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Give them Bread and Circuses!

The ancient Roman satirical playwright Juvenal declared in one of his plays “Give them bread and circuses!” (panem et circenses).  His message was aimed at a Roman populace that cares only for the superficial entertainments of the age rather than engaging with the important issues of the time.  You may take that politically wherever you want, but our perennial April contributor, Ben Bargen, is, as always, thinking about geckos.

Bread

This year Ben has focused on produce rather than the bakery for his crowd-pleasing food items.  As you can see, his strawberries are already in season:

Strawberry enigmas by Ben Bargen
Strawberry enigmas by Ben BargenCircuses

As expected, the newly produced (not to mention very expensive) “Lemon Frost” leopard geckos are now being crossed into other lines.  Ben has crossed his with his hypo cheeseboard line to produce this hypo lemon frost leo which comes complete with cheeseboard and garnish:

Hypo Lemon Frost by Ben Bargen
Hypo Lemon Frost by Ben Bargen

Circuses

Faced with the impossible choice between displaying his acro-leos and his clown-masks, Ben went with the freak show theme for this season:

What do you get when you cross a spider with a leopard gecko? (answer right below)

Spider Gecko by Ben Bargen
Spider Gecko by Ben Bargen

 

What’s worse than one snow storm? A double header!  Check out the Mack snow albino(s) below that blew in:

Double Snow by Ben Bargen
Double Snow by Ben Bargen

 

In another kind of doubling, this is Ben’s nod to Dr. Doolittle:

pushmepullyou by Ben Bargen
pushmepullyou by Ben Bargen

 

The consequences of not watching your back:

Watch Your Back by Ben Bargen
Watch Your Back by Ben Bargen

 

A throwback to the old World War II warning “loose lips sink ships”:

Zip Your Lip by Ben Bargen
Zip Your Lip by Ben Bargen

Who knows what Ben will come up with next.  Check back next April to find out!

[ed. note: This article was written on April 1]

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Written by Aliza

Aliza is a home care speech therapist living in the Boston area. She successfully bred a variety of gecko species between 2005 and 2017. She currently cares for a large number of geckos as well as a few frogs and bearded dragons. Other interests which she pursues in her copious free time include work in ceramics, practicing aikido and surfing the internet.

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