Bonnets and Floral Prints are totally IN this season.

October 25, 2010 8:53 AM

A Squirrel's Guide to Fashion : from Life Magazine, circa 1940.
posted by sonika (47 comments total)

It’s all a bit Quaker for me, personally. I would have liked to see the squirrel take a shot at something more avant-garde.
posted by jimmythefish at 9:05 AM on October 25, 2010

"Well geez, Timmy, who's to say what the Angel of Death looks like? Better go with her, or we're gonna get yelled at."
posted by PlusDistance at 9:06 AM on October 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

Cracked me up, thanks!
posted by Dragonness at 9:08 AM on October 25, 2010

Ah, to live in a time when squirrel models had taste and decency.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:12 AM on October 25, 2010

A squirrel's guide to the afterlife.
posted by FLAG (BASTARD WATER.) (Acorus Adulterinus.) at 9:13 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

The picture with the little boy in the wheelchair is interesting. I wonder if he had polio? I wonder, also, if he was related to the lady who adopted and dressed the squirrel or if it was a charitable squirrel who went to hospitals and stuff. Intriguing.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:13 AM on October 25, 2010

I don't know how these people got their squirrels into dresses, or why.
posted by empath at 9:15 AM on October 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

1944, actually.
posted by languagehat at 9:15 AM on October 25, 2010

Hey, speaking of squirrels, has anyone ever seen a black squirrel? Wikipedia says they're pretty common, but I had never seen one before a couple weeks ago in a tree in a park by my house. As far as I can tell there are only two of them, and they live in one particular tree. All of the rest of the squirrels in the park are the run-of-the-mill grey squirrels. It's unclear if the squirrel society is maintaining separate-but-equal tree facilities intentionally.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is I don't think the swing coat in picture 7 is doing much for that squirrel's coloring, and I know some little fellas who might be able to put it to better use.
posted by phunniemee at 9:16 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Cute Professional Rodent" is my next username.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:17 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

phunniemee you need to come to DC. Black squirrels are all over the place.
posted by ShawnString at 9:19 AM on October 25, 2010

Hey, speaking of squirrels, has anyone ever seen a black squirrel?

Ottawa, Ontario is swarming with them, and black squirrels are taking over the north-eastern US. Apparently the black offers them the advantage of absorbing more heat.
posted by furtive at 9:22 AM on October 25, 2010

Hey, speaking of squirrels, has anyone ever seen a black squirrel?

Yes, saw some recently in Syracuse, NY. For more info, wikipedia.
posted by aught at 9:23 AM on October 25, 2010

Is that a boy squirrel? I hope so, because cross-dressing rodents is too much for my addled brain before my first beer.
posted by jonmc at 9:28 AM on October 25, 2010

I mean, I hope not...you know what I mean...
posted by jonmc at 9:28 AM on October 25, 2010

The next Sedaris book titles itself: jonmc Seeks Cross-Dressing Squirrel. (Note: it ends sadly, but with a certain piquant twist).
posted by maudlin at 9:32 AM on October 25, 2010

Photo #6, Child on left: "That looks fucking delicious."
posted by Wolfdog at 9:33 AM on October 25, 2010

Weird but oddly fascinating... thanks for the link, makes a nice change
posted by The Lady is a designer at 9:34 AM on October 25, 2010

That's disturbing on so many levels.
posted by zarq at 9:39 AM on October 25, 2010

But you should hear that cross-dressing squirrel play the bass guitar. He's awesome!
posted by cazoo at 9:39 AM on October 25, 2010

Ottawa, Ontario is swarming with them, and black squirrels are taking over the north-eastern US. Apparently the black offers them the advantage of absorbing more heat.

Living in Southern Ontario, I reckon 90% of the squirrels I see are black. Never seen one in flannel, though.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:41 AM on October 25, 2010

Never saw a black squirrel when I was growing up outside Philly, but I see them (an hour away) in Princeton all the time.
posted by amro at 9:45 AM on October 25, 2010

By the way, I don't think anyone has noted that this squirrel is a cross-dresser. He was male.
posted by amro at 9:46 AM on October 25, 2010

Apparently the black offers them the advantage of absorbing more heat.

No, actually just as gray squirrels kill off the red fox squirrel populations when they move into an area, so go the black squirrels against the grays.

Somewhat relatedly there is an albino squirrel near the Brookland Metro station in DC.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:48 AM on October 25, 2010

But you should hear that cross-dressing squirrel play the bass guitar. He's awesome!

No, that was the exploding white mouse.
posted by jonmc at 9:55 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you like dressed-up Life-magazine squirrels, you may also enjoy 4chan genius-dogs explaining political psychology.
posted by swift at 9:59 AM on October 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

While visiting Toronto, I saw plenty of black squirrels. Here in Boston, though, I don't think I've seen one yet. (I have seen one green pigeon.)

