Tag: squirrels

a scurry of squirrels

Following up on yesterday’s joy in learning a few new terms for collective nouns in English, I found myself wondering whether there were any interesting names for a group of squirrels. Indeed, squirrels did not disappoint: one say “a scurry of squirrels.” I find this especially pleasing, given that squirrels do tend to scurry.


This member of a scurry appears not to be in a hurry.


A furry member of a scurry, showing off the fluff of its tail in the sunlight.


A blurry flurry of a departing scurry.

In fact, at least 2 of these photos are of the same squirrel, so perhaps this is an insufficient quantity of squirrels to form a scurry. (Does anyone know the requisite number of squirrels for a scurry?)

squirreling away

squirrel_nutkin.jpgInspired by yesterday’s squirreliness, this week’s Themed Things Thursday is brought to you by squirrels.¹

A Stash of Squirrely Things

  • The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. A book by Beatrix Potter.

    This is a Tale about a tail–a tail that belonged to a little red
    squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.

  • Squirrel Nut Zippers a band. Takes its name from a candy.
  • For Squirrels. A band. Has a song entitled “Mighty K.C.”²
  • “Secret Squirrel,” a song by Marcy Playground

    Tune in next week and see
    Secret squirrel save you and me

  • The Flying Squirrel from The Tick (The animated series.) A superhero whose battlecry is “I like squirrels!”

    • rocky.jpg

  • Rocket J. Squirrel, aka Rocky, of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The clever one of the “moose and squirrel” pair.
  • Bubbles, the Powerpuff Girl, can talk to squirrels [clip on YouTube]
  • “Squirrel Boy” (2006-??) A Cartoon Network cartoon about a boy and his pesky squirrel friend.
  • Azqueeral. In a 2002 Daily Show episode, a man who has invented a birdfeeding hat describes a harrowing attack by a squirrel. Or by an azqueeral, as the subtitles show. It sounded a bit like “shquiddle” to us.
  • “I kicked Thumper’s ass” A t-shirt worn by a tough squirrel in Gary Larson’s book There’s a Hair in My Dirt
  • Squirrels have also been featured in American Hovel Magazine, the magazine dedicated to lowering acceptable neatness standards in the American home. See our featured interview, and the front cover of the April 2007 edition, below.

    • —–
    ¹ With apologies to KC.

    ² KC, I kid you not. Here’s YouTube proof, even.)

    ³ This footnote doesn’t match up with anything, but I felt I should toss out there that this marks my first official NaBloPoMo post. 1 down, 29 to go!

    make like a tree (and squirrel)

    We took Phoebe out trick-or-treating for the first time tonight. Phoebe was dressed as a squirrel, and I was dressed as a tree.¹

    phoebe_outside1.jpg

    I love getting dressed up, and devising costumes.

    My tree costume (which you can see a bit of over at John’s) was an old standby of mine, a creation I’m quite proud of. I wear all brown, wear a twig wreath on my head with a few leaves, and drape some fall leaf garlands around my shoulders. The costume was not only easy to put together, but since I happen to have various plain dark brown clothing items to disguise my body as the tree trunk, it was cheap. It only cost me about $10.00 to buy the leaves and wreath at a craft store.

    I was quite happy with how Phoebe’s costume turned out, too. The squirrel to climb on my tree. It was another assembled piece of work. (I don’t really sew.) I found a grey onesie, on sale for about $3.00, and stitched a white oval on the tummy from a robe that had long since been retired to the rag pile. The tail was put together from an old fuzzy snake dog toy, and I used a Toober toy to give it shape. The ears/hat I made from an old too-small pair of Phoebe’s tights. The biggest expense was to buy a new pair of gray tights, which cost about $7.00. What’s more, the way I put it together, it can all be salvaged again, and the clothes worn as normal clothes.

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    ¹ John was not in costume. Or perhaps he was just a big nut.