My teenage daughter is attempting to get a job at a burrito emporium that has a surprisingly in-depth hiring process. It includes three separate interview sessions plus the disclosure of the applicant’s spirit animal. Really! I don’t know if that’s a corporate or strictly local policy.
Young Miss’s actual spirit animal is the sloth, but as it would probably be unwise to disclose that to a prospective employer, she plans to borrow MY spirit animal — the playful, energetic otter — for use in the interview. It’s just a little white lie that won’t hurt anyone, so it’s okay.
The household discussion about spirit animals got us thinking about what would be our dogs’ spirit animals. Since they are already animals, we wondered if they should have a spirit human instead — such as Oprah, Gwyneth Paltrow or Kathy Bates. But that would be species-ist since it would treat non-human animals as categories and humans as individuals.
An alternative would be to say a dog’s spirit animal is a human. But that seems considerably less interesting than “Ellen” or “Meryl Streep.” However, since we’re all animals, maybe any species other than canine would work for dogs, so it’s theoretically possible for a dog’s spirit animal to be a cat or squirrel? The mind. It reels.
Anyway, do YOU have a spirit animal? If so, what and why? Would it be of any value to an employer to have this information about you? And also, because this is such an incredibly dumb topic, please feel free to discuss other stuff. Open thread!
chopper
having kids, I’m always worried about buying burritos from a place full of teenagers cause I know how terrible they are about washing their hands.
khead
My spirit animal is a KITTEH, of course.
But right now I wish for my spirit animal to be anything that kills ants and keeps them from coming back.
TaMara (BHF)
Dragon. But don’t tell anyone. And if I told you how I got a dragon as a spiritual animal, well you wouldn’t believe me anyway.
David in NY
This is an interview problem I had never envisioned.
Steve in the ATL
We would fire her for fraudulent misrepresentation on her job application
Oh, and gray wolf
Germy Shoemangler
I had a lemming, but I haven’t heard from him in a while.
I think my spirit animal is the feline who occupies our house. She’s a flesh-and-blood cat but her spirit fills our home. She needs me to open cans and I need her for the purr.
Every once in a while I’ll look up from reading and see her staring intently into my eyes from across the room. I give her the slow blink, she returns it and then walks out of the room.
Valdivia (The Terrible)
They ask that? Really? I would fail if they asked me that in an interview.
I decided a while back that I wanted my spirit animal to be half Slim from To Have and Have Not and half Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. For an actual animal for an animal spirit I would have to do some pondering.
Betty Cracker
@chopper: They should look for applicants who identify raccoons as their spirit animals. Raccoons always seem to be washing up!
raven
Who’s a Moose!
jl
Don’t know what company runs the burrito place. It might be tolerable one.
But, if it were me, I would probably be interviewing for white collar jobs in finance, so if they asked me what my spirit animal was, for the purposes of the interview, I guess I would respond with rabid jackal or disease bearing leech. Or maybe tick. Yeah,that’s the ticket: tick. Then I’d kick back and relax, secure in the knowledge that my big promotion would occur simultaneously with my hire.
trollhattan
Huh…earwig? I dunno, maybe SQUIRREL! because my dog seems to think they’re important and if I were one, she’d pay rapt attention to me at times in addition to breakfast and dinner.
I see Oklahoma has uncovered the source documents for their education standards. Honestly, they’ve probably regressed since then.
Iowa Old Lady
Spirit animal? What kind of burrito emporium is this?
I used to love using the phrase “non-human animals” at meetings about research projects because it freaked out so many people.
mai naem mobile
I feel like an idiot. What the hell is a spirit animal?
Woodrowfan
supposedly an Owl. I rather like coyotes though.
Peale
I am a pooh bear, although I wear pants.
Hunter Gathers
Honey Badger.
We. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck.
trollhattan
@mai naem mobile:
This not understanding is not something to hide or derive shame from; it is something to celebrate with pride.
Germy Shoemangler
I was going through some old photo albums and came across a bunch of pictures of a beautiful cat I had from 1981-1989 (She died from cancer). I hadn’t seen the pictures in decades. I still think about her a lot.
Iowa Old Lady
Apparently, I’m a crow. I just did an online quiz, so it must be true.
Pogonip
Bandicoot.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
yeh but raccoons live in garbage.
you really can’t win. everything is filthy and trying to kill you.
Valdivia (The Terrible)
@jl: Aren’t vampires their official spirit animals?
