Several years ago, or more, my friend Bernie and I travelled to Florida on a short vacation. We visited friends in Clermont and Homestead, explored the Keys and edges of the Everglades, visited the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Edison and Ford summer homes in Fort Myers, Disneyland in Orlando and Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay.
At Busch Gardens we rode the Tanganyiki Tidal Wave and the Serengeti Railroad. We were in an open car on the railroad as we made the rounds of the Serengeti Plain. We sat opposite one another. We had only two companions, an elderly man and his articulate wife, who were seated in front of us. She commented with great erudition on everything she saw or imagined she saw.
Passing a prominent mound containing a troop of red-ass baboons, she turned to her husband and exclaimed: "Those are not what I was looking for. Those are baboons. We missed the orangutans!" She was clearly upset. Her pronunciation was so precise and perfectly clear that I immediately thought of deceased TV personality and actress Eve Arden, star of Our Miss Brooks.
I got her attention and quickly pointed at my friend Bernie and said, "Here's one!"
Sitting sideways in her seat, she motioned to her stoic husband, raised her arm and then pointed at Bernie and me.
"Look, dear, two orangutans, and one of them speaks English!"
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