"City Museum" is more or less a tongue-in-cheek name for this attraction. It is not really a museum at all, except for the fact that the entire idea behind this surreal world is to use recycled bits and pieces from the city to create an artistic, fun and wild place to explore. The only truly part of this building that is a museum is one room on the top floor that is an architectural museum.
Bob Cassilly, the creator or City Museum (and Cementland), has been on TV several times, because his own home is on the top floor of this building, and was featured on "What's With That Extreme Home?" on HGTV.
And here are some photos from the TOP of the building, which opened to visitors just a couple years ago. The general shots were taken from the ferris wheel that is on top of the building!
THE "MONSTROCITY" - the 6 story Human Habitrail outside the museum. This is a good general video of the Monstrocity. I love to climb through all of it, but Mark is afraid of heights!
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THE WORLD AQUARIUM IN CITY MUSEUM:
This attraction is in the same building - on the second floor. It is an additional $5 or $6 a person, but it is well worth the extra $$. This particular area can take 45 minutes to an hour, if you do it right. This is another video from KETC-Channel 9, about the "World Aquarium" at The City Museumn. There are real sharks, etc, in this part of the building:
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Believe it or not (and you know I couldn't leave this out!)....There is a large pipe organ in the 'Catacombs' area of the City Museum. Three years ago, Mark and I were climbing through this area, and I looked up and told him, "Wow! This would be a wonderful spot for a theatre organ!" In typical fashion, he just rolled his eyes at me, and kept walking. The next year, we went back to the spot.. Lo and behold - there was a 24 rank 1924 Wurlitzer Pipe Organ with a two ton console (keyboard) that was installed in this space. It can be played by the St. Louis branch of the American Guild of Organists, and it is been attached to a computer so it can play itself! There is nothing like walking though this very surreal space with a booming pipe organ playing all around me!
Even though I have no loss for words, as you well know, a picture, or in this case, a video, is worth 1,000 words. The following clip is of the Wurlitzer Theatre organ - just a bit smaller than the one in the Fox - that is located in the City Museum. This video also gives an excellent view of the Catacombs area.
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Even though Spring / Summer / Fall are better times to go to the City Museum, any time you want to go, and you want an enthusiastic guide, let me know - I'm ready to go!
The only time I have ever traveled out of this country was to go to Toronto, Canada for my senior trip in High School - 25 years ago. I do hope that our trip to the Toronto area isn't my last trip out of the country. I would love to visit as many countries, cuisines, customs, as possible. Mr. Mark Twain wrote:
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
Following an unfortunate set of events, I had to move from Quincy, IL to Payson, IL during my senior year of high school. Technically, I don't really have a senior class. I moved in November of 1985, and graduated 6 months later, in May of 1986. I left the class that I had grown up with, spending 3.5 years of my 4 high school years with these individuals, before moving to a total group of strangers 6 months before graduating with them. In a manner of speaking, since I left the class that I grew up with (and I couldn't stand many of those 700 individuals, either!), and I joined the Class of 1986 - Payson Seymour High School in their last 6 months, they didn't know me very well, and I really wasn't a part of that crowd, either.
Even though I am a hustler and bustler, I wouldn't consider the atmosphere in Quincy, IL to be "Hustling and Bustling", but the change to a quieter atmosphere was, at least temporarily, a welcome respite.
I had nothing in common with my new class. I went from a graduating class of 700 students to a graduating class of 43! Through thick or thin, 99% of those 43 students had a close relationship. Their school (Payson Seymour High School) was very small - one hallway, really, and these kids grew up together being a very close group. I was an outsider, indeed.
Not long after my move, my new class started some of their fund raising events for the senior year to fund the senior trip. They had already work hard in their freshman, sophomore and junior years, and had banked the money that they made in the previous years. Since I was not a part of this particular class when they started the fund raisers in their freshman years, many of the seniors were debating whether I could go on the trip with them, or if I would have to stay home.
God love her, the senior class president, Leigh Ann Maple, was one of the few people in that class that actually liked me. At a class meeting, she made a deal with the remaining students in the senior class:
"If Michael sells more candy bars and more pizzas than all of you, will you let him go on the senior trip with us?" They voted, "Yes", thinking that I could never pull it off. As is often said, "The rest is history." I sold more candy bars and more pizzas than any other student ever had - and that includes the previous 3 years!
Needless to say, I was allowed to go on the senior trip.
I did no harm to these individuals. You know how teenagers are, and since this was a tight, relatively closed, small community, they didn't seem to need any more ammunition, other than the fact that I was a stranger, to more or less shun me. Even though I had a **long** way to go, I was starting to become the "Michael" that you all know and love today! he he he
Translated: "I grew a set!" I realized that this was as much my world as it is anybody else's, and I staked my claim.
THE BIG TRIP
(Our tour bus, from Capitol tours - in the parking lot at
Payson Semour Hight School - May 25, 1986)
We were scheduled to leave Payson, IL on May 25 on a charter bus, and travel 870 miles to Niagara Falls, NY, and then another 81 miles to Toronto, ON, before returning home on May 30, and graduating May 31, 1986.
We were 10 miles out of Niagara Falls, NY, and I thought it had started to rain. I was sitting immediately behind the bus driver. I made the comment that I didn't want rain to spoil our view of the falls, and the activities that we had planned for the remainder of that day, and the following day. The bus driver reassured me that he drives that route quite often, and the 'rain' that we were experiencing was droplets of water that was blowing downwind from the falls - 10 miles away! I know, I know....!!! I am so easily amused! I thought that was fascinating.
As an 18 yr. old who hadn't traveled much, I wasn't aware of how iconic this view of Niagara Falls was, until a few years after I took the picture:
We had traveled overnight and (uncomfortably!) slept on the bus en route, so we wouldn't waste any time traveling. We repeated that feat on the trip back home. I slept on the floor of the bus, under 3 seats of students sleeping above me! Today, I don't think a human body would fit under coach seats.
