Canid

I've eaten ostrich burgers and I think I had wild boar once (I don't really remember). I've also had bison(Yummy! or was it buffalow?) meat. I have longed to try fried larvae ever since I watched a ducumentary on eating insects (they looked really tastey!)... but I am perfectly happy to sample any insect dish - just haven't had the opportunity yet. What amazes me is what people won't eat..... some people seem to have a horrific lack of curiosity.

Canid, (who had been napping) springs to her feet with a shrill bark upon being bounced on. After the initial shock fades, she stares in horror at her neon fur and begins to shake, sending zinc dust and guard hairs everywhere. After her immediate surroundings are coated with a thin layer of wolf fur, Canid, whimpering, dashes toward the Pen's courtyard river. A heavy splash is heard in the distance. Thus-ly... your return has caused a 'big splash'. (Canid dashes grinning back to her den, (rid of the neon zinc) hoping to gain its protection before her fellow Penners start hauling tomatoes)

If it weren't for Mummy, I'd bite you. If it weren't for Mummy, I'd fight you. If it weren't for Mummy, I'd eat your desert every day. If it weren't for Mummy, I'd take your toys away. If it weren't for the fact that she's standing right behind me, I'd tell you so, too!

..for the fact that they were still bright purple, and THAT was the reason the women were looking so closely. A young seabird perched on Melvin's head looked around excitedly. "Wow! They've never done THAT before!" it said in perfect English.

The independant MP is a former Conservative.... apparently willing to consider re-joining the Conservatives. I must say, I am rather dissapointed that the Green Party didn't get that one seat they were hoping for.

The Conservatives, I believe, were not originally so offensive in their policies. They were very pro-business and so got a lot of support. They recently merged though, with the Alliance party, which contains a large number of religious extremists. Hence the worrying changes in policy. At the same time, the public is very angry with the Liberals over various provincial matters, publicized scandals, and the change of leadership which most people probably don't see as a good one. Thus the Conservatives are going up in the polls; they have support from both the voters loyal to the Conservative Party and those loyal to the Alliance, and added onto that, the wave of voters repelled by the Liberal party and looking for an alternative. About the minority government question... the States have a two party system. One wins, or the other wins. You can't have a minority. - My mother is confusing me right now by saying that the US system is not that simple and can have the equivalent of a minority despite only having two main parties, so I may be mistaken... somehow - With the Canadian system, (just to reiterate and clarify) anyone can make a party (given they have enough support). There are 308 regions (called "ridings" or "electoral districts"), each with a candidate from each party that qualified in that riding. The winning candidate in each riding gets a seat in Parliament (they become a Member of Parliament - MP). The party with the most seats in the end is the winner of the election and their leader becomes the Prime minister. When Parliament votes on something, each MP makes one vote. Usually, all the MPs from a given party vote the same way, thus in a majority government, the party in power makes the decisions. With a minority government, although the party in power has more seats than any other one party, it has less than half of the total seats and thus when a vote is taken, if the opposing parties all vote the same way, they can overpower the party in power. *dusts off paws* I'm sure that everyone understood that perfectly. Didn't they!

With Katz's scenario running there; I think that whether you go for the 70% and likely to win, or 95% and won't win, it is a coin toss decision. If you vote for the big party, it is one vote less likely that the one you hate will gain power. If you vote for the small party, you get them one vote closer to being recognized as a potentially powerful party next time around. Either way, you've put it to good use. It becomes about what you want to do.

Voting for the Green Party just at the moment is not voting for them to be in power - so them not knowing what they are doing is not really an issue. On the other hand I have to argue that they are not a strictly Canadian party, they are part of the government in a number of other countries, so they would not be going in blind.

..From Canid's mum...aka the boss..... whilst I too feel that the Greens will be a force to be reckoned with in our political future, I do recognize that this fight is really between the Liberals and the "Conservalliance".....and whilst I think the Ontario Liberals are bad news, I'm willing to give the Federal Liberals a chance..... I find the Conservalliance party positively scary, so my vote is going Liberal...however the Green Party will be getting a donation from me this year.

I refuse to vote for either of them. ...besides, it is not a waste. Any party with 2% or more of the vote collects $1.75 per vote cast for them in the election, per year. New law. As far as the Conservatives vs Liberals, either way it will be a minority. Whichever party wins will still be restricted in their movement by the other. I don't think the Conservatives will get away with all those back-steps even if they do win.

