Since I'm on the subject of animals, here's a picture of Charles Gay being devoured by lions. Well, OK, he isn't being devoured exactly. He's being toyed with, or is himself toying with the lions, or Charles Gay and his lions are all toying with one another. The c1923 photo, from the UCLA website that displays photos from the L.A. Times collection, depicts Mr. Gay, proprietor of Gay's Lion Farm in El Monte, California, and five of his beasts. The caption does not say whether or not any of the lions depicted were among those of Mr. Gay's cat cohorts who appeared in movies during the era.
Early this morning the sky was filled from horizon to horizon with sheep clouds, but they all vanished before I woke up. I was hoping that at least a few clouds would linger nearby into the afternoon, but there are none—not even small white puffs hugging the distant mountain ridges. Not even June and already the afternoon sky is arid, a hovering blue desert traversed by the blinding sun.