also, has this been posted?

I posted it months ago, but you've just reminded me that I was going to send it to the Ricky Gervais Show podcast, so thanks! (They have a segment called Monkey News.)

MONKEY MONKEY MONKEY!!!

To quote one of the directors of Toy Story 2 (from the commentary), "Everything's better with monkeys."

You would be proud, msbelle.

And I'll definitely be spreading the monkey.

And I'll definitely be spreading the monkey.

Ew.

Nuh-uh. Vacuum cleaners.

I think that I've mentioned here before the experiment one of my colleagues did: she had people raise baby starlings in their homes, and waited to see what kind of "song" the starlings learned in the absence of other starlings. Some learned human speech, in the exact voice of one of the family members, e.g. "Good morning you stupid bird!" Others learned to sing the sound of the phone ringing or the microwave timer going off. But one bird "sang" the sound of the vacuum cleaner. The family swore that the bird would torment the cats by making this noise as they walked past.

That's hilarious.

Is the PR finale during fashion week or after?

Last year, it was after. Which is why they showed 4 collections (instead of just the three finalists). They wanted to avoid spoiling.

Did you know that starlings were introduced to the Americas by some Victorian-era guy who thought it was a good idea to have every bird mentioned in the works of Shakespeare over here? He brought over seven of them from Europe and released them in Central Park, and they've since spread across the continent.

MONKEY MONKEY MONKEY

I love the monkey brothel. But not in that way.