Friday, November 20, 2009

Zelda, the Battery Park turkey, says, "Thanksgiving, Shmanksgiving!"


Here she is, bold as brass, a little over a week before the holiday on which millions of her co-speciesists will be roasted or, for the brave, deep-fried, calmly resting on a well-traveled footpath in a busy park in downtown Manhattan. I first spotted her (at the time, I was unaware of her name, and insufficiently steeped in turkey lore to perceive her gender) shortly before Thanksgiving three years ago. I saw her again in March of 2007. In a comment on that post, ChickenUnderwear pointed me to a New York Times City Room blog post post in which Sarah Grimké Aucoin, director of the New York City Urban Park Rangers, gives her history and name, including its provenance (Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott, who wandered Battery Park in her episodes of mental distress). I don't know the average, non-Thanksgiving threatened, turkey life span, but I wish Zelda many more years of wandering the park.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Someone in Myanmar visited my blog.

I'm delighted, of course. Could it be an indication that President Obama's visit to Asia is bearing fruit? Perhaps. I'm curious to know, though, how my reader in Rangoon got to S-A B by way of Amazon's Christmas page?