They Are So Cute, But They Are Not Pets

The following is from The Texas Observer - A Tiger's Tale by Melissa del Bosque. Sometimes I really wonder about the things we as humans do to the animals that share the planet with us. This article was very disturbing to me.

You might think it’s illegal to buy or sell an endangered tiger cub in Texas, but it isn’t. For $500, you can buy an orange Bengal tiger and tie it up in your yard, no questions asked (a white tiger will cost you $5,000). It’s all perfectly legal in Texas.

When state and federal authorities seize exotic animals along the border, they often call Jerry Stones, facilities director at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. Because of its proximity to the border, the Brownsville zoo has become a kind of repository for seized animals and plants. With the animal trade booming, Stones has been receiving a lot of calls lately from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Customs asking him to please take an animal off their hands.

“It never stops,” says Stones, sitting behind his desk in a cramped office. He’s a self-described Nebraska farm boy from a “big” town of 6,000 people. He fell in love with the zoo business in his early 20s. In 1970 he left his job at the Omaha zoo to help run the brand new Gladys Porter Zoo, built and stocked with animals by Gladys Porter, an heiress to the J.C. Penney fortune. The 31-acre zoological and botanical park in downtown Brownsville has received everything from seized eastern gray kangaroos to rednecked wallabies to African lions (it currently has two). And six tigers. The influx of tigers has become overwhelming.

“I am about tigered out,” Stones says. “We have more than reached our tiger limit here at the Gladys Porter Zoo.” But he did find room for a certain set of six tiger cubs recently seized in McAllen.

Stones takes me to see a bobcat named Bodie recently brought to the zoo by South Padre Island Animal Control. The bobcat was purchased as a cub by a private owner, who had it declawed, neutered, and its canines filed down. When we arrive at the medical facility, Thomas deMaar, the zoo’s senior veterinarian, is checking on Bodie. “Basically this cat is a living pelt that can no longer defend itself,” deMaar says.

The bobcat’s owner used to drive around with the animal in the front seat of his Lamborghini. Then the bobcat reached sexual maturity. It ran away five times. Each time the local animal control officers had to track it down. “Finally, they called us and begged us to take it,” deMaar says, shaking his head. Stones and deMaar want the pet owner to provide some money for the bobcat’s care. So far, they’ve had no luck. Says deMaar grimly, “We are more of an unsubsidized humane shelter than an actual zoo.”

Back at the Gladys Porter Zoo, Jerry Stones does his best to convince the public that buying an adorable tiger cub is a bad idea. Unfortunately for Stones, the idea still hasn’t caught on. So Stones is back on the phone trying to find homes for seized and abandoned tigers and lions. “I’m not advocating that these animals be put down,” he says. “But they are living a life of hell—it’s not a good life. They are being put out in five-acre pens and shot in canned hunts or being left tied up their entire lives. It’s no way to treat a living creature.”

Read the complete story here.

A Tale Out Of Luck

HE CALLED HIMSELF, among other aliases, Wes James. Hunkered down now beside a fire of compact yet functional design, he made it a point to actually think of his name as Wes. The crucial thing here was to keep branding the current alias into his mind, as surely as he aimed to use his running iron, now heating in the coals, to do some quick branding of its own

The South Padre International Music Fest will feature Willie Nelson as one of the numerous entertainers on the Island during the weekend of October 31.

And, thinking about Willie, he has written his first fictional work which will be published by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

You can read an excerpt here.

Now I Understand

For a lot of bibliophiles the idea of owning a corner bookshop is a dream that occasionally flits across the back of ones mind, as witnessed by the popularity of the movie I've Got Mail. My theory is that everyone who loves books could imagine themselves in the role of Meg Ryan.

But, as I began preparing for this adventure, I heard a familiar refrain from many booksellers, "I don't have time to read, anymore." I thought, can that really be true. When one is surrounded by books, galleys, reviews and everything new in the literary world how could one not have time to take advantage of all these treasures.

The truth is, I have fallen victim to the same problem. Where I used to read a couple of books a week while probably working my way through a serious more difficult read at the same time, now I have a stack of books I would like to at least skim and a list of books that sound like good candidates for curling up with, but I never seem to be able to get to any of them.

Instead of reading books, I have been reduced to reading about books. Interesting, yes, but just not the same. And then there is the ubiquitous computer and internet.

To be able to live this daydream, I needed to figure out a way to sell enough books and sidelines to support myself. Yet there are times when I reviewed the mission statement, vision and plans for Paragraphs and felt they read more like something prepared for a non-profit or civic organization. But this is the nature of being a neighborhood bookshop as opposed to a B&N or Half-Price Books.