Ernest Pikeman
My spirit animal is “none of your fucking business”, a.k.a. “please explain to EEOC how my spiritual beliefs are relevant to being hired”.
mai naem mobile
@trollhattan: hey, I may not know what a spirit animal is but do not assume I’m a Republican!
Omnes Omnibus
According to a silly online quiz, I am a hummingbird. I don’t see it. I wanted falcon or wolf.
Peale
I wonder what would happen if she put “Fruminous Bandersnatch”
Germy Shoemangler
If a potential employer asked me about a spirit animal, I’d lie and say “beaver” or “bee” or whatever other animal is notorious for industriousness.
Then after being hired, I’d steal.
Like a raccoon.
Tree With Water
Some years back a San Francisco Chronicle columnist wrote about her sister’s job interview for a position as a prison guard. A friend of theirs was interviewed first for the job and washed out, because she hemmed and hawed when asked, “how would you react to an escaping prisoner?”. She had mentioned shouting “halt”, and firing a warning shot. Forewarned, the columnist’s sister instead immediately responded to the question by saying, “I’d shoot to kill”. And she got the job.
trollhattan
Speaking of Republican idiots (we were, yes?) they’ve completely assumed ownership of the California anti-vaxx front (just as I suspected they would). Every state senator voting against the current bill was an (R) and now it’s in the Assembly, where the fun continues.
I can’t wait for our new All-Vaccine All-Common Core schools to vacuum up the unexpected state surplus. That should trigger some squealin’.
CaseyL
@Iowa Old Lady: My
spirit animalsoulmate!I often use the phrase “non-human animal,” because to do otherwise is to imply that animals and humans are more different than they are, and that animals are not people. Animals are definitely people.
As to what my spirit animal is…I haven’t done the kind of meditations or quests or whatever that normally are required to discover such information. However, as a child, as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a horse. And I to this day adore horses: the way they move, the way they sound, their scent, their eyes, their soft kissable muzzles. So I’m going with horse.
Thot Gor
I assume that this is the same burrito emporium chain that I just interviewed for. Mine is for a job at HQ, but I had a video interview. That’s a new kind of terrible… Watching yourself crash and burn and it’s recorded. Good to know that I can only expect it to get weirder if I move on.
Arclite
I think both dogs’ spirit animals would be the sloth, based on all the pictures I’ve seen of them lying around doing absolutely nothing. :)
trollhattan
@mai naem mobile:
Heh, touche (the “e” should have a diacritical I don’t know the code for).
Doc Sportello
My spirit animal is Grey Goose. Occasionally Wild Turkey. Very rarely … Mad Dog.
Leave me alone.
patrick II
My chihuahua’s spirit animal is pit bull.
Betty Cracker
@CaseyL: The thing about horses — even their shit doesn’t stink! Clearly they’re paragons in the animal world.
trollhattan
Burning question: Which of the two escaped New Your convicts is the Dapper Dan man?
beltane
The quiz says my spirit animal is a wolf, but I am not nearly as social or status conscious as a wolf. I’d go with tiger.
Shana
@Ernest Pikeman: Reminds me of a job I had in college working at the university library. The manager asked my astrological sign to see if we’d be compatible on the job. I suspected at the time (early 80’s) that it was illegal to ask but blurted it out anyway, mostly because I was stunned.
Valdivia (The Terrible)
After some thought I would want my spirit animal to be a jaguar.
@beltane: I need to take this test see what it says. I am sure I end up being totally not a jaguar!
Mike in NC
Sat through some dumb interviews in my time, but at least nobody ever asked what kind of tree I’d want to be.
Pogonip
According to the quiz, my spirit animal is not the bandicoot, but the owl.
That quiz is a hoot.
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: Have you ever seen hummingbirds fight? They are badass.
mdblanche
What’s French for “don’t mention the war”?
mai naem mobile
I was listening to NPR this am. They said there’s a case of diphtheRia in Spain because of an unvaccinated kid. So, guess Spain gets The View too. I think they should force Jenny Mccarthy to meet this kid today while hes contagious.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
@Omnes Omnibus:
I am exactly the same.
Germy Shoemangler
@trollhattan: Richard Matt, the older guy, is the Dapper Dan.
Also, I saw footage of asshole Andy Cuomo being a douche to the other inmates during a tour (“You didn’t hear anything? You didn’t hear anything?? Right!”)
ThresherK
Colombia ties it up in the 82nd minute! Cracking volley.
