Category Archives: Nuts About Squirrels

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Squirrel Photo Contest Winners Announced!

The squirrel photo contest has ended. We had some wonderful entries! The winners will receive a phone call about how to collect their prizes.

Here are the winners!

(Look for more contest photos next week! We received so many great photos that we will share them with everyone soon!)

First Place

John Langholz from Webster Groves, Mo

(winner gave permission to post his full name.)

First Place Winner

Second Place

Bruce B. from Kirkwood, Mo

Second Place Winner

Third Place

Don F. from Lonedell, Mo

Third Place Winner

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Posted on October 18, 2021 in Home, Local Events, Nuts About Squirrels, Outdoor/Nature

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Squirrel Photo Winners To Be Awarded At Magnificent Missouri Event On Oct. 17

UPDATE: Squirrel photos are coming in hot and heavy!

Don’t forget to send your squirrel photos in for the contest! Deadline is October 15. Email the photo entries to environmentalecho@gmail.com.

Thank you for all the photo submissions received so far!

Squirrels are frantically flipping out and burying acorns. It’s their pre-winter thing. Which makes squirrels great photo subjects this time of year.

A squirrel photography contest is now frantically underway.

Send your best squirrel images to the Missouri Nature Blog, EnvironmentalEcho.com. Limit of three photos per photographer, please. Deadline is October 15.

Squirrel photograph images should be sent on the worldly squirrel wide web to the email address: environmentalecho@gmail.com. Photograph winners will receive Squirrel Baskets packed with plenty of squirrel goodies.

Three winners will be announced at the Squirrel Day Table at Magnificent Missouri’s Elevator Days on Sunday, Oct. 17 at Treloar on the Katy Trial. Shuttle will be available to take visitors to the Peers Store just east of Treloar on the Katy Trail.

Professor Don Corrigan will give a Powerpoint lecture on his book, “Nuts About Squirrels” at the Peers Store at 1 p.m. The lecture and his book detail the importance of squirrel characters in our American popular culture.

Some tips about photographing live squirrels: Good squirrel photos should be close-up showing their character. Action photos are best.

Squirrels make good subjects because they are just plain cute. They are very cunning and will work very hard to get to a food source, i.e., your bird feeder. They offer endless opportunities for great photos with their gymnastic abilities.

They can be difficult at times to photograph because they are constantly on the move and you have to anticipate what they are going to do next. This is what makes photographing them so much fun.

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Posted on October 6, 2021 in Home, Local Events, Nuts About Squirrels, Outdoor/Nature

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How Do You Feel About Squirrels? Friend or Foe?

Check out the latest squirrel debate with Don Corrigan and Rebecca Now, host of What’s Up With Business (on Radio 63119, 92.9 FM), with the Webster Groves/Shrewsbury/Rock Hill Area Chamber of Commerce.

The discussion, and a few chuckles, stem from Don Corrigan’s latest book, “Nuts about Squirrels.” Corrigan, is a longtime journalism professor at Webster University, Editor-in-Chief of the Webster-Kirkwood Times, Inc. newspaper group and the author of noted outdoor and environmental books.

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Posted on April 24, 2020 in Home, Nuts About Squirrels, Podcasts

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To Arms! For U.S. Gray Squirrels!

by Don Corrigan

Funky Winkerbean’s cartoon creator, Tom Batiuk, is on a roll about squirrels. Hundreds of readers sent me his comic strips on squirrels. Actually, more than hundreds – enough people to fill up the National Mall on Inauguration Day!

Funky Winkerbean may be tickling people’s fancy with this comic squirrel subterfuge, but the actual truth about the American Gray Squirrel is no laughing matter. So, let’s get on it.

Headlines in Britain now are all about the Royals’ big crisis and strife involving the Queen, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. It’s a hoax, folks. The headlines are a smokescreen. The stories should be about Prince Charles and his war against American Gray Squirrels. It’s a dirty little war. It has taken an ugly turn.
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Posted on March 6, 2020 in Nuts About Squirrels, Opinion, Outdoor/Nature

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Silver Dollar City Delivers Gold With “It’s A Wonderful Life” & More Christmas Goodies!

Rudolph’s Holly Jolly™ Light Parade cruises the Silver Dollar City streets nightly during An Old Time Christmas with over a dozen LED light floats and numerous colorful, costumed characters.

By Don Corrigan

It’s worth a trip to Branson this holiday season to take in that Christmas Classic, It’s A Wonderful Life, as performed on stage at Silver Dollar City.

This time of year, Branson is full of lights and color and holiday cheer. And Silver Dollar City has a Christmas Parade that’s perfect to cap off a day of entertainment that includes, It’s A Wonderful Life, and other great shows.

Frankly, the live theatre production of It’s A Wonderful Life at Silver Dollar City breathes new life into a movie that airs too frequently on television this time of year. It’s so refreshing to get a new, musical take on what is admittedly one of the most critically acclaimed films ever made.

