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28 November 2005 — Darth Vader vs. a Herd of Goats (5)
There are suddenly lots of people who want to see Darth Vader play with goats. When you're finished, you may want to read my review of Attack of the Clones (I hated it); read my rant on why Star Wars sucks; check out my memories of growing up with Star Wars as part of the Star Wars generation; read why I like the new Battlestar Galactica; or, perhaps, learn the things I didn't like about the Lord of the Rings films.

I had a real entry planned for today, but this image (from an out-of-control thread on Metafilter) has me busting my gut so that I cannot write:


I know that's a lot of bandwidth, but it's worth it.

Let me catch my breath...

Lest you think it's only Darth Vader who has such power over goats, here's the undoctored image in which you can see that even umbrellas strike fear into the heart of these tiny ungulates:


Oh, lordy, my side aches.

I also liked this image from the same thread:


I'll have to post my "what I did over Thanksgiving weekend" stories tomorrow (assuming I stop laughing by then).

On this day at foldedspace.org

2006 — The Long and Winding Road   In which I wait and wait and wait and wait for my new computer to ship from Apple.


Comments
On 28 November 2005 (08:01 PM), Lisa said:

Actually, I think that the umbrella movie is even funnier than the Darth one. The idea of goats falling over for an umbrella is completely hilarious.


On 28 November 2005 (10:55 PM), Will said:

Were we talking about this the other night?
There was something on TV with a kid doing almost the exact same thing, just with less goats. Marla and I must have re-watched the scene 10 times. I just couldn't turn away.

I now cast my vote for Kris to purchase a goat at the next county fair just so that we can test this first hand at Rosing's Farm. Yes! The ownership of livestock upgrades you from park to farm.

I declare goat launching season open!


On 29 November 2005 (07:06 AM), J.D. said:

I found the original new story from which this snippet is drawn. Basically, these goats are a very specific breed colloquially referred to as "fainting goats". When this type of goat is excited — for good or ill — its muscles stiffen for a few seconds. Adult goats have learned to cope with this and they sort of hobble along with wooden legs. Young goats, like those in the clip above, don't know how to move with stiff legs, so they basically just topple with their legs in the air. After a few seconds, the muscles relax, and the goats get up and go on their merry way.

The most amusing thing to me is that positive excitement can cause the condition. So, for example, sometimes when the goats are fed, their legs stiffen and they fall over.

Watch the original news story here.


On 29 November 2005 (07:27 AM), Amanda said:

A friend of mine had one of these fainting goats when he was young. Sadly, they lived on a canal, the goat fainted one day, fell into the canal, and drowned. :-(


On 29 November 2005 (04:44 PM), Pam said:

Mac loves these goats! he says we should get one. just thinking about them falling over in our pasture makes him laugh!