The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

Boats on the Derwent. Just off Tranmere, as seen from Sandy Bay. August 2012.

Father's Day? Sunday Top Five?

I have an idea!

My Top Five Interesting Dads In The Animal Kingdom!

Lions. Greedy and lazy buggers, lion fathers. They occupy most of their time lying about in the shade, waiting for one of their wives to bring home dinner. Female lions do pretty much all of the hunting and almost all of the parenting. Of course, this bugger likes to eat first, and is happy enough in lean seasons to let everyone else starve to death rather than go without a feed...

Emperor Penguins. You probably already know this, but this dedicated dad holds his missus's eggs on the top of his feet, covering them with his belly for two months in the frigid Antarctic... without eating! Where is is partner? That's rights, she's off shagging and eating!

Grizzly Bears. These bears like their own space, they really do. They also like to eat. A lot. Which means that if mamma bear doesn't get those baby bears out of the way quick smart, papa bear will eat them. Yum.

Ostriches. The blokes are active dads. This begins with eggs. Mum sits on them during the day, dad at night. When they're born he stands lookout and chases any predators away. When it's learning time, he does most of the teaching. Well done them!

People. There are plenty of good ones. Plenty of shockers. Some in between. Then there are those never around.Lift your game people. You're looking more like lions and being outshone by penguins and ostriches.

Comments

smudgeon said…

An excellent list as always, Kris.

I particularly agree with your comments on boy lions (c'mon guys, make an effort!), and people (ditto).

Hope you're having a swell father's day, Mr McCracken.

2 September 2012 at 14:16

Kris McCracken said…

I recieved the greatest gift on Father's Day from the boys: a cold!

7 September 2012 at 12:37

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

This will hurt me...

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