Cacti
The crow.
Intelligent, mischievous, and not likely to win any beauty contests.
Rob
I think mine is a wren: mostly out of sight but occasionally stepping into plain view. I don’t know how I would answer that question in an interview though. Being asked my astrological sign is a very good sign that I do not want to be around that person.
Redshift
Rabbit. Though after that post the other day, I could go with wolf, too.
In other news, my local county board member is being challenged in a primary by a person who is heavily funded by Leadership for Educational Equity, a 501(c)4 (no donors disclosed!) whose purpose is to get Teach for America alumni elected to office. She still doesn’t have as much money as the incumbent, and in a general election she wouldn’t stand a chance, but it’s an extremely low turnout primary, so I’m pretty nervous.
Her strategy had been relentlessly negative, essentially trying to peel off voters who may be disenchanted because when you actually govern, you can’t make everyone happy, but when you have no record, you can promise them you will. I understand that to some extent a challenger has to do that, but I feel like the way she done it is going to produce bad blood down the road whoever wins.
Sigh.
Rob
@beltane: #42
I have. I’ve seen hummingbirds go after other hummingbirds, gnatcatchers (tiny, demur birds), and crows and hawks. It’s something to behold.
Roger Moore
@jl:
I would think that a weasel or cuckoo would also work well as spirit animals for high finance types.
ETA: I think my spirit animal is a raven, which might be considered adequate for a vulture fund, though they’d obviously be happier with people whose spirit animals were vultures, coyotes, or similar scavengers.
Cacti
@Doc Sportello:
No Thunderbird?
Valdivia (The Terrible)
And the quiz says my spirit animal is a deer. I was so hoping for a jaguar but they don’t even have one, closest was panther, which would be cool because so kickass.
Tenar Darell
Can it be a specific animal? Then the animal would be the red tail hawk at the White House named Lincoln.
beltane
@Germy Shoemangler: Does Andrew Cuomo really think the inmates of a maximum security prison feel obligated to make him or the corrections system look good?
Tom F
I took two of the online quizzes.
My animals are the wolf and the deer; oddly appropriate.
beltane
The cockroach would make a very fine spirit animal-resourceful, enduring, and ubiquitous.
Germy Shoemangler
@beltane: Yes.
Not for nothing is he called the prince of darkness. What he’s doing to public school teachers in the state is horrendous. He certainly will treat inmates like crap during a photo op.
Cacti
@beltane:
Mouthing off to the governor might get you time in the hole, but telling any authority that you knew about other inmates’ escape plans will get you shanked.
Redshift
@jl: Reminds me of that old SNL sketch where they’re interviewing Tom Hanks (I think), as a guy who was raised by a series of different animals, the last one being dung beetles.
“So they ate…”
“Hey, those are my parents you’re talking about!”
Doc Sportello
@Cacti: Well played, plural of spiny succulent. Well played.
Howard Beale IV
BREAKING: McKinney officer resigns due to video of pulling gun on teens
Major Major Major Major
My spirit animal is bacon.
A shaman told me ‘wolf’ one time.
But to pick for myself, and use something alive, I’d say…
My spirit animal is Beyoncé.
trollhattan
@Cacti:
Can a mythical creature serve as a mythical creature, or is that double-jeopardy or something?
I’ve decided to trade the earwig for the ouzel. If it was good enough for John Muir it’s good enough for me, and they really are a kick to watch.
Germy Shoemangler
This would be a fine spirit animal. The world’s tiniest deer species.
Even the name… Pudu.
“As adults, pudus grow to about 12 to 14 inches at the shoulder.”
Perfect size for those long trips with your spirit animal.
Tree With Water
@Cacti:
“..It’s the same story the crow told me; it’s the only one he knows.
Like the morning sun you come and like the wind you go.
Ain’t no time to hate, barely time to wait,
Wo, oh, what I want to know, where does the time go?..”.
Uncle John’s Band Grateful Dead
Howard Beale IV
@Cacti: MD 20/20
trollhattan
@Tom F:
If you ever awaken gnawing on your own arm, you’ll know why.
seaboogie
Oh Betty, Betty, Betty – I think that you are in serious denial. We all know that your spirit animal is a FROG! Your brethren and sisteren are in constant commuinication with you, trying to get this message across. Why do you not see and accept your true “nature”? Also, frogs are much more vocal than otters….just sayin’…..
geg6
Lovey is my spirit animal because she’s feisty, like me. I wish it could be Koda because I strive but fail to be as laid back and cool as she is.
different-church-lady
Stop lying: your spirit animal is actually the grouse.
