Jelly beans? I never thought much about them until the Reagan years, when we were told that the President kept a dish of the Jelly Belly brand on his desk. That must have awakened some ancient childhood memory, because since then, I've found it fun to buy a batch now and then. I'm not much for sweets but what's intriguing about jelly beans is the variety of flavors, most of them pretty accurate renditions of the real thing, juxtaposed in sometimes jarring ways -- you can go from icky licorice (I've never cared for licorice) to "buttered popcorn," to watermelon or coffee (two of my favorites) in a trice. That's why today's jelly-bean-style mashup brings together disparate items of unrelated "flavors," each of which may evoke different reactions, like these:
The Vain Burglar: Thanks to Washington-DC area radio WBIG's Lisa for mentioning this odd tale of a burglar being sought by police who didn't like the photo they were using, so he sent them one he liked better over his cell phone. This is being billed as a really dumb thief, and we do know those exist -- I heard a story somewhere yesterday about one who broke into a place but used the victim's computer to check his facebook page and didn't log off! But to play devil's advocate, what if this photo-guy is really clever, and sent a photo he took of someone else, over a stolen cell phone? Time will tell. No reports yet that the gent has been collared by the long arm of the law.
Looking Ahead To Veterans Day: Thanks to a friend who sent me this piece: http://www.rememberingthebrave.org/speech/. It pretty much speaks for itself, with Veterans Day coming up. It's about Marines, and appears to have been photographed at the Marine base and museum at Quantico, Virginia, but I think those of us who did our service in other branches will nevertheless be grateful for the Marines' legendary expertise with photographic equipment in addition to their weapons. Don't forget to mark the day tomorrow.
I Was Just Lion Around When This Deer...: Another DC-area tale of a confused deer who leapt the enclosure at the National Zoo and landed in with...two lions! By the time the deer was rescued, it was a goner and had to be dispatched. Evidently most spectators were rooting for the deer, and mothers rushed their innocent kids away. My contrarian instincts tell me, however, that:
- This should have been a great learning experience for zoo visitors; isn't this why we have zoos?
- The report suggests that the lions were ineffectual or perhaps overfed, apparently failing to recognize "prey" for what it was; how otherwise could they have failed to kill the deer? It speaks to how our zoo animals aren't really "themselves" in the captive environment.
- Deer are in overpopulation almost everywhere in this country, including in the urban woods surrounding the National Zoo. In many places, hunters are sent in for a day or two to cull the populations so that forests aren't destroyed. This incident suggests another use for overpopulated deer, and could help address the other two issues I mentioned above.
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