So I have a compost pile in the back, back corner of my yard, and sometimes I forget

to take out the little compost bin that we keep on the kitchen shelf, and it gets too

full, and then you've got to take it out and become an emergency.

And one night, I went out with my overflowing compost bin in a flashlight, because it was

late.

And as I got close to the compost pile, I suddenly saw the reflection of these two little

eyes on top of the pile.

Because they are sitting on top of it, hissing at me aggressively, was this sharp toothed,

fat, tailed, bristly haired, like giant rat creature.

And in that moment, I thought this has got to be the most hideous and sort of simultaneously

adorable creature I have ever seen in my life, and then it's gampered away.

That creature was a possum, and to be honest, finding a lurking on a pile of old rotting

food scraps made a lot of sense.

It felt like a natural place for a possum to be.

But there's this old photo archived in the Library of Congress that tells a very different

story about this animal.

From 1909, it's in black and white, and it is taken in a banquet hall.

And inside this banquet hall are rows and rows of these important looking dudes with

slick back hair, they're in their tuxedos and bow ties, and they're all sitting at these

long dinner tables.

They're here for a very, very fancy meal, a fancy meal featuring not roast beef or prime

rib, but possum, possum and taters, to be exact.

...