Baby Tangtang is one of the sweetest littles ever deposited at the Sanity Creek Orphanage. She is sure to have remarkable adventures ahead. The monkeys at Sanity Creek will miss her, but they know that Guzzi and her friend Tyrone will provide Baby Tangtang a home full of warmth, love, and adoration as the new family travels the world.
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 29
The Tinies Collection
Number 2
Natasha may be the most intrepid monkey at Sanity Creek. It took her twenty years and eight days, but she did it: she climbed to the summit of Mount Sanity. Once there, she sampled the most precious of all fruits, the nightlemon berries, and tucked as many as she could count in her rucksack. She then folded herself up and rolled back down the mountain, laughing all the while because the flora tickled her so. When she returned triumphantly to Sanity Creek, the monkeys held the first annual Eight Day party in her honor.
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 13a
The Tinies Collection
Number 1
The written word at Sanity Creek would smart at the loss of Anton. As Stationer, Anton creates exquisite paper and cards. Collaborating with Van Owen, Anton makes announcements and invitations for many public holidays, and some of the less public ones as well. His work nook is the first stop when monkeys have something important to announce, such as new ribbons for sale, or the timing of this year’s radish harvest. And he designs greetings for personal occasions too, often using his own infallible calligraphy and discretion to draft tender notes among affectionate monkeys.
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 25
The Fancy World Collection
Number 10
As Sanity Creek Recorder, Van Owen has the responsibility of guarding legal documents (such as the recipes for ladencake and watercress fries) but most of his daily work is spent administering the holiday calendar. Sanity Creek has more holidays than you can fit in a year, so Van Owen is quite busy, arranging them. Botanical days are named for the plants that dot the landscape by the creek, Catalpa day being one of the more memorable because of Bruni’s gold leaves. And days are named for some of the more accomplished and celebrated monkeys, such as Stripey Joe and the Velvet Historian. As Recorder, Van Owen has pledged not to add holidays without consensus, but he can lobby for proposed celebrations. He was crucial, for instance, in getting an entire week dedicated to Princess Feist. And he legalized Natasha’s Eight Day party as a recurring event. Van Owen makes sure that each holiday falls on the same day each year, because as you know, holidays have a tendency to scatter and disappear if you don’t keep watching them. And for each official holiday, Van Owen orders the cake from Citron-Cecile’s patisserie.
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 24
The Fancy World Collection
Number 9
Steen had a great aunt (he could never remember if it was three or four greats) who lived in the metropolis before the Big Wars. This aunt would perambulate the byways, collecting bits of discarded machinery, usually gears and bearings, occasionally finding a piece of metal that defied explanation. Through an oddly shaped family tree, her collection of detritus was handed down to Steen. He polished the collection every week, and when he reached adulthood, he decided to weld it all together to make a bicycle. But an ordinary bicycle would not do. He added five extra pulleys, and invented a bicycle that simultaneously makes espresso while he pedals! His mission is to ensure that all monkeys survive the 3pm slump. His days go like this: 5:30am, arise, start singing, and pedal down to the creek to fill the water reservoir on his contraption. He has concocted a series of levers and gears that grind the coffee beans to the perfect powdery consistency for espresso, steam the water, and fill the demitasse while he’s pedaling. He delivers this brew at half hour intervals, having mapped out each stop for the most effective use of his pedaling, and based on monkey work and play schedules, so that everyone is happy.
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 23
The Fancy World Collection
Number 8
The Velvet Historian prefers to remain anonymous, signing his many literary works, simply, “V.H.” He has spent his life examining myriad swatches of the fabric in all its forms and fibers. He considers each type distinctly, and while some will berate the newcomer rayon, he finds this upstart cousin meritorious in several ways which he is happy to demonstrate. Mostly, his defense of rayon has to do with its seductive hand. The Velvet Historian’s seminal work, “All you need is luxe,” is still unparalleled, and is widely translated and read in the world’s arts academies. When he’s at home at Sanity Creek, his tapestry-drenched halls are a favorite location for weddings and story times.
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 18
The Fancy World Collection
Number 3
The Scholars Collection
Number 2
(Private Collection)
Tilly hides in the rushes by Sanity Creek and watches. Like the fog, she expands and contracts as needed, and moves without sound around the low places, painting them with gauze. She has a bag that has real tricks in it. Her ears hear, her eyes see, and she can smell enlightenment and unrest from at least ten miles away. Her hands have twenty three hundred ways of holding things. She cleans countertops so she can store her words on them. She shortens things that need to be shortened. In the night, she sleeps, unless she just really doesn’t want to. Tilly has found pockets where there previously were none, in clothing, riverbanks, and in other odd places. Tilly is a poet.
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 22
The Fancy World Collection
Number 7
Zata is the spice queen of Sanity Creek. At her home and atelier, monkeys know they will find myriad spices and herbs, arranged in seductive bundles, aligned with the phases of the moon. New moon calls for judicious, consistent use of garlic shakes and orange oil, while the full moon requires capsicum in its hottest forms, and of course greens like nettleberries and sage. But Zata never dictates what the monkey should savor—she encourages each to season to their liking, and above all, to use creativity and verve while spicing. Her nimble taste buds help cultivate and categorize hundreds of flavor directionals. Food at Sanity Creek would be bland as porridge without her labor. And she is a friend of the Peaceniks, as there are fewer malcontents and increased euphoria when the monkeys use plenty of spices.
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 21
The Fancy World Collection
Number 6
One day, after years trying to find a way to turn discarded cicada shells into an archaic form of metal jelly, alchemist Bruni, exhausted from 30 hours without sleep, dumped a pan of her concoction to water a houseplant (instead of her customary loganberry tea vitamin plant wash). Little leaf edges flickered, and then turned into white gold. Bruni made another batch so she could try it on a catalpa tree. She snuck out to the tree range along Sanity Creek. She buried the whole preparation at the foot of the largest stately catalpa. She waited. She watched. Eleven months later, in early morning, a white gold leaf fell on her nose. The molecular components of the catalpa had forever changed—and the gold leafed tree was named in Bruni’s honor. So now, each autumn, the monkeys wait for the leaves to fall, and then harvest the gold, which is used to decorate the halls of the Sanity Creek Arts Academy.
Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 20
The Fancy World Collection
Number 5
One day, when Song was swimming in Sanity Creek, he bumped his head on the bottom. What he thought was a rock was actually a giant cluster of gnarled shells. He cracked one off and swam back to the surface. With an iron letter opener, he pried the shell open and discovered the most unusual iridescent green pearl, colorized by the shell’s location beneath a field of watercress. Now Song is renowned at Sanity Creek: monkey brides commission effervescent gowns, spangled with his watercress pearls. (Count carefully, and you will find at least 123 pearls on him!)
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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 19
The Fancy World
Number 4
Sanity Creek Sock Monkeys 