Happy Birthday Harriet!
I've gotten in the habit of sending birthday wishes in this space and so I wanted to continue the growing tradition by sending my best regards to Harriet the Tortoise. Harriet turned 175 yesterday and she has lived an eventful life on three continents, living through the industrial revolution, the end of slavery, the invention of electricity, cars, and planes, both world wars, and the digital revolution. She is rumored to have been one of three tortoises collected by Charles Darwin during his studies that led to the publication of The Origin of Species. Darwin supposedly named her Harry, thinking she was a boy (this is the guy that formulated the theories that have reshaped modern biology and he can't tell a boy from a girl?) Now she lives at the Austrailian Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter! Can a baby panda compete with this?
For the story, click here.
Good point about Darwin!
Tortoises... hard, looks like ET, wrinkly, and just plain creepy. In the picture it looks like he is about to eat not only the flower but the girls hand! Lives in Australia, 100 gazillion miles away.
Baby Pandas... soft, fluffy, cuddly, looks like and is the size of a teddy bear, and has the most beautiful blue eyes ever. Practically lives next door.
Yeah… how can the two compete! :)
She does kind of look like ET. But at 175 years old, I guess she's earned the right to look however she wants to.
Miles, I heard a funny story about Fernando Valenzuela so I thought I'd pass it along....
Back in 1981 when he was negotiating a salary and Tommy Lasorda asked him what salary he required his answer? "Give us Texas back."
two points--
First, this has been bothering me since I reread this post this morning... electricity was not invented or even discovered that recently. I should have said "harnessed" or something to that effect.
Secondly, I get alot of people telling me to be sure to teach the "real" or "true" history when I tell them about my studies. I usually chuckle inwardly about what those people probably think "real" history is. But I chuckle outwardly when my co-worker David (second generation Mexican American) asks if I know that "you Americans stole half the #@$!ing country from Mexico." I tell him he can have Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California back. We're keeping Colorado and Utah.
They sell t-shirts in the Southwest (AZ, NM, etc.) that say "I didn't cross the border -- the border crossed me."