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Sandra Boynton is an American illustrator best known for her book Hippos Go Berserk; published in 1977, it was wildly successful, in part because Boynton's beady-eyed behemoths are so recognizable. Rendered with only a few simple lines, for forty plus years her hippos have graced calendars and coffee mugs, T-shirts and totes, and they're still loved today by kids eight to eighty.
Real hippos, however, are far less lovable and can even be quite aggressive, at times. In Africa, they kill an estimated 500 people a year. And that’s on their turf, where living conditions are hippo-optimal.
Just think how cranky hippos might be, accustomed as they are to quiet crocodiles and placid giraffes, if they somehow turned up in South America, amongst squawking parrots and howler monkeys.
There are, in fact, a fair number of hippos who call South America home. These relocated residents live in a town called Doradal, roughly one
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Pop quiz, hotshot! What holiday features revellers dressed in fancy costumes, all enjoying wild parties, treats, parades, festive decorations, lots of fun -- aside from a handful of religious weirdos who hate the holiday with all their might and want to have it banned? Yes, of course it's Pride -- but it's also Halloween! And a lot of things that make Halloween popular are why some LGBTQ people call Halloween "gay Christmas."
A lot of this is because Halloween was one of the rare holidays where
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“Tact is the ability to step on a man's toes without messing up the shine on his shoes.”
-- Harry S. Truman
The idiom step on toes usually means to unintentionally offend someone by encroaching on their territory, challenging their authority, or trespassing on their rights. It implies doing something that is their responsibility or prerogative and seizing their power. Remember: To step on their
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