Why is Sloth a Sin?

Have you ever looked a sloth in the face?

No, i am being serious, have you?

Yesterday i did, and they are cute as a button!

There's this lovely little zoo down here called the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.  It was dubbed "The Little Zoo That Could" by The Discovery Channel, which did a series on it.

The zoo is small, and will be moving to a larger area to give some of their animals larger habitats.  They also want to be further inland by a few miles, to better protect the animals during storms.  They don't want any more instances of Chuckie the alligator getting into the swamp behind his habitat in a hurricane.  (Chuckie is a zoo favorite, he got sent to the zoo because he would harass people at the state park for their picnic baskets.  Yes, really.)

Being a smaller zoo does give them the advantage of being able to offer animal encounters.  If you have plenty of money and book way in advance, you can spend a half hour with tiger cubs.  We have watched others with the cubs, but we content ourselves with reptile encounters (#2 Son's favorite), holding the kangaroo joeys (they snuggle in a cloth pouch in your arms), petting the baby lemurs (one of them once groomed #2 Son's fake dreadlocks on his Bob Marley hat), and new this week, feeding and petting the sloths.

These are two-toed sloths, and they lie upside down on suspended benches, clinging to branches that are part of the enclosure.  The keeper hands you a bamboo skewer with a piece of vegetable on it, and you feed it to the sloth.  While the sloth chews, you may pet his or her back.  There was one girl and one boy, and the girl liked fruit as well as veggies, the boy didn't much care for the fruit pieces.  The lemurs' fur is soft, these sloths fur was very rough and course.

All of these animals, perhaps with the exception of the reptiles, are cute little things.  (Yes, i like reptiles, and i've had pet snakes.  They are great animals, but they aren't really cute.)

After the zoo, i ran Little Girl to the stores she wanted to visit, since she wasn't here Monday when the rest of us went.  It had to be the fastest mall trip ever, as she hates shopping and only wanted to go into two stores.  She went in both, and spent a total of 35 minutes actually picking things out that she needed.

#2 Son cooked dinner, it was a big fish fry.  Lots of catfish that he and Friend Becky and Bryn and Bryn's Friend have caught were seasoned and cooked and gobbled down in record time.

There was also time to swim and walk in the sand and sit around relaxing.

Altogether, a beautiful day.  Don't say it was slothful, though.  They are too cute to use them as a derogatory word.

Today is

15th Khordad National Uprising -- Iran (1963)

Apple II Day -- the Apple II first went on sale today in 1977
     note that some historians say it went on sale June 10, others say the first models were shipped out that day
 
Arbor Day -- New Zealand

Beypazari Havuç Güveç --  Turkey (weekend festival celebrating a traditional carrot dish)

Buffalo Days Celebration (with Buffalo Chip Throw) -- Luverne, MN, US (parade, arts in the park, and the throwing contest; through Sunday)

Clean Air Day -- Canada

Derby Festival begins -- Epsom Downs Racecourse, Surrey, England (today is Surrey Ladies Day, with Derby Day tomorrow)

Farmington Country Days -- Farmington, MO, US (fun for the family, celebrated the old country way; through Sunday)

Festival of Popular Delusions Day -- begun as this was the last day before D-Day that the Germans could delude themselves that they could win; thus a day to question your own assumptions and try to align your beliefs with facts and reality

Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival -- Little Chute, WI, US (celebrate with other Cheeseheads; through Sunday)

Grunklovsdag -- Denmark and the Faroe Island (Constitution Day)

International Horseradish Festival -- Collinsville, IL, US (lots of fun in the "Horseradish Capital of the World"; through Sunday)

Indian Arrival Day -- Suriname (marking the arrival of indentured laborers from the Indian subcontinent)

Judgement Day -- Fairy Calendar (Nosegays)

Labour Day / Sir Randol Fawkes Day -- Bahamas

Liberation Day -- Seychelles

Lilac Festival -- Mackinac Island, MN, US (largest summer event on the Island; through the 14th)

Natalicio de Oblang Nguema Mbasogo -- Equatorial Guinea (President's Day)

National Attitude Day -- if this is really a day to celebrate, try to have a positive one

National Donut Day -- US (successor to the original Donut Day begun by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during WWI and as a fundraiser in Chicago, and it is still used as a fundraiser there for Salvation Army projects; look for a doughnut shop to give out freebies near you)

National Gingerbread Day

National Moonshine Day -- with its own sponsor 

Nones of June -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observance
     Festival of Semo Sancus -- god of loyalty, honesty and oaths (one of the oldest Roman cults, probably Etruscan or Oscan originally)

Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival -- Oklahoma City, OK, US (more than 100 tribes meet to pow wow and celebrate their heritage, through Sunday)

Riverbend Festival -- Chattanooga, TN, US (nine days of fun on the banks of the Tennessee River)

Shirone Takogassen -- along the Nakanokuchi river bank in Shirone, Japan (kite flying and kite fighting; through the 9th)

St. Boniface's Day (Patron of brewers, file cutters, tailors; Fulda, Germany; Germany; Saint-Boniface, Manitoba, Canada)

Summer Farm Toy Show -- National Farm Toy Museum, Dyersville, IA, US (farm toys, parade, tractor rides, and more; through tomorrow)

Tecumseh! the Epic Outdoor Drama -- Chillicothe, OH, US (Mon-Sat, until Aug. 29; spectacular reenactment of the life and death of the great Shawnee leader)

Telluride Balloon Festival -- Telluride, CO, US (volunteer to help with the festival and you may get a free balloon ride! through Sunday)

World Environment Day -- UN


Birthdays Today:

Chad Allen, 1974
Mark Wahlberg, 1971
Brian McKnight, 1969
Kenny G, 1956
Jill Biden, 1951
Suze Orman, 1951
Ken Follett, 1949
Spalding Gray, 1941
Margaret Drabble, 1939
Bill Moyers, 1934
Tony Richardson, 1928
Richard Mcclure Scarry, 1919
William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, 1895
Panco Villa, 1878
Adam Smith, 1723 (O.S. Date)
Thomas Chippendale, 1718
Pu Songling, 1640


Today in History:

Traditional date for the sinking of Atlantis, 8498BC
Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem  in the Siege of Jerusalem, 70
Kraków, Poland  receives city  rights, 1257
The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched, 1817
Houston, Texas is incorporated by the Republic of Texas, 1837
Denmark  becomes a constitutional monarchy, 1849
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper, 1851
Denmark  amends its constitution to allow women's suffrage, 1915
Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements, 1956
The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in, 1959
The Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale, 1977
Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders an attack on the Golden Temple, the holiest site of the Sikh religion, 1984
A severe heat wave across Pakistan  and India  reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50°C (122°F) in the region, 2003
The planet Venus makes its last transit of the 21st century beginning at 22:09 UTC June 5, and ending 4:49 UTC June 6, 2012