(This is from the same discussion roadnotes alluded to this morning.) Someone on the polyamory community was objecting because people were using the word in what zie thinks is the "wrong" way, or because people are seeking sex and love to make them feel better about themselves and life. Ohh-kay. But then they started talking about being "more evolved". This led, some comments later, to my posting the following:

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On evolution: The course of evolution, as I understand it, has run from the simpler to the more complex in structure. Only because there's no meaningful way to get less complex than no structure at all. And even then, do we know when viruses evolved? (They're simpler than any other life--if you call them "life" at all.) Evolution finds and fills niches. Sometimes that means birds learning not to fly, or a complex lung turning into a swim bladder.

And it still has nothing to do with learning to handle relationships in a more mature fashion.

"Evolution" is a much better defined term than polyamory--which means I get annoyed at people who abuse it, especially when those people are trying to build other definitions on it, or attacking other people for using "polyamory" differently than the speaker does.

the net result of this misuse is I hear from idiots in IMs all the time who think I want to hop into bed with them because since my profile says I'm interested in poly, I must be a slut (negative connotation) or a swinger. I. Don't. Think. So.


Any mention of anything related to sex seems to get that result in IM, from what I've heard. I have *no* profile on ICQ and I get random messages from strangers, some of them clearly pushing porn pages and some possible wannafucks. That's not about poly any more than the guy who tried to pick me up at the gym is about tattoos.

And yes, "unicorn" means one-horned. A rhino is not a unicorn. A rock band consisting of two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer, and a saxophonist is not a unicorn.

After too long (defined as more than a month) Andy and I went to the Bronx Zoo this afternoon. On a summer Sunday, we figured we wouldn't even bother with Wild Asia or the Congo Forest, either of which would mean waiting in line to pay a surcharge. The things to definitely see were the emus, okapi, and snow leopards.

On the way to the emus, we wandered past the pelican-and-gibbon exhibit (the gibbons live on an island, the pelicans in the water around it; they don't really interact). There were half-grown wood ducks in the water; still clearly this year's ducklings, but the males are starting to show the wood-duck green and blue coloring. We'll go back next month and see how they're doing: the area can use more wood ducks.

The okapis were out and about, and excellent to watch at length. But i wanted a sign that said

NOT A ZEBRA

after listening to the people around me for a little while. I can cope with the children who see a striped quadruped and think zebra. It's the adults who tell an infant "that's a zebra" and, when I point out that it's an okapi, say "she won't remember it." This is a reason for lying to a child? If she won't remember the name, "look at that animal" might be the way to go. And the adults who say it's half giraffe and half zebra, and don't bother to mention its real name. I suppose I should be glad they read enough to recognize that it is in fact related to a giraffe.

The other high point, along with the wood ducks, was watching herons on the pond next to the cafeteria-and-gift-shop area. The official, on-the-signs animals there are flamingos, ducks, and koi. But it's a nice big open pond, with food, so it's got some big turtles; some red-wing blackbirds; and, today, herons. A little green heron (not very green, but that's his name) and a yellow-crowned night heron. We watched that bird for a long time, as it stood, then stalked slowly along the shore, then stood again. We checked the book when we got home, and that's another for the life list. (Less exotic than the two before it--calliope hummingbirds, storm-tossed on the wrong edge of the continent, and a bald eagle.)

Snow leopards don't do well on hot summer days, so we stopped there briefly, then headed back to the bus. But first we stopped to take another look at the young wood ducks.