Song

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

Cesare

Never before has a Sanity Creek vintner achieved actual wine. All prior monkeys who set out to make wine found only caskets of (albeit very good) vinegar. Generations of monkeys finally tired of oil and vinegar dressing on their watercress and switched to lemon. But Cesare has done it! He cultivates certified organic Dolcetto grapes, and the wine is oaky yet sweet. And somehow, it never leaves the monkeys with morning headaches. Cesare has revealed his secrets only to Guzzi. When anyone asks her about his methods, she just smiles.



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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 17

The Fancy World Collection
Number 2

Citron-Cecile

On Tuesdays, when Citron-Cecile creates her éclairs, all the young monkeys skip school to hide under her window. Just to smell that gorgeous decadence. Citron-Cecile has won a baker's dozen of international awards and medals for her French pastry. Her delights and frippery are so rich and yet so feathery--more delicate than anyone has ever tasted, even in fluffy-eyed dreams.




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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 16

The Fancy World Collection
Number 1

Stripey Joe

Stripey Joe broke my heart. Well, he broke a lot of hearts at Sanity Creek. But Stripey Joe had no use for romance; his one love was always his music. So he studied and worked until he was able to craft the world's tiniest piano. Now he tours the globe, playing in more than seven hundred microscopic concert halls. Full, no doubt, of swooning fans (Just look at him!)








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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 15

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ADOPTED

Junior Sedgewick

Junior Sedgewick is a painter, self-taught, and if you haven't heard of him, you will. He was recently discovered by a very important Parisian art dealer, but we can't talk about it officially until summer. His full name is Reginald Acidophilus Rutabaga Sedgewick, but we just call him Junior. For his canvases, he takes ten by ten discarded steel plates and quarters them, so everything's five by five.

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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 14

Les Artistes Collection
Number 2

Ignatius

Who knows a thousand jokes about a banana? They always knew Ignatius would be a comedian (or a politician) and everyone at Sanity Creek was pleased he chose the former. A natural clown, he wrote and performed his first stand-up routine at age four. Whenever the power is out or monkeys just need cheering up, Ignatius is the go-to monkey.

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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 13

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ADOPTED

Miss Minerva

Miss Minerva is a synchronized swimmer. She has fashioned herself after an amalgam of all the silent movie stars. Miss Minerva speaks seven languages, all equally well in the air as when she is submerged in her alabaster-lined pool. And yes, she has some secrets.



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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 12

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ADOPTED

Randall Newhouse

Never one to underestimate the power of comfort and familiarity, Randall Newhouse is a spatial relations phenomenologist. His landmark study, "How far is too far? Trends in housing and building migration" has influenced a generation of environmentalists and real estate agents. His "next door" homes have been replicated across all of Sanity Creek, many of the monkeys tending to build houses next to their old houses.



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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 11

The Scholars Collection
Number 1

Spinetta

Spinetta is Sanity Creek's fastest and most dependable bike messenger. Like lightning, she delivers packages for gatherings, shindigs, and hootenannies, and has never missed a deadline. (Nor has she missed a gathering, shindig, or hootenanny.) Spinetta has front row tickets everywhere.





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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 10

Guzzi

Guzzi doesn't say much, but she is an exquisite listener. She has visited every continent at least once. She loves to climb mountains and keeps an impressive collection of abandoned birds' nests from her travels. When she's at Sanity Creek, you will often find her sitting by the wishing well, humming some traditional ballad or other.

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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 9

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ADOPTED

Jonesy

Poor Jonesy. He would have been the valedictorian of his class at Sanity Creek School of the Arts if he'd only shown up for that AP chemistry exam. But he'd been up most of the night at a candlelight vigil to protest the first Gulf War, and he didn't hear his alarm clock. Everyone calls him a genius, but he just claims to have good study habits.

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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 8

Peacenik Collection
Number 1

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ADOPTED

Dodie

Dodie is the undisputed jacks champion of Sanity Creek. When she was only seven years old, she invented a series of behind-the-back squeeges that are now not only patented, but legendary in the world of professional jacks. It helps to have really long arms, but she's also a generous teacher and will give away all her secrets is you find her in a gregarious mood.


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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 7

Big-boned Gals Collection
Number 4

Ina May Monkey

Ina May Monkey was named after Ina May Gaskin, author and midwife at The Farm in Tennessee. Following in her namesake's footsteps, the monkey Ina May taught the other monkey midwives at Sanity Creek how to support monkeys in pregnancy, labor and birth. She still catches monkey babies at Sanity Creek, and believes firmly in the importance of sphincter law. Her mantra, borrowed from the article by Skylar Browning, is "Let your monkey do it!"

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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 6

Birth Collection
Number 1

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ADOPTED

Virgil

Virgil is a storyteller and performance artist. In the 1980s, he created a piece, loosely based on the inner turmoil of a traveling salesman, during which he used duct tape to adhere cold cuts all over his body. (He doesn't like to talk about it.) In recent years, he has evolved into a more low-tech storyteller.





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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 5

Les Artistes Collection
Number 1

Penelope

Penelope loves her cousin, Princess Feist, though she has sworn never to call her by her alleged title, because of the dubious evidence of royalty. And yes, Penelope is a nudist, but no, she never takes off her pearls.




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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 4

Big-boned Gals Collection
Number 3

Milton

Milton stopped speaking five years ago, and is saving his pennies for a trip to Strasbourg, France: the home of his hero, Marcel Marceau. Milton co-founded the organization "Give Mimes A Chance" which works to decrease the general public's distain for mimes.




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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 3

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ADOPTED

Princess Feist

Princess Feist doesn't understand the merits of using an "inside voice." Through ornate lineage research, she found out several years ago that she is, in fact, a princess. At the waning of the disco era, she almost became engaged to a sock monkey belonging to an heir of the Tiffany jewelry dynasty, but she remembered the Beatles singing "All you need is love" and since she didn't feel it, she eschewed the proposal.




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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 2

Big-boned Gals Collection
Number 2

Ulli

Ulli makes the best garlic pasta. The trick, she says, is to slice the garlic thinner than paper. She is also a master archer; her aim is legendary at Sanity Creek. But she doesn't hunt. She loves modern dance, and her long limbs can emulate any abstract sculpture in the world. Honest and loyal, she loves to watch the shape of clouds.








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Sanity Creek Sock Monkey
Number 1

Big-boned Gals Collection
Number 1

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ADOPTED