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Reader question: Arnold could be accused of playing possum... What does “playing possum” mean exactly? My comments: Or playing opossum. Arnold could be accused of playing opossum, meaning people could fault him for pretending to be dead, as the Australian marsupial is wont to do in face of danger, which usually triggers a fight or flight reaction from animals and, indeed, people. Precisely, Arnold is accused of being inactive, doing nothing when they think he should be doing something. Playing possum is a variation from playing opossum (British spelling). Opossum, you see, is one of the many marsupials (mammals with a pouch for rearing babies) mostly found in Australia. Unlike other marsupials such as the kangaroo or the koala bear, opossums are an especially timid creature. When they are scared, they play dead by way of evading their predator. PLAY dead, that is, by pretending to be dead, not moving a limb, acting as if they were dead. People who first observed this behavior must have deemed it a great strategy and hence created the term “play opossum” or “play possum”. Some think that maybe the opossums are just too scared to move but at any rate playing dead can be a great strategy in face of danger, as an eagle surveying the earth from the sky can surely attest. If the eagle will testify, that is, it will say that generally speaking it is moving objects that attract attention; stationary objects do not. | 
