| Wake up! The bees are on their knees
How strange is the hierarchy of our affections for other animals. The extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin is mourned extravagantly because in its round, intelligent eyes we saw ourselves, before we killed it off. Similarly, the bonobo ape of Central Africa has become the endangered animal du jour in America, on account of its supposedly human characteristics, or those we aspire to: peacefulness, intelligence and an abundant interest in sex. The bonobo is the subject this week of an 11,000-word profile in The New Yorker, in which it is described as a loveable cross between "a dolphin, the Dalai Lama and Warren Beatty". (I can confirm the highly sexed part because I once interviewed a female bonobo that had learnt to "talk" using a computer at the primate research centre in Georgia.
College students learn to serve
HOLLAND -- Lynden Sass, 18, wore her blue Crocs Saturday as she volunteered at the Inn at Freedom Village for the first time. She noticed an older man wearing the same shoes, but his were red. Their connection was instant. Mike DeGood, 92, told her that when a person gets to be over 90, he should have a pair of "holey" shoes. "You would think I have known Lynden for 20 years," said DeGood, while the two joined other residents drinking coffee and eating pastries on the patio. Sass learned DeGood was married 70 years before his wife died and that his hobby was building steam engines. One of six college students at Freedom Village, Sass was among 400 volunteering in Hope College's "Time to Serve" program, now in its eighth year.
Hunger? What about Paris' new pup?
Who could not guffaw over the news that Leona Helmsley left her dog "Trouble" a $12 million trust fund while cutting two of her grandchildren out of her will? The Queen of Mean, as the tabloids called her, commanded that when "Trouble dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley mausoleum." But maybe Helmsley's obsessions aren't as different from our own as we'd like to think. Consider the contrast between the extravagant coverage afforded Michael Vick for his guilty plea on a federal dogfighting charge and the scant attention given a new Census Bureau finding that the number of Americans without health insurance had risen by 2.2 million, to a total of 47 million. The number of Americans under 18 without health insurance rose to 8.7 million. The Census Bureau report was a one-day story largely buried on the inside pages.
Meals Offer New Details To Digest
Loudoun County's school cafeteria food is about to get a closer inspection from parents this year, as the school system publishes ingredients for every item on the menu. The 34-page list of nutritional content is intended to inform parents of students with food allergies, religious dietary restrictions and other concerns. .
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