“MONKEY BUSINESS” (September 9, 2014)
Thus The Financial Times today. “Humans are less superior than we think,” explains the newspaper. I almost laughed at the “we.” The article quite annoyed me with its scientific tone, for it went on and on about our ancestors as though they were nothing but our ancestors. “Hey,” I felt like shouting, “they are still alive in us!” The only bit that captured my attention was a caption, which was the only one in the entire article. “A zoo-dwelling chimp in Sweden was found hoarding stones in the morning to hurl at visitors in the afternoon,” it ran. This time I burst into laughter for true. My sort of chimp, too. Just like him, I live in a zoo called Motovun. The tourists that crowd the hilltown for much of the year entice the same feelings. If only I could hurl stones at them unpunished! The best I can do is write about my annoyance with tourists and post my writings on the World Wide Web. Monkey business or not, my virtual stones give me quite a bit of pleasure. The chimp from Sweden and I would get along famously, I am quite sure. I would help by collecting stones in the morning.