This paragraph started as a way to tell you about all the kangaroo happenings in Texas, because Texas is one of thirteen states where it’s legal for people to own a kangaroo as an exotic pet. This doesn’t make it a good idea; it just makes it legal with a permit. In Texas lots of things are legal that aren’t necessarily good ideas. Kangaroos do well with our environment and weather, which is much the same as Australia, grazing on grasses, vegetation, leaves, flowers, ferns, and moss. Like cows, they can chew their cud. Their rear legs are huge, heavily muscled, with elongated feet. Most of the hind foot is just a huge toe that ends in a single curved claw; that along with a long, broad tail all helps them to hop… as much as 25 feet in one stride and up to six feet in the air, with possible speeds of 35 miles per hour. They can’t walk backwards, but they do swim. Female kangaroos have three vaginas – two that are used to transport sperm and one that the joey is birthed through, then the three join together before coming out to a single opening. Fascinating. Kangaroos often have two embryos develop at once. One will go on to become a joey that is born, and one embryo can be paused when it consists of only 70-100 cells, and about a quarter of a millimeter in diameter. (How does she know to do that?) If something should happen to the first joey, and it should die, the mother can either continue the development of the other embryo or wait until there are more favorable environmental conditions (drought or if food Is scarce), or perhaps she is just waiting until the first joey has finally left the pouch. Average gestation is only 34 days, and when the joey is born it usually weighs less than a gram, is the size of a jellybean, blind, hairless and can barely crawl. The joey will then crawl up the mother’s body (after the mother licks the path for the baby to follow) to the pouch opening, where it will go in and attach itself to one of the teats, where it will stay for at least 6 months. Nature is enchanting. This was so interesting. OK. Now let’s get back to where I started.
Jax the kangaroo was raised as a pet but escaped from his owner’s backyard recently in the Prosper area of North Texas, being coaxed home with a bottle of milk from his owner. Just a few days later, Nigel escaped his backyard in Granbury and was gone for two days. In Mercedes, Texas (McAllen area), a kangaroo escaped from a ranch in January. In Wimberley, officers thought calls reporting an escaped kangaroo were all pranks. It happened again in San Marcus. One woman in Lumberton, Texas said that she was so glad she took pictures so people would believe her. She was driving her son’s truck and had to call him and tell him she had almost hit a kangaroo and that it would have been so hard to explain to the insurance company. And it’s not just Texas. I read about kangaroo escape artists all over the country.
“We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place – or not bother.”– Jane Goodall
A hunter who killed and skinned a Connecticut family’s pet German shepherds, claims he thought they were coyotes and did it for the pelts. The hunter calls it an accident and says he is ashamed of what he did, but wants the charges erased. Others are saying there are inconsistencies in his story and question how he could not see that the animals were dogs before skinning them. A woman in San Manuel, Arizona came home and found a bobcat lounging in her dog’s bed, believed to have entered through the doggie door.
The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, and her ex-husband Prince Andrew, gifted Queen Elizabeth with her corgis, Sandy and Muick, then adopted them when the Queen died in September. Ferguson now says that the ghost of the queen makes the corgis bark, because they can sense the spirit of their late owner. Ferguson has defended Andrew as a good man despite controversy over his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The couple divorced in ’96, but still live together at the Royal Lodge in Windsor. Perhaps the dogs can sense the Queen is barking at Sarah…
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Singer-songwriter James Taylor is 75. Singer Jay Osmond of The Osmonds is 68. Singer John Cowsill of The Cowsills is 67. Singer Jon Bon Jovi is 61. Actor Daniel Craig of James Bond Casino Royale is 55. TV host Donovan Patton of Blue’s Clues is 45. Actor Paula Prentiss of The Stepford Wives is 85. Musician Emilio Estefan of the Miami Sound Machine is 70. Actor Catherine O’Hara of Home Alone is 69. Actor Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond is 65. Actor Laraine Newman of Saturday Night Live is 71. Author John Irving is 81. The World According to Garp in 1978, The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year. Comedian Robert Klein is 81.
Actor Mamie Van Doren is 92. Actor Cybill Shepherd is 73. Actor Jon Provost of Lassie is 73. Little Timmy Martin. Actor-singer Liza Minnelli is 77. Singer Bill Payne of Little Feat is 74. Bassist Steve Harris of Iron Maiden is 67. Singer Marlon Jackson of The Jackson Five is 66. Jazz drummer Roy Haynes is 98. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz. Songwriter Mike Stoller is 90. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 90. Singer-keyboardist Taylor Hanson of Hanson is 40. Actor William H. Macy is 73. Hound Dog, Kansas City, Love Me Tender, Jailhouse Rock, Loving You, King Creole, On Broadway, Stand by Me, Spanish Harlem and more. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 84. Actor Dana Delaney of China Beach is 67. Country singer Michael Martin Murphey is 78. Comedian Billy Crystal is 75.
