Archive for August 2011

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The Big Yellow Rabbit…

August 30, 2011

  – – Someday, we may awaken to find our streets taken over by gigantic plushies, such as this 13-meter-high yellow bunny crafted by Dutch artist Florintijn Hofman in Orebro, Sweden.  Although he looks like he’s had a less than favorable encounter with the Cloverfield monster, the Big Yellow Bunny is part of the openART festival in Orebro, where the art is in town, and you can walk around it!  “Open Art” may not sit well as a concept with those who regard art as something to be possessed and hung on the wall…

…the Big Yellow Bunny questions the purpose of the public space, and changes the perspective of the monuments within.  One can also imagine the even more enormous child owner of the bunny coming to claim it in a Twilight Zone type scenario!   The work will be for sale, should you want a 13-meter yellow rabbit.- -Perhaps we could set up a steel cage wrasslin’ match for the BYB with Clifford, the Big Red Dog, or the 16-foot high pink and white wrecking ball bunny featured in an H & R Block commercial in the past; it’s all good…

Hah! – – And to think that they said art was dead!

Categories: absurdities, animals, Brilliant but twisted, cool things, furry art
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Geico’s Animal Eighties Artists…

August 28, 2011

 – – Eighties music played by a dog and a bird?- -Sure, why not!  Mr. Butters the dog seems to know his way around the keyboard, but the cockatoo seems a little pitchy on the vocals.  It’s just a Geico commercial, and it’s unlikely that this version of  “Take On Me” will win on American Idol…

Categories: absurdities, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, feathered friends, furry, furry commercials, music, television
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Did National Zoo Animals Anticipate Earthquake?

August 26, 2011

 – – While Washington’s humans continued to yammer into their cell phones prior to the August 23rd earthquake, those of the furry persuasion at the National Zoo may have known what was coming.  Zoo staff reported that before the 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit, lemurs were seen to have sounded an alarm, apes abandoned their food, flamingos rushed into a huddle, and a gorilla let out a shriek.  Even ducks and beavers interrupted feeding and other activities to jump into  water.  The zoo’s giant pandas, however, did not appear to respond to the earthquake.

Similar agitated behaviors have long been reported from captive animal populations prior to earthquakes elsewhere…

Categories: animal behavior, animals, furry
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Mystery Roadkill!

August 24, 2011

 – – I, for one, can never get enough of mystery roadkill!  One such dead white mammal was found on a Douglas County road in Minnesota that boasts five claws, dark tufts of hair on its back and head, and long toenails.- -Well actually, it’s not boasting anything, such being one of the limitations of being dead…

While the head suggests a canine, the right front leg appears to have five toes, which is not typical for canines.  The long toenails are also not typical for an active canine.  While the creature is similar to a badger, the tail is much longer than usual for such.  Other guesses about the identity of the mystery carcass have ranged from a skunk to a wolverine to a wolf or, of course, the mythical chupacabra!   The usual rumors are also flying about secret government testing, without which I wouldn’t be here.

…while the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has been unable to conclusively identify the carcass,  further testing is planned.  Meanwhile, guinea hens and cats in the area are missing, and burrowed holes from four to ten inches in size were spotted near where the animal was found.  The best guess on the identity of the deceased at this point is that it’s a badger with mange…or is it?!   Dramatic Fox

Categories: animals, anomalies, mysteries, unexplained, unidentified
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DirecTV’s Giant Panda

August 22, 2011

 – – DirecTV has a new commercial featuring Vietnamese comedian Dat Phan, who plays a character called “Whale,” so named because he’s a “big boy in the casino.”  Everything that Whale does is “crazy big,” so he hangs out with tall caucasian models and a huge panda called Coco, who eats a bamboo stick while Whale watches Rango on television!

…the commercial, however, has been found offensive by some in the Asian American community due to its playing off Asian stereotypes such as Dat Phan’s forced accent and short stature, a giant Koi fish, and the enormous panda who eats bamboo.  DirecTV had earlier reaped ire for a commercial which played off black stereotypes…

…as for me, I’d love to sit with a gigantic panda and watch animation!


Categories: absurdities, furry, television
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Allstate’s “Raccoon Mayhem” Rocks!

August 19, 2011

 – – The Allstate “Mayhem” guy (Dean Winters) in this commercial is representing a raccoon, and every expense has been spared in his raccoon impersonation;  he’s clearly human, he’s wearing a suit, and the only nod to his status as a raccoon are dark circles around his eyes!  You could make yourself look more like a raccoon with a little construction paper…

The acting, however, is another matter; the Mayhem man says, “I’m a raccoon, and this time in your attic has been the best week of my raccoon life!”  He then proceeds to jubilantly demonstrate the things that raccoons can do in an attic, like playing havoc with the electrical wiring, throwing around the insulation, scratching the rafters,  and chewing a hole in the roof, through which we are shown Winters as ‘coon protruding.  “I’m the smartest raccoon I know!,” brags Winters in character, adding that he’s already had “like four babies.”  When Winters walks away from the house at the end of the commercial, he looks like Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight walking away from the hospital before it blows…this should further solidify the raccoon rep as bad boys of the furry community!

The dark humor of Raccoon Mayhem is little less than brilliant!

Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry, television
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Fugitive Cow…

August 17, 2011

 – – I’ve always felt empathy for fugitive cows, those bovines that feel the bloodline of the aurochs stir in them, and so do not go quietly to the slaughter… 

…and so to Yvonne, the six-year-old German cow, I say, You go, girl!  No milk dud, Yvonne escaped in May from a farm in Muehldorf, Germany where she was being prepared for the slaughter.  She made a new home for herself in the Bavarian woods, gaining the notice of authorities when Yvonne jumped in front of German police cars.  Deemed a traffic threat, hunters were then authorized to shoot the cow, which outraged animal rights activists.  An Austrian animal protection group then either offered or has already bought Yvonne from her original farm for 700 euros. 

While receiving much attention, Yvonne remained on the lam, prompting efforts to lure her in by sending bovine family members and friends into the wild.  A bull was even brought in by animal rights activists in an effort to romance the cow, but the bull turned out to be castrated, and Yvonne wasn’t fooled by this flimsy deception.  Things got weirder still when an animal psychic was consulted by the animal rights activists.  The psychic reported having contacted the cow by telepathy, saying that Yvonne was fine but didn’t feel ready to come out of hiding, fearing that the humans would lock her up and that she’d lose her freedom!

Meanwhile, the Hindu community recently issued a statement calling for German authorities to withdraw permission for hunters to shoot Yvonne, saying that the decision was ill-advised.  A German newspaper has also created a Facebook page, and offered a reward of over $14,000 to anyone who can capture Yvonne…

…my sympathies are on the side of the cow on the run, who has probably connected with the underground and awaits the furry revolution…long life and good fortune to you, counter-culture bovine!- -Fight the power, Yvonne!

Categories: animal rights, animals, furry, furry causes, furry heroes, strange happenings
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Real Roadrunners…

August 14, 2011

 – – I love the Warner Bros. Roadrunner cartoons as much as anyone, although I venerate the coyote and like the roadrunner, and if involved would probably negotiate, and try to find Wile E. something else to eat that he might be happy with, maybe order him up a pizza and share a slice with him, canine-to-canine.   In reality, however, roadrunners are not tall, skinny birds that can travel in a blur of motion, make “meep-meep” sounds, and defeat Acme-supplied coyote geniuses. 

They are, however, tough and resourceful birds who are more likely to be doing the murdering than running from would-be murderers.  They are almost exclusively carnivorous, and will eat rattlesnakes, sinking their beaks into the snake and repeatedly smashing it into the ground until the snake is both dead and tenderized in a technique aptly named, the Centrifugal Slam; the snake is then swallowed whole, bit by bit!   Roadrunners will also eat tarantula hawks (an insect), horned lizards, and other birds…all in all, a bird who would rather fight than flee!

Just a reminder that cartoons are rarely accurate sources for aspiring ornithologists or zoologists, and an animal’s lethality should not be judged by its appearance!

Categories: animal behavior, animals, feathered friends
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Waiter, There’s a Fly…

August 12, 2011

 – – People are forever finding flies and other repulsive foreign objects in their food, in some cases putting such objects in the food item themselves in the hopes of pursuing profitable litigation or at least getting a free meal.  I’ve found hair in restaurant food on numerous occasions.  Well, along these lines a woman in China recently bought some yogurt, ate half of it in the morning, and put the remainder in her refrigerator, returning that afternoon to consume the rest of it.  When the afternoon’s yogurt tasted funny, the woman spat it out to find…a dead fly!

 

We hope you weren’t eating, gentle readers.  Anyways, when the woman complained to the yogurt manufacturer, Bright Dairy & Food Co., company officials didn’t apologize or offer the customer a refund.  Rather, they asked her to autopsy the fly to make sure that it had gotten into the yogurt before she had opened it.  This rather put an end to the matter, as there aren’t many medical examiners offering fly autopsies.

Instances of food adulteration like this have given rise to use of the term mealbreaker to refer to a nasty, non-edible surprise found in food while it is being eaten.   Examples might include the bloody bandage reportedly found baked into a pizza, and of course the overalls found in Mrs. Murphy’s chowder…


Categories: insects, strange happenings, unexplained, weird
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Liberating Lobsters…

August 10, 2011

 – – In Gloucester, Mass. on August 3rd (Wheel Turning Day),  a group of thirty Tibetan Buddhists bought 534 live lobsters from a seafood wholesaler, clipped the bands binding their claws, and then released them back into the Atlantic from a whale-watching vessel, saving them at least temporarily from the boiling pot.   Among those setting the lobsters free was a chef who no longer cooks live shellfish.  The Buddhists typically liberate masses of the expensive seafood a couple of times each year.

While the Buddhists recognize that the lobsters may be re-captured, it is felt that by the action, the lobsters have had a longer life, even if only by an hour.  Lobsters to the Buddhist are viewed equally with other life forms, with their happiness and suffering  just as important to them as it would be to higher life forms. 

And for the fishermen paid for their labors, it’s a win-win proposition…I dunno what the lobsters think about being captured and then released, but they may perceive it as a near-death experience…

Categories: animal rights, animals, aquatic, philosophy
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Comments: 3 Comments

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