Smoking on a Rubber Cigar

We saw a llama eating a Christmas tree on January 2. On that day we went to the small Cosley Zoo in Wheaton, which I've mentioned before (October 11, 2005 and September 18, 2006). Mainly it was a cheap way to get out of the house, and fortunately it was warm enough for it, though not exactly warm, being in the low 30s and windless.

Cosley has a resident llama, and there in his pen was a discarded pine tree, about Christmas-tree sized. He was calling it lunch, or would have in some dialect of llama-ese. Wouldn't it be good if we, too, could eat our Christmas trees after they've done their decorative duty? Say as a fine Epiphany dinner? This is something that genetic engineering could make a reality.

Word is that Dora the Explorer is going to "save Three Kings Day." I have to wonder how that pans out, but will not spoil things by finding out. Does Swiper steal the gold, frankincense and myrrh? Then do the intrepid Dora and her loyal sidekick Boots lead the Magi on a quest to beat the daylights out of Swiper and recover the gifts for baby Jesus?

I never heard January 6 called "Three Kings" growing up, but Epiphany, and it wasn't much more than a mark on the liturgical calendar; secular calendars rarely bothered with it. It wasn't until I lived in Chicago that heard the day called Three Kings by a few acquaintances of Central European ancestry.