During the months while I had yet to settle on a host,  I still gathered articles that caught my eye.

Hopefully,  I assumed,  some would have staying power as fuel for discussion.

Others are just too damned odd to pass up.

Last October in sunny Bayonne, New Jersey, the Millar family had a combustible experience of the rodent persuation. High above their driveway, a local squirrel decided that the high voltage line leading to a neighborhood transformer would make the consummate snack.

Inevitably, said squirrel goes a bite too far and lives out his last moments as a cathode for the power grid of rural Hudson County. Fully engulfed in flame, the electron-enamored rodent fell from the line onto the windscreen cowl of the Millar’s 2006 Toyota Camry.

Apparently, an incendiary squirrel must back some serious BTUs under it’s furry hide.

The fire was sufficiently robust that the plastic trim pieces melted, allowing the body of the squirrel to slide under the hood and burn through something containing a petroleum-based fluid. It was never clear whether the fuel line was severed or if Rocky burned through the brake fluid reservoir, but suffice to say that the car was declared a total loss shortly after firefighters doused the blaze.

The last report I could find mentioned nothing of either a complaint against or settlement from the local utility.

Despite this, there was a poignant footnote. As part of their Halloween decorations, the Jersey Journal reported that the Millar family had erected a small tombstone, presumably for their dearly departed firestarter.