From: jfurr@nyx.cs.du.edu (JKF)
Subject: Re: Joey the Lemur (transcript, kinda long)
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Keywords: Lemurs, Joey the Lemur, King Dinosaur, spam, cockroach, aerosol
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 04:13:43 GMT

In article <1992Dec10.091345.13310@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> franklir@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Ryan J Franklin ) writes:
>In article <1992Dec9.190656.21605@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> jfurr@nyx.cs.du.edu (JKF) writes:
>>In article <1992Dec8.083143.15743@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> franklir@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Ryan J Franklin ) writes:
>>>
>>>JtL:  E is for eat.  I eat four times my own weight in nuts and berries,
>>>      which has its consequences, but go figure!
>>
>>To say nothing of being able to devour the entire contents of a candy
>>machine in under ten hours.  (lemurs often can squirm inside the machine
>>via the slots at the bottom, eat their fill, and then have trouble getting
>>back out.  vending machine repairmen often find engorged lemurs sitting in
>>a pile of Mounds bar wrappers looking woeful.  the lemurs are usually
>>deported back to the duke university primate home.
>
>Lemurs eat Mounds bars?  You'd think they'd make a beeline for vending    
>machines that sell Twinkies.  

Lemurs are nothing if not pragmatic.  A vending machine full of Mars bars
down the hall from the office they've taken over is greatly preferred to
one a few buildings away.  Besides, those machines are usually long since
cleaned out by those few lemurs who do forage afar.

>
>I do know that it's a bad idea to give a lemur a toolbox for his or her
>birthday.  Oh yeah, they're really grateful and they thank you profusely
>for days (mainly by not soiling the carpet), but then one morning you'll
>wake up and find that same oh-so-grateful lemur making "just a few 
>improvements" on your car's engine, with about a dozen grease-stained
>parts of your transmission lying out on the driveway.  

I've heard differing opinions on this.  One guy said his car got 100 miles
to the gallon after this happened to him and he never missed the leftover
parts, but for some reason the radio would only play Radio Antananarivo. 
Another guy, cursing loudly, said that the car smelled of caramelized
sugar for weeks after the lemurs had their way with it.  Finally he took
it to a garage and found that the lemurs had left some half-eaten Twinkies
inside the tranmission case (said Twinkies now being extremely inedible,
as opposed to slightly inedible).

>
>Wonderful species, nice opposable thumbs, but absolutely NO mechanical
>aptitude whatsoever.  Definitely not the auto repairmen of the primate
>world.
 
It comes from living in the trees.  Honda Civics don't work well in an
arboreal environment...

>Incidentally, can anyone tell me if a lemur's tail is partially prehensile?
>Able to hook on to a branch or ceiling lamp and help stabilize them while
>they climb and swing and cavort joyfully in the air?  I know they have to
>keep them up in the air while leeming (or else trip themselves), but I 
>was wondering if there was some sort of purpose to their tail other than
>looking nice.

As far as I can tell from this book I checked out called "Lemurs And You,"
lemur tails are not prehensile.  Instead they use their little paws to
cling to things that need clinging to... ceiling lamps, Cindy Crawford,
Twinkies, etc...
Newsgroups: alt.fan.lemurs,rec.pets