Losing Knut, Reading Reviews, and Supermoons

Jeannine Gailey — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:39:00 +0000

Amid the news of a Libyan war, the continuing disaster in Japan, I admit a little bit of more trivial news stood out to me: the death of a little four-year-old polar bear named Knut. Knut was rejected by his mother and hand-raised in a German zoo. He became a cover model for global warming and environmentalism. Unfortunately, sometimes mothers reject their cubs because there is something wrong with them; a heart defect, or other genetic problems. Knut’s cause of death was not known, but it is uncommon for polar bears in captivity to drop dead so young. (Note to self: glad my mother did not decide to reject me. A recent x-ray revealed an extra bone in my ankle! Even more mutations surprise me every day!) Anyway, here is a picture of Knut with his handler, Thomas Doerflein, who also died young at 44 of a heart attack.

If you need extra cuteness after this news, go to Zooborns.com for evidence of new cute animals being born every day. I particularly like the headline for the African black-footed cat: Cute cats born from Amazing Science! So optimistic after everything we’ve been reading about nuclear reactors, etc.

Was bouncing around in anticipation of the Super-Perigee-Moon last night. Wrote a bad poem about it. Listened to “Bad Moon Rising” and “Pink Moon” and read Margaret Atwood’s “Not the Moon” and Dorianne Laux’s “Facts About the Moon” which are very good poems about the moon. Did not eat any moon pies.

In other news, instead of just talking about it, actually wrote a review of a poetry book, and now it’s up: Erika Meitner’s Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls reviewed at Barn Owl Review.

poetry book reviews – Webbish6

Losing Knut, Reading Reviews, and Supermoons