<p>O.K. I’m still laughing at my D’s story of their new campus legend and I want to share. </p>
<p>It seems that an entering freshman male catapulted himself to stardom status in his first week on campus. Rhodes is across the street from a very large park which includes among many other attractions , the Memphis Zoo. There appears over the years to have been some incidents of involvement of Rhodes students in “outside normal Zoo hours” entry and activities. </p>
<p>This nameless tossled youth succumbed to temptation and “alledgedly” visited the Zoo at 1 or 2 a.m. and proceeded to climb into the penguin exhibit and appropriate and exercize dominion and control over Exhibit A, one (1) penguin. A live full-grown penguin. In living black and white. </p>
<p>As the story goes our intrepid Robin Hood/Zorro/Ferris Bueller was approached by security as he was walking around the zoo with Exhibit A. When accused by security of attempting to abscond with said penguin, the youth replied with much indignation that “Au contraire. This is in fact my own penguin that I have brought with me from home. I was simply bringing him here tonight to see the other penguins.” </p>
<p>When challenged further by the skeptical (but entertained) gendarmes our affable hero proceeded to suggest that he could identify his penguin because his particular penguin was black and white and walked funny. When that failed to convince Nottingham’s men, he suggested a test where he would put the penguin down and call the penguin’s name. If the penguin came to him, it most certainly was his own penguin. He put the penguin down and as the penguin picked a direction and started walking away he ran around in front of it calling the penguin’s name. Who could doubt him now? LOL. </p>
<p>At this point the young man offered to donate Exhibit A to the Zoo if they would just forget about the whole “un-authorized after-hours visit” thing. The deal was struck. The penguin was returned to the penguin enclosure , the young man was released, and the legend began. </p>
<p>I’m sure there are some embellishments to the story (and I have taken some license and liberties to protect the penguin from identification) but D relates that the operative facts are verified by others in undetected attendance. </p>
<p>God, this kid is going to have a fun four (or 5) years in college. After that I’m thinking investment banking or politics (as if there is a difference) . ;)</p>
<p>Watch out for the Society to Prevent Antarctic Malfeasance (SPAM). I can see the pickets at Rhodes now. Fowl Play on Campus: Penguin abducted! Next, turkeys sacrified!</p>
<p>Thanks for the chuckle. Isn’t it fun to have your family back together?</p>
<p>Uhhhh, no. Among the very many good reasons to attend Rhodes, THAT wouldn’t have been a good reason to select Rhodes. I don’t think Rhodes students take a backseat to anyone in the drinkin’ category. Unfortunately, “Drinkin’ and Thinkin’ since 1848” might be their un-official motto. </p>
<p>And as to the hero of our story, let’s hope he WAS drinkin’. It would be very scary to think he was sober. LOL.</p>
<p>Now I know how Rhodes escaped the opprobrium heaped on colleges for not teaching the things that matter. Obviously, the kid knows how to get ahead (he may also have “a head” but I’ll leave that to the campus and zoo police to determine).</p>
<p>That’s really, really, funny. I’m trying to guess what the penguin was thinking throughout the entire experience. Hard to imagine - it didn’t make weird noises, or try to go to the bathroom, or bite, or anything??? It just calmly let itself be carried around (sort of like a sack of groceries I’m guessing - how BIG are penguins, anyway - aren’t they heavy?) at 1:00 a.m. by a college student until security stepped in? LOL!</p>
<p>Did this kid seperate a penguin from its spouse? Aren’t they the mate for life type?</p>
<p>Did this kid have any idea how to feed & care for this penguin? Did he give any thought to how an environmental change might not be good for the penguin?</p>
<p>Sure, it’s a funny story. But really, the kid sounds like he’s missing a brain.</p>
