Mankind from prehistory to space
exploration has always depended on animals for help in their quest for
advancing civilization. Granted, often as bait or as guinea pigs but we
have depended on them, nonetheless.
After extensive research of my cerebral micro files I’ve discovered several remarkable case histories
that have affected the course of our world.For instance, Admiral Perry
carried a Canadian goose on his Arctic trek to find the North Pole.
Whenever the magnetic field messed up his compass, he would tie the
goose to a sled runner with a 50-foot piece of baler twine. The goose,
being the only one with enough common sense to fly south would try and
take off. Perry and his parakeets would mush in the opposite direction.
Everyone,
of course, is familiar with Magellan’s pig who sniffed his way through
the Straits. In Magellan’s defense he did name them the Straits of
Yorkshire. But that name was already taken by a group of heterosexuals
from the North of England. So he named them after himself.
The
Trojan Horse is legendary but where do you think the Greeks got the
idea? That’s right . . . the Trojan Goat. Two years previous, a football
team from Texas A & M had tried the same strategy to invade a bar
called the Dixie Chicken. Problem was, they could only get two players
in the goat at one time so only half the team got dragged into the bar
before the bartender got wise. That left 5 guys still outside.
Even
part of our language is derived from famous farm animals. During the
medieval crusades King Arthur was dickering with a nomadic Mexican
sheepherder. Art asked what he called these beasts. The herder
misunderstood and thought he was asking the price. He replied “Cheap”.
So ‘sheep’ was added to our English vocabulary.
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