What if instead of staring at your blank walls while working from home, you could look into the eerie eyes of a taxidermied animal? You can, kind of, thanks to a new event from the DC Public Librar…

Must’ve been one crabby cabbie.

With the bread and butter of the business gone, should I attempt to get behind the wheel?

Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word taxidermy describes the process of preserving the animal, but the word is also used to describe the end product, which are called taxidermy mounts or referred to simply as "taxidermy".The word taxidermy is derived from the Ancient Greek words τάξις taxis (order, arrangement) and δέρμα derma (skin). Thus taxidermy translates to "arrangement of skin".Taxidermy is practiced primarily on vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and less commonly on amphibians) but can also be done to larger insects and arachnids under some circumstances. Taxidermy takes on a number of forms and purposes including hunting...

MALMO, Sweden (AP) — Desperate for a drink? There is spit-fermented wine, liquor fermented in prison toilets, and a strong Scottish brew served from the mouth of a taxidermied squirrel.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - "Get back in the car!" the masked people shouted at me. "Get back in!" It was near midnight. My taxi just pulled into the parking lot where I was greeted by three masked people. They were dressed in heavy protective gear, goggles, gloves, face mask and medical gowns. One person raised a sign saying: Do not get out of the car, please show your health questionnaire and passport. I couldn't find mine. I panicked, asking my driver if he had it. He asked if it was in my luggage in the back trunk, and went to open the back trunk. I stepped out too, freaked out that I had just lost my passport. I was tired, lost and really hungry. That was how I was greeted upon arrival at a centralized quarantine center in Taiwan. I had arrived in Taiwan to start my new job, but with the stress of moving, I'd come down with a cold. Unfortunately, I still had a cough by the time I flew to Taiwan. As a result, I was taken upon arrival to the quarantine center rather than the quarantine hotel I'd booked. Taiwan has been lauded around the world as a COVID-19 success story. It's 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the mainland China coast, and because of the economic and cultural relations with the mainland, where the virus outbreak first surfaced, many feared Taiwan would be hit hard. But more than eight months after the outbreak, the island has only had seven deaths from COVID-19 and 488 confirmed cases. How was Taiwan able to keep the numbers so low? I got to see for myself. On my flight to Taipei, each passenger had a separate row. Flight attendants wore medical gowns, goggles, face masks and gloves. No food was served. Because I'd showed up at the border with a cough, health authorities also took a throat swab test. Before I could get into my CDC-assigned...

The November ballot’s Prop. 15 proposes to lift Prop. 13 caps on taxing commercial properties, thus creating — depending on whom you ask — either billions of dollars for education or new burdens for businesses.

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Salon Los Angeles had been crowded every weekend since 1937 with couples twirling to mambo, cha-cha-cha, salsa and danzon. Everyone from slum-dwellers to movie stars and millionaires have danced at the fabled hall that boasts, "Anybody who hasn't been to the Salon Los Angeles doesn't know Mexico." But the Mexico City dance hall, like other bars and nightclubs, has been fully or partially shuttered for more than five months due to the coronavirus pandemic and its owners say they are in debt and may have to close and demolish it. Patrons, some of whom show up in the zoot suits of the 1940s, say the loss to the city's social and cultural life would be irreparable. This past weekend, the dance hall was reduced to holding bake sales and a craft fair and asking for sponsors to save the venue where Cuban musicians like Pérez Prado and Beny Moré helped popularize mambo. Its owners say they understand the need for social distancing but feel they have received scant help from officials. "We are last in line in priority, in terms of strategic businesses" the government helps, said Miguel Nieto, the third generation of his family to run the business started by his grandfather. "But I have to call attention to the fact that we are a priority in terms of mental health." The dance hall is a way, he says, to reduce the stress, isolation and domestic violence the lockdown has engendered. Mexico City's other dance halls face similar dire circumstances amid a pandemic that has hit Mexico particularly hard, with the world's fourth highest total confirmed COVID-19 death toll. The storied California Dancing Club - where taxi dancers still plied their trade up until the March shutdown - pledges wistfully to return. The owner of another dance hall, the Salon La Altena, died during the pandemic. . ..