Of Mice and Men . . .

From: Dave Loffredo
Subject: You were close ...
To: Gene Greger, Packy Anderson

Over the weekend, I heard some skritching one night by the enclosed
porch, and figured that a mouse was trying to get in.  So I put a trap
outside in the closed in area under the porch.

The next morning, I found that I'd caught a mouse.  Or to be exact,
one half of a mouse.  It's pretty well closed in so the neighborhood
cats can't get in there (if they could, there would be no mice) so I
figure it was the other mice, a-la "You Killed Kenny!"

Well, since by induction, there must still be other mice, I put out 
another trap the next night ... and caught one quarter of a mouse.

Since they've just eaten two of their buddies, I'm giving it a rest
for the night, but I'll continue the process as long as their are N-1 
mice out there.

So you see Gene, you were pretty close on your Suburban Outpost Two
defense plan ... but instead of the C.H.U.Ds, it turns out that I have
C.R.U.Ds: Cannibalistic Rodent Underporch Dwellers.

						- Dave

From: Packy Anderson
Subject: Re: You were close ...
To: Gene Greger, Dave Loffredo

Dave Loffredo writes:
> The next morning, I found that I'd caught a mouse.  Or to be exact,
> one half of a mouse.  It's pretty well closed in so the neighborhood
> cats can't get in there (if they could, there would be no mice) so I
> figure it was the other mice, a-la "You Killed Kenny!"
> 
> Well, since by induction, there must still be other mice, I put out 
> another trap the next night ... and caught one quarter of a mouse.
> 
> Since they've just eaten two of their buddies, I'm giving it a rest
> for the night, but I'll continue the process as long as their are N-1 
> mice out there.

Unfortunately, there is only one mouse, and you keep catching half of him.
Tomorrow you'll find and eighth of a mouse, then a sixteenth, then... well,
you get the picture.

Oh, BTW, the mouse's name is Zeno.

-packy

--
Packy Anderson 

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum
immane mittam.

From: Dave Loffredo
To: Gene Greger, Packy Anderson
Subject: Re: You were close ...

>>>>> "Packy" == Packy Anderson writes:

Packy> Unfortunately, there is only one mouse, and you keep catching
Packy> half of him.  Tomorrow you'll find and eighth of a mouse, then
Packy> a sixteenth, then... well, you get the picture.

Packy> Oh, BTW, the mouse's name is Zeno.

Paradoxically, I thought something similar :-)

However, last night I set out three traps, and this morning all
had been sprung.   One contained a normal little mouse ... let's
call him a hench-mouse.   The others, well ...

Do you remember the movie "Jaws", where they put barrel after barrel
onto the shark and he keeps submerging?   Or perhaps the Black Knight 
from the "Holy Grail"?   Or any movie with a decent supervillain?

I had caught the Level Boss Mouse.

He had two traps on him and was still going.  He seemed to say "Is
that all you got?!"  I suspect that the only reason he hadn't munched
on his hench-mouse was that the traps on him were kind of awkward and
made it tough to move around.   Now that's a mouse!

		 				     - Dave