Sea Lions Can Play Frisbee

Amazing but true. The trainer in the purple jacket flipped the frisbee to this sea lion, who caught it easily in its mouth.  Then, on command, it flung it into the crowd in the amphitheater. 

It's a performance but the sea lions seen to enjoy it. Feeding time was a little before the show and visitors got a preview.  It's amazing what some creatures will do for a slimy little fish.         

Trash Talk

In American parlance, trash talk refers to a member or supporter of a sports team bragging about their prowess and insulting the opponent. The Number 1 gesture above is a mild example. It's everywhere, it's accepted, even if it is a bit juvenile. Oh, and although it's not exactly about sports, Donald Trump is another example.

Ballpark Village is a restaurant-bar-entertainment venue across the street from the stadium. Nice for fans, although it drove some of  the older restaurants in the neighborhood out of business. I don't like this Cardinals Nation meme, though. You see it in a number of contexts but especially sports. I think the term originated with modern references to Native American societies. Navajo Nation. Cherokee Nation. Those are nations. Cardinals Nation is a marketing fiction.

And as I said yesterday, we welcome supporters of opposing teams, even the biggest Cubs fans.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Exercises in diplomacy were everywhere at the rally before the Cardinals' opening day of the season. The opponent was the long-downtrodden and now defending champion Chicago Cubs. We give them credit for their success last year. They have won the title three times in their history, the previous instance being, um, 109 years earlier. The Cardinals have done it eleven times, second only to the New York Yankees. 

The song in the video is sung in the middle of the seventh in almost all American major league baseball games. Jack, you can explain the Red Sox.

This post was written before the game started Sunday night. Update in the morning if it suits my purposes.         

The Best Zoo In America

Is the St. Louis Zoo, according to a recent poll conducted by that esteemed journal, USA Today. Last year it was named the best free attraction in America. It is! A little bump in our real estate taxes keep the zoo, art museum and history museum free to everyone.

Frankly, we deserve the title. The community has made a huge investment in it since our kids were small and the place is transformed. Our family spent the day there yesterday, mostly for the benefit of you-know-who.

We could not have ordered a better spring day from Amazon. It was almost impossible to choose among all the great shots of Madeleine on the carousel so I may have to edit a bunch more and put them on Flickr. And the children weren't the only good portrait subjects.

The Cardinals' opening day rally is this afternoon. Looks like I'll have enough material for awhile.

 

Spontaneous combustion? -- A palm in flames

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WET is the City Daily Photo topic for today's Theme Day.
We have not much rain and no bodies of water here in my corner of Israel's Negev desert.
But the other day, a hot dry chamsin day, our town suddenly saw a lot of water--not from the sky but from fire hoses!
The crown of a palm tree suddenly burst into flames.
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION?!  It is a known phenomenon especially in palms.

Soon the whole trunk and the hedge were burning.
Our Meitar Bitachon/Security team (bless them!) were on the scene quickly and rolled out their hoses.

The police and Fire Department arrived too.

Two firemen suited up and went to work.

At the end, our local hoses had themselves to be hosed down to clean the black soot off them.

The now leafless and blackened dead palm will hopefully be cut down soon.
That's a scary thing, trees suddenly bursting into flame for no good reason.
I hope never to see such a thing again.
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See Palm Trees as Fire Hazards, a useful page of advice, photos, and a video link by a California fire department.
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