Don't it always seem to go

[ Sorry to be late; airport duty. ]

And, why not, since I've had a string of news like this lately.

My binturong has died. You might faintly recall some association between me and a binturong, because a couple years ago skylerbunny bought a sponsorship in my name for a coati at the Popcorn Park Zoo, a then-to-me local rescue zoo. The coati died in December of last year, of old age --- come to think of it, that was another of the past twelve months' little symbolic moments of shredding my links to the old home --- and they transferred all of Cocoa's sponsors over to other animals. As they didn't have any more coatis they transferred me to Benji the Binturong.

And now Benji's died, apparently in his sleep, with the ultimate cause being bladder cancer. While I did see Benji, it was before we had any sponsorial connection; my trips back east this year were short enough not to give the chance for a zoo visit.

And now they've transferred my sponsorship again, to their other binturong, Shawmut. Shawmut came to the Popcorn Park Zoo on being rescued from Texas. She'd been part of a roadside zoo flooded out in Hurricane Katrina, and somehow Benji was bought as a companion to replace a binturong killed in the aftermath of that. The two were brought to New Jersey when their owner couldn't take adequate care of them. And now I'm left wondering what she's to do for companionship.

Trivia: Early 1980s issues of Spaceport News, the Kennedy Space Center house newsletter, spoke of the benefits of round-the-clock work including at least one article titled ``Stress Can Be Good For You'', which argued that ``it takes Type A personalities to launch a space shuttle''.
Source: A History of the Kennedy Space Center, Kenneth Lipartito, Orville R Butler.

Currently Reading: Joseph Henry: His Life And Work, Thomas Coulson.