Arrrrggghhhh!  Bob mean, cruel, ugh!  In case anyone wants to correct Bob
for mentioning the wrong location in relation to the Peabody, he DOES know
the right one.  On at least a yearly basis he sequentially puts down the
wrong locations for some museums just to pick on me since he knows how much
writer's cramp I used to have years ago when I was student curator at a
collection making out all the cards for specimens, and how things like Yale
Peabody, and MCZ (Museum of Comparative Zoology) got hardwired into my
skull.  There will likely be more appearing here and there since I seem
to never be able to resist the bait.  Mean man: boo, hiss!  Evil, evil
alternative persona of Bhor!!!!!!
 
Re: the claimed father of the popularity of ferrets: I suspect people who
are in European families with generation after generation having had
ferrets (some for hunting and some for pets) would take exception to the
claim with very valid cause, I also suspect that there will be exceptions
taken from the other end since the CURRENT American popularity is often
traced to Wendy Winstead in the late 70s to early 80s because of how very
hard she worked to popularize them and to try to teach a bit about them,
but it will be very interesting to find out the information mentioned in
Satuday's FML and if the date can be pushed back -- always possible.
Interested also in where he got his ferrets since that person/group could
in turn make a claim; hope that's in the program.  Certainly there were
multiple places and people having ferrets before and up to the 60s in the
U.S.  There are some marvelous ads for ferrets from the last century which
Amy found in farming journals from Ohio where tens of thousands were
apparently being offered for sale each year.  Historically, they seem to
have surfaced on and off in the U.S.  and will be fun learning about this
aspect.
[Posted in FML issue 2672]