Betty Cracker
@seaboogie: My god…you’re right!
sharl
My spirit animal would be a bull, though not just any bull: Ferdinand the Bull…
Yeah, not much better than a sloth to a job interviewer, I suppose. Just forget I said anything…
seaboogie
@Betty Cracker: And yet, there are so many types of frogs. This one was just discovered in Costa Rica, and is so cool on so many levels – embrace your amphibian awesomeness: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/21/newly-discovered-glass-frog-looks-just-like-kermit/
Germy Shoemangler
Roger Moore
@Peale:
That’s “Frumious”, not “Fruminous”./pedant
Calouste
@Valdivia (The Terrible):
I’m not looking to work for idiots, why do you ask?
Betty Cracker
@sharl: I have a tragic Ferdinand anecdote to share. My sister and I saw a Ferdinand cartoon when we were kids, so when our dad brought a steer to our little shithole hobby farm to raise, we named it Ferdinand. Well, after Ferdinand grew, of course he was carted off one day and returned in packages of ground chuck, roasts, steaks, etc.
My sister and I were inconsolable and refused to eat any Ferdinand-based meals. Dad would taunt us with remarks like, “Eat your Ferd-burgers!” I think we became vegetarians for a week at least.
Brachiator
On one site I was shown an Owl as my primary spirit animal, and the Hawk and the Snake as secondary animals.
I think a site should offer the slug, the weasel and the nematode as possibilities.
Elizabelle
Is this the Spirit Animal Quiz?
from Elizabelle the Wolf (and I’m good with that animal)
raven
@ThresherK: I suppose it’s too much to ask to put comments about the game in the game thread.
Gin & Tonic
Great story on CNN Money. Franklin Graham, son of Billy, is pissed off that Wells Fargo Bank ran a TV ad featuring a lesbian couple, so the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is moving its accounts out of Wells Fargo. They are moving to NC-based BB&T instead.
BB&T is a sponsor of the Miami Beach Gay Pride parade.
Maybe he should keep the money in a mattress? It’s getting harder and harder to punish tolerance, isn’t it, Frank?
dmsilev
@Germy Shoemangler: At work, we once had a meeting with some reps from the local power company to discuss what could be done about momentary blips in the supply that were causing problems. They said basically that if a squirrel fries itself across a couple of main lines, it takes about a second to switch over to a different circuit, and there’s not much that can be done about it.
And then they showed us this photo, so depending on where you live, squirrels may be the least of your animal-power-related problems.
Turgidson
Pretty sure my spirit animal is a Great Dane. I’ve frequently remarked that they are the dog version of me, and plan to get one eventually.
gogol's wife
I’m a owl! I like that.
Valdivia (The Terrible)
@Calouste: Touché
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
I know someone whose parents made her name the piglets they were raising Bacon, Ham, Pork Chop, etc. so they would never forget what was eventually going to happen to them. Only their brood sow had a pet-type name.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Yes, mentioning spirit animals gets dangerously close to being a ideation on religion. A better way of asking this would be “If you were to describe yourself as an animal, what animal would it be?”
Germy Shoemangler
@dmsilev: Moose!
Elizabelle
@Roger Moore: Think I’d be a vegetarian if I lived on a farm.
The farm would be an underground railroad for food animals.
Germy Shoemangler
@Gin & Tonic:
Must be millions and millions of dollars. His daughter is in on the grift as well. My wife got talked into attended one of her events (she was invited by a friend and didn’t want to turn her down) and for a solid year we got requests for donations EVERY DAY.
The last straw for my wife was when we started getting anti-Obama material from the Graham daughter.
bystander
My spirit animal is the Vodka Martini. What better use of spirits?
Our french bulldog’s spirit person is Toulouse Lautrec’s dancer Chocolat, but in fawn, with touches of Red Skelton.
Villago Delenda Est
My spirit animal is probably a Tasmanian Devil in the Warner Brothers sense.
Mike in NC
@Germy Shoemangler: Billy Graham practically invented modern ‘grifting for godbotherers’. Gingrich and Huckabee must have studied at his knee.
sharl
@Betty Cracker: Aww no! I hope your dad wasn’t that pitiless as a matter of routine. Was it some kind of “tough-love” thing, along the same lines explained in Roger Moore’s comment (#90)?