<p>In a related story (no exaggeration. I saw it all.) – My neighbor’s 18 year old son was staging summer olympics hi-jinks in his yard with his rowdy friends. They built a catapult to toss things with (think Letterman.) They had all types of strength, endurance, goofy antics contests. The final event was the chicken capture. Mind you, we live 10 miles from Manhattan, so not a lot of chickens around here. The kids went to a live poultry market in Newark to get a chicken. He was scrawney & looked to be only good for the neckbone in a soup stock. Having been raised in confined quarters, he was not used to running & was not well suited for the chicken chase. THe mom grew attached, as did the family dog, and they took care of the chicken for about a month. My son & the neighborhood kids just loved this chicken & would visit it daily. He was looking rather plump & vigorous as summer drew to a close. Someone must have ratted them out & reported the poultry violation. My neighbors actually found an animal rescue place an hour away that agreed to care for the bird. They went on vacation & when they returned, six more chickens were in their yard. The goofy friends had decided it would be oh so funny to have even MORE chickens.</p>
<p>As a city girl, I just realized that this chicken must have been a she, no? Anyway, these kind of “aren’t we so wacky & crazy” stunts can be a real pain in the butt for whoever is left with a yard full of chickens, or a sick penguin.</p>
<p>Stickershock, go back and re-read the original post. The kid wasn’t trying to KEEP the penguin, he was just walking around with it in the zoo. It was a PRANK, I’m not getting that he ever formed the intention to actually keep the penguin. </p>
<p>But, I am still wondering how he managed to walk around with it. I mean, aren’t those things, like, huge? I’m picturing it flapping its wings and making weird noises and getting feathers all over everything…</p>
<p>The biggest penguins are the Emperor, which are something like four feet tall, on average. (Of course, if they could post on CC, they would all be taller and smarter than average.) The Adelies are a lot smaller than that – maybe two feet tall. Easily lighter than two cases of beer, anyway.</p>
Nope. Sounds like he thought it would be real funny to bring it back to campus & show what a crazy guy he was. I can’t imagine the penguin, a wild animal, remember, was thrilled to be carried around.</p>
<p>I must have penguins on the brain because I saw Happy Feet today w/ son & his friends. Great animation & music. Adelies & emperors were the stars.</p>
<p>LOL I missed that part StickerShock I didn’t get that he actually, really did intend to misappropriate the poor thing. Wonder what was his plan - sneak it into the dorm room? How does one hide a penguin?</p>
<p>I believe we are giving the 'alledged" perpetrator far too much credit for “thinking”. Most pranks of this type (and the catapult for sure. :eek: Did they catapult the chicken?) have some element of stupidity. </p>
<p>I just asked D and she said it was a “little” penguin, not an emperor. She has no knowledge of the level of penguin difficulty or the specific small penguin species. (Nor do we know how long the stroll was.)</p>
<p>Sorry if my story offended anyone’s sensibilities, but I still think it’s funny. (Then again by the standards of my friends this is fairly mild on the mischief scale.)</p>
<p>and ss , here is a more complete quote-
That would be the theory of the Penguin Guards, not an admission of the youth in question. He did in fact have possession of aforesaid penguin. </p>
<p><em>No penguins were harmed in the making of this post.</em></p>
<p>From a very reliable source, I learned this little tidbit about Curmudgeon’s interest in penguins.</p>
<p>Years ago, young Curmudgeon was driving down Main Street in Waco, Texas with two penguins in the back seat of his red 1965 Mustang. A cop pulled him over and asked him about his two hot dates that were squealing in the back. Young Curmudgeon told the cop he picked them up at Fat Joe’s diner in Hillsboro but did not know what to do with them. The cop suggested he’d better take those penguins straight to the zoo. Young Curmudgeon promised he would and drove off. </p>
<p>The next day, the same cop sees the same car and the same penguins - only this time the penguins and young Curmudgeon were all wearing sunglasses! The cop pulled Cur over and said, “I thought I told you to take these penguins to the zoo!” </p>
<p>“I did” said young Curmudgeon, “you would not believe how much fun they had. Today I’m taking them to the beach in Corpus!”</p>