Camel synchronicity

OK, they must be working on The Matrix — there has been a sudden camel synchronicity.

First was this entry at the Orwell Diaries, “September 14, 1938, Marrakech”, which I read yesterday:

Saw a man carrying a hare, otherwise no wild quadrupeds at all. There are said to be literally none, except a few hares and jackals, in Fr. Morrocco°. A few camels in Sp. Morocco, but not common till south of Casablanca. In general a camel seems to stand about 18 hands high. All are extremely lean & have calloused patches on all joints.

Then this morning, one of the Flickr users I follow, La Route, happened to post this image of “A laid-back Dromedary for hire in Marrakech”, who looks to be in much better shape than the ones described by Orwell (click to see larger):

dromedary

And as if that weren’t enough, here’s another item that showed up in my news reader this morning, “Keith Bellows: Celebrating the camel”, from a 2002 TED conference, just posted today:

Keith Bellows gleefully outlines the engineering marvels of the camel, a vital creature he calls “the SUV of the desert.” Though he couldn’t bring a live camel to TED, he gets his camera crew as close as humanly possible to a one-ton beast in full rut.

So I’m not sure what the universe is trying to tell me, but somehow camels are involved.