We were camping just off the beach in northern California. We had a campfire going, eating some dinner. We noticed what we thought were ferrets hanging around. It was dark so we couldn't see them that well. They were mostly black with some small white markings on their backs. They got braver and came closer, we just kind of ignored them and let them do their thing. They ended up coming right up to us. We didn't want to scare them so we didn't make any sudden moves. They hung around for a bit, playing with each other, and then took off.
We asked the ranger the next morning, she told us what they were. We'd never seen (nor heard of) spotted skunks before. We were very lucky.
I knew a grad student at the University of Tennessee who studied skunks in the Great Smoky Mountains. She had to handle them regularly, and said they had very distinct personalities, some getting used to the handling by being friendly and cooperative, others spraying her on sight and just out of spite, and everything in between. For several years she always smelled of skunk and had a challenging social life. She was cool.
One time I was on a hike in those same mountains, and a skunk popped out in front of me on the trail. The trail was very narrow and in steep terrain, and so I couldn't get around the skunk. It was going in the same direction I was, so for a half hour or so I had to proceed painfully slowly behind while it waddled happily along.
Beautiful baby! During the 1989 telco strike in NYC, we filled balloons with skunk piss and lobbed them at the scabs crossing the lines. One woman, a manager-scab, with long blond hair used to get to the door and wiggle her ass at the picket line. One of my union buddies (standing next to me) hit her square in the head with skunk piss. Several days later she came back with a shaved head. She didn't wiggle any more. Post Script, after the strike was over, during my first week back to work, the woman saw me and started screaming at the top of her lungs. Later on, my supervisor told me she had been relocated. I've always listed that as one of my personal "bests."
I don't know about the woman that your buddy assaulted with the skunk piss balloon, but when I worked in management during that strike, I was told that if I didn't go to upstate NY and be an operator, I would be fired. Having a ton of student loans to repay, I went and became an operator. The union guys on the picket line outside sympathized with me and didn't give me any grief, and I respected them for that.
I don't know what you remember about that strike but it was a very nasty one. At the beginning of the strike, a picketer - married with children - was run over and MURDERED by a manager driving through the lines in Westchester. A couple of weeks later, two managers driving a truck out of a garage in Brooklyn ran over two picketers and broke their legs. THEN management put out a "cartoon" to the lines bragging about their ATTEMPTED MURDER. The NY papers ran regular interviews with scabs and managers. Just before Thanksgiving, the NY Daily News ran an interview with one scab who said (paraphrasing here), "the strikers are going to food banks while I'm eating turkey." So, when the "woman that your buddy assaulted" was strolling through the lines and wiggling her ass at people engaged in their legal right to get a decent contract, one could say she was TAUNTING people. After all, she was a cute little blonde and all us working oafs were getting by with no pay.
And I am sure you have willfully forgotten that the company stopped medical insurance to thousands of families with children.
The end of the strike came about because, for the first time in the history of the company GALVO cable splicers testified to the EPA about all of the illegal chemicals phone used in cleaning underground cables. The company received what were at that time the largest fines for misuse of chemicals. AND, in all of their infinite wisdom, while the strike was still on, the company held a "retreat" in Florida and paid for strippers and call girls. At the same time, the NYS Public Services Commission was considering a rate hike for the company because of the extra expenses incurred by the strike. The stripper/call girl trip to Florida made it to the front page of the NYT and the PSC turned down the request for a rate hike/. The strike ended after about 10 weeks. Not too long before Christmas.
It's available in stores that sell products used in hunting - does a great job masking human smell. Kind of like garlic, you should only use it if everyone is using it. OTH, HOW to fill a balloon instructions are only available on a need-to-know basis.
I once cornered a skunk in the dark (inadvertently, of course) and got sprayed at close range. Not my dog, me personally.
The smell is, of course, overpowering. But it's not nearly as bad as some others -- rotting flesh is far worse, or mercaptan, the stuff they put in natural gas.
It's also very persistent. It took weeks before it finally went away.
Way back when at my old house on 3 acres we had a skunk family living behind the chicken coop; those babies were SO precious! And I am a naughty human who left their mum treats and extra snacks whilst she was nursing and looking after her four fluffy bebes. Watching them grow was so fascinating, and they'd come out and watch my daughters playing on their swing-set or just running around on the property. It was as if we were two single parent families sharing the space and who became friends.
