Giraffes, Graffiti and Gae's Gravity

Giraffes are Groovy



I love the giraffe exhibit at the Portland zoo because it is sort of down in a bowl, so you are really close to their heads... they have such fabulous faces, in addition to their long necks...



When I was a kid I went to a circus and got to feed a giraffe a peanut—their tongues are ROUGH like cat tongues, only HUGE... very strange feeling.







Graffiti



While this middle section is SUPPOSED to be an AMUSEMENT, today I am doing more of a GRIPE. You see, I've had the unfortunate experience of learning a lot about graffiti culture recently... Might be I know somebody who got busted...



Apparently the unreadable word things are 'tags', and if you like somebody's tag, then you tag NEAR it, but never over the top, as that is a sign of disrespect. People who tag together are a crew. And I'm mad at them. GRRRRRRR



In actuality, I LOVE wall murals—if somebody creates something of beauty, I really love it, even if they really weren't supposed to. But this tagging stuff to me just seems like dogs peeing on stuff to mark the territory.



And I wish I had NOT had the occasion to learn any of this.







Gae's Gravity: The Pull of Gravity by Gae Polisner



I've read and reviewed this—FABULOUS book for the younger teen or tween in your life... It came out in paperback relatively recently, and Gae is living the dream as they work on a movie script for it.



Blurb from Amazon: 



While Nick Gardner’s family is falling apart, his best friend, Scooter, is dying from a freak disease. The Scoot’s final wish is that Nick and their quirky classmate, Jaycee Amato, deliver a prized first-edition copy of Of Mice and Men to the Scoot’s father. There’s just one problem: the Scoot’s father walked out years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. So, guided by Steinbeck’s life lessons, and with only the vaguest of plans, Nick and Jaycee set off to find him.



Characters you’ll want to become friends with and a narrative voice that sparkles with wit make this a truly original coming-of-age story.