Where the buffalo roam

Finally, a postcard from Elliot!  It's very brief but we know he made it to Oklahoma and is doing well.  We don't know where he has been assigned or who his companion is.  We should have an email soon with more details. 

In the meantime, here is his postcard and some fun facts about buffalo.  Well, bison to be more accurate, since bison are native to North America, while buffalo are native to Africa and Asia.  If you are confused by the difference between bison and buffalo, imagine being a fan of baseball in Buffalo, New York, where the AAA affiliate for the New York Mets is the Bisons - the Buffalo Bisons.  And for you basketball fans, the NBA is not the bastion of oversized athletic men who can dunk a basketball while blindfolded.  It is instead the National Bison Association, with the tagline "a community bound by the heritage of the American bison/buffalo and the quality of its products."  It even has its own website, with an online store where you can subscribe to Bison World, a quarterly publication all about the bison industry.  You can also buy buffalo napkin rings or a buffalo weathervane, among other buffalo/bison-related products.  The website explains that the North American bison population, which was reduced from 30 million when European settlers first landed to fewer than 1,000 by the 1880s, grew to about 220,000 by 2007. 

There, that's enough useless buffalo (or bison) information for one evening.  Watch for more information from Elliot soon.