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: My cat is named Samwise Gamgee of the Shire, so that we’re emotionally prepared for when he must help escort the One Ring to Mount Doom, as every cat must on the dawn of their fifth birthday.
Germy Shoemangler
@Mike in NC: Didn’t he show up on the Nixon tapes?
His kids (son & daughter) joined the family business. Very lucrative.
raven
Foghorn Leghorn!
Boy, I say, boy, look at me when I’m talkin to you!
realbtl
According to the quiz I took, a wolf. Seems like it fits.
Eric U.
online quiz says my spirit animal is a buffalo.
I am not sure that reflects how stupid I feel for asking an online quiz about it
jharp
My spirit animal is the opossum.
I like to pretend it’s “lights out” for me and then walk away with all the money.
NotMax
Haven’t read through thread yet, but the question could be interpreted as directly inquiring about religious beliefs, which is verboten.
Personally, would take such a thing popping up in an interview as a sure sign to not seek employment there.
Gin & Tonic
@Germy Shoemangler: CNN says that according to the latest financial disclosure reports it’s over $100m. Wells Fargo, though, is saying “oh, well.” It seems that tolerance is a better business plan than bigotry.
Major Major Major Major
@raven: Every time Kevin Spacey does the look at the camera thing in House of Cards, I think of the hyperchicken lawyer from Futurama: “Now, I may just be a simple southern chicken…”
Germy Shoemangler
@Gin & Tonic: With money like that, they can buy a huge eye of a needle, for when it comes time to pass through it.
Bobby Thomson
Tiger. Deer and lion are secondary. I would have thought a black bear.
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: Thanks for mentioning the quiz, since I really never thought about my spirit animal. I’m a deer but might be connected to a the tiger. Go figure.
seaboogie
@Gin & Tonic: It’s a sad, sad day in America when you cannot count on banks to be absolutely evil anymore, but just to chase the money, indiscriminately (rather, without discriminating among potential customers). It’s almost like the LGBTQ folks are actual people with money to manage – imagine that!
KJSBrooklyn
Older daughter’s remark after working at the burrito bar on campus: “Now that I have food service experience, Mom, the world is my oyster.” (She gets her sarcasm from me, by the way)
shell
Hmm. Do they ask for your spirit animal at the same time they tell you when to take a drug test?
raven
Police expert on Rev Al, “Any 5 school teachers could have handled the situation in Texas better than the the police did”!
trollhattan
@Germy Shoemangler: @Gin & Tonic:
The joke may well be on Herr Graham.
Although I think this requires reworking the phrase: “Crying all the way to the bank.”
Davis X. Machina
Manatee.
Big. Round. Gray. Floaty. Harmless. Slow. Whiskers.
As it is, when I go to the beach I have to fight off people from Greenpeace buzzing me in Zodiacs, and well-meaning strangers pouring buckets of water over me so I don’t dry out waiting for the tide to turn.
trollhattan
@Germy Shoemangler:
And also, too, miniature show camels to be doubly sure.
shell
Nowhere to run…nowhere to hide.
Origuy
As of the end of March, Wells Fargo’s deposits totaled 4.496 trillion. I think they won’t miss Franklin’s widow’s mite.
NotMax
The quiz came up Snake, which only goes to show how ludicrous online quizzes are.
Wondering what the response would be should the Crackerlet answer “Bonobo.”
Keith G
@raven: Interesting press conference from McKinney Tx. The officer has resigned. Would have been nice if he were fired, but this is probably quicker.
CanadaGoose
Are you Native American?
Or just a bunch of white folks blithering about things you don’t understand?
It’s so fucking RUDE and disrespectful.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Gin & Tonic: I thought that ad was lovely. Actually cried at the end.
Spirit animal would be the hedgehog.
Keith G
@CanadaGoose: Not all of them are white.
Yatsuno
My spirit animal? PENGUINS!!! Always having fun, love fish, and very dapper dressers.
Rand Careaga
You wanna spirit animal, punk? I gotta spirit animal:
gogol's wife
@CanadaGoose:
This blog is not respectful of any religion whatsoever. Some of us have made our peace with that.
JPL
@Keith G: Fox news probably offered him a nice sum to come on the air, and talk about the blahs. Of course, he’ll mention the death threats.
scav
Spirit animal? How ’bout Chartreuse for the former and maybe a turtle of the latter. Or a hedgehog. For today, at least.
