Stephens City Animal Hospital: Fill & Download for Free

I find this question intriguing because, I have to admit, after many years of watching animals, I have a habit of doing the opposite. I don't look at animals and anthropomorphise them I look at the people and zoomorphise them.Every time I encounter a new person I reflect on what animal they remind me of.Some are the hippos, plump and gregarious. Some are like hyaenas, opportunistic and elbowing their buddies aside for dominance. There are the old elephant cows, just like hospital matrons, always in a hurry, no nonsense from anyone and always tired. There are many like baboons, teenagers to a "t". There are occasionally leopards, watching quietly and unnoticed yet understanding everyone else better than they themselves. There are warthogs, I believe their counterparts work "in the city". There are the guineafowls, just like the afternoon ladies club... Monkeys - gangs. Honey Badgers - fighters. Rhinos - Stephen Fry (actor) (they are a lot smarter, funnier and complex than one would at first expect).Mothers of course are all alike but I can't help but notice sometimes how some are more like one animal mother than another.I'm afraid I could go on forever on this, so I had better not. I do it all the time and there is always an animal for everyone..Seriously. The animals must become the focus and we have to separate ourselves from our natural focus on people. Spend a long time with them and out of contact with people especially and one begins to see them truly as they are.I have spent long periods with little or no contact with people and you really do go a bit (or very) wild and can have big problems (and very funny situations) when you get back to civilization, but it is really the one way to get close to nature - on your own without any contact with other people.

For the most part, it looks just like it did before. The main difference is that a lot of buildings temporarily have their windows covered in plywood.Most of those buildings weren’t vandalized. And most are open now.It was definitely upsetting to see places like corner health clinics and the Minnesota Children’s Hospital board up their windows. What genuine prick would vandalize or try to burn a children’s hospital? (I don’t think this was attempted, but the hospital took some precautions.) But think of all that wood as two things: a big stimulus package for the lumber industry, and as face masks for businesses. It’s a quick, temporary measure to protect property from potential damage. The damage isn’t actually there. I hope the plywood starts coming down in a week or two.The flip side is that a city that had a real dearth of public street art is blossoming with color. Back-to-back with the Covid scare, and summer finally appearing in one of the coldest parts of the United States, there are plenty of little bits of humor and beauty around the city now. The humor, obviously, comes amid some anxiety. But like a lot of other people here, I’ve been out taking pics with my camera. Big historical events usually don’t have much impact on Minnesota, but this is probably the most historical thing to happen in the Twin Cities since the 1800s.Some people get jiggy with decorating all the plywood:The sun also rises:Why not liven that wall up?The whole thing has been a boon to local artists. A lot of the street art popping up is boring and repetitive. A lot of it’s really just white virtue-signalling, designed for folks to post selfies on Instagram and say, in the voice of Cominius from Gladiator, “Am I not so virtuous?!!”But some of it’s really good, conceptually. Definitely more interesting than all those boring angel wings every woman was photographing herself next to back in the “old normal.”Justice is MiracleGro:The city’s finally coming out from the under the shadow of the Covid shutdowns. Legitimate protests and some unfortunate vandalism definitely derailed the re-opening (it was terrible timing). But for a city that has some of the worst winter weather in America… it’s hotter than Colombia here today. 96 degrees.This was part of a long line wrapped around the corner at Sencha Tea off Hennepin Avenue yesterday:The shop had a sign reminding customers that they’re open. People get confused and think “Oh, Sencha has plywood up. It must be burned.” No it wasn’t:Downtown is the absolute grave. I think it’s probably going to be dead for the foreseeable future — maybe forever. Here’s the catch, though: downtown was a soulless wasteland, anyway. I always hated downtown Minneapolis. A lot of people avoided the place a year ago… because it was so dull.Here’s Nicollet Mall. Almost completely abandoned. But that’s partly because of Covid work-from-home arrangements that are going to keep office workers away for months, anyway. One of my jobs is downtown. I might not be able to work there until September. That’s not the riots.Restaurants like Muddy Waters in Uptown closed forever. But again… that was the mayor’s and governor’s preferred method for battling a virus. Not the riots.There's even some clever word play. "Crying bout they Targets. We been targets."Sightseers and families are out checking out the aftermath. Here’s the burned 3rd Precinct police station. Just another white family getting beaten up by “animals” in what the media is telling us is Baghdad. Bring out the kids:A block south of the 3rd precinct station, literally right behind the burned-out Minnehaha Post Office, there’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. It’s a big food bank right now. I’m a white guy. I wasn’t murdered for showing up and seeing what’s happening at Holy Trinity. What’s happening? People getting the help they deserve. Two kids hugging:I don’t want to downplay the negative.There was defintiely physical damage to around 300 buildings. I think about ten of those got totally burned out. I’m not denying there was arson — there absolutely was. But a day or two later, people were having public BBQ’s right outside on the sidewalk. Kids in strollers coming by. That’s a BBQ:Remember this famous photograph right here? That is the exact same place where people were having a cookout maybe 48 hours later. Minnehaha Lake Wine & Spirits. As a photographer, I can tell you that both of these pictures were exposed at about 1/250th of a second (so, literally just one small moment in time.) Why is one of them considered more real than the other? Just because it’s a more dramatic photo than mine doesn’t make it more real:The building