#47529: Julie O. — 11/07  at  05:05 PM
This is just going to escalate, and people are going to get hurt.

#47530: The Chemist — 11/07  at  05:09 PM
Yeah, Julie, you're probably right.

And PZ, backing down might be the smart thing to do, but it doesn't really sound like me. I've already got some interesting ideas. This can only end well, right?

Right?

#47536: Alon Levy — 11/07  at  05:20 PM
If you post pictures and explanations of both sides' moves, then it will certainly end well.

#47540: — 11/07  at  05:52 PM
The drawer of grass makes me think of Castro's miniature cows.

Unfortunately, the best descriptions I can find of this are at conservative sites such as http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-flake052203.asp but it's a great story, and apparently true.

Castro's idea was to get around the scarcity of milk in the cities by providing Cuban families with miniature milk cows they could keep in their apartments. According to his plan, the miniature cows would graze on grass to be grown in drawers under fluorescent lights.

Tiny apartment cows. How adorable in a surreal sort of way! I want one now. If they can graze on trays of wheat grass, they'd be great for hip cafes as well.

#47553: PZ Myers — 11/07  at  07:32 PM
You're doomed, chemist.

#47557: Zeno — 11/07  at  07:43 PM
That was inspiring! Now I want to tell the story of some of the high-spirited hijinks that occur around my math department. Like that time that the inflatable woman substituted for a colleague's office hour...

#47558: coturnix — 11/07  at  07:45 PM
It has to be something alive. Frogs in the coffee pot? Miniature cows actually grazing in the drawers? A zebrafish in each Dixie cup? All of the above?

#47559: — 11/07  at  07:54 PM
Closest to this kind of thing I've ever done was more along the lines of cheap birthday presents when I was poor...

Spent all night at a friend's house popping up a garbage bag full of popcorn for my sister to find the next morning... this was before they sold huge bags of it in warehouse stores.... before warehouse stores actually.

and for my niece, I spent all night blowing up balloons then sneaked them into her bedroom while she was asleep so when she woke the room was knee-deep in balloons. Got quite dizzy in the process and my fingers were actually raw and bloody from tying so many balloons.

#47562: — 11/07  at  08:19 PM
Escalation is called for, but only if you promise to post photos.

#47566: — 11/07  at  08:30 PM
Noooo! Don't be mean to frogs!

#47567: — 11/07  at  08:45 PM
I know a woman who got a bit of revenge for a slight by phoning up every car salesman within 50 miles, giving her victim's name and phone number and saying she was just going into a meeting but she was very interested in buying a new car and could they phone her back between 2 and 3PM. The victim had a very annoying hour. The same woman also had a friend who had gone out on a few dates with a guy. She had another friend phone friend 1 and tell her she was the guy's wife and if she didn't care about her, what about their 4 kids.

Not a person to mess with.

BTW, not to mess with would be the people who wouldn't line the drawers with plastic before filling them with soil.

#47601: — 11/08  at  12:38 AM
I'm still wondering where I can get an apartment cow.

Though I suppose I could make do with a pudu. It can't be that illegal to keep an endangered species in your apartment, can it?

#47640: — 11/08  at  07:36 AM
Delightful! Once in undergrad,derived a bunch of us filled a journalism student's dorm room, floor to ceiling and wall to wall, with crumpled newspapers.