Consider the Squirrel.

A letter to the editor of The News-Times:

I just wanted to let you know that the use of the word 'fried' in your article about the squirrel who caused the power outage at the CL&P substation was completely distasteful and offensive to people who are animal lovers.

Apparently, the copy was not written or edited by someone of that nature.

Given the way the economy is, and that the print business is in jeopardy, I think you need to be a little more in touch with those of us who still actually subscribe to your printed version.

Lisa Vannais-Shultz

BREWSTER, N.Y.

Oh, we are sensitive! But I shouldn't laugh. Yesterday, at the Crossroads Café, MadisonMan looked at that photograph...



... and said:

By the way, the street coming into the picture from the right is fun to drive on, very nice opposing curves as you turn onto it from Prospect and go down the hill.

And I was all:

Yes, but be careful. There are no stop signs at the crossroad at the top of the hill.

I'll never forget the time I was walking home alone late at night after a party, through new-fallen snow, thinking how perfectly beautiful the world was, and then -- it was right at the top of the hill -- a little squirrel scampered into the road, making me think life! how perfect! how beautiful! And a car immediately swept up the hill and flattened the squirrel.

Palladian responded aptly:

Huh, see for me that would have made even happier. Squirrels are evil.

Ah, but I have a defense. That snowy night was long ago, when I was very sensitive about animals... and death. I was always looking for sublime beauty and meaning in landscapes, and thinking poetically, so if I had a thought and an animal did something, it was a message from the universe. Also, around that time and a few blocks from that place, there was a cat that had a squirrel frozen in fear in the middle of the street. For 10 minutes, various adults and children gathered in the hope of rescuing the squirrel. I can't remember why it was so difficult, but the cat was fixated on the squirrel, and the squirrel seemed to know that when it moved the cat would pounce. When, after much effort, we shooed the cat away, the children cheered, and a garbage truck rolled down the street and squashed the squirrel.

So I was talking about the past, when I was more sentimental. These days, I'm a cruel blogger, and when I blog about squirrels, I blog things like this. Click on that photo to see what I think of the creature.