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Stay in Your Enclosure

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A sad note from our cell phone holding, lengthy message-texting friend in the woods.

Bart - The Bear Who Found a Cell Phone

Word got to me this weekend about that wolf at the zoo who squeezed through a fence, jumped a barrier and got shot. Bummer. And I say this as an animal that is not big fan of wolves. Sorry, but we really don’t get along, especially when there’s only one of me and a group of them, which is pretty much always.

Still, we wild animals have to stick together. Humans like to come into our territory and make a mess of things, assuming they can do the same things here that they do on their cul-de-sac back in suburbia. Wrong! So we free creatures have to do whatever we can to remind them that we’re the ones who put the “wild” in “wilderness”. Sorry if I steal your food and ruin your convertible top in the process. It could be much worse.

But that’s how we behave out here. Constantly doing critter stuff. If you wind up inside the zoo, however, that’s a different story. It’s the show biz side of animal life, and one of the sad rules of the entertainment world is – you have to stay in your enclosure. You can pace around, play a little bit and take your meals in public. If you want, go ahead and exhibit some wild “behaviors”. If you were born in captivity and don’t know what those are, listen to the tour guides – they’ll tell you what you’re supposed to be doing. Every animal has its “greatest hits”, and that’s what the public wants to see. For us bears, it involves a pool of water and rolling on your back, for some reason.

Human entertainers have the same problem. Ask Lady Gaga, if you can get close enough. Based on the public reaction to her act, she’ll be wearing those machine guns on her chest when she’s 50, and it won’t be pretty, or even very interesting. But the market makes its demands and the paying public has to get what it wants. Tough work, though there are perks. You certainly don’t have to struggle for food, and it’s nice to have an adoring public.

But don’t try to jump the fence.

Your pal,
Bart

Is no business like show business, or is every business like show business?

74 thoughts on “Stay in Your Enclosure”

  1. everything about its so appealing everything the traffic will allow lalalalala that speccial feeling when you are stealing that extra bow……theres no people like those people like those people i know … sounds like life at the office to me. or maybe a suburban gathering on a summer backyard evening

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    2. My favorite lines:
      Even with a turkey that you know will fold, you may be stranded out in the cold,
      Still you wouldn’t trade it for a bag of gold, let’s go on with the show…
      (My little chorus sang this in our spring concert in an Irving Berlin medley.)

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  2. Rise and Strut Your Stuff Baboons!

    I believe a Merman Alert is due on this one–she sang the song in Annie Get Your Gun didn’t she? I really don’t know if every business is like show business. I certainly appreciate a zoo where the animal housing is clean and larger than traditional zoos. I completely avoid the Como Zoo because it is so heartbreaking to see those poor gorillas there–no show business in that world. Those gorillas need some stimulation to be sure.

    I’ll have to go to work today and watch for show biz.

    Meanwhile, Dale, are you feeling a bit penned in by the new job? The only thing worse than having a job is NOT having a job.

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    1. I went to Como Zoo with Daughter a few years ago and discovered one of the orangutans wearing a bright pink t-shirt. According to one of the zoo workers, the orangutans had been given a pile of clothes to play with for “stimulation” (maybe so they could play “dress up”?). One of the adults had gotten a t-shirt over his head and one arm through a sleeve (but not the other arm). He seemed so proud of himself the zoo keepers let him wear it for several days. It was a crazy look, but he was rockin’ it.

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  3. This topic reminds me…. whatever happened with our Carol Burnett-a-thon? Did we ever reschedule or did I just miss it?

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    1. Qonderful video Steve. Where DO you find these things? The various Baboons seem to have an endless supply of these great clips.

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      1. Ach, wonderful – although now that I think about, perhaps qonderful is more appropriate.

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      8. Jacque, here is where I really wish I had more artistic talent, as I would love to SEE those Wee Gillikers (sounds like a kids’ book series from the same time as the Moffatts).

