Pandamania Coming To Town
The following item appeared in the December 4, 2005 edition of the Washington Post:
Tai Shan Set for Public ViewingTai Shan is the cutest thing ever! Nearly every day, we here in the Washinton area get to see his antics on television. We ooh and aah and say, "I don't want to give him back." After all, he was born here. Doesn't natural birthright make Tai Shan an American citizen?
"The National Zoo's giant panda cub, Tai Shan, goes on public view Thursday for those who have obtained tickets to the Panda House via the zoo's Web site. More than 40,000 free, timed-entry tickets have been made available through Jan. 8.
"More than 13,000 tickets have been distributed to the general public. An additional 27,000 tickets have been offered to members of Friends of the National Zoo, a zoo support organization. Several thousand of those are available, FONZ said, and will be offered again to members next week.
"A limited number of same-day tickets will be available for zoo visitors.
"Members of the public who have tickets will have to show identification that matches the name on the ticket. Zoo officials said they are doing this to discourage selling of the tickets for profit and to guard against ticket duplication.
"'We urge panda fans to wait for additional free tickets to become available rather than spending money on what is intended to be a free ticket,' FONZ spokesman Matt Olear said in a statement. 'As Tai Shan matures and becomes more active and independent, not only will we extend viewing hours, but members of the public will likely have an even greater opportunity to see the cub.'"
Washingtonians are suckers for panda stories. After all, Tai Shan is the first panda born at the National Zoo to survive more than just a short time.
For pictures of Tai Shan, go here to click on each week on the left sidebar. Each week also has information to read in the text in the center of each week's window.
posted by Always On Watch @ 12/07/2005 10:49:00 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Very, very cute.
I can watch animals forever.
Wish I could work with them
Tai Shan is a ROCK STAR!!!!!!!
Why are Pandas so shy about getting it on in the zoo?
G,
Good question! Modesty? Too many bamboo shoots availiable? The previous pair did nothing much except sleep and eat, and were a bit of a disppointment to us locals.
Monkeys don't seen to have any shyness about sexual matters.
Tai Shan put on quite a cute show yesterday for his first public appearance. His photo, which showed him adorably lounging on a rock was the lead photo, above the fold, in today's print edition of the Wahington Post.
Typo! Washington.
Panda's definitely like keeping their sexual activity private unlike our primate cousins. I've felt embarrassed more than once while observing the chimpanzees with my daughter.
On that side subject, I've pretty much given up on UN. After we were kicked off the Human Rights Commission and Syria, Sudan and a couple of other countries were voted in on a secret ballot, I knew it was a waste of our taxpayer money. The United States share of the UN's yearly operating budget is 22% and that doesn't count money we contribute to many UN charities.
Wow guys!
I can see it's true you cannot keep good men away from politics.
;-)
Crusader,
I know what you mean by getting embarrassed at the Monkey House. Once I took a group of third graders to the National Zoo and the goings-on were so pronounced that I had to hustle the kids out. I had a whole lot of questions from the kids the next day in class and hedged on most of them.
The U.N. is losing all credibility. A few years ago, my debate class had the topic Resolved: That the U.N. should be abolished. I don't see much point in using that topic this year--it's a sure win for the affirmatives this time.
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