Enquiring minds can Google "Beaver Queen Pageant 2019" to learn how things panned out last Saturday. Adélie Pygoscelis-Beaver did not win the crown, but did win Best Talent for her reinterpretion of the pottery scene from Ghost as a polyamorous interspecies clay slip-smearing water-sprinkler-sprinkling fest. The scene starred Adélie Pygoscelis-Beaver as Demi Moore, Faser Beaver as Patrick Swayze, a waddle of Entouragettes who also wanted "to be in the room where it happened," and a bunch of children over whose heads all the innuendo flew and who were happy just to run through a sprinkler in a park on a hot day.
The State Presence question was "if you are in the room where it happens, what room are you in, and what's happening?" Adélie gave an impassioned call to action:
Penguins inhabit two worlds at once:
we whoosh through water, we waddle on land.
So you'll find me in two rooms at once,
both getting hotter, both threatened by Man.
Find me first in the Living Room,
the room where, to live, we must take a stand.
Find me next in the world's biggest room:
the Room for Improvement; wherefore I demand:
Penguins raise flippers! Beavers raise paws!
Humans raise hands to pass some new laws!
The first legislation we sign and seal
is a path toward renewal: a Green New Deal!
The next legislation: let hist'ry record
we sign ourselves back in the Paris Accord!
There's no room for doubt; there's no wriggle room.
Species unite! Save our planet from doom!
You want a revelation? I want a revolution!
To arms! RISE UP 'gainst climate change and pollution!
Several hundred Potters' Penguin Project penguins found forever homes, Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association raised ~$24,400, and I've reclaimed shelf space at home to fill up with my next community-building art project. All is good.
The pageant raises funds for the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association (ECWA). Way back in 2016, anticipating that the Potters' Penguin Project might need a local outlet for re-homing clay penguins, I built the Pageant into the project's original fundraising plan: "If, after reasonable effort, any penguins don't sell or are declined as donations, remaining colony members may be donated to a charity doing environmental advocacy in Durham, NC (where the Potters' Penguin Project originated)."
The Potters' Penguin Project previously raised funds for SANCCOB (2017) and Earthjustice (2018-19). We returned to the Greensboro Science Center a month ago for a second Tuxedo Trot fundraising round for SANCCOB. Now it's on to the Beaver Queen Pageant (June 1) to fundraise for ECWA. We'll have several hundred penguins on hand in exchange for donations (in pageant parlance, that's "buying votes" and "buying bribes").
Look! Earthjustice Quarterly Newsletter, Spring 2019...
...included a blurb about the Potters' Penguin Project!
Thus a Beaver Queen Pageant contestant was born: Adélie Pygoscelis-Beaver, penguin by birth, beaver by marriage. What's the environmental advocacy connection between penguins and beavers, you ask? Both urgently need humans to be better stewards of the environment.
Because back-stories evolve, Adélie has evolved too. She started out as Adélie P. Beaver, and because I hadn't figured out whether she was a beaver or a penguin, she looked like this:
Adélie P. Beaver. She's teaching me about community-building performance art.
Adélie has since confirmed and embraced her penguin heritage. Her looks have evolved slightly as well. The Beaver Queen Pageant theme this year is "Damilton," so it's no surprise that now she looks like this:
If you are Facebook-inclined, please follow Adélie P. Beaver's page. And if you are inclined to support a Durham environmental advocacy nonprofit, please vote for Adélie early and often at beaverqueen.org.
Adélie declared her candidacy early, by Beaver Queen Pageant standards, because she didn't know what she was doing. She has since started a semi-regular Q&A called "Ask Adélie." Here are some highlights to date:
March 18, 2019
Adélie Beaver is delighted to announce that she is canceling plans to join the crowded field of Democratic contenders for president in order to run for 2019 Beaver Queen. The next 24 hours are critical: Adélie needs to raise 6.2 million krill from individual donors to demonstrate she's competitive. Please show your support by liking and sharing this page!
March 20, 2019
A perceptive reader asks, "If Adélie is coming all the way from the Southern Hemisphere for the 2019 pageant, how could she also have been contemplating a 2020 bid for the US Presidency?"
Excellent question! My parents hail from Cape Denison, Antarctica. They were what the scientific community unfortunately calls "vagrants." They unintentionally hitched a ride on a fishing boat in 1966 and ended up in Alaska, well outside their native habitat. There I hatched in 1967 (eight years after Alaska became a state). I moved to North Carolina in 2011, after the New York Times listed Durham alongside the beaches of Mexico and the wilds of Kurdistan as one of "The 41 Places to Go," but I spend my winters in Commonwealth Bay studying krill. (Perceptive readers will note that winter in Durham is summer in Antarctica.)
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
March 21, 2019
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "How do you pronounce 'Adélie'?"