The part that I hadn't considered, being a relative recluse, is that having a community business means coming out of ones cocoon and socializing, listening, talking, and just plain interacting with others. And in today's world that means spending an awful lot of time behind a computer screen. Answering emails, commenting on blogs and participating in online discussions has replaced huge chunks of my solitary reading time

The web has created an entirely new model for marketing. The advent of social media almost requires one, if she wants to be recognized, respected, and ultimately have another spend money in her physical shop or online store, to establish an on-line identity. As I review the stories of successful booksellers, many have a full-time internet guru specifically in charge of social networking.

Gone are the days of a single website, even with an attached e-commerce capability. Now one needs to consider Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and blogging platforms, not to mention Del-ici-ous, Stumble, Technorati and Digg.

And what has just occurred to me is that if it takes the bookseller this much time to interact with others via this cornucopia of networks, when do the people I am communicating with, have the time to read?

So unless it is a hobby, I think the days of the curmudgeonly gentleman sitting in the back of a dusty book-filled shop wearing a tweed blazer and smoking his pipe while contemplating the words of a literary giant, have passed into history.

Correction Made

Thank you Ann, for pointing out the error in my post about the Indiebound Community.

The store which opened on South Padre Island and which is mentioned in the post should have been Tuesday Morning not Linens and Things.

Sorry about that, I am beginning to feel the effects of some sleep deprivation as life becomes increasingly interesting.

Indiebound Community Launched Today

The online community is a vibrant gathering place for supporters of indie retail businesses. Those who register for the community can share information about indie retailers (including locations and specialties), comment on community issues, offer book recommendations, and exchange personal communication. Visitors are encouraged to add stores to the national indie retailer map, to become fans of stores, and to connect with like-minded indie enthusiasts.

"The mission of the IndieBound.org Community is to help people across the U.S. share and find great independently owned businesses," said ABA Chief Marketing Officer Meg Smith. "By connecting indie-conscious people with local businesses, we're working to strengthen the health of Main Streets. Thriving local economies make for sustainable communities and happy residents." Smith stressed that the community site is "a work in progress. We're planning on rolling out new features and new content on a regular basis over the next six to 12 months."

I blogged about this earlier and threw the idea out on the SPI Forum to mixed reviews, although I was pleased to see there does exist a modicum of interest in starting some kind of an Independent Business movement.

I was pleasantly surprised. Some time ago, I suggested my preference upon the arrival of a Tuesday Morning, while welcome, for an independent specialty shop that would offer a variety of housewares and gift items selected specifically for our community and which would add to the overall image and character of the Island. Most of the response on the SPI Forum was in favor of franchise, brand-name, retail establishments. The general consensus seemed to be a desire for recognized businesses where the merchandise or service provided is standardized and the consumer knows what to expect because the corporate ownership allows for less variety between stores. I must admit to a sense of discouragment at this attitude since I had felt the residents of South Padre Island would be more eclectic in their attitudes.

In all fairness, part of what may have influenced the attitude which I observed in response to my plea for the indie retailer, is the general lack of availability of many goods and services on the Island, and so even if the provider is a franchise, the ability to find what one needs without leaving the Island is certainly attractive.

The part of the Indiebound community which makes it different than most programs rolled out by the ABA, is its focus on all community independent businesses, not just bookstores. And this is consistent with the idea of booksellers as an integral part of a community. What it provides to South Padre Island businesses is access to another national demographic, which may not have been reached by the town's more conventional advertising without any additional expense. Furthermore, the concept is driven by personal recommendations from consumers - so if a business does not provide quality goods or services, they will probably not have many fans or positive comments.

Users who have created accounts can do a number of things:

• Post comments on retail stores, whether it be a review of each store, a personal experience there, some recommendations -- anything that can help other people learn more about that store;
• Edit existing stores to add more information -- store hours, pictures of the store, etc.;
• Add interest tags both to their own accounts and to stores ... tags like "Southern literature" or "vegan" help connect users and stores, and help everyone discover new things;
• Become fans of stores they know and love -- so that other people can find stores through their user profile;
• Add new stores -- great indie retailers they're familiar with; and
• Add other users as friends, and leave notes for other users.

Free Expression Threatened by "Libel Tourism"

From the American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression:

On Wednesday, September 10, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) joined 18 groups in issuing a statement urging members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to support the Freedom of Speech Protection Act of 2008 (S. 2977), legislation that provides that foreign libel judgments cannot be enforced in the U.S. if the speech is not actionable under U.S. law. The groups are concerned about the growing threat posed by libel suits that are filed in foreign countries in an effort to intimidate American writers and publishers.

As a recent example of libel tourism, ABFFE cited the lawsuit filed by Saudi billionaire Khalid Salim bin Mahfouz against Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, an American expert on terrorism, over statements in her book, Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It (Bonus Books).

