Monday, May 30, 2005

Why Roger Hates Cats

The Blog Muse has deserted me. Oh there are themes running around my head but they're not for the World Wide Web. They would get me sacked, arrested and disinherited.

In my last posting I forgot to mention that I'd given myself a black eye. I was very angry with myself and probably deserved it. It happened after I'd had another telephone encounter with those dreadful Toucan people. Straight afterwards I went out to my Bro's (hired and unfamiliar) car and violently yanked the door into my eye. It was God's way of telling me to let the Toucan thing go.

It appears that others are also seeking the Blog Muse.
Marc has used the title of a post by Ganching to get him started and Zoe has turned to recorded music to get her creativity flowing.

Inspired once more by my first-born I am going to do this. I am going to pick something at random from the shelf. My eyes will be closed. The ninth track will be my inspiration. I'm going to do it right now. Oh please don't let it be something naff that will make
Marc pity me.

I'm going RIGHT NOW!

I'm back and in my hand is a copy of 'Old & In The Way' featuring, among others, Jerry Garcia. It was recorded in 1996 and I bought it in Nashville a few years ago. I confess I've hardly listened to it. The 9th track is White Dove.... which has inspired me to write this.

Why Roger Hates Cats

When Roger was a boy his family kept fantail and tumbler pigeons. Every evening at pigeon bedtime the fantails and tumblers returned to their coop and someone would close the hatch so they would be safe for the night.

One evening the family returned late from an outing and found a large cat in the coop. It was licking its paws after gorging on pigeon. It was surrounded by at least 15 dead pigeons. The cat had just eaten its Last Supper. Roger has really hated cats ever since.


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Fantail

Before this evening I'd never heard of tumbler pigeons. They're so called because they tumble as they fly. This is why.

Tumbler pigeons are bred deliberately for their epilepsy, a form of seizure that makes them tumble and twist as they fly. Apparently if you see a group of them doing it in unison it's very impressive.

Severely affected pigeons do not survive very long, but careful management of the breed perpetuates moderate seizures.


Information on tumbler pigeons obtained
here.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

'Old & In The Way' are great. I did not know jerry was recording/touring with them at such a late date. I thought that they were only a mid 70's band.

Anonymous said...

Not *overtly* naff, but I understand why you haven't listened to it much.

But that is a nice meme. All sorts of chances to show off/be embarrassed. Not that I am embarrassed by any of my CDs, if I bought them, I must have liked them at the time.

Nelly said...

Right mr mquest ( gardening projects looking good, I'm missing it this year with moving & all ) This CD on closer examination says 1975/1996 so you are likely to be correct. It was probably just digitally remastered in 96.

Right mr mwk hope you are well. Showed Bert your long haired photo and he said you weren't a bit like he'd imagined. Are you chuffed that he has been imagining you?