Baby Animals Nice Times!
On May 31, NYC’s Bronx Zoo celebrated the birth of Sarka, a snow leopard cub. Snow leopards are considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with about 5,000-7,000 remaining in the wilds of Asia.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (Bronx Zoo) participates in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Snow Leopard Species Survival Plan, which insures that these beautiful creatures are bred in a healthy and sustainable manner.
I sketched the picture at the top when I worked at the Bronx Zoo as the merchandising supervisor in the gift shops, I did all the displays and kept them stocked. I loved working there. Getting in before the zoo opened and hearing all the animals excited as it was feeding time was my favorite part of the day. The Bronx Zoo has some ugliness in its history; but now with the WCS they work to help animals all over the world.
Last year the Melbourne Zoo had its first giraffe born there in almost 20 years. Tambi was born Aug. 1, 2025, after mom Nakuru had been pregnant for 460 days. Newborn giraffes grow pretty quickly and at 2 weeks old Tambi was having the zoomies!
Two Sumatran Tiger cubs were born in the Fort Worth Zoo on July 1. The sister cubs named Barani and Malu are an exciting birth for the zoo as the tigers are a critically endangered species.
Knitted Knockers Nice Times!
October is breast cancer awareness month and the group Knitted Knockers has combined knitting with love and giving to support survivors.
Our mission is connecting volunteer knitters (and crocheters) with breast cancer survivors to provide free knitted knockers.
We do this by inspiring and equipping volunteers to make them. Knittedknockers.org has free patterns and videos on how to make great knitted knockers. The patterns have been downloaded over 2 million times.
We did not invent knitted knockers but rather approached the young woman in Maine who had named them after making some for herself to see if I could use the name and share them freely with others. She was thrilled as she was no longer able to.
We have over 7,630 individuals and groups registered with us in 50 states and 76 countries.
(Thank you to Holly for this story.)
Laila Edwards (and ziggy) Nice Times!
When Laila Edwards appeared on the ice at the 2026 Winter Olympics she was the first Black female hockey player to skate for Team USA. She scored her first goal of those Games during Team USA’s win against the tough Canadian team. She would again score in the quarterfinals against Italy. Lots of people were rooting the team on, and those of us in Cleveland Heights were cheering extra loud as Laila is a local.
Team USA won gold defeating Canada 2-1 in OT after Edwards passed to Hilary Knight to tie the game with just 2 minutes left.
Laila started figure skating at the age of 3 but by the age of 5 was playing in the Cleveland Heights Youth Hockey Program. She had great success in college playing with the Wisconsin Badgers, and in 2023 she was selected for the US Women’s national team, scoring a hat-trick against Finland in the Women’s Worlds semifinal game.
In June Laila was signed as the 4th overall pick in the Professional Women’s Hockey League for PWHL San Jose through the 2028-29 season.
Laila was in Cleveland Heights for one day this past week and she stopped by the Cleveland Heights Community Center to get in some ice time at the place where it started for her. I roller skate at the Community Center and had just sat down to put on my skates while looking at a big poster of Laila in her Team USA gear that is taped to the glass partition outside of the rink. I glanced to the hall on my left and saw the actual Laila walk by and into an office. I grabbed my phone and started to ask the women at the front desk, is that … and they finished the sentence, “Laila Edwards? Yes it is and do you want to meet her? Go on in and say hello.” So I did.
She was so nice, introduced herself and shook my hand. She was very gracious when I asked for a photo, even after I stepped on her toe. She apologized for being sweaty as she had just finished skating, I told her that I had cheered for her during the Olympics and thanked her for all she had done. She is an inspiration to young and old alike.
Funny Commercial Nice Times!
This ad for Red Rock Cider stars Leslie Nielsen playing a version of Det. Frank Drebin, his character in the Naked Gun movies.
Wonkers’ Nice Times!
From Alpaca Suitcase: “My friend wanted to go to a local Harry Potter festival, but she threw her back out, and she’d be on a scooter. She asked me if I could think of a way to dress the scooter up as a broom (?!??). I’m no fan, but I did read the books when they were new. I said, “Wasn’t there something about a flying car?” It turns out there was! She sent me this photo. She said I could post it. She looks wiztastic!”
From Zyxomma and Meccalopolis: “I wanted to go to our Top Secret Chanterelle Spot (it’s months too late for chanterelles) to see whether there’s been a porcini flush; it’s been a great season for boletes thus far. Or maybe some blewits.
Meccalopolis asked me which way I wanted to go down; I said, you know me; steep ascent, gentle descent. We were approaching the end of the trail when he said it’s weird that there’s all this oak and no maitake. Not two minutes later, he spotted a 400 year old oak surrounded by the luscious mushroom. We cut about a third of what was there; it was so much that it wouldn’t fit in our collecting bags. He improvised by putting it all on my bright orange rain poncho and folding up the edges for a Santa’s sackful of shroom. I estimate the weight (I’m good at that) as 20 kilos. Yes, between 40 and 50 pounds of a mushroom that’s not only a choice edible, but a valuable medicinal. So good! And if we were to sell it (we won’t) it would be $800 to $1000.”
From Julie: “This week I appeared on a local TV show to promote my Etsy shop.”
Random Recommends!
Alright, Wonks. Going with something underseen in my view, 1959’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles, an adaptation of the famous novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Bookshop link) produced by Hammer Films (yes, THAT Hammer). A bloody mystery drenched in moody fog and Gothic atmosphere with gorgeous color cinematography. The cast is great, with Peter Cushing and Andre Morell making a fantastic Holmes and Watson; Christopher Lee gives gravitas and presence to Sir Henry Baskerville.
The Hound Of The Baskervilles is available for free with ads on YouTube, Tubi, Roku, Xumo Play and Pluto TV, $3.99 on Fandango and Apple TV.
The song referenced in today’s title is Times Like These by Foo Fighters.
We end with Once In A Lifetime covered by Angélique Kidjo.
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I waited for Nice Times to post this little story. Thank you ziggy.
Some of you have met Paul. If you know him, you know what kind of a man he is. My mom would have called him "a stand-up guy". I think we all know what that means. The short answer - he'd give you the shirt off his back.
Two nights ago, three asshole thieves came into the yard and wiped-out months of Paul's hard work on his gardens. He grows his own and has always shared his harvest with a hefty mason jar full to whoever might want one - or two. There are a few Wonks that have been the beneficiary of those mason jars. This year he was able to harvest half before the fucks stole the other half. There won't be many jars filled this year. I believe in my heart this is what bothers him the most. He won't be able to share as much this year and because I know him, he's more concerned about that than anything else.
Yesterday I wanted to do bodily harm to the thieves and did a slow burn all fucking day. Obviously, Paul was angry, but he handled the situation a whole lot better than I did. This wonderful man had just lost half his annual grow, and he shrugged it off. We've been together for 10 years and I thought I knew everything about this man. I knew he was "a stand-up guy", but it took what happened yesterday to drive it home.
The moral of this long story is this. Don't wait for something shitty to happen. Go give the "stand-up person" in your life a BIG (HUG) and tell them how fabulous they are. It's not hard.
If you see Paul today, will you high five his ass? He deserves that and so much more.
Holly
And on that note, I'm getting ready to attend a voter protection training. Those MAGA fuckers aren't cheating on my watch!