Trivia: November 2008 Archives

Maybe I shouldn’t be tempting Nature like this. After all, I had yesterday’s blog post about a rabid fox, and we wound up with a wren flying around inside our house last night. (I was eventually able to get it back outside, but it was an interesting hunt for it. It hid for a while — where, we’re not sure.)

But this is too funny to ignore. The British in Basra, Iraq gave what may be the best line all-time in a military press conference:

“We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.”

That is an actual quote. (It sure feels like a Monty Python-type quote.) I’m guessing that maybe the US military is falling behind in this key technology area. Apparently, all we have are rabid foxes.

More seriously, do you think you’re having problems relating to the local populace if they think you’re releasing man-eating badgers on them? Although maybe it would be kind of cool if the British did have a troop of man-eating badgers. They could be put at risk before sending the troops in.

I do have to admit the quote is over a year old. I caught it by listening recently to an old podcast (July 15, 2007) of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. It’s a great show on NPR and perfect for listening to at a later time on a podcast. They really find some amusing stories and get some great guests on there. It never fails to amuse me.

A part of me has passed on. I must say I’m pleasantly surprised by the finale for Opus. (If you haven’t seen the final panel, where he winds up — well, you can see it here.) Where Opus winds up really hit me, because it’s a book I often read multiple times each night to the twins. And it seems so peaceful and right. No, he doesn’t get the hot island babes, but there’s something everlasting about that final page (even in the original)

And this sure looks like it for Opus. Nice of Berkeley Breathed to share him with us all these years. (Yes, I had the collection books, and the t-shirts, and the Opus dolls in the 80s.) And we finally get to see Steve Dallas without the sunglasses today, too, and he looks like a kind and sentimental soul, too. Perhaps a bit of Berkeley showing in that look?

Berkeley Breathed shares his thoughts in this interview that I saw in syndication here in the Richmond paper today. Thank you for Opus. He’ll remain a piece of my heart, that subversive little penguin.