The New Colony Six

March of the Penguins at San Francisco Zoo

Giants catcher Buster Posey now has his own namesake at the San Francisco Zoo - an outgoing Magellanic penguin with a cute waddle.

That Posey was a girl penguin didn't seem to be a problem for the hundreds of zoo visitors who turned out to see her and the zoo's four other young penguins rejoin their colony Saturday.

They had spent the last month or so in school, becoming used to their keepers while getting ready to swim.

Dressed appropriately in their natural formal wear, the five classmates made the annual march through a crowd of human well-wishers to mark their official graduation from fish school.

As Posey dived into the penguin pool, she officially joined a zoo family that also includes Giants namesakes Brian Wilson the hippo and Lincecum the howler monkey, also a girl.

Her name was chosen in a random drawing from suggestions submitted by zoo members Saturday morning.

The annual March of the Penguins is a huge draw for the zoo, which has the largest captive Magellanic colony in the world with 49 of the black and white birds.

They are "world-famous penguins," said Anthony Brown, the primary penguin keeper.

The newest members were hatched on Penguin Island and spent their first four to six weeks with their parents.

Still unable to swim - and with their parents increasingly leaving them alone - they were then taken off to fish school to keep them safe, said Brown, who can tell every one of the 49 penguins apart.

"That's Mona," he said, pointing to a penguin 20 feet away that looked to a visitor exactly like all the other penguins.

Nearby swam Sparkles, appropriately named given her prima donna attitude, Brown said.

"All animals have individual personalities," the keeper said."These guys take it to a whole new level."

Posey, for example, is a girl who likes hanging out with people.

One of his classmates, Ludwig is also an extrovert, while three others unnamed penguins are a little shy.

Zoo volunteers Adriana Thumm was among the people who helped socialize the new penguins at the school of fish - a task that requires a background check and a certain seniority, said the 34-year-old San Franciscan. She watched with pride as they waddled safely through the crowd and in their pool.

Thumm spent about three hours total sitting with the penguins, who hugged and jumped on it.

"They are a bit smelly," she said. "But it's really worth it. You just do not make plans to go out after.

Wayback Wednesday - New Colony Six

Wiki bio: The New Colony Six is an American rock band whose height of popularity was in the 1960s and early 1970s. From Chicago, they placed ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1966 and 1971. Original members were Ray Graffia (vocals), Chick James (drums), Pat McBride (harmonica), Craig Kemp (organ), Wally Kemp (bass), and Gerry Van Kollenburg (guitar). Ronnie Rice (vocals, keyboards, guitar) joined in 1966, replacing Craig Kemp. There were numerous changes in the lineup over the years. Nationally, the band's two biggest hits were Rice's "I Will Always Think About You" (#22 Billboard Hot 100, 1968)(#14 RPM Canada) and "Things I'd Like to Say" (#16, 1969)(#6 Canada). In Canada they also hit the charts with an earlier song "Love You So Much" (#49, 1967) and the later "I Could Never Lie To You" (#38, 1969).

I Will Always Think About You:

Formed in 1965, New Colony Six scored their first major local hit in Chicago in 1966 with "I Confess," featured on their debut album, Breakthrough. Their sound was characterized by Richie Unterberger as "a poppier American Them with their prominent organ, wobbly Lesley-fied guitar amplifications and rave-up tempos", later devolving into "a cabaret-ish band with minor national hits to their credit by the end of the 1960s." Like Paul Revere & the Raiders, they wore colonial outfits on stage.

I Confess:

Ellery Temple briefly joined in 1967, replacing Wally Kemp, and was replaced by Les Kummel. Billy Herman (vocals, drums) replaced James in 1969. Graffia left in 1969 and Bruce Gordon (bass) and Chuck Jobes (keyboards) joined the band. Skip Griparis was playing guitar and singing lead vocals in 1972, until the band's demise at the end of 1974.

I Cold Never Lie To You:

I'm going to hafta cool it a little this afternoon, even though I'm off sick (day 5 of headache), the little woman (all 4'11" of her) still thinks I should do a little something around the house.

Yeah I'll own up to it, I think I still have the 45 of this song, somewhere around here, hell, like you said, they played the crap out of it on the radio, never did buy any albums from them.

Six months in South Australia, with some account of Port Philip and Portland Bay in Australia Felix; with advice to emigrants, to which is added a monthly calendar of gardening and agriculture adapted to the climate and seasons

South Australian facsimile editions

The New Colony of Port Natal

The Mirror of Parliament for the ... session of the ... Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland

The encyclopedia of colonial and revolutionary America