So, how does one dress up a squirrel? Do you have to wear scratch-resistant arm-length gloves?
posted by not_on_display at 10:00 AM on October 25, 2010

Black squirrels are the (anecdotal) norm here in Detroit. I know, insert your own racial humor here, something something something white flight.
posted by joe lisboa at 10:17 AM on October 25, 2010

Yeah, they're all over Mid-Michigan. They're just a color variant of the grey squirrel, not even their own subspecies or anything.
posted by zug at 10:22 AM on October 25, 2010

That is to say, they can come from grey parents. It's like chocolate labs versus black labs, for example.
posted by zug at 10:23 AM on October 25, 2010

Princeton is known for the black squirrells on campus!
posted by WeekendJen at 10:24 AM on October 25, 2010

Photo #6, Child on left, Alternate Caption: "This is so lame. I wish they'd hurry up and invent DeviantArt already."
posted by Wolfdog at 10:29 AM on October 25, 2010

What a hussy.
posted by rosswald at 10:39 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Squirrels these days are indecent. Always walkin' around with their parts hanging out. What the hell happened?!
posted by mazola at 10:43 AM on October 25, 2010

I suppose I should put a word in for present-day supermodel Sugar Bush Squirrel -- soon to star in her own motion picture!
posted by Superfrankenstein at 10:44 AM on October 25, 2010

I haven't been around very many squirrels. There had to be something wrong with this one. The only squirrels I've seen in captivity tried to pee on me, bite the shit out of me, or both, all while doing that rapid pissed-off squirrel chatter thing.
posted by PuppyCat at 10:53 AM on October 25, 2010

You know, if you can learn to make that chattering sound* yourself, you can also learn to tweak it so that squirrels actually come to you when they hear it. Heh. You can also make them jump to the next tree by repeatedly making that sound and tapping on their tree (make little thump-thump-thump sounds on the trunk). As a kid, I used to mess with squirrels quite a lot. Very woodsy in my youth, I was.

*I have a gap between my two front teeth that maketh me an mathter at thquirrel withpering.
posted by heyho at 11:06 AM on October 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

Shifty-eyed, rubbing his hands together...that squirrel is up to no good!

Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto has at least one albino squirrel. A few years ago a friend visiting from New Zealand (where there are no squirrels, so she was a little obsessed with them) and I were walking around the park looking for squirrels and she asked me "How many of them are white like that?" First (and only, to date) time I'd ever seen one.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:12 AM on October 25, 2010

I think I'd be suspicious of buying sausage from the guy in #11.
posted by MtDewd at 11:38 AM on October 25, 2010

Black squirrels are protected in Council Bluffs, IA. There are actually laws against "worrying" them.

No such laws across the river in Omaha. So when I see a black squirrel there, I like to tell him that he'll die alone.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:23 PM on October 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

(More in Animals: Shark Infested! Beaches with Sharks. Terrifying Great White Sharks. Swimming with Sharks. Desperate For Links: A Shark Eats Justin Bieber Whole.)
posted by Wolfdog at 12:48 PM on October 25, 2010

Astro Zombie, I've usually heard the term "worry" used in that context to mean, "ripped apart by a hound," as it, "the dog viciously worried the rat."
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:10 PM on October 25, 2010

The picture with the little boy in the wheelchair is interesting. I wonder if he had polio? I wonder, also, if he was related to the lady who adopted and dressed the squirrel or if it was a charitable squirrel who went to hospitals and stuff.
From the article:

"Tommy cracks a nut for two shut-ins at Washington's Children's Hospital where Mrs. Bullis infrequently takes him."

also:

There had to be something wrong with this one. The only squirrels I've seen in captivity tried to pee on me, bite the shit out of me, or both,
Nope, nothing wrong with Tommy:

"Tommy never seems to complain about his life, although he sometimes bites Mrs Bullis. Mrs Bullis never complains about being bitten."
"Although Tommy is neat about his own person, Mrs Bullis has never been able to housebreak him."

posted by unliteral at 4:56 PM on October 25, 2010

Let it also be noted that a google image search on this subject also adds much fodder to the question: "How on earth did they get the squirrels to go along with this?".
posted by empatterson at 3:10 AM on October 26, 2010

I don't know how these people got their squirrels into dresses

Looked to me like the dresses were just dress fronts, positioned around his chest like a bib? ...Dress, hmm, dickies if you will.

There's a block around the corner in my Chicago neighborhood where several black squirrels appear to congregate. I see black squirrels sporadically here and there throughout the city, but for some reason there seems to have been a group of them living along this particular street for years now. Once, on the sidewalk there, I spoke to a man who, as he fed nacho-cheese flavored CornNuts to a black pair, explained to me in some detail how "the black ones came over on a ship from Germany." High off his ass.

Illinois also has the white ones.
posted by applemeat at 6:59 AM on October 26, 2010

Looked to me like the dresses were just dress fronts, positioned around his chest like a bib? ...Dress, hmm, dickies if you will.

I think they were doll dresses, which generally involve velcro or snaps on the back and wouldn't need to be like, pulled over an angry squirrel's head. Not that attaching them to an angry squirrel would be easy, but yes, far more user friendly in this case than a "real" dress.
posted by sonika at 7:19 AM on October 26, 2010

Snaps, yes. Velcro, no. 1955 at the earliest. Something I didn't know - 'Velcro' is a combination of the words velours and crochet.
posted by unliteral at 5:47 PM on October 26, 2010