Shark Week once again drastically overshadows Ferret Fortnight

It's currently Shark Week, widely agreed to be one of the most entertaining blocks of time in the entire year, and indeed within the entire TV Guide.

And that's a good thing.

There's nothing wrong with that.

However, sometimes one can't help but feel there must be room for a few more animals than just Jaws over there in our calendar, and I'm not the only one to say this.

In fact, did you know there already are several official sections of time devoted to various non-shark animals, which large swaths of the public completely overlook in their rapid rush to regard the requin?

(That's French for "shark," but you already knew that, because sharks are all you care about this week, no matter the language.)

What are some of the events our monomaniacal focus on this one animal for seven days leads us to overlook?

Ferret Fortnight

This airs on PBS. It begins three days before Shark Week and ends four days after it, so you've got no excuse for missing it (a fortnight is two weeks long, which you maybe didn't know because you're so obsessed with learning French so that you never miss a single thing about sharks).

Snake Century

We all agree the 20th century belong to the snake, but people rarely tuned in to the celebration of this fact, even though it was constantly broadcast and commemorated in some form from January 1, 1900 on, first in newspaper form, then via phonograph, then radio, then cable TV, and later on internet at SnakeCentury.org.

That's right, they weren't trying to make any money off it. Try saying the same for Shark Week, with a straight face.

Civet Second

Can't really blame you if you missed this one. It was on May 14, 2004, at 3:48 a.m. It was to honour the Asian palm civet, an animal that is involved in producing one of the world's most treasured coffee beans. It's true, look it up, it's a long story and also kind of gross.

The event was fairly bungled, however. Why a.m.? You can buy a Blu-ray of the ceremony (Prince Charles was there and everything), but I'll warn you that you'll be paying full Blu-ray price for literally a one-second video. There's no intro and certainly no denouement.

Moose Millennium

Okay, honestly, I think you're also fine ignoring this one. It was way too early for them to call this, in my opinion. We're only 18 years in! Or 19, depending on the way you feel about it. Either way, there's plenty of time left for this to change.

But yeah, I'll agree the moose has had a hell of a decade. Although not as good as the duck.

Duck Decade

See above.

Jaguar Jiffy

Ha, this was a fun one.

And that's all! Not so much, is it? Please try to give more focus at least one of these in the future.

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