Why Did the Camel Cross the Desert?

This is it! The last day of April. And do we think that all foolishness shall cease, now that April is passed? Naaa, probably not.

My daughter sent me one of the most informative, and conceivably helpful, articles ... you know those things people are always forwarding to you and 7000 others. Well, this one was received with great joy, and I might add, gratitude. It's How to Regain Control of a Spooked Camel. Of course, that's something I wanted to know.

Some of the most important points were (1) Stay calm, (2) Hang on, and (3) Consider a quick dismount. (4) Get off the camel once you have it under control sounded pretty good to me too.

So, all this camel business brought to mind, of course, Peter O'Toole, one of my favorite fellows in all the world, and the persona of Lawrence of Arabia.

Here's the man himself, I guess he's looking for his camel.

Many years ago, I saw Mr. O'Toole on The Tonight Show, giving the most hilarious account of his camel-riding experiences while filming the movie Lawrence of Arabia. After discussing the options, which were few, he and Omar Sharif decided to tie themselves to the camels. But Peter O'Toole said, "I really didn't feel enthusiastic about having myself adhered to a stampeding camel!" So he told Omar, "I think I'll just get really drunk." And Omar Sharif said, "Oh, I'm gonna do that too!"

So, the two of them got drunk and then had themselves adhered to the camels, then filmed the camels charging into battle. O'Toole admitted that he was so drunk he had no idea where he was or what he was doing for the entire scene

Here's Peter again, with a decidedly amusing expression on his face while poking his camel with a camel-poking stick.

In June 2008, Lawrence of Arabia was ranked #1 on the American Film Institute's list of the ten greatest films in the "epic" genre, and Peter O'Toole's performance as T.E. Lawrence is the #1 ranked performance of all time in Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.

Want to know more about How to Regain Control of a Spooked Camel? Here's the web address.

http://www.wikihow.com/Regain-Control-of-a-Spooked-Camel