Wellington, Edward and Annie lived a quiet life. It would be considered very confined, really, in their small place. While there were lots of people around, they didn't get to go lots of places. They were stuck where they were because where they were was the Chicago Shedd Aquarium.
Then the pandemic came. Living in an Aquarium, it was suddenly quiet, and it was really isolated. The caretakers thought that Wellington and his friends might take a field trip through the aquarium. And this would give some publicity to the aquarium during the quiet times of 2020. It turned out to be tremendously popular, and Wellington, the penguin, became a star.
There are a number of YouTube videos and Wellington with the Beluga whale and the otters is great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAEu8DPq2-YThere's another episode of the three of them walking through the theatre aisles. Penguins are really fun to watch. Everything they do is cute.
It turns out that Wellington may be the oldest living penguin at over 33 years, and that he's distinctive for contributing to medicine having had cataract surgery. Here are a few screen shots that show what made this so compelling to us - pandemic or no pandemic, this is photogenic material.
I also saw a subsequent episode with them visiting Soldier Field, and running through the grass. Given that was 2020, I would expect there might be well over a dozen now. How many places has Wellington been now?
Our picture of the day is a pastel Calla Lily portrait.
What were the best April Fool's jokes in the news yesterday? According to the bbq they included
1. Trump buys Irish high-rise
If you believe the Irish Times, Dublin is to get its very own "Trump Tower". "Trump Dublin is expected to be completed by the end of 2018," it exclusively revealed.
Extra credit should go to whoever completed the joke with a fake tweet from Donald Trump: "Bought a small tower in Dublin, Ireland. We are going to build an awesome hotel in Dublin. It will be totally great. Love Ireland! Great country! #trumpdublin".
2. Russian hackers on demand
Inspired by claims that Kremlin-sponsored hackers tried to rig the US election, Russia's foreign ministry shared "a new answering machine for Russian diplomatic missions abroad" on Facebook.
3. Germany to go GMT
The scamps at the UK's German embassy tweeted that Germans would shortly vote to "leave, or remain in" Central European Time (CET). "A replica of the Shepherd Gate Clock in Greenwich would be placed atop the World Time Clock in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, in a frivolous symbolic gesture," the writer deadpanned.
The clues were there for linguists, however - the surname of the "government spokesperson" quoted - Frau Sommerzeit - translates as "Summertime".
Our images today were the two that placed in last month's betterphoto contest - the Magnolias were second place, and the calla lily a finalist.
From Betterphoto: With over 3900 entries in the contest, it is a big honor to be selected among the winners.