Lloyd Morrisett, co-creator of Sesame Street died at 93. In 1968, Morrisett co-founded the nonprofit Children’s Television Workshop which was later renamed Sesame Workshop, with former publicist Joan Ganz Cooney. Morrisett and Cooney worked with Harvard University developmental psychologist Gerald Lesser to build the show’s unique approach to teaching children. Legendary puppeteer Jim Henson supplied Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover, Elmo and the rest. Sesame Street premiered in ’69, the year of both Woodstock and the moon landing. I was happy to know those landmarks in time because it seems like it has been around my whole life. Gary Rossington, guitarist of southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died at 71. Ricou Browning, a skilled swimmer best known for his underwater role as the Gill Man in the 3D black-and-white 1954 movie Creature from the Black Lagoon, died at 93. Remember that?
If you remember The Corner and buying your first Clinique make-up (like I did), then you remember sweet June Hatfield. She helped many of us pick out a new outfit or improve our make-up skills. The Corner closed in 1996 and June purchased ScissorTail Quilts, then later went to work at Brazosport College before moving to Palestine in 2011. She was a mover and a shaker in our community, instrumental in the creation of our annual Christmas time event, LJ Festival of Lights. She died March 3, at 91 years of age. Her services are March 10, Bluebonnet Hills Memorial Park in Colleyville, Texas.
March 3 was Employee Appreciation Day. I wasn’t aware of this until March 3, which was Friday, and our office is closed on Fridays, because we have a 4-day work week. I want to take this space (and since it’s my column, I can do that if I want) to say thank-you to everyone that works here with me at The Source Weekly. We have had lots of struggles in the past five years or so…Harvey, Covid, illnesses, retirement, and well, did I mention Covid? Yes, it’s been a tough, few years, but everyone still shows up with a smile, ready for a good workday. Thank you so much. I appreciate you every single day!
Sunday, March 12 Daylight Saving Time. Set your clocks ahead one hour. Spring forward. Don’t forget to watch the Oscars on Sunday. If you’ve ever been to Disney World, you have probably lined up to experience a Dole Pineapple Whip. Good news. Soon, fans will be able to purchase Dole Whip in pineapple, mango or strawberry at their local grocery store.
We all know that you should hang the toilet paper to where the end is facing you, not to the inside of the holder where you must search for the end, touching the holder or the wall, which is super nasty. Look it up. By hanging it the proper way, you only touch the paper you will be using yourself. What I don’t understand are the mis-sized rolls I bought last week at Target. I threw away the packaging, so I don’t know the brand, but they pass the soft tushy-test… really skinny rolls from side-to-side, with additional tissue sheets on the roll. Like they cut it wrong. It barely fits when you put it on the roller, but it won’t turn loose of the toilet paper because it’s so tight in the holder, so it doesn’t spin. For the first few days after a new roll, you just pull one sheet at a time until it loosens up. Anyone else noticing this?
R. Kelly is serving 30 years for his 2021 racketeering and sex trafficking convictions in NY. He was just given 20 years in prison for another set of sex crimes, including child pornography and enticement of minors for sex (little boys & little girls – he doesn’t care), but 19 of those years will be served concurrently with his existing prison time, so it only adds a year to the previous 30-year sentence. Hmmm. That means he will be eligible for release around age 80. His attorneys say he has suffered “significant physical and psychological injuries” while in prison and want him released. Hmmm.
Last week I saw a photograph of a display of Prince Harry’s book, Spare, stacked in a bookstore window in Bath, England. The books were already covered with half-price stickers. Supposedly, the day of the photograph was January 22, and the book had just officially gone on sale January 10. Hmmm.
This is good. A recent study shows that people who think they are attractive are less likely to wear a mask. Hmmm. There must be some mighty attractive people in the world.
If you get a chance, watch the show on Netflix about the Murdaugh family. It explains the family in a way that makes us (sort of) understand quite a bit more. The sons, the grandfather, the housekeeper’s death, the boating accident. Things that couldn’t be shown during the trial. Our streetlights are out on our section of Parking Way again, all three of them, making it pretty dark each and every evening. If you happen to see someone from the city that could help us, please let them know. A new study suggests US freshwater fish are highly contaminated with forever chemicals. That’s a great feeling. The show Succession will end with Season 4. Over the weekend, I saw my first robin at the birdfeeders.
Florida seems to be throwing a bunch of stuff against walls to see what sticks. A new bill was proposed that would authorize a series of animal protections and guidelines, such as banning cat declawing, animal testing for cosmetics, selling rabbits before Easter, restricting when an animal can be tethered outside, and dogs hanging their heads out of car windows. The bill also creates a registry of known animal abusers, cracks down on the sale of animals to them, and allows the state to ban people convicted of sexual offenses with animals from owning a pet during their probation. WAIT!! Let’s go back to dogs hanging their heads out the car window. This happens every single morning on our way to work. I say, “Do you want me to roll down the window?” Pure bliss literally explodes in the back seat! Teller’s tail could take down buildings, he’s so happy; so down the window goes, just enough for a head but not a body. Sometimes when it’s raining, we even hit water puddles on the street, seeing how far we can shoot the water – that’s almost as much fun as hanging a head out the window, but we never do both at the same time. He might get wet. Do you think no water splashing might be on the bill also? I don’t know… things are getting a little restrictive. Can’t we get back to the old if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, mentality. Have a great week, thanks for reading us, and don’t forget to be kind to yourself and others.
Lisa
Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com
