Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger)

One advantage of walking a well used park path is how used to people the critters are.

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Good morning. 🐿️⚾🧢

28 October 2025

I woke late again this morning, having stayed up well past my bedtime watching Game 3 of the World Series between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. It was a nail-biter. I hung with it through the 13th inning, where the score was tied 5–5, but by then it was already midnight. I decided not to lose any more sleep over the game—after all, the results and a synopsis would surely be waiting in the morning.

Good thing I bowed out when I did. The game stretched into the 18th inning, finally ending when Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run to seal a 6–5 victory for the Dodgers. By that time, it was nearly midnight in Los Angeles—making it 3 a.m. in Louisiana. Bottom line: the Dodgers won. Yay.

Game 4 is tonight, and the fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Both teams must be exhausted. I think the Dodgers nearly ran through their entire pitching staff. Maybe tonight they’ll manage to keep it to nine innings. It’s definitely competitive—both teams clearly want this, and it shows.

I mentioned the saying “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings” in the last paragraph, which got me curious about its origin. Turns out, it dates back to 1976, when the phrase “The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings” appeared in the Dallas Morning News during coverage of a tied basketball game. It’s thought to reference Brünnhilde, the Valkyrie in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, whose final aria marks the end of the opera.

Hmm... the saying feels older to me, but apparently not. The details are mildly interesting and, of course, available on-the-line.

“It’s not over till it’s over.” — Yogi Berra

“Brünnhilde doesn’t just sing—she ends worlds.” — Richard Wagner

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The Hole Beneath the Fence

Frankie, the fox squirrel, ventured underneath the hole beneath the fence. Frankie's friends told him that the place beyond place beyond the hole was filled with lots of food, just there for the taking. But they warned that the place was also filled with danger, because there were two dogs, named Ben and Charlie, who regularly patrolled the area. Once under the fence Frankie noticed that the dogs weren't there, but Sam the house sparrow was on the ground atop a low brick retaining wall. Frankie asked Sam, "where is all of the food that I heard so much about?" Sam said, "look up." But just as Frankie looked up, Ben and Charlie came running out of the door to the house and Frankie had to flee back under the hole beneath the fence.

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