u/UnrulyButt

​

Nomi has found the perfect dress! It's white - all the colours of light combined. She never has to decide what colour to wear. As long as she's wearing her white dress, she'll be wearing whatever colour and all the colours! She is so thrilled to have all of her wardrobe conundrums solved. Penelope doesn't get it. The dress is so obviously blue.

It's 3am and finally cooling down a bit to about 30°. Good night disco birbs! Thanks for coming 💕

🎶Charge it, point it, zoom it, press it

Snap it, work it, quick – erase it

Write it, cut it, paste it, save it

Load it, check it, quick – rewrite it

🎶

https://youtu.be/D8K90hX4PrE?si=zYU4sxALrOmvV\_j8

Even though it's a long way off, StellaBlu is counting the days until May 5th. It's Children's Day in Japan! She is looking forward to putting up colourful carp steamers. A big one at the top to represent her dad. Then below that is a slightly smaller one to represent her mum. Then a whole line of little carps to represent her nest mates. It's based on an old story about a determined carp who believed in himself so much that he swam the perilous route upstream to a waterfall. Then through sheer force of will and his own strength, he leapt to the top of the waterfall and transformed into a dragon! There is even a temple in Kyoto that has a stone with a natural formation that looks like the carp as he transforms! The transformation part intrigues Penelope: "He transforms?! Like Toad?"

StellaBlu : "no 😐"

Penelope : "oh 😔"

StellaBlu : "more like Toadette"

Penelope : " ☺️"

Birdly is helping Penelope decide where to travel next when she leaves the Galapagos Islands. He thinks she might enjoy Bhutan. She can attend the Phala Choepa Festival. Its highlight is the dance with boar masks to celebrate the monastery's guardian boar deity. It chases away evil spirits and welcomes good fortune. Penelope thinks that sounds lovely. Boars get a bad rap in most places. The boars must feel so sad and left out. It's nice to see them loved and appreciated.

Waffle is listing naturally occurring pink things. She is currently cataloguing pink animals. She thinks flamingos are so pretty and flamboyant. They get their colour from eating carotenoid rich algae. Then there's Bargibant's Pygmy Seahorse. They live on corals and have evolved to blend in seamlessly with their homes. And there's the Amazon river dolphin which starts off grey but turns pink as an adult. Waffle gazes off thoughtfully into the distance. "You know what else is pink?", she says. "Unicorn barf." Penelope is startled. She was under the impression that unicorns vomited chunky glitter.

Pebble met a skunk this morning. The skunk was charming if a little shy and they've made plans to get together for lemonade and snacks at the skunk's house next week. Pebble is so happy to have made another friend! There's only one teeny tiny problem. Pebble's new friend is sort of.... stinky. "I think it's coming from his butt", whispers Pebble. Penelope nods sympathetically. She's heard this about skunks. They're really sweet but they have a BO problem. Maybe Pebble should bring a host gift when he visits his new friend. Penelope has just the thing. She tells Pebble to come round to her place tomorrow and she'll give him a bar of persimmon soap for his odiferous friend. It has a bunch of natural tannins in it that neutralize odour. It also smells delightful. Pebble is relieved. He wants to be able to breathe when he hangs around with his new buddy.

🎶Don't mess around

You bring me down

How you get about

Don't make a sound

Just move out

🎶

https://youtu.be/ysmVlaw36L0?si=2\_KcAtkrAXd7Sz82

Even though it's the middle of summer, Floof is hungry for apples. They are her favourite! It is one of the first fruits ever cultivated. It first shows up in central Asia and by 4000 BCE apple trees had spread out across Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. Today they seem commonplace but they have a scandalous history! Eris, the goddess of strife, crashed a wedding that she was excluded from and, in a fit of pique, threw the golden Apple of Discord. Her tantrum fueled an argument between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite ultimately culminating in the Trojan war. As his 11th labour, Hercules was tasked with stealing some Apples of the Hesperides. He did steal them but it was all for nought. He had to give them back as they belonged to Hera. What a naughty man and a total time waster! Hippomenes tricked Atlanta into marrying him when he threw apples in her path to distract her from a race (that he was losing! 🤨) so that she lost the bet. What a cheat! Despite their bad influence, Penelope will always have apples in her fruit bowl. An apple a day will never keep Floof away!

