>From: Fisher L <Fisher_L.ChemI&[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 04:44:34 -0500
>Subject: Re: Excursions, the towel game, and ferret fishing help
>
>BTW - are you a chemist or chemistry major perhaps?  I'm wondering about
>your ferrets' names.  I'm a chemist/chemistry grad student, hence the name
>Alky (short for alkyl).
 
actually, no -- although i nearly was.  the ferrets' names came about when i
brought them home.  Beaker just looked like her name was beaker (don't ask me
why -- it just seemed that way), and so we (i have a roommate, who actually
prefers his fish to my ferrets -- they don't stink as much) needed to figure
out a name for the other one.  "snot" was the first idea, because he sneezed a
lot (we think he may be allergic to dust), then "doctor bunsen honeydew"
(remember the muppets?), and finally Ehrlenmeier -- in part because he looks
like an Ehrl, or earl.  my grandmother, who _is_ a chemist, wanted to know
why the female was Beaker, and not Florence.  And my younger brother was all
for naming them Beavis & Butt-Head.
 
things they like to steal: i have a wrought-iron bed, and hang many things,
including my work ID, on the curlicues.  somehow the little wretches managed
to steal the ID and hide it inside a rolled-up sleeping bag in my closet.  i
actually had to explain to one of the security guards why it was all chewed
on the edges....   Ehrl also likes making off with the scented candles on my
nightstand, which he nabs by flinging himself from my bed (about 2 feet away)
with front paws outstretched, and knocking them to the floor.  after a few
days gathering dust and ferret-slobber under my bureau, he's quite welcome
to keep them!
 
[Posted in FML issue 0777]