Another Holocene Human
I once had a job interview with what turned out to be a really great employer that had quirky questions like that, but it was a small business, 2 owner LLC type deal. (And no longer in business. RIP.)
My wife’s spirit animal has to be the lizard, found everywhere in Florida where there are walls. I don’t think I have one, though. I don’t connect to that concept. I like animals well enough … not like I like trains. #stereotypicalAspieisstereotypical
Bill Arnold
@seaboogie:
Personally, I have a ranking of large banks from most evil to least evil. I was talking to a finance guy at a large bank yesterday and he was amused to hear that he worked for the least evil of the top 4 (american) big banks.
lol chikinburd
What CanadaGoose said, adding only disappointment that it took 122 comments for it to be said.
ETA: Oh, and also that the disrespect in question isn’t to a “religion”, but to a whole group of erased cultures. In a punching-down way that’s quite different from the up-punching slagging of established religions we’re used to here.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
Sure does. Snake covers a lot of territory! They don’t distinguish between a garter snake, a black mamba, and a Burmese python. Those would be very different spirit animals.
Keith G
@JPL: I see such comments written a lot. Don’t recall it happening. Guess we will see what’s next for the dolt.
If evidence supports a criminal charge, that would be a good thing in order to make it that much more difficult for him to have a badge and a gun ever again.
Tree With Water
@scav: After much thought, and given the barnyards full of poultry and slaughter pens worth of cattle I’ve eaten over the course of my life, I’ve decided to name my spirit animal the Moocluck.
Roger Moore
@CanadaGoose: @lol chikinburd:
I object to the insinuation that only Native Americans can have spirit animals. The same basic idea is very common among animists and other nature worshipers from throughout the world.
rikyrah
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-boaz/scott-walker-bucks-arena_b_7543116.html
muddy
@Yatsuno: Are you walking like a penguin though? How’s that going?
JPL
@Keith G: I hope that he’s charged with use of excessive force. Fox News has already labeled the 14 year old, as no saint. Well hell, Saints aren’t saint. After the Treyvon Martin murder, the Zimmermans were on Fox several times.
Corner Stone
I swear to god I wish a fucking creampie bomb would go off on the set of Hardball right now.
different-church-lady
@CanadaGoose:
Gosh, what are the odds?
muddy
@Roger Moore: Not having every given the topic any thought, I just took 6 online quizzes. I got a different creature each time.
Betty Cracker
@sharl: Sadly, he was pitiless as a matter of course back then. He’s mellowed considerably since, thank dog!
@Germy Shoemangler: Yes he did, and revealed himself to be an avid anti-Semite.
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone: If that were a daily feature, I might actually watch the show.
beltane
Any anger over the disrespect shown towards spirit animals should be directed at the employer who asked a prospective employee, “What is your spirit animal?”
NotMax
@muddy
When directed a stage production of The Sound of Music, choreographed the nuns to walk in unison like penguins for part of “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”.
(How could one not?)
A Ghost To Most
Great, in addition to godbotherers , we’ve now got spirit-animal-botherers.
This really is a full service blog.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
The Grahams are just a bunch of crackers.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Pretty sure the spirit animal fatwa was pioneered in Indonesia, for example.
And with that, I head off to cycle home in the 35 MPH wind that sprang from nowhere a couple hours ago. No likie.
Keith G
@rikyrah: Shhhh….. This is the stuff I want to see brought out next June.
Tenar Darell
@Gin & Tonic: That’s hilarious! And poetic.
muddy
@Betty Cracker: Tweety’s makeup is troweled on like a trollop tonight.
Germy Shoemangler
Here’s something I found amusing:
http://boingboing.net/2015/06/09/mother-gives-her-16-year-old-d.html
A mother was outraged when her sixteen-year-old daughter bought a very revealing knit “crop top” and so decided to put it on their cat and take a picture: “Well, it fits the cat… to be fair, it does cover all of the cat’s nipples…”
Betty Cracker
@beltane: Nooo! It really shouldn’t! (My kid needs that job.)
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: It’s a burrito place, not some place she’s committing her life to, so I think she’s fine hiding her sloth for now.
Suzanne
My spirit animal is most definitely a pigeon.
beltane
@Betty Cracker: Sending good thoughts your daughter’s way (my son is in the same boat). I just don’t understand why those of us who are perplexed as to why the question was asked in the first place are being criticized for being insensitive. Shouldn’t the onus fall on the person who asked the question?
Tom F
@trollhattan:
Metaphorically, I’ve done my share of that.
kc
Either way, it’s . . . ill-advised.
