Axis Mundi X discussion
The San Diego Zoo
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Sarah
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Mar 19, 2008 06:03PM
Has anyone here been to the San Diego Zoo recently? I'm going to be in San Diego this weekend and we're thinking about going. But I have a bird phobia and don't want to go if there are birds just roaming around freely.
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Shelia and I went 3 years ago. I don't remember birds roaming freely. Birds freak me out so I think I would remember something like that.
Donald, I've been to Balboa Park before but I just didn't go to the zoo.
Mod
It's all happening at the zoo.
I do believe it,
I do believe it's true.
It's a light and tumble journey
From the East Side to the park;
Just a fine and fancy ramble
To the zoo.
But you can take the crosstown bus
If it's raining or it's cold,
And the animals will love it
If you do.
Somethin' tells me
It's all happening at the zoo.
The monkeys stand for honesty,
Giraffes are insincere,
And the elephants are kindly but
They're dumb.
Orangutans are skeptical
Of changes in their cages,
And the zookeeper is very fond of rum.
Zebras are reactionaries,
Antelopes are missionaries,
Pigeons plot in secrecy,
And hamsters turn on frequently.
What a gas! You gotta come and see
At the zoo.
Mod
I can stay awake all night, if need be —
Cold as an eel, without eyelids.
Like a dead lake the dark envelops me,
Blueblack, a spectacular plum-fruit.
No airbubbles start from my heart. I am lungless
And ugly, my belly a silk stocking
Where the heads and tails of my sisters decompose.
Look, they are melting like coins in the powerful juices —
The spidery jaws, the spine-bones bared for a moment
Like the white lines on a blueprint.
Should I stir, I think this pink and purple plastic
Guts-bag would clack like a child’s rattle,
Old grievances jostling each other, so many loose teeth.
But what do you know about that
My fat pork, my marrowy sweetheart, face-to-the-wall?
Some things in this world are indigestible.
You wooed me with the wolf-headed fruit bats
Hanging from their scorched hooks in the moist
Fug of the Small Mammal House.
The armadillo dozed in his sandbin
Obscene and bald as a pig, the white mice
Multiplied to infinity like angels on a pinhead
Out of sheer boredom. Tangled in the sweat-wet sheets
I remembered the bloodied chicks and the quartered rabbits.
You checked the diet charts and took me to play
With the boa constrictor in the Fellows’ Garden.
I pretended I was the Tree of Knowledge.
I entered your bible, I boarded your ark
With the sacred baboon in his wig and wax ears
And the bear-furred, bird-eating spider
Clambering round its glass box like an eight-fingered hand.
I can’t get it out of my mind
How our courtship lit the tindery cages —
Your two-horned rhinoceros opened a mouth
Dirty as a bootsole and big as a hospital sink
For my cube of sugar: its bog breath
Gloved my arm to the elbow.
The snails blew kisses like black apples.
Nightly now I flog apes owls bears sheep
Over their iron stile. And still don’t sleep.
- Sylvia Plath
Sarah, some zoos have peacocks roaming freely, but I can't remember if the San Diego zoo has roaming peacocks (insert joke here) or not. They have roaming peacocks in the Milwaukee Zoo. I took a while to adjust to them. If they do, they can be a bit freaky...plus the geese in zoos tend to be quite brave. Stay away from food court type areas, because that's where the birds tend to congregate. Have fun:)
Anthony, that's what I was wondering about. The San Francisco zoo has peacocks roaming around and those dudes are ginormous! Freaky freaky. I think I should call them and ask, maybe. Otherwise we may go to Sea World.
Mod
If the Zoo itself is out, you should think about the Wild Animal Park.http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wap/index....
It's only a bit north of the Zoo, and is dedicated to providing enough space for the animals to roam around in something like a natural habitat, and tours are provided on a tram.
Thanks everyone for your comments.Meghan, if we go to the zoo Jade just might get a present in the mail!
Mod
Sylvia Plath freaks me out almost as much as birds.
Rindis, I would actually rather go to the Wild Animal Park, but we will be limited on time and the Wild Animal Park is 35 miles away.Giraffes are one of my favorite animals and I won't be able to see them at the regular zoo. :( Plus the cages will probably make me a little sad.
Mod
yeah, but that would mean you'd have to go to the post office to mail it. You should just go online and order something. ha ha ha
:PActually they have online shopping at sandiegozoo.org. But that's not really the same as bringing home a souvenir.
Of course, I need to use up all of my stamps since the postage is going up again. Maybe I could stuff an elephant in an envelope and put fifty stamps on it, Mrs. Weasley-style. Heh.
Aren't you impressed though? You got your birthday and Easter stuff on time this year. Nay, early.
Well, all, I'm happy to report that in spite of one peacock and one peahen strutting around as if they owned the joint, I made it through the zoo alive. I also can't decide if zoos are awesome for helping to protect endangered animals, or if they suck for keeping the animals in such small pens. one little duiker looked like he was trapped in a corner of what was already a rather small area and it made me want to let him loose so he could run free. The New Guinea Singing Dog was all by himself and that made me sad because dogs are pack animals. He did have a pretty fluffy pillow to lay on, though.We saw a monkey try to hump an otter and the otter was having none of it.
After the zoo we went to see my friend Mara star in Dancing In The Dark with Scott Bakula at the Old Globe Theater. After the show Mara introduced us to Scott and I was perfectly able to resist the urge to say "Ziggy says there's a 75.8% chance that you're here to make sure the show makes it to Broadway." He was very nice and we got a picture with him, too.
