Primates and Mr. Rogers; These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

This may come as a surprise to those who know me, but I find that as I get older, I am far less interested in discussing tragedy. I was at an assignment to photograph a lovely elderly woman while she lead a discussion group with a few members of a local PTO. While waiting for the last member to arrive, the group began to talk about the latest incident of unexplained violence to hit our city. A man walked into a Wendy’s a few days ago and began shooting. He killed a firefighter who was dressed in street clothes, injured some others, shot himself. The group talked about it and I wondered why.

“Well, he was going back into Wendy’s to get his four-year-old a different toy from his meal. I guess the guy came right up behind him and shot him point blank in the back of the head” one said.
“Well, at least he didn’t feel anything” said another
“I guess the ex-wife of the shooter says he has a history of violence”
“Yeah, but there was no record of it”
“The weird thing is there’s just no explanation for why he (the shooter) did it”
“I guess when it’s your time, that’s it”

I’d rather think about the things I heard on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me news quiz show. For example, there was a series of questions related to Fred Roger’s, AKA Mr. Rogers.

Which unlikely friend did Mr. Roger’s make at one time?
A. Kim Jong-I,
B. Koko the Chimp, or
C. Someone else I can’t remember.

The answer was B. And the host went on to explain that Koko, a gorilla who was taught to communicate with sign language, loved Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and watched it regularly. When he came to visit her one day, she immediately gave him a hug, then crouched-down and took of his shoes for him.
Then there was a which-one-is-true question. There were three options, and the true one was that when it was made public that Mr. Rogers’ car was reported stolen, the car was returned with a note that read, “I never would have taken it if I knew it was yours”.

I think basically I am in a crummy mood today and would just rather talk about happy, loving things like Fred Rogers than anything else at the moment.