Some Final Images of Mild Interest

Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with his partner Sally, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap.

My tour of blogging duty is wrapping up here, but I wanted to put up some photos I had set aside here for possible blogging use. Here we go:

This squirrel got himself stuck in our homemade squirrel feeder. Ha ha ha! Idiot! (I got him out okay; he's fine.)

No one here is interested in getting into any Apple vs. Microsoft crap, but I saw this Zune wall-outlet-to-5V-USB adapter, and compared it to the one that came with my iPhone, and was a bit confused. Microsoft is a colossal company, with more money than God's dad's boss. Why is their AC adapter about four times the size of the Apple one? Couldn't they have called, say, anyone in China and asked for an AC adapter as small as the Apple one? I can't imagine the cost is that much more, in volume. Baffling.

Murillee Martin at Jalopnik has a really wonderful set of junkyard pictures. You can never have too many. I had a Volvo P1800S like the one in the sample image there, too. I hope that's not it.

There's a fair number of sites on the web that mock these sorts of improvised solutions. I love them-- This guy had a dead van, a working truck, and a dream. Way to go, improviser!

This happened a while ago, but it's so much fun to talk about. One morning, I pulled back my desk chair in my office, and found this possum.

• [Anonymous]

  Pretty sure that, in contradiction of previous comments, the Australian creature is called the ‘Opossum’ (ie Leadbeater’s Opossum) and the American creature is a ‘Possum’. In Oz, however, ‘Possum’ is used as a colloquialism, because Aussies like to shorten everthing.

• [Darren Garrison]

  #14– they aren’t “nasty.” I had one (maybe 1/3 to 2/5 adult size) captured once and it was a few hours before I drove it down to a creek to release it– during that time it kept grooming itself like a cat, only it used it’s back feet when a cat would use it’s front– it would lick it’s back feet and comb through it’s fir just like a cat. Also (and I don’t know if this is a trait of all possums or a quirk of this one) it blinked one eye at a time, never both eyes at once.

  They move pretty slowly most of the time– their default speed seems to be “mosey.” When I catch one, how I do it is to simply walk up to it and pick it up by the end of the tail. And their reaction to that tends to be more of a “will you please stop that?” annoyance than a “I’m going to rip your fracking throat out” anger.

• [Takuan]

  they love to be petted:
  http://www.aaanimalcontrol.com/gallery/opossum021.jpg

• [freeyourcrt]

  If you follow the link to the junkyard pictures you might find this interesting link of on the Jalopnik site on how to destroy a car’s engine:
  http://jalopnik.com/5327580/video-how-to-disable-a-cash-for-clunkers-car?skyline=true&s=i

• [grimc]

  Add a rocket motor, fins and a pressure switch, and you could feed the squirrels a little something I like to call, “adventure”.

• [Anonymous]

  whats the amp difference between the apple adaptor and the zune? that may be the difference in size. i know my htc power adaptors are all 2amp which means my batts charge much faster then those with 500mA like say using the razr wallwart or plugging into a pc port.

• [Johnny Cat]

  Microsoft :: Baffling

  as

  Wolverine :: Anger

• [Anonymous]

  To you its a squirrel feeder but to him its a squirrel trap.

• [ToMajorTom]

  I have enjoyed many of your blog posts during your stint here. Thanks!

• [KurtMac]

  Sweet Zombie Jesus! Now every time before I sit down at my computer I’m going to have to perform a quick scan of the under-desk area for any out of place, ankle biting mammals.

• [Stefan Jones]

  I hope you get another BB guest gig in the future!

  I second the suggestion that that squirrel feed should have been mounted on a rocket. Squirrels make walking my dog far harder than it should be. They are cocky little bastards that need to be taught humility, if only for the time it takes to plummet to earth from peak Mighty D altitudes.

• [Steiny]

  “I call the big one Bitey!”

• [Anonymous]

  That’s an Opossum.

  Possum are in Australia.

• [Darren Garrison]

  I’ve had more encounters with posii in the house than I care to count. Here’s one of my favorite photos I took of captured (kitchen trashcan) one that wasn’t thrilled with me:

  http://s313.photobucket.com/albums/ll394/darrengarrison/nature/?action=view&current=p1.jpg

• [Modusoperandi]

  Anonymous “That’s an Opossum.”
  Can’t be. O’possums are from Ireland. Obviously.

• [dragonet2]

  We have opossums in Kansas City. They are the only North American marsupial.

  I really don’t want to think of one in the house, that gives me the willies. It would likely shred my cats.

  Urban ‘possums don’t play dead, they turn around and get all bitey.

• [Anonymous]

  Why would you want to feed the squirrels? Do you also feed the pigeons, rats, and roaches?

• [MrsBug]

  Awww, my hubbie and I love possums! We get them under our bird feeders, mostly in the winter.

  The Opossum Society has some FAQs that are interesting. Who knew there was an Opossum Society, for that matter.

• [stratojoe]

  I don’t understand all the squirrel hate.

  Watching them gambol across the lawn makes me feel happy.

  they are merry little creatures.

  MERRY!!!!!

• [Takuan]

  well Joe, it’s simple: squirrels are EVIL.

• [Takuan]

  http://www.geocities.com/nickedemis/

• [Anonymous]

  I once found a mouse sitting under my desk in one half of an extra pair of shoes. This was in an 11th-floor office in the middle of Manhattan. We later discovered a mouse condominium behind a bookcase. Critters. Gotta love their ingenuity.

• [btb]

  It’s a Possum

  possum, n.1
  1. Any of various marsupial mammals of North and South America, esp. Didelphis virginiana; = OPOSSUM n. 1. Now colloq.

• [Fred H]

  I would have left the squirrel in the feeder for a little longer. Just to give him to to think about what he’s done.

• [Anonymous]

  I never heard those little bad boys called anything but possums. Matter of fact, I never even heard anyone say the word “opossum”. I’m from Georgia and they’re all over the place, mostly dead in the middle of the road.

• [franko]

  sweet jeebus. now i’m going to have to turn on the lights before i turn on my computer in the mornings. how in the world did it get IN, and how did you get it OUT?

  oh, and #10: that thing has remarkably white teeth and healthy gums for something so nasty.