As Predicted, They STILL Can't Catch That Alligator

The few times I managed to wrest control of the Homestead PC from the clutches of the wee ones who were convinced the thing existed for the sole purpose of watching the Elmo game ONE MORE FREAKIN' TIME, I did keep track of the continuing developments with Reggie The Alligator.

News that the Gatorland guys showed up to try and snag him didn't worry me, for reasons detailed elsewhere on this site. But the emergence of T-Bone was a little worrisome, until it all played out and the corps smacked him down. Want to know one reason why they're not going to catch Reggie anytime soon? It's because of stuff like this:

A day after being tapped to track down an urban alligator in a Harbor City lake, a New Orleans evacuee was taken off the job Sunday after city officials determined that he had no liability insurance and no known credentials.

Thomas "T-Bone" Quinn had been invited Saturday to join the effort to capture the alligator named Reggie just a week after arriving at a Los Angeles shelter for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

"Liability insurance"? "Known CREDENTIALS"? Ooo, like the credentials of the alligator theme park guys who have TWICE failed to drag him out of the lake? This is why the coroporate mindset folks are not going to be catching this alligator any time soon. You want to get a gator out of you lake, you don't first look for someone with a nice little Certificate of Approved Authenticity hanging on the wall. I have half a mind to try and hunt down my boy Jake in Polk and ask him what his Credentials are, outside of having helped catch his first gator when he was 13, and then getting an even BIGGER one when he was 14, and continuing that pattern set by his father and his grandfather. (But not, interestingly enough, continued by his son. His son wasn't allowed to go on his first hunt until he was 16. Never underestimate the power of The Mother. I wonder, with stuff like that, if the starting age is edging up due to the intervention of Modern Sensibilities?)

Credentials. These people are a hoot! The LA County Fair marketing people should use this as a base for a new addition to their fabulous ads about why Los Angeles REALLY needs a county fair. Best advertising campaign, ever. Even though they've been doing it for three years, they keep coming up with the fresh funny. On Monday I saw the one about where sweaters come from. Made me spit up the morning cup of java, it did.

The photo was liberated from Reggie's blog. He says it's an actual picture of him from childhood.
Don't you just love that snarky grin? Go Reggie, go!