When we arrived at the Ramada Hotel on Niagara Falls, NY, and I went to my assigned room.
This time period was well before digital cameras and smart phones. Actually, this was the first time I had taken a picture with a camera. There was no focus or zoom - it was a basic, cheap film camera.
To this very day, I can't hear the song "Live To Tell" by Madonna without being taken back immediately to that hotel that overlooks Niagara Falls. When I was on my senior trip - in 1986! I walked into the hotel room, put my luggage down, opened the entertainment center doors, pushed "ON", and walked over to the windows and pulled back the curtains. My room had a direct. I was looking down on Niagara Falls. That was the first time I heard the song, and I was experiencing a memorable view that I will never forget.
"Live To Tell" - Madonna: This was the view from my window:
We were allowed to go explore the tourist / shopping district on our own for the remainder of the day, I toured every tourist sight that I could tackle before our curfew: Wax Museums, the functional Floral Clock, and in the evening, the breath taking million watt show on the falls. We had our umbrellas, and we were standing by the fence, marveling at a great combination of the efforts of human ingenuity and Mother Nature - the fabulous light show at Niagara Falls.
(Half of my class in front of the functioning Floral Clock.
Get a load of those '80's fashion statements, and a shot of the boys in the back row...
they will make another appearance in this blog)
The next day, we boarded the charter bus to go 80 miles around the western end of Lake Erie, and on to Toronto for a couple days. I love to plan my vacations, and I hate doing things on a 'whim', impulsive, or spur-of-the-moment, for this very reason. When we reached Toronto, we saw this castle on a hill. Our chaperons correctly decided that it would be a good idea for this class of mostly farm boys and girls to get *some* culture, and since we arrived in Toronto a bit earlier in the day than we had planned, we stopped by this castle to see if we could get in a quick tour. The castle had been booked for the day, and they could not squeeze in one more tour.
The front door of the castle:
( Daddy, I'm home!)
We did have the opportunity to get off the bus, and take a few pictures before proceeding to Canada's Wonderland (Canada's Premier Themed Amusement Park) for the day:
For more information on Canadas Wonderland: http://www.canadaswonderland.com/
(Main Entrance - Wonderland, Canada)
This theme park is really themed. The entire park is done in a Fantasy Medieval theme, with turreted castles, serfs, kings, lords and ladies, and as more 'serving wenches" than you could throw a dinner roll at! Hey! We were required to call our waitresses 'serving wenches', as they do at Excalibur in Las Vegas, or the Ye Royal Dump dinner theatres!
We also took a tour of the then-tallest free standing structure in the world, the CN Tower. It has been surpassed by a few structures since 1986, but it remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the signature icon of Toronto's skyline, and a symbol of Canada, attracting more than two million international visitors annually.
As long as I live, I will never forget the looks on the faces of the big, strapping, tobacco-spitting acrophobic (fear of heights) boys when they stepped off the elevators to the FIRST viewing platform. Trust me when I tell you: They wouldn't pull themselves off the wall! I looked at the tour guide, and asked her, "How do we handle this situation?" I am 5'4", and she was a full head shorter than me. She smiled wryly at me, and said, "I have to do this every day, several times a day." She grabbed both boys by the front of their shirts, one in each hand, and shoved them both back into the open elevator. She pushed the "Door Closed" button, followed by "1st floor", smiled again at me, turned on one heel - and walked off!
I need to mention that the thin strip you see going up the outside of the needle-like shaft is the elevator shaft. If you want to get to the top, you go in a glass elevator that goes 65 MPH - 147 floors, or 1,815 feet! I loved every bit of it! I think the butch boys honestly crapped their pants.
(Most folk go to the big pod and do not go any higher...
a few braver and adventuresome
(myself being in that number)
went on to the smaller observation tower quite a distance above the main pod)
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW(S) !?!
We had a busy schedule, and were given specific instructions to meet our chaperons back at the bus at 5:00PM. Our next stop was the hotel for a quick change into our evening formal attire, then on to a production of "Kiss Me Kate / The Taming of a Shrew" at a dinner theatre. Mind you, most of these people just stepped off a farm, and had no idea how to behave in a formal setting. During my upbringing, I was never taken into a formal setting from the time of my birth until I officially moved out of the house and went on my own.
I was raised in what I now believe was a faux-religious setting. They were pretending to be religious people, but hindsight is always 20 / 20, and I now know better. Our family never had a television in the home until I moved out of the house and got my own. We were not supposed to listen to the radio, except to catch the news. We could not go to movie (or any other type!) of theatres, men could not have facial hair or long hair, and women could not cut their hair, wear make up, have pierced ears, and had to wear 3/4 length dresses at all times (no shorts allowed for either sex , and no pants, slacks, jeans, etc, for the ladies! They had to wear dresses at all times!)
Segway: Can somebody tell me how wearing make up (or a mustache on a man!) is going to condem them to hell? I'm thinking those self-imposed limitations had little to do with religion - and a lot to do with control! In the words of the immortal Sophia Petrillo from The Golden Girls, "But, I digress!"
Anywho, I had no role models, I lived in the country with little or no resources to the outside world. However, I was / am intelligent enough to figure it out on my own: "There HAS to be more to life than this, and even though there are a **lot**, and I do mean a **lot** of Hoosiers out there, there has to be somebody on this planet with a sense of style, decorum and class. I'm not talking about snot or snoot. Nobody needs those people, and nobody likes those people. Take Molly Brown from the Titanic (Margaret Brown, actually - She never knew the name "Molly Brown" during her life time, but once again - I digress). This woman was born in Hannibal, MO - my home town. She traveled west, and married rich. VERY rich.
She was born with no money, married rich, lived rich - and died in New York. She had money - she had class, but she was not a snoot. It is possible to do both.
Margaret Brown (right) giving Captain Arthur Henry Rostron an award for his service in the rescue of Titanic's surviving passengers.
