Richard's Poor Almanac by Richard Thompson for April 11, 2013
Transcript:
there's an opossum in my garage! well don't panic! opossums are beneficial in many ways! they'll happily devour any lice, fleas, nits, ticks, chiggers, slugs, grubs, etc. infesting most foreign and domestic cars, leaving them showroom-new! guy: hey! did you know? opossums are the only marsupial native to north america! they even predate the dinosaurs! this makes them just insufferable. possum: we came over to america in 153 mil-lion b.c., unlike some mammals i could name. opossum fun fact - when cornered an opossum will play dead, or at least fake a spastic colon, so convincingly that even hardened critics are fooled! possum: agh it sure looked dead to me! -60 second preview better than "shear madness"! -variety opossums in the arts- american auther henry james was famous for his collection of stuffed opossums! of course, it was probably one of those things where somebody once gave him a stuffed opossum & he feigned enthusiasm just to be nice & then - boom - everybody's giving him stuffed opossums until he's heartily sick of the wretched things. james had accumulated over 300 stuffed opossums by 1916 when he died, ironically of a spastic colon. want to learn more about opossums? come on over to my garage, but watch your step, there are tent-worms all over the place. next week - collecting snowglobes with ernest hemingway.
Sisyphos over 11 years ago
Holy opossum factoids, Super Cartoonist!
Bob. over 11 years ago
Why do they play dead in the road? Don’t appear to be cornered there
vwdualnomand over 11 years ago
in the south, them is good eatin’
Pickbrain over 11 years ago
They stuffed Henry James after he died. A lot of people thought he was more animated (and a better writer) than he was when he was still alive.
DAVID ROBERTSON over 11 years ago
Bit difficult to stuff ashes. “…he died in London on 28 February 1916. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and his ashes are interred at Cambridge, Massachusetts.”
magicwalnut Premium Member over 11 years ago
That’s exactly what happened to my BFF. Only with pigs. and to my neighbor, with roosters. Both of them absolutely hate their collections, but have to display them in case their donors arrive unexpectedly. Only thing I collect is dust….
pam Miner over 11 years ago
I like opossums. they kind of look like giant rats, and are very gentle pets, but they don’t live very long. go see the Opossum Lady! She is very funny!