Owing to the fact that I had to focus my attention on getting healthy in a hurry so I could catch a plane yesterday evening, I asked the elder Free-Ride offspring to write something for this week’s Friday Sprog Blogging entry. Owing, I think, to my apparent fragility, the elder Free-Ride offspring assented to this request without argument, and without demanding a cash payment.
I really do have wonderful kids.
In any event, the elder Free-Ride offspring offers a summary of an interesting article from a magazine that is a favorite at Casa Free-Ride, National Geographic Kids, and then pitches a few ideas for stories the sprogs would like to see in it in some future issue.
(Actually, this is a summary of a piece of an article, “Animal Talk: 7 surprising ways animals and humans communicate,” from the August 2009 issue.)
Alex the African gray parrot gets bored when asked the same question over and over again.
When shown 3 blue blocks, 2 green, and 6 red, he was asked “What color 3?”
He was supposed to say “Blue”.
But he had done that question before, so he kept saying “5” for the answer until scientist Irene Pepperberg got frustrated and asked, “OK, smarty, what color 5?”
Alex answered, “None.”
* * * * *
Three stories I would like to read about in National Geographic Kids:
1. Guard weasel chases off dog.
2. Attack of the flying lizards!
3. Platypus loves salsa music.
P.S. There’s also a National Geographic Kids website.
