The Nutty World of Monkeys and Coincidence?

Spitter, oldest chimpanzee in
southern hemisphere, dies at
Sydney’s Taronga Zoo

The Infinite Monkey Cage/Puzzle
... and UFOs?

The Science of Serendipity and Synchronicity?

I couldn't help laughing when I saw these two stories in the March 4th, 2022 Courier Mail newspaper side by side about peanut allergies and the death of the oldest chimp in the southern hemisphere, even though the death of the chimp I also thought was sad, because it triggered a memory of my one and only visit to the same zoo in the early 80s with my then to be wife/ex-wife where I saw a chimp (maybe it was even Spitter herself) pulling peanuts out of their own faeces and eating them:-P

I don't have any pictures of the chimps, so I guess I'll never know if it was her, but she was probably there somewhere on the day hopefully exhibiting better table manners than the chimp I saw ... and can never un-see again.

I do have a picture of a tiger the zoo had in a rather small cage that was going round and round in circles.

My Life of Pi

The tiger at Taronga Park Zoo circa early 80s

At the time I had never seen a real-life tiger that close to my meat suit and took the photo to brag how close I had been to a real tiger ... that was behind solid bars going slowly crazy though.

But reading that Spitter the chimp was born on July 1st, 1960, I couldn't help thinking that monkey shared a birthday with Lady Di and Richard Dolan and was older than the three of us, who weren't even born yet ... just.

I just found out that Richard Dolan turns 60 this year, which means that he was born in the Year of the Water Tiger like Steve Irwin was -

2022, Australia Zoo and the Year of the [Water] Tiger?

Richard Dolan Shares July 1st With Lady Di When it Comes to Birthdays?

Talk about coincidence?-)

But the weird thing is I was born in the Year of the Dragon and I went down to Sydney the weekend of my zoo visit to watch my footy team the Sharks take on our archrivals the St. George Dragons (founded on my birthday weirdly enough) at the Sydney Cricket Ground, because I had never been to the Sydney Cricket Ground before in my life back then ... and the Sharks won that game, even though the Dragons were favourites to win on the day:-)

My view at the SCG Sharks v Dragons

Sharks vs Dragons at the SCG in the 80s

The Ironic thing was that I would have to wait just over half a century of my life to see my beloved Sharks win their first ever NRL premiership trophy and that wouldn't happen until 2016 the 

Year of the Monkey a few weeks after my own father would pass away in my 52nd year wearing this Earthly meat-suit.

Shane Warne was 52 when he died in the Year of the Water Tiger and he made his debut for the Australian Cricket team and played his last game at the SCG, too ... not that I ever saw him play live, as I don't like that sport.

But in hindsight I see that my father passed away in 2016 on Shane's birthday and that the Spitter the chimp story appeared in the March 4th, 2022, Courier Mail newspaper, the day that Shane would pass away.

The March 4th paper the monkey story was in

Goodnight Shane?

So, while life can leave a s#it taste in your mouth at times, it can be rather nutty too:-) 

Let's hope that we aren't really descended from chimps who pick peanuts out of their poo and eat them:-p

Shark Week in the Year of the Monkey