This just in from our Australian Women's Weekly Recipe Reviewer and Squirrel Affairs Correspondent:

Vagn Flyger, 83, a retired wildlife biologist at the University of Maryland who became a leading authority on squirrels after documenting what was dubbed the "Great Squirrel Migration of 1968," died Jan. 9 at his home in Silver Spring. He had congestive heart failure.
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From his home, which bordered Northwest Branch Park, he lured squirrels by smearing trees with a mixture of peanut butter and Valium*. He collected the rodents he found passed out and tagged them with radio transmitters for further observation.
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Sometimes he kept squirrels as pets, and sometimes he just ate them, once telling a visitor that they made a piquant substitute in any chicken recipe.
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His marriage... ended in divorce.

Take from this whatever relationship advice you will.

In other squirrel news, researchers have discovered that Spermophilus beldingi, the squirrel species most commonly made fun of in high school for its scientific name, has another trait predisposing it to get its head flushed in the toilet after gym class: an individually identifiable odor eminating from its mouth, feet, and anus. Poor Spermophilus beldingi.

[Dr. Jill M. Mateo, an assistant professor in the department of comparative human development at the University of Chicago and much sought-after dinner party conversationalist] previously showed that squirrels recognize kin, but the new work suggests that they can "tell the difference between Sue and Mary." Each source - glands next to the mouth, back, feet, anus and above the eyes - has a different smell, she said, but each is tied to the individual. "Five different odors say, 'Sue, Sue, Sue, Sue, Sue,' " she said.

Interestingly, this last observation is also true of lawyers.


*"Your valium is in my peanut butter!" "Your peanut butter is in my valium!"