Kale is having an art party and Penelope is invited! They will spend the whole day being crafty! Penelope does a mental tally of her pipe cleaners, macaroni, and glitter. Does she have enough water colours and brushes? Kale pauses. Given that Penelope runs around naked a lot, she was kind of hoping that Penelope would be the life model. Penelope thinks for a bit. Could she wear the glitter if she's not going to be using it?

Poodia feels that her life is sorely lacking in dragons. It would be so nice to have a dragon friend. They can fly faster and further than birbs ever could. They bring luck and good fortune to everyone around them. They are so pretty and colourful. And they're mighty handy at a barbecue. Penelope advises her to bang a drum loudly. The sound wakes up dragons and guides them. They like the booming sound and will come towards it. Poodia hopes a nice dragon will find her and want to be her friend.

Birby was out walking in the forest after a rainy morning. There were so many mushrooms! They'd popped up out of nowhere! She's curious about maybe snacking on them but heard that they are fungus. Isn't fungus bad for you? Penelope says that her doctor told her that mushrooms are really good for your heart! They lower cholesterol and have beta-glucans and ergothioneine. They help prevent artery plaque buildup and reduce triglyceride levels. Then she stops the mushroom evangelism. Perhaps Birby should be be cautious about eating any old mushrooms from the forest. Birby considers just going to the store instead.

Morrigan saw a play! It was called Romeo and Juliet. Penelope has heard of it! It's about star crossed lovers. How romantic 💘. Morrigan furrows her brow. She thinks Romeo was a total dweeb. He had a fickle heart and had they both lived, he probably would have fallen in 'love' with some other girl next week. He had one job to do. One job! It was to just sit tight and wait and he was so dumb and unreliable that he couldn't even do that properly. As a result, he was unaware of Juliet's end of the plan. So she ended up dying for nothing! It's maddening. She should've woken up, realized that she'd married an imbecile and then sauntered out of that crypt as a rich widow. Why didn't she?! She doesn't think it's terribly romantic at all. Penelope realizes that Morrigan is correct. Rosaline is the real heroine of the play.

🎶The picture you see

Is no portrait of me

It's too real to be shown

To someone I don't know

🎶

https://youtu.be/t1tjQqWqqAA?si=pneOzcXK2YaE1MZZ

Tiger is starting a band! Establishing the rhythm section is of paramount importance. She is auditioning frogs to ensure some sick beats. Frogs have a sort of internal metronome that allow them to maintain very precise pauses between their croaks. She's actually thinking about hiring two frogs as they can perform "counter - singing" where one frog will croak and the other will croak back during the interval to create a rhythmic harmony. Frogs are so sensitive to rhythms and vibrations that if they live in houses with humans, they will sometimes ribbit along to rhythmic house noises like the dishwasher or the dryer. Penelope hopes that she can book them for the Rave Cave in the future.

Kiwi has heard that time flies when you're having fun. But what does it do if you are flying for fun? Does it move more slowly? Penelope clears her throat. According to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, time is not fixed. Its passage can be altered by gravity and/or speed. It can move slower for bodies that are travelling at very high velocity. So if Kiwi flies fast enough time will, theoretically, slow down. Kiwi vows to practice her flying. If she can fly fast enough to slow down time, she'll have more of it to play and dance with her friends!

Nutmeg has developed a great love for bowling. She has unearthed some fun facts about her latest hobby! The largest bowling alley in the world is the Inazawa Grand Bowling Centre in Japan. It has 116 lanes! Originally, women were barred from bowling 😠 It wasn't until 1917 that the Women's National Bowling Association was founded so that women could play. Bowling equipment dating all the way back to 3200 BCE was discovered in Egyptian tombs! Penelope wonders if the ancient Egyptians had to wear other people's sandals to play.

Jitterbug has heard that dogs sweat through their noses and their paws. As a birb who doesn't sweat at all, that seems so weird! Penelope mentions that pigs don't sweat either. Jitterbug scratches their head. Then where does the term "sweat like a pig" come from? Penelope suspects that the idiom came from the process of smelting iron. Moisture would form in rivulets on the cooling slabs of iron, known as 'pig iron' way back in the old-timey days.

