It’s
the least expensive cat toy in the world.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016
All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label Animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animals. Show all posts
Friday, February 5, 2016
Friday, January 22, 2016
Donkey and elephant enter politics
Ever wondered about the origin of the
Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant?
Thank Thomas Nast, the 19th
century political cartoonist for Harper’s
Weekly.
Think back 146 years, to January 1870,
when Nast drew a cartoon titled “A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion.” He used
the jackass/donkey to depict Democratic newspapers in the South, savaging Edwin
Stanton, who had been Lincoln’s Secretary of War.
About four years later, Nast drew a
bloated and berserk elephant to represent the Republican electorate during a
political brouhaha about the prospect that President Ulysses Grant might run
for a third term (he didn’t).
Imagine what Nast might have done with
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram….
Copyright
© Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Your pedestrian ancestors
Imagine
living the rest of your life without your car.
Hold
on, breathe! I didn’t say “without your
cell phone,” I only mentioned “car.”
In
1903 most people weren’t even thinking “car,” let alone “cell phone.” Most
people walked to where they wanted to go, most of the time.
Here’s
a slightly blotchy video of downtown Boston more than 100 years ago, with a
couple streetcars, lots of horse-drawn vehicles and stunning throngs of people
on the move on the sidewalks. Look at how much clothing they’re wearing. Look
at the blobs of horse hockey on the street.
The
cameraman passes the Jordan Marsh store, and travels on
Boylston Street to Copley Square and the Boston Public Library.
Even
without cars, look at the traffic!
Notice
there aren’t any parking spaces. I guess nobody ever parked really, the
streetcars and carriages just stopped long enough to let passengers get on or
off.
 |
| Boston firemen and their nags in 1900 |
It’s
estimated there were 21.5 million horses and mules in the United States in 1900,
about 1 horse/mule for every three people. (Today, about 6.9 million horses for
323 million people, a horse/people ratio of about 1:47).
Of
course, this silent film doesn’t convey any sense of the smell on city streets.
Imagine what 14,000 horses in 1903 Boston could do to the fragrance of the downtown.
About 33 horses can produce a ton of horse stuff daily, so think about 425 tons
of manure dropping to the streets of Boston every day. Carting the horse manure
out of town was a big business.
Horses
were a big business in many ways. In 1900 in Boston, there were 105 carriage
dealers, 99 harness makers, 51 hay dealers, 30 wheelwrights, 238 horseshoers
and 192 livery, boarding and sales stables.
Copyright
© Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Friends hold on
It’s OK if your friend weighs 300 pounds and hasn’t learned
to talk yet.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Carpe diem, annotated….
 |
| Seize the dawn, your way.... |
 |
| ditto for "...every beast of the field..." |
 |
| "...and every bird of the air..." |
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Who nose?
Sometimes it takes
another sniff before you can decide….
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Sometimes elephants are people, too
Elephants can be lonely, too.
Shirley, a former circus elephant, was
alone—without any Elephas maximus companions—in a zoo for 20 years after she
retired from the show ring.
The old lady was finally transferred to an
elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, where she was reunited with an aging circus
pal, Jenny.
The short story is: they remembered each other.
If you can watch these videos without getting a
bit moist around the eyes, you need a little more heart.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Think about what matters….
If you think you aren’t sure what “pathos” means, it’s your
lucky day, take a look at this picture:
Paul Farmer isn’t an animal rights activist—he’s a doctor
and an anthropologist and a humanitarian, he’s one of those people who doesn’t
mind that he’s uncomfortable while he’s actually doing good.
His plaintive remark about lives that “matter less” was not
directed at this bear or this scene. He was talking about our concern, or lack
thereof, for the human lives that are degraded and could be made better by our more
conscientious attention to doing the right thing.
The picture won’t let you look away easily. You know the
bear isn’t happy. The boys are oblivious to that reality.
Think about some realities that you know you shouldn’t
ignore.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
My thinking cat
You can’t stop yourself from saying it out loud, right?
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
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