Friends of the Famous - X

The Xoloitzcuintli (Mexican-hairless) dogs were a favorite among the many pets kept by influential Mexican Folk-art painter, Frida Kahlo who, despite having polio at age six, which permanently damaged her right arm, and surviving a horrific bus accident that left her with a broken spinal column, 11 leg fractures and multiple internal injuries, went on to paint her “own reality” in images of herself and many of the menagerie she assembled in place of the children she’d never have. Ms. Kahlo’s menagerie included monkeys, parrots, macaws, an eagle named ‘Gertrudis Caca Blanca ‘, and a fawn she called Granizo.

On extended break after the finale of the popular and long-running Warrior Princess, Xena series, Lucy Lawless enjoys life at home in her native New Zealand with her husband, two sons, and daughter Daisy, who has a mixed-breed mutt-turned-hunk named Lucky who “hasn’t bitten anybody” and has been to good behavior school. Meanwhile, Lucy holds out hope for a possible new Warrior season where the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle is more defined.

Janos Xantus, Hungarian exile and noted zoologist who, while stationed at Cabo San Lucas in 1860 as a tidal observer on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, was credited with the discovery of such natural endemic treasures as the Xantus hummingbird, glittering green-bodied beauties with a distinctive white stripe behind the eye, maintain a conservation status of least concern, the leaf-toed gecko; who squeak when handled, and whose sticky feet have nonetheless inspired scientists to create such modern marvels as wall-walking devices and medical adhesives for sealing wounds, in addition to the Xantusiidae; secretive little lizards commonly called Night lizards,  who altered  conventional assumptions when a five-year study revealed that contrary to other lizard types, these give birth to offspring rather than laying eggs, constituting strong familial social structures which prompted scientists to desist lizard collecting lest one be sorely missed by those at home, As well as one of the world’s rarest seabirds, the Xantus’ Murrelets, chunky diving birds of the Auk family which are split into two groups, Scripps which typically roost in natural island rock crevices and the Marbled, which tend to set up house in the highest branches of 200 year old coastal trees. These birds are believed threatened only by extensive logging. 

Are you familiar with Kahlo’s work? Were you a Xena fan? What’s the best thing you ever discovered?