Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Mail's newsroom!
I try to avoid it where possible but it is a tempting source of blogging material - I could give it up anytime, though, honstly!
Actually it's looking more and more as if the paper is complied by a bunch of not-very-bright media students on work experience under the dominion of a celebrity-obsessed Mr Big - there's probably a white cat involved somewhere too.
Doubly embarrassing for the Chinese zoologists if it turns out to be a female. Being a marsupial the cuscus has a pouch, and animal you come across that has her own built in handbag is likely to be from Oz/PNG. Of course we should let them off if it's a male because the tell tale signs - a tendency to lie on its back, scratch its balls, belch, fart and barrack for the North Queensland Cowboys - aren't as well known.
There was once a rather gullible and trusting young lady where I worked. For some reason the conversation got round to the similarity between cus-cus the animal and couscous the food. So I suggested that the one was ground up to produce the other. She looked at me for several seconds before the penny dropped and she said "they don't!" ;-)
"Actually it's looking more and more as if the paper is complied by a bunch of not-very-bright media students on work experience..."
Tell you what, doesn't it look like that's increasingly true of all MSM..? ;)
"Doubly embarrassing for the Chinese zoologists if it turns out to be a female. Being a marsupial the cuscus has a pouch, and animal you come across that has her own built in handbag is likely to be from Oz/PNG."
I'm pretty sure the 'Mail' has run this sort of story before, and it turned out to be some sort of easily-identifiable primate.
Not as easily-identifiable as that, though!
"So I suggested that the one was ground up to produce the other."
Behaviour's going to be quite different though. Not seen a cuscus but if it's a possum type marsupial I'd guess it'll be pretty timid. Quolls are the same family as the Tasmanian Devil, and the only one I've seen (in a zoo - I'd be very lucky to see a wild one) had a similarly vicious temper. Didn't seem to want the dead mice it had been given for lunch but I took all the hissing and growling to mean that it very much wanted to see everyone looking at it dead and horribly maimed. Probably not a good pet except for someone who really hates their children.
Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Mail's newsroom!
ReplyDeleteI try to avoid it where possible but it is a tempting source of blogging material - I could give it up anytime, though, honstly!
Actually it's looking more and more as if the paper is complied by a bunch of not-very-bright media students on work experience under the dominion of a celebrity-obsessed Mr Big - there's probably a white cat involved somewhere too.
I thought cus-cus was something you had with Moroccan food ;-)
ReplyDeleteI thought it was Malcolm Rifkind!
ReplyDeleteVery unusual for The Mail to admit not knowing , the subs normally just take a wild stab in the dark
ReplyDeletewv. comical (honest)
Doubly embarrassing for the Chinese zoologists if it turns out to be a female. Being a marsupial the cuscus has a pouch, and animal you come across that has her own built in handbag is likely to be from Oz/PNG. Of course we should let them off if it's a male because the tell tale signs - a tendency to lie on its back, scratch its balls, belch, fart and barrack for the North Queensland Cowboys - aren't as well known.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually surprised at how many readers the Mail has in Auz and NZ, who'd have thunk it?
ReplyDeleteI hate couscous. Girly food.
ReplyDeleteOh bugger Curmedgeon beat me to it.
There was once a rather gullible and trusting young lady where I worked. For some reason the conversation got round to the similarity between cus-cus the animal and couscous the food. So I suggested that the one was ground up to produce the other. She looked at me for several seconds before the penny dropped and she said "they don't!" ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy first guess was a Quoll.
ReplyDeleteMust try harder?
"Actually it's looking more and more as if the paper is complied by a bunch of not-very-bright media students on work experience..."
ReplyDeleteTell you what, doesn't it look like that's increasingly true of all MSM..? ;)
"Doubly embarrassing for the Chinese zoologists if it turns out to be a female. Being a marsupial the cuscus has a pouch, and animal you come across that has her own built in handbag is likely to be from Oz/PNG."
I'm pretty sure the 'Mail' has run this sort of story before, and it turned out to be some sort of easily-identifiable primate.
Not as easily-identifiable as that, though!
"So I suggested that the one was ground up to produce the other."
Heh! Had the same conversation in my office... ;)
"My first guess was a Quoll."
They are superficially similar. It's the coloration.
Behaviour's going to be quite different though. Not seen a cuscus but if it's a possum type marsupial I'd guess it'll be pretty timid. Quolls are the same family as the Tasmanian Devil, and the only one I've seen (in a zoo - I'd be very lucky to see a wild one) had a similarly vicious temper. Didn't seem to want the dead mice it had been given for lunch but I took all the hissing and growling to mean that it very much wanted to see everyone looking at it dead and horribly maimed. Probably not a good pet except for someone who really hates their children.
ReplyDeleteut I took all the hissing and growling to mean that it very much wanted to see everyone looking at it dead and horribly maimed.
ReplyDeleteSounds like every Honey Badger I've ever seen