Momma never even raised her tail at us. She realized we were allies.
Cats and skunks being friends is actually common. Similar-sized furry critters who will fuck you up, but put down cat kibble and they get along. Also includes raccoons.
I had a skunk family encounter in the woods once. I was sitting next to a tree, taking a nap just off a trail. I woke up to something messing with my feet. Momma skunk was climbing over my boots, and she was followed by 6 or so skunklets. I stayed very still. The little ones had to climb up and over like toddlers in a playground and it was wicked cute, but not really fun until it was over. No harm, no foul.
We had a teeny skunk that would visit us almost daily at this hacienda we stayed at in the Yucatan. It was cute and would posture the spray pose but away from us. Clearly we know better than to approach it.
While walking down the beach at Gulf Islands National Seashore my younger daughter dropped a Kit-Kat bar and a quick little skunk hopped (literally) out of the seagrass and grabbed it. We did not contest the loss.
The way Trump and MAGA are treating him, it may be easier to impeach JD. Then Little Marco can step up, give Iran a copy of the Obama Plan with Barry's name whited out (see what I did?) and Trump's name in Black Sharpie. Be hailed as a hero and made Donnie's anointed successor.
Ms. O and I are such trendsetters. We had our bathtub taken out and replaced with a shower many moons ago, and now I see all the cool bathrooms are going the shower route over bathtubs.
They only cover Federal crimes. A lot of states will be arguing who gets to indite them first for not doing their jobs. And let's not forget The Hague.
and of course, now I read that there was a bomb threat on Pope Bob's brother's house. I was just wondering last night when some idiot would put a threat in on either the Pope or someone close to him.
This Clavicular kid seems a hundred kinds of nasty and hateful, but he also seems like he'll very likely be dead by 25. If any one is prescribing him any of his substances, they should be criminally prosecuted. Also if anyone has any influence, so to speak, over him, please get him offline and into treatment asap.
What happened to the good old days of "Less Than Zero," when snotty trust-fund kids could just drink and drug themselves to death and didn't feel the need to "influence" anyone else?
A theory I've heard is that Herr Drumpenfuehrer is going after the Pope as a way to undermine Vance and Rubio, somehow, seeing as how they're Catholics, at least nominally.
Vance and Rubio hardly need any help in the undermining themself department. Vance especially does a pretty good job of it. Also in offering Trump protection against being ousted - knowing the next in line is such a bumblefuck presents another point of friction to invoking impeachment or the 25th.
Bundled baby: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/sleepy-bundled-baby
And your meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/8c18af75-f625-45cf-8a04-25b21f16c04c?utm_source=share
The digging claws and those little white stripes give away his species.
I was guessing something weasel-ish and was pretty close.
The Spotted Skunk
has a stink
that she likes to spray
if you smell it
run away!
We were camping just off the beach in northern California. We had a campfire going, eating some dinner. We noticed what we thought were ferrets hanging around. It was dark so we couldn't see them that well. They were mostly black with some small white markings on their backs. They got braver and came closer, we just kind of ignored them and let them do their thing. They ended up coming right up to us. We didn't want to scare them so we didn't make any sudden moves. They hung around for a bit, playing with each other, and then took off.
We asked the ranger the next morning, she told us what they were. We'd never seen (nor heard of) spotted skunks before. We were very lucky.
Skunks are very laid back critters. Sit quietly and they will will look you over.
We live on a very small street that dead-ends in a woodland.
One night, Easy stepped out onto the front porch late at night.
A mother skunk, followed by three babies, emerged from the underbrush and toddled across the yard.
One of the babies saw Easy, stopped, and put his rear end up in the air.
Easy froze absolutely still and said softly, "No no", whereupon the baby put his butt back down and went on his way with his mother and siblings.
Fortunately the kit was old enough to have control. They were just uncertain.
Kitteh!
I knew a grad student at the University of Tennessee who studied skunks in the Great Smoky Mountains. She had to handle them regularly, and said they had very distinct personalities, some getting used to the handling by being friendly and cooperative, others spraying her on sight and just out of spite, and everything in between. For several years she always smelled of skunk and had a challenging social life. She was cool.
One time I was on a hike in those same mountains, and a skunk popped out in front of me on the trail. The trail was very narrow and in steep terrain, and so I couldn't get around the skunk. It was going in the same direction I was, so for a half hour or so I had to proceed painfully slowly behind while it waddled happily along.
