VOL: Little NO. Mary

I'll bet you know Australians always shorten words and phrases, like barbecue becomes barbie. But that isn't a biggie. (In 'Aussie' or Oz, does biggie come from bigamist?) No challenge at all. Take a robust syllable word and boil it down to only two syllables -- Tasmanians become Tassies and of course Tasmanian Devils are also Tassies and thus this rather weird intro leads me to the nationwide story about Little Mary, a young Tasmanian Devil, who broke curfew and snuck out of her very fine sanctuary on the Gold Coast in Australia and roamed free for two weeks before she was found at low-ebb and returned to the ER Vet in the sanctuary, coddled, loved, repaired, fed until she was back to one hundred percent and showing her "Jaws" teeth in big smiles. Believe me, the sanctuary (what would an Aussie call a sanctuary?) has fixed the hole in the outer perimeter. Do ask online about Little Mary, you'll love her photos and her story. One caretaker reported he heard Little Mary say to the vet she'd broken her left paw in two places and the vet told her to stop going to those places. All's well that ends well.

Don't forget the twentieth is the anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969 and Neil Armstrong actually taking steps and planting the U.S flag. Who remembers his famous words? Did he say the restaurants on the moon were good but there was no atmosphere?

Who remembers Mark Twain said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco?" This is true and those enduring really high temps, I feel for you and know you wish you were here with me wearing a sweater while watching TV. And those in Europe, now that's gotta be tough, well over one hundred degrees and no AC. I wonder if everyone in Paris has crashed the big department stores with their pillows and pjs to spend the night. Maybe the day too, lines of people on the floor with their cells and computers and croissants.

Don't forget as summer progresses, parents slowly deteriorate into insanity with the kids -- the non-stop in and out and take me here and there and let's do this and that and are we there yet? A friend told me she'd childproofed her house but they still managed to get in.

Hang in there, guys.

Chester

American flags in front of Owl-Eyed House