How can you tell when you have recently spent too much time weighing feathers?
A) It becomes apparent to you that feathers possess personalities
(i.e. scraggly, bold, well-put-together, wily, cantankerous, jumpy, froufy (you know who you are), jealous, cooperative, candid, calm, and so on and so forth)
B) You dream of explaining feather asymmetry to someone
(n.b. not "dream" as in hope or wish for, but "dream" as in nighttime manifestations of subconscious)
C) You think (often - as in more than once a day) about whether you have weighed a pound of feathers yet (keep in mind that each feather can weigh less than one milligram). And in your head, a pound of feathers is somehow grotesquely related to the proverbial pound of flesh in Merchant of Venice. Subsequently, the various characteristics of Antonio and Shylock are mulled over for a considerable amount of time.
D) You can discern with a moment's glance which of "your" three species from which each feather originated.
(n.b. these three species are ones which an average birder would have difficulty identifying even after seeing their whole physical being in its entirety)
E) Taking photographs of feathers is actually a welcome break from weighing feathers.
(Remember feathers are inanimate objects and not that interesting in and of themselves.)
or (because I am a teacher (sometimes), I present the ever-appealing (and increasingly likely) option of)...
F) All of the above.
Example of rather uninteresting feathers...
But if you look more closely... wait, they are sort of pretty, aren't they? In their own, little way?
Correct answer: (F)
No comments:
Post a Comment