🎶 Baby let me show you how to do this

You've gotta move this

You're doin' fine

There's nothin' to it

You gotta groove it

Come on and move this🎶

https://youtu.be/2NbpHP0dDA0?si=WHdKCPrL6F27eaCe

Vibe is living up to his name. He's put forward a new song for the Rave Cave Playlist. It's a trance-y, house-y, ambient song called "Eagle Sprout" by Toronto-based Kinder Atom. It's just pure vibes for vibing out. Penelope closes her eyes and sways.

https://youtu.be/vIYE9VGbN14?si=7URhMzy0eVdVzBup

Wobbles is trying to, not befriend exactly, get along with the mean yellow cat. She thinks that maybe a gift would be appropriate. She paid a visit to Mr and Ms Beaver to see if they could take a twig that she'd found and turn it into a long, flexible stick. Then she tied a long bit of string to it. Penelope sees where she is going with this. She offers up a few of her loose tail feathers. Voila! Cat toy! Hopefully this will make the mean yellow cat a little less mean.

Bubby is relandscaping her garden. She would like to add a water feature like a fountain so she could take baths al fresco. Penelope can't help but think that this Al Fresco dude sounds kind of boring. A beautiful fountain and all it spouts is plain water?! She tries to convince Bubby to have a fountain that sprays bananas. Bananas are so much nicer than water! You could probably bathe in them if you try hard enough. Mmmmm, bananas....

Scout is really getting used to the idea of becoming an immunologist. Her latest class was about DRESS (Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms). It is an allergic reaction caused by many different medications. Eosinophils are blood cells associated with allergic diseases. High levels of eosinophils can cause rashes, fever, swelling and even organ failure. Any drug can cause DRESS but the most common are antibiotics and seizure meds. Penelope is so impressed with her very brainy friend ☺️

Merida is trying but she just cannot bring herself to like cucumbers. Penelope doesn't want her friend to do anything she doesn't want to do. A dislike of cucumbers is often genetic and can't be helped. Some people have a variation of the TAS2R38 gene, making them very sensitive to bitter things like cucurbitacins. Some people are averse to cucumbers because they think that cucumbers smell rotten or fishy. Sometimes it really is genetic predisposition! So eat what you like and don't force yourself to eat things you don't. That's just bad for you.

🎶Instead of carving up the wall

Why don't you open up with talk?

We are ready, we are ready for the floor

🎶

https://youtu.be/Ah\_QkwK4FY8?si=ZiWur3AcHoJcSYdh

​

We're off to a late start today as the heat here is unbearable. It's been in the 40's for the past few days. Penelope's human has been spending the day sitting in a cool bath, eating pizza. Old house + radiators = no central air 🥵. Penelope is melting in the heat.

Mizuki was practically busting the door down - someone's eager to shake her tail feathers in the cooling venue of a cave! She's been listening to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons - Summer. The adagio is still and stifling, mimicking the oppressive heat of a summer day like today. Then, a burst of high pitched, violin trills represent a violent swarm of mosquitoes and buzzing flies! The third movement erupts in a persistent frenzy of hungry biters that transitions into an angry summer cloudburst. Penelope feels itchy just hearing about it.

Potato is learning about some of their cousins. It saddens them to know that Dodos could not fly. Penelope suggests that they travel to Mauritius and teach the dodos what they know. Even though neither of them are great fliers themselves, perhaps they should team up and share their knowledge. Potato demonstrates their skills. They're coming along nicely. Penelope understands that it's been a minute since anyone has met a dodo, but she thinks that with enough gentleness and ice cream, they can coax the dodos out of hiding.

Pretty has just found out about jobs! A very officious duck was telling her about "climbing the corporate ladder". Is there a slide at the top? Is there a tree house at the top? Penelope hopes that there is a loft at the top and then you can jump down and land in a pile of hay. They both wonder what kind of ladder is "corporate". Maybe the duck meant cooperate? One birb holds the ladder while the other one climbs? That would make total sense! They make plans to climb the cooperate ladder tomorrow.

