Idiots' Delight

Okeedokee this is a bit of a rant, so Koko B. Ware. Let's start with a park near my residence in White Plains. I was enjoying a nice stroll one evening when I noted an unusual amount of squirrels. I also realized that they seemed to not be afraid of me. Usually squirrels run off at the first sign of a human, but some of these guys seemed to actually be interested in me. Was it the Starbucks drink I was consuming? I wondered, but I feared not, because I knew that soon the answer would be disclosed.

The next day - and I kid you not - I read a letter in our weekly newspaper complaining that all of the development in White Plains has chased all the squirrels away. Huh? So next time before putting up high rises and closing one-dollar-piece-of-****-stores we should check with the squirrels first. Oh well, I thought.

So let's fast forward to a few nights later. Again, I am taking a walk in said park and I notice a woman feeding the squirrels. Hark, therein lies the rub. Feed squirrels bags of peanuts; henceforth squirrels expect food from humans on a regular basis. That's one problem with feeding wildlife. The other problem is that if this woman - or a few nights later I saw a man feeding the squirrels - took the time to observe the size of a squirrel's body and the amount of peanuts being fed to them, she and he would realize that the furry animals cannot consume all of that food. So a ton of uneaten peanuts get left by the bench waiting for, oh I don't know, rats to come by and indulge.

One more point. Does this man or woman actually think that the squirrels would not be able to eat unless they were fed by a human? Haven't squirrels been able to be self-sufficient for quite some time now? Anyway, when the park has mice and rats scurrying around, we'll all know who to blame. I'm just going to point at the person and whistle.

PART DEUX
Wal-Mart and Target sit right across the street from one another in White Plains, and generally speaking, I notice two entirely different types of people working in the two stores. I have shopped at both, but definitely prefer Target.

I was recently walking past Wal-Mart and noticed all of these half-eaten strawberries strewn about on the sidewalk. I presumed that the culprit or culprits got the fruit from the nearby farmer's market. This is not the first time I've noticed debris not properly disposed of outside of Wal-Mart. I don't get it. Is it so hard for people to pick up after themselves? Is it so hard to take a moment to throw refuse into the proper receptacles? Oh, I get it, these we'll be the same folks bitching that society doesn't cut them a break. Please.