Ah, the long Easter weekend. When people freak out on Thursday and Saturday at the thought of the shops being closed the very next day. Well-stocked on bread products I felt confident that I was going to survive a day without the supermarket. I don’t need much anyway. I consist pretty much entirely of atoms that were once part of cheese sandwiches, coffee, or choc – OH NO!!! It was Friday, and there I was, without chocolate.
As luck would have it, Toronto’s 24-hour economy is prepared for moments like this, and the drug store down the street (which sells more and better chocolate than the supermarket) wasn’t closed but just had stricter hours. Instead of 7AM to midnight it was only open from 10 AM to midnight.
The Easter aisle looked more “Eastern Bloc” than “Easter Weekend”, with some shelves entirely empty and others displaying sad disabled chocolate animals: de-belled Lindt bunnies, beheaded mini-lambs, or scrambled chocolate eggs.
But there were still lots of Chocolate Penguins! And they were much cheaper than the bunnies, too! Penguins have as little to do with Easter as bunnies do, and even more with eggs, so the choice was obvious
The penguins came in a box with lots of geeky facts. Did you know that the scientific name for the Emperor Penguin is Aptenodytes forsteri? And that they weigh between 20 and 45 kg (44 to 99 lbs)? And that the Antarctic can have air temperatures as low as -88 degrees Celcius (-126 F)? It’s all on the box!
Did you know that chocolate penguins taste delicious?
Well, feel for those south of you who are consuming gefilte fish balls at this time (Passover) instead of chocolatey….penguins that are also educational (?!!)
Did they mention the threats to chocolate penguins due to global warming and over-exploitation? Dark days indeed for these species.
Did you know that the scientific name for the Emperor Penguin is Aptenodytes forsteri? And that they weigh between 20 and 45 kg (44 to 99 lbs)? And that the Antarctic can have air temperatures as low as -88 degrees Celcius (-126 F)?
Eva, is there any real info (where the big Emperor colonies are, how they live, what they eat, current threats etc.) on the box as well, or just ‘trivia’? What an opportunity for some science education!
And the cholocate looks much more appealing than this of course…
Too much chocolate?
Your pictures confirm my long-held suspicion that the eyes of Aptenodytes forsteri were crafted not by Intelligent Design but by Walt Disney.
Steffi, all the facts were on the little icebergs, in English and French (so only half the text is fact, the rest is repeated). They were very short trivia things, but it did mention what they eat (fish and squid) and how they court and how they divide their family duties. That part of it was really badly written, though. Very dry. It’s for kids, but they used the words “male penguin” and “abdominal folds”.
It’s for kids, but they used the words “male penguin” and “abdominal folds”
Kids should at least know the words male and female! ‘Daddy penguin’ and ‘mommy penguin’ just don’t work. The abdominal fold is more difficult… can’t really say ‘they have a roll of flab on their belly that they stick the babies under’ – the visual of that is sure to freak kids out (well, at least it would freak me out)…
“abdominal folds” freaks me out!
I was thinking “father” would be casual and appropriate enough for the 9-12 age range it seems to be aimed at. Maybe even better, because they’re not just talking about any male penguins, but only the ones with kids.