Dallas Observer 1/1/09 Column on Jenny & Bea Arthur's Support. Cross Post Please

January 2, 2009

Please thank the Dallas Observer or better yet, post a comment on Mr. Wilonsky's column in support of Jenny's retirement to The Elephant Sanctuary. I had to mail him Ms. Arthur's letter as I do not have a scanner, so watch for his post of Bea Arthur's letter. I am sure everyone joins me in appreciation of Ms. Arthur's valiant support of Jenny's retirement to the sanctuary. Ms. Arthur actually wrote her letter to Dallas City Council a couple of months ago, but it was just now picked up by the media. I am so glad that it was. I have always admired Ms. Arthur's talented performances and now, I have even more reason to do so.

Be sure to watch CBS News with Katie Couric tonight as she will feature The Elephant Sanctuary. Margaret

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/01/and_then_theres_maude.php

And Then There's Maude

Thu Jan 01, 2009 at 01:58:08 PM bea-arthur-73.jpg src="http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/assets_c/2009/01/bea-arthur-73-thumb-200x301.jpg" width=200>Meet the new year, same as the old year -- at least when it comes to a certain resident of the Dallas Zoo. I so totally meant to make it out to the zoo this morning for the 11 a.m. Concerned Citizens for Jenny press

conference (no kidding, 11 a.m.), but a two-houses-down wedding-slash-New Year's Eve party that lasted till the wee small hours made that rather, ah, inconvenient. So instead, this hangover announcement as we speak of reruns: Bea Arthur's the latest celeb to petition City Hall on Jenny the Elephant's behalf, insisting in a missive to Mayor Tom that she be moved to the sanctuary in Tennessee, the subject of a CBS Evening News segment tomorrow. Lily Tomlin, of course, did the same thing -- before shooting a PSA, addressing the Dallas City Council and performing at a Save Jenny benefit.We'll post Arthur's letter later in the day as an update to this item, right before I submit it to the Pulitzer committee. But the Concerned Citizens aren't done fighting City Hall -- especially not after a recently released study revealed that "a zoo might be the least safe place in the world" for elephants, as Time put it. One word of caution to zoo officials: Do not piss off Oklahoma's Rue McClanahan. Valerie Harper, dunno about. But, really, Bea Arthur

and the end of the holiday season can mean only one thing. Jump, why don't you, as I reconsider my priorities for the newly minted annum. --Robert Wilonsky