Bird-related
In our haste to post the picture of the canary below, we neglected to clear our brains of various other bird-related drek that has been collecting for while. This occurred to me yesterday as I was leaving work and heard a (that?) cuckoo cuckooing in the woods; few sounds fill me with such a pastoral sort of joyful peace, unless it’s a woodpecker pounding on a tin stovepipe. Woodpeckers can sometimes be heard beavering away outside my office window (one of the few perks of my job), but there’s no sheet metal to really sink their beaks into, more’s the pity.
From what I understand, Slovenia has no hummingbirds. I could be wrong about this. There are some massive insects that resemble, and behave like, hummingbirds, but it’s not quite the same thing.
A recent conversation with Magda about her owl tolerance threshold:
Magda: Ivan wasn’t his usual self today.
Me: What was the matter?
Magda: He was really tired. He was out all night counting owls.
Me: How do you count owls?
Magda: I don’t know. As soon as he mentions the word ‘owls’, it’s over.
Last year I wrote about the term ‘buckwheat‘ and what it means to Magda and me. My sister then pointed out that a lexical item like that is called a ‘flapping owl’[1] and pointed me to the source of that term. Then I realized that there was another flapping owl to be dealt with, and here’s yet one more, bird-related on its own terms: Magda[2] now refers to dry or drying laundry as ‘poultry’. As in, when rain begins, “I’m going to bring the poultry indoors.”
[1] This is wrong. Or was wrong until now. See comments for how wrong.
[2] By which I mean ‘the entire household’.
Heh. I now realize that there are many flapping owls in my family.
Uh … who’s Ivan?
Comment by Jagosaurus — Friday 19 May 06 @ 14.46 MDT+2.00
Flapping owls, whether they’re shared among family or friends, can provide a lot of joy, can’t they?
Ivan is a youth (I swear this seems like the right word) Magda tutors in English now and then. He digs owls (clearly).
Comment by sgazzetti — Friday 19 May 06 @ 17.58 MDT+2.00
Dude… I pointed out that the pillow, which (reportedly) became a most welcome gift, was a flapping owl. Quit bogarting that snowclone.
Or, um, something.
Comment by Elsa — Monday 22 May 06 @ 18.55 MDT+2.00
Well, dude, I guess my eyes would be significantly upholstered with ham. Not only did I completely miss that non-subtle nuance of the term, but I’ve been carrying it around as a lexical item for over a year. I’m afraid it’s become fossilized, and so from now on such terms *will* be known as ‘flapping owls’, at least in my idiolect. Too late now.
Comment by sgazzetti — Tuesday 23 May 06 @ 08.44 MDT+2.00
(With the “dude” intro, I really banked on the auto-comment-servo-rotator thingie designating me as being “totally all, like.” And it totally, like, did. Whoa.)
Comment by Elsa — Thursday 25 May 06 @ 21.16 MDT+2.00
Wow, Elsa, figure the odds! Unfortunately, every time the page loads, the comment bot re-designates the string, so as I look at the page now, your “Dude” comment comes under a milquetoastian, “Elsa added”. Sorry to break it to you. Dude.
Comment by sgazzetti — Thursday 25 May 06 @ 21.31 MDT+2.00
Aw.
Comment by Elsa — Friday 26 May 06 @ 13.45 MDT+2.00