in this next photo was a crappy old 1920s building with a bar inside. It got toasted. The Fire Department knocked the ruins down a few days ago to keep it from falling on all the sightseers. The city will move on:Is it disturbing to see stuff like “Please don’t burn, babies upstairs.” You bet:But the vandalism and arson weren’t very extensive to start with, and it’s mostly over now. I don’t think anybody was killed in the Minneapolis riots.The National Guard was around — doing good stuff, as far as I could tell, helping clean up some gutted fast food restaurants, guarding buildings from further vandalism, and keeping a lid on things while not being jerks about it. The Guard is mostly gone now. The Minneapolis Police Department is getting disbanded outright, so you don’t see much of them around.Here’s a cleanup from last week. It’s a good question if somebody else will ever build a business on that site. (The Target across the street is going to be expanded, partly beause the Target Corporation is based here and cares about the city.) Regardless, I don’t think the economy is going to fall through the floor from a missing Arby’s. Minneapolis has a lot of creative and resilient people.As far as the economy and anxiety go, there’s a lot of a parallels between all the fears over Covid-19, the shutdowns, the protests, and the looting that snuck in under the protests’ wings. Some anxious people think this city is going to be Detroit, just like other anxious people believed that 2 million Americans were going to be dead of Covid. America’s new motto needs to be: “In Exaggeration We Trust.”But even where some of those fears aren’t exaggerated, what happened with the pandemic tells us something: the story isn’t written yet. Humans can change things and respond to a disaster, mitigating the bad, trying to focus on the good. Whether we’re talking about the virus or the future of this or any other city after the riots, don’t put too much stock in hypothetical modeling. Predictions routinely fail to take important things into consideration.And I’m not the only person who thinks disasters bring good people out of the woodwork. Literally. The plywood.Back in the '70s, the great whiskey-laden suicidal poet John Berryman, who eventually threw himself off a bridge here, wrote a poem to God in Minneapolis. Berryman had been an altar boy in Oklahoma and eventually returned to the Catholic sunshine. In words that always move me, I think Berryman got it right, speaking to his "delicious author." His strange alcohol voice is almost the voice of the city this week:"Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake, inimitable contriver / endower of Earth so gorgeous & different from the boring Moon, / thank you for such as it is my gift…"You have come to my rescue again & again / in my impassable, sometimes despairing years. / You have allowed my brilliant friends to destroy themselves / and I am still here, severely damaged, but functioning…"Whatever your end may be, accept my amazement. / May I stand until death forever at attention / for any your least instruction or enlightenment. / I even feel sure you will assist me again, Master of insight & beauty."Who haunt the avenues of Angkor Wat…haunt me at the corner of Fifth & Hennepin."Eleven Addresses to the Lord by John Berryman | Poetry Foundation

There are none, is the simple and succinct answer.That isn't counting the actual paid-for benefits of being a member of one of the companies, such as the right to attend their meetings or socialise with the other members. Those aren't really 'privileges' in the sense of the question, though.It is normal for a Liveryman of the livery companies to be granted the Freedom of the City of London as a matter of course - though this status can also be awarded to other people, so it's not an exclusive privilege. Being a Freeman does still have certain privileges - you have to be one to be elected an Alderman of the City of London, and in turn only aldermen can become Lord Mayor of London.This was not always the case - in bygone days members of the livery companies did have much greater privileges.The banqueting hall belonging to the Worshipful Company of Drapers, founded in 1438. The Hall itself was built in 1543 but rebuilt after a fire in 1772.The livery companies of the City of London were originally mediaeval guilds, of a kind which were common in cities all over Europe in the Middle Ages. In many ways they were the forerunner of modern trade bodies or professional associations. They generally held a monopoly over practising their particular trade within city limits - to be a tailor, for example, you had to be a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors. Becoming a member would entail serving an apprenticeship and passing a practical exam, ensuring that professional standards were maintained. The livery companies also regulated prices and wages, and oversaw training for prospective members. They employed inspectors to monitor the quality of goods being sold, and in some cases ran their own law courts to arbitrate disputes between or against members.In modern times these functions have almost all been abolished. A few livery companies still carry out traditional functions, but now on behalf of the State and with statutory authority. For example the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers is still responsible for carrying out quality inspections of fish sold at Billingsgate Fish Market as it has since 1604, but now they follow European food standards regulations.Inspector from the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers at Billingsgate Market.Livery companies also served a social function, to bring members of the craft together and help them network, as well as staging banquets and ceremonies, both secular and religious. The money they collected in membership dues or as bequests was also used for charitable purposes - primarily for their own members who fell on hard times, but also sometimes to the general public. Over the centuries some livery companies became extremely wealthy, and funded schools, hospitals, almshouses, churches, libraries and many other institutions.The development of the welfare state in the 20th century left most of these charitable functions no longer necessary, and they were wound down. The London livery companies still make extensive donations to charity - £42 million in 2010 - but they are no longer primarily benevolent organisations for the benefit of their own