Terrapin Runway


Fertile-ly, turtle-ly
Diamondback Terrapins
Took to the runways, in
Order to mate;

Flights were delayed, due to
Testudinoidea—
Love conquers all, so they
Just had to wait

It’s happened before, and it happened again yesterday; around 150 turtles (terrapins, really) halted landings at one JFK runway. This year, the JFK turtles are even on Twitter.

But really, I just posted this so I could quote one of my favorite Ogden Nash poems, “The Turtle” (actually, I have heard that Nash’s estate has had a great deal of trouble with people stealing his work and posting it without permission, so I’ll just let you follow the link. It’s very brief–4 lines–and charming, if you don’t already know).

And yes, the title of this post is a Grateful Dead reference.

Comments

  1. says

    buddy you just reminded me of those great early 90's years when i was a Deahead. Thanks. I hope that the turtles on the runway are OK. they are OK, aren't they. Awesome buddy.KRiss

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