February 17, 2006
Raw Squab
The boy is home sick on the couch right now, which means I'm fifteen minutes away from gathering up my work things and heading home to dunk him in orange juice. All our good weather has gone to shit, and there's a crockpot in the cupboard that we bought several months ago and still haven't used, so it is nigh on time for me to get domestic. Hide your women and children.
Also today: pigeons. Or, as my friend Jeremiah called them during my study abroad in Switzerland, "flying rat motherfuckers."
The following photos were taken at the Piazza San Marco in Venice, to which these winged beasts flock (ha!) like Muslims to Mecca or Mormons to the Salt Lake temple. It is the center of the pigeon world and, by extension, the best place to go if you absolutely must have your skin tracked with pockmarks left by dirty little claws lousy with bird flu and bubonic plague. They sure make pretty pictures, though.
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The boy, he needs me; I must away.
Posted by Leah at February 17, 2006 12:54 PMWe call them shit hawks.
I lovelove that first picture with the black-haired little girl.
Posted by: Kristin at February 17, 2006 02:51 PMBirds freak me out...I would have a panic attack in pigeon square in Venice. Ugh. Pretty to look at though, from a distance. Hope the boy gets well soon and that you dodge his germs as best you can.
Posted by: Amanda at February 17, 2006 03:38 PMThere's a bit about those pigeons in the square in John Berendt's new book (The City of Falling Angels). About how there's a secret "hit" squad that disposes of hundreds of 'em, but quietly so that the public doesn't know.
Of course, *now* they know, but still. I found it interesting.
Posted by: candace at February 17, 2006 04:40 PMi HATE pigeons with the greatest of passions.
Posted by: jeorg at February 19, 2006 08:11 AM