Back to our trip, the the misbehaving hillbillies that I was traveling with. We were watching a live production of "Kiss Me Kate" in a smaller dinner theatre. Although the building was not tiny, it was a close, intimate setting when compared to larger theatre venues. It was of no concern to myself, but the vast majority of the men in this production were gay. This small detail did not go unnoticed by the "Good Ole Boys" with a piece of straw stuck between the gap in there front teeth. Halfway through the first act, most of the fine young men in my group proceeded to make unnecessary and rude *loud* cat calls at the males in the play. I sat there and was doing my best to mind my own business, but handling matters in that manner never works out well for me. I had consumed as much of their rancid behavior as I could stomach, and I jumped up from my seat, and slammed down my empty water glass to get their attention. Keep in mind that there was a play taking place less than 10 feet from our table - a table with 43 hillbillies that obviously 'don't get out much'.
Does anybody remember the Chess King clothing retailers that had a spot in most malls in the 1980's? I was a very regular costumer of this store, and I knew the managers of the local Chess King store in the Quincy (IL) Mall, and they would reserve any size 27" pants and small shirts, jackets, for me until I came in to look at them. I knew when they got their shipments in - on Tuesday! - and I would call them if I was not planning on making a purchase at that time, so they would release the merchandise that they had on hold for me back to the sales floor.
For this dinner theatre event, we were required to dress in formal attire. Along the same line of thought as, "You should never cook a dish for the first time for a large holiday gathering of your entire family: You should practice it several times before presenting it a group of people", the same goes for dressing sharp. It doesn't take the Tim Gunn's of the world to be able to look at someone that is trying to dress sharp (but they don't do it too often - if ever!), and say to yourself, "OK, baby. I know you are trying your best at this moment to look good for this occasion, but you really need to practice wearing make up more than just this once before you leave the house!" Or... (you should have seen the Good Ole Boy crew trying to look sharp!) Many of the young men in our group were not small people - they were big ole country boys with big ole country boy bellies! Some of them wore dress shirts that were *much* too tight, to match the dress pants that were high-waters, and a whole herd of camels didn't have anything on them, if you know what I mean! They were wearing poorly tied neck ties that were too short, which was demonstrated by the fact that the tip of the tie didn't go anywhere near their bellies, and the tip of it barely passed their breast flaps! (Translated: they were much too short!)
By some miracle - and I mean that in all seriousness - I somehow had periscope vision during my upbringing, and I could see a much bigger, more beautiful world than the one that I was currently trapped in. I knew that some way, some how, I would get the hell out of there, and I was going to experience as much of the variety of life in this world as I could while I was still on the surface of the planet.
For this evening at the Dinner Theatre, I was dressed in a white-on-white pin stripped double-breasted Don Johnson-style jacket, a dark gray shirt, a PINK bow tie, and gray shoes to match the shirt. I had huge Hal & Oates hair to match! Since the year was 1986, I was dressed to the '9's. Not a blemish and not a hair out of place! In the middle of the first act, I had enough of the verbal crap being hurled by our group at the cast of this play, and I was on my feet. The chaperons just stared at me - they didn't know what to do, and I believe they were embarrassed because I was doing the job that they should have been doing. I yelled, "Look, you tasteless hoosiers! We are guests in this place, and these people deserve respect, dignity, and your undivided attention. They do NOT deserve the gay slurs and rude catcalls that are spewing from your over-stuffed mouths! Now sit there, and shut the fuck up, and if you can't manage to do that, then get the fuck out!" And I pointed in the direction of the door, in case their ate-up minds forgot the way they came in. Mouths flew open, and I never heard a peep from those 42 individuals for the remainder of the time we were there. As a reward for my efforts, during intermission, the cast of the play brought me an extra dessert (REAL French Vanilla Ice Cream with maraschino cherries and black walnuts, and as much champagne as I wanted for the evening! The drinking age in Canada is 18 - and I had just turned 19 two weeks before our trip.
GOING WHERE FEW MEN HAS GONE BEFORE ME!
After a much-quieter-than-normal bus ride to our hotel for the evening, and a restless night with snoring individuals that I barely new, we had one more day of adventure left before we had to make the nighttime trek back to Payson, IL. As a part of our senior trip, we were required to visit at least one educational venue. The venue that was chosen for us was the Ontario Science Center, located in Toronto. The St. Louis Science Center is one of jewels in St. Louis' crown, but at 500,000 square feet, the Ontario Science Center is many times larger than the St. Louis Science Center. We spent 8 hours in this facility, and only covered 2/3 of it.
This particular science center houses a few musical interests. Inside, there is a playable section of a pipe organ that contains just a few keys, but shows how the mechanism works, but on the outside, there is the world's largest outdoor hydraulophone that is publicly accessible 24 hours-a-day.
This is a sculpture in the Science Center that displays how much food a family of 4 eats in 1 year. (Panoramics weren't available back then - and I was using an old, cheap film camera:
When I walked into this Science Center, I saw signs at the entrance of the individual hallways marked, "Gate 1", "Gate 2", "Gate 3".... I was a bit perplexed, but I walked on with a couple friends. How close those friends were to me, we shall soon find out - but let's continue, at any rate.
Even though I was well on my way to becoming the man that I would eventually be, I still had a long way to go. I know my self esteem could never be as low as that of the group of people that I was unfortunate enough to be born into (read: my family's), but in any case, I was not aware of it yet, but I still had the proverbial self-esteem ladder to climb before I reached the top. I didn't start at the bottom of the ladder. I would never allow myself to get that low. I believe I was somewhere in the middle, and I could see light at the end of the tunnel.
I had a habit of looking down and watching my feet as I walked. Not only was this a family trait that I inadvertently inherited, but as a result of being a handicapped child, I learned to watch my floppy right foot, so I wouldn't trip myself while walking. An ugly spill in the middle of 10,000 people is not the way I like to attract attention. Being talented and keeping myself looking rather sharp is the way I would rather accomplish this task! :) Anywho, I was walking down one of the hallways, and I was pretty much letting the scenery pass me by as I was looking down at my feet.
