Okay youngsters (are there any young people left on LiveJournal?) "hook up" means getting a behind-the-scenes tour at a zoo, clean out your mind.


Right away I got to see my old friend Orville, a turkey vulture who used to try to rip strips of flesh off of me despite me not being dead yet. He did not do that this day, maybe he's mellowing with age (he's got to be in his 50s now) maybe he's relaxed now that he has a partner. That white duck is one of these baby ducks! all grown up.

( more! )

Well, I've let a week go by and I have hundreds of vacation photos. Fortunately there's Facebook so you don't have to see tons of pics of me and my dad drinking and whatnot. Unless you want to in which case you should Friend me. (message me so I know who you are please).


At the end of our first day we wandered Fort Myer's Beach. We went to a bar on the water and watched the sunset at this bridge--under which an osprey was building or fortifying a nest. It was perched at the top of the mast of the boat at the far right of the photo.


Here's a close up of a sign on the nearby dock. Can this be real? Is there a place where you can sit and drink beer as huge fish eagles build nests over your head and sea monsters stir lazily below?

As I said earlier, I have redacted what occurred in the pub-crawl/tiki bar hours, and will finish our remembrance of FMB this way:

With a black vulture perched over the only road out of town.

I received a donation for AAZK with this note: "I am fond of elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and hippos." Who isn't? Our giraffes are a big hit with our guests, impressive beasts that they are. They are our largest animals at the zoos, with only the Bactrian camels coming close to the same size. Unfortunately, we don't have a winter exhibit for them, and they are very sensitive to cold temperatures. Fortunately, I do have cause to go into the giraffe barn every now and then! Here's Jana, our female Masai giraffe.



Isn't she pretty?

But what about the hippo? In our Tropical Forest exhibit, we have a pygmy hippo. Her name is Cleopatra, and she is about the size of an adult pig. The more familiar Nile hippo is a much larger creature--we don't have any of those. Pygmy hippos are from the dense rain forests of Liberia in West Africa where they do most of their feeding at night, on land. Cleo is exhibited with a pair of Rüppell's Griffin Vultures, beautiful carrion birds that hold the record for highest recorded altitude of any bird.
( See Cleo back here )

Thanks for your donation, Amanda! I'll be sending the stickers later on.

If you have a request for a zoo animal you would like me to photograph, simply click the button and donate $5.00 to the New England Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers! Thanks!

Still to come: Lemurs using their hammock.

Since my father's heart attack, I've thought about some of my habits, and how to modify them. I like to drink, not always in moderation. Probably being more moderate boozebag (doctors say no more than two drinks for men is healthy) is the right way to go. Also, I seem to remember that red wine is considered heart-healthy for some reason (the American Heart institute says don't start drinking it if you aren't already a boozebag, but if you are, go ahead--have no more than two) compared to other stuff you can drink. I'd guess it's the rich blend of phytochemicals and tannins that are in it, as compared to liquors, which tend to be filtered and distilled until they are mostly a solution of delicious poisonous alcohol. Where was I? Oh yeah, so I've been drinking red wine lately. Trader Joes sells perfectly drinkable bottles of it for three bucks. Seriously, it tastes much nicer than the crap that we used to drink in art school that came in gallon jugs.

A few years ago, my friend Joey went on a tour of Europe in a Rock and Roll Band. He brought back many stories (I seem to recall the band claiming that it was a form of animal abuse to allow the border police dogs to smell the contents of their tour van) but one thing always stuck with me. I don't even remember what country they were in, but in some warehouse or basement somewhere in Europe, the young music fans were drinking a cocktail of red wine and Coca Cola. Joey was revolted by the idea, it probably offended him on more levels than just the mingled flavors, being an aesthete and man of culture as he was and is. I supposed that in Europe people drink red wine all the time, the way that North Americans drink slurpees, and that Coca Cola has an exotic American cache to it. I kind of wondered what it would taste like, but was afraid to try it. Who wants to spoil an expensive bottle of wine by pouring coke over it?

Then came Three Buck Chuck. It occurred to me a few days ago, that even if the drink was wretched, I wouldn't be out much if I used Charles Shaw to make it. So I did, and you know what? It's not bad. Really. Both drinks are very rich, but the combination isn't overwhelming. Depending on what kind of cola you use (we tried a variety--thanks belen1974) the drink suggests sangria, and has some chocolaty notes. I prefer it with diet cola--for my health, after all.

Of course, the main benefit of it--the addition of stimulant caffeine to a sedative alcoholic drink--makes it not such a heart-healthy choice. But it's gotta taste better than Red Bull and vodka. I've never tried it, but I assume it tastes like Frat boy spit and Flintstone's vitamins.

According to Wikipedia, this wine and coke cocktail is called "Callimocho," from the Basque kalimotxo, as it's been drunk in Basque country since at least the 70's. This is a particularly dodgy wiki page so I don't know exactly how much of this is true. It claims that Callimocho is popular in Spain, goes by several other names (and therefore must exist) in the former Yugoslav republics and the Czech Republic, and is known in Chile by the name "Jote" which means "vulture." I can't imagine why Chilenos would call the drink "Vulture" unless it has to do with the color.





I think I'll call it Jote (pronounced Ho-tay, for you gringos), because I like to honor the vulture this way. Plus I can't remember "Callimocho" to save my life.