Excellent question! You can listen to my name being pronounced [here]. It sounds a lot like "a daily." My campaign slogan is "Everyone needs Adélie Beaver," which would be pronounced "ev-ree-wun needz a daily bee-ver" (ˈev-rē-wən ˈnēdz ə-ˈdā-lē ˈbē-vər).
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
March 27, 2019
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "you wrote that you study krill, but your Facebook page describes you as an 'Artist.' What gives?"
Excellent question! As my parents never said, "Adélie is the A in STEAM education." I studied the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) in Juneau, and the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) in Cape Denison. Since arriving in Durham, I've spent a lot of time sculpting mud. Dear reader, I encourage you to spread your wings! Try something new! It's fun to be a well-rounded beaver!
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
March 28
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "Are you the only penguin in Ellerbe Creek?"
Excellent question! To paraphrase one of our nation's former presidents, "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'in' is. If the—if Ellerbe—if 'in' means in and never within, that is not within—that is one thing. If it means there is none in, that was a completely true statement." In other words, probably.
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 4
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "what does the P stand for in 'Adélie P. Beaver'?"
Excellent question! I have one sister named Angelica, and another sister named Eliza, so if you guessed Peggy, after the Schuyler sister--well, you'd be wrong.
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 5
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "I'm hoping to avoid voting for candidates who have trouble keeping their flippers to themselves. Are you a candidate I can trust on these matters?"
Excellent question! Your body is your body, and no one else should be touching you with their flipper or tail or whiskers or ears or anything else without your consent. Planned Parenthood describes "consent" as something (1) freely given; (2) reversible; (3) informed; (4) enthusiastic; and (5) specific. Even if you've consented to flipper-to-flipper contact before, that doesn't mean you consent to it in the future.
But I think your question indicates you understand this already; the problem is, how should one respond to unwanted, non-consensual touch? Speak up and speak out. I believe I am a candidate you can trust on these matters because I understand consent and I am comfortable talking about it. And I'm an upstander--not a bystander; I call out disrespectful flipper flinging when I see it. Because if we don't stand up for one another, who will? As Hermione Emma Granger Watson says, "I’ve told myself firmly--if not me, who, if not now, when?"
Rest assured that every single one of the creatures of the meadow who will be participating in the talent portion of my pageant program will be doing so joyfully, respectfully, and by mutual consent.
Looking for helpful information for discussing touch and consent with your kits and chicks? Planned Parenthood is an excellent place to start. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/parents/tips-talking
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 8
Ron Chew-Now's bestselling book, Alexander Damilton, was published by Penguin Random House. "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?" Penguins. Penguins tell your story. See you in the meadow on June 1!
April 9
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "OK, so your middle name isn't Peggy--but what is it?"
Excellent question! As my high school calculus teacher used to say when inquisitive chicks and kits asked questions, "You are smarter than you think. What do you think the answer is?"
Like = Philanthropic
Love = Potter
Haha = Penguin
Wow = Pygoscelis
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 12
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "Some conservative forces have been suggesting that your claim to the last name Beaver is tenuous (at best) and are demanding a DNA test. How do you respond?"
Excellent question! True story: my mom sent me one of those spit-in-a-vial DNA kits several years ago. When I finally spat in the vial and mailed it in, the results said what I already knew: I am who I thought I was. Also, I have a bazillion distantly related cousins--just like pretty much anyone else who has descended from anyone else, since everyone's DNA has to come from somewhere. Also, my mother's DNA is so similar to mine, the spit-in-a-vial company was "highly certain" she was either my parent or my child--which demonstrates that you can only learn so much from DNA testing. But I digress.
True story: I've been working a lot on genealogy recently--not because of the DNA thing, but because my family has a legacy of excellent story telling that I'm trying to carry on. My most exciting recent find is that my intellectual socialist great great great great great aunt who believed in women's education and lived in Budapest in the 19th century actually lived in the 20th century and was probably only a great great great great aunt. She would probably have loved meeting up with the communist side of the family (who had to flee more than one city on short notice under cover of dark)--I know they would have loved meeting up with her--but the internet didn't exist until recently, so no one knew she was still alive in the 1960s when my grandmother was using her name as a pseudonym in a certain Chicago neighborhood communist newsletter. If you want to know how my relatives got from Cape Denison to Budapest and Chicago, you'll have to ask more questions. But I digress.
What studying family history has taught me is that names often get respelled or mangled when folks immigrate (which is how, e.g., my great great uncle Bruno became "Dorcas Joe"). The name "Beaver" is just as much mine as the name Adélie is, as is the multifaceted middle initial P. I am who I thought I was. I claim to be no one else. I am running for Beaver Queen to share an environmental message: whether your kin live in water or on land or both, in the northern hemisphere or the southern or both, we have but one planet to share. From the Duke Park Meadow to Commonwealth Bay and everywhere in between, let's work together to leave this world a cleaner place than we found it.