Dove can't imagine how dinosaurs play badminton. Their arms are so short! Penelope guesses that they hold the racquets in their mouths.

Noodle is warning everyone - the pigs are angry. Many years years back, there was some kind of birb vs pig war. Really mean birbs were stuffing pigs into slingshots and launching them at buildings. The destruction was appalling. The pigs ended up with a lot of injuries and trauma. Now the descendants of those pigs are out for revenge! Penelope tries to calm her friend. They are safe inside the Rave Cave. It is a well known fact that pigs cannot abide disco.

🎶 Moving on the floor now, babe, you're a bird of paradise

Cherry ice cream smile, I suppose it's very nice🎶

https://youtu.be/nTizYn3-QN0?si=jErSMQWare-g109f

I hope everyone is having a great day today! Stay safe and enjoy the bank holiday!

And if you are in southern Ontario, it's a scorcher with humidex values expected to rise to 43° 🥵 The holiday makes it harder to keep cool what with places like libraries being closed. If you're in Toronto, the ROM is not only open, but there's free admission today. The AGO is open too. Stay hydrated!

Poodia shows Penelope a newspaper clipping. Penelope is astonished. Who reads physical newspapers anymore?! But then she reads it and her beak drops open. There has been a rash of runaway merry-go-round horses! Carousels everywhere are emptying as their brightly coloured, bedecked horses are breaking free and leaping away on their striped poles. Poodia claps her wings together in excitement. Be free, beautifully painted ponies! Go live your lavishly adorned lives in whatever direction you want!

Trooper is selling tickets to his watermelon eating competition. He is chomping for charity! Funds go towards purchasing bells for feral cats and subsidising classes to defend one's pantry against greedy bears. Penelope will take ten!

🎶 Darlin’

Don’t got to worry you’re locked in tight

Darlin’

Now don’t you worry turn out the lights

🎶

https://youtu.be/TONPTpAdyGY?si=2aHlANeiL1Tn9qW2

Mizuki and Penelope are examining shapes. Penelope notes that a curved shape is very relaxing as it reminds her of hills and winding streams and nature. She wonders if magnets are curved to make them prettier and more pleasing to hold. Mizuki thinks for a minute. "A magnet's shape is actually practical. It bends the north and south poles so that the distance between them decreases, thus increasing, strengthening, and focussing the magnetic fields. However, the bent shape does make it comfortable to hold." Penelope nods sagely, "That would explain why bananas are curved too. It concentrates and focusses the banana flavour. It's why they're so good and why they can make anything and everything taste like banana." Mizuki smiles at her food obsessed friend. "Well the sun plays a big part in that too. It's called negative geotropism. They start by growing pointing down on the bunch. Then when the sun shines on the outer side of the fruit, it starts to bend itself towards the light, making the inner side grow slower and become shorter. So the banana grows curved outwards." " And then", cheeps Penelope, "the two ends focus and concentrate the banana flavour!"

Noodle has read that salmon need to go back to their home town to get married and have children. But many of them live in vast oceans when they were born in small streams. How do they find their way home again? Penelope says that, like birbs, they use the earths magnetic field to find the river that they came from. Then, unlike birbs, they use smell to pinpoint their old home stream. Noodle wonders what they are smelling. She's has heard that fish don't smell nice but if they all smell like fish, how would they tell the difference?

Pretty is sharing a funny memory with Penelope. She was giving a presentation to a group of Very Serious and Impressive Birbs. It was quite nerve wracking. Then she noticed that one of the VSaIB was wearing jeans! And his fly was down! 😂 She didn't feel quite so intimidated after that and the rest of her presentation went off without a hitch.

Nutmeg is totally freaked out by owls. Not only do many of them belong to the Society of Very Serious and Impressive Birbs, they can turn their heads nearly all the way around ! Like, more than a 180°! That's creepy 😱 Plus they don't make any noise when they fly. You'll never hear them coming. Plus plus, the way they stare at you is just plain unacceptable. Like, gawk much?! Penelope has never met an owl and now she's pretty certain that she doesn't want to.

