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Photo by Jeff Watts
Oct. 31, 2006  This campus trick-or-treater may not have been bone chilling, but at least he was chilling—and the treats were on him. A six-foot penguin invaded the Asbury Building and surrounding areas last Wednesday to pass out gummy penguins to any students, faculty, and staff members who didn’t run away screaming.
“I really feel comfortable here at American University, except that eagle keeps giving me hungry looks,” the penguin said. “I’m not too sure what to do about him, but I can swim faster than him, so I’m going to stay close to the pool.” The Antarctica native has been braving AU’s mascot to visit the university for several years now, said its alter-ego, language and foreign studies professor Jack Child. Researching and teaching Latin American history first interested Child in the penguin’s homeland, which is claimed by Chile and Argentina, among other countries. Having visited Antarctica a dozen times, he developed a connection with penguins he sees as perfectly natural. “They are connected with humans in many ways,” he said. “Penguins are one of the only other animals that walk upright . . . They’re also highly social; they argue; they have love triangles”—and if that isn’t enough—“when you look at them walking, you get this funny image of a little drunk man in a tuxedo.” —MG |
