Oh....possum

The stairwell that I usually take up to my office (gotta get that morning exercise in) was blocked off this morning, with a huge metal grate that said "the bathrooms are closed for maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience." "What a curious way to block the bathroom," I thought. I looked around to see what was going on and peeked up into the stairwell. Didn't find anything. When I had the grate half removed, I looked over in the corner and saw a huge possum! For those of you not familiar with the south, possums (short for opossums) look like huge multicolored rats. And they smell. And they might have rabies.

Anyway, I pushed the grate back, ran away, found some friends, and came back. There was a lady from Houston dept. of Wildlife Management (they actually share the building with us) with gloves and a net. She scooped the critter up, and carried him outside to who knows where. Maybe under my car. He bit her hand in the process.

For a clear image of what went on, here is part of the wikipedia article on opossum:

When threatened or harmed, they will "play possum", mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. The lips are drawn back, teeth are bared, saliva foams around the mouth, and a foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal glands. The physiological response is involuntary, rather than a conscious act. Their stiff, curled form can be prodded, turned over, and even carried away. The animal will regain consciousness after a period of minutes or hours and escape.

Yee-haw.

Expense reports

The irs has just hired thousands of new employees to raise more money for the government...specifically, investigating certain areas for compliance, including expense reports. Frankly I never did understand the system: If you spend $900 on a client for a business meeting it is cool but if you lost your receipt for getting yourself a sandwich then it is trouble city. At least at my company it always was. Anyway, now receipts are always required so instead of the sandwich, it is the two Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers you got at Wendy's that will get you into trouble.

Apparently (according to Cialdini's "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion") there is a correlation between food and a party's compliance. That's why legislators are swayed over meals and fund-rasiers involve plenty of food. Just like Pavlov's dogs, people will associate the pleasant feeling with the person across the table from them, instead of the food, and trick themselves into compliance.

Maybe that's also why people always propose over fancy dinners.

The first words ever stored on a hard drive were...

"This has been a day of solid achievement."


While you're pondering this, here is a picture of our politicians hard at work: