-No Question-

So you have to answer any question they ask? Tittered another coworker.
-Within reason. We try to lead them to a source that answers the question, rather than tell the first thought that comes into our heads.-

This was followed by a flurry of questions. I think they were testing me. Or making fun of me.

1. What is Baobab?
-A kind of tree. (thank you, Kipling) I mean, I’ll look it up when I get a chance.-

2. Is there such a thing as an Allicroc?
-Excuse me?-
Can Alligators and Crocodiles mate?
-I don’t think – I’ll check on that.-

3. What is Rooibos, and how is it pronounced?
-(This must be derived from the same box of tea that prompted the Baobab question.) Okay, I’m writing this down.-

4. What is a miniature lop?
-A lop?-
You know, a bunny rabbit.
-(Sometimes I wish I could refuse to answer questions.) Anything else?-

5. What is the plural of mouse?
*Record skip. Crickets. Tumbleweed.*
I mean, the kind you use for a computer, not the rodent.
-I’ll get back to you.-

Five questions scrawled on a napkin. A quintet of Coworkers who probably don't much care whether I answer them or not.

I'll take up the gauntlet.

1. It is a tree found mainly in Africa and India, so wide around that the trunk diameter is surpassed only by the sequoia. Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.

2. No. Do I really have to explain? Okay. They are two different biological species, and with two different “reproductively isolated systems of breeding populations.” Dictionary of Genetics, Sixth Edition.

3. Rooibos (“Roi-bois”) literally means "Red Bush." An African word of Dutch extraction, it refers to an evergreen shrub used to make tea. Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition.

4. Lop’ - Short for lop-eared, wish she'd said so in the beginning. I think the pygmy rabbit qualifies, yes? Walker’s Mammals of the World, Sixth Edition.

5. Mice or mouses; either is acceptable. Wikipedia.