“Why Billy, look at this! It’s an blue-throated African warbler.”
Today I went to the Earth Day festival downtown at the zoo. For about the first five minutes I didn’t to anything but sit on a bench feeling sorry for my pitiful self and wondering if, if, if. But after my moping session I became my amiable self once again.
It was fairly entertaining, but I was disappointed that the only really “Earth Day” part of “Earth Day at the Zoo” were scattered infrequently around the zoo at booths operated by over-friendly zoo volunteers. All they gave out were pencils, tattoos and bracelets and cheap product-sponsored handouts from companies like Waste Management and Chik-fil-A. I guess I wasn’t too downtrodden because seeing the animals is always cool.
Everyone always likes to see the lemurs, they are cute and playful enough to entertain anybody. One of them swung agilely up to the top of the cage, near eye level to the giggling crowd and stuck out his tiny hand. It’s like “PLEASE, feed me. Just one, can’t you see I’m starving?” It was the perfect begging face, and it lifted my spirits greatly.
Hey, have you ever noticed that when you go to the zoo the most people can stand for at one window is a minute and thirty seconds? Hurry up the glass. Tap feverishly so the snake will wake from its afternoon nap to look cute for the camera, if a snake could look cute. Snap a photo with the $200 digital camera from Wal-Mart and shift over to the next one. It like an assemble line, only with animals.
And it’s amusing when you see this over anxious mother trying to get her rowdy kids to look at the animal in the cage.
“Why Billy, look at this! It’s an blue-throated African warbler.”
“Mommy I want some ice cream.”
“But Billy look, look, LOOK.” She points anxiously, “He’s cleaning himself.” She holds him tight by the back of the neck. “It says here that they can grow up to 20 inches long and..”
It like reading of the zoo sign will actually make your kid smarter or something. I don’t think most parents care whether their children enjoy learning new things or even that they learn at all. Just as long as they appear intelligent so they can brag about how well they were brought up and how they always went to the zoo when they were little to learn about the animals and someday he’ll be a genius and isn’t he adorable?
There were little kids rampant everywhere. It’s like everywhere you turn there’s another one clutching a plush monkey or toddling away with a full diaper or with ice cream running down it face or running and screeching to make the pigeons fly away. I don’t hate little kids or anything, so yeah.
Oh, and when I got this blue gum on my flip flop, I tried scraping it off with a spoon and dragging my feet across the grass, but all I succeeded in doing was tripping on a skillfully hidden root that lay lodged in my path. Other than that everything went OK.
It was fairly entertaining, but I was disappointed that the only really “Earth Day” part of “Earth Day at the Zoo” were scattered infrequently around the zoo at booths operated by over-friendly zoo volunteers. All they gave out were pencils, tattoos and bracelets and cheap product-sponsored handouts from companies like Waste Management and Chik-fil-A. I guess I wasn’t too downtrodden because seeing the animals is always cool.
Everyone always likes to see the lemurs, they are cute and playful enough to entertain anybody. One of them swung agilely up to the top of the cage, near eye level to the giggling crowd and stuck out his tiny hand. It’s like “PLEASE, feed me. Just one, can’t you see I’m starving?” It was the perfect begging face, and it lifted my spirits greatly.
Hey, have you ever noticed that when you go to the zoo the most people can stand for at one window is a minute and thirty seconds? Hurry up the glass. Tap feverishly so the snake will wake from its afternoon nap to look cute for the camera, if a snake could look cute. Snap a photo with the $200 digital camera from Wal-Mart and shift over to the next one. It like an assemble line, only with animals.
And it’s amusing when you see this over anxious mother trying to get her rowdy kids to look at the animal in the cage.
“Why Billy, look at this! It’s an blue-throated African warbler.”
“Mommy I want some ice cream.”
“But Billy look, look, LOOK.” She points anxiously, “He’s cleaning himself.” She holds him tight by the back of the neck. “It says here that they can grow up to 20 inches long and..”
It like reading of the zoo sign will actually make your kid smarter or something. I don’t think most parents care whether their children enjoy learning new things or even that they learn at all. Just as long as they appear intelligent so they can brag about how well they were brought up and how they always went to the zoo when they were little to learn about the animals and someday he’ll be a genius and isn’t he adorable?
There were little kids rampant everywhere. It’s like everywhere you turn there’s another one clutching a plush monkey or toddling away with a full diaper or with ice cream running down it face or running and screeching to make the pigeons fly away. I don’t hate little kids or anything, so yeah.
Oh, and when I got this blue gum on my flip flop, I tried scraping it off with a spoon and dragging my feet across the grass, but all I succeeded in doing was tripping on a skillfully hidden root that lay lodged in my path. Other than that everything went OK.