Carolyn Kunin writes:
Well, I 'll be hornswoggled - Bobolinks are 'rice birds.' It turns out the
theory behind not throwing rice at weddings was the incredibly stupid concern
that the rice would swell in the poor pigeon's belly and cause him to explode!
How dumb can you get? Those who are fond of the 'links and Bobolinks' of Pale
Fire will be thrilled to learn about their unusual diet:
When we queried the experts at Cornell University--you remember what a big help
they were in exposing the grim truth about green potato chips--the director of
education and information services wrote back as follows: "I do not have a
prepared response [and why not?], but the simplest answer is, 'ricebirds'
(bobolinks) have been eating rice throughout recorded history! It's really no
different than the birds eating any grain, including millet or wheat, which they
do all the time."Testify, sister.
Carolyn
Could VN have known? or cared?
You say ballon and I say balloon - balloony and/or swoony and samovars. Samo-
means 'self' ergo a samo-var boils itself, a samo-lyot flies by itself and a
samo-yed must eat it's own or something - dunno. Bears are honey-eaters (med-ved
... med being the same as mead, or honeyed wined and ved being the same as yed).
The shout was more likely 'balancez!' if you tended to teeter when posed on one
tiny Jansy foot. In America a charivari is the ruckus the neighbors make when
the newly married pair retire upstairs to their wedding bed - nobody does that
anymore, imagine!! but many newly weds still have tin cans tied to the backs of
their cars to make noise as they drive off on their honeymoons. I'm told you
shouldn't throw rice anymore - try popcorn instead. Apparently birds are
attracted to the rice and get run over.
Carolyn