UGLY TURTLES (February 8, 2012)

I am sitting in the Bulldog Pub and watching a National Geographic documentary about a nearly extinct species of turtle in China. Only two of them are left. Luckily, one is male and another female. Scientists from all over the world are doing their best to get them together so as to continue the species. Miraculously, they are succeeding. Next to me sit two women in their late twenties, both of whom are spending most of their time checking their Facebook pages on their mobile phones. They screech from time to time, and then they explain to each other what someone they know has just posted or how someone else they also know has just commented something recently posted. “Oh,” one of the women looks up toward the screen at some point, “what ugly turtles!”