My first name is easy to figure out—everyone calls me Liz. Obviously comes from Elizabeth, not in my anagram. Silly me. Should have noticed the contact us button. This would be awesome for Wow, and we definitely do have the numbers to support us, whereas with a small blog we’d have to get established. Hopefully a few more people read our conversation, also contact the site, and then we can have a lot of support. As I said, I posted the lizard link on the Ann Coulter page and got some nice responses. Lizards are much more fun than AC. One poster offered her porch as a breeding site, which would be much more comfortable than the island. I know they were interested in a local breeding program (which is preferable for the lizards), but maybe they should take her up on it ;)! Perhaps she’d come out and serve iced tea to the conservationists periodically… Thinking of the ring-tailed lemurs…maybe your whole family just has an attraction to animals with black and white coloration. Obviously they come in different colors. Sort of reminded me of ice cream for a minute there, almost wrote flavors. You mention zoos, but the best way to test the lemur-love hypothesis would be Madagascar. Next on the list for you guys? ;). I saw fp on another thread and I believe I’ll ask him about the poetry. I read a bit about haiku but that was a while ago. I’m glad to know that you all originally shared your thoughts on things less divisive and less ephemeral than politics. I enjoyed the lit quotes thread. Prufrock and Douglas Adams—yes! I used to be more into astronomy but that has gone by the wayside. I think I used to know a lot more things—and I don’t anymore. Gotta work on that! I had not heard of your daughter’s Emily Dickinson poem before, but it seems fitting for someone who loves both nature and astronomy. Such images and metaphor! That has got to be one of Emily’s best, and as I said I’d never heard it before. I have a book of her that I dip into occasionally. I’m mix and match when it comes to my poetry selections, but I’ll always have the door open for Emily. Thank Hines for replying all the way from Antarctica for me! To everyone—if you would like to see a weekly animal thread, please contact the site as well. Joan had some suggestions about how to do it and also, it wouldn’t just have to be about exotic animals. We could discuss your beloved dogs and pets too! Thanks! I’ll start on an email to them right now. We’ll see how it goes, hopefully we’re persuasive enough, but thanks for taking the plunge—like a penguin! Liz

Did you hear about Joan’s and my idea to ask Wow for a weekly animal thread/column? If you like the idea, email Wow! Thanks, BL.

You know, you just might want to go with a plain ‘ol alligator. Maybe one with a football in its mouth. Google image? Bet you can find one. Speaking of animals, and this goes for Sibelle also, another poster (Joan) and I have had the idea of asking Wow to do a weekly animal thread, on both exotic and domestic animals (everyone loves their dogs). We’re writing to them now, and if you like the idea, send them an email! Thanks, BL.

Btw, this is an awesome thread!

God, I love that poem. You guys don’t have “I grow old, I grow old, I wear the bottom of my trousers rolled.” and “head (grown slightly bald) brought in on a platter”. Aren’t there just some days like that?

Reading a short story by Carol Shields—huge book so forgot which one, but she gives the mother of Ernest Hemingway a classic line which actually becomes sort of a touchstone among the people who hear it. I’ve started to adopt it—“That would be useful.” Half of its appeal is that it was said in regard to someone offering to wash dinner dishes.

I’m afraid you’re all going to think I’m really insensitive. This was a thought-provoking piece that made me change my opinion several times. When I first saw the title, I was outraged that anyone could compare someone who committed suicide on a web-cam to a confessional poet. The poets contemplated their art and sublimated their emotions instead of just acting it out. As I read on and read the comments, I realized the death in itself was in a way a work of art. The confessional poets told us what they felt and warned of their oftentimes impending death. Not all died and those that did they drew their death out over a longer period of time. As I went even further, I was impressed even more by the sadness of it all—that in order to create the “work of art” the artists had to die. But why should suicide be a work of art at all? It isn’t. We need to live in a culture where suicide is not celebrated, where people don’t want to watch a person killing themselves on a blog. I really cannot understand how that sort of thing should have an audience. Is it the ultimate way of getting attention? Oh, I hope not. It is the reactions to the suicide-in-progress that make the story more chilling. But at the same time, I know suicide is an expression of honest pain, of no one listening, of problems not paid attention to. So I guess my anger, along with many others, is with a culture that fails young people to the point where they think that this is the only way (and an acceptable one at that) out of their problems. I know someone whose family member recently commited suicide. She whispered to me…”why didn’t he wait?”. Teenagers don’t believe this, but life does eventually get better most of the time. I can sort of understand suicide in adults, but not in teenagers. They still need time to decide if the pain of life is worth it. And suicide so rarely is.

Oops, meant ! instead of first ?. Although that would probably be the response of MSM. “stop giving her publicity? What?!”

I have said this for a while—stop giving Palin publicity? And if you do because you fear or hope she’s going to run again in 2012, make it about her governmental decisions? After all, her kids are not going to be running the country…right?

