Thursday, July 22, 2010

This Time We Fool You

(To quote Chico Marx.)

In the pond outside the zoo’s birdhouse is a metal sculpture of a hippo with a bird on its back. Even though the sculpture is at most one-half the size of a real hippo, it’s very lifelike, especially since it’s semi-submerged in the waters of the pond, the hippo’s head and back just breaking the surface. I’m not sure if it was designed by the zoo as some sort of cruel joke, as a means of compensating for the lack of actual hippos, or just as something pretty, but every day children shriek with excitement and adults do double-takes, thinking that they’re seeing a real hippopotamus with a real bird on its back—and every day children are disappointed and adults are embarrassed when they realize they’ve been fooled.

That’s why I liked seeing this:


[one of these things
is not like the others...]

3 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

He wouldn't be perched there if it were real so he isn't the fool we are.

pattinase (abbott) said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

camouflage!!!

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