Barking-Mad Squirrel Antics Spell Trouble

When AHM read me read that headline I was pissed. I mean why is "mad" associated with "barking?" Far as I'm concerned, it should be "meowin' mad." Hmmm… Yeah… It might be alliterative but it's totally wussy. Okay, how 'bout "yowlin' mad?" No good, eh?

Anyway, there's a bunch of explanations about where the expression began. My favorite is the one about a lunatic asylum bein' located in the London suburb of Barking about a gazillion years ago. They say that's not true, though. The first reference anyone could find was in a book Mr Jiggins of Jigginstown by some British Countess: “But he was mad! Barking mad!”

Not that you care, but I like to make sure my readers' brains are as stuffed full of trivia as AHM's. All that bein' said…

"A Macho mating ritual of squirrels could reach epic scale this year - spelling disaster for the trees of the Forest of Dean. Grey squirrels are tearing strips off trees to impress females, which then weakens the trees. Experts have warned the historic Dean is teetering on the edge of a tree crisis as a result of the aggressive hormonal behaviour…

"The Forest's wide range of trees, including oak, beech, chestnut, pine, fir and spruce, makes it particularly attractive to squirrels. They strip bark right round the trunk, which means the tree either dies, or if it is stripped on one side only, it weakens it until it snaps or allows fungus to set in."

…why can't they just hump a leg like the rest of us?

posted by Harrison at 11:08 PM