Technetium

Clearly I have an innate preference for colleges with crazy squirrels (OR maybe all colleges have crazy squirrels). If anyone has ever seen the movie Ice Age, the first thing that probably comes to mind is that crazy squirrel. That idea for the squirrel's antics was modeled from the Skidmore squirrels (NO JOKE - the animator has ties to Skidmore).

(Google Images)

To give you an idea about the Skidmore squirrels, I once saw a chef running out of the dining hall after a squirrel who had stolen a cookie. I know of people that got attacked by squirrels and one that was even bitten. I think the craziest part of my Skidmore squirrel experience was being afraid of the garbage cans near the academic buildings where squirrels would pop out before your hand had separated from the piece of trash.

As for Michigan, the grey squirrels have an orange hue, which makes me think that they've been drinking toxic waste water from the graduate science buildings. Like the Skidmore squirrels, these little rodents are bold. This morning, one squared up the guy in front of me who was holding a muffin, as if he was large enough to attack and take the man down. It was nuts (HA...nuts...squirrels). My fear of squirrels has been reinforced by the Michigan squirrels. Time to call the exterminator or make some squirrel stew ;)
  

Fun Fact: Technetium was the first synthesized element (although technetium does exist in nature, it is only a minute amount). Its discovery was predicted by the father of the periodic table, Dimitri Mendeleev, who left a space in the table below manganese and named the place holder eka-manganese.