Tag Archives: National Zoo

Wowee! It was a really big day here yesterday!

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Well, enough with the sad panda faces.  One of the things that I love about pandas (besides being one myself) is that pandas never give up, no matter how hard things get.  A late (as in gone from this earth) gardener friend had a theory about plants.  She said that they entice you with their beauty or their fragrance, so that you would get down in the dirt and do stuff for them like water or weed around them. Maybe the plant was one that provided food, but mostly they had no purpose but to be beautiful, and they made that work for them so that you, the gardener, would support their existence.

Pandas are a little like that. They are the very definition of high maintenance girl friends. (Take Babette de Panda for instance…) It is really, really expensive to have a panda around, but it’s worth it!  Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I?  The recent tragic loss at the National Zoo in Washington DC underscores just how delicate they are as newborns.  But those which survive bring enjoyment and grace in ways which can’t be measured.

OK.  Now let’s get funny!

Bob T. Panda is running for president!  Huzzah!  Let’s see what the Cake Party has to offer to the American voter!

Vote for Bob!

 

And did I mention that we have now had over 40,000 visits to the pandas here at The Panda Chronicles?  Stay tuned during this election season for more from the party of pandas!  There will be cake!  Huzzah!

Be the Bear,

Bob T. Panda

Wowee! It was a really big day here yesterday!

2 Replies

Well, enough with the sad panda faces.  One of the things that I love about pandas (besides being one myself) is that pandas never give up, no matter how hard things get.  A late (as in gone from this earth) gardener friend had a theory about plants.  She said that they entice you with their beauty or their fragrance, so that you would get down in the dirt and do stuff for them like water or weed around them. Maybe the plant was one that provided food, but mostly they had no purpose but to be beautiful, and they made that work for them so that you, the gardener, would support their existence.

Pandas are a little like that. They are the very definition of high maintenance girl friends. (Take Babette de Panda for instance…) It is really, really expensive to have a panda around, but it’s worth it!  Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I?  The recent tragic loss at the National Zoo in Washington DC underscores just how delicate they are as newborns.  But those which survive bring enjoyment and grace in ways which can’t be measured.

OK.  Now let’s get funny!

Bob T. Panda is running for president!  Huzzah!  Let’s see what the Cake Party has to offer to the American voter!

Vote for Bob!

 

And did I mention that we have now had over 40,000 visits to the pandas here at The Panda Chronicles?  Stay tuned during this election season for more from the party of pandas!  There will be cake!  Huzzah!

Be the Bear,

Bob T. Panda

We interrupt our regularly scheduled hilarity for this message

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If you are not aware already, the nation’s (well this nation anyway) newest panda ceased to be after only 6 days on the planet.  We send inner pandy thoughts to Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and all the staff at the National Zoo in Washington DC. They should know that the nation’s panda faithful mourn with them.

We know that these things happen…nature knows what it is doing, but it doesn’t make us any less sad.  We will go back to being funny tomorrow.

Till then,

Be the bear.

Bob T. Panda and the entire menage at the Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire.

Huzzah, Huzzah! A Panda is Born!

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The pandasphere is buzzing with the news that Mei Xiang of the National Zoo in Washington D.C. has just exceeded expectations and produced a brand new bouncing baby panda!  She has not had a cub since her first little miracle bear 7 years ago, when Tai Shan, darling of the pandaratti, was born.  He  moved to China in January of 2010 and we have been waiting and hoping ever since that Mei would rise to the occasion once again!  Huzzah!

Here’s the thing about panda reproduction:  It’s really kind of tricky.  A female panda is only in season for between 24 and 72 hours in a YEAR, and then you can’t distinguish between a real pregnancy and a pseudo-pregnancy until, HEY! look at that!  there’s a cub!  Top that off with the fact that pandas are really …well…chubby to begin with, and a cub at birth weighs about 1/4 pound.  Could you tell if a panda was preggers just by looking at her?  I don’t think so….

will the pitter patter of little paws soon follow?

Congratulations, once again to Mei Xiang, husband Tian Tian, and of course all the nanny keepers at the National Zoo! It is a happy day indeed.