Canid trots in holding a ball of string in her mouth, and several sanded down sticks. She sits down and deposits the items on the ground, then removes a generously sized fresh - though dead - fish from her invisible sack (on her back). The wolf proceeds to string the fish up and poke in the sticks. She looks it over, ballances it in her lap, and sticks her paw into it. The head rotates to look at each person in the room and the fish-eyes blink. The mouth opens and shuts in a most convincing way. Canid assumes a ventriloquist grin. "Katz!" shouts the fish suddenly. It begins to tut tut. "Katz, you have forgotten a main party! The Green Party won't win.... but they ARE in every riding. Can't ignore that.... not forever." A string pulls up one fin to wave a little Green Party flag. "They are hoping to get their MP in in British Columbia." The fish smiles. I was looking at them, thinking along the lines of a protest vote... but they have a number of things going for them that suggest they could be recognized as one of the main parties in time. I liked Chrétien... I thought he handled things well, especially when it came to all the aftermath of the Twin Towers attack. If he hadn't retired, I would vote Liberal. Paul Martin, although he claims to support Chrétien's actions seems very pro-military spending. The Conservatives openly disagree with what he did - and I understand that they have some questionable opinions on the human rights issues. I know this would probably push some of you toward the Conservatives and Liberals, but being a pacifist, it really put me right off voting for either of them. As I understand it, the NDP really messed things up very quickly last time they were in power, so they aren't really an option. I largely agree with the Green Party, the only way to put them in the spotlight is to show that they have significant support. For this election, I shall be green.

We corrected the spelling with him afterwards and I am formatting it so it is no longer one giant paragraph, but all the words are my brother's. For school, he was asked to write a fable about the sun. It is a ten year old's writing, but hey, I thought it would be fun to put it up. Here, for your bemusement: Once Upon a Time Once upon a time, 2004 years ago, there was a very cold town it was called Jerusalem. It was cold because they had no sun, only the moon. One day a man named Brian, came to the moon and said, will you give us more light and warmth? “No,” said the moon, so Brian went to a wizard, Brian said, “can you make the sky brighter and warmer?” the wizard said “yes”, “bring me a rock from the moon,” Brian did so. He threw rocks at the moon until a moon rock fell down. And then Brian brought the moon rock to the wizard then the wizard put the rock in a pot over a fire outside. And then the wizard sang a rhyme,, “fire and heat, sparkly bright, make this rock a fiery light”, suddenly, the moon was brighter and warmer. But, every night the sun stopped shining. So he had to do the same thing every night, but it takes a long time to knock a rock off that’s why the night is so long, and that’s how the sun was made and the moon got craters. THE END Poste script - it is amusing to note that he chose Brian as the name of his character because of Monty Python's Life of Brian - I presume that is why it is in Jerusalem as well. Canid patters off grinningly...

There is a birthday thread for every individual who appears on that little birthday list at the bottom of the Pen. It is inevitable. You can't prevent it! Hence, egocentric creature that I am, I'm making my own. In it, I wish to highlight the fact that I can now vote. ....how long I have waited. :erm: *Canid joyfully dances about the conservatory, setting tables with fresh moose, rabbit and fish. Prospero also bounces joyfully - he, through the fresh moose and rabbit and fish.* Tuck in! There is enough to feed a writer's guild! Conveniently, that's what we are!

I looked up two of my favourite poems the other day (The Bloody Orkneys, The Bleedin' Sparrer) and both turned up at the top of the Google Results list on the same site. http://www.monologues.co.uk/ It is a humorous poems and monologues site. I took a look around; it appears that they have a large collection of top notch funny poems (that is why I really love poetry you know ). I would like to propose an addition to the List of Useful Links in our dusty Lists of Terra forum. Does anyone approve?

I don't see it as your fault at all. There's only so much you can do to govern without running everything firsthand - and methinks that is rather too much work for any of us. Besides which, when work has gone into things, criticism is often taken with great resentment. It is very hard to avoid hurting feelings when a change is required. It was an understandable decision to try to let the guildleaders and members sort things out for themselves.

At a party, you would: a) be the host panic and try to minimize damage c) drink yourself under the table d) drink yourself onto the the table, convinced that your impersonation of Gene Kelly (Singin' in the Rain) will start you on the road to fame e) both c) and d), but not in that order of course f) not touch a drop, but still be convinced that your impersonation of Gene Kelly will start you on the road to fame g) pick pockets h) not leave the banquet table i) be lavished with attention from your admirers j) leave as quickly as possible k) party sensibly l) wake up on another continent with a new last name

OOC: I am very very sorry for the delay in my posting - we have been reformatting the computer (still at it) and there just haven't been many oppertunities to write. I will try to respond within the next few days.

