I swear this really happened
We were playing a game tonight at dinner where we went around the table with each of us naming an animal to go with a letter of the alphabet. You know, a is for antelope, b is for barracuda and so on. All was going well until this happened:
Joseph: I is for iguana.
Jesse: J is for jackalope.
Me: Haha, ok. Name a real animal.
Jesse: (long pause) I did.
Me: No, Jesse, seriously.
Jesse: Jen! Jackalope! That's my animal.
Me: No, it's not. You have to name a ....... Oh my gosh. Do you think jackalopes are real?
Jesse: I ..... (gets tight lipped)
Me: Tell me you don't think they're real.
Jesse: What do you mean? They are real!
Me: (dissolving into helpless giggles) A jackalope is a made up animal. There's no such thing.
Jesse: Yes there is!
Me: I promise you that there is not.
Jesse: I'm pretty sure there is.
And it went on like that. In fact, I was never able to convince him and after dinner he looked it up online in an attempt to confirm he was right. He wasn't.
Thirty-three years old and he thought jackalopes were real. How did he think they burrowed with those antlers on their heads? How did he even think they held their heads up? I can't ask him because when I try to talk to him about it he just gets all tight lipped and cranky. I'm scared to ask him if he thinks unicorns are real too. I don't want to crush all his dreams in one day.
Jen
14 comments:
*falls on the floor in laughter-induced convulsions*
Do you ever listen to This American Life? It's awesome. But, I digress. They did a show once (2005) called A Little Bit of Knowledge and one of the early stories is about a woman who thought, until she was into adulthood, that unicorns were REAL. Maybe they were endangered, but they were real. Hysterically funny to listen to her tell the story.
This jackalope story reminded me of this. Go listen. Hysterical. I'm going to go listen right now. I can't stop myself.
What is NGS SAYING ABOUT UNICORNS?!
OMG - that is freaking hilarious!
>:-(
Be nice!
Just don't discuss Santa.
Hahahahaha! They are real - they act as pets for Bigfoot.
i'd never heard of such creatures
I thought this story was going to end with you feeling stupid for not knowing that jackalopes are real...
You are a mean wife!
I agree with Karen!!
Judy (Jesse's Mom)
And we did see Jackalopes in the Black Hills of South Dakota... and there were unicorns at the Rennaisance Festival a few years back!!
Some things must be believed to be seen!!
I think blogging about it will probably make him feel even better about it.
My attorney husband was at least 30 years old before I broke the news to him that the word he thought was commuffins was actually comeuppance. He'd spent 30 years telling people that they would get their commuffins.
lol. My hubby gets those tight lips too when he gets upset. And he hates when I blog about him.
Here's a link to photographs of wild rabbits infected with Shope papillomavirus. The horns usually grow around their heads and mouths. The rabbits die when the horns grow to the point they can't feed themselves. The theory is the Jackalope myth/folklore began from sightings of these infected rabbits.
http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~hollidac/jacksforreal.html
Your hubby was half right. He deserves an apology. At the same time, you were half right too. So now you're both even.
It's surprising that nobody here knew about the virus infected bunnies. Maybe that's because all of you live in Civilization with Real Lives while I live in the Middle of Nowhere and irrelevant facts like the existence of Jackalopes are necessary aspects of keeping my sanity. Sad.
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