Birby is examining a world map. He asks Penelope if she's ever heard of this thing called "the world wide web". Apparently it stretches out to cover everything everywhere but Birby has never seen it. He's afraid of getting caught in it. Penelope thinks it's something like the 'interwebs'. It's invisible and it's not for catching birbs. It's for catching information. Then you can look at the web and get whatever information you need. She just used it to find out about high altitude pickling. Birby is relieved to know that he won't be trapped in the world wide web. But he's still peering at the sky to see if he he can spy it.

🎶 Ooh (Ooh), fallin' free, fallin' free, fallin' free, fallin' free

Fallin' free

Ooh (Ooh), you and me, you and me, you and me, you and me

You and me

🎶

https://youtu.be/yEbaeLv-aOo?si=f5Ztd8bsiQXBTS4I

Wobbles was hanging around with some horses and made a startling discovery! Horses don't like to live alone. They will often have cats or goats as roommates. They're called barn buddies and they help a horse feel less anxious. Penelope is delighted. How nice of the cats and goats to provide mental health care for their horse friends!

Scout attended a karaoke party. It was for a rhinoceros' birthday. The rhino in question was so big and fierce looking. Scout thought he was going to sing something like "Raise Your Horns" by Amon Amarth. But he surprised her with his sensitive rendition of Tom Petty's "Rhino Skin". It was a very pleasant reminder about books and their covers 😊

Kale was offered a sip of wine at a fancy gathering. Ick! He did not like it at all! Is it wrong to expect something that was allegedly made of grape juice to taste sweet? So someone, looking down his nose at him, said that perhaps some sparkling cold duck would suit his palate more? So Kale took a little sip of that instead. Delicious! And so, like any fan of the '70s, Kale took his bottle of sparkling cold duck to the disco to share with his groovy friends.

Bert Bert has a dilemma. Like all birbs, she loves fruit. And grapes are one of her favourites! They are so sweet and juicy! They come in convenient portions! They are cheap and plentiful! But they are very sugary and have enough acidity that they can erode tooth enamel. But also, they have polyphenol compounds that can fight oral bacteria that lead to plaque buildup. Penelope just stares at her. Birbs don't have teeth. Bert Bert pats her beak in confusion. So what exactly are teeth and why doesn't she have them?

Pickle picks up a seashell and puts it to her ear. She's been told that you can hear the entire ocean in a single shell. She is surprised to hear a voice hollering at her to put him down. Penelope tries to listen too. She can't hear much beyond a lot of naughty words. Pickle drops the shell in horror. Who knew molluscs were so foul mouthed?

🎶The last days of the sunset superstars

Girls in cages playin' their guitars

But how can I leave?

I just follow the hood of my car, oh, ah-ah

🎶

https://youtu.be/h9TlaYxoOO8?si=8005AgVeNT-tBM\_t

Floof reports that Raven has been feeling a bit salty lately about a silly superstition that claims she is a bad omen. Penelope wants to know who the heck started such a ridiculous rumour when historically, black cats are an extremely positive symbol. Floof shrugs her confusion too. After all, the ancient Egyptians worshipped cats in general but black cats in particular represented protection and the home. In Japan, black cats are extremely auspicious, bringing love and fortune along with them. Ireland also believes a black cat is a companion to the goddess Brigid and foretells a windfall. They both vow to search for Raven and cheer her up. Does she like to shake it too?

Jitterbug, overhearing that bats have wings too, wonders why they've never seen one. Penelope tells them that bats are asleep during the day and wake up right around when birbs are going to bed. The only birbs that ever really meet bats are owls. But maybe if Jitterbug goes out on a cloudy day they'll see a bat. A heavy layer of clouds can mimic twilight and trick the bats into waking up during the day. Jitterbug thinks about it. Normally on cloudy days, they prefer to stay indoors and turn all the lights on. But the possibility of befriending a bat is very tempting indeed.

Dove was flying her kite the other day when a rogue gust of wind blew her kite way, way, way away! She accidentally let go of the string and her kite ended up going high into the sky and then crashed down in a tree. Unfortunately, it landed in the front door of a stranger birb's tree house and broke a window. So now she has to spend the next few days days helping to fix it. Happily, the stranger birb didn't seem to be mad about the mishap so perhaps she'll just end up making a new friend.