Suddenly, one of the few friends that was walking next to me - with the assistance of a body guard! - yelled, "Whoa! LOOK OUT!" and they both grabbed me by my right arm and tried to pull me out of harm's way. Too late. I planted my nose directly between Sophia Loren's boobs! Do you have any idea how many straight men would have loved to trade places with me on that particular day???
(She was wearing this dress!)
Hindsight being once again fairly sharp, I have no idea why somebody didn't say something before I accidentally walked behind a roped-off section of the Science Center, and ran smack-dab directly into Sophia Loren! She was wearing the typical low-cut red dress. Look mom, I found a nose warmer! Her boobs! Even though I came from a horribly sheltered existence, I did have sense enough to know that I was at this very moment, embracing a famous person. I thought I was a dead man! The body guards started to rush in to pull me back behind the ropes, but with one hand, she motioned for them to stop. She hugged me, and she had a good laugh.
This Science Center was so large that a film production company was using it to shoot an airport scene, hence the "Gate 1", "Gate 2" signs. After my hug, I found my way back around the roped-off section, and we continued our educational adventure. I got more education than the average person on this day. I realize that if I was watching where I was going, I would have never had the chance to hug Sophia Loren, but I vowed to never watch my feet again. I resolved that a better fate, in the long run, would be to take my chances at stumbling. My life has definitely not been stumble-free, but I have managed to avoid really serious falls due to this floppy foot!
I do have one question, though:
1) Why did the 'friends' that I was with not warn me that I had walked into a rope-off section of the Science Center? I had walked probably 30 - 50 feet into this section before I bumped into a legendary movie star!
This was not to be our last run-in with Sophia. As luck would have it, several hours later, we were boarding our bus to begin the journey back to the hills. As our bus pulled away from the curb, the driver had to go around a car that was parked in front of our bus before he could continue on to the exit of the Science Center parking lot. As luck would have it, I was sitting on the correct side of the bus this time. The car that our bus driver had to go around was Sophia Loren's limousine. She was standing at the door of the limmo, smiling and waving as our bus went around her car. Several students were looking on the side of the limousine to see if it had the name of the hotel she was staying written on it, but during the course of the conversation I had with Sophia, she told me that she did not use hotel limos, but that she had her own limo flown in each time she traveled.
That, my friends, was the day I (literally!) ran into Sophia Loren.
(I have more pictures, and more memories of this trip, but I will promise you that I won't prolong your suffering. My memory is still firing on all pistons, after 25 yrs, I would say!)
There are many humans among us that continue to refuse to appreciate and respect animals around us. We first must acknowledge that many people participate in 'leveling' others. I am not going to go into the psychology of leveling in this blog, but it does serve at least a couple purposes for the person doing such activity. First, a person of good moral fiber would never try to level an individual who is obviously lesser in some way than the individual doing the leveling. Other than to satisfy a severe need to climb a hierarchy, no matter how pathetic it is, a person would have no real need to level someone already lower than himself. The other most obvious reason is, "There is something in that guy that I can't stand about myself." Many people go about their daily lives, attempting to degrade singers, musicians, artists, designers, etc, while there is a really good chance that the person being degraded has exponentially more talent than the person doing the degrading, thus the need for the lesser person to bring the greater person to his level. The farther apart two people are in talent, ability, financial status (and the list goes on for quite a while!), the harder the lesser person will try to close that gap. Back to the animals. When a person degrades an animal's intelligence, it is most likely because the human 'degrader' is threatened because that animal must might be (read: IS!) more regal, intelligent and creative than the assailant. Because the person that feels threatened is already in denial about the animal's intelligence, any additional show of intelligence on the animal's part would be a moot attempt. Basically, the animal is defenseless against such an attack, making an easier target for someone who must so this leveling in order to make himself (or herself) feel better about living in their own skin. As a segway, no amount of leveling will appease such a need. You need to do things to make yourself feel better. That is the only solution to your problem. Good people do not feel bad about themselves.
KANZI - the Bonodo!
The first clip in this blog is about Kanzi, a bonobo. A bonobo is a chimpanzee relative. They are not kept in zoos for reasons that you will discover in this clip. I have the issue of Time Magazine that Oprah is talking about, "What Animals Think" from Time Magazine. In this article, a reporter arrives to do an interview with Kanzi and his trainer. Upon his arrival at the facility, Kanzi signals to the lab supervisor, Tyler Romine, "Get us some coffee." The Tyler retrieves 4 cups of coffee, one for Sue, the primatologist in the following clip, one for himself, one for the reporter - and one for Kanzi. After a few minutes of the interview, Kanzi decided that he wanted to play a game with Finlay, the reporter. Kanzi tells him to go into another room and get a ball to play the game with him. Finlay is not familiar with this facility, and he takes a bit longer than anticipated to retrieve the ball. When he walks back into the room with the ball, he asks Kanzi, "Are you ready?" Kanzi answers him, "I'm past ready!" Let's take a look at the cognitive steps needed for that simple exchange, alone (Just the "playing ball" concept - I don't think I need to cover the "Get us all coffee" concept!) 1) Kanzi wanted to do a fun activity with a visitor. 2) Kanzi asked the visitor to retrieve a tool (the ball) needed to play the game. 3) Kanzi had to wait (a complicated concept, in itself) for the reporter to return. 4) When the reporter asked him, "Are you ready?" and he answered, "I'm past ready!" , that exchange covers another group, all into itself, of complicated thought processes. a) A sense of time passing. b) "I am waiting to BEGIN something." c) "I know how long it would take the average person to go into a room and get a ball, and you took longer than that!" - an advanced sense of time. d) I am getting impatient! (impatient, meaning he has to be aware of this particular emotion, and he knows how to describe it!) This is Kanzi, as seen on the Oprah show:
Slow + lettuce = Kale Big + water = a flood he had seen on TV - the flood in Iowa Bread + Cheese + tomato = pizza That is not random stuff. This episode of Oprah also features people who help raise orphaned baby elephants. The woman that started this elephant refuge said that a few years ago, she had to take a short business trip. It was while she was gone that one of the baby elephants in her care grieved himself to death, because she was gone. Grieving over an absent individual is a higher cognitive thought process. She says that after that loss, she has learned to have her assistants stay with the babies, on a rotating schedule so that no baby elephant becomes attached to any individual person. When I say STAY, I mean STAY. These keepers sleep in a loft just overhead of the sleeping baby elephants. Each baby elephant is individually put to bed: He has his own pillow, and is covered up with a blanket. When these elephants reach the age that they can fend for themselves, they are released into the wild. Yet, when "past orphans" have babies of their own, they will always return to the camp to show this wonderful lady their new baby. When the proud new mother reaches the camp, the other elephants at the camp put their trunks over the baby, as if to hug and welcome him into their world. The keeper also tells the story of a young female elephant who was shot with arrows from an idiot poacher. She was able to walk, and she walked back to the facility. She alerted the keeper that she had a problem, and laid down on the ground so the staff could remove the painful arrows from her body. Elephants also mourn (another advanced cognitive thought process!) other dead elephants. If the elephant has recently passed, they move their trunks over the body, and visibly mourn this passing. If they happen upon the bones of an elephant, they will explore the skull, and identify the individual that passed. Once again, they mourn. There is far more to the intelligence and cognitive abilities for each of these animals, and these are just a few of the many available examples.
