Friday Grab Bag

The Friday Grab Bag
A little bit of everything today, from the sex lives of squirrels to voyeuristic firemen. And introducing a new feature: Gargoyle of the Week.

Feeling Squirrelly
The Daily Telegraph reports that environmental officials are eager to start a mass sterilization of gray squirrels, an invasive species that is threatening Britain's native red squirrel population. Scientists are trying to develop a bait that would render the pests infertile.

I'm thinking tiny little squirrel condoms.

Cuckoo?
Patients waking up at hospitals in the Liverpool area will soon be hearing something other than the beep of respirators and the moaning of their fellow inmates. Award-winning sound artist Chris Watson recorded the "dawn chorus," the morning concerto provided by British songbirds, and will play it back at five medical centers. His hope is it will uplift and recharge patients.

"The dawn chorus is believed to be a cathartic process, the combination of sound and the transformation of light to dark providing hope and inspiration," reads an entry on the Web site of the sponsoring group, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology.

If the Privet's a-Rockin', Don't Come a-Knockin'
This headline caught my eye in the Times yesterday: "Firemen Are Disciplined for Disturbing Orgy in Bushes." Four Avon fire fighters returning from a call shined a flashlight into a bush where four men were having sex. One of the bush-sex men later complained of the intrusion and after a three-month investigation the fire fighters were disciplined.

Two were fined 1,000 pounds, one was demoted and the fourth was given a written warning. All have been required to take a two-day course called “Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender Equality in the Fire Service – an absolute taboo?”

It's illegal to have sex in a public place, but really, how public is a bush, even if there are three other people there? Larry Craig's lawyers may want to look into this case.

Gargoyle of the Week
I snapped this yesterday at St. John's College:



Have a great weekend and thanks for reading.