Skunks always have the right of way. And they know it.
Beautiful baby! During the 1989 telco strike in NYC, we filled balloons with skunk piss and lobbed them at the scabs crossing the lines. One woman, a manager-scab, with long blond hair used to get to the door and wiggle her ass at the picket line. One of my union buddies (standing next to me) hit her square in the head with skunk piss. Several days later she came back with a shaved head. She didn't wiggle any more. Post Script, after the strike was over, during my first week back to work, the woman saw me and started screaming at the top of her lungs. Later on, my supervisor told me she had been relocated. I've always listed that as one of my personal "bests."
I don't know about the woman that your buddy assaulted with the skunk piss balloon, but when I worked in management during that strike, I was told that if I didn't go to upstate NY and be an operator, I would be fired. Having a ton of student loans to repay, I went and became an operator. The union guys on the picket line outside sympathized with me and didn't give me any grief, and I respected them for that.
I don't know what you remember about that strike but it was a very nasty one. At the beginning of the strike, a picketer - married with children - was run over and MURDERED by a manager driving through the lines in Westchester. A couple of weeks later, two managers driving a truck out of a garage in Brooklyn ran over two picketers and broke their legs. THEN management put out a "cartoon" to the lines bragging about their ATTEMPTED MURDER. The NY papers ran regular interviews with scabs and managers. Just before Thanksgiving, the NY Daily News ran an interview with one scab who said (paraphrasing here), "the strikers are going to food banks while I'm eating turkey." So, when the "woman that your buddy assaulted" was strolling through the lines and wiggling her ass at people engaged in their legal right to get a decent contract, one could say she was TAUNTING people. After all, she was a cute little blonde and all us working oafs were getting by with no pay.
And I am sure you have willfully forgotten that the company stopped medical insurance to thousands of families with children.
The end of the strike came about because, for the first time in the history of the company GALVO cable splicers testified to the EPA about all of the illegal chemicals phone used in cleaning underground cables. The company received what were at that time the largest fines for misuse of chemicals. AND, in all of their infinite wisdom, while the strike was still on, the company held a "retreat" in Florida and paid for strippers and call girls. At the same time, the NYS Public Services Commission was considering a rate hike for the company because of the extra expenses incurred by the strike. The stripper/call girl trip to Florida made it to the front page of the NYT and the PSC turned down the request for a rate hike/. The strike ended after about 10 weeks. Not too long before Christmas.
Fond memories eo.
I don't want to know how one acquires that stuff, nor how one fills a balloon with it.
It's available in stores that sell products used in hunting - does a great job masking human smell. Kind of like garlic, you should only use it if everyone is using it. OTH, HOW to fill a balloon instructions are only available on a need-to-know basis.
Thanks for cementing this as a good day, by my reckoning--I learned something new, and nobody got hurt.
'Relocated' is the perfect euphemism for this. Well done!
A doorbell!
I once cornered a skunk in the dark (inadvertently, of course) and got sprayed at close range. Not my dog, me personally.
The smell is, of course, overpowering. But it's not nearly as bad as some others -- rotting flesh is far worse, or mercaptan, the stuff they put in natural gas.
It's also very persistent. It took weeks before it finally went away.
Don't corner a skunk.
Tomato juice no longer on the cleansing reco list?
It never really was. A mix of liquid soap and baking soda can help.
That is just ALL of the adorables!
Way back when at my old house on 3 acres we had a skunk family living behind the chicken coop; those babies were SO precious! And I am a naughty human who left their mum treats and extra snacks whilst she was nursing and looking after her four fluffy bebes. Watching them grow was so fascinating, and they'd come out and watch my daughters playing on their swing-set or just running around on the property. It was as if we were two single parent families sharing the space and who became friends.
Momma never even raised her tail at us. She realized we were allies.
My granddaughter!
I KNEW you would weigh in, Skunky!
LOL!
Skunk and cat:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xCLwxnrtYU8
Too cute! Back when I was in the US, I had a cat that made friends with the neighborhood skunk. They used to follow each other everywhere.
Cats and skunks being friends is actually common. Similar-sized furry critters who will fuck you up, but put down cat kibble and they get along. Also includes raccoons.
Skunks have 7 toes?