Although the book was never published in England and only 23 copies have been sold there via online booksellers, Bin Mafouz brought suit in an English court. Under British law, the burden of proof in the first instance is on the defendant to prove the truth of any allegedly libelous statement. Faced with the prospect of enormous legal costs to meet this burden, and objecting as a matter of principle to having to litigate in England without having published her work there, Ehrenfeld refused to defend the suit. The English court entered a default judgment, enjoined further distribution of the book in the U.K., and awarded substantial damages and legal fees.

Read more...

One Book, One Denver

I have not followed Denver politics very closely over the last few years but from a distance I have been impressed with the direction Mayor Hickenlooper has taken the city.

One of my favorite projects of the Mayor's is his citywide book club known as One Book, One Denver. I realize this is not a unique program, but in fact has been implemented in many cities across the country as a means to encourage reading and to promote literacy, but that doesn't lessen my approval of "Hick" in his advocacy for literature in the public forum.

One Book, One Denver was created to build community and encourage people to read. Denver citizens, young and old, are invited to join others in the shared experience of reading the same book and participating in fun activities in September and October.

As an email, announcing the 2008 selection states:

Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone all over our city were reading and talking to one another? One Book One Denver aims to ignite that kind of enthusiasm for books and conversation by inviting all of us in Denver and the metro area to read the same book, and then discuss the book with friends, family and neighbors.

2008 is the fifth year of One Book, One Denver and the Mayor has just announced The Thin Man by American author Dashiell Hammett as this year's selection.

I think this could be a great idea for South Padre Island, and we could advertise it throughout the valley, inviting people from Brownsville, Harlingen, McCallen, as well as the smaller communities to take part. Our neighboring schools and libraries could also be included, encouraging a sense of inclusiveness among our neighbors.

Following is a list of free events offered by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, as a part of One Book, One Denver, to give you an idea of what is possible.

One Book, Many Films
Enjoy free film screenings of classic and modern hardboiled detective and film noir movies!

The Thin Man Radio Dramas
Join in as an audience member for tapings of an old-fashioned radio drama or download the podcast!

Three Thin Discussions
Join us for exciting discussions about topics from the book, from some of Denver's most engaging experts!

Writing Workshop
Interested in writing a novel, but having a difficult time getting started? This workshop is for you!

Power Read
Join a community read along of The Thin Man... We will start at the beginning and leave no page unturned!

Brown Bag Lunch with Library of Congress Historian John Cole
Bring your lunch and join a discussion about our national Library!

One Book, One Denver Final Celebration
Join Mayor John Hickenlooper for a celebration of this year's One Book, One Denver selection!
Teen Fiction Contest
Are you a young author? We want to see your skills!

Book Club in a Bag
8 copies of The Thin Man, 8 reading guides, 1 tote bag and your book club!

The Thin Man at the Kirkland
Enjoy discounted tickets to the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art

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September 11 --1992 and 2001

Ever since September 11, 2001 the very phrase "9/11" has invoked feelings of sadness, anger, fear, and the advent of war.

To me, although I also experience all of the above, September 11, brings thoughts of a beautiful, fall, Friday night spent with friends and family, and one of the happiest days of my life.

Yes, 16 years ago today, Griff and I were married in Denver at a full nuptial mass held in the Church of the Risen Christ and then partied into the early morning hours at the Museum of Western Art located in downtown Denver, across from the historic Brown Palace Hotel, where we spent our wedding night.

The reason we selected 9/11 (besides it being a date that the church and priest were available) was so Griff, who is a 1st responder, an instructor-trainer, a first aid and 1st responder instructor, and I am not sure what else in the 1st responder, emergency medical field, could easily remember the date.

Needless to say, remembering the date of our anniversary is no longer a problem. It has been an interesting 16 years to say the least, but my life has been more fulfilled by having the opportunity to share it with Griff.

2008 Booker Prize Shortlist Announced

Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (Atlantic)
Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)
Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies (John Murray)
Linda Grant, The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)
Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate)
Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton)

The winning novel will be chosen Tuesday, October 14 in Guildhall, London

The Man Booker Prize

To get free excerpts from the finalists for viewing on a mobile platform, enter mpb.gospoken.com into your mobile web browser.

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A Bookstore Quote

From Shelf Awareness:

"I am keen to preserve what is good in life, and that is often at odds with what is most profitable in life. Leaving aside the price arguments about supermarkets, bookshops have, or should have, a special place in our culture. We need books, and books are best browsed in the energetic peace of a small store where the owner loves reading, just like we do. . . . Books are for everyone. Culture is for everyone. There is no need to apologise. No need to explain. The small bookshop where you are always welcome is an essential part of life."--Jeanette Winterson in the London Times.

I couldn't have said it better myself.