![A group of chimps watch silently as a loved one is wheeled away to her burial. This is such a moving photograph.
On September 23, 2008, Dorothy, a female chimpanzee in her late 40s, died of congestive heart failure. A maternal and beloved figure, Dorothy had spent eight years at Cameroon’s Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, which houses and rehabilitates chimps victimized by habitat loss and the illegal African bushmeat trade.
After a hunter killed her mother, Dorothy was sold as a “mascot” to an amusement park in Cameroon. For the next 25 years she was tethered to the ground by a chain around her neck, taunted, teased, and taught to drink beer and smoke cigarettes for sport. In May 2000 Dorothy—obese from poor diet and lack of exercise—was rescued and relocated along with ten other primates. As her health improved, her deep kindness surfaced. She mothered an orphaned chimp named Bouboule and became a close friend to many others, including Jacky, the group’s alpha male, and Nama, another amusement-park refugee.
Szczupider, who had been a volunteer at the center, told me: “Her presence, and loss, was palpable, and resonated throughout the group. The management at Sanaga-Yong opted to let Dorothy’s chimpanzee family witness her burial, so that perhaps they would understand, in their own capacity, that Dorothy would not return. Some chimps displayed aggression while others barked in frustration. But perhaps the most stunning reaction was a recurring, almost tangible silence. If one knows chimpanzees, then one knows that [they] are not [usually] silent creatures.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4x24jvDMF1qb53jco1_500.jpg)
A group of chimps watch silently as a loved one is wheeled away to her burial. This is such a moving photograph.
On September 23, 2008, Dorothy, a female chimpanzee in her late 40s, died of congestive heart failure. A maternal and beloved figure, Dorothy had spent eight years at Cameroon’s Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, which houses and rehabilitates chimps victimized by habitat loss and the illegal African bushmeat trade.
After a hunter killed her mother, Dorothy was sold as a “mascot” to an amusement park in Cameroon. For the next 25 years she was tethered to the ground by a chain around her neck, taunted, teased, and taught to drink beer and smoke cigarettes for sport. In May 2000 Dorothy—obese from poor diet and lack of exercise—was rescued and relocated along with ten other primates. As her health improved, her deep kindness surfaced. She mothered an orphaned chimp named Bouboule and became a close friend to many others, including Jacky, the group’s alpha male, and Nama, another amusement-park refugee.
Szczupider, who had been a volunteer at the center, told me: “Her presence, and loss, was palpable, and resonated throughout the group. The management at Sanaga-Yong opted to let Dorothy’s chimpanzee family witness her burial, so that perhaps they would understand, in their own capacity, that Dorothy would not return. Some chimps displayed aggression while others barked in frustration. But perhaps the most stunning reaction was a recurring, almost tangible silence. If one knows chimpanzees, then one knows that [they] are not [usually] silent creatures.”
"The Lisa Tape": A real 911 call by a six-year old girl during a drunken domestic abuse situation. »
I post a lot of terrible, ugly things on here, but this is by far one of the worst things I have ever contributed. It brings back a lot of harsh memories from my own childhood.
This is why I’m uncomfortable and grouchy when you drink around me.
This is why the smell of alcohol makes me feel sick to my stomach.
This is why I am almost always scared around a group of people drinking.
This is why your drinking doesn’t just effect you.
It’s a strange thing, how you can love somebody, how you can be all eaten up inside with needing them—and they simply don’t need you. That’s all there is to it, and neither of you can do anything about it. And they’ll be the same way with someone else, and someone else will be the same way about you and it goes on and on—this desperate need—and only once in a rare million do the same two people need each other.
“
| — | Madeleine L’Engle |
I wish I could wake up without the bad taste of disgust that living in this world leaves me with. Everything is so sickening and there’s nothing I can do to feel any better about it.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Blink-182: “Adam’s Song”. I spent most of 6th grade sitting in my dark bedroom, listening to this song on repeat.
Goldfinger: “Free Me”. I remember way back in the day when I first stopped eating meat, I heard this song and wanted to cry. It’s still so good and I think I might want to get back into Goldfinger.
I like you immensely. And to prove it, I shall obliterate all of my affection and interest for you. Just like before, but different. I cannot hurt what I do not acknowledge. I don’t know of anyone that I love or of anyone that loves me. But I give you what I can. I give you my nothing.
“
| — | Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, issue 7 |
Jawbreaker: “Accident Prone”. I heard this song for the first time tonight and it totally blew me away. The lyrics are so heart-breaking.
Lyrics:
What’s the furthest place from here?
It hasn’t been my day for a couple years
What’s a couple more?
And if I go, don’t forget
The one good thing I almost did
I learned your name without words
I used my eyes, not my hands
What’s the closest you can come
To an almost total wreck
And still walk away, all limbs intact?
And when I go, you’ll be there
Crying out, begging me
I won’t hear, I’ll just go fast
Into this night on broken legs
A near miss or a close call?
I keep a room at the hospital
I scratch my accidents into the wall
I couldn’t wait to breathe your breath
I cut in line, I bled to death
I got to you, there was nothing left
What’s the meanest you can be
To the one you claim to love
And still smile to your new-found friends?
In the same confusing breath
You pull away and draw me in
I wanted you, you wanted more
I built this life and now it’s mine
A near miss or a close call?
I keep a room at the hospital.
I scratch my accidents into the wall
I couldn’t wait to breathe your breath
I cut in line, I bled to death
I got to you, there was nothing left
