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I learned yesterday that New Hampshire has a state dog! (It’s the Chinook.)

Naturally, this led me down the rabbit hole of state animals.

*Twelve states have an official state dog.

*Maine has a state cat. (The Maine Coon, of course!)

*A surprisingly large number of states have an official state dinosaur. (Iowa’s state dino is the T-Rex. That’s a trivia bonus question for sure!)

*There are also state mammals, state butterflies, state insects, state fish, state fossils, and state reptiles, all in addition to the more classic state bird.

*All 50 states have some sort of state bird. (Seven states have the *same* state bird, the Northern Cardinal.)

*Two states have named the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat as their official state flying mammal. (That would be Texas and Oklahoma.)

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I love reading the wikipedia pages of comic book characters, because they present the most wild storylines in such a matter-of-fact way. And so… some Wonder Woman info gleaned from wikipedia, presented entirely without context:

1. Wonder Woman was capable of bench pressing 15,000 pounds.

2. Wonder Woman’s Amazon training gave her limited telepathy, profound scientific knowledge, and the ability to speak every language – even caveman and Martian languages.

3. She is able to astrally project herself into various lands of myth.

4. She can apparently leave the planet through meditation, and did this once to rescue Artemis while she was in hell.

5. She possesses an arsenal of advanced technology, including the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, [and] a tiara which serves as a projectile.

6. She also had a pair of red glowing magnetic earrings which allowed her to receive messages from Queen Desira of the planet Venus.

7. [The invisible plane] is shown as being able to fly at over 2,000 mph (3,200 km/h) and to send out rainbow rays that penetrate the mist around Paradise Island, as well as landing stealthily and having a built-in radio.

8. Thanks to tinkering by gremlins, the Plane even developed intelligence and the power to talk.

9. Diana can slam the bracelets together to create a wave of concussive force capable of making strong beings like Superman’s ears bleed.

[1-9 are direct quotes from the Wonder Woman wikipedia page]

10. Looking for a soundtrack to make you feel like bench pressing 15,000 pounds, astral project, and talk with an invisible plane? Check out the Wonder Woman theme music!

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Fun fact from our day at Epcot: I got all the way into the Mission Space building without realizing it was *that* Mission Space — the scary puking ride I’d been warned about!

But, you know, we were already there. And so I cheerfully departed for the “Green Team” experience (*Andrea, being far braver than I, opted for the Orange Team). And it was fun! I would describe the Green Team experience as “less scary than flying” but I don’t like flying, so ymmv.

It wasn’t until today, more than a week later, that I happened upon a reference to the ride (reading about how Disney parks handle medical emergencies), and saw the word “centrifuge.”

WHAT.

“On May 19, 2006, Disney began offering a less intense version of Mission: Space (called Green Team, also known as Less Intense training or no spinning), where the centrifuge does not spin, thus eliminating the forces of lateral acceleration for riders who choose the more tame experience. The cabs themselves still pitch and pivot, providing some motion. The normal ride is still available and is called Orange Team (also known as More Intense training or spinning).”

*Andrea, I am SO MUCH MORE IMPRESSED now. Also SO HAPPY I was on the Green Team. (No wonder we didn’t get the same warnings!)

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I’ll try to keep the work drama to a minimum in honor of — as Miss Piggy would say — “the blessed day of Christmas.” But a quick update on the workplace: they love goals, right? So the company as a whole started the year with a list of FIVE things that were supposed to be the keystones, or goalposts, or whatever corporate jargon was in use at the time.

Here’s our progress so far as I see it:

#1 – reply hazy try again
(This one was about numbers, so I don’t really know, but my impression with those is that they always try to say ‘we’re doing well enough so you’re not fired, but not so well that you’re getting a bonus.’)

#2 – ask again later
(This one boiled down to “leaders lead,” which I thought was very ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ of them, but last week I mentioned it at a meeting and the leader of our team had forgotten that this was even on the list? So I’m going with a solid question mark.)

#3 & #4 – signs point to yes???
(These ones were pretty vague, kinda marketing and HR stuff, so I feel like they were included so we could have a few automatic wins. But hey, a win’s a win.)

#5 – outlook not so good
(Oh, #5. #5 is our shiny new computer system, set to launch in January. It’s one of those things you have to laugh about because the alternative is horrible sobbing and questioning what in the world has been happening for the last ELEVEN months that so much is being crammed into December.)

[ETA: I had to wiki Magic 8-Ball to find out what answers it has — I had no idea there were actually 20 different responses you could get!]

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…reading movie summaries on wikipedia. Because just in case we *do* end up seeing Jurassic World for team building, I want to make sure I don’t get too freaked out by it.

This info (not a spoiler) from wikipedia, made me stop for a minute:

Director Colin Trevorrow has stated that the Indominus rex, the synthetic hybrid dinosaur at the center of the film’s story, is symbolic of consumer and corporate excess.

What? I’m honestly not sure if that’s amazing, amazingly bizarre, or just completely horrible.

Probably this was one of those times they should have listened to the RAPTOR TRAINER (in my mind that phrase is always accompanied by a Power Rangers-esque sound effect):

“They’re dinosaurs. Wow enough.”

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Apparently there is a real song that contains the lyrics “Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail; hippity-hoppity Easter’s on its way.” (‘Here Comes Peter Cottontail,’ sung by Gene Autry) And! The song was written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, who wrote Frosty the Snowman a year later, which may explain why those songs sound similar enough that my memory often combines them.

(I have a memory of playing with a snowman Christmas ornament and singing ‘Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail; thumpity-thump thump thumpity-thump, over the hills of snow.’ I have no idea if it’s just my memory swapping out one song for another, or if that combination of lyrics actually made sense to me at the time.)

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Here it is, the last Monday of the year, and one final animal to go with it!

The Dik-dik is a tiny antelope — they can run up to 26 mph and also whistle! (Though possibly not at the same time.)

[photo credit Pedro Gonnet, via wikipedia]

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Not expecting much, I ran a search on my pinboard for the word October, on the off chance I’d saved an o-animal link and didn’t remember. SURPRISE! OLINGUITO!

[photo credit Mark Gurney, via wikipedia,]

Also, I’m not sure who to credit for this gem of a wikipedia sentence, but the article describes the olinguito as “a cross between slinky cat and a wide-eyed teddy bear.” What more needs to be said?

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