Trying to ketchup

The wildlife commentary from Mr. Beagles is quite enjoyable and I'm always going down a rabbit hole to follow up on some of the topics.  Antlers, for instance.  I sort of knew the difference between antlers and horns but not to the level of detail that was provided in the recent postings.  Only males of the Cervidae family (deer, elk, moose) have antlers except for caribou (elk, reindeer), where both sexes have them.  The males shed their antlers in the fall after the rut and the females shed theirs in the spring.  Females keep their antlers during their winter pregnancy; it helps them with the foraging for food.  So, all of Santa's reindeer pulling that sleigh through the snowy skies are female.  If they were male they would be antler-free which makes me wonder how Rudolph was able to keep her secret.  If those reindeer want to identify as male it's fine by me but it could be a touchy subject to discuss around the Christmas tree with little ones present.

So, Mr. Beagles, have the deer already shed their antlers by the time hunting season rolls around?  If they have, it must be difficult to distinguish between bucks and does at a distance.  I think some states have different limits depending on gender but I don't know how that breaks down. 

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Thanks for the condolences, guys.  Not much you can say about funerals; I think they're all pretty much the same but I was wondering about one facet of the tradition.  It seems that after every funeral there is a big meal, a final get-together for family and friends, and I'm curious how that started.  I think it's a fine tradition, an affirmation that life goes on, we still gotta eat, and few places fit the bill better than a Wisconsin supper club.

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Just when I thought the topic of "peter out" petered out, I found a reference to peter that predates the previously noted citations and it has nothing to do with mining, gunpowder, or similarities to French farts.  There is a book from 1754, The Scoundrels (sic) Dictionary, that deals with pickpockets, thieves, scalawags in general, and peter is used as noun dealing with theft.  There must be a missing link connecting the two different meanings, to say nothing of the usage of peter as a description of male genitalia.  Peter out can have many meanings, if you catch my drift.

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I don't want to badmouth Uncle Ken's watercolors but something I read recently makes me wonder if he has fallen under the sway of Big Corn.  I didn't realize how pervasive that foodstuff is, not only in the foods we eat.  I thought it was an interesting read and makes me want to try some Mexican ketchup.