Monday, December 14, 2015

Music Monday ~ Going Ape on Monkey Day

It's Monkey Day y'all! Who knew?
Monkey Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated internationally on December 14. While the holiday is mainly about monkeys, it also celebrates other non-human primates such as apes, tarsiers, and lemurs. Monkey Day was created to spread awareness for the animals, and to show love and care for them.


Nothing else for it then... written and sung by Neil Sedaka, record released in 1959.





Words from Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings....

“Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal... In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.

Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh--not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.”

Hmm - well, in that case how come this? - - -



13 comments:

Sonny G said...


I cant tell you the hours of fun me and my kids had singing that song..

it helped ease many rough moments.

thanks for the stroll down memory lane.

most repubs aren't nearly as smart as monkeys, thats a fact.

ps- in case ya haven't seen the news Cruz is surging past Trump like a fast freight train..

ugg, the devil or the other devil.. no win situation for the american people:(

mike said...

Well, I thought it was "Eleven Days Until Christmas Day", which celebrates a sense of worthlessness for most. I see that "National Bouillabaisse Day" [ http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/December/bouillabaisseday.htm ] is trying to edge-out "Monkey Day". A quick internet search indicates that about 50% of the monkeys are endangered and going extinct, due to humans, so "Monkey Day" won't be around much longer...all the more reason to celebrate the holiday while it's here. Hhmmmm...I wonder if Homo sapiens is endangered, too, since our cousins are vanishing...the Ouroboros effect. I'm afraid that I can't pay proper homage to any monkeys, as my city has no zoo with prisoner monkeys.


“I see in the fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars, advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of the history man, no purpose or place, we have no Great war, no Great depression, our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives, we've been all raised by television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't and we're slowly learning that fact. and we're very very pissed off.” Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Sonny G said...


though I never ever wanted to be famous or a millionaire as both wouldn't suit my already suspicious nature.. You'd never again be able to KNOW if you were loved, just for yourself.

I might however at this stage in my life be considered one of the frivolous/useless lol..

I decorate seasonally for myself and a few others .. I do get paid by the others but its FUN for me and keeps my mind occupied which helps the anxiety//depression issues from taking over.
I'm not pissed off :-) though life has had its hills and valleys.. I'm content and sorta proud of myself for overcoming many things that would have stopped others in their tracks..

Sonny G said...

oh yea.. I changed my profile pic.. thats me sitting on my del sol with the top down..just thought ya'll might wanna see who ya talk to almost everyday..

Twilight said...

Sonny ~ Nice to see you (photographically that is!) Hi!
Yes, I noticed the news about the Trump/Cruz race. If we were forced to choose between one or t'other for some crazy reason I'd choose Trump (now I'd best go wah my mouth out!)

Re your 2nd comment - I don't think we should have to apologise or justify being what we are, just because Chuck Whats-'is-name feels like pontificating. As Frankie said in the quote I used at the weekend "Ya gotta love livin' baby, cause dyin's a pain in the ass."

Sonny G said...


Frankie sure knew how to Live, so I'll go with that..

Twilight said...

mike ~ Ah well, National Bouillabaisse Day wouldn't have afforded the same musical opportunities either! :-) Anyway, I hate the stuff!

Chuck Whats-'is-name needs to lighten up. I looked at his natal chart on Astrotheme

http://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Chuck_Palahniuk

and note that his natal Sun and Venus are conjunct my Jupiter and his natal Mercury and Saturn conjunct my Sun. I should like him, I suppose - but from what I've read on Wiki I don't.

mike (again) said...

Re - Palahniuk...That's a quote-excerpt from the novel-movie, so it's best discerned in context to the scene. I can't disagree with the generalization of the quote. I think it describes many of those individuals that are supporting The Donald, Dr Ben, Ted Cruz, et al. Fascism for the angry simple-minded.

Re - Ted Cruz vs The Donald...yes, I suppose I'd go for the lesser evil, Trump, too. It'd be like trying to decide if I'd prefer deafness or blindness.

Re - Sonny - Your photo isn't too clear (was it shot through a vaseline-coated lens?...LOL). You look great. I also had a Honda del Sol and loved it. It was my last car and I rarely drove it, so I sold it four years ago...boo hoo. I pampered it. It was 18 years old when I sold it and had under 100,000 miles on it. I usually chose my bicycle over the 20-pounds-of-carbon-dioxide-per-gallon emissions, though the del Sol had very good miles/gallon.

Twilight said...

mike (again) Re the quote - yes point taken. It seems from what Wiki has to offer, though, that he's a rather negative kind of guy in general. He seems to have made a good living from it anyway. ;-)

Cruz/Trump - I almost said it'd be like having to choose whether to have finger nails or toe nails pulled out with red hot pliers. :-O

Twilight said...

I've just read this one on The Big T. - never can pass a reference to the great sci-fi book "Dune" --

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/12/for-he-is-the-kwisatz-haderach

(Click on the link on the doctor's name).

I'm surprised at his blood-pressure (if that's true and without meds). He looks like the type who'd have high BP naturally.

mike (again) said...

I'm suspicious of Dr Bornstein's glowing health certification statement. It's a funky letter from the get-go...did you notice the introduction? "To Whom My Concern:"? Trump's blood pressure is obviously controlled via medication. Note that the Dr didn't say the ONLY medications are aspirin and a statin. It appears Trump may have previously been treated for a heart condition, at least that's how I interpret the statement, particularly with Bornstein's declaration, "His cardiovascular status is excellent.", which simply means his CURRENT parameters are being met, and probably through medications. I believe it was a carefully crafted letter, except for the intro...LOL.

mike (again) said...

From The Roanoke-Chowan News Herald regarding the installation of a solar farm in the town of Woodland. The town council rejected the proposal based on public comments.

"Jane Mann said she is a local native and is concerned about the natural vegetation that makes the community beautiful.

She is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would keep the vegetation from growing. She said she has observed areas near solar panels where vegetation is brown and dead because it did not receive enough sunlight.

She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer.

'I want to know what’s going to happen,' she said. 'I want information. Enough is enough. I don’t see the profit for the town.

'People come with hidden agendas,' she said. 'Until we can find if anything is going to damage this community, we shouldn’t sign any paper.'

Bobby Mann said he watched communities dry up when I-95 came along and warned that would happen to Woodland because of the solar farms.

'You’re killing your town,' he said. 'All the young people are going to move out.'

He said the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not come to Woodland."

http://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/2015/12/08/woodland-rejects-solar-farm/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ DT probably dictated that letter himself - or had an adviser do so. ;-)

Re the solar objections: Tsk - wouldn't ya know it! What is wrong with these people?