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 18
Today in Ask Adélie, I'm returning to that question about what the P. in Adélie P. Beaver stands for.
I thought, perceptive readers, that you knew more than you thought you knew, but it turns out I was wrong. My middle name is not Peggy, Penelope, Prudence, Pollen (oh dear--to be allergic to one's own middle name!), Pandora, Puffin (though we're distantly related), Psychedelic, Pythagoras (swoon!), or Plato--although all were good guesses. Nor is it Philanthropic or Potter (although I strive to be both). So I'm narrowing down the choices. Middle name by democracy--please vote early and often!
* Penguin
* Pygoscelis
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 23
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "Mayor Pete is apparently a big enough fan of Phish that he'd want them to play his inauguration. What are your feelings towards Phish (and, well, fish)?"
Excellent question! Who doesn't love Phish? Ooh, and that great Norwegian indie band, Krill? But for my inauguration (should I be so honored), I'd probably go with that classic of all classics, "[I Want to Be] Your Personal Penguin" by Sandra Boynton, sung by the late great Davy Jones (RIP).
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 26
Today in Ask Adélie, I return to two previous questions: (1) what's my middle name, and (2) what's my claim to the surname Beaver? It's a long post, but life is sometimes complicated.
First, the polling results are in, and I'm grateful the majority of y'all guessed wisely, so I don't have to change my name. The P stands for Pygoscelis.
Only 14 of you voted, which reinforces the claim that EVERY VOTE COUNTS. This is true whether you're voting for student or city council, state or federal representatives, president or Beaver Queen. Especially Beaver Queen. Vote early and often.
Second, because I know that journalists scrutinize candidates' histories (as they should! Those who do it well help voters make more informed decisions! Defend Freedom of the Press! We've got your back, New York Times! NEVER beg for forgiveness on your knees before the nefarious Tyrant of Tweets!), I want to make sure you hear this news straight from the penguin's mouth: I recently submitted paperwork to change my legal name.
Here's why:
Approaching 24 years of wedded bliss, my spouse, Faser Beaver, and I renewed our vows this past weekend. We decided to mark the occasion, and our equal partnership, by hyphenating our last names, bringing my maiden name back out from the shadows of middle-name status.
Adélie and Faser Pygoscelis-Beaver. The name Beaver is just as much mine as the name Pygoscelis is Faser's. We are still both who we thought we were. We still claim to be no one else.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all species are created equal. Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now!
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 28
Practicing my stage waddle before Tails & Tiaras [pageant kick-off party]. Mr. Faser Pygoscelis-Beaver was the camera man, which explains why he said "arms! arms!" instead of "flippers! flippers!" Such a beaver thing to say! But I knew what he meant--we know one another's language ♥.
April 28
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "WTF is a penguin doing running for Beaver Queen?"
Excellent question! I am running for two reasons.
(1) Three years ago, I made a sacred vow to help 1,500 clay penguins find forever homes while simultaneously fundraising for environmental advocacy nonprofits. Then 1,500 penguins became over 2,100 penguins. Over 600 of those have been adopted, but if you do the math, you'll realize that still leaves 1,400+ penguins.
To this end, the The Potters' Penguin Project is sponsoring pageant votes. Buy four votes/bribes, take a penguin home. Win-win! And those votes don't have to be for Adélie (although of course I would appreciate your support!)--because the most important issue at the pageant isn't WHO to vote for, but just that you VOTE, and because a vote for any contestant is a vote for the environment, and because 1,400 penguins is A LOT OF PENGUINS (although a mere hundredth the number of penguins in many colonies). You can vote for any beaver or penguin, and still take a penguin home! Want a penguin before pageant day? PM me.
(2) I am running for Beaver Queen to share an environmental message: whether your kin live in water or on land or both, in the northern hemisphere or the southern or both, we have but one planet to share. From the Duke Park Meadow to Commonwealth Bay and everywhere in between, we must work together to leave this world a cleaner place than we found it.
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 29
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "Sir David Attenborough says that penguins never give up. Is that true?"
Excellent question! Oh my, yes. Penguins never give up. Sometimes we play dead when leopard seals clamp their jaws around us, but that's called STRATEGY. And yes, we gave up air flight eons ago so we could eat more krill, but that's called EFFICIENCY.
And when it comes to enlisting help to fight climate change?
Penguins rise up.
If you're slidin' on your belly, you rise up.
Tell your beaver brother that he's gotta rise up!
Tell your orca sister that she's gotta rise up!
When are folks like me and you gonna rise up?
On every glacier, in every creek, we need to rise up.
All species for the common good, we need to rise up!
We ain't got no other choice, we need to rise up!
RISE UP!
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
April 29
Here's a did you know: both Rootie 2D Beaver and Gnawty Beaver helped craft penguins for the The Potters' Penguin Project. Beavers and penguins understand that ALL species benefit when we unite to fight climate change!
