OMG, I was just reminded that I hadn’t yet posted my Caturday Felid. Had I forgotten, it would have been the first time I missed one since this site began in 2009. Fortunately, as always, I have some felids in reserve.
First, here are some lion lion cubs at Kruger National Park in South Africa. Inspired to give tongue by the roaring of their father, they can only squeak.
And, I’ve been sent this amazing example of felid topiary. The artist is named—get this—Tim Bushe, he’s from London, and he’s also an architect. But this is a masterpiece:
He also does trains and elephants:
If you live in London, he’ll sculpt your bushes for a reasonable fee that is donated to charity. You can read about him in the Torygraph.
h/t: Mary
“—Tim Bushe,”
I read an article a few weeks ago that said that people are indeed statistically likely to go into a profession that is consistent with their surnames.
I’m not a miller. I do buy wheat berries and grind them in an electric countertop mill just before making bread, but that’s it.
b&
Well, we should give a list of such names, then.
There’s an entomologist named Bob Bugg, whom I know.
My family’s vets when I was a kid were named Drs. Wolf and Mouser.
And–this one takes the cake–there’s a gynecologist in Virginia named Dr. Harry Beaver. He’s for real: one of my friends had him for her doctor. And it’s odd that he uses “Harry” instead of “Harold,” which surely must be his real name.
Add Sir Vincent Wigglesworth, the famous insect physiologist known for his endocrine work, to your list.
Years ago I went to an optometrist named Dr. Elefant. I think he missed his true calling as an ear, nose, and throat guy.
Oh, and our ballet company’s physical therapist is named Boyd Bender.
And Kalamazoo has a chiropractor named Bender.
Also, a physician surnamed Doctor. Dr. Doctor. (…gimme the news, I got a bad case…)
There are/were ornithologists named George Willet and Davis Finch.
I knew a lawyer who was Robin Banks (probably as a sideline).
Topiary is an art I can respect. What gets me upset are all the shrubs and bushes that get turned into cubes or marshmallows for absolutely no good reason whatsoever. I’ve watched a “landscaper” shear off all the blossoms on a perfectly lovely shrub, just to turn it into an abstract geometric shape.
You see, most of the plants people use for that sort of thing were originally selected because they put on incredibly beautiful displays of flowers — just enormous explosions of color. And yet most people think of landscape shrubbery as dull and drab, because nobody lets the plants be themselves.
“Hortitorture,” some of us call it.
…and don’t get me started on tree topping….
b&
Umm. Technical difficulty?
A lion related post…I had to have a look 🙂
Also fantastic topiary, that’s amazing.
The male lion’s mane is not very dark. Is that an indication of age – i.e. he is young or is it geographic?
The Tsavo man-eaters, now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, did not have manes. I understand this was typical of lions in that area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters
Any experts on lion manes out there?
I knew of a Scot physician who listed himself as “Dr. Death”. Now that may not be worrying for the Scots but many English speaking people wouldn’t be familiar with the name. 2 of my dentists were Dr. Capp and Dr. Fang.
By the way, how do we know those shrubs are indeed felines and not wombats?
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now…
The “roaring” sounds kind of like young Jerry Coyne’s attempts;-)
And then there is Mr Butcher the orthopaedic surgeon, as well as (the late) Keith Barley who was an agricultural scientist.
My daughters’ orthodontist was Dr. Ow.
I know a dentist named Dave Dodrill.
I had a vet in Berkeley named Dr. Hack.
I once worked in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at SRI International with a guy named Ted Brain. A famous philosopher specializing in the theory of mind was John Wisdom. I recommend his book Other Minds(1952)for anyone sanguine about the possibility that science can crack the problem of consciousness.
When did you work st SRI, Stephen? I worked at a cholesterol research lab there around ’74-’75 before moving on to a lab at Stanford itself.
I worked there from ’79 until about ’90. As I look back on it I’m amazed at how naive we were about the prospects for AI. My field was computer vision. I made some modest contributions in using perspective cues for depth perception and more significantly in stereo vision, but I became disenchanted with the progress and prospects for AI and moved to NASA to pursue my new interest in massively parallel supercomputing.
My favorite misnomer of all time is the great Chicago Bears linebacker, Dick Butkus (pronounced “butt-kiss”).