Hiya Skeleton Crew,

Slightly bad news, youse guys. I finally finished readin this ancient codex that I found in that corpse flower in the middle of the mysterious burnt-out woods near Murderer’s Bend, & ya won’t believe it, but … I think somethin fishy’s goin on! At the exact moment I finished readin, the manuscript basically deliquesced into a puddle of black tar. So now I’ve gotta figure out some way to clean that outta my Airstream, ah jeez.

Trivia 1

Real Skeleheads’ll remember that I asked ya ’bout jaguars back in August 2025, & specifically ’bout how they’re the only member of the genus Panthera (i.e., “big cat”) native to the Americas.

Now, ya mighta heard tell of some recent news ’bout a newly ID’d small cat (genus Leopardus) that scientists found in Bolivia, called the Tilcayo. It’s a cute li’l guy:

See how its spots are clustered into little blossom shapes? Lotsa different cat species have ’em, includin leopards & ocelots. (Notably, cheetahs don’t! Those ones are just regular spots.)

Well, what’re those spot clusters called? It’s also the word for those big ribbons that sometimes get given out as prizes – like, say, to the farmer who grew the biggest rutabaga at the county fair. In the UK, politicians’ll sometimes wear ’em at public events to show what party they belong to.

Trivia 2

In case ya were curious, after the Jaguar House there was also a Bat House, a Razor House, & a Hot House. Ya can probably imagine what each of those were all about.

I can’t say I’d really care for a Bat or Razor House all that much. But a Hot House? I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a nice sauna every once in a while?

That said, I guess ya can always have too much of a good thing. Most notoriously, there were the 2010 World Sauna Championships – non-coincidentally the last time they held a World Sauna Championships – where one of the finalists actually DIED from sittin in a 230ºF sauna for just about six minutes. (Another finalist had to be assisted out & put into a medically induced coma as part of his recovery, jeez.)

Can ya tell me how many degrees Celsius that is? I ain’t gonna be too picky, ya can just round yer answer to the nearest multiple of ten.