she'd galumph down the hallway, her enormous paws applying sufficient pounds-per-square-inch to leave divots in the flooring. We miss the way she'd regularly snack on two schnauzers and a corgi before lunchtime. We miss her unflappable canine joie de vivre, clearly on display in this photo as she ponders several more delicious months of bone-chilling frost.

Most of all, we miss her human companion/mom, Michelle S., now on the faculty at The Newhouse School's Bandier Program in Recording and Entertainment Industries. Michelle, too, is delighting in the November snowfall and says wearing 17 sweaters and a parka is pure bliss. Well, at least it's kept her far from the career cul-de-sac known as HITS, aka the University of Hot Garbage.