Meanwhile, back at the Kickstarter ranch, we need at least $434 to make our goal by this thursday at noon.  If you were waiting until the last minute, that last minute is here now!  If only 18 more people pledge $25, the first book of the Panda Chronicles will be a reality!   Huzzah!

This is a day to be the bear!

Bob T. Panda

Panda History: More about the Nixon Pandas

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It’s true.  Sometimes I just can’t help being just the tiniest bit silly (As if you hadn’t noticed) but I crack myself up whenever I call Ling Ling and Tsing Tsing “the Nixon Pandas.”  It’s really not my fault.  In The Way of the Panda, that’s how writer Henry Nicholls refers to them  in the chapter about panda diplomacy.  Sometimes I really am NOT making things up.  (but only rarely)  Anyway, there have been several stories and articles floating around the internet about the 40th anniversary of Ling Ling and Tsing Tsing arriving in Washington D.C.

I hereby give you my version of the panda historical events 40 years ago this week.

I am only making some of this up. copyright 2012 -A. Belov

Be the Bear!

Bob T. Panda

BTW: less than 200 visits are needed to bring my total views to 25,000!  Invite your friends to play with the pandas!

It was 40 years ago Today….

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Did you know that it was 40 years ago today that the Nixon Pandas arrived at the National Zoo? I thought not.  Recently, as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, transcripts of communications between pandas have come to light.  Of course, this was in the days before email existed, so the discovery of these documents is quite exciting as well as unexpected. We now bring you the transcripts, known as The Panda Chronicles.  (Now you know where we got our name.)

April 16, 1972: from the diary of Hua Mu, secretary of the Council of Pandas:

Well I am just fit to be tied.  We had a big meeting last night to vote on which pandas were going to travel to Washington DC, but when the meeting started, it turned out that it had already been decided. I was so disappointed!  I thought for sure I was going to get to go.  After all, my great-great-great auntie on my mother’s father’s second cousin’s side of the family was none other than Su-Lin, the first panda to travel to America (and ride in a taxi!).

It turns out that Tsing Tsing was a political crony of none other than Richard M. Nixon, and they had worked out the deal while Nixon was in China, behind all the other pandas’ backs.  Well, of course if Tsing got to go, Ling-Ling would be selected as his traveling companion.  I have it on GOOD authority that Tsing Tsing had a couple other girlfriends that really wanted to go, but Ling Ling stamped her little paws and whispered something in Tsing’s ear that he didn’t repeat, but he just said his mind was made up and that Ling Ling would accompany him to DC.  I’m not sure that anyone else knew that this was a permanent relocation, except for Tsing, who always had his paw in the cookie jar.

I hope he knows what he’s doing.  Those personal appearances can be very tiring.

Well, time for bed, more tomorrow!

Be the bear!

Bob T. Panda!

Pandas painting at the National Zoo?

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So what’s this I hear about pandas at the National Zoo in Washington DC taking up painting?  Are they trying to step on my paws?  I thought I was the only panda who was also a painter.  The next thing you know, they’ll be drawing cartoons!  I guess I’ll have to get over it, but I like being special.

Be the (grumbly) Bear

Bob T. Panda

People want to be in the Know! (or in the NOOOOOOOO!)

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An overriding theme in my work here at the Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire is that of playing with current events or making fun (!) of cliche phrases.  And when you are obsessed with pandas the sequence goes like this: The right to bear arms> the right to arm bears> stressed out pandas with guns. What could be simpler? (or more absurd?)  and of course, we at ICPS are all about absurd.

Tomorrow: What about “Panda Cars”?

Be the Bear!

People want to be in the Know! (or in the NOOOOOOOO!)

Leave a reply

An overriding theme in my work here at the Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire is that of playing with current events or making fun (!) of cliche phrases.  And when you are obsessed with pandas the sequence goes like this: The right to bear arms> the right to arm bears> stressed out pandas with guns. What could be simpler? (or more absurd?)  and of course, we at ICPS are all about absurd.

Tomorrow: What about “Panda Cars”?

Be the Bear!