ALEX - the African Grey Parrot
I have an African Grey Parrot (Conrad), myself. I cry huge tears every time I watch the end of this video. I do have to take issue with one thing that Diane Sawyer said in the beginning of this clip. She says that Alex the Grey was "kind of a genius in the parrot world". This is not true. Alex was bought by the trainers from an average pet store. He has the average intelligence of any African Grey parrot. His selection was made completely at random. African Grey parrots have the cognitive sense of the average 4 year old. Both Conrad and myself are insulted when somebody approaches his cage, and talks to him in "silly bird language". ALL parrots have some sort of cognitive level. They have been tested many times, and it has been found that the African Grey parrot is the most cognitive, with Yellow Caped Amazons coming in a close second. An African Grey knows quantity - they can count, and I am not talking about simply reciting numbers. If they have been so trained, they can express these things: (Hey - you didn't learn how to spell or count until you went to school, did you? They have to go to school, too!) 1) You can put 3 pennies on a table, and ask, "How many?" He will answer, "Three!" 2) Show him a tray with 3 red blocks and 4 blue blocks. Ask him which color has more? HE will answer, "Blue" 3) Show him two plastic keys - one small yellow key, and one larger green key. Ask him, "Which color is bigger (since they are both keys!)? He will answer, "Green" They know the difference between shapes, sizes, quantity, color, hot / cold, and what matter something contains (wood, metal, wool, etc). I don't care who you are, I will not let you tell me those things are "lucky, random answers!" If those are lucky, random answers, I need every African Grey Parrot on the damned planet to play the lottery for me! Not only do African Greys have an advanced cognition, they express a wide range of emotions: love, anger, shock, fear, worry and they are master manipulators. In general, African Greys are rather clumsy birds. Falling off a perch happens all to frequently. When Conrad falls off a perch, he will climb back up on the perch, and then for an hour, he will sit there and shake. His eyes are huge, and he is an emotional wreck. African Greys are capable of thinking, "What would have happened if...... I could have been hurt, etc?" On more than one occasion, I have caught Conrad rummaging through his food bowl, in with good African Grey fashion. He will pick up a fist (claw!) full of food that he doesn't want to eat - then he will hurl it through the bars of his cage, and across the room! I will tell him, "Stop that!" He answers me, "No, you stop that!" Meanwhile, he has a fist full of food, but he is staring straight ahead, hoping I wouldn't see the food in his claw. The second I turn my head, I will get food against the back of my head! On another occasion, I was feeding him his breakfast. He asked me, "What are you doing?" I answered, "I'm giving you your breakfast." He responded, "Awww, that is stupid!" I said, "Stupid, my ass! There are starving little birdies in China that would love to have your breakfast! I should cut you back to your daily rations for a week, and give you no treats!" He hung his head and said, "No, daddy, daddy, daddy! Conrad is a GOOD boy! I love you!" I had to laugh! Often, as Mark is getting ready to go to work, or we are getting ready to leave the house to go shopping, etc, Conrad will say, "Bye, Bye, buddy! Bye, bye!" One morning, Mark was getting ready to go to work, and Conrad started, "Bye, Bye, buddy!" Keep in mind that Conrad owned ME before we met Mark. I am Conrad's mate, and there will be no other. At any rate, as Mark was getting ready to leave the house, Conrad was getting upset because Mark hadn't left the house in the time that Conrad thought was appropriate. After his last, "Bye, Bye!", Conrad asked Mark, "Well, are you gone, yet?" Mark said, "I will not have you run me out of my own damned house!" I laughed histerically. I will not go into the entire saga, but we also have to keep in mind that an African Grey parrot has no vocal chords, no teeth, and they don't use their tongue to speak. They have literally no structures required for human speech, yet they are capable of using human speech appropriately. On the other hand, great apes have all the structures necessary for speech, and with the exception of a few vocalizations, they use very little of their voice. I'm hoping Kanzi's son enlightens the world, and has some capability of appropriate speech. Conrad can mix the sound of a kitchen blender with the sound of a vacuum cleaner and get the sound of an electric drill, for example. They can mix sounds to get many other sounds. African Grey parrots have no vocabulary of their own. A study was done on a flock of wild Greys, and they were found to be using the entire repertoire of 9 other individual species of birds - and two species of bats, and they used these alien sounds to communicate with each other. I have not yet mentioned that Orangutans love to groom so much that they will groom their own reflections in a mirror. These are the only animals that recognize themselves in the mirror: great apes (bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans, humans, and gorillas), rhesus macaques, bottlenose dolphins, orcas, elephants, and European Magpies. Many animals (crows, apes), are capable of using tools to perform tasks. Rats and squirrels will learn complicated, multi-step tasks with lightning speed. ...and the list can go on and on...... For more information and more videos, look up on YouTube: Koko / Gorilla Bonobo / Kanzi Alex / parrot crow tool use and check out this squirrel maze! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eDSubTVYEQ - Michael
Has anybody heard the latest news concerning the bizarre, lonely lady (Jean Stevens) from Wyalusing, PA? -------------------------------------------- You will have to pardon the pun, but in a nutshell, Jean Stevens either paid, begged, threatened or coerced an individual to go Lime Hill Cemetery, located at the end of the street she lived on, Old Stagecoach Road in Wyalusing, PA, and on two different occasions - 10 yrs apart - she hired a man to secretly exhume the bodies of both her husband and her twin sister, June. Both individuals passed away from natural causes, and foul play was not suspected. Her twin passed away in 2009, and her husband, 1999. -------------------------------------------- A case worker eventually turned her in to the authorities, and she has been completely cooperating with the investigation. Jean had the body of her twin sister, June, on the sofa in her living room, and the body of her husband was found on a sofa in a detached garage. Jean stated that she would talk to them, and put expensive perfume (uh- yeah!) on the body of her sister. -------------------------------------------- In the GARAGE? Garages get very hot in the summer, and dead bodies do not keep well in the heat! -------------------------------------------- A bit about funerary practices in the USA:
