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Of what use, however, is a general certainty that an insect will not walk with his head hindmost, when what you need to know is the play of inward stimulus that sends him hither and thither in a network of possible paths? |
Sunday, November 2, 1997
Saturday afternoon Nick and I went to the Woodland Park Zoo, as part of a Cacophony event. We decided to go in, even though we were the only two to show up. I brought some gold metallic pipe cleaners, which I attached to a headband as antennae. Nick used two large plumes as moth antennae.
The reason for the bug theme was a new part of the zoo that was supposed to be open. A building (prexisting?) near the family farm had been rigged out as an insect zoo, and in honor of that there were craft activities where people could creat their own antennae and bugs, and information booths about insect collectors' societies, apiarists (bee-raisers), and various vendors. But the main attraction was mysteriously closed.
We met up with someone who had worked with me on a gardening CD-ROM a few years ago. He revealed the reason behind the temporary closure of the insect zoo: a scorpion had escaped! The authorities felt they couldn't have people wandering around with a venomous arthropod underfoot, which was understandable if disappointing.
So Nick and I went on to catch up with the other parts of the zoo that I haven't seen lately. The orangutan facility is great! They have a lot of room to climb and swing, both inside and outside, while people are on a high boardwalk. There are explicit warning signs: Objects dropped off the boardwalk will not be retrieved!
We watched a raptor demonstration. The Woodland Park Zoo has a well-respected program in raptor rehab, and releases many eagles, owls and falcons back to the wild. The gyrfalcon in the show took off and didn't come back while we were there, but this was not unexpected, and they always fly her with a radio attached so they can trace her. We also saw an example of crows mobbing a red-tail hawk -- not as part of the show, it was just a coincidence.
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Saturday night we had dancing at Vanguard, for the first time in many years! We were at Denys's house, and it was revealed that he has been taking swing dancing lessons with Carrie! So we removed the coffee table and danced, though even having two couples at once was pushing it for space. After listening to Dave Howell talking about the educational methods of his dance teacher, I thought even more favorably of the Swing Girls, who I am taking lessons from. It seemed like he wasn't getting enough emphasis on the fundamentals, so he knew complicated combinations, but didn't realize that all these steps are modular and can be linked in almost any pattern.
After hiking all over Fremont at Trolloween on Friday, and hiking all over the zoo on Saturday, and dancing Saturday night, my feet were feeling it!
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