Vibe wonders what the heck is up with bears! They come snuffling around, eating all the seeds and the fruits and the nuts. They even eat the beetles and the ants. Some of them will climb trees so tree houses aren't even safe from their greedy, ransacking ways. Friggin' bears.

Morrigan somehow befriended a Grey seal. She had some difficulty communicating with it though. She would cheep sweetly and the seal would hoarsely bark back. She couldn't understand a syllable. Maybe its throat was sore? It lives in very cold water. She gave the seal a cozy scarf to protect its throat. She'll return for another visit in a week and see if things improve.

🎶Swallowing diamonds, a cutting throat

Your teeth when you grin reflecting beams on tombstones

A jamboree of surprises, playing Russian roulette or the Lucky Dip

A clenched fist to your heart, coal dust on your lungs

🎶

https://youtu.be/CZrCzTgUe2M?si=ODVABvASoUGOETX-

Booty shakers! We're back after a month of app induced absence. But it seems like the devs listened to our woes and came through. No more lag (on my phone at least)! So let's not waste time while we get down on it!

Amalie is absolutely enamoured with vegetables. She cannot get enough of them. Growing season has her in raptures! Above the din of the disco beat, she tries to sing a song she heard about vegetables, penned by a fellow veggie lover. Penelope can't quite hear her but what she does catch sounds kind of weird: https://youtu.be/YBVupMMBi7I?si=ATL\_5fe4LtgD0GTm

Merida is keeping her eye on the clock. She is anxious to know what time it is in Hawaii. Penelope does some quick math in her head. "Well, Hawaii is about six hours behind us and it's nearly 5:00 here... so I guess it's around 11 - ish in Hawaii?" Merida claps her wings in excitement. "That means the shave ice stands are open in Hawaii now! We can go have some!" Penelope is confused. Why not just have shave ice in the morning or whenever? Merida only wants to eat it on island time. Penelope unwittingly makes things worse: "Do we have to wait until night time here to eat bingsu when the Korean shops open?" Merida buries her face in her wings. She just wants a cold, refreshing treat.

Penelope wonders if wild boars are the pigs' grans, and mammoths are the elephants' grans, are pigs and elephants related? Both sets of grans have tusks and long snouts after all. Bubby says that's just an example of convergent evolution. It's the independent development of similar features in very different species. Like how both bats and birbs both developed wings, but bats are mammals while birbs are.... birbs. Not only are elephants not related to pigs, but elephants don't have any really recent relatives. The closest genetic relative of theirs is the manatee and they split off about 50 million years ago. Penelope wonders if the elephants feel lonely.

Waffle was watching a game of badminton. It was very exciting! So fast paced! There is also a bird that features very prominently in the game. Penelope has never heard of badminton but likes how the word feels in her beak. Waffle's eyes shine as she recounts how the game is about two people with racquets trying to keep a bird in flight. The bird must be very quick and agile. She must fly over a net, back and forth, while the player on each side tries to block her path. As soon as she encounters a block, she must quickly turn and fly in the other direction. The first player that she evades is the loser. Waffle is inspired to work on her flight skills and become an Olympic badminton birdie.

Pebble is going to try making pickles. However, he has heard that elevation affects the pickling process. Apparently, the higher up the you are, the longer it takes to make them. Penelope does some quick googling. Evidently, if you live at over 1000 feet up high you have to boil the jars for longer. Pebble looks down at his little feets. His house is in the topmost branch of a very tall tree and if he walked vertically right up the trunk, it would certainly take more than one thousand steps. Then he has an idea! Perhaps he can get one of his bunny friends to make them. The bunnies live below the ground so maybe it will take them less time to boil the jars!

🎶Her weapons were her crystal eyes/

Making every man mad/

Black as the dark night, she was/

Got what no one else had

🎶

https://youtu.be/d4-1ASpdT1Y?si=ALnSRe5zLb8sQ\_97

I think, but am not certain, that it's Floof's human's birthday today! Or not...

If it is indeed Floof's human's birthday, Happy Birthday Floof's human! And Happy Solstice!

