Scenes From Mel and Jeanne's 600th Party!

Yesterday, we had a great open mic post from Mel Goff, our volunteer librarian. In it, he recounted his recent trip with his wife, Jeanne, to Alaska.

 

Mel Goff, ABA's volunteer librarian, as we're used to seeing him every Wednesday

If you read Mel's post (and if you haven't, go do it!) you know that the Goffs had a very special milestone on their cruise: their 600th ABA Area life bird. So we thought that a little congratulatory celebration was in order. 

 

 

If you can take your eye off the chocolate cake long enough, look at that box. What could be in it?

Here's a quick video of Mel and Jeanne opening their special gift. 

 

 

 

A shot of the happy couple.

 

Leach's Storm-Petrel ornament painted by Marcia Poling. Even got the tube on the nose!

Ted, Michael, and Ned, I'll save you the trouble...she missed the hyphen in Storm-Petrel. Mel, maybe you can add that in? Pretty darn cool otherwise, huh?

Thanks so much, Mel, for your service to the ABA. You're a credit to our community and we're just thrilled to have you as part of the ABA family. Now, get to work on that 700!

Comments

[Ted Floyd]

If I could have it my way, there would be no hyphen. No capital letters (except for the proper name Leach), either.

And something else: no faux-possessive. As Nate Swick says:

http://thedrinkingbirdblog.com/2010/02/19/whats-in-a-common-name/

So, Mel, congrats on #600, and let's all celebrate with Mel by getting it right:

Leach storm petrel

One other thing. Competent, fluent speakers of English employ the definite article. As in:

Mel's 600th life bird was the Leach storm petrel.

Affected, scientistic types tend not to.

:-)

[Ali, Scotland]

I just saw my first Leach's yesterday here in Scotland. Congrats :)

I think of myself as a quite competent speaker of English (unlike y'all) and I say "Leach Storm Petrel" sounds absolutely awful ;)

Maybe one day I'll see me a Wilson's :D