Go the @&*# to sleep, Charlie

Another article of mine from the new issue of the Marina Times:

At last, Charlie fell the heck to sleep.
Photo by John Zipperer

AT HOME | Living with pets
Go the @&*# to sleep, Charlie
Moving can be a traumatic time for animals
By John Zipperer

Tired parents across the country have read or heard about Adam Mansbach’s indelicately titled Go the F*ck to Sleep, a storybook for parents at their most stressful time: children’s bedtime. My household includes no children, but it does include two cats, neither of whom generally finds it difficult to get to sleep.

Then we moved, and one of our cats was so unnerved by the change that it seemed as if he would never go to sleep.

Read the entire article

First Penguins, Now Cats and Rabbits: The Santa Dress-Up Continues

One can learn many things by visiting the web site of Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. It's an often eye-opening look into how that government reports the world – sometimes much fairer than you'd expect, other times depressingly to form (such as its coverage of the recent Nobel Peace Prize brouhaha).

I noted a while ago a photo feature on the Xinhua site about penguins dressed as Santa. Now, Xinhua comes back with not one but two photo features on Santa-clad animals: rabbits and cats.

So go ahead and click through to those features for your holiday cute-overload.

As to why officially atheist China is paying so much attention to Christmas, your guess is as good as mine.

Siberian Tiger Cubs Raised by Goats

Here, courtesy of Xinhua News (the government news service in China), is a short report on two Siberian Tiger cubs who have been raised ... by a goat.

Figured that would be a feel-good way to head off toward a happy Thanksgiving. (After all, it's the holiday that everyone except a turkey could love.)

Penguins Dressed as Santa

Yet another critical development where America should be leading, but Korea takes the lead instead:

California Academy of Sciences -- Real and Unreal Animals

Some more visions from our recent visit to San Francisco's famed California Academy of Sciences. (See previous photos here, and short fish video here.) Click on the photo to view captions on Picasa site.

From California Academy of the Sciences 021510

From California Academy of the Sciences 021510

From California Academy of the Sciences 021510

From California Academy of the Sciences 021510

From California Academy of the Sciences 021510

Your Moment of Zen with the Fishes of the California Academy of Sciences

I'm not generally a fish person (a merman?), but I do think having a wall-sized aquarium would be a relaxing and amazing way to design a house or office. Then again, you'd end up looking a bit like a Bond villain, so maybe it's too much.