members. In a few cases a livery company does still maintain a hardship fund for its own members who fall into difficulties, which might be considered a privilege of membership. The social functions of the livery companies are still alive and well today, of course, and members benefit from the ability to go to banquets or attend open days etc.The livery companies were immensely rich, and held a monopoly over most aspects of the city's economic life. As such, they quickly came to dominate it politically as well. In effect, the guilds ran the city. Full members of the guilds - who could be distinguished by the distinctive uniform or 'livery' they wore on public occasions, hence the name livery company - were the only people permitted to vote in London elections or stand for public office. The status of 'Freeman of the City of London' was given to them to set them apart from the non-voting rabble: in effect, the term Freeman meant the same as 'citizen'.While this seems highly undemocratic by modern standards, it still meant that mediaeval London was ruled by an elected mayor. He had to campaign for office by winning the votes of hundreds or even thousands of people - basically all the employers, merchants and property-owners of the city - in a time when in most other places power was still entirely in the hands of feudal warlords and hereditary nobles. London, and other cities like it, was a peculiar quasi-republican anomaly in the aristocratic Middle Ages.In modern times, the status of Freeman of the City of London still exists, but it is largely ceremonial. Since 1835 it is no longer necessary to be a member of a livery company to be awarded the Freedom of the City, but most of the companies expect their full members to apply for the Freedom, which is normally granted as a matter of course.The term 'Freeman', incidentally, is considered unisex; there are both male and female Freemen. In the bad old days only widows could be female Freemen in their own right, since when a woman got married her legal identity was subsumed by that of her husband; this is no longer the case.Nowadays elections to the City of London Corporation are carried out according to the normal democratic franchise; you don't have to be a Freeman to vote. However, as well as 100 Common Councilmen who perform normal local government duties, the City also elects 25 Aldermen. Their duties are mostly but not entirely ceremonial - they are the people who are empowered to award the Freedom of the City and to approve the creation of new livery companies. To become an Alderman, you do have to be a Freeman of the City first - so that is one remaining privilege of the status.In addition, the Lord Mayor of London has to be an Alderman, so by extension he or she also has to be a Freeman; and the Lord Mayor is elected by members of the livery companies at a public meeting, called Common Hall. The duties of the Lord Mayor include chairing meetings of the City of London Corporation, but in modern time the role has largely evolved into being an apolitical spokeperson and ambassador of the City of London's business interests, both nationally and internationally.The office of Lord Mayor of London dates back over 800 years and is entirely different to the office of Mayor of London, the position currently held by Boris Johnson, which is only 14 years old. That confuses a lot of people.Fiona Woolf was elected as 686th Lord Mayor of London in September 2013.In mediaeval times trade guilds often performed a military role as well. Most of the large employers of a city were members, and so in an emergency they could quickly assemble all their apprentices and craftsmen to form a large, organised body of men of military age. Wealthy guilds could also afford to issue those men with high quality arms and armour at their own expense, turning them into a formidable military unit that was a match for any lord or baron's feudal levies. This was a source of both raw power and civic pride, and many guilds - including those of the City of London, encouraged their members to train and drill at weekends to make themselves even more effective as soldiers, and then allowed them to parade through the city streets to show off their skills. Even as late as the English Civil War of 1642, the fact that London, with its Trained Bands of disciplined militia, decided to fight for Parliament instead of the King was a major factor in Charles's defeat.This is believed to be the source of the privilege given to Freemen of the City of London to carry weapons openly in the city; even to the extent of walking around with a drawn sword. Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, such a privilege no longer exists today. Britain's strict laws against carrying offensive weapons in public places include no exemption for Freemen of the City.In former times the Livery Companies, on behalf of the City, could field a formidable military force. This is no longer true.It is often said that Freemen have the right to take sheep across London Bridge. In fact, the privilege was originally to take sheep (or other livestock) over the bridge without paying a toll - anybody else could drive their flocks to market the same way, but had to pay for the privilege.Nowadays, no toll is charged for crossing London Bridge. A person, whether a Freeman or not, trying to take sheep over the bridge might find themselves in trouble for blocking traffic, endangering other drivers, animal cruelty, or creating a public nuisance: but as long as the sheep are kept under proper control I can't see that there's any law to prevent it. There are several recent examples of people doing just that, usually as a publicity stunt or to raise awareness for a charity. In 2009 the Lord Mayor arranged a sponsored sheep drive over the bridge to celebrate its 800th anniversary.There were other traditional privileges of freemen, but they no longer exist. For example, a freeman had the right to insist on a silk rope if he was to be hanged; but capital punishment was abolished in 1998, so the privilege no longer applies. In former days a freeman found wandering the streets drunk would be escorted safely home by the City Watch, but today they would be treated the same as anybody else. Freemen were also immune from being pressganged into the Royal Navy, but these days the Navy is an all-volunteer force.Herding sheep across London Bridge: not actually a privilege of Freemen of the City - that's a myth - but still occasionally done as a publicity stunt.