Yes I realise it has eliminated the need for exercise (How many times
have I sent Heehoo an email when he is sitting in the study right next
door instead of walking over and chatting ?) But it makes communication
simpler and more fun. I just love decoding messages like "do u hve time
4 mtg 2morrow@3 ?"
However, I love my own e mail but hate Heehoo' s e mail addiction. As
much as I love receiving banal and ridiculous jokes, sermons, pictorial
weepers and garbage from my friends , I hate the never ending flow of
information that keeps Heehoo glued to his computer till all hours of
the night....even when we are supposedly on holiday !!
But the thought of being able to communicate anywhere anytime,
regardless of the time zones, is happiness personified.
Now in days gone by, letter writing was a punishment to me. I would
collect beautiful pads of paper with an ENORMOUS picture that was
deliberately spread all over the page, which would necessitate only
the smallest obligatory wordage possible !!
"Dear Aunty Poppy, (written in my best, most ostentatious, boldest
calligraphy style with the biggest possible nib) Thank you for the
beautiful purple art deco vase. I just love it, Your loving niece
Maggie" was all that was necessary because the picture took up the rest
of the page !!
But now, I cannot stop writing to people, in fact, some folk despair
when they receive an e mail from me because they feel obliged to write
back. Some folk I suspect even pretend that my e mail never arrived to
alleviate the necessity of a return reply !!
But hey, who cares, even if I don't get a reply, I just write another
letter to which I do not expect (nay deserve) a reply !!
It is just so darned easy, one letter to twenty relatives !! Just
change the top and the bottom bits and pieces, add a few personalised
inanities, and hey presto, you have contacted the whole family without
a problem. SOOO EASY !!!
I just love it !!
Alaska's lone elephant
to stay put.
22-year-old Maggie
to get her own treadmill
!!
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Animal handlers agonised over the issue for more
than a year: the wisdom of moving Alaska's only elephant away from the
only home she has ever known. Nine elephant experts were consulted from
zoos and animal parks in the United States and Canada, and a decision
was made: Maggie stays.
The 22-year-old African elephant will continue to reside at the Alaska
Zoo -- instead of going to a warmer climate -- with the understanding
that her accommodations will be improved and she'll have to maintain a
busy schedule, including aerobic workouts on an elephant treadmill. In
other words, keepers say, Maggie's life will be all the richer for it.
"We felt we owed Alaska the right to continue to make Alaska the home
for Maggie. She has an adoring crowd. The whole community is her herd,"
said Anita Pritchard, a member of the zoo board that voted
overwhelmingly in favour of keeping Maggie.
Maggie arrived at the zoo in 1983 as an infant when her herd in Kruger
National Park in South Africa was culled. She joined Annabelle, a more
easygoing Asian elephant born in India in 1964.
The Alaska Zoo's relationship with elephants precedes its opening in
1968. Annabelle was the reason the zoo was built, said director Tex
Edwards. A wholesaler won her for selling the most toilet paper. The
prize was either $3,000 or a baby elephant.
The baby elephant was kept in a heated horse stall until the zoo was
ready for her.
When Annabelle died of a chronic foot infection on Dec. 14, 1997, the
question of Maggie's loneliness had to be addressed. Zoo staff wondered
whether she should be moved to another zoo with more elephants. The
American Zoological Association recommends that female elephants be
kept in groups of three or more.
A zoo committee mulled the issue and consulted the experts, Edwards
said. The committee even considered moving Maggie to the 550-acre North
Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, N.C.
But one expert felt that Maggie was healthy and content just where she
was. Most of the others felt her situation wasn't ideal but neither was
moving her, particularly when factoring in the risk of sending her on a
long trip and whether she would fit in at her new home.
The experts weren't concerned about the weather in Anchorage, where
temperatures can dip to 20 below zero in winter.
At a hefty 9,120 pounds, Maggie could stand to lose a little weight.
Zoo officials are talking with engineers and manufacturers about
building Maggie her very own exercise equipment.
The improvements, to be completed in two to three years, will cost an
estimated $500,000 and are part of a $4 million campaign to improve the
zoo. Designing and building the first elephant treadmill could cost
between $150,000 and $250,000, Edwards said. The zoo has talked with
mining experts because they know about heavy loads, conveyers and
belts.
"We hope to be the first zoo in the world with an elephant treadmill,"
Edwards said.
But whether Maggie, who once resided in Zimbabwe, is depressed
because
she spends dark and freezing winters in Alaska has been the subject of
a long and charged debate in the state and across the country.
Facing demands that she be moved to a warmer climate, Alaska Zoo
officials decided to keep her in Anchorage for now but came up with an
unusual proposal: They plan to build this 9,120-pound elephant a
treadmill.
The zoo has been under fire from animal rights groups and some Alaska
residents, who have called for a boycott until Maggie is moved south.
Across the country, similar criticism and internal debates about the
treatment of elephants in captivity have closed exhibits in recent
months, relocating the animals to warmer climates and to sanctuaries
where they could roam for miles like in the wild.
The plan in Anchorage is to complete the treadmill, a first-of-its
kind $100,000 elephant exercise machine, by the summer. It would be 20
feet long and 5 feet wide, featuring a conveyer belt strong enough to
allow Maggie to get her blood flowing and move her creaky joints, zoo
officials say.
A donor has put up the money for the treadmill, officials say, part
of
a roughly $500,000 "elephant house" improvement plan that would double
the space in Maggie's 1,600-square-foot barn and add other amenities.
If it keeps Maggie in shape, preventing the arthritis and foot
infections that have plagued other elephants in the nation's zoos, then
remaining in Anchorage is best for her, zoo officials said. Maggie has
a history of not getting along with other elephants and Smith
contended, as did other zoo officials, that when the Alaska Zoo had two
elephants--Annabelle, an Asian elephant, died of a foot infection in
1997--Maggie was miserable and unusually aggressive.
But animal rights groups and outside elephant experts say it is cruel
to keep an elephant alone, particularly a female who is meant to
socialise with other elephants. Worse than Anchorage temperatures,
which can dip to 20 degrees below zero, they say, is her lack of
elephant companionship. A ZIMBABWEAN ELEPHANT IN ALASKA ON A TREADMILL !! SHAME ON YOU.
Mrs Mary Banfield, widow of George Banfield - both prominent former
members of the Black Eagle Society and late of Suburbs - died on 26th
January at the Village of Happiness, Ramsgate, Natal. Loving
condolences to Alistair and Tess and families. MHDSRIP
"Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
Elie Wiesel
We could learn a lot from crayons.
Some are sharp, some are pretty,
some are dull, some have weird names
and all are different colours....... but
they exist very nicely in the same box.'
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