May 2
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "Wait, how do you pronounce your name again? ADD-a-lye? Add-a-LEE? Piggo-what? Help!"
Excellent question! Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. You can listen to my forename being pronounced in the link [here]. It sounds a lot like "a daily."
Until I hyphenated my last name, my campaign slogan was "Everyone needs Adélie Beaver," which would be pronounced "everyone needs a daily beaver." (I had also considered "Everyone needs Adélie P"--pronounced "everyone needs a daily pee"--which is true for mammals, and good for their health, but not for penguins. We don't pee. True fact. Look it up if you don't believe me.)
As we used to say in language lab in high school, "écoutez et répétez": listen and repeat. "Everyone needs a daily beaver. Everyone needs Adélie Beaver." "Everyone needs a daily pee. Everyone needs Adélie P."
I'll give you some time to practice, and then I'll be back with a discourse on "Pygoscelis."
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
P.S. Vote early and often! https://beaverqueen.swell.gives/AdeliePBeaver
May 3
Today in Ask Adélie, let's learn how to pronounce Pygoscelis.
My parents' side of the colony always said "pie-go-SELL-iss." On the opposite side of Antarctica, folks say "pie-GOSS-el-iss" (same accent as octopodes--ahk-TAHP-uh-deez--the musicality of which I LOVE). Sometimes I hear "pig-o-CHELL-eez," which is not to my pronunciation taste AT ALL. In English, it translates as "Rump Legged," which surely indicates penguins have some kinship with beaver queens.
As I ponder differences in regional pronunciations, I should mention that Antarctica is the southernmost continent on the planet. Every direction away from the South Pole is NORTH. If Rootie 2D Beaver were to visit the South Pole and do the Wetland Wiggle ("wiggle to the left and wiggle to the right"), she'd be wiggling to the NORTH in both directions.
Ecoutez et répétez: listen and repeat. "Pygoscelis, pie-go-SELL-iss." Alternatively, "Pygoscelis, pie-GOSS-el-iss." (You can understand why it was easier to just go with P for so many years.)
I'll give you some time to practice, and then I'll be back with a discourse on "Beaver."
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
P.S. Vote early and often! https://beaverqueen.swell.gives/AdeliePBeaver
May 4
Sometimes I go to the studio to make cups and bowls, and instead this happens...
[Editor's note: I swore I was done making penguins, but duty calls.]
May 6
Today in Ask Adélie, let's learn how to pronounce Beaver.
BEE-vr. BEE-vr.
Ecoutez et répétez: listen and repeat. "Adélie Pygoscelis-Beaver. A daily pie-go-SELL-iss BEE-vr." Alternatively, "Adélie Pygoscelis-Beaver. A daily pie-GOSS-el-iss BEE-vr."
Ecoutez et répétez: listen and repeat. "Everyone needs a daily beaver! Vote for Adélie Pygoscelis-Beaver at http://www.beaverqueen.org/!" ("Everyone needs a daily beaver! Vote for Adélie Pygoscelis-Beaver at http://www.beaverqueen.org/!")
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
May 8
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "you recently claimed that both penguins and beavers are rump-legged. Do y'all have any other attributes in common?"
Excellent question! While you might think we're polar opposites (so to speak), one similarity jumps immediately to mind: We're both national animals.
Beavers are the national animal of Canada. Penguins are the national animal of Antarctica--which is impressive, given that Antarctica isn't a nation. Either there's another young, scrappy, and hungry country in the making, or you can't believe everything you read on the internet. You decide.
Last night while I was working with slippy clay on my pottery wheel, I was listening to classic rock radio, and they played the Righteous Brothers version of "Unchained Melody." If ever there was a song about the sensuous coupling of penguin-beaver habitats, this is it!
Oh my love, my darling, [blah blah blah etc.]
Lonely rivers flow
To the sea, to the sea
To the open arms of the sea;
Lonely rivers sigh
"Wait for me, wait for me"
I'll be coming home, wait for me.
Oh my love, my darling, [blah blah blah etc.]
May 13
When a wee penguin needs a wee tail for the big beaver pageant, it helps to know an expert knitter.
May 14
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "You've mentioned that you're a beaver by marriage. Could you tell us more about your family?"
Excellent question! My spouse Faser is a European beaver (Castor fiber) from Germany. An engineer, he studied dam-building in Bavaria and is committed to keeping all wetlands clean.
We have one kit-chick, Pulli, whom we of course adore. Pulli's greatest talents are Thinking Outside the Box, Playing Well With Others, and Pizza-Box Art (look for his award-winning icosahedron on the wall at Pompieri Pizza).
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
Remember to vote early and often at http://beaverqueen.swell.gives/users/adeliepbeaver!