As for the rest of the process, from what I hear and read the job application process for even the shittiest jobs nowadays is insanely intrusive and involved. Why people have to be put through the ringer for a crap fast food job is beyond me. I hate to go all old fart here again, but what happened to just filling out a freakin’ application?
In conclusion, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!
beltane
@kc: These days, our job creators feel they have the obligation to do psychological battle with anyone in their employ.
kc
@Betty Cracker:
Good luck to her! And you. :)
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: Seconded. I’m an atheist, but I’ve dabbled in several religions, and almost all of them have a similar, if not identical, concept.
I know that punching up vs. punching down was mentioned, so, my favorite Wiccan holiday is Samhain, and I like the Zoroastrian winter solstice the best. Is that offensive?
ETA: Favorite saint is Francis, although… you know who *else* was nice to animals…
D58826
As if war in the Middle East and with Iran isn’t enough, Bridgegate Christie wants to threaten war with China
I hope he is aware that there are over 1 billion Chinese. That’s a bit much even for Rambo/steven Segall and the rest ofthe super American military.
And the GOP controls 3/4 of the Federal govt (incluiding SCOTUS) and most of the states. Heaven help[ us
kc
@beltane:
It’s depressing.
Iowa Old Lady
Do you suppose the burrito emporium would be happy or unhappy if an applicant answered “Seriously?”
shell
@Major Major Major Major:
Always liked the Zoroastranism attitude toward dogs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_in_religion#Zoroastrianism
weavrmom
Usually Hawk, and the story of how that happened is not something I can really talk about. Also, my spirit animal can vary and they let me know.
This has no connection with my ability to work or cook, though.
JPL
@D58826: Jeb is going after Putin, so if a repub wins, we are a world of hurt.
jimbo57
Your daughter should be very wary of telling a fib to her prospective boss/brujo at the burrito place, especially about something as important as her spirit animal. If I have learned anything by reading Carlos Castaneda all those many years ago, it is that Mescalito always knows when you’re lying…
Eric U.
@A Ghost To Most: the tears of butthurt animist lurkers are the most delicious kind, whocouldaknowd? What is there, some kind of google alarm system that goes off when the words “spirit animal” are typed into a blog somewhere?
Gene108
@Betty Cracker:
Good luck to the young’un. Getting that first job is can be pretty tough. I struck out at a bunch of stuff, until my brother put my name in at a job fair for a parking attendant. Spent a couple of summers working as a parking attendant.
srv
Huck not going to back down about his shower choices:
Obama to surge under the guise of ‘training’
jl
@trollhattan: Animism and the idea of spirit animals (and trees and rocks) is found in many cultures from all over the world. And there is evidence of a number of fatwas against animism and the idea of spirit animals, or plants, etc. Hinduism was down on animism. Traces of animism remain in the Bible, in early stories of Genesis. And Judaism surely must have issued a very strong ‘fatwa’ against it at some point.
So, I agree with Roger Moore. i think maybe Finnish pagan culture was probably place where animistic tradition was most openly preserved in northern Europe, at least using animals. The Celts were big on trees and rocks and land forms.
catclub
@beltane: Little F-16s
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
My spirit animal seems to be the bluejay, in large part because they seem to show up everywhere I go. I swear that a couple of the little bastards were mocking me when I was at a knitting retreat in the mountains. (Stellers Jays, since those are the species found in our local CA mountains.)
catclub
@Roger Moore:
So free online quiz is not worth the money. I will keep that in mind.
seaboogie
@beltane: I think it’s probably an unfortunate introduction into the “real” world, aka when you finally find out what a fucked up mess this really is. Bye bye ideals, welcome to naming the price of your soul!
One of my current bosses (I work a PT gig and consult) who is a close friend never fails to be amused by my accounting of being fired from my last job for insubordination (the second one of us in less than a month – maybe it’s you, crazy boss-lady?), and claiming that as a “feather in my cap”. It was truly a proud day, full of irony, and resulting in my liberation.
Betty, if your kid won’t call them on their shit, at least instruct her to toy with them like a cat with a mouse – it’s good instruction for much of today’s job-game, with the Kochs and their like trying to become our uber-masters in their greedy race for power and one-up-man-ship.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: Wait, what now?
