Tag Archives: python

Arts & Entertainment, Film & TV

Finally! The Killing and Zoo News Intersect

A female Steller's sea eagle, was euthanized after re-injuring a fractured wing. Her male companion remains on exhibit at the award-winning Northern Trail. Photo credit: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo

It seems like most people have given up on The Killing by now. Jon Talton, Seattle Times economics columnist, tweeted his top 5 reasons for doing so last weekend. Maureen Ryan didn’t bother to write a recap of the last episode, and Alan Sepinwall is even more checked out than he was last week: “We’re at the point in the season where I’m just repeating the same complaints over and over again, and that’s a waste of my time as much as it is yours.” But never you worry. I’m still watching. Besides, after Sunday’s episode (“Undertow”), there’s only four hours to go. So we soldier on.

In this week’s episode, it actually stopped raining for a bit. That does happen from time to time! (And anyways, as previously discussed, it is always raining too hard in this version of Seattle. An even more glaring error: two episodes have included the crackle of thunder overhead.) Linden continued to be a terrible cop, mother, and fiancee, as delineated by Gabe at Videogum. Even after revealing that Mayor Adams has a pregnant mistress, Richmond’s campaign is still tanking, because Adams countered by holding a press conference to lie about having had a vasectomy and to call Richmond out for releasing such sordid rumors. Also because Richmond is a gutless mayoral candidate with a candidate run by bickering yahoos Gwen and Jamie. Lucky for him, Richmond is a good shot. He went back to see Tom Drexler, libertarian megalomaniac/Mark Cubanesque basketball owner of local team The Seabirds, who need a new stadium, of course, though they could always just move to Oklahoma and choke in the playoffs. He won another $5M to keep his campaign afloat with one high-stakes basket. Meanwhile, at the request of his wife, Stan kidnapped Bennet Ahmed again. Stan beat up Bennet, while Belko beat up a rock. Who does that? That behavior alone makes Belko a top suspect for being Rosie’s killer.

To get back to the headline: So how does The Killing finally have something in common with the Woodland Park Zoo? Because there was recently a death at the zoo, and even terrible detectives like Linden and Holder could crack the case. A female Steller’s sea eagle, estimated to be fourteen years old and on loan from the San Diego Zoo, had to be euthanized a couple weekends ago, due to a reinjury to her fractured wing. The only other option would have been amputation, which is not much of a life for a bird, so no, this was not murder. Case closed.

In other zoo news, in the poll to name the zoo’s new reticulated python, “Kaa” (like the Jungle Book character) was the winner with 44% of the vote. In happier zoo bird news, the zoo blog has the story (and cute photos) of one-year-old penguin Diego, who is recovering from having a bobby pin removed from his stomach, after it was found by a metal detector. And while it’s not one of our zoo’s humboldt penguins, on a happy-sad-but-definitely-cute note, Lucky the penguin has a bum foot, but lives life to the fullest thanks to his friends at Teva:

Arts & Entertainment, Film & TV

The Killing Fishes for Clues, While the Kitty Fishes for Fish

1 Comment

I look forward to the day when The Killing lives up to its potential and AMC backing and is interesting enough on its own that I don’t need to supplant my recaps with the latest Woodland Park Zoo news. This is not that day. Sunday’s episode began as I expected: with the federal agents letting Holder and Linden go, since they’re cops. As the episodes title (“Stonewalled”) would suggest, there are of course going to be issues when there’s different agencies whose investigations collide. I’ve seen enough seasons of 24 to know the bureaucratic chains of command hoo-ha that usually follows. Let’s hope that this isn’t turning into that. Let’s also hope that Rosie Larsen’s murder isn’t somehow tied up in a terrorist plot, because that would be too way out of left field. This week also led to the reveal that Holder is in AA (or NA, I suppose, since he was a former meth user)–also not too surprising, if you’ve been paying attention. Mitch left her kids in the garage with the engine running, though not long enough to take care of those buzzkills for once and for all. Richmond finally got a backbone and played dirty in his political campaign, allowing Jamie to leak the news that Mayor Adams has a mistress. And Linden’s son sent photos of the murder scene to his friends, which eventually made their way to the press.

Meanwhile, the zoo’s ocelot kitty is learning to fish. In the video above, shot last Friday, sixteen-week-old Evita explores the zoo’s tropical rain forest exhibit with her mother Bella, and together they pawed at the live fish that have recently been introduced into their environment. It was a gradual process, as the zoo first added still water to the exhibit, then turned on the stream, and then released trout into the running water. Give Evita a little time and practice, and she’ll be catching those fish in no time.

Also, today’s the last day for voting on the name for the zoo’s new reticulated python. Out of the 400 names submitted, the final five are: Java – in honor of its roots in Southeast Asia and Seattle; Rimbo – “jungle” in Indonesian; Kaa – from Jungle Book; Pogi – “good looking” in Tagalog; Sundara – “beautiful” in Hindi. Facebook polls close at 3 p.m.

Arts & Entertainment, Film & TV

The Killing Slowly Slithers Along, While the Zoo’s New Snake Needs a Name

A new male reticulated python has just gone on exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo and he needs a name. Through May 13, noon PDT, submit a name to the zoo’s Facebook page. Photo credit: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo

Over halfway through the thirteen-hour season, and The Killing is more like The Boring. I’m not alone in this opinion. The New Yorker had a negative review of the show in last week’s issue, and TV recapper extraordinaire Alan Sepinwall could barely bring himself to write about this week’s episode (“Vengeance”).

With good reason. What happened this week? Ummm…a whole bunch of nothing. Rosie Larsen’s dad didn’t kill Bennet Ahmed. Linden and Holder visited the Green Lake Mosque, which was somehow located in Rainier Valley. Linden missed her flight to Sonoma, so now her fiance won’t take her phone calls, but on the upside she got to teach her son the finer points of paintball. And a new Adams campaign attack ad proved to be a real bonerkiller for Gwen and Darren’s office sexytime. Stay tuned next week, when the butchershop FBI raid cliffhanger is easily resolved in the first five minutes, after Linden and Holder simply show the federal agents their police badges.

In more important news, the Woodland Park Zoo has a new snake. The eight-year-old male reticulated python weighs a hundred pounds (!) and debuted in his new zoo digs earlier this week in the Day Exhibit.

But that big ol’ python still needs a name. Animal lovers (or animal-naming lovers) are encouraged to submit their ideas for snake names on the zoo’s Facebook page (of course) between now and Friday, with the zookeepers’ picks for best five names going up for public vote next week. I know the zoo always prefers ethnically/culturally/geographically appropriate names for their animals, but just like with The Killing, I implore them to not be so boring or predictable. For python names, I suggest Egyptian Cobra, Honey Badger, or Kitty. Also acceptable: Huggy or Squeezy.

And in the MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF ALL, five Humboldt penguin chicks who hatched at the zoo three months ago made their public debut on Monday. Here they are swimming, for your daily dose of SQUEEEEEEEE.