just follow the cat

8th Data Point: it's easy to distract monkeys

from the beginning of time (including February 18th)

all through Baltimore City

aNd SO i saY to yOu...

Monkeys aren't known for their patience.

Put two of them together and it's hard to keep both monkeys focused on anything for very long. Three is even more difficult. But gather a million of them and put them in front of rickety old typewriters and soon enough you'll see a total breakdown of order. In the fractions of seconds between random keystrokes, the million monkeys began to sense that something special was happening around them. Though they were too busy typing to see it, plants (all through Baltimore) were being fooled by the changing temperatures. Trees budded. Bulbs sprouted. Grasses began to stir. Vines, however, were the first to be taken in by the ruse.

Ivy, sumac, and wisteria that had been dormant all winter suddenly displayed the first pale green blush of spring. Like the newest of new lovers, vines crave that shrill uneven warmth that disrupts the most desperate days of winter. They climb posts and poles and trunks of trees in order to glimpse that low-angled sun. They risk everything to be the first in line. To be the longest. The highest. The most profound lover of life. Yet, in a foolish February spring, they climb too high too fast and are left bare and unprotected during the final stubborn days of frost that certainly lie ahead.

But while those vines stretch toward the sun, there is still hope. It is the hope of the Lover's Moon. And had it not been for the minty aroma rising from the basement of Louie's Bookstore and Café, all that hopefulness might have prevailed. But then, one monkey looked up. In a half second, two more smelled that delicious aroma and they, too, were distracted. Soon, all one million monkeys looked around at the beauty of this false February spring.

...and then (very soon) (very very soon) they would forget to keep typing.

> = <