8 Ways to Sunday

A guy has his brain tumor removed and posts the operation photos on Flickr for all to see. Not for the squeamish.

(Props: Shtuff)

An MSNBC article examines the unique anatomy of the seven-time Tour de France winner, and how it helped him become a record-beating champion.

Charlie has a smoking problem. Charlie is a chimpanzee.

Zookeepers at the South African zoo where Charlie lives are trying hard to get him to quit cigarettes cold turkey, but aren’t helped by all the zoo visitors that let him bum smokes. Lately Charlie has taken to hiding his cigarettes when zoo staff come around, “like a naughty schoolboy” says one staff member. South African paper Independent Online has the story, and Tampa Bay 10 News has a great video of Charlie strutting around and puffing away.

Charlie isn’t the only smoking chimpanzee. A female named Feili, who lives in a Chinese zoo, took up smoking last year. Apparently she was frustrated because her male partner couldn’t satisfy her sexual needs. While it’s unclear from this FOX News article whether zoo officials could keep patrons from contributing to Feili’s bad habit, someone is quoted saying that she gets desperate enough to scrape up discarded butts from in front of her cage with a stick.

Poor chimps. I’m trying to quit, myself, and I know just how they feel.

My cat, Riley, has figured out how to open the kitchen cabinets. He curls his paw around the side of the cabinet door, flicks it open just a little bit, then sticks his nose in so that it won’t close again. From there, getting it open all the way is pretty simple.

This is a bad thing, because kitchen cabinets are where people store dangerous stuff like household cleaning chemicals and drain openers. Tomorrow, I’ll be shopping for some of those child-proofing gizmos that new parents get for their kitchens.

And to think I never wanted kids.

One of the few good things about sick days is the chance they give you to make excuses for things you know you shouldn’t be doing.

Current excuse: “I’m only on my fourth serving of ice cream because my throat is still sore.”