Chevy Chase, Wednesday, saw the Campaign
staff a-reeling and a-rocking long into the early hours of the morning
when rodents from across the state and cross-state converged on the Headquarters
of the Presidential Campaign to boogie-on down to some cool sounds and
feed their faces with tasty morsels. Ganjette, though rumoured she would
have to leave early to make a connection through the night to a rally near
Baltimore, stayed over and jived smoothly until the last hamster melody
faded into the quietness of dawn.
'We were going to have a time dancing the
tango' said Balu who led most of the music from high up on an elevated
podium 'but, firstly, we couldn't find enough empty soft drinks cans and,
secondly, some of the more simple rodents amongst us thought that a tango
was something you ate - so we had to abandon the idea'
The celebrations - which will be established
as a public holiday on the first Wednesday in May every year after Ganjette
is elected - are to honour World Animal Day when the nation's inhabitants
will be encouraged to contribute to the cost of erecting huge statues to
honour famous animals. This year, having recently announced the intention
to establish Sherman Day, the Presidential Committee commissioned a massive
twelve inch statue (well, it's massive when you're only a six inch hamster)
of Scratch's great-grandfather Sherman, his face bearing two sharp front
teeth with a sunflower seed grasped firmly between both paws.
I decided to throw away my reporter's notebook
for the evening and was seen with great and small alike, throwing myself
wildly around the dance floor in wild abandon as the music got louder and
the rhythms became more erratic.
In a short respite from the continual
thumping on the half-empty hazelnuts, I caught up with Simon over a seed
cocktail and asked him why this had never been thought of before.
'We had thought of it several weeks' ago'
he replied 'Besides, hamsters across the world always secretly dance and
jive whenever their masters have gone to bed. But it wasn't until we went
on-line and accessed the
Hamster
Dance site that we focused our minds on this great possibility. There
were just so many different movements and rhythms there - and the music
was just incredible - that it inspired us to come out to fix a date ahead
of the Presidential Elections'
I ask Simon what innovations needed to
be made in order for rodents to be able to share in the dance moves that
humans participate in.
'Well, we had a problem with the two-step
because hamsters have four limbs that they dance with so we had to adapt
it and rename it the four-paw. Then there was the fox-trot - we've abandoned
that altogether because some of the mice got so frightened in case a predator
would jump our from behind the curtains and eat them. I know, we tried
to explain but it just wasn't good enough, despite our pleadings'
I walk back into the dance hall as the
band lift their instruments and the crowd of rodents applaud loudly. The
gentle drum roll which signals a new tune is greeted by a mass of throbbing
fur that gyrates rhythmically across the floor in time with the music.
Far off, almost in a secluded corner, I
notice Ganjette putting aside the cares of the Presidential Campaign for
some good clean fun - just the sort of thing that one needs to let off
some steam. As the music continues long into the night and the following
day, I make my apologies and leave Dak covering the remainder of the Dance,
excited at the prospect that this day will soon be established throughout
the country and that all animals and humans may enjoy the celebrations.
After all, we all need some fun, don't
we?
Kesef the Hamster
writes for the Rodent Weekly.
This article
appears courtesy of that paper.
Ganjette's presidential web site can be found here
