Monday, June 13, 2011

Accuracy in biological nomenclature

When assaulting someone with a dead animal that you randomly found lying in the road, it's always important to know exactly what species you are armed with.

Thank you, JoAnna!

11 comments:

Mrs A said...

lol, i bet he couldnt weasel out of that! sorry.

Anonymous said...

He DID know what species he was armed with. It was the victim who misidentified the marten as a weasel.
It is inaccurate to say that a marten is a member of the weasel family, so the victim wasn't even half-right. It would be more accurate to say that martens and weasels belong to the same family, along with stoats, ferrets and a few other species.
Having said that, I don't think misidentifying a marten as a weasel is a mistake so heinous as to deserve a punch in the face.

Whitney said...

There's an update. Turns out both of them were wrong! Clearly they need remedial animal ID classes. http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_16032/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=igErfQtM

Laura said...

Read this in the "National" section of my local paper the other day. awesome!

Mal said...

Psych consult.

Is it just me, or does America have an unusually high (and increasing) proportion of total nutjobs?

Packer said...

found the 33-year-old Hoquiam man is that like Neanderthal Man.

Call Dr. Pissy's dad for his 101 ways to cook a weasel. Pulled Marten Sandwiches are good.

In answer to question does America.......total nut jobs ? Didn't that whole rapture thing answer the question affirmatively just a few days ago.nutses my word verifier.

J-Quell'n said...

My friend had this posted to his facebook wall a few days ago...I laughed so hard when I read it. I then proceeded to tell another friend about it later on, acting the entire story out as it had played through my mind while reading it earlier. My friend died...died. "Why you got a weasel?" "It ain't a weasel, it's a marten!" :D

gena said...

The oft-quoted line from "The Big Lebowski" comes to mind. "Nice marmot." What, now I get a punch in the nose, too?

Mockingbird said...

Critters can be a mite confusing to yankeefolk.
If a gal was to come in here with a dead rattler, that'd be hostile.
However, if the same gal shows up with a dead oppossum, that'd be real friendly, and could lead to a
lot of fun.

Anonymous said...

Since it was neither a weasel or a marten, but a mink, I think the punchee should get to punch the puncher back, while yelling "Wrong! It's a MINK!"

Anonymous said...

I think they were trying to avoid the real issue altogether, that of misidentifying a damn polecat (most Americans call skunks 'polecats', when really there should be such a distinction).

As kids in the far north we were never confused about our wolverine family-members; otters, martens, stoats, fitches and ferrets. However, PETA might consider there is a real difference in wearing a mink stole and a polecat furpiece.

SPEAKING of badgers... a kind of badger known as tanuki is quite incredibly humorous in Japan, for its pornographic and folkloric depiction of the male species; Tan tan tanuki no kintama wa, Kaze mo nai no ni, Bura bura bura" with 'kintama' referring to the ancient European symbol for the moneylender.

 
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