Hey folks- sorry for the slow email responses, but I have something like
300+ in the box, so it will take some time to get through them.  I also have
a reading class from hell, requiring the equivelant of 2-3 books per week,
so, things have been a bit testy.  I'll get to the mail, but if something is
really important, then reship it with the subect line in caps, and I'll know
to get to it fast.
 
For those that asked, as well as those who do not care, the origin of the
word polecat is easy.  Its hip slang from the late 30's, meaning someone who
is good at shooting pool.  No?  How about a felid on a telephone pole?
 
Ok, I missed the originial question, but spies sent it to me anyway, so you
will just have to put up with my smartie remarks as I ferret out the origins
of the word.
 
Polecat is probably an English corruption of the French "poulchat" (I've
seen various spellings), much like our words for beef (boeuf), pork (porc),
mutton (mouton) and cars (Chevrolet).  Ha!  Got ya!  Chat is french for cat,
and poul- is probably either poule for hen or poulet for poultry.  In short,
polecat refers to a hencat or poultrycat, no doubt a reference to the times
wild polecats raided henhouses.
 
The use of polecat in the Americas is normally reserved for skunks.  The
practice goes back to the eariest colonial days, and it probably stems from
the fact that polecats will spray when alarmed, and really stink up the
place.  So the word transfered to the skunk because skunks do the same
thing, only much better.  Interestingly, another common name for polecat is
foulmart.  You had Sweetmarts (House or Beech Martens) and Foulmarts
(Polecats, and later-to a degree- Ferrets), and the martens were the ones
that didn't spray and stink.  I've often wanted to name my next ferret Foul
Marten, or F-arten for short....
 
Name transference is a quite common thing actually; coyotes used to be
called red jackels or prairie wolves, based on their obvious physical
similarities.  Sometimes you just can't figger it out, like why are American
moose called elk in Europe, and American elk are called red deer, when the
elk is the moose, and the red deer is the elk?  Follow?  Or why is the
black-footed ferret not a polecat, when the steppe and European polecats
are?  Or why are subhumans called hominids in science, when in California
they are called the Fish and Gestapo?  (Can you say Ganglion Brain?  Well,
can you say "doh?")
 
That is the trouble with common names, and one of the major reasons Lineaus
came up with the taxonomic system I've been talking about.  So if you said
polecat, you could mean skunks or large weasels, but if you said _Mustela
putorius_, you only mean the European polecat.  Specifically.
 
Ok, here's a freebee.  The Modern English "ferret" comes from the
Late-Middle English "feret" which comes from the Middle English "furet"
which comes from the Middle French "furet" which comes from the Vulgar Latin
"furittus" which came from the Latin "fur." Fur means thief, and furittus
means little thief.  Got it?  Hey, Furittus is kinda cool for a name...how
about Furittus F.  Marten?
 
As a short virtual sidebar, one of the reasons science works is that it is
self-correcting. Mistakes are made all the time, but sooner or later, they
are corrected, which is why science books have to always be rewritten. The
basic method of science is to prove something wrong, that is, falsify
something, and you only believe something might be true when you can't prove
it is wrong.  So science tests everything, and the hallmark of a good
scientist is the willingness to test ideas, and the acceptance that most
good ideas are wrong (or at least unprovable).  So, are the California Fish
and Gestapo doing good science?  They are not doing science at all; they do
not research, they do not hypothesize, they do not try to falsify.  They
just say "it is so" and expect all to blindly follow.  That is not science,
it is facism, and we already faught one war to stamp it out.  It is
pseudoscience, nothing more, and in fact, less.  It is the equivilent of
intellectual slavery.  If brains were feces, they'd be nothing but hot gas.
 
In my opinion, California ferrets need allies, and there just isn't enough
of the biology experts helping out.  Instead of trying to convince possible
allies the ferret is a non-wildlife threat, why not show them how the F&G
METHODS are faultly.  Even if they haven't read the evidence, they can
recognize psuedoscience when they see it.  Better yet, buy time on radio and
point out the nazi tactics used.  Tie it to cats, sort of a "Today the
Ferret, Tomorrow the Cat!" sort of thing.  For ideas, see this month's
edition of "Audubon" magazine, and their stance against feral house cats.
That should get rich old ladies out and voting.
 
"Fish and Gestapo," from the Latin for "One without a brain," a synonym
for acephalus. Ooo, sorry, they were *setting* on it.
 
Bob C and 21 MO Mad as Hell Furrittus F-arts
[Posted in FML issue 2059]