1) May 25th was International Tap Dancing Day.
International Tap Association – https://www.tapdance.org/
Fred Astaire called this performance “the greatest dance number ever filmed.”
Have you ever tried to tap dance? How did it go?
2) The 25th was also Towel Day, in honour of Douglas Adams, author of the The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Why a towel? From The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-tohand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”
So in case you run into any Ravenous Bugblatter Beast you had better keep a towel handy at all times.
If faced with a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast from Traal what do you think you would do, if you forgot your towel of course?
3) I have always enjoyed watching the animals at zoos, especially now that most zoos have enclosures that give the animals the opportunity to roam, and live in an environment that more closely matches their natural habitat. I can’t tolerate seeing them penned up in cages anymore.
I also like seeing the kids getting to pet the animals. The Beijing Zoo goes one step further than just petting them, now you can also eat them for lunch at the Zoo’s Bin Feng Tang restaurant.
From an article in the Christian Science Monitor by Peter Ford:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0520/Beijing-Zoo-lets-visitors-admire-eat-wildlife
Hey kids, wanna go to the zoo today and look at the crocodiles? And then maybe eat one?
The meat might be pungent, but the concept seems somewhat tasteless. The Beijing Zoo puts the same animals on its restaurant menu as it keeps behind bars.
Crocodile, kangaroo, antelope, and hippopotamus are among the species that visitors can go the zoo to admire on the hoof, and then savor at lunch – steamed, braised, or roasted – at the Bin Feng Tang restaurant.
This has been going on for years, according to the restaurant’s manager, who seemed surprised that a newspaper article this week about her establishment should cause a stir on the Chinese Internet.
The news has not gone down well. “How would you feel, watching animals imprisoned in a limited space while eating their siblings?” asked Zheng Yuanjie, a well-known author, on his blog.
The zoo restaurant apparently has the requisite license from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry (which would presumably prefer to see crocodiles and hippos in a soup than in their landscapes) and is quite legal because none of the species on the menu is endangered.
Nor, the restaurant insists, do any of the animals come from the zoo’s own enclosures.
Still, the restaurant’s menu makes some people wonder. “The zoo is where we teach children to be nice to animals,” Qin Xiaona, head of the Capital Animal Welfare Association told the daily “Global Times.” “How can we do this after eating them?”
I don’t have a problem with a zoo serving some of their animals for lunch. People on farms eat their animals. What is the difference?
7 comments
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May 26, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Michelle
I canNOT tap dance worth a flip! But, man! Those guys were fantastic!!! I can’t imagine how they can do those splits and then jump up from the floor. WOW…amazing!!!
If I ran into a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast I would close my eyes, for I am just as mind-boggling stupid. I figure with my eyes closed I’m not really there…right?
No. You can’t eat the animals at the zoo!!! There is something inherently wrong with that idea.
Wow…gonna watch the tap dance again. You see, Ed, I was raised in such a legalistic environment…I was never allowed to dance…think, “Footloose”…
May 26, 2010 at 10:33 pm
edfromct
Hi Michelle
Just watching those guys do the splits hurts me. 🙂
Closing our eyes in the hopes that the monster will go away works for kids doesn’t it. At least I never got eat by the ones hiding under my bed. Pulling the covers over my eyes never worked well as an adult. The sun still shines and we still have to fight the traffic to work.
I does sound inherently wrong to show your kids thay cute little deer at the zoo, than order one for lunch.
You were never allowed to dance as a child? I hope you have made up for with your own family. 🙂
May 28, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Michelle
Is it wrong to admit I still close my eyes as an adult? It’s the only way I gave birth to three kids…”I’m not really here…this isn’t really happening…!!!” And poof…it was over.
Not.
Yes, my kids get to dance! 😀
May 31, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Theresa
Oh How I love Tap Dance. Watching not doing. I love the black and white movies. I use to love watching Shirley Temple tap dance too. So little and cute.
You would love the Honolulu Zoo. Alot of the animals are in enclosures that are intermingled. The zebras, giraffes and rhinos all together. I love it there. I think I would pass on eating those. Now if the zoo had a breeding pool I wouldn’t mind me a little emu or ostirich. 🙂
June 1, 2010 at 1:00 am
edfromct
Theresa, it is good to see your are a carnivore like me. 🙂 The few zoos I have been to in the last 15 years, San Diego and the Bronx Zoo in New York, all have enclosures that allow the animals to roam in a more natural environment.
Black and white movies, as well as photography, add a unique atmosphere that I like.
I love the dancing combo of Shirley Temple & Bill “Bojangles” Robinson:
June 4, 2010 at 1:34 am
Theresa
That is one of my all time favorite dances of hers. You make me smile! Thank you so much for your comments on my posts. You don’t know how much they mean to me.
June 6, 2010 at 11:15 pm
edfromct
Always happy to make someone smile Theresa, which was why the nation needed a cutie like Shirley Temple, during the sad times of the depression.