"Only in wolf - and that language works very differently than human ones. It has a great deal to do with smells...." Canid pulls out another sealed container of chocolate pudding happily and opens it. "However, more wolves speak English than do horses." The wolf licks the pudding experimentally. "It tastes like chicken!" she concludes and proceeds to lap it up. Loni stares curiously for several seconds. "Canid." The girl jumps and the wolf looks up. The horse had stopped and said the wolf's name in a rather worried manner. He clears his throat. "Would you mind coming out here for just a moment?" Canid jumps out the front flap and onto the driver's seat. "I wish I were still telepathic..." Loni stands up and peers tentatively out. The wagon is perched at the top of a small hill. At the bottom is a tree with a rabbit around it. Had the rabbit been simply under it, there is no doubt that Carl the horse would not have found the matter so distressting. Unfortunately, the rabbit was quite clearly sleeping contentedly around the tree. It twitched its five foot long cute bunny whiskers. It wiggled its soft pink goat-sized bunny nose. It made cute bunny breathing noises. ...and it opened an eye.

Canid grinned in response. "Most people dismiss entirely the possibillity that I can talk and conclude for several minutes that they are insane before even attempting that question." Loni looked up, still looking puzzled. "You don't need to be embarrassed." The girl smiled shyly and the wolf scratched an ear with her hind paw. "Up until nine days ago, I was a mage. I possessed considerable magic. Telepathy was the first skill that surfaced in me. When I was younger, I travelled. I associated mostly outside of the wolf community and used my magic to figure out what people were saying. Over the years I have learned most rodentia dialects, the language of the mages, dragon, horse, two-hundred and sixty seven bird languages, a number of ancient and obscure languages and most of the human ones as well." Canid smiles proudly. "But I am afraid that I won't be picking up anymore until I regain my magic. Now the horse, I have not a clue. In my experience horses rarely have even a salting of the natural arts, but he speaks English, so I can't say." The wolf proceeded to dig around under the driver's seat for some food. "You could always ask him," she suggested, without turning around.

OOC: Canid wouldn't say something like that... she is a kind person. IC: The carriage rattled so loudly as to make words inaudible. The wolf momentarily considered the girl hunched up and whimpering, then turned brisquely and leapt out the front of the carriage. She landed four paws on Carl the horse - as intended. He stopped his break-neck canter and swung wildly about, crouching and bucking. Canid latched onto the harness on his face and jumped off, gripping it firmly in her teeth and pulling his head down with her. He tried desperately to swing free, but the wolf held him fast and stood breathing hard face to face with the snorting, indignant horse. "I am not going to hurt you." said Canid, talking around the leather. "You just did!" Carl retorted, kicking the ground and snorting again. "If you bolt, I will bite you." said the wolf clearly and slowly, and she let go. Carl stomped his feet and shook his head and swore. He looked menacingly at the wolf. "I hate you." "You're allowed to." she replied quickly. "You will have to excuse me, I'm playing this by ear. Usually I have a bit of telepathy and mind control to back me up in these situations." She paused. "Can I take that off your nose for you?" Carl's nostrills were coated with a thick and uncomfortable layer of oat-dust. and the nose-bag felt wet against his skin. He nodded reluctantly. Canid padded carefully up to the horse. She fiddled momentarily with claws and teeth at the nose bag and it dropped free. "I am sorry about all this. I would normally just run where I want to go, but this is a special case as I lack my magic and have no clue where I'm going." The horse scowled. "That doesn't stop you from running." "You seem to be part of the puzzle. You are to take me to Eorwax." "I can't. I don't know where that is and as you don't either, I see no reason why I should take you!" The horse snorted and closed its eyes. "This chicken is supposed to lead us." "Thisbe, as evidenced by her smell, is long dead and can't lead us to the nearest tree." "Thisbe?" Canid grinned quizzically. "My last owner kept her... don't ask me, I don't know." The wolf took the water-logged, maggot ridden, half-featherless, scraped, muddy and broken fowl off her neck and dumped it on the ground. "I have to go with what little I have," Canid sighed appologetically, "when I get back in the wagon, I need you to take us that way," the wolf pointed where Thisbe's beak was directed. Canid studied him very carefully - it made Carl feel uncomfortable. "When we get there... I'll buy you any one thing you want." Carl was silent as Canid picked up the chicken and jumped back into the wagon. The wolf hooked the chicken up on a peg behind the drivers seat. It began to rain maggots to the floor as they started to move. She sat down infront of Loni who was still curled up and whimpering. "I am sorry if I scared you. When I left this wagon, there was noone else in it. What is your name?" "Loni." whispered the girl in response. "Were you going anywhere in particular?" The girl shook her head. "You are free to accompany me. I am headed to a town called Eorwax." Canid paused, "There's no food in here anywhere, is there?"

