Mr Mascellani's Musings

Watching Wild Things

You can call me a nerd if you wish, but I have to admit, I love to watch wildlife documentaries - sitting or lying on the lounge with appropriate snack foods and drinks for the season. I guess it is, partly, because I associate wildlife documentaries with the weekend TV shows I watched as a child.

I remember those days, The family all the kitchen table, eating meals such as roast chicken, potatoes,corn, peas, drinks desert, coffee- wonderful. Sometimes there may have been an argument or two but, otherwise things were fine.


Then it would be up on and off into the lounge room, for we kids to watch tv shows such as like such as World Championship Wrestling, Green Acres i>The Many Loves of Dobie Gilis, ("Work?!??!!!"). And movies starring Abbott and Costello, FrancisThe Talking Mule, The Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, and of course Marlin Perkins' Wild Kingdom.


"To night on Wild Animal Kingdom, we take a look at the Os-tralian Gay-lar (Galah) this beautiful bird with its bright pink plumage is one of the wonders of the ossie bush. (Dramatic pause) but what's that in that tree? "It's a feral Ossie bush cat!- a predator who preys on the gay-lar."

Another connection, of a different sort, may be my fondness "Mafia" films and shows (The Godfather, Sopranos, etc) I am no too sure what the nature of the connection might be. But have you ever noticed that there is usually some scene where the "Don" or some other gangster is watching a wildlife documentaryon TV? It's probably got something to do with the concepts of 'the survival of the fittest' and the law of the jungle. Watching dangerous things from a safe distance.

"Oh, look! the Ossie bush cat has caught the gay-lar."