May 15
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "I understand that you are a beaver by marriage, and that you're a penguin by birth, and that you're running for Beaver Queen because species must unite to fight climate change, but, um, I'm a little confused about, um, well, you know, how you and Mr. Pygoscelis-Beaver were able to, um, well, you said you have a kit-chick, and, um, could you please clarify?"
Excellent question! Here's what I have to say about that: Love doesn't discriminate.
Love doesn't discriminate
between the penguins and the beavers.
It weaves and it weaves and it weaves
between our glaciers and our rivers.
We laugh and we cry and we break,
and we make our mistakes.
But there's a reason I'm by his side
when so many have tried:
cuz we're willing to work for it.
We're willing to work for it.
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "I notice you quote Damilton a lot, and I think I caught whiffs of The Sound of Music and Ghost: The Musical in previous Ask Adélie columns. What other musicals do you like?"
Excellent question! I recently had a chance to see a thought-provoking revival of Oklantarctica in a walk-in freezer way off Broadway. My favorite song from that show is below.
Have a question for Adélie? She has an answer!
=====================
Semi-Aquatic Folk
The beaver and the penguin should be friends.
Oh, the beaver and the penguin should be friends.
One critter likes to slap its tail, the other hides from the orca whale,
That's good enough reason why they should be friends.
Semi-aquatic folks should stick together,
Semi-aquatic folks should all be pals.
Penguins dance with beaver brothers,
Beavers dance with penguin gals. (repeat)
I'd like to say a word for the beavers,
They come outta the creek and they make a lot of changes
They come out on land and chew a lot of trees,
And build their dams wherever they dam please!
The beavers are good and thrifty citizens,
No matter how they rearrange things.
You often see 'em dancin' in a bar room
Slappin' their tails and buyin' drinks.
Yes, the beaver and the penguin should be friends.
Oh, the beaver and the penguin should be friends.
The penguin waddles over ice with ease, while the beaver prefers wetlands with bees,
That's good enough reason why they should be friends.
Semi-aquatic folks should stick together,
Semi-aquatic folks should all be pals.
Penguins dance with beaver brothers,
Beavers dance with penguin gals.
I'd like to say a word for the penguins,
the road they tread is difficult and rocky.
They slide on their bellies for days on end with jist a thousand other penguins for a friend.
I sure am feelin' sorry for that flocky!
The beavers should be sociable with the penguins,
if they slide by and ask for water and food.
You should treat 'em like guests,
make 'em welcome--dam be blessed!
Fight climate change together lest we all be screwed!
Semi-aquatic folks should stick together,
Semi-aquatic folks should all be pals.
Penguins dance with beaver brothers,
Beavers dance with penguin gals.
Last night, Faser, Pulli, and I went to see a delightful performance of Peter and the Starcatcher at DSA Theatre. The opening scene of Act II--a mermaid song and dance routine--was especially poignant: all of the mermaids had plastic waste on their bodies. Plastic coffee cup lids, plastic plates, plastic bubble pack. The message is clear: humans and other species must unite for a cleaner environment: mermaid lives depend on it!
May 19
In honor of Damilton, my most recently crafted sculptures depict young scrappy penguins of the Federalist Era. Some outfits never go out of style.
May 20
May 20 is World Bee Day, as proclaimed by the UN Member States in 2017. So here's a shout out to our 2015 Beaver Queen, Mz. Polly Nator, who helped Durham become certified as a Bee City USA in 2016. When species unite for the environment, we all win! Let's protect our fuzzy winged friends by avoiding toxic mosquito barrier sprays this summer. And next summer. And every summer.
(As you can tell from the photos, I kinda have a thing for bees. I mean, I absolutely adore my beloved beaver, but oh my, check out these gorgeous bee bods...)
May 22
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "Waiting for the pageant is even harder than waiting for the series finale of GOT. I can't wait until June 1st! Do you have any behind-the-scenes sneak-peeks you can leak before then?"
Excellent question! You've probably figured out by now that I'm a card carrying member of the species Pygoscelis adeliae, a.k.a. an Adélie penguin. We tend to be a traditional bunch--pretty much the "heed-not-the-rabble-who-scream-revolution" types of the penguin world. While I've always been a bit of a rebel (I am an artist, after all), prepping for the Beaver Queen Pageant has been liberating in ways I never could have imagined. And why wouldn't it be? Imagine dressing up in a costume and pretending to be someone completely different! So now, Gentle Reader, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I haven't made a final decision on this, but--wait for it, wait for it--this here Adélie penguin is contemplating going full out ROCKHOPPER on pageant day! Yo yo yo yo yo, what time is it? Show time!
Here's a didja know: the vast majority of penguin species live in warm or temperate climates, not cold ones. We live on every continent south of the equator, and the only penguin species to live in the northern hemisphere (not counting "vagrants," like my parents) is the Galapagos penguin--only because the equator runs right through the balmy Galapagos Islands. Nonetheless, it's mighty hot in Durham for this here penguin today. Looking forward to cooler temps on pageant day!
