Meanwhile, back in the Panda House, Mei is trying to juggle room assignments, head off fights between Six and Sebben and well, anyone else there, and keep Josie happy while keeping Frank and Mikey out of her way. Whew! I’d say she has her paws full.
Hold onto your boo shoots. I think this summer is going to get crazy between indictments and panda room assignments.
Oh yes…As we return to our previous story…let’s see…Josie arrived looking for her cub Pookie. Pookie and Bikkie did not want to be separated, so somebody (who knows who…maybe Bikkie?) invited Josie to move in too. We’ll see how long that lasts. Lun Lun snuck out with Yang Yang after Ya Ya’s goodbye party, leaving Six and Sebben behind.
Fortunately, construction was completed on Pinky’s penthouse suite (hey, it’s fiction!) in advance of scheduled completion, so looks like there is room for everyone! As usual, Mei Xiang must make everything work and keep everything from falling into chaos.
I’ve been writing a little Inner Panda Diary over at my Substack home. You could check it out.
Also, I have procrastinated getting these original watercolors from The Panda Cub Swap posted. Rather than bombard you with all of them, all at once, I thought it might be easier to post them in groups.
This group is the small spot illustrations that appear in a double page spread in the book. They are each $95 including US postage. Outside the US (if anyone is interested) postage will be at cost. International shipping has gone up, so be forewarned. If you are interested, use the Contact Me page, and identify the painting by number.
The individual paintings are all about 4″x6″ ish, and are matted at 6″x8″
Be the Bear! Bob T my house is still standing after the fireworks Panda
Maybe not the ultimate day we are waiting for, of course. But it is the day he will have to appear in court, in Floriduh, and be confronted with the charges against him, and plead guilty (guilty guilty) or not guilty.
Honestly…I’m really not sure how we’ve survived this long, what with the completely lackadaisical storage that top secret documents were stored, hauled around, and left in public spaces that anyone with access to Merde-A-Lago could just slip into and rifle through some boxes.
Considering the outrage over Hilary’s emails, the cries of “No fairs! He’s done nothing wrong!” coming from the seditionist caucus of the GQP are especially outrageous. Now Bill if the president does it it’s not illegal Barr is going on his redemption tour, saying, “Yep, if he did even half of what the indictment says, he’s going down.” TFG, predictably, now calls his former Roy Cohn lazy and incompetent, no more than a coffee boy, and claims he fired him, rather than that Barr’s obsequious resignation letter told TFG what an honor it was to serve him.
Am I mad? You bet! I hope you’ve read the full indictment by now. It’s easy reading with a lot of blank space, so shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes or so. Here’s a link to Teri Kanefiled’s excellent annotation of the indictment.
Meanwhile, I thought the day should be commemorated in The Panda Chronicles
I’m afraid things are probably going to get ugly as we see this indictment, along with the coming ones for January 6 and the investigation in Georgia. But the alternative to facing these things head on would be far, far worse.
Not that we would cheapen this event with tasteless revelry or anything like that. I hope we will be forgiven for looking towards this with some degree of anticipation.
Panda commerce note: I’m getting ready to make my original paintings from the book The Panda Cub Swap, (written by Beth Bacon and illustrated by me) available for sale. If you have a favorite painting from the book, please feel free to contact me via the contact us page/form and let me know.
Also, Amazon is raising printing prices as of June 20th this year, and I will need to raise prices so I get the same pittance I already get. So, if you were thinking about acquiring the Panda Chronicles library (10 Books! ) now would be a really good time! The latest book is the definitive look at the political cluster**k of the last 6 years! The only way to consider those times is with pandas!
Keep Being the Bear! Bob T I know nothing about any duckies at Woodland Park Zoo Panda
So as I recall, PPJ showed up, poofed Frank, Mikey, Bikkie, and Pookie into a hot air balloon and off they went. Meanwhile, Josie finally found her way from Alaska to the Panda House at the National Zoo.
Okay! you are caught up.
Meanwhile, Friend to Bears Lucilla suggested that a gathering of pandas to say farewell to Ya Ya as she returns to China would be a fun thing. I immediately pounced (like a cat!) on this as a way to wrap up a story that seemed (like a hot air balloon) to be drifting aimlessly on the breeze.
Maybe don’t stand right under the balloon?
Be the Bear! Bob T I bet somebody is gonna get grounded Panda
Sadly, we are destined to be a country without pandas in the next year or two. San Diego’s pandas were sent to China in 2019, and the pandemic, not to mention TFG’s crappy stances on China meant we weren’t going to get a new panda loan agreement any time soon. Noted panda writer Henry Nicholls wrote an opinion piece for CNN about our addiction to domesticated pandas. That might not be quite how he put it, but he does have a point.
Pandas in the wild are different animals, and now it appears there may be some genetic difference between pandas that live in the wild and pandas that grew up on the all you can eat cruise ship model. “Pandas are solitary? Who knew?!!!!” said a group of pandas sitting around the table chowing down on boo shoots while playing Mah Jong.
Any way, now Ya Ya is on her way back to Beijing, alas without Le Le who succumbed to a previously undiagnosed heart ailment.
Could story lines collide soon? I guess we’ll find out.
Stay tuned for further developments!
Be the Bear! Bob T pass the endless boo buffet Panda
If you haven’t read Henry Nicholls’ The Way of the Panda, you should fix that immediately. It’s a great book about all things pandas, the politics of pandas, and there is a cameo appearance of a ‘toon that was perhaps done by your favorite practitioner of panda satire! My literary claim to fame!