If it is not Floof's human's birthday, Happy Solstice anyway! And Happy Birthday month? And Happy Anyways Day because Floof's human is fun and awesome anyways regardless of when her birthday is! 🎂🎉🎁

Penelope recounts Goldilocks' adventure. While she enjoys taking naps at her friends' houses even when they are not at home, she thinks that napping and snacking at a stranger's house is asking for trouble. Floof nods enthusiastically, "You just don't now how people will take it and what if their snacks are bad? Plus, who wants to nap in a bear's bed let alone three bears' beds? You'd wake up covered in bear hair. Gross! And probably itchy too!"

Are daily affirmations back?

I got this upon opening the app this morning. So happy! I've really missed them!

Floof has invited Penelope out for dim sum. Penelope is so excited - dumplings are just so yummy! She is so happy to park her fluffy butt in a comfy chair and eat har gow, siu mai, chai tow kway, xiao long bao, lo mai gai, guo tie, and then mango sago, chestnut soup, and grass jelly. All her favourites! And best of all, sharing with her bestie, Floof!

Jitterbug and Penelope are talking about holidays. Penelope wonders if there is a holiday or celebration that is worldwide. Jitterbug knows the answer right away. "Harvest celebrations!" they say, excitedly. Harvest celebrations are ancient, going all the way back to the origin of agriculture. They are observed globally to demonstrate gratitude for nature’s gifts, mark the end of the agricultural year, and pray for future bounty. It is the basis of Thanksgiving, Oktoberfest, Lammas, the Moon festival, Chuseok, Pongal, Lohri, Sukkot, Homowo, and the New Yam Festival and many more. Penelope nods enthusiastically. Any celebration in honour of more food is her favourite.

Frankie has been curious about medical advances lately. She tells Penelope that we have spiders to thank. In ancient Rome and Greece, spider webs would be used to dress wounds. These days we use gauze in the same way. However, spiders are still contributing to health care! Spider silk is incredibly strong, flexible, and because it elicits very little immune response, the body rarely rejects it. Biomedical engineers have successfully recreated and modified spider silk proteins to create biodegradable bandages. They can help heal difficult injuries like diabetic skin lesions and joint swelling without causing painful inflammation. These scientists have developed fully biocompatible sutures for tissue and nerve regeneration. Spiders are our friends!

StellaBlu had a terribly uncomfortable flight. She was stuck for hours on a flight from Thailand in an airplane seat that was broken. None of the electronics worked. Plus there was turbulence! She didn't get any sleep at all. It was like riding an angry water buffalo for 19 hours through a field filled with gopher holes. Penelope says that they should practice their flapping. They need to get strong enough to not rely on airplanes for getting to distant places. Does StellaBlu need a practice buddy?

Mochie is warning all of her friends - if you are going to sit or lie down outside, please wear pants! While a grasshopper can jump high, it cannot jump directly up your butt. Grasshoppers are not burrowing insects and lack the anatomy or desire to enter the body.However, if you are sitting or lying down pantsless, it is physically possible for an insect to land on or near your body and crawl inside if there's nothing in their way. Wearing pants or sitting on a chair makes this practically impossible. Penelope wonders why Mochie is suddenly so passionate about this.

Dove watched a movie called "Tremors". It stars Kevin Bacon as a guy who battles giant, prehistoric worms to save his town. The worms are blind and sense their human prey via tremors in the ground. When they sense a tasty human, they erupt from the ground, their faces explode with tentacles, they drag their hapless victims under the sand, and then they monch. One of Penelope's favourite foods is worms. Her tummy rumbles.

🎶I know a guy who's tough, but sweet

He's so fine, he can't be beat

He's got everything that I desire

Sets the summer sun on fire

🎶

https://youtu.be/JoXVYSV4Xcs?si=\_lr2\_e2GmM\_UuY1l

​

Vibe is planning a birthday party for her friend George. What kind of cake would he like? Penelope thinks perhaps banana cupcakes with mango icing. Vibe says that monkeys don't really eat bananas normally. They prefer leaves and nuts and seeds and fruits and bugs. Mightn't George prefer a Brazil nut cake with grape icing and caterpillar ice cream? Penelope says that sounds lovely but secretly swears that she would never eat that. She hates grapes.

