Assistant Editor's Note: Okay, the write-up on this caper was Rapaire's idea, see? He was desperate to get it going by mid-January, and he did. Now the poor sucker's been overwhelmed by other circumstances and he ain't got much time to write, but we need him. Therefore, we gotta all hang tight until Rapaire gets back here and does some fill-in on the Manhattan Project stuff, so avoid any major plot developments for a bit, I'd say. No problem with puttng in a few little fillers for background though.

Just to keep people entertained, I am gonna fill some general info about apes in the 1940's USA...

Okay, we apes have gotta face quite a bit of discimination in human-dominated society, cos we are recent immigrants and people got the idea that they are way superior to us. You got these rich white-collar white people at the very top of the social pecking order, then you got the poor whites, then you got the brown and yellow people a notch down from there, then you got the American Indians another notch down, and then you got the negroes (called 'blacks' these days) another notch down...and then you got us apes and monkeys, who get dumped down at the very bottom of the pile. It hasn't been easy, but at least primates were never enslaved en masse like the Negroes were back before the Civil War...only a few of us were kept prisoner in zoos and circuses here and there. I have to say though, that there have been medical experiments more recently done on apes and monkeys as bad as anthing the Nazis ever dreamed up, and the scars go deep! There's a lot of anger out there.

The big primate migrations began in the 1800's, and got a terrific boost after 1912 when "Tarzan of the Apes" was published by Edgar Rice Burroughs...a human who is revered by primates everywhere.

See his biography at:

http://www.tarzan.org/official_biography_part3.html

Primate immigration to the USA really picked up in the 10's and 20's of the 20th century, then sorta stayed steady. You had apes from Africa and Asia and monkeys from just about everywhere comin' in on boats, lookin' for the 'good life' in the Land of Opportunity. Mostly they find lousy, demeaning jobs at rock bottom pay. This made a lot of apes and monkeys turn to crime, and that fueled more human prejudice. It's a vicious circle.

I gotta admit there is bad prejudice among primates too! Apes look down on monkeys generally, thinking they are mental lightweights not to be taken seriously. Monkeys look down on apes, thinking we are big, stupid bruisers without no sensitivity. Chimps figure gorillas are crude, arrogant bozos. Gorillas figure chimps are self-important, arrogant pansies. Orangs figure chimps and gorillas are goofballs without much brains or class. Baboons don't like nobody else, and don't even get along so well with each other. It's a big problem.

Still, I've seen some progress. Primates are slowly winning the respect of humans...some of them...and are beginning to find a sense of solidarity among themselves. The fight for equality is only beginning on the streets of America, but I see the day when our oppressors will yell "Kagoda!" (we surrender) and share and share alike with their primate brothers and sisters across this land.

Chongo