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      9. Everyone here sounds a little stir crazy. “I’d like to get out and about, but when I can’t, I amuse myself. With word games.”

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  5. That poor wolf was an evacuee from the Bismarck Zoo who had been sent to Minnesota due to flooding. I bet it was just trying to get back home, away from all the traffic and rat race of the Twin Cities. I think there is drama and smoke and mirrors in every business.

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    1. Actually it was one of our wolves (I’m a member and we got a letter from Ehmke (Director) yesterday. Here is what he said…
      “This is the first escape of a potentially dangerous animal in the 33-year history of the Zoo. It was precipitated by the temporary housing of our Mexican wolf in an off-exhibit enclosure in order to accommodate other wolves that had been rescued from the flooding at the Dakota Zoo. That this temporary enclosure proved not to be secure is something for which we take full responsibility, and have quickly remedied.”
      He said more about the whys and hows as well. I have to admit that while I’m extremely sad about the situation, I’m thinking that if even one small child had been seriously hurt or killed in that incident, public opinion would be much different than it currently is.

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    2. That wolf was stuck in an isolated area by itself because it didn’t get along with the other two Mexican wolves in the main enclosure. I don’t know if the three came together or if just this one Mexican wolf was moved over from Bismarck. It might have escaped to get away from the nearness of two wolves that were hostile.

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      1. i am surprised that the guard has access to a bullet filled gun without have equal accessablilty to a tranquilizer filled gun. there should have been a choice. this may not be a bad idea for guys with guns in general. shoot to kill or shoot to decommsion for now would be a choice id like to have were i i that position.

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  6. Well, I’m off to my day in the zoo where I share a pen with another Contractor. My schtick is to appear to be good with words, knowledgeable about errata, and helpful with technology and data. On special occasions I am let out of my pen for special exhibit in other environments with other Contractors and FTEs. Bonus points if you catch me being especially nerdy or bopping my head to the music in my earbuds.

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      1. Yep. It’s an open-ended contract, though, with no specified project end date. Mostly the difference for me is academic except for access to a few internal systems (and no employee discount).

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  7. Yesterday I sent Dale a guest blog to drop in his freezer section, to thaw in an emergency. His response shows he would like some on hand. So, here’s your chance to turn your life into show business, or at least trail business.

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  8. I used to have an enclosure. Most days I was thinking, if this is show business, where’s the director? No one seems to be in charge.

    I’m out now; haven’t been shot so far.

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      1. I requested a copy from the library. The author’s name seems familiar to me, but I can’t think where I might have heard it before….?

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    2. Linda, the most fantabulous theatrical disasters are not those where “No one seems to be in charge.” They are those where there is a director who is reaching for more art than his or her abilities will make possible. The definitive essay on this is Jack Hitt’s description, for the “This American Life” segment on “Fiasco,” of a staging of “Peter Pan.” I’m sure you have read or heard it!

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  9. I’ve worked retail, and there’s some show business to that – you certainly have to set the stage, anyway. Take a bookstore window, for instance, and the table displays: you get the main characters of the moment out there, keep restocking, change the look around periodically, pay attention to color and lighting…

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  10. Okay, about that wolf. The poor SOB didn’t have to die. The zoo folks almost surely knew that the wolf was no threat to nobody. So why shoot it? Well, dart guns are short range weapons, which can lead to awkward scenes of biologists trying to get close enough for a good shot. So why shoot a firearm and kill a fairly rare sort of wolf? It was the quickest and most definitive response to a public relations fiasco. The zoo folks felt they had to make a show of putting public safety first, and maybe it was done to look good to insurance agents. The wolf just wasn’t a threat to anyone except the image of the zoo. Putting it another way, the zoo leadership took the easy way out.

