Tales of titmice (and professional protesters with Bud light brains)
Gods, some people…:
LOS ANGELES, April 29 (UPI) — Environmentalists are attempting to have a sign reading “Titmouse Park” removed from Los Angeles’ Ballona Wetlands area, saying the sign insults women. Ballona Institute organizers said they are working to petition city leaders to have the sign removed and the park renamed after a native animal, plant or landmark, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Environmentalist Roy van de Hoek said the park was not named after titmouse birds, which are not native to the area. Rather, the name was chosen as an insult to a group of women who blocked local businessmen from turning the area into a parking lot 20 years ago. Van de Hoek said he had a conversation about 18 months ago with a businessman who claimed to have participated in the naming.
“He said the name came about because he and his buddies were playing a joke on the women,” he said. “It was a reference to a woman’s body part. He was chuckling and laughing.”
Now, I have to say that most of the time my sympathy would firmly lie with anyone who protested the building of yet another parking lot, shopping mall etcetera - and I’m happy to read that there are still wetlands there and not some macadam monstrosity.
Those now petitioning for a name change are a different sort of animal altogether. Humourless stick insects more than titmice.
Anyway, not everybody agrees that this name was given to the place because of these women:
Retired sign painter Bud Harris said he painted the park sign, naming the area after a group of mice he encountered that he mistakenly thought were titmice.
I’m not sure we can believe our real or faux naive Buddy here. Firstly, I’m not quite sure how one would ‘encounter’ a group of mice. One can see the occasional individual mouse, scurrying from here to there but normally one doesn’t sit down and have tea or bridge with whole groups of them.
Furthermore, I find it very hard to believe that someone who thinks titmice are actual mice and not birds would then even know that there existed any animal called a titmouse - or would actually care enough when he saw a a few mice to name them anything else apart from ‘damn mice’.
Ah well, let’s just hope the name ‘Titmouse Park’ survives - both as a reminder to businessmen that you can’t get away with turning the whole bloody world in a parking lot - and to protesters everywhere, to remind them that it is a good thing to retain a sense of proportions, and yes, a sense of humour.
And let us furthermore pray that the people who run the Los Angeles zoo won’t turn to Buddy when their signs will need a new lick of paint.
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