I had a skunk family encounter in the woods once. I was sitting next to a tree, taking a nap just off a trail. I woke up to something messing with my feet. Momma skunk was climbing over my boots, and she was followed by 6 or so skunklets. I stayed very still. The little ones had to climb up and over like toddlers in a playground and it was wicked cute, but not really fun until it was over. No harm, no foul.
EEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had a teeny skunk that would visit us almost daily at this hacienda we stayed at in the Yucatan. It was cute and would posture the spray pose but away from us. Clearly we know better than to approach it.
That’s funny. I had an almost identical experience.
But with one. The skunk walked up and sniffed my face like a cat.
I pretended to be still asleep but lived in fear. It just walked away.
OMG! I would have probably squee'd and then scared them and got the spray.
They can’t see very well and will investigate things in case they might be tasty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vszWsYOdnPg
So cuuuuute!
And the person did the right thing. Just stay still and let them pass.
Stinky TOE BEANS!
I knew a girl in 4-H who had a "descented" skunk pet. He would ride on her shoulder and nuzzle her cheek.
A lot of skunks sold as pets are descented.
A lot of them?
Some aren't descented?
I'm not speaking as an expert or as an owner, so I weaseled the statement.
While walking down the beach at Gulf Islands National Seashore my younger daughter dropped a Kit-Kat bar and a quick little skunk hopped (literally) out of the seagrass and grabbed it. We did not contest the loss.
I thought the bebe was Hiro.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=956736617104576
The way Trump and MAGA are treating him, it may be easier to impeach JD. Then Little Marco can step up, give Iran a copy of the Obama Plan with Barry's name whited out (see what I did?) and Trump's name in Black Sharpie. Be hailed as a hero and made Donnie's anointed successor.
I was not prepared for the shot of the Aussie interviewer.
I'm way post-menopausal but I think that restarted my cycle.
Also, what looks max boy thinks is maxed was an average dude in my high school. I bet all of us went to school with this guy.
I miss Gaffney!
Ms. O and I are such trendsetters. We had our bathtub taken out and replaced with a shower many moons ago, and now I see all the cool bathrooms are going the shower route over bathtubs.
Trendiness, thy name is me.
I did the same, though only a year ago. Very nice, not having to climb over the edge of a tub.
Well thanks for reminding me that I’m an old and had to google what “mog” meant.
Is there some way to invalidate all of Trump's pardons on the grounds of corruption and bribery?
They only cover Federal crimes. A lot of states will be arguing who gets to indite them first for not doing their jobs. And let's not forget The Hague.
BABBY!
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” he complained.
True. Because if JD Vance weren't in the White House, we would still have Pope Francis.
and of course, now I read that there was a bomb threat on Pope Bob's brother's house. I was just wondering last night when some idiot would put a threat in on either the Pope or someone close to him.
His MAGA brother? Which side did the threat come from?
I'm sorry, but bathrooms without toilets are porn sets.
And those are all showerrooms. Only one of them had an actual bathtub.
Bluesky is currently struggling
And telling us things are "Forbidden!"
When you tell them it's forbidden, it only makes it more enticing.
This Clavicular kid seems a hundred kinds of nasty and hateful, but he also seems like he'll very likely be dead by 25. If any one is prescribing him any of his substances, they should be criminally prosecuted. Also if anyone has any influence, so to speak, over him, please get him offline and into treatment asap.
He can find meth anywhere, let's face it.
What happened to the good old days of "Less Than Zero," when snotty trust-fund kids could just drink and drug themselves to death and didn't feel the need to "influence" anyone else?
Seems like the type to get a 'script from Elon
... or whoever is treating him
Breakfast with Tab's and Coffee ☕💯👍
A theory I've heard is that Herr Drumpenfuehrer is going after the Pope as a way to undermine Vance and Rubio, somehow, seeing as how they're Catholics, at least nominally.
I don't see it.
Objection: assumes a fact not in evidence (that this guy can formulate "intent")
Vance and Rubio hardly need any help in the undermining themself department. Vance especially does a pretty good job of it. Also in offering Trump protection against being ousted - knowing the next in line is such a bumblefuck presents another point of friction to invoking impeachment or the 25th.
"There have been now 7 pardoned J6ers arrested for sex crimes against kids, out of 1600 J6ers total, around 1 in 230."
Give them time, I'm sure the other fifteen-hundred-odd will eventually slip up, too.