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Tuesday
March 16, 2010 Since 1922 |
As the squirrel turns
By Wanda Orton
Contributor Published August 23, 2009 All of the attention being focused on the camera-mugging Crasher Squirrel reminds me of a squirrel photo that got away. I once got a glimpse of a squirrel waving a tiny U.S. flag in a mesquite tree in our backyard, but unfortunately I wasn’t camera ready. The little creature scurried away, gone with the flag.
Contrary to what skeptics may say, I saw what I saw and the experience made a believer out of me. I now vouch for the fact there are UFOs – Unidentified Furry Objects with an affinity for the red, white and blue...
The little squirrel must have extracted the little flag from our front yard. Prior to July the Fourth, a Boy Scout troop planted the flags in yards all over the neighborhood,
Since the flag was missing from our yard, and I didn’t take it, and no one else in the family took it …. Aha! That left only one other suspect, the one last seen in a tree.
When I e-mailed our grandkids about the incident, I could hear them laughing all the way from Baytown. Furthermore, they suggested that I had been seeing things but they doubted I had been seeing a squirrel with a flag.
I’m telling you, I did.
Now, about that Crasher Squirrel:
In case you haven’t turned on your TV set or computer in the last week or so, you may wonder, “What’s a Crasher Squirrel?”
It’s the squirrel that crashed a photo-taking scene in a park in Canada.
A couple from Minnesota wanted to take a picture of themselves amid the beautiful scenery so they set the timer on their camera and posed in front of it...
Apparently attracted by the whirring sound of a camera about to click, the Crasher Squirrel planted himself in front of the happy campers, looking straight at the lens.
When I first saw the photo, I thought it had been digitally altered but it had not. Folks, it is for real and it’s one of the cutest thangs (pardon my southern accent) that you will ever see.
It’s the look on the squirrel’s face – an expression that can be interpreted 101 different ways. Just for the fun of it, the Crasher Squirrel is being super-imposed on countless photos showing him mingling with all kinds of people. These pictures remind me of the movie “Zelig,” in which Woody Allen is Everyman, a chameleon who fits in everywhere.
The Crasher Squirrel can be seen landing with soldiers on the beach at Normandy on D-Day and wading into the waters off the Philippines with Gen. Douglas MacArthur. There are portraits of C.S. with the Beatles and with the cast of “Star Trek” and with heads of state from around the world.
He shares a lake with the Loch Ness monster and stands out as a witness to the Wright brothers’ first flight. In front of a tent on a Civil War battleground, he seems at ease with President Lincoln and Gen. Grant.
All these photos cry out for captions, especially the one where Crasher Squirrel stands in front of a ranting, raving Adolph Hitler. (“This guy is nuts. I’m out of here.”)
I realize the little flag-waving squirrel in our mesquite tree cannot compete with the Crasher Squirrel. He will never be famous because I never took his picture.
One might say that one Crasher Squirrel picture is worth a thousand flag-waving squirrels.
Wanda Orton is a retired managing editor of The Baytown Sun.
Contributor Published August 23, 2009 All of the attention being focused on the camera-mugging Crasher Squirrel reminds me of a squirrel photo that got away. I once got a glimpse of a squirrel waving a tiny U.S. flag in a mesquite tree in our backyard, but unfortunately I wasn’t camera ready. The little creature scurried away, gone with the flag.
Contrary to what skeptics may say, I saw what I saw and the experience made a believer out of me. I now vouch for the fact there are UFOs – Unidentified Furry Objects with an affinity for the red, white and blue...
The little squirrel must have extracted the little flag from our front yard. Prior to July the Fourth, a Boy Scout troop planted the flags in yards all over the neighborhood,
Since the flag was missing from our yard, and I didn’t take it, and no one else in the family took it …. Aha! That left only one other suspect, the one last seen in a tree.
When I e-mailed our grandkids about the incident, I could hear them laughing all the way from Baytown. Furthermore, they suggested that I had been seeing things but they doubted I had been seeing a squirrel with a flag.
I’m telling you, I did.
Now, about that Crasher Squirrel:
In case you haven’t turned on your TV set or computer in the last week or so, you may wonder, “What’s a Crasher Squirrel?”
It’s the squirrel that crashed a photo-taking scene in a park in Canada.
A couple from Minnesota wanted to take a picture of themselves amid the beautiful scenery so they set the timer on their camera and posed in front of it...
Apparently attracted by the whirring sound of a camera about to click, the Crasher Squirrel planted himself in front of the happy campers, looking straight at the lens.
When I first saw the photo, I thought it had been digitally altered but it had not. Folks, it is for real and it’s one of the cutest thangs (pardon my southern accent) that you will ever see.
It’s the look on the squirrel’s face – an expression that can be interpreted 101 different ways. Just for the fun of it, the Crasher Squirrel is being super-imposed on countless photos showing him mingling with all kinds of people. These pictures remind me of the movie “Zelig,” in which Woody Allen is Everyman, a chameleon who fits in everywhere.
The Crasher Squirrel can be seen landing with soldiers on the beach at Normandy on D-Day and wading into the waters off the Philippines with Gen. Douglas MacArthur. There are portraits of C.S. with the Beatles and with the cast of “Star Trek” and with heads of state from around the world.
He shares a lake with the Loch Ness monster and stands out as a witness to the Wright brothers’ first flight. In front of a tent on a Civil War battleground, he seems at ease with President Lincoln and Gen. Grant.
All these photos cry out for captions, especially the one where Crasher Squirrel stands in front of a ranting, raving Adolph Hitler. (“This guy is nuts. I’m out of here.”)
I realize the little flag-waving squirrel in our mesquite tree cannot compete with the Crasher Squirrel. He will never be famous because I never took his picture.
One might say that one Crasher Squirrel picture is worth a thousand flag-waving squirrels.
Wanda Orton is a retired managing editor of The Baytown Sun.