A Day for Marveling at Critters

Mutterings continued.

Caroline and I took a stroll at lunch time and spent some time watching the lions, baboons and painted dogs. There's an enrichment device in the lion enclosure which has a very hard rubber ball and mat hanging from a pole. One of the females was having a wonderful time hitting it back and forth and hanging off it. Very kittenish behaviour.

Taye the bub baboon was showing off again. He is also very kittenish and, like kittens, sometimes can't seem to control his back legs. At one stage he was standing on his hands. He also does a damn good impression of Spider Man by crawling across vertical rock faces.

The letterbox was full of junk mail today - cattledogs for jewellery stores, department stores and local restaurants. I wonder if Mother's Day is coming?? And I got a letter from Nick in Huddersfield (which is in West Yorkshire - close to Manchester but far enough away to still be Yorkshire and NOT Lancashire). Hello Nick, I shall write back. I shall. I shall write back.

YKYHBWIAZFTLW* you read an article heading in New Scientist "Whatever Happened to AI" and you immediately think of Artificial Insemination (and say to yourself, that should be Assisted Reproduction, not AI).

I've received an email from The National Theatre advertising one of their productions and I think it could have been worded a little better. It's for the Vagina Monologues:

STARRING THREE AMAZING WOMEN

Cast includes:
Tues 5 April-Sat 14 May: Jenny Eclair
Tues 5-Sat 30 April: Diane Parish (Holby City, The Bill)
Mon 18-Sat 30 April: Alison Newman (Hazel in Footballers Wives)
Mon 2-Sat 7 May: Rula Lenska (Rock Follies, EastEnders)
Mon 2-Sat 14 May: Heather Small (M People)
Mon 9-Sat 14 May: Christine Hamilton

I wonder which three are amazing and do they consider the others to be rather ordinary...

On Mythbusters last night Jamie and Adam revisited some of their previous busting, including the chicken gun. They concluded in a previous episode that it doesn't matter if the chicken is frozen or thawed, the body will impact with the same velocity and cause the same amount of damage. My knowledge of ballistics is nill and my grasp of physics on a par with that of a stick insect's, however I would have thought that a frozen chicken would cause more damage being more solid. It took the guys four different experiments but they finally had to conclude that, yes, a frozen chicken does more damage to panes of glass when fired from a canon than a thawed one.

Eek! I've just remembered Grumpy Old Men is on tonight.

*You Know You Have Been Working in a Zoo for Too Long When...