A Silver Dollar City musical adaptation of a beloved classic, A Dickens’ Christmas Carol is an hour-long Broadway-style production featuring theatrical special effects, flying ghosts and numerous set changes.

Celebrated director Frank Capra referred to the film as his personal favorite of all his movies. Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Henry Travers all deliver memorable performances in the Capra favorite – and the ensemble in Branson lives up to their legacy.

My only criticism is that the Silver Dollar City production doesn’t make more of Uncle Billy and his pet squirrel as found in the movie production. And Silver Dollar City is the perfect locale to capitalize on the antics of a trouble-making squirrel.

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Posted on December 6, 2019 in Local Events, Nuts About Squirrels, Opinion

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Midwest Is Nuts About Squirrels, Professor Insists

Olney, Illinois, has a white squirrel monument in its downtown. It conducts a squirrel parade and what is tagged as a “Squirrel Scamper” event for kids. Numerous squirrel happenings take place in the rural Illinois town with a population of 8,500 that positions itself in tourism materials as “The Home of White Squirrels.”

Marysville, Kansas, bills itself as the “Home of the Black Squirrels,” and has been promoting a special Black Squirrel Night for almost a half century. The town has named the black squirrel its official mascot and honors it with a Black Squirrels on Parade event.

Squirrels are honored with statues, parades and festivals in more than a score of Midwest cities, according to Don Corrigan, author of “Nuts About Squirrels: The Rodents That Captured Popular Culture.” Corrigan presented a lecture, “Squirrels: Icons of the Midwest,” in Cincinnati, Ohio, in October at the annual Midwest Popular Culture Conference.

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Posted on November 5, 2019 in Home, Nuts About Squirrels

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Are Squirrels Our Friends or Our Foes? Your Thoughts?

Photo by Ursula Ruhl.

Survey research by Don Corrigan released in his July 12 Webster-Kirkwood Times column, “Squirrels: Friends Or Foes?” reveals that almost 70% of survey respondents think squirrels are our friends. Of note, all these people relate to mass-mediated squirrels. They are infatuated with Rocket J. Squirrel, Rally Squirrel, Squirrel Nutkin and Surly the Squirrel from the movie, The Nut Job.

Here are some research results not covered in the column: More the 70% of respondents believe that squirrels will be thriving on our Earth long after human beings have vanished from the planet.

Climate change is causing some squirrels to give birth earlier, to migrate north, to move to different elevations in mountain areas. Should humans bear any responsibility for the disruption of the habitat for squirrels? Are squirrels better equipped than humans to deal with such disruption? Respondents were mostly undecided on these two questions.

If you would like to give your two cents on the issue of whether squirrels are our friends or our foes, please leave a comment on this post below. (At the end of this post.)

If you would like to complete a squirrel research survey, open and/or print the following attachment. You can either send your answers via email to corrigan@timesnewspapers.com or mail the completed survey form attention to Don Corrigan at 122 W. Lockwood Ave., 2nd floor, Webster Groves, Mo 63119.

Squirrel Survey2019

See the Calendar of Squirrel events for the month of July below. Squirrel research surveys will also be distributed to audiences attending the events.

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Posted on July 11, 2019 in Home, Nuts About Squirrels

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Don Corrigan Talks Squirrels With Jean Ponzi

Don Corrigan talks with Jean Ponzi on her popular KDHX radio/podcast “Earthworms.” Ponzi jumps into all things squirrels with Corrigan in this fun and informative interview.

KDHX Earthworms goes nuts as Don Corrigan talk Squirrels with host Jean Ponzi, proving that Pop Culture and enviro purpose can truly hole up together.

Hear the Earthworms radio/podcast interview HERE.

Check out the upcoming lectures and book signings by Don Corrigan below.

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Posted on July 4, 2019 in Local Events, Nuts About Squirrels, Outdoor/Nature

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Nuts About Squirrels: July Calendar of Squirrel Events

Pictured: Don Corrigan

Don Corrigan continues his crusade to give squirrels their due and to put Mickey Mouse in his place.

“Everyone thinks Mickey Mouse is the most important anthropomorphic rodent in our popular culture. No question that Walt Disney’s mouse is formidable, but taken in the aggregate, squirrels have much more of a presence in our popular culture,” said Corrigan.

Corrigan points out that squirrels are in our children’s books, newspaper headlines, TV news, radio shows, movies, public relations and advertising. Corrigan will bring his squirrel-centric message to the following venues in July:

On Thursday July 4th, Jean Ponzi of KDHX Radio and the show, “Earthworms,” will post a podcast of her interview with Don Corrigan, author of “Nuts About Squirrels: The Rodents That Conquered Popular Culture.” The show will cover the environmental aspects of squirrels, from their mass migrations prompted by climate change and food supply disruptions to the gray squirrels’ history in England as an invasive species that is driving out the red squirrels.

Don Corrigan is editor of the West End Word, Webster-Kirkwood Times and South County Times, as well as a professor of journalism at Webster University.

See a full listing of July 2019 event dates below.

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Posted on June 24, 2019 in Local Events, Nuts About Squirrels

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