24 Europe would be continent today instill in his
No,
if
dominantly French-speaking
a
fighting instinct instilled in
to
women
only a commentary on a
this is not a feminist discourse,
Woman
in females.
savage streak I've noticed
until her hearth is threatened.
and grace
way
only Napoleon could have found a
army the
And
it
is all
peace
doesn't take
the threat of an armored division at the screen door to militarize a housewife;
There nest.
isn't
much
all
it
takes
a rodent.
is
female won't do
a
my
Take, for instance,
in
defense of her
friend Shelley, a petite music
major with a pixie haircut and singsong voice. Last week she killed a mouse with Windex. I heard the story directly from Shelley. She was washing dishes in her pink and blue kitchen
when
a
mouse
ran across the linoleum.
instinctive thought was,
'T
have to
kill it."
Her
There was
nothing nearby she could whack the mouse with or fling
The only
object available
grabbed the
was
a bottle of Windex.
nozzle to "stream," squinted
bottle, set the
at
it.
So she
down
the bright blue plastic barrel, and squeezed the trigger
That mouse suffered from the most atrocious
repeatedly.
chemical warfare known to vermin. Dripping with bluish chemicals, it could only squeak its last through clouds of toxins and perish. While wartime correspondent mice sent
communications to
frantic
their headquarters
Windex down on
latest terrorist attack, Shelley set the
floral tablecloth felt
a
little
mouse
warm
announcing the
and dusted off her hands. (Actually, Shell
remorseful after this incident.
When
she took the
outside,
it
started shivering in the cold, so she
water on
it
and
The mouse
still
the
tried feeding
died.)
it
What moves
such aggression, anyway?
It is
crumbled up
poured
saltines.
a peace-loving female to
home
defense.
Besides Shelley, one of the best examples I have found of this defensive instinct is my own mother. She is solely responsible for the low population of squirrels in the
surrounding our house.
I
woods
used to be embarrassed to admit
Jenny Harlow
it,