There several different levels or stages of embalming that are offered by most funeral homes. According to the wishes and the financial situation of the family of the deceased, you can opt for a very light or partial embalming, if the visitation or funeral is to be held almost immediately, or you can choose a full-on complete embalming, including a "head shot" for those with multiple viewings and an extended stay above ground. -------------------------------------------- I am guessing, that since June Steven's obituary stated that she had a graveside funeral service, her body was only lightly embalmed - just enough to get her through a possible visitation. However... I reread the obituary, and no mention of a visitation was made. Considering the fact that no conventional funeral or visitation was held for this woman, I am assuming that she was, minimally, embalmed lightly. Contrary to popular belief, and with very few notable exceptions, even a full embalming serves only to keep a body from decomposing only long enough to get the individuals through a funeral. -------------------------------------------- There are notable cases, such as Abraham Lincoln, Eva "Evita" Paron ("Don't Cry For Me Argentina") and Vladimir Lenin. To this day, the bodies of these individuals are presentable, and have not decayed. Eva Peron's body was tended to and continually touched up for weeks / months by a mortician who had some type of relationship with her body! Abraham Lincoln's morticians traveled on his funeral train, and because of the approaching spring weather, he had to be touched up before the train made each stop. Those bodies have been out of the public eye for decades, in the case of Eva Peron, and since 1865 in the case of Abraham Lincoln. To this day, Vladimir Lenin's body has been on display daily since his death in January 1924. The morticians that tend to his body have a very prescribed method to attend to the continual preservation of his body. If Gunther Van Hagen would have been around, somebody could have paid to have Lenin plastinated! ------------------------------------------- This is the procedure used to tend to Lenin's body:
"The family of Lenin's embalmers states that the corpse is real and requires daily work to moisturise the features and inject preservatives under the clothes. Lenin's sarcophagus is kept at a temperature of 16 °C (61 °F) and kept at a humidity of 80 - 90 percent. The chemical used was referred to by the caretakers as "balsam", which was glycerine and potassium acetate. Every eighteen months the corpse is removed and undergoes a special chemical bath. The chemicals were unknown until after the fall of the Soviet Union, kept secret by authorities. The bath consists of placing the corpse in a glass bath with potassium acetate, alcohol, glycerol, distilled water, and as a disinfectant, quinine. This was the process used for all subsequent treatments of Lenin's body and continues to be used even now.[1
One of the main problems the embalmers faced was the appearance of dark spots on the skin, especially on the face and hands. They managed to solve the problem by the use of a variety of different reagents in between baths. For example, if a patch of wrinkling or discoloration occurred it was treated with an acetic acid diluted with water. Hydrogen peroxide could be used to restore the tissues' original colouring. Damp spots were removed by means of disinfectants like quinine or phenol.[1]
Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 the continued preservation work was funded by the Russian government. At that point the government discontinued financial support and now private donations support the preservation staff." -------------------------------------------- The following links offer a crash course in embalming:
Back to the story of Jean, June and Jimmy Stevens. Needless to say, the bodies of Jean Steven's relatives received only minimal preservation techniques, and they would have maintained the bodies for most likely, less than a couple weeks. -------------------------------------------- The authorities said that when they were tipped off, and discovered the bodies, they "in various stages of decay". I'm saying, "Ya think?" he he he ------------------------------------------- Here is a link to the full story of how this woman obtained the bodies of her deceased husband and sister: http://tinyurl.com/JeanStevensExhumed
--------------------------------------------------------------- Here is the actual original obituary from the funeral home that prepared the body of June M. Stevens, age 90 http://www.mchenryfuneralhomes.com/obits/?p=74
------------------------------------------------------------------ An on-line obituary or Jean's husband, Jimmy, could not be found, because he died in 1999, and that was when on-line obituaries were in their infancy. -------------------------------- This is the article where the District Attorney determined that Mrs. Stevens would be allowed to keep the body of her deceased relatives, provided that she builds a crypt or a similar structure to store the bodies! Yes - that's what they told her, and that is what she did. However, the crypt that she had built looks like nothing more than a garage with a typical shingled roof and siding. June Stevens plans to have her own body placed in the crypt when her turn ad death's door arrives. Since the crypt is built on a typical residential property, I have to ask the question, "What happens to these bodies, and this crypt that doesn't look too permanent when the time arrives to sell this property?" There are laws about burials on private property, but permits can be obtained, in cases such as Elvis Presley on the grounds of Graceland, and The Von Trapp family on the Von Trapp Family Lodge Grounds in Stowe, VT (Where the 2011 HGTV Dream Home Giveaway was built!) -------------------------------------------- The article that gives Jean Steven permission to keep the bodies if she builds the crypt: http://tinyurl.com/JeanStevensKeeps -------------------------------------------- In the past couple days, I have located the link that states that the man that exhumed these bodies for Jean was eventually arrested, and faces several misdemeanor charges. Jean Stevens, however, has not been charged in these exhumations. I did read in one article that they would not disclose whether she had received psychological counseling. I'm thinking she might need it! -------------------------------------------- Once again, I have seen a picture of the 'crypt / garage' that she build on her property, but I can't relocate that link. -------------------------------------------- In summary, I have several questions:
1) Has NO ONE walked into this woman's home, and seen a dead body sitting on the sofa in the past 10 years? 2) Did NO ONE see some stranger using most-likely odd equipment digging up recent graves? Removing vaults / caskets / bodies? This is a link to Findagrave.com, the Lime Hill Cemetery where both of these bodies were buried - and subsequently exhumed: (Click on "Satelite view" and zoom in - you can see the headstones in the cemetery: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=515161&CScn=Lime+Hill+Cemetery& -------------------------------------------- When a person places an entry on Findagrave.com for a small cemetery, they usually list all the names of the people buried in that cemetery. I look on the list, and found neither of these individuals. What's up with that? They should still have head stones in this cemetery, don't ya think? -------------------------------------------- In addition, you can see in this photo that the town June resides in is just a street or two away (near the river), and that there is somewhat of a subdivision right around the corner of this cemetery. Did NO ONE drive by and see anything suspicious? -------------------------------------------- 3) Did the man that removed these bodies simply remove the bodies from their caskets, once he got them out of the ground, and throw the caskets back in the hole he dug, or did he take the caskets along with him to Jean's house? -------------------------------------------- 4) If he DID take the caskets along, are they, too, stored in the garage? -------------------------------------------- 5) Did NO ONE see him unloading bodies from a vehicle into June's house? -------------------------------------------- 6) The light embalming definitely did nothing in favor of the ambiance of this home, but it might have helped with maneuverability. Have you ever tried to move the limb of a deceased person after they have been embalmed? They are called "Stiffs" for a reason! VERY STIFF! I would have paid good money to see the man who exhumed these bodies (he is in his 60's!) and June - she is 91 - trying to get these STIFFS to sit on the sofa! Go ahead and try to get them to bend at the waist! -------------------------------------------- Things that make me go...... HMMMMM! -------------------------------------------- - Michael
:::sounds of Michael pulling out his desk drawer and retrieving his custom-made stamp and ink pad that reads, "TOO DAMNED DUMB TO LIVE!!!" ::::
I keep promising to Mark that I am going to have such a stamp made, but I would need to buy every ink pad that Staples, Office Max and Office Depot has ever carried! I want a forehead-shaped stamp that takes up their entire forehead. Could you imagine all the ink that would be running around this world?
OK. I'm back with you now.
Those people who believe that they have enough power, enough talent, or the right to rewrite history to suit their needs have a lot of work on their hands. It is a very daunting task, indeed. After they rewrite a famous work of art (Mark Twains Adventures of Tom Sawyer, for example!), they need to take a trip to the Louvre in Paris. Their next take is to 'fix' that smile on Mona Lisa's face.
After all, don't you know that even though it was once acceptable and considered proper for people to NOT smile in their portraits, it is now accepted, and in fact, encouraged. My prayers are with you, because you are up against the little known artist, Leonardo da Vinci. I mean - C'mon! Who the hell was **HE**. anyway - and what did he know about it? Today is just that - today! It is not yesterday, and it is not tomorrow! WE are here today, aren't we? We are, indeed, and we can do whatever we want to, to suit ourselves!
Side note: The "Me Generation" doesn't just affect those born during that era. It is an addictive, contagious disease, and I have noted that it spreads across several generations, afflicting folks from 7 yrs. old to 70 yrs. old.
Unfortunately for you, your hard work doesn't stop there! Your task has only just begun. You now must travel to Florence, Italy. There is a statue there, David, by another unknown and worthless individual - Michelangelo.
Doesn't Michelangelo know that it is politically incorrect **IN THIS COUNTRY, AND IN THIS COUNTRY, ALONE!** to be nude in public? Most Americans don't realize that on any summer day, you can visit any public park in Europe, and the visitors to that park are happily sunbathing - in the nude. They would like you to be clothed when you board a city bus, for example, but when you are in any public park, you can sunbathe au natural.
Oh - don't forget the exposed penis on the Statue of David! For this cover-up job, the tools you will require are much more than oil paint and a brush. You must make a complete outfit of clothes for him. A pair of shorts won't do! There are some folk in this country that are also offended by a bare, muscly chest, I don't care how natural it is!
There are some Reubens in Europe that are showing, **GASP** of all things - FAT, naked ladies! After all, boobies are inappropriate. Break out your paint brushes again!
I think this undertaking is going to require a large team that is working together as efficiently as a finely tuned machine, but there is good news ahead. A large portion of the work has already been done for you.
Both in the past and in the present, people are working hard to erase anything linked to Adolph Hitler and / or the Nazis. They have systematically destroyed Third Reich buildings, documents, and anything linked to this horrific period in history. It is an undisputed fact that this reign of terror was singly the worse thing that ever happened to an innocent group of period. Who would want to remember it?
OOOPS! Let's not eliminate music. Acoustic pianos and guitars are outdated. I mean - if it isn't available on a smart phone, what good can it possibly do? How archaic are they ?!? Now harpsichords and pipe organs come to mind. What a tragic waste of time and wood. Nobody uses those things any more. Just think of how many homes can be heated this winter if we demolished every pipe organ in, let's say, St. Louis, alone.
