MONKEY LESSON
Last Tuesday at the Zoo I got to hand feed a Slow Loris a durian fruit- a large spiky football looking fruit that smells like death and in my opinion tastes worse. The Loris seemed to like it though. A Loris is a prosimian, sort of a proto-primate, with reflective eyes and acute senses of smell, but they have hands similar to ours. They are cute and fluffy as well, and look as if Jim Henson designed them. I was also accosted by a small gang of Lesser Galagos...also a type of prosimian.

THE ICE MAIDEN COMETH
I was absurdly facinated with this mummy of a young woman found covered in ice and buried in a fancy grave in Siberia when I first read about it several years ago. Not only was she remarkably preserved, but she was covered in beautiful tattoos of animals and flowers. The theory is that she may have been a Scythian noblewoman, or priestess.