14 Replies to “It’s Friday. Shouldn’t you be posting an apologia for that hard-shelled malingerer of yours about now?”

1. Trevor says:

   August 26, 2005 at 9:30 pm

   I actually did get to see an armadillo dance once. For all of those unfortunate souls that haven’t gotten the chance yet, you’re really missing something.

2. mojo says:

   August 26, 2005 at 9:31 pm

   “My armadillo has no nose!”

   “How does he smell?”

   “TERRIBLE!”

3. McGehee says:

   August 26, 2005 at 9:38 pm

   Trevor, I don’t think the Achy Breaky qualifies.

4. Murel Bailey says:

   August 26, 2005 at 9:40 pm

   I thought the armadillo dance was how its legs twitch when it’s been run over.

5. me says:

   August 26, 2005 at 9:51 pm

   Me think the little fella is a ruse. Extinct in fact.

6. alex says:

   August 26, 2005 at 11:06 pm

   I think an armadillo’s shell is actually fairly flexible–they can roll themselves up into balls, right?

7. Scott P says:

   August 26, 2005 at 11:36 pm

   Jeff, have you tried those Arthur Murray numbered feet for the little fella?  They did wonders for my tango.

8. Lew Clark says:

   August 27, 2005 at 12:13 am

   I think THEY have him.  And won’t let him go until Jeff pulls out of Iraq!

9. Murel Bailey says:

   August 27, 2005 at 1:25 am

   Alex, there’s two families of armadillo, one of which can roll up in a ball and one which can’t quite do it. I think – but can’t really remember – that the variety you see in the American southwest is the not-completely-rollable type and that you have to get down into Mexico and further south to run into the full cue-ball variety. Since I never see the damned things alive, though, I can’t serve as an eyewitness to such behavior. Armadillos in my experience tend to stick to highway pavement, attract flies, and get flatter and flatter – though they start curving like run-over beer cans after a while.

   Oh, and they carry leprosy, so be careful. I guess the live ones transmit it too.

10. Beck says:

    August 27, 2005 at 9:15 am

    I don’t guess the monkey could dance in his stead?

11. McGehee says:

    August 27, 2005 at 2:10 pm

    that the variety you see in the American southwest

    Not to quibble on geography, but armadilloes haqve invaded much of the southeast too. They’re in Florida, for example, from what I’ve read.

    And for those who insist on firsthand reports, I’ve been seeing “possum on the half-shell” along the roads of subtropical west Georgia for years.

12. Murel Bailey says:

    August 27, 2005 at 7:11 pm

    I’m not surprised if Armadillos have headed east, but I expect once they hit Massachussetts the taxes will drive them back southwest again.

    And possum is an altogether different issue. In the part of Texas I come from, they get as big as large rats. In the part of Texas I live in now they get as big as raccoons, which means you have quite a splattery, fly-attracting mess when one of them tests his highway-crossing skills and fails, sort of like a manhole-cover-wide pile of festering guts surrounded by a cloud of white hair.

    Once you get into the kudzu belt, I wouldn’t be surprised if the damned possums aren’t as big as bears. Maybe not big kodiak bears, but certainly the bears large enough to ride a scooter in the circus.

13. mamapajamas says:

    August 27, 2005 at 7:11 pm

    Yup… we’ve got armadillos in Florida.  I saw one sashaying across the road just two nights ago.

14. McGehee says:

    August 28, 2005 at 1:25 pm

    Once you get into the kudzu belt, I wouldn’t be surprised if the damned possums aren’t as big as bears. Maybe not big kodiak bears, but certainly the bears large enough to ride a scooter in the circus.

    Maybe Jeff could get one of them to dance for us on Fridays…

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