Birthday Boy & the Reluctant Rover

Dr. Lacerant & the Tin Can Rocket

I received an email this week about Dr. Lacerant; a wonderful, gnarly old scientist who celebrates his birthday today. I’m told that many moons ago he had a dog, a dog he sent up into space in a rocket made entirely out of discarded tin cans. The rather ingenious (if haphazard) nature of his design meant that the pup actually made it to Mars (which it may well have colonised – Curiosity will reveal all in time) before the good Dr. Lacerant realised he had no way to extract information back from his venture. A few of Rover‘s brief barks, excited yips and mournful yowls were all he could decipher over the short wave.

It’s a wonder with this kind of willful carelessness and lack of forethought that dear old Dr. Lacerant has made it to this day in one piece; yet here he is, on the dark side of yet another annual milestone. I am but one among many lucky enough to call him a friend, and from all of us:

Happy Birthday Lacerant!