As we all know, Walking Dead season 7 starts on Sunday evening, October 23. In case you need a refresher, or even if you don't, here's Monty Python alum and comedy legend John Cleese (wiki) recapping the first six seasons:
ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include instructions on tracking humans, Dave Barry's 1996 Halloween column, debunking the 5-second rule, photos and videos of ships vs big waves, and, for Rita Hayworth's birthday, an excellent compilation of her dancing.
"Our founding fathers would have never tolerated any of this crap. For God’s sake, they were blowing peoples’ heads off because they put a tax on their breakfast beverage. And it wasn’t even coffee"
Back in the 80's, I had a VHS tape of the wildlife documentary movie Animals Are Beautiful People(highly recommended for kids and grandkids); my kids used to watch it repeatedly, which meant I saw it repeatedly, too. One of their favorite bits was of a variety of animals getting drunk on marula fruit which had ripened and fallen to the ground, then fermented* - here's a clip:
By the way, one of my favorite authors is James Thurber, and one of my favorite (very) short stories of his (actually one of his fables) is about a bear who drank too much, then gave it up. I've posted it below the photos.
So, below are a few animals who are (probably) not actually drunk, but definitely look as if they've also run into some fermented fruit:
In the woods of the Far West there once lived a brown bear who could take it or let it alone. He would go into a bar where they sold mead, a fermented drink made of honey, and he would have just two drinks. Then he would put some money on the bar and say, "See what the bears in the back room will have," and he would go home. But finally he took to drinking by himself most of the day.
He would reel home at night, kick over the umbrella stand, knock down the bridge lamps, and ram his elbows through the windows. Then he would collapse on the floor and lie there until he went to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed and his children were very frightened.
At length the bear saw the error of his ways and began to reform. In the end he became a famous teetotaler and a persistent temperance lecturer. He would tell everybody that came to his house about the awful effects of drink, and he would boast about how strong and well he had become since he gave up touching the stuff. To demonstrate this, he would stand on his head and on his hands and he would turn cartwheels in the house, kicking over the umbrella stand, knocking down the bridge lamps, and ramming his elbows through the windows.
Then he would lie down on the floor, tired by his healthful exercise, and go to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed and his children were very frightened.
Moral: You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.
ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include a coffee-beer hybrid, the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, making raisins before seedless grapes, and where the Nazis hung out in occupied Paris.