May 24
Today in Ask Adélie, a perceptive reader asks, "Did you just call your parents 'vagrants'? That doesn't seem very nice."
Excellent question! My parents have been full-time penguins their entire lives. "Vagrant" is an unfortunate term used by biologists to refer to species found outside their normal range. Sometimes biologists use the term "accidental" instead. We could discuss what "normal" means--normal according to whom, eh?--and my parents certainly weren't "accidental." They were simply diving for krill one day when that fishing boat picked them up; no one ever told them they were heading to Alaska until they pulled into Bristol Bay.
Imagine them, plannin’ for the future; see 'em now as they stand on the bow of that ship headed for a new land; in Alaska they could be new penguins...When America sings for them, Will they know what they overcame? Will they know they rewrote their game? Their world would never be the same.
Hardly a day goes by when I don't say "So long, and thanks for all the fish." Happy Towel Day 2019, everyone!
May 25
Pat, pat; and here's a marvelous convenient place
for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our
stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we
will do it in action as we will do it before the Duke [Park beavers].
--Wm Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, Scene 1
BTW, while we're less than a month from Midsummer Night here in Durham, my cousins in Antarctica are approaching deepest darkest winter. May the wind be at their backs and their huddle stand strong!
May 25
The Beaver Queen Pageant is a week away. To center myself (as we potter penguins are wont to do), I went to the Durham Farmers' Market this morning and commissioned a poem (although I meant to go just to buy strawberries). The prompt was brief--penguin running for Beaver Queen on an environmental platform--and the author was from out of town and hadn't heard of the pageant, but the poem he wrote took my breath away. Peace. Love. Beaver. Penguin. #gratitude
=============
Beaver Creek Penguin...
Species, we are, will be, all--must come
together.
All interdependent all related
hawk, swoop, hare--all one.
Here, in North Carolina we're on Piedmont
Mind.
Beaver bliss in the freedom
backyards once provided,
before being measured, being sold.
The soul of Earth can't be sold is
grandmothered in is not ours.
Connected by rain cycles and roots,
migrating like water like galaxies.
Penguin, like, now, here:
For Beavers for land for minerals
for our vegetable nature,
North Carolina Penguins come together.
A penguin is never one
this is true, too, about we people.
Blue Mountains are always walking,
says the grass.
On the hillside, all together, one big breathe.
Breathe deep, as Penguins do
before standing up for what they
believe is true.
Longleaf pine, once Peopled
how much stands
now? How
many?
To walk out of the ocean,
and feel the weight of atmosphere--
to unfold in Paleolithic mind.
We are older then we remember
are penguins, beavers, hands clapping
cave paintings, agriculture, song, dance,
craft--as Beavers craft and penguins dance.
Penguin memory says:
roots feed you feed roots feed you.
To protect and relocate, grow,
learn the plants,
go light.
DURHAM, Carolina del Norte
2000&when?
May 27
More centering. Sending Peace, Love, Beaver, Penguin to the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association. Thanks for leading a beautiful and informative Memorial Day Heron Rookery Hike this morning.
May 28
Pygoscelis penguins prepare pre-pageant, promoting public philanthropic pride.
==============
That's where things stand, four days before the pageant. Hope to see you in the meadow on June 1!
Ambassador penguins (Aptenodytes terrae). Height: 2-10cm. Range: North America (!).
The Potters' Penguin Project entered its fundraising phase in May 2017 with the Greensboro Science Center's Tuxedo Trot 5K. The Tuxedo Trot raises funds for the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), with which the GSC's African penguin exhibit has ties. E, S, and I set up a table and gifted joggers with penguins if they made donations to SANCCOB. We raised about $250.
In 2018, pining to have our downstairs shower back (where else does one store 2,000 penguins?), I finally got my act in gear and started actively fundraising for Earthjustice. Claymakers hosted several hundred penguins this past summer, and 200 found "forever homes" in exchange for donations. When the Durham County Pottery Tour rolled around in November, three other potters and I hosted subcolonies at our studios, and I hosted penguins again at my studio open house in December; consequently, another hundred and ten penguins or so have waddled off. Attempting to spread the penguin joy beyond the NC Triangle, I started a fundraiser for Earthjustice on Facebook, so a few penguins have traveled to new homes via USPS. Yesterday, I shipped 25 Ambassador penguins (Aptenodytes terrae) and ~$2,500 in checks to Earthjustice's San Francisco headquarters. Fly, little birds, fly (figuratively speaking, of course)!
Yet...Because this amazing community-building project created over 2,000 penguins, I am still living with roughly 1,650 of them. Let me bear witness: that's a lotta clay penguins. On the bright side, they drive home the point they were created to illustrate, that a colony loss of 150,000 penguins is a travesty. On the down side, I am surrounded by a lotta clay penguins. I would love to adopt them all myself, but then I would become "that penguin lady" who gives over her entire house to an outrageous number of stray animals, eventually requiring a visit from the Animal Protection Society or the Health Department.
