Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Saturday, 20 March 2004

# 8 PM

Sumana and Leonard and I went to the San Francisco Zoo today. This zoo was built in the 1930s and it shows, both in obvious ways (the elephant barn says PACHYDERMS on it in big red serif letters; here and there are plaques saying "constructed under the authority of the Works Progress Administration") and less obvious ways (they have one or two examples of all the charismatic megafauna, each in its own small area that isn't terribly representative of its native environment). However, they are actively working to renovate the place according to modern ideas of zookeeping - duplicating the native environment insofar as is feasible, and so on. They have finished doing this to the lemur area already, and the African savannah animals should follow later in the year. (If you go, absolutely do not miss the lemurs; they're really interesting. And right near the entrance.)

One sad thing: they used to have two Indian elephants, but one of them had been chronically ill, and last week she collapsed and had to be euthanized. The other Indian elephant clearly knew and cared that her friend had died. She was standing in one place up against the fence around her paddock, slowly swaying from side to side, with a dreadfully mournful look on her face. They are planning to get another companion for her, which is good.

After the zoo we went to a crepe restaurant at West Portal and Leonard sprang his birthday gift on me: an Elvis prayer candle. As I said to him, now that I have this I realize that I have always wanted one. I took it home and put it on the mantelpiece; let's see how long it takes for Michael and Julia to notice.