I never thought about the backlash a name might get in the real world…guess I shouldn’t name my imaginary future boy Xerxes then…old Persian name. I don’t like many popular female names. The etomology of names, however, is always fascinating. No offense to any Kathleens, but I once read it came from a word meaning torture. Hmm…

The two stories might have some bearing on each other. The Dems might need the two seats to pass Obama’s plan. I think part of the reason why the media ignores the financial story is because the other two stories are unusual. Govs get impeached about once in a blue moon. And let’s be honest, did we really expect oversight of how they doled out the money? It’s unfortunate, but it’s more of the same goverment games. More people can understand and relate to the whole Senate thing—it feels more immediate to them. Though, of course, it isn’t—if anything the money is. I agree with Rainbow Power about people putting their head in the sand about the economy—I’m guilty of that myself, esp when there’s so much bad news. On the other hand, apparently ABC says the questions they’re getting from the public to ask Obama are overwhemingly about the economy…

Congrats, you appear to have saved 15% on your auto insurance! Check your bill. They said on the site that they would try to have a breeding program for the lizards on the actual island, but you never know…I know your gator avatar comes from the Florida gators, but isn’t this amusing to have a lizard and a gator in conversation? Don’t eat me!

I’m really enjoying this, too. I’m a big emailer and writer, and for a while most of my communications were just short little things relevant to the present, not really with a lot of thought involved. Thank you. I’ve been reading FP’s posts on other subjects, and I had no idea he was an expert on Japanese poetry! This is amazing! I really enjoyed when Diana posted Ithaca…a friend of mine mentioned the poem to me a few months ago and at the time I just had to look it up. I love that poem. In addition to the animal site, I think a literature and poetry site would be welcome as well. I think it would be especially helpful to do it through WoW (though I guess they have a book section already), especially the animal section, but I don’t know how to do that. Do we stand prostrate at the founders’ feet or something? Anywhere we can email suggestions? Yes, let’s do it together! If we wanted to make a site separate from WoW, I don’t know much about websites in general—tried to help a friend of mine and didn’t work. Do you, in addition to being an animal guru, know much about website design? If not, I know a very easy way to get it off the ground would be to use blogspot.com. I put selections from my (currently unsuccesful) literary magazine on there and it’s free and easy to use. I still haven’t figured out how to post pictures, but I’m sure it’s possible. We could feature Merrell and her animal art, in addition to that sculptor she showed us! I’m glad you enjoyed the links. I thought the artist showed a lot of the same passion as you. On one of the political posts I put the link about the blue anoles…and got some very positive responses! Good thing I didn’t post my politics. I’m more of a theory person, so even if I did have an opinion I did want to defend, I would probably get shot down because I didn’t have links and proof from all the hot blogs and such. When I learn more, I adjust my theory, so I might not always stay on the same side as I began with. Which is just fodder for the scoundrels right there. I’m a Hitchhiker’s Trilogy fan, so I really enjoyed Douglas Adams’ “Last Chance to See”. Apparently he once hiked up a mountain in a rhino costume to raise money for the WWF, (I think? Know he went up the mountain). Don’t know if it’s mentioned in that book, but as a frequent costume character for my zoo job I have to say, I admire his guts. I’ll have to check out more Durrell in addition to Galkidas. It’s a shame she’s not as welcoming as he. It is interesting how Goodall managed to maintain her civility when her other two “angels” are/were famously rude and eccentric. It says a lot about her character. It does seem the conservation issues faced by both gorillas and orangs are more severe than those of chimps…but, like on the political threads, if you’re rude, you have (or should have) less of a chance of being taken seriously. Once again, there’s a way to do things without being rude. Does your daughter have a favorite Emily Dickinson poem? I’m between “I cannot live with you” and “I’m nobody, who are you.” Don’t know all the poems by heart though. There are so many people to admire on this site. Is this the same daughter who’s the astronomer? My goodness. Actually, the comment by the artist reminds me a bit of “the brain is wider than the sky”. That’s what nature and knowledge both are to me. The Rata Forest when I looked at it kind of reminded me of an Alice in Wonderland setting—I don’t know why. Thinking of the animated Disney cartoon—just the variety of colors. I agree with your comment that “life is just a continuing story”. When animals surprise us—like your hippo story, and your crocodiles—they are just living their lives which we happen to be observing, or in cases of habitat destruction, intruding upon. We become part of the story for a minute, and it’s our decision on whether we want to alter the story or not. You’re right, nothing should surprise us, except we often forget we’re part of that story, too! It reminds me of how elephants have their favorite feeding grounds, they set out on their journey, come back years later (anelephant never forgets) and presto, there are people there. Both want to continue their story. Who wins? All right, I’ll end this post. But let’s see what we can do in the way of an animal section on Wow!

Well, there would be several ways to find out about this. First, do any of them hang out around your car? Second, have you heard any unidentified Australian accents emitted from your back porch. The website mention the species’s similiarity to the American anole and that is why they hope for breeding success. Perhaps we could use your back porch…;).

Now, I am nowhere near as up on animals as Joan, but what do you think about Wow having an animal stories thread? Everyone always talks about their dogs in the profile pictures, so it wouldn’t always have to be an exotic animal issue, but I think the exotic animals would also garner a lot of interest, as they are truly fascinating. Sort of like a weekly national Geographic…? I nominate Joan, I know she’s busy, but she could supply at least a year of animal tales. Really, what do you think?