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    1. does anyone read the letters to the editor anymore? i would like to have steves letter go on the other sde of the public relations easy answer. if you please steve…

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      1. The same answer–put a little more diplomatically–was in a Strib article that interviewed Dave Mech, the world’s foremost expert on wolves. He wasn’t directly critical, and yet his take on the event is that the zoo was responding to a PR situation and not a real threat to visitors.

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  11. Yes, every business is show business. We all go on the stage, performing for each other, just at differing times and to differing degrees through the course of each day.

    And, yes, I wasn’t happy about that wolf being killed either. Boo.

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  12. I’ve worked in show business for a long time, and I think for a lot of celebs, it is a lot like being in a zoo cage. I’ve often thought it rather too bad that some of the very fine folks I have worked with couldn’t do as assistance dogs do and have a vest that lets everyone know that they are in working mode and are not to be bothered (or in this case, the reverse-they are OFF DUTY and not to be bothered).

    Sure, there are some media hounds who want every scrap of attention they can get, but the real artists are just like the rest of us. They do their job, they do it very well and they like to be known for doing it well, but it would be nice if they could dash across the street and grab a sandwich like the rest of us without someone taking undue notice. Everybody needs some down time.

    Back in my enclosure after a fine day out yesterday. Please do not poke, it is a very small cage.

    tim, thanks for the tie directions-new one on me, will have to try that one out. Funny how wearing a shirt and tie, dress pants and shoes make a guy stand up straighter and look folks in the eye.

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  13. Good morning to all:

    I supose we are all in show business. Even as a retired person, I am trying to show that I am a useful member of our society. My hope is that our society will move in the direction of being more concerned about meeting peoples’ needs so that we will all feel more comportable in our roles in society. I’ve heard of businesses that make a special effort to meet the needs of their employees and it was said that these businesses see increased productivity due to this appraoch. I think there is a business in Minnesota that was known for doing this, but I can’t remember the name.

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    1. Corporate moms. They were popular in the 90’s. Literally, that’s what many were called even though many were male.
      You are correct, Jim, old age is a sort of performance. The stages on which I will never act are the ones where old farts and fartettes gather, such as a McDonalds. I tend to remain pretty much a one-man show.

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      2. I’m with you Clyde. No hanging out with the guys at the coffee shop or wherever they gather. I did this more when I was younger to get the latest information about what was happening and to meet people. Now those gatherings look like bad tea parties to me and I don’t see any reason to put up with all of those falsely based theories about what is wrong with everything.

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      1. Best Buy is good at being a strengths-based organization and providing a flexible work environment (they pioneered the “results oriented work environment” which encompasses both an ability to work remotely, and not have to be in the office for “face time”, but also focusing more on the quality of your work and ability to get it done instead of hours in the office).

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  14. Many performers are thrilled to become popular and successful at whatever it is that they do, and only later do the insidious consequences of show business begin to emerge. One of the least pleasant of them is the way the public will begin thinking that it owns its show business folks and has the right to bully them. That typically takes the form of punishing the artist who attempts to do something new. The best example I know is Bob Dylan. He escaped his enclosure but paid a high price for it.

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    1. i was searching for that one and now i can stop the search. i knew there was a shakespear quote and that was the one

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    2. Somehow this makes me think of this clip from Sunday’s Tony Awards (which, I admit, I have only watched in clips posted to YouTube and linked to by friends on Facebook…too lazy to watch the whole thing – though the opening and closing numbers by Neil Patrick Harris are well worth watching, too):

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      1. Didn’t say – this is Daniel Radcliff (who is quite short by comparison to everyone else onstage) performing with the cast of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” The boy can dance.

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      2. As an ex-amateur-performer, I was pretty impressed that he took on a musical as one of many next steps. (From personal experience, rehearsing a fifteen-minute routine was exhausting!) He did say that there was one point during a three-hour dance lesson where he had to lock himself in a restroom stall, put the cover down, set his phone alarm clock and take a short nap.

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  17. Watching “Friendly Persuasion,” one of the great over-looked movies. Hollywood would never make such a movie today.

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