Friday Thoughts is a light-hearted commentary.
This week our sports editor Sam Wilson had a wildlife encounter at the paper. Monday night, Sam was at the office by himself and heard a noise in a nearby office. He went to investigate. Keeping a safe distance, he noticed something flapping its wings, but it couldn’t fly.
The Cincinnati native (who must have no outdoors experience) quickly searched his iPhone for answers and came to the conclusion that it absolutely must be a rabid bat. Afraid the rabid bat might start attacking him, he quickly evacuated the building to cower in his car until more Gazette staffers came back to the office. After a while, photographer Matt Fowler and reporter Russ Morgan returned and, at that time, Sam felt sufficiently protected to re-enter the building. Russ and Matt quickly determined that it wasn’t a rabid bat, but a poor defenseless starling in need of help. Russ gently captured the bird, put it in a box and carried it outside to safety.
Sam’s handling of this situation has prompted many jokes around the office. One person speculated that something must have been lacking from Sam’s Mizzou college education and perhaps if we had sports editor from K-State that they would have felt more confident handling this wildlife encounter.