As we all know, much of Retro-Gaming's heritage and collective body is Japanese. Not just the coding and design of the games, but also much of the hardware actually used to be made in Japan (have seen in my 45 years, that phrase going from a sign of shame to about the best indicator of quality a product can have - right up there with "Made in Switzerland"). Necessity being the mother of invention - how do you produce millions of shinny (or sometimes matte-finished) plastic objects in a country with next-to-no oil reserves? Well a LOT is imported, but over the centuries the Japanese have become masters of refining and fabricating materials, from lubricating-oils/grease to actual solid plastics, from FISH OILS!
Back to mice - they might not be the brightest creatures in the world, but their noses kick ours to the curb and they can totally tell the difference between petroleum-based and fishoil-based (edible/ish) plastics. I first observed this with a very expensive Nikon 35mm Camera decades ago when one morning we noticed all of the buttons, switches and other black-shinny plastic parts were completely GONE! Nikon graciously recalled all effected cameras and replaced them with properly-indigestible plastic parts.
F.F. to now and my posh pad. The mice here are posh too: refusing to dine at the MANY mousetraps in every corner, and not stooping so low as to soil their pause (much less get stuck-to-death) on the glue-boards under every surface. They are right proper connoisseurs of luxury and imported cuisine, and have in the last year cost me over $120 in replacement used controllers, cables and cords in game room. The thin, fine grey cables of Wii sensor-bars being the particular ambrosia-of-choice this dining season.
The good news is that it turns out that they like Cheese-it Crackers more than life itself, and between that and halva (a sort of sesame-seed peanut butter) in the traps, they are finally under control, and all the of the retro-gear is now not allowed to rest of the floor at all, when not in use.
I used to be one of those people who would put up a calendar of cute pictures of field mice sleeping in flowers and such, but now I'm looking for a calender of "better" mouse traps!