Added to the penguin mix were three boxes of organ sheet music that I used to store at work but, having left that gig in early October, I've been storing under the piano. (Remember the Great Purge of 2012, when we cleared out the study to make room for the fabulous piano? See how empty the room was? Those were the days!) Plus, of course, we have pottery everywhere, because it was Pottery Tour and open house season. In need of horizontal surfaces, after Thanksgiving we installed some basic Ikea shelving along one wall of the study.
Voila! Room for sheet music, pots, and 1,650 penguins! Which brings me to today's adventure: rough penguin inventorying! I used to know which boxes contained exactly which penguins, but as the colony has moved here and there and back again, penguins have jumped from box to box, and it's hard to know who's where. Penguin inventorying means greeting favorite penguins again ("oh, I remember you!"). I try to keep the joyous reunions brief, reminding myself that I can't keep every adorable penguin that crosses my path. It turns out I remember most makers--if not individual makers, at least their teams--folks from the NCSU and Claymakers Make-a-Penguin events; area elementary-, middle-, and high-schoolers; summer campers, friends, etc. When the entire colony was exhibited at Claymakers in 2017, I was impressed that makers could pick their penguins out of a crowd of (then) 1,973--but not surprised. Because really, every penguin is an individual.
Want to give some penguins a "forever home"? Contact me or see our Facebook fundraiser for details.
Were he still living, "Aged Reader" would be sending me the occasional nudge to blog. Alas, he is not and does not, so I have been negligent about keeping things current. Some updates are in order, and I believe Aged Reader would be appalled by some and proud of others.
Generally, I try to keep this space apolitical, because I have three different professional personas to project/protect (musician, potter, writing teacher), and sometimes people actually read what I write here. Today I throw caution to the wind. As I type, I am listening the News & Observer's live-stream video of protesters at the NCGA, where state Republicans are showing the world that they believe in neither democracy nor due process. Shame on these power-hungry connivers for their years of self-interested sneak attacks and subterfuge, and for this particularly egregious disregard for the people of this state. The ends do not justify the means; appearances and process matter. Shame. Shame. Shame. We'll see you in court.
How does one shift topics from appalling political transformations to more mundane things like pottery and pets? Well. You can see why it has been hard to blog this year. Stepping up to the plate to aid in the switch: a community-building environmental-activism local-to-international art project.
Much of what could have been blogging energy this year was redirected to The Potters' Penguin Project, with updates posted semi-regularly at www.facebook.com/potterspenguinproject. I've inventoried 1,627 of 1,700+ birds to date--each one different, each one with its own personality (penguinality?), each one made by hand by one (or sometimes two or three) of 250+ makers. Most of our penguins originated in the NC Triangle area, but we've received birds from as far west as Arizona and as far east as Spain and Germany. The generosity of the makers--kids and adults, amateurs and professionals, friends and strangers, teachers and students--has been stunning and heart-warming, and it's been pretty spectacular seeing each penguin up close.
This would be a logical point to insert an image of the Far Side cartoon with the sea of black-and-white penguins, where one penguin in the distance is exuberantly singing "I gotta be me, oh I just gotta be me!!"--except that Gary Larson posted an online letter in 2008 asking people not to re-post his cartoons. That letter is reproduced here; the original source is no longer available, which is evidence either of an expired site or that the request was for an obviously losing battle. The penguin strip is all over the interwebs, of course, as a Google search demonstrates. In any case, my point is that while Gary Larson mocked that singing penguin's sense of special snowflakeness, every penguin in the Potters' Penguin Project colony truly is unique. (Note the placement of the adverb: "truly is unique," not "is truly unique." As I tell students in my writing workshops, unique means "one of a kind," and it doesn't make sense to say something is truly one of a kind, as opposed to only sort of one of a kind. Thus is every penguin, truly, unique.)
Yesterday was the official deadline for penguins to join the colony, so counting incoming birds will be high on my to-do list as 2016 winds to a close. The project will exhibit at Claymakers between January 10 and February 11, 2017, and in April/May, a contingent of penguins will represent the colony at the Greensboro Science Center (where one can see real live endangered African penguins up close).
From penguins to pets....Patient readers might recall that we adopted a new cat in April following the death of Homer Wells. FindusBabyCatBiteyBeauDrJekyllandMrHyde has become a little less bitey than he was in April, but he remains edgy and vigilant--vigilant not in the protective way of Miss Maggie B., nor the professional on-duty way of Schroeder, but rather in a psychotic way that suggests he knows the world cannot be trusted, no matter how much kibble you feed him or how many times you let him in or out or in or out or in or out the back door onto the porch. He doesn't like being touched unless he initiates the contact, but he's an expert at sucking up to strangers--the talent that suckered us into adopting him. Last week, he destroyed three handmade mugs and tried climbing inside the piano twice. Here is a video of him in jail, followed by some photos of him at his finest.