Amalie has had camels on her mind for some reason. She's heard that they can drink salt water as well as fresh water! Is that why they are so thirsty? They can chug 200 litres all at once! But what do they do if they're not anywhere close to an ocean or a lake? Penelope guesses that camels could go to the store and buy juice as long as the store has 200 litres of juice in stock.

Penelope recently watched the movie "Babe". She asks Mizuki how much of the movie is true. Mizuki is delighted to share her knowledge! She tells Penelope that sheep are incredibly loyal to their flock (or clan). They are highly social and form close emotional bonds with their flock. They experience distress when separated from their herd. They really are true to their fleece, their breed, and their clan. Ba Ram Ewe!

Potato is interested in medicine, particularly vaccinology. Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) is where children experience a sudden, dramatic onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or tic disorders immediately following a strep infection. It is believed to be caused by an immune response where antibodies mistake the brain for strep bacteria and attack it. Fortunately, it is curable. There is currently no vaccine for strep, yet it is highly contagious and is one of the most deadly pathogens out there. Will Potato become an immunologist? Let's cheer Potato on!

Merida wonders if birds can play musical instruments even though they dont have hands or fingers. She decides to do some research. What she finds astonishes her! Palm cockatoos are not only skilled drummers, they make their own instruments. They can actually bend and sculpt twigs to make their own drumsticks. They will find seedpods that make their own preferred tone when struck. Some birbs in the parrot family can be taught by humans to play stringed instruments by plucking with their beaks too. Penelope has a sudden epiphany of why her banjo lessons are not going as well as she'd hoped.

🎶This hit, that ice cold

Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold

This one for them hood girls

Them good girls, straight masterpieces

Stylin', wilin', livin' it up in the city

Got Chucks on with Saint Laurent

Gotta kiss myself, I'm so pretty

🎶

https://youtu.be/OPf0YbXqDm0?si=JStjxRyLq0\_aEyZd

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Birdly has been observing humans and examining some of their strange artifacts. He wonders what keys are for. Penelope seems to remember that they had some keys for the Halloween mystery. "I think it's for keeping people out of another person's house. It makes the door impossible to open",says Birdly. Penelope can't imagine keeping another birb out of her house. She loves when she gets visitors! Some of her best naps and snacks have been at her friends' houses when they've been out adventuring.

Speaking of unexpected visitors, Scout had one of her own recently. She went camping and one night, as she lay asleep in her tent, a wild turkey barged in! It just waddled in like it owned the place and gobbled crossly at her. Sleepily, Scout just rolled over and ignored that grumpy, weird birb. I guess you run into all the kinds in the forest.

Bubby has entered the All Avian Affection Awards. Participants are judged by the quality of their hugs. Criteria are duration, sincerity, warmth, and tenacity vs looseness. Penelope has great faith in her friend's hugging abilities and knows that she'll end up being the GOAT.

Last night Morrigan was in Penelope's dream. Penelope dreamt that she was at Morrigan's house just sitting around and taking about whatever. Suddenly a wild, completely out of control Halloween party erupted without warning. There was loud music, strobe lights, and a few birbs in costume. "What's going on?" asked Penelope. "Oh I just decided to have a Halloween party and I invited everyone" cheeped Morrigan. Penelope looked around. "Who is 'everyone'? There are only three or four of us here". "Oh," said Morrigan, "the rest are all ghosts." Then dream Penelope just accepted that as if that were the most normal thing ever.

Penelope can't remember what the last car on an old-timey train is called. Vibbles cheeps, "it's the caboose! It was like the anchor. It was used as the business office of the train where they could do paperwork and track freight. Also, the crew would sleep in the caboose and use it as living quarters on really long trips. The conductor could also monitor the train's equipment and freight cars more easily from the caboose. These days, trains use electronics to monitor train equipment, and use less staff so the caboose isn't really needed anymore." Vibbles is so smart!

🎶You can look, but you can't touch

I don't think I like you much

Heaven knows what a girl can do

Heaven knows what you've got to prove

🎶

https://youtu.be/ypr18UmxOas?si=O6dwX\_sFMozbRPtF