RSA
Of course not. On the other hand, if I lived in the universe Philip Pullman created (His Dark Materials–The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) my soul would be physically separate, embodied in a specific animal form. Back when the novels were popular and a movie-that-should-have-been-better came out, there were lots of quizzes that would tell you the form your “daemon” would take.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Roger Moore: And sanctimonious crackers at that.
Tree With Water
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Funny. My eye just lit on your comment as I’m sitting here also watching some blue jays hopping around in my yard.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: Obviously you’re not a golfer.
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): That’s what I’ve thought for a long time, that if were an animal it would be a jay of some sort. We raised a scrub jay that fell out of the nest, and we’ve tamed and handed several families of scrub jays and stellar jays. The ones at the cabin knew our old car and would show up squawking for peanuts within minutes of our arrival, even after months of absence.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: Nope.
Sorry, I have no idea what your cat’s 5th birthday is about, but it sounds a bit ominous.
glaukopis
The online quiz picked crow for me too. Thought it would have been porpoise.
I was once called back several times, including Dec 26th, for a low level job only to discover the interviewer still hadn’t looked at my resume. I got the impression they were just seeing what I would put up with.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: Just a joke. See the comment I replied to for context.
“Obviously you’re not a golfer” is a reference to The Big Lebowski indicating that the recipient has failed to grasp something.
RandomMonster
How about a spirit vegetable, or maybe a spirit punctuation? I’d probably have to go with garlic for the former, and the ampersand (&) for the latter.
Also, spirit font.
A Ghost To Most
@Eric U.:
Yup, there’s a butt for every hurt.
And if I believed in animistic spirits, mine would be a mountain lion.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost To Most: A butt for every hurt! I like that. So true!
@RandomMonster: My spirit punctuation mark would be the ellipses…
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: Missed that reference, and I just watched that movie a couple of weeks ago.
(Run kitty!)
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker:
Mine is the Oxford comma.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: my spirit punctuation mark is the interrobang
RandomMonster
@Major Major Major Major:
Dang, I’ve been wanting to use that term for a while (only just read about it a few weeks ago!), and totally forgot about it when thinking of my spirit punctuation. I guess the ampersand chose ME.
dexwood
My terrier’s spirit animal is a weasel.
Angela
Mine is usually hawk too. Cooper’s Hawk to be exact. Although I get little moments of other animals that appear to me for a while. Last time, it was a turkey, coming out of a dream conference in a place I had never seen wild turkey before.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
My spirit animal? Cougar.
Which is an unfortunate one to admit to, at my age.
My cats’ spirit animals would, of course, be cats, the most perfect beings in this or any other universe.
The Very Revered Crimson Fire of Compassion
I realize that we’re all having fun here, but I’d like to point out a couple of serious (to me, and others of like traditions, anyway) issues with such questions. Number one is that, in my and some other traditions, the idea of an animal soul, guardian, or totem, is a solemn business, and intensely personal. My response to that question would have to be (a), It’s none of your fucking business, and (b), if this question, or my failure to answer it affects the likelihood of my employment in any fashion whatsoever, where would you like the letters of intent to sue from the ACLU sent?
Quaker in a Basement
My spirit animal? Old shoe.
Morzer
My spirit animal looks like this:
http://www.sparklingdirect.co.uk/drinks/glenmorangie-madeira-wood-and-teddy-bear.asp
Allan
Have no idea what my spirit animal is. If they’re now expanding into Florida (because they’re not there yet according to their website) I’m guessing the chain is Freebirds.
Fred
@Iowa Old Lady: Thank you for finding the exact answer I have been searching for. Spirit animal my…
Fred
@The Very Revered Crimson Fire of Compassion: Now we’re getting down to it. Bam, right in the jewels!
rea
The obvious answer to the Burrito Emporium’s question would be, “a little donkey.”
Betty Cracker
@The Very Revered Crimson Fire of Compassion: I’m betting they’d reply, “Haha, just kidding!” and then round-file your app the second you left the room.
I started this thread thinking the spirit animal question was a silly lark for this employer, but after reading all the comments, I’m beginning to see its utility.
WaterGirl
@The Very Revered Crimson Fire of Compassion: I appreciate you pointing that out. To me it was just a silly quiz and a silly thread, just for fun. I didn’t mean any disrespect and I imagine most others didn’t, either.
Ken T
Would it be bending the rules too much to say that my spirit animal is bacon?
weavrmom
@Angela Noticed you as another person w/a hawk amakua, who also gets others from time to time. Maybe hawks are just cool with that? It’s a bit strange, but seems to work.