Schroeder, meanwhile, has given up playing fetch. We lost Preferred Carrot shortly after Homer died. Schroeder will gift us with other finger puppets, but he has no interest in retrieving them if we throw them down the stairs. Instead, he has turned his attention to a life-sized stuffed kitty toy that he carries by its neck up and down the stairs. When we go to bed at night, he brings it into bed with us and humps it. When we wake up in the morning, he humps it again, and when we go downstairs, he brings it downstairs. Occasionally, he tries feeding it by dropping it next to--or in--his food dish. In the evening, when we sit on the sofa in front of the fireplace, he retrieves his plush toy, jumps onto the sofa with it, and humps it. His obsession is all the more remarkable because the plush toy is big enough to obscure his line of sight: Schroeder jumps from floor to bed/sofa without seeing where he's going, and he has yet to miss his mark (although sometimes he'll land on FindusBabyCatBiteyBeauDrJekyllandMrHyde). He purrs a lot, seems happy, is a genius, and is neutered, so we set aside our prudishness and let him have at it.
In other news, alter ego Robo Revenger has returned. Robo Revenger responds to spam callers so they have less time to call you, dear readers. This fall, Robo Revenger spent a good ten minutes talking with pseudo-Mikrosofft scammers phishing from the Indian subcontinent. I managed to capture most of the conversation in a video recording (see below). The first 1.5 minutes are excellent; my high school classmates might enjoy the reference to Four Square just past 1:00. I'm also partial to the two minutes starting ~3:10. The first "f*&% you" is ~5:22. The stuff about how to count desktop icons ~5:35-7:03 is fabulous, yielding a nice stream of "f*&%-yous" ~7:04. The part from 7:00 to the end demonstrates how to remain chipper and polite in the face of adversity. Really, the whole thing is a Robo Revenger tour-de-force.
A week later, the Mikrosofft phishers phoned back. Robo Revenger had barely gotten out the video camera and started misleading the callers when a real live human knocked on the door. Robo Revenger asked the spammers to please call back in ten minutes--and they did! Add that to your toolbox, people, and remember to always use your superpowers for good. (And if you really care about preventing spam calls, add your voice to the chorus at the Consumers Union.)
The Potters' Penguin Project passed a kilometerstone (a metric milestone) this weekend: the colony hosts 997 penguins and three eggs--1,000 objets d'penguin--which puts us a whopping two thirds of the way toward our goal of 1,500. Here's what that looks like packed into boxes:
All of these birds, plus at least 500 more, will emerge in early January for an exhibit at Claymakers in Durham, NC.
Last month, as boxes of clay penguins were piling up for the Potters' Penguin Project, I wondered whether one could see real live penguins anywhere in North Carolina. Google quickly pointed me to the Greensboro Science Center, where one can not only see African penguins in the "Sciquarium" but also experience a "Penguin Encounter." So I made reservations, and on a blisteringly hot Saturday two weeks ago, E and I headed to Greensboro with friends.
African penguins are found along the coast of southern Africa. Their status went from vulnerable to endangered on the IUCN redlist in 2010, with their decline attributed to overfishing and changes in prey sources. The African penguins at the Greensboro Science Center are part of a Species Survival Plan that coordinates and monitors breeding to ensure genetic diversity. The Science Center currently has 20 penguins, with space for 25, and has successfully bred nine chicks, some of which have been sent to other zoos.
The penguins we encountered up close were juveniles: Pat (female) and Nigel (male). Nigel wasn't wearing a tag because he was bulking up to molt. We weren't permitted to hold the penguins ourselves--both for our safety and that of the birds--but we were able to pet Pat while a keeper held her, and we were all surprised to learn that penguins have surprisingly silky, soft feathers.
Penguins are social, interactive birds, with individual personalities and individual relationships with the keepers.
African penguins are also called Jackass penguins because of the sounds they make.
The keepers were generous with their time and answered all of our many questions, and it was thrilling to meet these beautiful birds up close. We'll likely head back next spring for the Science Center's Tuxedo Trot, a 5K fundraiser for SANCCOB (the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds).
Winter Solstice (in Antarctica) has come and gone, and the Potters' Penguin Project colony has grown to a whopping 804 penguins! The Project has two more deadlines: October 15, 2016, when we hope to pass the 1,500-penguin mark, and December 15, 2016, when we'll conduct our final colony census. We expect to exhibit at Claymakers in Durham, NC, in early 2017. Check back for info about other exhibit spaces as plans develop.
Image via the Potters' Penguin Project
Image via http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/25/world/penguin-watch-conservation-citizen-science/
