the mention of giraffes (the title of a children's book heath said he had been reading) always brings to my mind two things. there's the ortega y gasset quote about kant (which i never seem to stop citing do i?) the other is that famous sketch by peter cook where an annoying little git of a man sits down on a park bench and starts plying the other fellow (played by john cleese) with "interesting facts." there are many different versions of this sketch, but in this particular one (oh do click on it, even you, von, you simply have to hear it for yourself. the whole thing is ingenious.) there's a lovely bit where he talks for ages about the disproportionate leaping ability of the grasshopper (hop! hop! hop! all over arable land. that is land that is actually tilled by arabs.) and then says: "do you want to hear a really interesting fact about the grasshopper? if the giraffe could leap, pound for pound, as high as the grasshopper, they'd avoid a lot of trouble."