Nope... I wrote Waterlilly into a Pen Christmas play last(this) year. *Points happily to the Assembly Room.*

Carl the horse was mainly playing with his new master now. He had decided when he checked on her state of wakefullness that having a confused master like her was probably easier on the whole than one who knew what they were doing. Cold and lonely miles with no conversation did not suit Carl. There were places he did not like that he was made to go, and places he liked that he was made to leave. This way was definately better. He had chosen west because once, when under the care of the old man, they had passed through a town in that direction called Darnsdale. The old man had wanted to buy some fine chickens with which to make chocolate pudding and the horse had met several very nice mares who thought in turn that he was very nice. He should like to meet them again. He set a fairly quick pace, not wanting the wolf to catch up with him. He craned his head back suddenly. "Are you hungry?" he asked. Loni paused. "Very." she said cautiously. "Oh." said Carl. They clopped forward for a little while longer. Carl waited. Loni poked her head slowly out of the carriage. "Um, horse...?" "Carl, if you please." replied Carl. "Why did you ask?" she said timidly. "There's food in a compartment under the driver's seat. Chocolate pudding among other things...... like oats." he added. Fixing the oat bag took much longer than anticipated. Loni kept spilling oats. Carl yelled at her when she did this and Loni spilt more oats. It was wholely aggrivating. "I'm not moving until I'm finished!" said Carl angrily to his red master when the bag was finally attached properly. A terrible smell disturbed his oats, but angry as he was, he munched through it. Carl ate his words. The wolf emerged suddenly from the horses' blind spot. He had only time to rear before it jumped into the carriage. There ensued a human shriek, and a canidae woofle of surprise. Carl lunged instinctively forward and a bowl of chocolate pudding went flying from the back of the wagon.

The G and D differ only in tongue movement, the man's mouth was too dark to be captured in the film. If we hear one thing and see another, our brains make the best guess. In that case we are probably visually dominant, as the B mouth movement is entirely different... D is thus the closest to both visual and audio, so we 'hear' D. Interesting illusion. When I listened very carefully I could still hear B.

Loni dreams of rowing in a red ocean with nothing but a broken boat with which to paddle. Then a horse appears in the water and swims beside her, mumbling discontentedly. She listens carefully and is able to make out the jist of the mumbles, they are something along the lines of... "What sort of a silly human tries to ride the horse instead of in the carriage. This one obviously. Carl, you're just being silly, obviously she is more familliar with riding horses. Attached to a carriage with a seat? Maybe she didn't notice the seat... she seemed distracted by the boat. You'd think she would head straight for the seat being so tired. Well she didn't and she can protect you from that wolf. Maybe she won't see the wolf... she'll still be distracted! There's no boat to distract her now. I'm sure she'll make do. I'm probably waking her up. Do I care? I'll check and see..." Loni hears a rustle and opens one eye. Last night's steed is standing with its head poked into the carriage, its mane brushed up against the opening. "Oh, I did wake you up. Sorry about that. Would you like to keep moving now? Oh, and would you rather ride on my back this time or on the wagon?" The horse smiles appeasingly - a somewhat disquieting sight. ~........~ Canid opened one eye with a sense of dread. Normally the sound of flies was music to her ears, but just now it occured to her as a bad thing. Canid did not immediately realise why. It took her stretching and yawning and sitting up and staring confusedly about before the awful truth hit her. Moving, the smelly goose had gone undetected by the insect world. Stationary by the river, it had invited said world from miles around. The wolf spent some time in vain ploys to rid the carcass of its assailants. The fact that under normal conditions it would have been the perfect meal (and just now, she was hungry) made it all the more infuriating. She swung it from the rope, chased the flies away, ate them in the air, licked them off, batted the goose against a tree and rubbed dirt in it. It looked considerably worse for the wear in the end, but still swimming with flies. Canid took it for a walk through the river. That seemed to do it fairly well. She slung it about her neck with the rope and set off at her top travelling speed. Quite understandably, she wanted to take it off as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that meant tracking down the horse first.

The horse looked concernedly at Loni. She looked tired and weathered. She looked in desperate need of transport and help. More than that, she looked human. The perfect companion for a carriage horse - a greatfull person burdened with life's woes who most definately would not tiurn around later on and decide they wanted horse-meat for their lunch; who might even protect the horse from said carnivore. This was a decided improvement for the horse. The human had responded well to its first attemp to communicate. It pulled its wagon a little closer and craned its neck so that it was facing Loni. "D'ya need some help there missy?"