I Like Hippos

Sorry if you've actually seen me in the past five years or so, because, if you have, you will have heard everything I'm about to say. I was chatting with friends tonight, though, and we started discussing my deep and abiding love for hippos and I was so filled with joooooy, that I thought I should share.

I love hippos! The very best thing about hippos? Their ears. They look like little flugelhorns. Great big, able-to-crush-you-to-death animals. Little, tiny ears. And they spin. Unfortunately, they also kill more people each year than any other animal, even though they're vegetarians.

This is a picture of a baby hippo, Owen, who was orphaned in the big tsunami a few years ago and made friends with this tortoise in an animal shelter.

The Marmot Family and I went to the zoo several years ago, where I saw the saddest hippo ever. There was only one hippo, and he was submerged in the water, and he wouldn't come out, so I couldn't see his dainty, flugelhorn ears. And he didn't do any spinning. I think maybe he'd been drinking.

My brother's wife had a baby tonight. (Congratulations!) I hope that immediately after introducing her to the most important things in life--family, religion, and the like--that they teach her all about libraries, hippos, sheepdogs, and airports--the good things in life.