Greg Laden's Blog

No everyone knows about Cabin Culture. It is a key aspect of culture here in Minnesota, though it is certainly not confined to the North Star State. Many True Minnesotans have a cabin on a lake somewhere in their life. They either own it or a family member owns it or it is part of resort they visit often.

In the cabin is a lot of Cabin Kitch. Salt shakers that look like bears. A door knocker that looks like a fish. A match holder that looks like a loon. A foot stool that looks like (and sometimes is) a baby bear.

It used to surprise me that more cabins weren't broken into by wildlife, especially bears, when the owners are away (which is often). We have a lot of bears in Minnesota, both in terms of density and absolute numbers. But then one day I realized why. If you are any local wild animal and you do enter a cabin, you see images of all the wildlife, including your own kind, stuffed, hung, converted to human utilitarian modalities, all around you. That would be like a human walking into Ed Gein's house to find the lampshades and tea coseys made out of his victims. I assume there is a culture among the local wildlife that one just does not enter a human cabin and survive the psychological trauma. Just don't do it. It is not worth it, they say among themselves.

Anyway, the photo provided above is a beaver serving as a computer case. More and more cabins have Internet connections and computers, so this is a good idea. It also give you something to do with the extra beavers.

By the way, beavers run about the same price as a lower-end computer case. But to use one as a computer case, you need to order it special, because the trappers will normally skin the animal in a way unsuitable for use in electronic kit building. Do not try to acquire your own beaver. First, they are much more dangerous than they look when cornered, and second, they tend to carry tuluremia, which is easily transmitted to humans.

I found this handy computer tech tip at Geekology. Geekology, in turn, found it on another web site that I will not give you the link to because it has an offensive ad delivery mechanism.