Trivia Question: What's the difference between a Possum and an Opossum?
Answer (mainly for the benefit of the Computer Repairperson, who detests Trivia Questions almost as much as I detest groundhogs and blankety-blank rabbits):
The Opossum is the North American marsupial, order Deldimorphia. By contrast, the o-less term Possum denotes the animals native to Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand, order Diprotodontia, which includes the sugar gliders, ringtails, and cuscus, and other Phalangeriforms.
Next question: Did I know this, or did I look it up? Answer: I didn't know it until I looked it up.
The above picture is my latest Opossum. The Bopnopper and I took this young one out to the Madison Run Wilderness area last night. Bopnopper held the flashlight while I unlocked the cage, and we watched as he skedaddled down the bank to the rushing mountain stream which is flowing again from the recent rains which constituted the remnant of Hurricane Fay.
I decided against posting a picture of my most recent blankety-blank rabbit. I was mowing the yard, and as I ran the tractor over a rabbit hole out in the tall grass of the lower-forty, I heard a "thump" under the mower deck. Perhaps this is where Disney got the name "Thumper" for his rabbit in the Bambi movie. Anyway, I decided against posting a picture of this Thumper, for reasons which should be obvious. Let's just say that I'm happy to save a little bit of gasoline because I won't have to take this one over to the meadow by the park. One down, about twenty left to go, I'd guess...
Monday, September 01, 2008
An Opossum, Not a Possum
Trivia Question: What's the difference between a Possum and an Opossum?
Answer (mainly for the benefit of the Computer Repairperson, who detests Trivia Questions almost as much as I detest groundhogs and blankety-blank rabbits):
The Opossum is the North American marsupial, order Deldimorphia. By contrast, the o-less term Possum denotes the animals native to Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand, order Diprotodontia, which includes the sugar gliders, ringtails, and cuscus, and other Phalangeriforms.
Next question: Did I know this, or did I look it up? Answer: I didn't know it until I looked it up.
The above picture is my latest Opossum. The Bopnopper and I took this young one out to the Madison Run Wilderness area last night. Bopnopper held the flashlight while I unlocked the cage, and we watched as he skedaddled down the bank to the rushing mountain stream which is flowing again from the recent rains which constituted the remnant of Hurricane Fay.
I decided against posting a picture of my most recent blankety-blank rabbit. I was mowing the yard, and as I ran the tractor over a rabbit hole out in the tall grass of the lower-forty, I heard a "thump" under the mower deck. Perhaps this is where Disney got the name "Thumper" for his rabbit in the Bambi movie. Anyway, I decided against posting a picture of this Thumper, for reasons which should be obvious. Let's just say that I'm happy to save a little bit of gasoline because I won't have to take this one over to the meadow by the park. One down, about twenty left to go, I'd guess...
4 comments:
Hey, I actually knew the possum/opossum one! You didn't give me a chance to show off my brilliance! Pout!
Also, the word "opossum" can have the first O silent or pronounced, whichever you prefer, but if you pronounce it with a silent O, then you'd write "a opossum," despite the fact that the word starts with a vowel. "A" and "an" depend on how words are pronounced, not how they're spelled.
Now do YOU know the difference between the two different pronunciations of the word "the" and where each would be used?
Yep, isn't it the same as the a and an? The with the short e is for use immediately before consonant starting words, and the with the long e (thee) is used before vowel-starting words. THUH darn cat is THEE Alpha male. Also, the long e sound is used for emphasis, for instance if you are talking about THEE darned cat as opposed to all other darned cats, the specificity of the reference allows the long e sound for emphasis. Am I right?
lol!
hrmm.. I don't think they got the name thumper for the rabbit because they ran over his house with a tractor ;)
Oh wait, did...thumper get run over too! O_O
Good job, Dad! You get an A+. Most people aren't even aware that there are two different "the"s. I'm impressed.
Now, who was Hubble? Haha!
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