The Mongoose

Last week I was thinking about this insignificant little critter a lot, although for reasons I couldn’t place. I’ve always been a fan. How could you not be? Mongooses bring to mind David vs. Goliath, good vs. evil, the Tigers vs. everyone else, ie, the quintessential underdog struggle. What other animal combines petite furiousity with a killer instinct the way the mongoose does? Mongooses are like suped-up squirrels that make snakes look as menacing as a boxed lunch.

Growing up, I had an 80-year-old neighbor who liked to hunt down and run over snakes with her lawn mower. She was also legally blind and liked to bake cookies.

My thoughts on the mongoose suddenly came into clearer focus when I attended a conference on Cuba policy two Wednesdays ago. Suddenly, Operation Mongoose came into mind. I began to wonder: who names CIA covert operations? Is some analyst chortling in a back room at the end of a marathon of Animal Planet?

Assignment 1: Think and Discuss: (Actual quote taken from Cuba Conference ’08):
“In the prison yard culture of Washington D.C., if you get pushed, you better push back.”

Potential Answers:

a.) Be like the mongoose, girl, be like the mongoose.