At Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, NY, a giraffe is about to be born. Like, soon.
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Michael Leddy“Orange Crate Art” is a song by Van Dyke Parks and the title of a 1995 album by Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson. “Orange Crate Art” is for me one of the great American songs: “Orange crate art was a place to start.”
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Nancy, October 19, 1950.
“Who are we as a country?”
Michael Leddy
Don’t look for premiums or
coupons, as the cost of
the thoughts blended in
ORANGE CRATE ART pro-
hibits the use of them.
Comments are welcome, appended to posts or by e-mail. I moderate comments to keep out spam, so please be patient.
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Words to live by
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
*
Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]
Heraclitus
*
Every day is a new deal.
Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”
*
Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]
Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again
*
Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
*
I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.
J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction
*
I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
one more try
Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”
*
L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]
Simone Weil, in a letter
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
*
Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]
Heraclitus
*
Every day is a new deal.
Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”
*
Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]
Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again
*
Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
*
I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.
J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction
*
I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
one more try
Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”
*
L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]
Simone Weil, in a letter
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Nancy, October 19, 1950.
comments: 3
It was everywhere this morning so I watched it. She had legs hanging out of her for a long time, then several sets of contractions that didn't quite do it. Finally I saw a head and ears. Then she had some big contractions, and baby finally fell out, followed by what appeared to be Lake Superior. He face planted two or three times while trying to get up, and face planted a time or two more after getting up. I stuck around long enough to make sure he found the milk bar. And it is a he. I checked in later, and he seemed to have a better handle on walking without face planting.
Apparently it was going around on Twitter that his birth attracted more interest than a recent presidential inauguration.
I also found out that the park's YouTube channel was cut off a while back when animal rights activists and others reported them for sex and nudity. True, April was nude, but sporting a coat of spots.
Some people were asking why the male, who kept poking his nose over, wasn't allowed in like good daddies are. Well, he's a giraffe, and giraffe daddies aren't nurturing like human daddies. He's also big, and April would be protective of a calf. So you don't really want them getting into a spat with a shaky junior around. Anthropomorphizing does a real disservice to animals. Giraffes are a mystery, however.
I kept thinking, Deep breaths! Push! I watched long enough to see the baby come out and stand up, but I gave up before the nursing.
Someone from the animal park says online that male giraffes are interested only in fighting and “the unmentionable.” So it made sense to have the father at a distance. I imagined him smoking a cigar as he paced, 1950s style.
Michael. You're anthropomorphizing. :-)
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