Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Never Trust a Bird

The marvelous Stacy tagged me for "the easiest meme ever" the other day and I figured I could handle it. The rules of the meme are:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.

Since I'm sitting right next to a couple of my dad's huge bookshelves filled with tons of books I have never read nor do I plan to read, I picked up the first book that I've read. Even if it was a terribly long time ago.

From Gulliver's Travels:

"I cannot tell whether I were more pleased or mortified to observe in those solitary Walks, that the smaller Birds did not appear to be at all afraid of me; but would hop about within a Yard Distance, looking for Worms, and other Food, with as much Indifference and Security as if no Creature at all were near them. I remember a Thrush had the Confidence to snatch out of my Hand with his Bill, a Piece of Cake that Glumdalclitch had just given me for my Breakfast. When I attempted to catch any of these Birds, they would boldly turn against me, endeavouring to pick my Fingers which I durst not venture within their Reach; and then they would hop back unconcerned to hunt for Worms or Snails, as they did before."

Creepy. Clearly I was wrong to assume all of my slightly irrational fears about birds came solely from Hitchcock's movie "The Birds."

And what's with Jonathan Swift's tendency towards capitalizing nouns? A Bit out of Control.

I'm not going to specifically tag anyone, but consider yourself tagged if you want to be :)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

One time I was feeding this flock of ducks & they started attacking each other & they went from cute to terrifying in about 10 seconds. Maybe Swift was the forefather of blogging, I occasionally type my nouns like that. Sorry Swift. Terribly Sorry.

Unknown said...

me no likey the birds. the sharp claws, the pointy beaks, the fact that they fly. nothing good can come out of that combination!

LEstes65 said...

I was wondering the Same Thing.

Great meme, girl friend! Glad to see you back in blogger land. I missed you and was having to resort to stalking you in the social cyber world.

Smooches!

Allie said...

Heehee, that's a good One.

Barrie said...

I loved Gulliver's Travels when I was a kid. But those birds were creepy. I don't even remember them. Probably I blocked them. And would have to spend thousands in psych bills to work through the block. :)

Stacy said...

I was more amazed by his sentence length than the birds, to tell the truth.

Trish Ryan said...

Hee! Birds are freaky, you're so right. Glad you're back :)

enemyemily said...

Excellent. Have you read Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal? I think you might be humored by his solution to over population.

Beck said...

My parents had The World's Scariest Geese when I was a kid. I am still SERIOUSLY terrified of geese.
Shudder.