The folks on your team might want to branch out. Send some to destroy timeless art, some to destroy musical relics, and some to tackle huge sculptures. If you want to make the task slaughtering Mark Twain's world famous literature feel like a simple walk in the park, you might want to first sharpen your talons. Considering all things, this next fella was alive 500 years before Mark Twain. First come, first serve! My first thought was that we should completely transcribe the writings of William Shakespeare into common American English. I mean, who the hell speaks in Old English, anymore? I am hard pressed to find anyone who is NOT texting, and bastardizing the hell out of the English Language - much less speaking proper English. I absolutely love it when this opportunity presents itself:
Some idiot: (After hearing someone on the radio, on TV or in person speaking British English):
"Oh, I hate it when they talk like that. Why can't they talk like everybody else?"
Me: "You do realize, of course, that they are speaking proper English. After all, they invented it!
Some idiot: (Gives me a dirty, confused look, and walks away!)
Do you know how many people have never seen this text?
You can approach me at any time of the day or night, and ask me to recite the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales. I can recite the following literature word-for-word, in Middle English, and with the correct rhythm and prose.
The writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue:
Whan that Aprille with his shoores soote
The drought of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every vein in swich liquor
Of which vertu engendred is the flour
When Zephyrus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes and the yonge sun
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne
And smale fowles maken melodye
That slepen all the night with open eye
So priketh hem nature in hir courages
Thanne longen folke to goon pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seeken stronge straundes
To ferne halwes couth in sondry londes
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Canterbury they wende
The hooly blissful martyr for to seeke
That hem hath holpen whan that they were sike
I can't stomach the remodeling shows on TV these days. On a mere whim, these people will go into a home and rip out timeless decor and architecture, and replace it with crap that will be out of style within a year. They have no concern or regard for any history the home or its contents might have. This country, after all, is not well known for preserving a lot of its history.
The United States of America is known world-wide as being the country that quickly destroys it's own history "to build a parking lot", as they will often tell you.
And now, a quote from Rick Steves (world famous travel guide who has, in fact, been around the world several times):
"I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective, because I think Americans tend to be some of the most ethnocentric people on the planet. It's not just Americans, it's the big countries. It's the biggest countries that tend to be ethnocentric or ugly. There are ugly Russians, ugly Germans, ugly Japanese and ugly Americans. You don't find ugly Belgians or ugly Bulgarians, they're just too small to think the world is their norm. "
Translated: Americans incorrectly think the rest of the world revolves around their own small part of the planet, or worse yet, they think the remainder of the world must abide by their (the American's) beliefs, standards and morals - or what is left of them. Or...worse yet...the Americans don't even know they are are harboring or even fostering those thoughts and beliefs.
Incidentally, Rick Steves also says on a regular basis that he has to mind the photography and video that his team captures when he is traveling abroad. He says that it is an unfortunate fact, indeed, that they have to edit the film that they capture because of the taste of "21st Century Americans". He has to eliminate art that is many hundreds or thousands of years older than the United States is, itself, because a few Americans like to think they know what is best for the rest of the country. I think it is yet more amazing that every other country in the world can admire and enjoy these works of art. They have done so for millennium. The only effects they have suffered are a much higher level of education, timeless art, and they have produced ALL of the world's best artists, most of the world's finest musicians, and many more historic figures. (The United States ranks 25th out of the top 34 countries in Math Skills alone. )
A small segway: When I worked on the flower market, I worked with a woman who is a devout Catholic. I had some customers that are first-generation Indian (India) immigrants to this country. This particular group of people are devout Hindus. As a part of many of their customs when they are practicing their religion., they make floral garlands and give them as offerings at the beautiful Hindu temples.
When the devout Catholic asked me "What do they do with these garlands?" and I explained to her the process, she said, "Well, that has nothing do with religion!" In her tightly closed mind, she was thinking, "If it isn't a Catholic belief or tradition, it is not religion!" Can she possibly be serious? The Hindus, for example, were worshiping in their own manner 5,000 (yes, five thousand!) years before Christianity surfaced on the planet! One person's religion is no more - or less - valid than any other persons!
The following picture is from one of the recent pujas (or poojas). I know an Indian woman that makes these garlands. She is a good friend of mine. Her work is exquisite and breathtaking.
Question: Why should we keep reminders of Nazi / Adolph Hitler around?
Answer: As a memento to **NEVER LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN!", and as a much needed history lesson for future generations who never experienced it the first-time-around. Genocide is to be avoided!
Question: What harm can possibly come about from altering Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"?
Answer: My first off-the-hip response is, "Why don't you just rewrite The Bible???", but that rhetorical question is invalid, because that book has been written and rewritten by so many men since the Rosetta Stones were discovered that firm believers in The Bible wouldn't recognize the original text if it was laying directly in front of them. **ANY** time translation (and humans are the translators!) is involved, such an opportunity to "write the story as the writer sees it" is so readily available, that is is absolutely impossible to have untainted text before you.
Another answer: The language Mark Twain used in his books was ABSOLUTELY appropriate for the time the books were written.
People, we can't go back and change literature, we should not change art, and we can't rewrite history. Incidentally, Mark Twains writings are all the above: history, art and literature.
To think one has the right (or the power!) to change a literary piece is doing a gross injustice to both the artist / writer and our future generations. It is definitely a horribly pompous and careless attitude to have by saying to your future generations, "Without your knowledge or consent, I am going to make a permanent change by rewriting and otherwise changing works of art. Because I have a God-complex, you will never know the difference. I am so accustomed to seeing the world from my own small point of view that I thought you should live in the same small, constricted world - so I reduced or eliminated your choices for you."
C'mon, people! Are you really that messed up?
Let me quote the man, himself:
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
The person who is changing this man's work opened his mouth yesterday - and he opened WIDE!
