I got flowers in the spring

Sure, yesterday was Groundhog Day more or less, but the day before that Coatimundi Day at the Cohanzick Zoo in Bridgeton, which is way down in the southern part of the state. The nj.com report on this was more lavish than I remember previous reports being, suggesting that the event is starting to take off, or that Wednesday was a slow news day. For the quickest report on it: the three coatis unanimously agreed it would be a short winter, which considering it was 92 degrees and muggy is maybe not the risky bet.

The coatis are named Carmella, Margarita, and Floriemel, which I think I knew before, although I'm not quite working up enough energy to check on last year's report. What I don't remember hearing before is that they were rescued from Texas. Well, they come from Texas and I don't know that they were in any specific peril there. I just suppose that anyone taken out of Texas can be characterized as rescued.

It went off successfully, obviously, although the coatis' normal keeper was for some reason unavailable. As substitute, or maybe just rooter for winter, they brought in Allison Bohn, the tiger keeper, whose hopes for ``Team Snow'' were foiled too. I suppose it has to feel good needing the tiger keeper to fill in for your attendant.

In explaining how the zoo coaxed the coatis outdoors, which again was not hard to do Wednesday given the temperature, the article reported the coatis got treats of eggs, bugs, and tubes of ``monkey biscuits''. I can hypothesize what's meant by a ``monkey biscuit'', and yet I feel like actually knowing what is meant by it would just diminish the phrase.

To attract humans out to this, apart again from arranging the nicest day in twenty years, the zoo was decorated with pictures by children from a local learning center, and guests were given soft pretzels and juice. I'm not so crazy about hard pretzels, but soft pretzels are attractive. I'm not sure if I'd rather have them or the eggs. Monkey biscuits remain a wild card.

Trivia: During the 1920's General Electric increased its annual promotional expenditures from $2 million to $12 million. Source: The Big Switch: Rewiring The World, From Edison To Google, Nicholas Carr.

Currently Reading: Starmind, Dave Van Arnam. So, a guy whose left brain is accidentally wiped out by a technobabble ray, a woman whose right brain is accidentally destroyed by accident, and a clod who's suffered brain-destroying physical injury get their remaining brain pieces all put together in the same body, and since the guy was right-handed and the woman left-handed and the clod stupid they have enough of their minds left to start communicating together. It's pretty interesting, actually, until the escape from the tormenting oppressors etc etc stuff.