I had to get up an hour earlier than I might have liked, but at least it's an interesting Internet morning, courtesy the New York Times;

a recent quasi-science article pondering the meaning of the biological inaccuracies of gender representation in Bee Movie - the boys don't have stingers, kids - leads on to the reader comment thread about the overwhelming male tilt in animated animal cartoon worlds (every third post says "watch two Miyazaki and call Hollywood in the morning"), which leads to a comment quoting from E.B.White's "Song of the Queen Bee", which is just a lovely, snarky little verse manifesto from the perspective of a persnickety queen unimpressed by human attempts to make her abandon her policy of free love and breed with specific lads from the company hive.



If any old farmer can keep and hive me,
Then any old drone may catch and wife me;
I'm sorry for creatures who cannot pair
On a gorgeous day in the upper air,
I'm sorry for cows that have to boast
Of affairs they've had by parcel post,
I'm sorry for a man with his plots and guile,
His test-tube manner, his test-tube smile;
I'll multiply and I'll increase
As I always have---by mere caprice;
For I am a queen and I am a bee,
I'm devil-may-care and I'm fancy-free,
Love-in-air is the thing for me,
Oh, it's simply rare
In the beautiful air,
And I wish to state
That I'll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter.




All this before 9am. Strange little century, this one.




(And for what it's worth: Pixar, I do love you, but can we please have a female lead?)